Ukraine war briefing: Three million shells coming from our allies, says Zelenskyy
Ukraine hopes to receive 3m artillery shells from allies and partners in 2025 including 1.8m under a Czech-led programme, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in Prague on Sunday. 'The Czech artillery initiative is working brilliantly,' the Ukrainian president said. Prague steers a European drive to supply artillery ammunition to Ukraine, financed largely by Nato allies. 'Not only North Korea is capable of helping [Russia] in the war – we have allies who are helping Ukraine,' Zelenskyy said in comments reported by the Kyiv Independent.
Zelenskyy added there would be a meeting on Monday with 'Czech defence companies', with details to be announced later. Discussions were under way for a Ukrainian-Czech pilot training school for F16 fighter jets, which could not be established in Ukraine 'due to current security concerns'.
Zelenskyy spoke alongside Petr Pavel, president of the Czech Republic and a former Nato general, who said that 'Putin can end the war with a single decision but he has not shown any willingness so far'. The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, and the speakers of both parliament chambers said they would meet Zelenskyy in Prague on Monday.
Ukrainian forces struck an electrical equipment factory in Russia's Bryansk region close to the border with Ukraine, destroying much of the plant, said the local governor, Alexander Bogomaz. Ukraine said the factory specialised in the production of electronics for Russia's defence industry. 'According to preliminary information, the Strela factory in Suzemka, Bryansk region, is no longer operational following the strike,' said Andriy Kovalenko, head of the government's Centre for Countering Disinformation. Mash, a Telegram channel with links to Russia's security services, said the factory produced electrical equipment and was hit by a Grad rocket system.
Air defence destroyed four Ukrainian drones flying towards Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital said early on Monday.
Zelenskyy said on Sunday that he did not believe Putin would adhere to a self-declared three-day truce to coincide with Russia's 'victory day' celebrations on 9 May. 'This is not the first challenge, nor are these the first promises made by Russia to cease fire. We understand who we are dealing with, we do not believe them.' Citing a military report, he said Russia had carried out more than 200 attacks on Saturday, 'so there is no faith [in them]'. Zelenskyy said, though, that a ceasefire with Russia was possible at any moment and called on Kyiv's allies to apply greater pressure on Moscow otherwise Putin would take no real steps to end the war.
The Guardian's Shaun Walker has investigated how Moscow is using 'disposable people' recruited online to carry out sabotage, arson and disinformation campaigns in Europe – sometimes against specific targets related to support for the Ukrainian war effort, but more often simply to cause chaos and unease. While some know exactly what they are doing and why, others do not realise they are ultimately working for Moscow.
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, said in comments broadcast on Sunday said that the need to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine had not arisen, and that he hoped it would not, writes Angelique Chrisafis. Putin said Russia could bring the conflict in Ukraine to what he called a 'logical conclusion … There has been no need to use those [nuclear] weapons … and I hope they will not be required.'
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The Independent
43 minutes ago
- The Independent
Dozens of Russian warplanes destroyed in Ukrainian drone attack, claims Kyiv
Dozens of Russian military aircraft have been destroyed in an unprecedented Ukrainian drone attack on military airfields deep inside Russia, Kyiv has said. The so-called 'Spider Web' operation, carried out by Ukraine's SBU security service, saw drones smuggled thousands of kilometres into Russian territory using lorries, before they were unleashed to destroy more than 40 warplanes, the SBU said. Russia confirmed that Ukraine attacked airfields across five regions, 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,' Moscow's defence ministry said. Vladimir Putin will be 'infuriated' by the 'unprecedented' attack if it is as damaging as Kyiv claims, Russia expert John Lough told The Independent, describing it as a 'huge win' for Ukraine that will boost morale within the military. 'It's an embarrassment [for Russia]. It's just another humiliation at a moment where Putin is very keen to show the Americans in particular that Ukraine is losing, and [that] it's only a matter of time before the Russians roll them over,' said Mr Lough, head of foreign policy at the New Eurasian Strategies Centre. Around 18 months in the planning, Ukraine says the operation 'Spider Web' appears to have dealt a heavy blow to the aircraft used by Russian forces to launch long-range strikes on Ukrainian cities, including Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers. The attack came hours after Russian forces launched the biggest overnight air attack on Ukraine since its full-scale invasion three years ago, according to Kyiv's air force, which said 472 drones and seven missiles were fired. Volodymyr Zelensky also confirmed on Sunday that he would send a delegation for direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, despite Moscow's refusal to heed Kyiv's calls for it to provide a promised memorandum setting out its demands for a ceasefire before the talks. The talks will begin at 10am UK time (1pm local time), a Turkish source said. One of the Russian air bases struck by Ukraine in the Irkutsk region is more than 4,000 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, an SBU source told The Kyiv Independent. 'This is unprecedented. They haven't been able to hit this number of aircraft on this scale, going to those regions of the country,' Mr Lough said. 'To go out to east Siberia is absolutely phenomenal.' Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst for the Black Bird Group, told The Independent that, if the scale of damage is verified, the attack is 'really, really significant'. Explosive-laden drones were hidden in the roofs of wooden sheds, which were then loaded onto trucks and driven to the perimeter of the air bases, according to a Ukrainian security official and images online. The roof panels of the sheds were lifted off by a remotely-activated mechanism, allowing the drones to fly out and begin their attack, the official said. The operation does not appear to have gone entirely to plan, Mr Kastehelmi said, explaining that it is 'very likely' that one or two of the trucks carrying the drones into Russia exploded before they could reach their targets. Meanwhile, seven people were killed and dozens injured after huge explosions caused two bridges to collapse and derailed two trains in western Russia overnight, officials said Sunday, without saying what had caused the blasts. The first bridge, in the Bryansk region on the border with Ukraine, collapsed on top of a passenger train on Saturday, causing casualties. The train's driver was among those killed, state-run Russian Railways said. Hours later, officials said a second train derailed when the bridge beneath it collapsed in the nearby Kursk region, which also borders Ukraine. Russia's Investigative Committee, the country's top criminal investigation agency, said explosions had caused the two bridges to collapse without giving more detail. Several hours later, it edited the statement to remove the words "explosions", but did not explain why.
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Hopes fade for Russia-Ukraine peace talks without Putin's conditions
Prospects for progress at a second round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Turkey on Monday are looking slim after President Zelensky accused Moscow of failing to take them seriously. Delegates from the two warring states are due to meet in Istanbul to discuss a potential ceasefire that would halt their three-year fight, instigated by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. However, Zelensky, Ukraine's leader, said in his evening address on Saturday that Kyiv had no clarity on Russia's position as Moscow had not fulfilled an agreement to hand over a memorandum outlining its conditions before the talks. 'We don't have it, Turkey doesn't have it, the United States doesn't have it, and neither do our other partners,' Zelensky said. 'At this point, it looks far from serious.' Zelensky added that rather than stepping down a road to peace, Russia was intensifying its assaults on Ukrainian territory. He urged the United States to adopt new sanctions on Moscow 'to help bring peace closer'. On Sunday, Zelensky said that Kyiv's chief demands in Istanbul would be a ceasefire, the release of more prisoners and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia. He repeated his call for a personal summit with Putin and other leaders. • Russia and Ukraine held their first direct talks since 2022 in Istanbul on May 16 and agreed a '1,000 for 1,000' prisoner swap — completed last weekend — as well as pledging to produce memos on their demands for a ceasefire, and continue talks. Rustem Umerov, Ukraine's defence minister, said that Kyiv had already passed Moscow its own memo, urging Russia to follow suit and 'stop efforts to make the meeting destructive'. '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,' Ukraine's foreign ministry added. In response, the Kremlin said that it was Russia that had proposed the new talks in Turkey and that Kyiv is 'demanding something immediately is not constructive'. Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said Moscow's delegation would present its memorandum at the negotiating table in Istanbul and 'provide the necessary clarifications'. Over the weekend, President Trump's special envoy, Keith Kellogg, renewed the criticism of Moscow for failing to supply a draft to the US in advance. 'We cannot get the Russians' conditions,' he told Fox News. 'We still haven't gotten them. They promised Trump, Putin promised that he would have it in a week. A week later, they didn't show up.' Meanwhile, President Putin's agenda for ending the war includes a written pledge by Nato not to accept more Eastern European members, lifting of some sanctions, and Ukraine's neutral status, the Reuters news agency reported. Several Nato staffers and diplomats familiar with the talks told Radio Free Europe that there are no active discussions in the alliance about Moscow's demand for a written commitment not to expand further to the east, suggesting Putin's proposal would be given short shrift. Kellogg, however, said that Moscow's concern over Nato enlargement is 'fair' and Ukraine's accession to the alliance is 'not on the table'.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Nato should prepare to be attacked by Putin warns Germany's defence chief – amid growing WWIII fears after Ukraine drones blitzed doomsday bombers worth billions in 'Russia's Pearl Harbour'
Germany 's defence chief has starkly warned that NATO should be prepared for a possible attack by Russia in the next four years. General Carsten Breuer told the BBC that Russia poses a 'very serious threat' to the Western defence bloc, the likes of which he has never seen in his 40-year military career.' The stark warning comes amid one of Ukraine's most audacious attacks, in which it used a swarm of kamikaze drones unleashed from the backs of trucks to devastate billions of dollars worth of equipment at two of Russia's most major airfields. Breuer pointed to the massive increase in Vladimir Putin's armoury and ammunitions stock, including a massive output of 1,500 main battle tanks every year as well as the four million rounds of 152mm artillery munition produced in 2024 alone. Breuer said that not all of these additional military equipment was going to Ukraine, which signalled a possible building up of capabilities that could be used against the NATO bloc, adding that Baltic states were at a particularly high risk of being attacked. 'There's an intent and there's a build up of the stocks' for a possible future attack on Nato's Baltic state members, he said. 'This is what the analysts are assessing - in 2029. So we have to be ready by 2029... If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that's not earlier than 2029? I would say no, it's not. So we must be able to fight tonight,' he said. Breuer said that the Suwalki Gap, a region that borders Lithuania, Poland, Russia and Belarus, was particularly vulnerable to Russian military activity. Military vehicles and soldiers parade through Red Square as part of the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War at Red Square in Moscow, Russia on May 9, 2025 'The Baltic States are really exposed to the Russians, right? And once you are there, you really feel this... in the talks we are having over there,' he said. The Estonians, he said, had given the analogy of being close to a wildfire where they 'feel the heat, see the flames and smell the smoke', while in Germany 'you probably see a little bit of smoke over the horizon and not more'. Earlier this week, David Petraeus, a respected former US general and CIA chief, claimed Lithuania would be most at risk to an attack from Russia. He said Russia could launch an incursion into that Baltic state to test Western resolve or as a precursor to a wider offensive. Breuer urged fellow NATO nations to build up their militaries again, following a long period of demilitarisation across dozens of nations. 'What we have to do now is really to lean in and to tell everybody, hey, ramp up... get more into it because we need it. We need it to be able to defend ourselves and therefore also to build up deterrence', he said. But with NATO apparently falling apart, amid a surge of distrust between each of its member states, Breuer was quick to allay fears that NATO wouldn't be cohesive enough to fight Russia. He pointed to Finland and Sweden's ascension into the bloc: 'I've never seen such a unity like it is now' among nations and military leaders. 'All of them understand the threat that is at the moment approaching Nato, all understand that we have to develop a direction of deterrence, into the direction of collective defence. This is clear to everyone. The urgency is seen.' NATO members Hungary and Slovakia have, since Russia invaded Ukraine, have developed closer relations with Putin, in many instances using their powers in groups like the EU and NATO to push the dictator's agenda. And US president Donald Trump, who commands the largest military in the bloc, has consistently sided with Putin on military matters, especially when it comes to NATO. Just yesterday his envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, declared that Russia's historic feud with NATO were 'fair.' Asked by ABC News about a Reuters report that Russia wanted a written pledge over NATO not enlarging eastwards to include Ukraine and other former Soviet republics, Kellogg said: 'It's a fair concern.' 'We've said that to us, Ukraine coming into NATO is not on the table, and we're not the only country that says that'. Shortly before Breuer's comments, Ukraine launched one of its most audacious attacks of the war using a 'swarm' of kamikaze drones unleashed from the backs of trucks to devastate two of Russia's most major airfields. Dubbed 'Operation Spiderweb', the co-ordinated strikes have left Vladimir Putin humiliated and his prized warplanes in smouldering ruins, though Moscow has claimed to have 'repelled' all the attacks. Two remote military airfields, Olenya in the Arctic Murmansk region and Belaya in eastern Siberia, were rocked by massive explosions overnight, with dramatic footage showing fires raging for hours. The bases, located thousands of miles from Ukraine, are key to Russia's nuclear strike capability and were considered untouchable. Yet Ukraine appears to have struck them with deadly precision, using first-person-view (FPV) drones launched from unmarked vans parked near the airfields. Both are thousands of miles from Ukraine but were 'under drone attack', with dozens of Moscow 's nuclear capable warplanes evidently destroyed. The Russian army launched a combined strike on the Dniprovskyi district of Kherson, Ukraine Olenya airbase is home to Russia 's ageing fleet of Tu-95 'Bear' bombers - used both for conventional missile strikes and capable of launching nuclear weapons against the West. Several of the aircraft were reportedly left exposed in the open, despite repeated Ukrainian attacks on similar facilities. Ablaze, too, was Belaya nuclear airbase in eastern Siberia's Irkutsk region - some 2,900 miles from Ukraine. More alarmingly, the strikes have triggered frenzied calls within Russia's military circles for a nuclear response. 'Disabling strategic aircraft gives Russia the right to use nuclear weapons,' declared pro-Kremlin war analyst Vladislav Pozdnyakov. 'Let me remind you.' Russia's nuclear doctrine allows for a nuclear response in the event of an attack on 'critical government or military infrastructure'. In particular, 'an enemy attack that disrupts the operation of nuclear forces, threatening Russia's ability to respond' could lead to Putin ordering an atomic strike. Ukraine's SBU secret service was reportedly conducting a large-scale special operation to destroy Russian bombers. The Ukrainian media claimed more than 40 Putin aircraft had been hit, including Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and A-50 strategic bombers. The damage to the enemy was alleged to exceed £1.5billion. A driver of a truck filled with drones that attacked Olenegorsk in Murmansk 'may not have known about the cargo', said a report. According to Baza media, the driver has been detained. 'A truck stopped at a gas station at the entrance to the city… drones started flying out of the back of the truck and then attacked various objects,' said a report. A similar account was heard from Siberia but there are no official comments yet. This video grab from a handout footage released by Russia's emergency ministry on June 1, 2025 shows specialists working at the scene after a road bridge collapsed onto a railway line late on May 31, 2025 The overnight collapse of two bridges in Russian regions bordering Ukraine that killed seven people were caused by explosions Ukraine's Pravda Gerashchenko Telegram channel said: 'A special operation 'Web' is being conducted to demilitarise Russia. 'The [SBU] report the destruction of Russian bomber aircraft behind enemy lines. ' In particular, the destruction of more than 40 aircraft, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M3.' The audacious strike was described as 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' and the 'blackest day in aviation' for the country by pro-Putin Telegram channels. Russia's ministry of defence said in a Telegram post that Ukraine had carried out a 'terrorist attack' in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur. It claimed that all of the attacks were 'repelled', adding: 'As a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several pieces of aviation equipment caught fire.'
