Russias

Russia is no longer bound by a moratorium on the deployment of short- and medium-range nuclear missiles, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said, with former President Dmitry Medvedev blaming NATO’s “anti-Russian policy” and warning that Moscow will take “further steps” in response.

Medvedev, who has engaged in a war of words on social media with United States President Donald Trump, made his latest broadside after the Foreign Ministry’s announcement on Monday.

“The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries’ anti-Russian policy,” Medvedev posted in English on the X social media platform.

“This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps,” he said.

Medvedev, who serves as the deputy head of Russia’s powerful Security Council and has made several hawkish comments on Russia’s nuclear capabilities in recent years, did not elaborate on what “further steps” may entail.

Last week, Trump said that he had ordered two US nuclear submarines to be repositioned to “the appropriate regions” in response to Medvedev’s remarks about the risk of war between Washington and Moscow.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement on the withdrawal of the moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles is the result of NATO countries’ anti-Russian policy.
This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with. Expect further steps.

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) August 4, 2025

In its statement, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the developing situation in Europe and the Asia Pacific prompted its reassessment on the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles.

“Since the situation is developing towards the actual deployment of US-made land-based medium- and short-range missiles in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, the Russian Foreign Ministry notes that the conditions for maintaining a unilateral moratorium on the deployment of similar weapons have disappeared,” the ministry said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last year that Moscow may have to respond to what they described as provocations by the US and NATO by lifting restrictions on missile deployment.

Lavrov told Russia’s state news agency RIA Novosti in December that Moscow’s unilateral moratorium on the deployment of such missiles was “practically no longer viable and will have to be abandoned”.

“The United States arrogantly ignored warnings from Russia and China and, in practice, moved on to deploying weapons of this class in various regions of the world,” Lavrov told the news agency.

The US withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty in 2019, under the first Trump administration, citing Russian non-compliance, but Moscow had said that it would not deploy such weapons provided that Washington did not do so.

The INF treaty, signed in 1987 by Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and US President Ronald Reagan, had eliminated an entire class of weapons: ground-launched nuclear missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500km (311 to 3,418 miles).

In its first public reaction to Trump’s comments on the repositioning of US submarines, the Kremlin on Monday played down the remarks and said it was not looking to get into a public spat with the US president.

“In this case, it is obvious that American submarines are already on combat duty. This is an ongoing process, that’s the first thing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“But in general, of course, we would not want to get involved in such a controversy and would not want to comment on it in any way,” he said.

“Of course, we believe that everyone should be very, very careful with nuclear rhetoric,” he added.

The episode comes at a delicate moment, with Trump threatening to impose new sanctions on Russia and buyers of its oil, including India and China, unless President Vladimir Putin agrees by Friday to a ceasefire in Moscow’s war on Ukraine.

Putin said last week that peace talks had made some positive progress but that Russia had the momentum in its war against Ukraine, signalling no shift in his position despite the looming deadline.

A top United States official has accused India of financing Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying oil from Moscow, as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on New Delhi to cut off its energy imports from Russia.

“What he (Trump) said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff at the White House and one of Trump’s most influential aides, said in an interview with Fox News.

India is the second-largest buyer of Russian oil, after China, and more than 30 percent of its fuel is sourced from Moscow, providing revenue to the Kremlin amid Western sanctions. New Delhi imported just 1 percent of its oil from Russia before the Ukraine war started in 2022.

Miller’s criticism was among the strongest yet by the Trump administration – which came after the US slapped a 25 percent tariff on Indian products on Friday as a result of its purchase of military equipment and energy from Russia. The Trump administration also threatened additional penalties if India continued its purchase of arms and oil from Russia.

“People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” Miller also said on the show.

The US aide tempered his criticism by noting Trump’s relationship with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, which he described as “tremendous”.

Last week, Trump also underscored the “friendship” with India on the day he announced the tariffs on Asia’s second-largest economy.

While India was “our friend”, it had always bought most of its military equipment from Russia and was “Russia’s largest buyer of ENERGY, along with China, at a time when everyone wants Russia to STOP THE KILLING IN UKRAINE – ALL THINGS NOT GOOD!” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform on July 30.

“I don’t care what India does with Russia. They can take their dead economies down together, for all I care.”

Trump has threatened 100 percent tariffs on US imports from countries that buy Russian oil unless Moscow reaches a major peace deal with Ukraine. The US president has also criticised India for being a member of BRICS, of which Russia and China are founding members.

Some analysts say the tough stance taken by the Trump administration might be aimed at pressuring Russia, while others see it as a pressure tactic to get New Delhi to agree to terms set by Washington, as the two countries are engaged in trade talks. Trump wants to reduce the US trade deficit with India, which stands at $45bn.

‘Time-tested’ ties

Meanwhile, Indian government sources told the Reuters news agency on Saturday that New Delhi will keep buying oil from Moscow despite US threats.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs said its relationship with Russia was “steady and time-tested” and should not be seen through the prism of a third country. New Delhi’s ties to Moscow go back to the Soviet era.

Russia is the leading supplier of oil and defence equipment to India. According to a March report from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Russia remains the biggest arms supplier of equipment and systems for the Indian Armed Forces.

Prime Minister Modi travelled to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin last year, as New Delhi has tried to balance its ties between the West and Russia. He has since met Putin several times at international forums.

India has historically bought most of its crude from the Middle East, but this has changed since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as India bought the oil at discounted rates after the West shunned Russia to punish it.

New Delhi bought 68,000 barrels per day of crude oil from Russia in January 2022. By June of the same year, oil imports rose to 1.12 million barrels per day. The daily imports peaked at 2.15 million in May 2023 and have varied since.

Supplies rose as high as nearly 40 percent of India’s imports at one point, making Moscow the largest supplier of crude to New Delhi, the Press Trust of India reported, citing data from Kpler, a data analytics company.

India says its imports from Russia was within legal norms, adding that it has helped stabilise the global crude prices.

Russia fired more than 6,000 drones on Ukraine in July, more than any other month since it launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, the AFP news agency and the Kyiv Independent reported.

The drone attacks killed dozens of people and injured many more. They also damaged civilian targets, including many homes, a kindergarten and an ambulance.

According to the AFP news agency, data published by Ukraine’s air force showed that Russia fired 6,297 long-range drones into Ukraine last month, up by nearly 16 percent compared with June.

The Kyiv Independent reported that Russia launched a record 6,129 Shahed-type drones in July, 14 times more than in the same month last year, when Russia launched just 423 drones.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat told the Kyiv Independent that the real number of Russian drone attacks may be higher, since figures are based on estimates.

In just one night on July 9, Russian forces launched a record 741 drones and decoys on Western Ukraine, more than the number of drones it launched in the entire month of July last year.

The combined Russian missile and drone attacks on July 9 killed at least eight people in Ukraine’s Sumy, Donetsk and Kherson regions, even as Ukrainian forces shot down all but 10 of the drones launched that day.

The July 9 attack came a day after United States President Donald Trump said his administration would help send Ukraine more “defensive weapons”, just days after the Pentagon had said it was halting deliveries of some weapons to Ukraine, due to low stockpiles.

“They have to be able to defend themselves,” Trump said, as he announced that European allies would finance Patriot air defence systems for Ukraine, from the US weapons company Raytheon. “They are getting hit very hard now,” he added.

Russia’s heavy drone and missile attacks continued right up until the end of the month, with an attack on Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on July 31 killing at least 31 people, including five children, and wounding 159 others.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia used more than 300 drones and eight missiles in the attack.

According to the AFP, Russia also fired 198 missiles into Ukraine in July, more than in any month this year except in June.

The number of drones Russia fired in June was the second-highest amount after July, with 5,337 in total, according to the Kyiv Independent.

That included some 479 drones fired at Ukraine on June 9, just ahead of the start of a prisoner swap the two countries had agreed to at talks in Istanbul.

Peace talks continued in Turkiye last month but have so far failed to reach a lasting ceasefire agreement, even as Trump has threatened to impose new sanctions on Russia and countries that buy its exports.

Russian drones flying higher

Russian forces have adjusted their drones since the 2022 invasion, so that they now fly several kilometres above ground, making it harder to shoot them down with machineguns.

This has made Ukraine even more dependent on US air defence weaponry, including the recently announced European-funded Patriot systems.

Russia also sends a combination of drone types to Ukraine. More than half carry explosives, but there are also decoys designed to waste Ukrainian defensive missiles and reconnaissance drones, which track Ukraine’s air defence team locations.

Heavy drone barrages are also used to overwhelm defence systems when missiles are fired.

Russia imports both its heavy Mohajer-6 drones and cheaper, slower Shahed “kamikaze” drones from Iran, which it described as an “important partner” in late 2024.

Ukraine, which became the world’s largest major arms importer from 2020 to 2024, has increasingly been buying its own supplies of millions of drones from local manufacturers.

US president condemns Russian attacks on Kyiv as Ukraine’s Zelenskyy calls for ‘regime change’ in Moscow.

United States President Donald Trump has threatened new sanctions while slamming Russia’s military actions in Ukraine as “disgusting”.

“Russia – I think it’s disgusting what they’re doing. I think it’s disgusting,” Trump told reporters on Thursday, the same day Moscow’s attacks on Kyiv killed more than a dozen people.

Trump also said he would send his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, currently in Israel, to visit Russia next.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already met Witkoff multiple times in Moscow, before Trump’s efforts to mend ties with the Kremlin came to a grinding halt.

Washington has given Moscow until the end of next week to cease hostilities in Ukraine, under threat of severe economic sanctions.

Trump reiterated the deadline on Thursday.

“We’re going to put sanctions. I don’t know that sanctions bother him,” the US president said, referring to Putin.

Trump has previously threatened that new measures could mean “secondary tariffs” targeting Russia’s remaining trade partners, such as China and India. This would further stifle Russia, but would risk significant international disruption.

The US president began his second term with his own rosy predictions that the war in Ukraine, raging since Russia invaded its neighbour in February 2022, would soon end.

In recent weeks, Trump has increasingly voiced frustration with Putin over Moscow’s unrelenting offensive.

Call for ‘regime change’

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged his allies to bring about “regime change” in Russia, hours after the deadly attack on Kyiv.

Speaking virtually to a conference marking 50 years since the signing of the Cold War-era Helsinki Accords on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he believed Russia could be “pushed” to stop the war.

“But if the world doesn’t aim to change the regime in Russia, that means even after the war ends, Moscow will still try to destabilise neighbouring countries,” he said.

Russia’s predawn attacks on Kyiv on Thursday killed 26 people, including three children, and wounded 159, Ukraine’s interior ministry said on Friday.

On Thursday, officials said the drone and missile strikes had killed at least 18 people, and reduced part of a nine-storey apartment block in Kyiv’s western suburbs to rubble.

Among the victims was a six-year-old boy who died on the way to hospital, the head of the city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, posted on Telegram.

From late Wednesday to early Thursday, Russia fired at least 300 drones and eight cruise missiles at Ukraine, with Kyiv the main target, the Ukrainian air force said.

Zelenskyy late on Thursday denounced the “unimaginable scale of terror and brutality” of the Russian strikes.

The Russian army, meanwhile, claimed to have captured Chasiv Yar, a strategically important hillside town in eastern Ukraine where the two sides have been fiercely fighting for months.

Moscow has stepped up its deadly aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months in the conflict, resisting US pressure to end its nearly three-and-a-half-year invasion as its forces grind forward on the battlefield.

Microsoft says cyber-espionage campaign ‘poses high risk’ to foreign embassies, diplomats and other groups in Moscow.

Microsoft has accused one of the Russian government’s premier cyber-espionage units of deploying malware against embassies and diplomatic organisations in Moscow by leveraging local internet service providers.

In a blog post on Thursday, Microsoft Threat Intelligence said the campaign by Russia’s Federal Security Service, also known as the FSB, “has been ongoing since at least 2024”.

The effort “poses a high risk to foreign embassies, diplomatic entities, and other sensitive organizations operating in Moscow, particularly to those entities who rely on local internet providers”, Microsoft said.

The analysis confirms for the first time that the FSB is conducting cyber-espionage at the ISP level, according to Microsoft’s findings.

“This means that diplomatic personnel using local ISP or telecommunications services in Russia are highly likely targets of [the campaign] within those services,” the blog post reads.

Microsoft tracked an alleged FSB cyber-espionage campaign that in February targeted unnamed foreign embassies in Moscow.

The FSB activity facilitates the installation of custom backdoors on targeted computers, which can be used to install additional malware, as well as steal data, Microsoft said.

The findings come amid increasing pressure from Washington for Moscow to agree to a ceasefire in its war in Ukraine and pledges from NATO countries to increase defence spending surrounding their own concerns about Russia.

Microsoft did not say which embassies were targeted by the FSB campaign.

The US Department of State, as well as Russian diplomats, did not respond to requests for comment from the Reuters news agency.

Russia has denied carrying out cyber-espionage operations. There was no immediate comment from Moscow on Microsoft’s report on Thursday.

The hacking unit linked to the activity, which Microsoft tracks as “Secret Blizzard” and others categorise as “Turla”, has been hacking governments, journalists and others for nearly 20 years, the US government said in May 2023.

Local emergencies ministry says the plane dropped off radar near the Amur region, bordering China.

Debris of a Russian passenger plane carrying about 50 people has been found in Russia’s far east, news agency Interfax has said.

The local emergencies ministry said the An-24 plane, operated by a Siberia-based airline called Angara, dropped off radar screens while approaching its destination of Tynda, a town in the Amur region bordering China, on Wednesday.

Regional Governor Vasily Orlov said that, according to preliminary data, there were 43 passengers, including five children, and six crew members on board.

“All necessary forces and means have been deployed to search for the plane,” he wrote on Telegram.

The emergencies ministry put the number of people on board somewhat lower, at about 40.

Three earthquakes, one with a magnitude of 7.4, recorded near Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, capital of Russia’s Kamchatka region.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) says there is no longer a danger of tsunami waves on Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula after three earthquakes – the larger with a magnitude of 7.4 – struck in the sea nearby.

The warning was issued earlier on Sunday after the quakes were recorded off the Pacific coast of Russia, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

The epicentres of a series of earthquakes – the others measuring 6.7 and 5 – on Sunday were about 140km (87 miles) east of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, capital of Russia’s Kamchatka region, which has a population of more than 160,000.

According to the USGS, the quakes hit the same area off the coast of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky within 32 minutes.

The magnitude 7.4 earthquake was at a depth of 20km (12 miles). There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The PTWC initially said there was a danger of major tsunami waves but later downgraded its warning before finally saying the danger had passed.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry also issued a tsunami warning following the second quake, urging residents of coastal settlements to stay away from the shore.

A separate tsunami watch issued for the state of Hawaii was later lifted.

Germany’s GFZ monitor also confirmed that at least one magnitude 6.7 earthquake was recorded off the east of Kamchatka region on Sunday. GFZ later updated it to magnitude 7.4.

Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky is located in the Kamchatka region, facing the Pacific, northeast of Japan and west of the US state of Alaska, across the Bering Sea.

The Kamchatka Peninsula is the meeting point of the Pacific and North American tectonic plates, making it a seismic hot zone. Since 1900, seven major earthquakes of magnitude 8.3 or higher have struck the area.

On November 4, 1952, a magnitude 9 earthquake in Kamchatka caused damage, but no deaths were reported despite setting off 9.1-metre (30-foot) waves in Hawaii.

North Korean officials have “reaffirmed their support for all objectives” in the Russia-Ukraine war, says Russian FM.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea, during which Pyongyang reaffirmed its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine in which thousands of its soldiers have been killed.

Lavrov “was received” by Kim, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Telegram on Saturday, posting a video of the two men shaking hands and embracing in Wonsan. Russian and North Korean state media had announced the visit earlier, saying Lavrov would stay until Sunday.

It is the latest in a series of high-profile trips by top Moscow officials to North Korea as the countries deepen military and political ties with a focus on Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has become one of Moscow’s main allies during its more than three-year-long war in Ukraine, sending thousands of troops and conventional weapons to help the Kremlin remove Ukrainian forces from Kursk in Russia.

More than 6,000 North Korean soldiers have died in the Russia-Ukraine war, according to British Defence Intelligence.

North Korea has also agreed to dispatch 6,000 military engineers and builders to help reconstruction efforts there.

The South Korean intelligence service has said North Korea may be preparing to deploy additional troops in July or August.

The United States and South Korea have expressed concern that, in return, Kim may seek Russian technology transfers that could enhance the threat posed by his nuclear-armed military.

Earlier on Saturday, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart Choe Son Hui in Wonsan, a city on the country’s east coast, where a huge resort was opened earlier this month.

“We exchanged views on the situation surrounding the Ukrainian crisis … Our Korean friends confirmed their firm support for all the objectives of the special military operation, as well as for the actions of the Russian leadership and armed forces,” Russian news agency TASS quoted Lavrov as saying.

He also thanked the “heroic” North Korean soldiers, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

In April, the two countries officially confirmed the deployment of North Korean troops to Russia for the first time, saying these troops had helped Russia to recapture the Kursk region – a claim contested by Ukraine.

Since then, Kim has been shown in state media paying tribute in front of flag-draped coffins of North Korean soldiers.

Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has visited Pyongyang multiple times this year.

The two heavily sanctioned nations signed a sweeping military deal last November, including a mutual defence clause, during a rare visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to North Korea. Pyongyang has reportedly been directly arming Moscow to support its war in Ukraine.

In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address on Friday that US weapons shipments to his country had resumed, following the Pentagon’s decision to briefly halt the delivery of certain weapons to Kyiv over fears that US stockpiles were dwindling.

The US will deliver military supplies and send its envoy Keith Kellogg to Kyiv early next week, said Zelenskyy.

Attack on equipment for Ukraine was planned by Wagner mercenaries on behalf of Russian intelligence, prosecutors said.

A jury in the United Kingdom has convicted three men of arson following an attack on an east London warehouse that was storing Starlink satellite equipment destined for Ukraine.

Prosecutors had alleged that the attack on March 20, 2024, was planned by agents of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, acting on behalf of Russian military intelligence.

Jakeem Rose, 23, Ugnius Asmena, 20, and Nii Mensah, 23, were found guilty of aggravated arson on Tuesday at London’s Old Bailey court.

Jurors cleared a fourth man, Paul English, 61, who told police that while he was paid to drive the others, he knew nothing about the fire.

Dylan Earl, 21, who was accused of orchestrating the attack, and Jake Reeves, 23, had already pleaded guilty to aggravated arson and offences under the UK’s National Security Act 2023.

Prosecutors said Wagner used British intermediaries to recruit the men to target an industrial unit in Leyton, east London, where generators and Starlink satellite equipment bound for Ukraine were being stored.

Authorities cast the arson, which caused about 1 million pounds ($1.35m) of damage, as part of a campaign of disruption across Europe that Western officials blame on Moscow and its proxies.

Ukraine’s military frequently uses Starlink in its effort to fend off Russia’s invasion.

Commander Dominic Murphy, head of Counter Terrorism Command at London’s Metropolitan Police, said the case was a “clear example of an organisation linked to the Russian state using ‘proxies’, in this case British men, to carry out very serious criminal activity in this country”.

He said Earl and Reeves “willingly acted as hostile agents on behalf of the Russian state,” adding that it was “only by good fortune nobody was seriously injured or worse”.

Earl also admitted to plotting to set fire to a wine shop and a restaurant in the upmarket London neighbourhood of Mayfair, as well as plans to kidnap their owner, Evgeny Chichvarkin.

Chichvarkin, an exiled Russian tycoon who has been vocal in his criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the war in Ukraine, told the court in a written statement that he is considered “a key enemy of the Russian state and received daily death threats”.

Two other men were on trial in connection with the arson and related plots.

Ashton Evans, 20, was found guilty of failing to disclose information about terrorist acts relating to the Mayfair plot but cleared of failing to tell authorities about the warehouse arson. After Dmitrijus Paulauskas, 23, was cleared of both, he burst into tears and nodded towards the jury.

Jurors were shown evidence from security cameras and of the arson Mensah filmed on his phone, along with a message he sent Earl later saying: “Bro lol it’s on the news.”

They were also shown hundreds of messages among the men and between Earl and a Russian recruiter.

Earl was the first person to be charged under the National Security Act, which created new measures to combat espionage, political interference and benefitting from foreign intelligence services.

Judge Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said the convicted defendants would be sentenced in autumn.

Founded in 2014, the Wagner Group has become Russia’s largest and most notorious private military company, with operations around the world, including in Africa, the Middle East, South America and Ukraine.

In 2022, Wagner enlisted 50,000 Russian prisoners to fight on the front lines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, of which some 20,000 were killed in the months-long battle for control of Bakhmut in eastern Ukraine, the group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said at the time.

In June 2023, Prigozhin was listed as a passenger on a private jet which crashed north of Moscow shortly after he led Wagner troops who crossed from Ukraine into the Russian border city of Rostov-on-Don, saying he would fight anyone who tried to stop them.

US president voices frustration over the continuing war in Ukraine, says Vladimir Putin is ‘killing a lot of people’.

United States President Donald Trump says he is not happy with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, over the continuation of the war in Ukraine and suggests he is considering additional sanctions against Moscow.

“We get a lot of b******t thrown at us by Putin,” Trump said during a meeting with his cabinet at the White House on Tuesday. “He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.”

Putin is “killing a lot of people” and a lot of them are his soldiers and Ukraine’s forces, Trump added.

When asked about his interest in a bill proposed by the Senate for further sanctions on Russia, Trump said: “I’m looking at it very strongly.”

But he refused to preview his plans further when asked whether he will act on his frustration with Putin.

“I wouldn’t be telling you. Don’t we want to have a little surprise?” Trump told reporters. He then pivoted to discussing the lengthy planning for last month’s US strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Trump made the comments as French President Emmanuel Macron said in an address to the British Parliament that Europe will “never abandon Ukraine”.

Macron stressed that the United Kingdom and France will work with a “coalition of the willing” to support Ukraine.

“We will fight till the very last minute in order to get the ceasefire, in order to start the negotiations to build this robust and sustainable peace, because this is our security and our principles together which are at stake in Ukraine,” Macron said.

Earlier on Tuesday, Trump said his administration will send more weapons to Ukraine, adding that the new shipments would be primarily comprised of “defensive weapons”.

According to US media reports, Washington had paused the transfer of certain missiles and munitions to Ukraine due to its dwindling weapons stockpiles. The Pentagon said it was conducting a “capability review” of US weapons.

As a candidate, Trump promised to swiftly end the war in Ukraine. But so far, his diplomatic efforts – including several phone calls with Putin – have failed to stem the violence.

Ukrainian and Russian officials met for direct talks in Turkiye in May and agreed to a prisoner swap, but the two sides have not been able to reach a temporary truce, let alone a lasting ceasefire.

On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow is waiting for Ukraine to propose possible dates for further negotiations. “As soon as dates are agreed – and we hope that it will be done – we will make an announcement,” he said.

Russia has been stepping up its long-range attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks and has been slowly grinding its way forward along several parts of the Ukrainian front line in recent months.

On Monday, it announced that it had captured the Ukrainian village of Dachne in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Leaders expected to decry US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism.

Leaders of the growing BRICS group are gathering in Brazil for a summit overshadowed by United States President Donald Trump’s new tariff policies while presenting the bloc as a defender of multilateralism.

The leaders, mainly from the developing world, will be discussing ways to increase cooperation amid what they say are serious concerns over Western dominance at their two-day summit that begins in Rio de Janeiro on Sunday.

The BRICS acronym is derived from the initial letters of the founding member countries: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The bloc, which held its first summit in 2009, later added Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as full members. It also has 10 strategic partner countries, a category created last year, that includes Belarus, Cuba and Vietnam.

But for the first time since taking power in 2012, Chinese President Xi Jinping will not be attending in person, instead sending Prime Minister Li Qiang.

Russian President Vladimir Putin will also miss in-person attendance as he is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Brazil, as a signatory to the Rome Statute, would be required to enforce the arrest warrant.

The notable absences are raising questions over the group’s cohesion and global clout.

Now chaired by Brazil, leaders at the BRICS summit are expected to decry the Trump administration’s “indiscriminate” trade tariffs, saying they are illegal and risk hurting the global economy. Global health policies, artificial intelligence and climate change will also be on the agenda.

The BRICS countries say they represent almost half of the world’s population, 36 percent of global land area, and a quarter of the global economic output. The bloc sees itself as a forum for cooperation between countries of the Global South and a counterweight to the Group of Seven (G7), comprised of leading Western economic powers.

However, behind the scenes, divisions are evident. According to a source quoted by The Associated Press news agency, some member states are calling for a firmer stance on Israel’s war in Gaza and its recent strikes on Iran. The source requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the discussions. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will be attending the Rio summit.

But Al Jazeera’s Lucia Newman, reporting from Rio, said the group’s aim remains clear.

“The BRICS goal is to exert pressure for a multipolar world with inclusive global governance to give a meaningful voice to the Global South, especially in the trading system,” she said.

“It’s not super organised, nor does it have a radical global impact,” Newman added. “The real question is, can an expanded BRICS whose members have very different political systems and priorities form a sufficiently unified bloc to have any significant impact?”

Ukraine’s Security Service said it deployed special drones to attack the Russian Kirovske military airfield in Crimea.

Ukraine said it carried out an overnight drone strike on the Kirovske airfield in Crimea and claimed that multiple Russian helicopters and an air defence system were destroyed in the strike.

According to a Ukraine Security Service (SBU) statement, the drones targeted areas where Russian aviation units, air defence assets, ammunition depots and unmanned aerial vehicles were located. The agency claimed that Mi-8, Mi-26, and Mi-28 helicopters, as well as a Pantsir-S1 missile and gun system were destroyed.

“Secondary detonations continued throughout the night at the airfield,” the SBU said, calling the strike part of broader efforts to disrupt Russian aerial operations. “The enemy must understand that expensive military equipment and ammunition are not safe anywhere – not on the line of contact, not in Crimea, and not deep in the rear.”

The Russian defence ministry said more than 40 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight and Saturday morning over Crimea.

At the same time, Ukrainian officials said two people were killed and 14 others were wounded during a Russian drone strike on the port city of Odesa.

Odesa Governor Oleg Kiper said on Telegram that those who were killed were due to a drone strike on a “residential building”. Among the 14 injured, “three of them children”, Kiper added.

The governor of the southern Kherson region, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that one person was killed and three others were wounded in Russian strikes during the past day.

“Russian troops targeted critical and social infrastructure and residential areas in the region,” Prokudin added.

Territorial gains

Amid the latest attacks, Russia’s defence ministry said it had taken control of the settlement of Chervona Zirka in the eastern Donetsk region, which Moscow has claimed is part of Russia since an illegal election in late 2022.

After direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkiye this month to end the war, which began in 2022, both sides were unable to come to a mutual understanding.

Moscow has said any territory taken during the war must be retained. Kyiv has staunchly rejected any peace proposal that calls for it to give up land to Russia.

On Friday, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that the two countries’ demands were “absolutely contradictory”.

“That’s why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together,” Putin said at a press conference in Minsk, Belarus. He added that the two sides would “continue further contact” after prisoner exchanges agreed at the Istanbul talks had been completed.

Russia and Ukraine have conducted several prisoner-of-war swaps since agreeing to free more than 1,000 captured soldiers.

Waves of Russian missile and drone strikes have killed at least 15 people and injured 116 others, with most of the casualties in Kyiv, Ukrainian officials have reported.

The massive aerial assault overnight into Tuesday struck 27 locations in the Ukrainian capital, damaging residential buildings and critical infrastructure, according to Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko.

Ukrainian officials were quick to call for international attention on the attacks as Kyiv pushes diplomatic efforts to raise pressure on Moscow to agree a ceasefire.

“Today, the enemy spared neither drones nor missiles,” Klymenko said, describing the attack as one of the largest against Kyiv since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

Thirty apartments were destroyed in a single residential block, and emergency services were searching through the rubble for possible survivors, Klymenko added.

People were injured in Kyiv’s Sviatoshynskyi and Solomianskyi districts, and fires broke out in two other parts of the city, according to Mayor Vitali Klitschko.

‘Total disrespect’

Klitschko also noted that a United States citizen died from shrapnel wounds.

The Russian strikes, which lasted throughout the night, came as world leaders met in Canada for the Group of Seven (G7) summit.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is due to attend the talks on Tuesday.

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha suggested the “massive and brutal strike” against Kyiv was deliberately timed, in particular painting it as an insult to US President Donald Trump.

“Putin does this on purpose, just during the G7 summit. He sends a signal of total disrespect to the United States and other partners who have called for an end to the killing,” he wrote on social media.

Zelenskyy is seeking to persuade Trump to extend support to Ukraine and put additional pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree a ceasefire.

Sybiha suggested the Russian president wanted to make G7 leaders “appear weak”.

“Only strong steps and real pressure on Moscow can prove him wrong,” the diplomat added.

Zelenskyy called the overnight strikes “one of the most horrific attacks” carried out by Moscow and declared that Putin “does this solely because he can afford to continue the war”.

Little progress

Pressed by Trump, Russia and Ukraine have held two rounds of direct talks over a truce but have made little progress with the exception of agreeing prisoner exchanges and the return of bodies.

In the meantime, Russia has increased its bombardments since a daring operation by Ukraine deep inside Russia on June 1 destroyed much of Moscow’s heavy bomber fleet.

In its latest attacks, Russia used 175 drones and more than 14 cruise missiles, Kyiv’s authorities said on Telegram.

Officials in Odesa said 13 people had been injured in further attacks on the Black Sea port city.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday that its air defence units had intercepted and destroyed 147 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory.

While Ukraine is pressing for support from the West to help it maintain its air defences, Russia is suspected of sourcing arms from China, Iran and North Korea.

Reflecting Moscow’s growing ties with Pyongyang, Putin’s top security adviser, Sergei Shoigu, was reported by Russian state media to have arrived in the North Korean capital on Tuesday for talks with leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea is suspected of supplying Russia with ballistic missiles, antitank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition while thousands of its soldiers are reported to have died during operations to oust occupying Ukrainian troops from Russia’s border region of Kursk.

It is the second time that Shoigu has visited North Korea in less than two weeks, and it is seen as a sign that Moscow and Pyongyang are continuing to deepen their alliance. Kim and Putin signed a strategic partnership treaty last year, including a mutual defence pact.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Swarms of Russian kamikaze drones broke through Ukrainian air defence fire early on Tuesday, screeching and shrilling over Kyiv in one of the largest wartime attacks.

Oleksandra Yaremchuk, who lives in the Ukrainian capital, said the hours-long sound of two or perhaps three drones above her house felt new and alarming.

“This horrible buzz is the sound of death, it makes you feel helpless and panicky,” the 38-year-old bank clerk told Al Jazeera, describing her sleepless night in the northern district of Obolon. “This time I heard it in stereo and in Dolby surround,” she quipped.

Back in 2022, she crisscrossed duct tape over her apartment’s windows to avoid being hit by glass shards and spent most of the night in a shaky chair in her hallway.

This week’s Russian attack involved seven missiles and 315 drones – real, explosive-laden ones as well as cheaper decoys that distract and exhaust Ukraine’s air defence, Kyiv’s officials said.

The assault was the third since Ukraine’s June 1 sting to destroy Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers on four airstrips, including those in the Arctic and Siberia.

The wave of attacks also showed Russia’s tactics of overwhelming Ukrainian air defence units with the sheer number of targets that approach from different directions.

“The drones have been evolving for a while, now [the Russians] use massiveness,” Andrey Pronin, one of Ukraine’s drone warfare pioneers who runs a school for drone pilots in Kyiv, told Al Jazeera.

The attack mostly targeted Kyiv, killing one woman, wounding four civilians, damaging buildings in seven districts and causing fires that shrouded predawn Kyiv in rancid smoke.

It damaged the Saint Sophia Cathedral, Ukraine’s oldest, whose construction began a millennium ago after the conversion of Kyivan Rus, a medieval superpower that gave birth to today’s Ukraine, Russia and Belarus.

The onslaught also hit the southern city of Odesa, killing two civilians, wounding nine and striking a maternity ward in the Black Sea port that lies close to annexed Crimea and lacks Kyiv’s Western air defence systems.

‘The Russians learn, every time, after each flight’

The Russia-Ukraine war triggered the evolution of drones that already rewrote the playbook of warfare globally.

While Kyiv focuses on pinpointed strikes on Russian military infrastructure, oil refineries, airstrips and transport hubs, some observers believe Moscow deliberately chooses to strike civilian areas to terrify average Ukrainians – and perfects the strikes’ lethality.

“Of course, [Russians] learn, every time, after each flight. They make conclusions, they review how they flew, where mobile [Ukrainian air defence] groups were,” Pronin said.

To save pricey United States-made anti-drone missiles, Ukraine employs “mobile air defence units” that use truck-mounted machineguns often operated by women and stationed on the outskirts of urban centres.

The Russians “used to fly the drones in twos, now they fly in threes,” Pronin said about the Iranian-made Shahed drones and their modified Russian Geran versions that carry up to 90 kilogrammes of explosives.

Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher with Germany’s Bremen University, named three factors that contribute to the harrowing efficiency of recent drone attacks.

Firstly, the number of Russian drones rose dramatically, requiring more air defence power and, most importantly, more ammunition, he told Al Jazeera.

“The latter causes most problems, and after three massive attacks within a week, their number possibly didn’t simply suffice,” he said.

Earlier this week, the White House diverted 20,000 advanced anti-drone missiles intended for Ukraine to Washington’s allies in the Middle East.

Secondly, the Geran (“Geranium”) drones “evolve” and fly more than five kilometres above the ground at a height unreachable to firearms and many surface-to-air missiles, Mitrokhin said.

These days, Gerans have a range of 900km (660 miles) and are linked to their operators via satellite, US-made Starlink terminals smuggled into Russia or even hacked SIM cards of Ukrainian cellphone operators, according to Ukrainian officials and intelligence.

A Russian plant in the Volga River city of Yelabuga started manufacturing Gerans in 2023 and now churns out some 170 of them daily.

Thirdly, Russia uses more decoy drones that waste air defence ammunition, Mitrokhin said.

Therefore, Kyiv “needs massive amounts of drones that could quickly gain the height of five to six kilometres, locate flying Gerans and their analogues and shoot them down”, he said.

Instead, Ukrainian forces have focused on long-distance strike drones such as Lytyi (“Fierce”) that have hit military and naval bases, oil depots, arms factories and metallurgical plants in western Russia, he said.

“Now, Ukraine needs to quickly change its strategy and produce 5,000-10,000 high-flying drone hunters a month. Which is not easy,” he concluded.

‘I felt the return of what we all felt in 2022’

Russia’s attacks underscore Washington’s failure to start the peace settlement of Europe’s largest armed conflict since 1945.

The attacks “drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram, hours after Tuesday’s attack.

US President Donald Trump pledged to end Russia’s war on Ukraine “in 24 hours,” but his administration’s diplomatic efforts yielded no results.

Despite occasional criticism of the Kremlin’s warfare in Ukraine, Trump prefers not to use the White House’s diplomatic and economic arsenal to force Russia to start a peace settlement or even a 30-day ceasefire that Kyiv proposed.

While Washington continued to supply US military aid in accordance with the commitments of President Joe Biden’s administration, Trump’s cabinet did not pledge to provide any additional arms or ammunition shipments.

“This administration takes a very different view of that conflict,” US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a congressional hearing on Tuesday.

“We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe,” he said, without specifying the extent of cuts.

Trump’s policies leave many Ukrainians reeling.

“He single-handedly lost the Cold War to Putin,” Valerii Omelchenko, a retired police officer in central Kyiv told Al Jazeera. “I honestly can’t fathom how one can be so indecisive and cowardly towards Russia.”

The horror of drone attacks, however, helps further unite Ukrainians, he said.

“In the morning, I felt the return of what we all felt in 2022, when we were treating total strangers like family, asking them how they were, trying to help them,” he said.

Ukrainian air force says Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones in overnight assault.

At least five people have been killed and more than 20 wounded as Russia launched a barrage of missiles, drones and bombs across Ukraine, officials said.

The Ukrainian air force said on Saturday that Russia struck with 215 missiles and drones overnight, and Ukrainian air defences shot down and neutralised 87 drones and seven missiles.

At least three people were killed and 17 others, including two children, were wounded in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, describing the assault as “the most powerful” on the city since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

He reported 48 Iranian-made drones, two missiles and four guided bombs were fired before dawn at the city of 1.4 million people, located just 50km (30 miles) from the Russian border.

“Drones are still circling above,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram at 4:40am (01:40 GMT), as air raid sirens wailed across the city. Residential buildings and civilian infrastructure were heavily damaged.

The northeastern city was also hit by a missile strike on Thursday that left 18 people injured, including four children.

Surge in attacks

Elsewhere in the south, Russian shelling hit the city of Kherson, killing a couple and damaging residential buildings, regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin confirmed. In Dnipro, two women, aged 45 and 88, were injured in separate attacks.

Officials said on Friday that at least six people were killed and dozens were wounded on Friday when Russia launched an aerial bombardment across Ukraine. Rescue workers in the city of Lutsk on Saturday recovered another body, raising the toll from Friday’s attacks to seven.

Moscow said Friday’s assault was carried out in response to Ukrainian “terrorist acts” against Russia, saying military sites were targeted.

The surge in Russian attacks follows a Ukrainian drone operation last weekend that damaged nuclear-capable military aircraft at Russian airbases deep behind the front lines, including in Siberia. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged to retaliate for the attack, which Kyiv reportedly planned for 18 months using smuggled drones.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continues to push for a 30-day ceasefire and presented its latest proposal during talks in Istanbul on Monday. But Moscow has rejected calls for a truce, insisting the war is a matter of national survival.

“For us, it is an existential issue,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Friday. “It concerns our national interest, our safety, and the future of our country.”

Putin has demanded Ukraine withdraw from four partially occupied regions, abandon its NATO ambitions and halt all Western military cooperation – terms Kyiv has dismissed as unacceptable. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has instead called for a three-way summit involving himself, Putin and United States President Donald Trump.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has called on the US to apply more pressure on Russia to end its three-year-old war on Ukraine.

“You know that we gave support to Ukraine and that we are looking for more pressure on Russia,” Merz told US President Donald Trump at the start of their meeting on Thursday at the Oval Office.

Merz emphasised that Germany “was on the side of Ukraine”, while Trump likened the war to a fight between two young children who hated each other.

“Sometimes, you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart,” Trump said. He added that he had relayed that analogy to Russian President Vladimir Putin in their phone conversation on Wednesday.

Asked about Trump’s comments as the two leaders sat next to each other, Merz stressed that both he and Trump agreed “on this war and how terrible this war is going on,” pointing to the US president as the “key person in the world” who would be able to stop the bloodshed.

Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said that, while the two men agreed that the war needed to end, how that happens “seems to be a point of contention”.

“What we saw there was the German chancellor suggesting and pointing out that … Russia continues to hit back at civilian targets, whereas, when it comes to Ukraine, the focus in the eyes of Germany has been strictly on military targets inside Russia,” she said from Washington, DC.

Halkett added that Trump revealed during the meeting that he “implored the Russian president not to retaliate for that attack that took place over the weekend … and Vladimir Putin said he was going to attack regardless.”

A ‘decent’ relationship

Thursday’s meeting marked the first time that the two leaders sat down in person. After exchanging pleasantries – Merz gave Trump a gold-framed birth certificate of the US president’s grandfather, Friedrich Trump, who immigrated from Germany – the two leaders were to discuss issues such as Ukraine, trade and NATO spending.

Trump and Merz have spoken several times by phone, either bilaterally or with other European leaders, since Merz took office on May 6. German officials say the two leaders have started to build a “decent” relationship, with Merz wanting to avoid the antagonism that defined Trump’s relationship with one of his predecessors, Angela Merkel, in the Republican president’s first term.

The 69-year-old Merz, who came to office with an extensive business background, is a conservative former rival of Merkel’s who took over her party after she retired from politics.

Merz has thrown himself into diplomacy on Ukraine, travelling to Kyiv with fellow European leaders days after taking office and receiving Zelenskyy in Berlin last week.

He has thanked Trump for his support for an unconditional ceasefire while rejecting the idea of “dictated peace” or the “subjugation” of Ukraine and advocating for more sanctions against Russia.

In their first phone call since Merz became chancellor, Trump said he would support the efforts of Germany and other European countries to achieve peace, according to a readout from the German government. Merz also said last month that “it is of paramount importance that the political West not let itself be divided, so I will continue to make every effort to produce the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.”

Under Merz’s immediate predecessor, Olaf Scholz, Germany became the second-biggest supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the United States. Merz has promised to keep up the support and last week, pledged to help Ukraine develop its own long-range missile systems that would be free of any imposed range limits.

At home, Merz’s government is intensifying a drive that Scholz started to bolster the German military after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In Trump’s first term, Berlin was a target of his ire for failing to meet the current NATO target of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defence, and Trump is now demanding at least 5 percent from allies.

The White House official said the upcoming NATO summit in the Netherlands later this month is a “good opportunity” for Germany to commit to meeting that 5 percent mark.

During their meeting on Thursday, Trump described Merz as a good representative of Germany and also “difficult,” which he suggested was a compliment. He said US troops would remain in Germany and said it was positive that Berlin was spending more money on defence.

‘Ok with tariffs’

Another top priority for Merz is to get Germany’s economy, Europe’s biggest, moving again after it shrank the past two years. He wants to make it a “locomotive of growth,” but Trump’s tariff threats are a potential obstacle for a country whose exports have been a key strength. At present, the economy is forecast to stagnate in 2025.

Germany exported $160bn worth of goods to the US last year, according to the Census Bureau. That was about $85bn more than what the US sent to Germany, a trade deficit that Trump wants to erase.

“Germany is one of the very big investors in America,” Merz told reporters Thursday morning. “Only a few countries invest more than Germany in the USA. We are in third place in terms of foreign direct investment.”

The United States and the European Union are in talks to reach a trade deal, which would be critical for Germany’s export-heavy economy, but Trump said he would be fine with an agreement or with tariffs.

“We’ll end up hopefully with a trade deal,” Trump said. “I’m OK with the tariffs, or we make a deal with the trade.”

Ukraine has destroyed Russian strategic bombers in an unprecedented undercover drone operation while Russia launched its biggest-yet air raid on Ukraine’s cities and intensified attacks on its northern region of Sumy, when the two sides met for peace talks in Istanbul.

The two respective drone operations were emblematic of how direct peace talks, which began on May 15, have not abated the intensity of the conflict and may have deepened it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly pledged a response.

Russia’s drone-and-missile attack on Saturday night involved 472 Shahed kamikaze drones, four cruise missiles and three ballistic missiles. Ukraine neutralised 385 aerial targets, its air force said, including three of the cruise missiles.

Ukraine’s operation Spiderweb came a day later, and hit the types of planes Russia has used to launch those cruise missiles – Tupolev-22M3, Tupolev-95 and Tupolev-160, among others.

Spiderweb involved 117 drones smuggled into Russia and launched simultaneously near Russian airfields where the bombers were parked.

Video released by Ukraine showed Tu-95s exploding in orange flames as the drones passed over them, demonstrating that their fuel tanks were full and they were in service.

Ukraine’s State Security Service (SBU), which carried out the operation, told Ukrainian media 41 planes were hit, which, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, amounted to “34 percent of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases”. The SBU estimated the damage at $7bn.

Western military analysts and open-source media had not fully corroborated Ukraine’s story by Wednesday, but fires and explosions were reported at five Russian bases.

For the first time, Ukraine claimed to have hit the Olenya airbase in the Russian Arctic, almost 2,000km (1,240 miles) from Ukraine, where all Tu-95 bombers were reported destroyed.

Also reportedly struck were the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, more than 4,000km (2,500 miles) from Ukraine, where three Tu-95 strategic bombers were reported destroyed; the Dyagilevo airbase in Ryazan, only 175km (110 miles) from downtown Moscow; and the Ivanovo airfield, 250km (155 miles) northeast of the Russian capital, where at least one A-50 was destroyed – a $500m airborne radar Russia uses to identify Ukrainian air defence systems and coordinate Russian fighter jet targeting. Fire was reported at a fifth airfield, also near Moscow.

Zelenskyy called it “an absolutely brilliant result, an independent result of Ukraine”, and said it had been “a year, six months and nine days from the start of planning”.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence admitted that “in Murmansk and Irkutsk Regions, as a result of [First Person View] drones launched from an area in close proximity to airfields, several aircraft caught fire,” but that similar attacks were repelled in Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur.

Russia also said “some participants of the terrorist attacks were detained,” although Zelenskyy said “our people who prepared the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory on time.”

“Russia regularly deploys Tu-95 and Tu-22M3 to launch … cruise missiles against Ukraine,” wrote the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a Washington-based think tank, adding, “The downing of Russian A-50 aircraft has previously temporarily constrained Russian aviation activities over Ukraine.”

Russian pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Rybar and Ukrainian military observer Tatarigami said Russia no longer builds chassis for Tu-95s and Tu-22s, making them impossible to replace. Bloomberg reported that Russia’s reliance on sanctioned Western components will keep it from putting even damaged aircraft back into service.

The New York Times estimated Ukraine may have destroyed or damaged 20 aircraft, but it is possible that not all strike video has yet been posted on open-source media.

“If even half the total claim of 41 aircraft damaged/destroyed is confirmed, it will have a significant impact on the capacity of the Russian Long Range Aviation force to keep up its regular large scale cruise missile salvoes against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure,” aviation expert Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute told The New York Times.

The operation “will force Russian officials to consider redistributing Russia’s air defence systems to cover a much wider range of territory”, said the ISW.

Ukraine’s SBU struck again on June 3, damaging the Kerch Bridge, a vital Russian supply line to Crimea, for the third time during the war. Video showed an underwater explosion against one of the bridge’s stanchions, suggesting Ukraine had used an underwater unmanned vehicle.

Moscow denied there was any real damage.

Russia creeps forward

Marring Ukraine’s success was the news of persistent Russian advances.

The most alarming were near the northern city of Sumy, only 30km (20 miles) from the Russian border.

Geolocated footage showed that Russian troops took the villages of Konstyantynivka on the border and Oleksiivka, 4km (2.5 miles) from the border, on Sunday.

By Tuesday, Russian forces were close enough to launch rocket artillery into the city of Sumy, reportedly killing four people and wounding 30.

“Rocket artillery against an ordinary city – the Russians struck right on the street, hitting ordinary residential buildings. Sleazebags,” said Zelenskyy.

On Sunday, Russian troops also appeared to have seized the settlements of Dyliivka and Zorya, north and west of Toretsk in Ukraine’s east.

Geolocated footage indicated that Russian troops had also advanced towards Lyman and Kurakhove, two other key targets in Ukraine’s east.

These gains were part of a slow advance that has gone on for more than a year, but they were signs of Putin’s determination to complete his conquest of Ukraine’s east.

Talks secure another POW exchange

That determination was on display in Istanbul, where Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met on Monday for a second round of peace talks.

Russia presented a ceasefire memorandum that demanded Ukraine formally cede all the territory Russia has taken in Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia and Kherson, plus the parts of those regions it has not yet seized, which could take years to conquer and come at great cost.

Syrskii said Russian casualties this year alone passed the 200,000 mark on Tuesday – a figure Al Jazeera is unable to independently verify.

Russia’s memorandum also demanded a limit to the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, and a commitment that Ukraine will neither join foreign military alliances nor allow foreign troops on its soil.

It also demanded a Ukrainian election within 100 days of signing the ceasefire agreement, underlining Moscow’s desire to replace the pro-Western Zelenskyy in Kyiv.

These demands are consistent with the terms Putin laid out in a speech in June 2024, and Ukrainian negotiators, who had not seen Russia’s memorandum before arriving at the talks at 1pm on Monday, departed after little more than an hour.

The two sides did agree to an exchange of at least 1,000 prisoners of war, and possibly as many as 1,200, prioritising the young (18-25) and wounded. They also agreed to an exchange of 6,000 bodies a side.

They agreed to hold a third round of talks in the last 10 days of June, with Ukraine’s defence minister, Rustem Umerov, suggesting it involve Putin and Zelenskyy, “because decisions can only be made by those who really make decisions”.

Some observers thought it was possible that the two leaders would meet at the first round of talks on May 15, but only Zelenskyy showed up.

“The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime,” explained Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, on his Telegram channel.

“Our army is pushing forward and will continue to advance. Everything that needs to be blown up will be blown up, and those who must be eliminated will be,” he concluded.

More sanctions for Russia?

United States President Donald Trump has refrained from imposing new sanctions on Moscow, but his stance is now losing supporters in the US Congress.

Sidney Blumenthal, a former presidential adviser, and Lindsey Graham said they would this week table legislation imposing 500 percent tariffs on any country that imports oil, gas and uranium from Russia. Graham called it “the most draconian bill I’ve ever seen in my life in the Senate.”

They made the announcement after a weekend trip to Kyiv and a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris.

“What I learned on this trip was he’s preparing for more war,” Graham said of Putin.

The bill would target China and India, which account for the bulk of Russian energy exports, totalling 233bn euros ($266bn) last year, according to a BBC investigation.

But it could theoretically include European Union members, who spent a reported 23bn euros ($26bn) on Russian oil and gas last year.

A number of EU members sought exceptions from Russian oil bans in early 2023, and the EU has never banned Russian gas, though it has almost completely stopped importing it.

June 4 (UPI) — North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said he would “unconditionally support” Russia’s war against Ukraine, state-run media reported Thursday, in the latest sign of growing military ties between the two countries.

Kim made the remark during a meeting Wednesday with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu in Pyongyang, the official Korean Central News Agency said.

The North Korean leader “affirmed that the government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea would … unconditionally support the stand of Russia and its foreign policies in all the crucial international political issues including the Ukrainian issue,” KCNA said, using the official name of North Korea.

Pyongyang sent over 11,000 troops to Russia in 2024, and another 3,000 in the early months of this year, a report from the 11-country Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team said last week.

North Korea acknowledged sending the troops for the first time in April, claiming they helped recapture lost territory in Kursk Province from Ukrainian forces.

Shoigu “conveyed the special thanks of the Russian leadership for the matchless heroism and self-sacrificing spirit displayed by the Korean people’s excellent sons who participated in the operations for liberating the Kursk area,” KCNA said.

The North Korean troops “defended the precious part of the Russian territory as they would do their own motherland, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Russian soldiers in the same trench,” Shoigu, the former Defense Minister, added.

In addition to troops, the North has shipped as many as 9 million rounds of mixed artillery and multiple rocket launcher ammunition and at least 100 ballistic missiles, according to the MSMT report.

Pyongyang’s military assistance has “contributed to Moscow’s ability to increase its missile attacks against Ukrainian cities including targeted strikes against critical civilian infrastructure,” the MSMT said.

South Korea, the United States and its allies believe North Korea is receiving advanced weapons technology and economic assistance in return.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Kim “expressed expectation and conviction that Russia would, as ever, surely win victory in the just and sacred cause for defending its national sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests.”

US President Donald Trump says Russia’s Vladimir Putin is ‘playing with fire’ and Russia has so far been shielded from ‘really bad things’.

A senior Moscow security official has rebuked United States President Donald Trump and raised the danger of another world war breaking out after Trump said Russian leader Vladimir Putin was “playing with fire” by refusing to engage in Ukraine ceasefire talks with Kyiv.

Dmitry Medvedev said World War III was the only “REALLY BAD thing” in a response, late on Tuesday, to Trump, who had earlier posted a message to Putin on social media saying that “really bad things would have already happened in Russia” without his intervention.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realise is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened in Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire,” Trump said in a post on his platform Truth Social.

Medvedev responded on the platform X: “Regarding Trump’s words about Putin ‘playing with fire’ and ‘really bad things’ happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.”

“I hope Trump understands this!”

Regarding Trump’s words about Putin “playing with fire” and “really bad things” happening to Russia. I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII.
I hope Trump understands this!

— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) May 27, 2025

Currently the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and a key Putin ally, Medvedev served as the Russian president between 2008 and 2012, and is known for his sabre-rattling comments.

He has repeatedly warned throughout the course of Russia’s war on Ukraine that Moscow could use its nuclear arsenal.

Putin also raised the possibility of nuclear confrontation in a state of the nation address in March 2024, warning Western powers of Russia’s nuclear capabilities should any decide to deploy troops in support of Ukraine.

“Everything that the West comes up with creates the real threat of a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons, and thus the destruction of civilisation,” Putin said at the time.

Medvedev’s public rebuke of Trump also comes after the US president said in a post on Sunday that Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by carrying out extensive aerial attacks on Ukraine despite widespread calls for a ceasefire and Washington’s frustrated attempts to broker a peace accord.

“I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him,” Trump posted on Sunday.

Trump also told reporters he was considering new sanctions on Russia amid the impasse in ceasefire talks.

The war of words on social media comes as hopes for a swift end to Russia’s war on its neighbour dim. Kyiv suffered another battlefield setback on Tuesday, with Russian forces capturing four villages in Ukraine’s northeastern Sumy region.

Sumy Governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote on Facebook that the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been occupied by Russia, although residents had long been evacuated.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said on Monday that it had also taken the nearby village of Bilovody, implying a further advance into Ukrainian territory, as the more than three-year war grinds on.

Ukrainian officials have said for weeks that Russian troops are trying to make inroads into the Sumy region, the main city of which lies less than 30km (19 miles) from the border with Russia.

Russian forces, attacking in small groups on motorcycles and supported by aerial drones, have been widening the area where they have been carrying out assaults on the front line, a spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guard service said.

Ukrainian forces last year used the Sumy region as a launchpad to push into Russia’s neighbouring Kursk region, where they captured a vast area of territory before being driven out by Russian forces last month.