Russia

Kyiv, Ukraine – Any description of Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers could leave one scrambling for superlatives.

Forty-one planes – including supersonic Tu-22M long-range bombers, Tu-95 flying fortresses and A-50 early warning warplanes – were hit and damaged on Sunday on four airfields, including ones in the Arctic and Siberia, Ukrainian authorities and intelligence said.

Moscow did not comment on the damage to the planes but confirmed that the airfields were hit by “Ukrainian terrorist attacks”.

Videos posted by the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), which planned and carried out the operation, which was called The Spiderweb, showed only a handful of planes being hit.

The strategic bombers have been used to launch ballistic and cruise missiles from Russian airspace to hit targets across Ukraine, causing wide scale damage and casualties.

The bomber fleet is one-third of Moscow’s “nuclear triad”, which also consists of nuclear missiles and missile-carrying warships.

According to some observers, the attack shattered Russia’s image of a nuclear superpower with a global reach.

The attack inadvertently “helped the West because it targeted [Russia’s] nuclear potential”, Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, former deputy head of the Ukrainian military’s general staff, told Al Jazeera.

While the assault decreases Russia’s potential to launch missiles on Ukraine, it will not affect the grinding ground hostilities along the crescent-shaped, 1,200km (745-mile) front line, he said.

Romanenko compared The Spiderweb’s scope and inventiveness to a string of 2023 Ukrainian attacks against Russia’s Black Sea fleet that was mostly concentrated in annexed Crimea.

Although Ukraine’s navy consisted of a handful of small, decades-old warships that fit into a football field-sized harbour, Kyiv reinvented naval warfare by hitting and drowning Russian warships and submarines with missiles and air and sea drones.

Moscow hastily relocated the decimated Black Sea fleet eastwards to the port of Novorossiysk and no longer uses it to intercept Ukrainian civilian vessels loaded with grain and steel.

The Spiderweb caught Russia’s military strategists off-guard because they had designed air defences to thwart attacks by missiles or heavier, long-range strike drones.

Instead, the SBU used 117 toy-like first-person-view (FPV) drones, each costing just hundreds of dollars, that were hidden in wooden crates loaded onto trucks, it said.

Their unsuspecting drivers took them right next to the airfields – and were shocked to see them fly out and cause the damage that amounted to $7bn, the SBU said.

“The driver is running around in panic,” said a Russian man who filmed thick black smoke rising from the Olenegorsk airbase in Russia’s Arctic region of Murmansk, which borders Norway.

Other videos released by the SBU were filmed by drones as they were hitting the planes, causing thundering explosions and sky-high plumes of black smoke.

Russia’s air defence systems guarding the airfields were not designed to detect and hit the tiny FPV drones while radio jamming equipment that could have caused them to stray off course wasn’t on or malfunctioned.

The SBU added a humiliating detail – The Spiderweb’s command centre was located in an undisclosed location in Russia near an office of the Federal Security Service (FSB), Moscow’s main intelligence agency, which Russian President Vladimir Putin once headed.

“This is a slap on the face for Russia, for FSB, for Putin,” Romanenko said.

However, Kyiv didn’t specifically target the pillar of Russia’s nuclear triad.

“They are destroying Russian strategic aviation not because it’s capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads but because of its use to launch … nonnuclear [missiles],” Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, told Al Jazeera.

The operation, which took 18 months to plan and execute, damaged a third of Russia’s strategic bomber fleet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

“This is our most far-reaching operation. Ukraine’s actions will definitely be in history textbooks,” he wrote on Telegram late on Sunday. “We’re doing everything to make Russia feel the necessity to end this war.”

The SBU used artificial intelligence algorithms to train the drones to recognise Soviet-era aircraft by using the planes displayed at an aviation museum in central Ukraine, the Clash Report military blogger said on Monday.

‘The very logic of the negotiations process won’t change’

The attack took place a day before Ukrainian and Russian diplomats convened in Istanbul to resume long-stalled peace talks.

But it will not affect the “logic” of the negotiations, a Kyiv-based political analyst said.

“Emotionally, psychologically and politically, the operation strengthens the positions of Ukrainian negotiators,” Volodymyr Fesenko, head of the Penta think tank, told Al Jazeera. “But the very logic of the negotiations process won’t change.”

“Both sides will consider [US President] Donald Trump an arbiter, and whoever is first to leave the talks loses, ruins its negotiation positions with the United States,” Fesenko said.

Once again, the talks will likely show that the sides are not ready to settle as Russia is hoping to carve out more Ukrainian territory for itself and Ukraine is not going to throw in the towel.

“Russia wants to finish off Ukraine, and we’re showing that we will resist, we won’t give up, won’t capitulate,” Fesenko said.

By Monday, analysts using satellite imagery confirmed that 13 planes – eight Tu-95s, four Tu-22Ms and one An-12 – have been destroyed or damaged.

“What a remarkable success in a well-executed operation,” Chris Biggers, a military analyst based in Washington, DC, wrote on X next to a map showing the destruction of eight planes at the Belaya airbase in the Irkutsk region in southeastern Siberia.

Five more planes have been destroyed at the Murmansk base, according to Oko Hora, a group of Ukrainian analysts.

The Spiderweb targeted three more airfields, two in western regions and one near Russia’s Pacific coast, according to a photo that the SBU posted showing its leader, Vasyl Malyuk, looking at a map of the strikes.

But so far, no damage to the airfields or the planes on them has been reported.

Russia is likely to respond to The Spiderweb with more massive drone and missile attacks on civilian sites.

“I’m afraid they’ll use Oreshnik again,” Fesenko said, referring to Russia’s most advanced ballistic missile, which can speed up to 12,300 kilometres per hour (7,610 miles per hour), or 10 times the speed of sound, and was used in November to strike a plant in eastern Ukraine.

Russia and Ukraine continued to launch air strikes overnight as they prepared to meet for a second round of direct peace talks in Turkiye.

The Ukrainian delegation arrived in Istanbul on Monday, despite recent rhetoric from Kyiv suggesting it may not take part in the follow-up to the first round of talks between the adversaries last month, at which little progress was made towards a ceasefire in the war, started by Russia as it invaded its neighbour in February 2022.

The Russian negotiators also announced they had arrived in the Turkish city, where Kyiv and Moscow – under pressure from the United States – are expected to present respective memorandums on peace terms.

The first round of talks ended with just a prisoner swap agreed, with Ukraine complaining that Russia continues to make unacceptable and unrealistic demands.

Russia has resisted pressure to send its memorandum to Kyiv in advance. However, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, Moscow’s lead negotiator, was quoted by the TASS news agency as saying the Kremlin had received Ukraine’s proposal.

Kyiv, according to the Reuters news agency, has proposed a roadmap for lasting peace, with no restrictions on its military strength nor international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine, conditions that Moscow has sought to insist upon.

As the delegations arrived in Turkiye, Ukrainian officials were busy coordinating with European allies, who are seeking to raise support for Kyiv amid uncertainty over the commitment of the US under President Donald Trump.

Ahead of the meeting with their Russian counterparts, the Ukrainian delegation met with representatives from Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom.

Around the same time, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius for a summit with the leaders of NATO’s eastern and Nordic members, who are some of Kyiv’s staunchest backers amid the Russian invasion.

“If Ukraine is not present at the NATO summit, it will be a victory for Putin, but not over Ukraine, but over NATO,” he said last week.

Zelensky wants the Western military alliance to offer security guarantees to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal, something Moscow has called “unacceptable.”

Zelenskyy had reiterated calls for a “full and unconditional ceasefire” before the talks.

“Second – the release of prisoners. Third – the return of abducted children,” he said in a post on social media.

Zelenskyy also called for a direct meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has previously said such a meeting could take place only after the delegations reach wider “agreements”.

Russia continues to demand that a ceasefire agreement must address the “root causes” of the conflict. It has persistently referred to limiting Ukraine’s military capabilities, banning Ukraine from joining NATO and agreeing to territorial concessions.

Massive bombardment

As the delegations arrived in Istanbul, both countries reported bombardments from massive overnight attacks.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that its air defence units had “intercepted and destroyed” 162 Ukrainian drones, the majority of which were over the bordering regions, including 57 intercepted over the Kursk region and 31 over the Belgorod region.

A day earlier, Ukraine carried out one of its biggest and most successful attacks on Russian soil, hitting dozens of strategic bombers in Siberia and other military bases in the country.

Ukraine, meanwhile, reported that Russia had targeted its territory with 80 drones overnight, striking 12 targets.

The governor of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, wrote on Telegram that artillery fire had killed a 40-year-old man in the Korabelny district.

A five-year-old child was also injured in the attack in Kherson and was undergoing medical supervision, he added.

DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY,

Final vote count gives conservative candidate 50.89 percent, while his liberal rival receives 49.11 percent, AP reports.

Conservative eurosceptic Karol Nawrocki is expected to win Poland’s presidential run-off election with all votes now counted, according to media reports.

The Associated Press news agency, citing the final vote count, reported on Monday that Nawrocki won 50.89 percent of votes in the tight race against liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski, who received 49.11 percent.

The Polish news website, Onet, reported the same results on its website.

The Polish Electoral Commission said on its website that it had counted all of the votes. The commission had said earlier that official results would be out on Monday morning.

Nawrocki, 42, a historian and amateur boxer who ran a national remembrance institute, campaigned on a promise to ensure economic and social policies favour Poles over other nationalities, including refugees from neighbouring Ukraine.

While Poland’s parliament holds most power, the president can veto legislation, and the vote was being watched closely in Ukraine as well as Russia, the United States and across the European Union.

Ukraine says it completed its biggest long-range attack of the war with Russia on Sunday, after using smuggled drones to launch a series of major strikes on 40 Russian warplanes at four military bases.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said 117 drones were used in the so-called “Spider’s Web” operation by the SBU security service, striking “34% of [Russia’s] strategic cruise missile carriers”. SBU sources told BBC News it took a year-and-a-half to organise the strikes.

Russia confirmed Ukrainian attacks in five regions, calling them a “terrorist act”.

The attacks come as Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are heading to Istanbul, Turkey, for a second round of peace talks on Monday.

The talks are expected to start around 13:00 local time (10:00 GMT) at the Ciragan Palace.

Expectations are low, as the two warring sides remain far apart on how to end the war.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian authorities reported a massive drone and missile attack on its territory over the weekend.

At least six people, including a seven-year-old child, were injured following a strike in Kharkiv in the early hours of Monday, the region’s governor said.

Elsewhere, Russia’s state news agency Ria said the country’s security service thwarted an attempted arson attack in the east.

It said two residents in the Primorye region were attempting to sabotage a railway track on Ukraine’s orders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed in 2014.

SBU sources earlier told BBC News Sunday’s attack involved drones hidden in wooden mobile cabins, with remotely operated roofs on trucks, brought near the airbases and then fired “at the right time”.

In several posts on social media late on Sunday, Zelensky said he congratulated SBU head Vasyl Maliuk with the “absolutely brilliant result” of the operation.

He said that each of the 117 drones launched had its own pilot.

“The most interesting thing – and we can already say this publicly – is that the ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB of Russia in one of their regions,” the Ukrainian president said.

The FSB is Russia’s powerful state security service.

Zelensky also said that all the people involved in the operation had been safely “led away” from Russia before the strikes.

The SBU estimated the damage to Russia’s strategic aviation was worth about $7bn (£5bn), promising to unveil more details soon.

The Ukrainian claims have not been independently verified.

Sources in the SBU earlier on Sunday told the BBC in a statement that four Russian airbases – two of which are thousands of miles from Ukraine – were hit:

• Belaya in Irkutsk oblast (region), Siberia
• Olenya in Murmansk oblast, Russia’s extreme north-west
• Dyagilevo in central Ryazan oblast
• Ivanovo in central Ivanovo oblast

The SBU sources said that among the hit Russian aircraft were strategic nuclear capable bombers called Tu-95 and Tu-22M3, as well as A-50 early warning warplanes.

They described the whole operation as “extremely complex logistically”.

“The SBU first smuggled FPV drones into Russia, followed later by mobile wooden cabins. Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which had been placed on cargo vehicles,” the sources said.

“At the right moment, the roofs were remotely opened, and the drones took off to strike the Russian bombers.”

Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev confirmed drones that attacked the Belaya military base in Sredniy, Siberia, were launched from a truck.

Kobzev posted on Telegram to say that the launch site had been secured and there was no threat to life.

Russian media outlets have also reported that other attacks were similarly started with drones emerging from the lorries.

One user is heard saying that the drones were flying out of a Kamaz truck near a petrol station.

Russian media were reporting the attack in Murmansk but said air defences were working. The attack in Irkutsk was also being reported.

In a post on social media later on Sunday, the Russian defence ministry confirmed that airbases in the country’s five regions were attack.

It claimed that “all attacks were repelled” on military airbases in the Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur regions. The latter base was not mentioned by the SBU sources.

In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, “several aircraft caught fire” after drones were launched from nearby areas, the ministry said.

It said all the blazes were extinguished and there were no casualties. “Some of the participants in the terrorist attacks have been detained,” it added.

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian authorities say 472 drones and seven ballistic and cruise missiles were involved in a wave of attacks on Ukraine last night.

This would appear to be one of the largest single Russian drone attacks so far. Ukraine says it “neutralised” 385 aerial targets.

In a separate development, Ukraine’s land forces said 12 of its military personnel were killed and more than 60 injured in a Russian missile strike on a training centre.

Ukraine’s head of land forces, Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi, tendered his resignation shortly afterwards.

He said his decision was “dictated by my personal sense of responsibility for the tragedy”.

These are the key events on day 1,194 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Monday, June 2:

Fighting

• Ukraine said it destroyed Russian bombers worth $7bn at air bases as far away as Siberia in an attack that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called Kyiv’s “longest-range operation”.
• Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari, reporting from Moscow, said the “simultaneous large-scale attack” was “launched from inside Russia” and targeted “Russian planes that have been carrying out attacks on Ukraine”.
• An official at Ukraine’s SBU intelligence service told the Reuters news agency the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases. At least 41 Russian warplanes were hit, they said.
• Russia’s Tass news agency said there were no military or civilian casualties and that “some of the participants” had been detained.
• The operation came as Ukraine’s air force said Russia had launched 472 drones at the country overnight, in the highest nightly total of the war. Moscow also launched seven missiles.
• This included a missile attack on a Ukrainian military training ground that killed 12 soldiers and wounded more than 60 on Sunday morning, according to Ukraine’s Land Forces.
• The assault led Ukrainian ground forces commander Mykhailo Drapaty to announce his resignation, saying he felt a “personal sense of responsibility” for the soldiers’ deaths.
• Meanwhile, in Russia, at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a bridge in the Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine, collapsed onto a passing passenger train. Moscow Railway, in a post on Telegram, said the bridge had collapsed “as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”.
• A second bridge collapse caused a freight train to derail in Russia’s Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine, injuring a train driver, according to the acting governor of the area.
• A Ukrainian drone attack on Kursk also sparked fires after debris from destroyed drones fell on private homes, the acting governor said.

Politics and diplomacy

• Zelenskyy confirmed Ukraine was sending a delegation led by Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov to a second round of peace talks that are set to begin today in Istanbul, Turkiye.
• Vladimir Medinsky, a former cultural minister who will lead Russia’s delegation in Istanbul, said Moscow has received Ukraine’s “version of the memorandum on a peaceful settlement,” the TASS news agency reported.
• However Zelenskyy said that Russia is yet to share its own memorandum. “We don’t have it, the Turkish side doesn’t have it, and the American side doesn’t have the Russian document either,” the Ukrainian president said in a post on X.
• TASS also reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart Marco Rubio spoke by telephone about “several initiatives aimed at a political solution to the Ukraine crisis”, including Monday’s talks. 
• An exit poll in Poland’s presidential run-off shows the two candidates are very close and that the race is still too close to call, in an election where aid to Kyiv, Ukraine’s potential membership of NATO, and Ukrainian refugees were key issues.

June 1 (UPI) — Ukrainian intelligence officials claimed Sunday to have attacked at least 40 bombers deep inside Russia, which would be the most aggressive such attack on Russian territory since Moscow-led troops invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine targeted “41 strategic Russian aircraft” in an offensive code-named “Spiderweb,” NBC News reported, citing a source within the Security Service of Ukraine.

The attack happened at the Belaya air base in Russia’s Irkutsk region in Siberia, almost 3,000 miles from Ukraine, according to video posted by the Kyiv Independent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday on X that he is “doing everything to protect our independence, our state, our people,” and said he was receiving regular updates from his security forces.

Andriy Yermak, head of the office of the President of Ukraine, posted an emoji on the spiderweb.

“At the right moment, the roofs of the cabins were opened remotely, and the drones flew to hit Russian bombers,” the Independent reported of the “Spiderweb” operation, which sources told the paper was a year-and-a-half in the making.

Ukraine announced in March that it had developed a new, more cost-effective drone with a range of nearly 2,000 miles, but did not say when they would go into operation or if these drones were used in the Sunday attack.

At least seven people died and more were injured when a passenger train derailed following a bridge collapse and explosion in Russia’s Bryansk region near Ukraine, Duetsche Welle reported. A second bridge was said to have collapsed in the Kursk region.

The Russian defense ministry said Ukraine lost 510 troops and five armored personnel carriers, although it offered no evidence in a post on Telegram.

Ukraine has not commented on the collapsed bridges or ensuing explosion and deaths.

Day before his government’s publication of a defence strategy review, PM Keir Starmer says he will ‘restore Britain’s war-fighting readiness’.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer has warned the United Kingdom must be prepared to confront and defeat hostile states with modern military capabilities, as his government unveils a 1.5-billion-pound (about $2bn) plan to build at least six new weapons and explosives factories.

“We are being directly threatened by states with advanced military forces, so we must be ready to fight and win,” Starmer wrote in The Sun newspaper on Sunday. “We will restore Britain’s war-fighting readiness as the central purpose of our armed forces.”

The announcement came in advance of a Strategic Defence Review (SDR), which Starmer is set to publish on Monday. The review will assess threats facing the UK amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war and pressure from United States President Donald Trump for NATO allies to bolster their defences.

European nations have rushed to strengthen their armed forces in recent months, following Trump’s comments that Europe must shoulder more responsibility for its security.

Defence Secretary John Healey, speaking to the BBC network, said the planned investment signals a clear warning to Moscow and would also help revive the UK’s sluggish economy.

“We are in a world that is changing now … and it is a world of growing threats,” Healey told the BBC on Sunday. “It’s growing Russian aggression. It’s those daily cyberattacks, it’s new nuclear risks, and it’s increasing tension in other parts of the world as well.”

The UK’s Ministry of Defence confirmed the funds would support the domestic production of up to 7,000 long-range missiles. With this package, its total munitions spending will reach approximately 6 billion pounds (nearly $8bn) during the current parliamentary term.

Meanwhile, The Sunday Times reported that the government is eyeing US-built jets capable of launching tactical nuclear weapons, although the UK’s Defence Ministry has yet to comment.

The forthcoming SDR, ordered after the Labour Party’s election win in July 2024, will outline emerging threats and the military capabilities required to address them. Starmer has pledged to raise defence spending to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027, with an eventual aim of reaching 3 percent.

The arms initiative follows earlier government pledges to invest 1 billion pounds ($1.3bn) in artificial intelligence technology for battlefield decision-making and an additional 1.5 billion pounds (about $2bn) to improve housing conditions for armed forces personnel.

Officials say multiple military airbases deep inside Russia have come under drone attacks in a major Ukrainian operation ahead of peace talks due to start in Istanbul on Monday.

The Russian Defence Ministry said Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday, causing several aircraft to catch fire.

The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said.

“In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire,” the ministry said.

The fires were extinguished and no casualties were reported. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said.

The Security Service of Ukraine said on Sunday that it had hit Russian military planes worth a combined $7bn in a wave of drone strikes on Russian air bases thousands of kilometres behind the front lines.

“$7 billion: This is the estimated cost of the enemy’s strategic aviation, which was hit today as a result of the SBU’s special operation,” the agency said in a social media post.

Targets included the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, about 4,300km (2,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and the Olenya airbase in south Murmansk, some 1,800km (1,100 miles) from Ukraine.

“According to witnesses on the ground and local officials, these drones were launched from sites near the airbases. That means this was an elaborate operation … that involved a number of people inside Russia,” Al Jazeera’s Dorsa Jabbari said, reporting from Moscow.

“This is the single largest attack that we’ve seen in one day across multiple military airbases inside Russia since the war began in February of 2022,” Jabbari said, noting that the airbases are home to Russia’s strategic air bombers, which have been used to attack targets across Ukraine over the past three years.

Earlier on Sunday, multiple local media reports in Ukraine, including those by state news agency Ukrinform, cited a source within the SBU saying the coordinated attacks inside Russia were “aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front”.

They said the operation was carried out by the SBU using drones smuggled deep into Russia and hidden inside trucks. At least 41 Russian heavy bombers at four airbases were hit, the reports said, adding that the operation, dubbed “Spiderweb”, had been prepared for over a year and a half, and it was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Al Jazeera’s John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, said it’s “an audacious strike, one that Ukraine has been waiting a long time and patiently to deliver, and it’s come after Russian air strikes into Ukraine have dramatically accelerated over the past couple of weeks”.

Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up while a passenger train heading to Moscow was crossing it with 388 people on board.

No one has yet claimed responsibility. Russian officials said they were treating the incident as an “act of terrorism” but did not immediately accuse Ukraine.

The developments came as Russia also said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and as open-source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450sq km (174sq miles) of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.

Moscow launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the Air Force said.

Both parties sharply ramped up their attacks as Ukraine confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul led by its Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials. Turkiye is hosting the meeting, which was spurred by US President Donald Trump’s push for a quick deal to end the three-year war.

Zelenskyy, who previously voiced scepticism about the seriousness of the Russian side in engaging in Monday’s meeting, said he had defined the Ukrainian delegation’s position on the talks.

Priorities included “a complete and unconditional ceasefire” and the return of prisoners and abducted children, he said on social media.

Russia has said it has formulated its own peace terms, but refused to divulge them in advance. Russian President Vladimir Putin also ruled out a Turkish proposal for the meeting to be held at the leaders’ level.

Two Russian bridges near Ukraine have collapsed within hours. In Bryansk, a bridge collapsed onto a train, killing at least seven people, while in Kursk, another bridge collapsed, derailing a freight train. Russia is investigating the incidents as possible sabotage.

A major crisis is unfolding in Moldova, where Russia is using energy as a political weapon to influence the outcome of the autumn parliamentary elections. The first salvo came on Jan. 1, as Moscow halted the gas deliveries that had long provided low-cost electricity. Although Russia has since resumed gas flows to the pro-Russian separatist region of Transnistria, the rest of Moldova has been left to grapple with soaring prices, growing public discontent, and rising pressure ahead of a crucial vote. The goal, quite clearly, is to derail the country’s European path and tip it back into Moscow’s orbit.

As is typical in the course of its geopolitical skullduggeries, Vladimir Putin’s regime has deployed disinformation, distractions, and complicated moves aimed at contriving a version of plausible deniability.

A dangerous dependency on Russia

Historically, Moldova has depended on Russian gas via a complex mechanism involving the separatist region, where a large power plant generated electricity for the rest of the country. But on Jan. 1, 2025, both Moldova proper and the separatist enclave were plunged into an energy crisis after Russian gas supplies were halted following the expiration of a transit agreement with Ukraine.

It was actually Kyiv, engaged in full-scale war with Russia, that declined to renew the longstanding deal that allowed Russian gas to flow westward through its territory—but the move was telegraphed for many months, and alternatives existed.

Mainly, Russia could have easily rerouted gas to Transnistria via the TurkStream and Trans-Balkan pipelines, which run through Turkey, Bulgaria, and Romania. But it declined to do so, even as households and businesses in Moldova faced skyrocketing prices, and Transnistria itself remained without gas. Russia justified this by accusing Moldova of owing $709 million in unpaid gas bills — a claim that has been thoroughly debunked: An independent international audit commissioned in 2023 found the true amount owed by the Moldovan government to Gazprom was just $8.6 million.

In early February, the European Union stepped in to avert a humanitarian emergency. It provided €20 million in emergency aid to subsidize gas deliveries to Transnistria for 10 days — from February 1 to February 10 — enabling the region to restart electricity production for Moldova proper. This was from arranged external deliveries, supported through EU subsidies.

The EU then offered to extend this arrangement through mid-April with a larger €60 million package. But Transnistrian authorities rejected the offer, reportedly objecting to conditions that would have required greater transparency and price alignment with EU standards. Some analysts believe the refusal reflected a desire to maintain dependency on Moscow rather than risk deeper integration with the West. Others simply have concluded Moscow was calling the shots.

Indeed, by mid-February, Russia resumed gas supplies to Transnistria. Deliveries came through the expected detour involving the Black Sea, Turkey, and the Balkans. But it is no longer reaching Moldova—ostensibly by a decision of the separatists.

Moldova’s pro-European government, led by President Maia Sandu, is convinced these maneuvers amount to a deliberate attempt to punish its Western, pro-EU tilt and sway the upcoming September parliamentary elections toward pro-Russian opposition parties. In response, Moldova accelerated diversification efforts, sourcing electricity and natural gas from Romania and other EU partners—at far higher prices than before.

Russia is, of course, under no obligation to provide anyone with gas. But the timing of its move is no coincidence, and the impact has been staggering: In Moldova proper, gas prices are up 24%, electricity 75%, and heating bills 40%. Because of downstream effects, overall inflation is expected to exceed 30%, creating severe economic distress just months before the vote.

The energy crisis triggered a sharp spike in inflation in Moldova. In January 2025, the annual inflation rate jumped to 9.1% compared to a year earlier, up from 7.0% in December 2024, marking the steepest increase in recent months. This surge was largely driven by significant hikes in tariffs for heating, gas, and electricity, as well as rising prices for food and medicine.

The result is a textbook case of Russia’s energy leverage at work: create pain for adversaries, reward loyal proxies, and manipulate regional infrastructure to achieve geopolitical goals. In this instance, to erode trust in Moldova’s leadership and swing the election. If the pro-Russian opposition were to win the election, the result will be a global shock because in the middle of the Ukraine war, a small but strategically consequential European country will have fallen, seemingly voluntarily, back into the Kremlin orbit.

The episode underlines the need for a longer-term strategy: one that shores up Moldova, counters Russia’s manipulation, and keeps this EU-candidate country on track.

Why Moldova Matters

If Moldova is pulled back into Russia’s orbit, the consequences will ripple far beyond its borders. It would deal a serious blow to Ukraine, whose EU accession is closely tied to Moldova’s. A pro-Kremlin government in Chișinău could legitimize and make permanent the Russian military presence in Transnistria, which has been in place for decades, even though Moldova’s government has considered this illegal.

A move in this direction would further destabilize NATO’s eastern flank and threaten Romania, Poland, and the entire Black Sea region. Worse still, inviting Russian troops into Moldova proper itself would undermine Moldovan sovereignty and European security.

Success in Moldova would also validate this model of energy blackmail and electoral interference. If left unchecked, similar tactics could be deployed in the Baltic states, the Balkans, and other vulnerable regions, many of which still rely on Russian energy or face internal political divisions that Moscow can exploit. The message would be clear: Russia can strangle a country’s economy, manipulate public opinion, and tilt an election—all at virtually no cost.

What Europe Must Do

Europe’s effort to assist in February suggests that there is an understanding of the stakes. But to safeguard Moldova’s democratic path and broader European security, the EU must do far more — not only to confront the energy blackmail but also to mitigate its political and social consequences.

·       Provide Massive Economic Aid to Offset Inflation: Moldova cannot afford Western market prices for energy. Inflation has already hit ordinary citizens hard, creating fertile ground for political discontent. A robust EU aid package must go beyond energy subsidies to include targeted social assistance, price caps, and support for small businesses. This is not just an act of solidarity—it’s a strategic imperative to prevent anti-European forces from exploiting popular frustration.

·       Counter Russian Disinformation at Scale: Moscow’s propaganda machine is working overtime to pin the energy crisis on Moldova’s leadership. Europe must respond with a coordinated campaign to expose Russian tactics, debunk misinformation, and promote media literacy. One promising step is the EU’s decision to open an Eastern Partnership office in Moldova—the first of its kind in the region—with disinformation as a top priority. But far more investment in narrative warfare is needed.

·       Fast-Track Moldova’s EU Membership: Most importantly, it’s time to stop viewing Moldova through a narrow bureaucratic lens. The country faces governance challenges, yes—but so did many prior EU entrants. Moldova’s small size (2.5 million people) makes integration manageable, while its geopolitical importance is undeniable. A fast-tracked accession process, similar to the one Ukraine has received, would send a powerful message: that Europe stands with its partners in their hour of need. And it would focus the minds of voters, counteracting the interference from Moscow.

Russia’s playbook is clear: create hardship, fuel resentment, and leverage democratic elections to install loyalist regimes that will cement authoritarianism and attempt to make permanent their hold on power. If it succeeds in Moldova, the European dream will be blocked from that country for a generation. Ukraine will be further isolated, and the Kremlin will chalk up another geopolitical win without firing a shot.

This is not just Moldova’s problem. It is Europe’s. It can be averted — but time is running out.

Here’s where things stand on Sunday, June 1:

Fighting

• The governor of Russia’s Bryansk, Alexander Bogomaz, said seven people were killed, and 30 were injured in a train derailment in the region bordering Ukraine. Moscow Railway said in a post on Telegram that the derailment and bridge collapse was a result of “illegal interference in transport operations”. Ukraine’s military did not immediately comment.
• A Russian attack killed a child and wounded another person in the Ukrainian village of Dolynka in Zaporizhia, the region’s governor said.
• A man was also killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.
• The Ukrainian Air Force said Russian forces launched an estimated 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine on Friday and overnight. Ukrainian forces destroyed 42 of the drones, it added.
• Russia’s military said it captured the Ukrainian village of Vodolahy in the Sumy region and Novopil in the Donetsk region.
• The announcement came after Ukraine ordered the evacuation of 11 more villages in the Sumy region, saying Russia had amassed some 50,000 troops in the area.

Politics and diplomacy

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia did not “look very serious” and had given “no clear information” on what it plans to achieve at peace talks in Istanbul, Turkiye, next week.
• He did not comment on whether Ukraine would participate in the new round of negotiations, though Russia has said it would send a delegation led by Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister.
• China’s embassy in Singapore criticised French President Emmanuel Macron for comparing the defence of Ukraine with the need to protect Taiwan from a Chinese invasion, saying that “the two are different in nature and not comparable at all”.
• Russia’s war on Ukraine will be at the top of the agenda when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz meets with United States President Donald Trump on Thursday at the White House, according to a spokesman for the German government.
• Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said new rules set to regulate foreign ships crossing Swedish territorial waters from July 1 come amid “a growing number of concerning incidents in the Baltic Sea”, as Russia’s so-called Shadow Fleet continues to run into problems.

Weapons

• British Defence Secretary John Healey announces plans to build at least six new factories producing weapons and explosives, saying that “the hard-fought lessons from [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine show a military is only as strong as the industry that stands behind them.”

Train veers off the tracks in Russia’s Bryansk region after ‘illegal interference’ caused a bridge to collapse, officials say.

A passenger train has derailed in Russia, killing at least seven people and injuring 30 others, after colliding with a bridge that collapsed because of what local officials described as “illegal interference”.

The incident took place late on Saturday in Russia’s Bryansk region, which borders Ukraine.

“Unfortunately, there are seven fatalities,” Bryansk Governor Alexander Bogomaz said in a post on Telegram.

“Thirty victims, including two children, were taken to medical facilities in the Bryansk Region,” Bogomaz said, adding that two were in serious condition.

The driver of the train was among those killed, according to Russian news agencies.

Rosavtodor, Russia’s federal road transportation agency, said the destroyed bridge passed above the railway tracks where the train was travelling.

The railway vehicle – which was going from the town of Klimov to the Russian capital, Moscow – veered off the tracks when it collided with the collapsed bridge near the village of Vygonichi, according to the RIA news agency.

The area lies some 100km (62 miles) from Russia’s border with Ukraine.

Rescuers were searching for passengers trapped inside the damaged train, while emergency accommodation was set up at a school in Vygonichi, RIA reported.

Moscow Railway, in a post on Telegram, said the bridge had collapsed “as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport”.

It did not elaborate further.

Russia’s Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.

Explosions have derailed multiple trains, most of them freight trains, in Russian regions near Ukraine as fighting between Russia and Ukraine continues.

There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Two hours after the bridge collapse was reported, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said that Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the Ukrainian capital.

Earlier on Saturday, Russian drone and missile attacks killed at least two people in Ukraine, officials said.

Since the start of Russia’s invasion three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes and covert raids from Ukraine into Russia’s Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions, which border Ukraine.

United States President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.

Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needs to see Russian proposals, while a leading US senator warned Moscow it would be “hit hard” by new US sanctions.

Russia has confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul, but Kyiv has not yet accepted the proposal.

Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have killed at least two people, according to officials, as Ukraine ordered the evacuation of 11 more villages in its Sumy region bordering Russia.

Russian troops launched an estimated 109 drones and five missiles across Ukraine on Friday and overnight, the Ukrainian air force said on Saturday, adding that three of the missiles and 42 drones were destroyed and another 30 drones failed to reach their targets without causing damage.

The attacks came amid uncertainty over whether Kyiv will take part in a new round of peace talks early next week in Istanbul.

In the Russian attacks on Saturday, a child was killed in a strike on the front-line village of Dolynka in the Zaporizhia region, and another was injured, Zaporizhia’s Governor Ivan Fedorov said.

“One house was destroyed. The shockwave from the blast also damaged several other houses, cars, and outbuildings,” Fedorov wrote on Telegram.

A man was also killed by Russian shelling in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin wrote on Telegram.

Moscow did not comment on either attack.

Meanwhile, authorities in Ukraine’s Sumy region said they were evacuating 11 villages within a roughly 30-kilometre (19-mile) range from the Russian border.

“The decision was made in view of the constant threat to civilian life as a result of shelling of border communities,” the regional administration said on social media.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said some 50,000 Russian troops have amassed in the area with the intention of launching an offensive to carve out a buffer zone inside Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine’s top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskii, said on Saturday that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Torets and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.

Syrskii added that Ukrainian forces are still holding territory in Russia’s Kursk region – a statement Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The evacuations and attacks came just two days before a possible meeting between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul, as Washington called on both countries to end the three-year war.

Russia has confirmed it will send a delegation, but Kyiv has not yet accepted the proposal, warning the talks would not yield results unless the Kremlin provided its peace terms in advance.

Zelenskyy said Saturday it was still not clear what Moscow was planning to achieve at the meeting and that so far, it did not “look very serious”.

KYIV’s mayor and former world champion boxer Vitali Klitschko entered the ring with Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of “authoritarianism”.

The former heavyweight blasted the wartime Ukrainian President for paralysing his city with “raids, interrogations and threats of fabricated criminal cases”.

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Klitschko said the president’s decision to use martial law to appoint a rival military administration in Kyiv stopped his city from making progress.

The 53-year-old mayor’s claims come after ex-comedian Zelensky was taunted earlier this year by Donald Trump and his right-hand-man JD Vance.

The Don tripled down on his criticism of Zelensky in a blistering Truth Social rampage in February, branding the Ukrainian President a “dictator” and a “moderately successful” comedian.

And just days after that, a furious Trump dramatically booted Zelensky out of the White House amid a seething row over US backing of the Ukraine war, sparking global chaos.

Trump has also accused wartime hero Zelensky of “refusing to have elections” – despite this being normal protocol under martial law.

Klitschko’s allegations towards Zelensky of authoritarianism come as his Kyiv administration faces a string of arrests.

Some of Klitschko’s deputies have been purged by the national anti-corruption bureau under an operation called Clean City.

The probe has exposed widespread corruption under the mayor’s watch – and seven of his subordinates have so far been arrested, with another three under investigation.

The former athlete has now lashed out at Zelensky, saying that the work of his city council has been plagued by fake criminal cases and threats.

He says that these hampered the ability of Kyiv authorities to make key decisions.

Kyiv’s mayor told The Times: “This is a purge of democratic principles and institutions under the guise of war.

“I said once that it smells of authoritarianism in our country. Now it stinks.”

He also accused President Zelensky of using military administrations across the country to take power from elected mayors.

This is not the first time ex-sportsman Klitschko – who is also said to have presidential ambitions – has called out his rival Zelensky.

The Kyiv mayor called out the Ukrainian President in February amid stalling peace negotiations.

Zelensky then hit back at the boxing champ, saying: “Klitschko is a great athlete, but I didn’t know he was a great speaker.”

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Klitschko said that his recent criticism of Zelensky has been protected by his celebrity status.

“Many of the mayors are intimidated, but my celebrity status is a protection,” he explained.

“You can fire the mayor of Chernihiv, but it is very difficult to fire the mayor of the capital who the whole world knows.”

He added: “That is why everything is being done to discredit and ruin my reputation.”

Political scientist Volodymyr Fesenko said that the conflict betwene the two rivals goes deeper.

The expert said it reflected concern about abuse of city funds in wartime, calling it a “response to manifestations of corruption in the Kyiv city administration”.

He told The Times: “During the war money should go primarily to defence, to protect the country, yet there is all this construction.”

Questioning the corruption in Kyiv, he added: “In some other cities, even stadiums are being built.

“In the Donbas there are large landscaping projects. The frontline is near by, and the money is not going to defensive structures, but to greenery.”

Kyiv locals have been baffled as luxury flats keep popping up instead of shelters or schools — often built on public land using a dodgy “toilet loophole”.

This starts with setting up a par-per-use toilet for example, to then receive something similar to squatters’ rights.

Many of the ten Kyiv officials under investigation have been charged with corruption relating to the approval of these land permits.

Klitschko’s ex-deputy has been charged with taking bribes to help war conscripts escape, while a former city councillor accused of embezzlement has fled to Austria.

He responded to claims of corruption under his watch, saying that he had sacked eight of the officials being investigated.

“I have 4,500 employees in this building alone and about 300,000 employees working for the city,” he said.

“Corruption cases sometimes happen, but we react harshly and quickly.”

He added: “We co-operate with law enforcement, provide all the necessary information and hope for an impartial investigation of all cases.”

Klitshcko’s main rival in Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, has slated the mayor for showing “weakness” during wartime.

Tkachenko told The Times: “Mr Klitschko could not close the brothel in the basement of the same building where he lives.”

He was referring to Tootsies, a notorious strip club raided and shut down by the security service last month as part of an investigation into sex trafficking. 

Klitschko hit back at claims he was tied to the strip club which is near a hotel complex he owns, calling it a “lie” meant to smear him.

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Ukraine’s president has questioned Russia’s commitment to progressing peace talks after Moscow confirmed it was sending a team to talks in Istanbul on Monday.

Russia is yet to send its negotiating proposals to Ukraine – a key demand by Kyiv. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow’s conditions for a ceasefire would be discussed in Turkey.

But Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of “doing everything it can to ensure the next possible meeting is fruitless”.

“For a meeting to be meaningful, its agenda must be clear, and the negotiations must be properly prepared,” he said. Ukraine had sent its proposals to Russia, reaffirming “readiness for a full and unconditional ceasefire”.

The first round of talks two weeks ago in Istanbul brought no breakthrough, but achieved a prisoner of war swap.

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukraine’s territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula Moscow annexed in 2014.

As the talks approached, both Russia and Ukraine reported explosions on Friday night and in the early hours of Saturday morning.

In Ukraine’s Kherson region, three people were killed and 10 more were injured, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the region’s military administration.

On social media, he said that the “Russian military hit critical and social infrastructure” as well as “residential areas of settlements in the region”.

One person was also killed in the Sumy region, the administration there said.

Officials said at least one person had also been injured in explosions in the cities of Kharkiv and Izyum.

Meanwhile, at least 14 people were injured in an explosion in Russia’s Kursk region, according to the acting local governor Alexander Khinshtein and Russia’s state-owned news agency, TASS.

On Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha reiterated that Kyiv had already sent its own “vision of future steps” to Russia, adding Moscow “must accept an unconditional ceasefire” to pave the way for broader negotiations.

“We are interested in seeing these meetings continue because we want the war to end this year,” Sybiha said during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan.

Putin and Zelensky are not expected to attend the talks on Monday.

But Fidan said Turkey was hoping to eventually host a high-level summit.

“We sincerely think it is time to bring President Trump, President Putin and President Zelensky to the table,” he said.

Peskov said Russia’s ceasefire proposals would not be made public, and Moscow would only entertain the idea of a high-level summit if meaningful progress was achieved in preliminary discussions between the two countries.

He welcomed comments made by Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, retired Gen Keith Kellogg, who described Russian concerns over Nato enlargement as “fair”.

Gen Kellogg said Ukraine joining the military alliance, long hoped for by Kyiv, was not on the table.

He added President Trump was “frustrated” by what he described as Russia’s intransigence, but emphasised the need to keep negotiations alive.

On 19 May, Trump and Putin had a two-hour phone call to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire deal to halt the fighting.

The US president said he believed the call had gone “very well”, adding that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start” negotiations towards a ceasefire and “an end to the war”.

Ukraine has publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire but Putin has only said Russia will work with Ukraine to craft a “memorandum” on a “possible future peace” – a move described by Kyiv and its European allies as delaying tactics so Russian troops could seize more Ukrainian territory.

In a rare rebuke to Putin just days later, Trump called the Kremlin leader “absolutely crazy” and threatened US sanctions. His comments followed Moscow’s largest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told Zelensky that Berlin would help Kyiv produce long-range missiles to defend itself from future Russian attacks.

The Kremlin said any decision to end range restrictions on the missiles Ukraine could use would represent a dangerous change in policy that would harm efforts to bring an end to the war.

Here’s where things stand on Saturday, May 31:

Fighting

• Eight people, including two teenagers, were injured in a Russian attack on the village of Vasyliv Khutir in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.

• The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles against Ukraine that targeted the country’s Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk regions.

• The Kharkiv region’s main city came under Russian drone attack, which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, the city’s Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. He said more than 30 nearby apartment buildings were damaged, while one trolleybus was completely destroyed, and 18 others sustained varying degrees of damage.

Ceasefire

• Ukraine has resisted US and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, saying it first needs to see Russian proposals for a ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia “is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results”.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the planned second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will pave the way for peace in a phone call with Zelenskyy, according to a readout issued by the Turkish presidency. Erdogan said it is important that both parties join the talks with strong delegations.

• Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha also said Kyiv needed to see the Russian ceasefire proposals in advance for the talks to be “substantive and meaningful”, without spelling out what Kyiv would do if it did not receive the Russian document or a deadline for receiving it.

• Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky will again head Russia’s delegation in Istanbul for the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks and will bring a memorandum and other ceasefire proposals to the meeting.

• Russia’s UN ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, told the UN Security Council that Moscow was ready to consider a ceasefire, provided Western states stopped arming Ukraine and Kyiv stopped mobilising troops.

• Influential US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said on a visit to Kyiv that the Republican-led US Senate is expected to move ahead with a bill on sanctions against Russia next week. Graham, who met Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Friday, said he had talked with Donald Trump before his trip and the US president expects concrete actions now from Moscow.
• Trump told reporters that both Putin and Zelenskyy were stubborn and that he had been surprised and disappointed by the Russian bombing of Ukraine while he was trying to arrange a ceasefire.
• Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia’s concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and Washington did not want to see Ukraine in the US-led military alliance.
• Commenting on Kellogg’s statement, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was pleased, adding that a Russian delegation would be travelling to Istanbul and ready for talks with Ukraine on Monday morning.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told reporters in Kyiv that the next step after talks in Istanbul would be to try to host a meeting between Trump, Putin, and Zelenskyy.

Economy

• Ukraine’s finance ministry has announced that it would not be paying more than half a billion dollars due to holders of its GDP warrants – fixed income securities indexed to economic growth – marking the first payment default since it created the financial instruments in 2015. Ukraine owes $665m on June 2 to holders of the $3.2bn worth of warrants, based on 2023 economic performance.

These are the key events on day 1,191 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

Here’s where things stand on Friday, May 30:

Fighting

• The Russian army said on Thursday that it had captured three villages in Ukraine’s Donetsk and Kharkiv regions in its latest advance.
• Authorities in Ukraine said Russia had fired 90 drones overnight and at least seven people were killed in drone, missile and artillery strikes across five front-line Ukrainian regions.
• Russia said it had repelled 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three near Moscow.
• Drones made a night-time attack on Russia’s western Kursk region, damaging a hospital and apartment buildings, and injuring at least one person, the regional Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.
• Ukraine’s military said its forces remained active in small areas of Kursk, though Russia’s military said last week it had completed the ejection of Ukrainian forces from the Russian region.

• Across the border in Ukraine’s neighbouring Sumy region, the regional governor reported new fighting in villages near the border where Russia has been seizing territory. He said various areas in his region were constantly changing hands as both sides continued to battle for control.
• “Active battles continue in certain border areas, notably around the settlements of Khotyn and Yunakivka,” Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook. “The situation on the line of contact is constantly changing. In some places, we hold the initiative, in others, the enemy is proving to be active.”
• Russia’s Defence Ministry said its forces had captured three more villages as it slowly advances through parts of eastern Ukraine. These were Stroivka in the northeastern Kharkiv region, and Shevchenko Pershe and Hnativka near the town of Pokrovsk, the focal point of Russia’s westward drive for months.
• Ukrainian military reports made no mention of any of the three villages coming under Russian control. Russian forces had launched 53 attacks over 24 hours near Pokrovsk, the military said.

Ceasefire

• The Kremlin said on Thursday that it was waiting for Kyiv’s response to its proposal for new talks in Istanbul next Monday.
• Ukraine said it was ready to hold more talks with Russia in Istanbul but demanded that Moscow supply a document setting out its conditions for peace in the war, adding that Kyiv had already submitted its vision of a peace settlement.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia was engaging in “yet another deception” by failing to hand over its peace settlement proposal in advance of the next potential meeting. “Even the so-called ‘memorandum’ they promised and seemingly prepared for more than a week has still not been seen by anyone,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Kyiv’s demand on the “memorandum” was “non-constructive”.
• Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Heorhii Tykhyi, said Moscow’s refusal to send the document “suggests that it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums”.

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who will host the new talks, called on Russia and Ukraine not to “shut the door” on dialogue.
• The Russian delegation to the second round of talks in Istanbul will be the same as for the first round, the Russian TASS news agency cited Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.
• United Nations Undersecretary-General for Political Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council that the “cautious hope” she expressed a month ago for a ceasefire in Ukraine has diminished in the face of the “brutal surge in large-scale Russian attacks” against Ukraine.
• Ukrainian Deputy Ambassador to the UN Khrystyna Hayovyshyn told the council that “Russia is not signalling any genuine intention to stop its war”, and said that increased political, economic and military pressure on Moscow was required.
• Russian Ambassador to the UN Vassily Nebenzia rejected the accusations, instead accusing Kyiv of “attempting to prolong the war” and warning that Ukraine’s defeat was inevitable. “No new anti-Russian sanctions, nor deliveries of weapons to Ukraine or any other hostile steps vis-a-vis Russia will be able to prevent the inevitable military defeat of the Zelenskyy regime,” Nebenzia said.
• John Kelley, the United States’s alternate representative at the UN meeting, said that if Russia “makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war”, Washington will consider “stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict”, adding that additional sanctions against Moscow were “still on the table”.

Military aid

• Zelenskyy said he discussed the possible delivery of German Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz during his visit to Berlin. “The Taurus issue was discussed in a one-to-one meeting between the chancellor and me,” the Ukrainian president told the German broadcaster RTL.
• Russia accused Serbia of exporting arms to Ukraine, saying it was a stab in the back by its longtime Slavic Balkan ally.
• “Serbian defense enterprises, contrary to the ‘neutrality’ declared by official Belgrade, continue to supply ammunition to Kyiv,” Russia’s foreign intelligence service said in a statement.
• The statement alleged that exports of Serbian arms to Ukraine are going through NATO intermediaries, “primarily the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria”. It added: “Recently, exotic options involving African states have also been used for this purpose.”

Regional security

• A Belarusian radio station has been flouting European Union sanctions to spread “disinformation” and back a pro-Russian candidate on social media in advance of Poland’s presidential election, according to reports.
• A Polish-language radio station, set up by Belarus, has been posting pro-Russian narratives on social media for almost two years “despite EU sanctions”, experts said in a report published by three think tanks. Poland votes on Sunday in a hotly contested presidential run-off between pro-EU and nationalist candidates, which is being closely watched in Europe.

Economy

• The International Monetary Fund announced it had reached an agreement with Ukraine on a loan programme review to unlock about $500m dollars of funds to support macroeconomic stability.

VLADIMIR Putin will launch an assault on Lithuania next if he conquers Ukraine, an ex-CIA boss has warned.

The caution comes as Zelensky slammed the Russian despot for “stalling peace talks” following his dismal attempts to get to the negotiating table.

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David Petraus, a retired US general and director of the CIA, warned an attack on the Baltic state would not be an isolated event but part of a longer-term plan to test the West.

Speaking at the Policy Exchange Think-Tank in London, Petraeus said Lithuania has “featured prominently” in Putin’s speeches meaning he might turn on the NATO state for his next assault.

After mad Vlad has installed a “puppet leader to control all of Ukraine” there’s a strong chance he will turn his “focus on one of the Baltic states,” he added.

Taking aim at Trump, he said the US had dithered too much on “individual decisions” and was giving the Russian president too many second chances – causing immeasurable losses for Ukraine.

He said: “What we’ve seen is three incidences where the US President has threatened that in two weeks we’ll have to take a different approach. 

“We’ll see this time what actually happens. The US also temporised far too long over individual decisions such as M1 [Abrams] tanks.

“A blind man on a dark night could see it had to be the F-16 (a multi- role fighter aircraft).”

Ukraine responded yesterday saying: “The Russians’ fear of sending their ‘memorandum’ to Ukraine suggests that it is likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums, and they are afraid of revealing that they are stalling the peace process.”

The comments come after Trump issued Vlad with a two-week deadline for a ceasefire following Russia’s deadly attack on Ukraine earlier this week.

Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday: “I’m very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation.”

He added: “When I see rockets being shot into cities, that’s no good. We’re not going to allow it.”

When asked if Putin really wants to end the war, Trump replied: “I can’t tell you that, but I’ll let you know in about two weeks.

“Within two weeks. We’re gonna find out whether or not he’s tapping us along or not.

“And if he is, we’ll respond a little bit differently.”

One of the largest stumbling blocks which is delaying any peace deal is said to be over Putin’s desire to control his former Soviet states and keep them away from Nato.

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This includes Ukraine themselves with the Kremlin always saying Kyiv gaining access to the group is a complete no go under any circumstances.

Kyiv has repeatedly said that Moscow should have no say in its sovereign right to pursue Nato membership however.

He declared he will only call off the war in Ukraine if the West vows to keep its hands off Russia’s prized former Soviet states.

Putin even demanded he got the assurances in writing.

The Russian president said he wants a “written” pledge from Western leaders to stop Nato’s expansion to countries eastward, top Russian officials revealed to Reuters.

The eastward expansion refers to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.

Putin is reportedly preparing for a major push to take more land in the north east.

Military analysts believe he is trying to press home his advantage and capture more Ukrainian land.

They warn that Putin only has a “four-month window” to get a breakthrough in Ukraine this year.

And this could be the beginning of Russia’s summer offensive targeting the border city of Kharkiv – the “fortress” city of Ukraine which put up the maximum resistance at the start of the invasion.

Reacting to the reports, German Chancellor Freidrich Merz predicted that peace was still a long way off.

He said: “Wars typically end because of economic or military exhaustion on one side or on both sides and in this war we are obviously still far from reaching that [situation].

“So we may have to prepare for a longer duration.”

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Ukrainian official urges Moscow to share its plan before any talks, as Turkiye’s Erdogan calls for dialogue.

Russia says it has yet to receive a response from Ukraine over its proposal to hold another round of ceasefire talks in Istanbul next week, as Turkiye’s president urged the warring sides not to “close the door” to dialogue.

Moscow said earlier this week it wanted to hold new talks with Ukraine in the Turkish city to present a memorandum that would outline what it referred to as the key elements for “overcoming the root causes” of the war.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday that so far Moscow has not received a reply from Kyiv.

When asked to comment on Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha’s suggestion that Russia should immediately hand over the memorandum, Peskov dismissed the idea as “non-constructive”.

“Here, you have to either confirm your readiness to continue negotiations or do the opposite,” Peskov said.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Wednesday that Kyiv had already submitted its memorandum on a potential settlement and called on Russia to produce its version immediately, rather than waiting until next week.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, said on X on Thursday that Russia’s hesitancy to share its plan suggests that it was “likely filled with unrealistic ultimatums”.

“They are afraid of revealing that they are stalling the peace process,” Tykhyi said.

Officials from both sides met in Istanbul on May 16, their first direct talks in more than three years, but the encounter failed to yield a breakthrough.

But Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said the recent momentum for talks was an opportunity to reach lasting peace.

“The road to a resolution goes through more dialogue, more diplomacy. We are using all our diplomatic power and potential for peace,” he told reporters on Thursady, according to his office.

“During the course of each of our meetings, we have reminded our interlocutors that they should not pass up this opportunity,” Erdogan said, adding that “extinguishing this huge fire in our region … is a humanitarian duty.”

In Ukraine, local authorities said at least five people were killed across the country after Russia fired 90 drones overnight.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its air defences had intercepted 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 30 over the Belgorod region.

The ministry added in separate comments that its army had captured the village of Stroivka in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region as well as Gnativka and Shevchenko Pershe in the Donetsk region.

May 28 (UPI) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Germany Wednesday to discuss the state of German military support, which could include a delivery of powerful missiles to Ukraine for use against Russian targets.

Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation were welcomed by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz shortly after their arrival in Berlin, and Zelensky is also expected to meet with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The visit takes place as speculation continues in regard to whether Germany will supply Ukraine with its Taurus cruise missiles, which can strike targets as far away as 300 miles. Merz had signaled before his ascension to chancellor that he would overturn a previous ban by his predecessor Olaf Scholz on the provision of such weaponry to Ukraine.

Zelensky spoke with reporters Tuesday, and said he would discuss the issue of long-range missiles.

The decision to provide the Taurus missiles remains officially unresolved as it has been a matter of contention between the conservative alliance of the Christian Democratic Union and Christian Social Union parties, and the Social Democratic Party, their coalition partners.

However, Merz announced Monday that Germany would “do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine,” and that “also means no longer having any range restrictions on the weapons we supply. Ukraine can now also defend itself by attacking military positions in Russia.”

Merz later explained the comment was in reference to actions taken months ago, and German Vice Chancellor Lars Klingbeil has since confirmed that no new decision in regard to the Taurus missile issue.

Germany has previously provided Ukraine with two weapons systems capable of strikes within Russian borders, the Mars II rocket launchers and Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery, and range restrictions on their usage were lifted in May 2024.

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced Monday that European countries who lift restrictions on the range of provided armaments for use against Russia on Russian territory would be making a “rather dangerous decision.”

Zelensky posted to social media Tuesday that in an “extended meeting” with Ukrainian military leadership, they had discussed “preparing new agreements with our European partners in the near future, to attract investment into Ukrainian production,” which “First and foremost,” means “the production of unmanned systems and long-range capabilities,” so that the military can “operate at significant distances.”