Russian soldiers handed $200,000 for downing F-16
Russian soldiers have been awarded almost $200,000 for shooting down a US-donated F-16 fighter jet in Ukraine.
Twelve servicemen received the prize from Russian oil giant Forse, who offered the bounty last year, in a ceremony on the border attended by commanders.
'Fores has delivered on its earlier promise to transfer 15 million rubles to members of the Russian Armed Forces for downing the first F-16 in the special military operation zone,' the company said.
'Twelve servicemen involved in downing the target received money certificates,' it added, saying the ceremony took place on May 29.
The rewards are part of a wider strategy to incentivise Russians to go above and beyond in destroying Western equipment.
Ukraine views the supply of F-15 and F-16 jets as a crucial weapon to protect Ukrainian air space. Kyiv is reported to have lost three F-16s following the US approving deliveries last summer.
Russia launched a gruelling assault on Ukraine's Kharkiv region overnight
US will prevent Ukraine joining Nato as Russia's demands are fair, Trump envoy Kellogg said
US told Putin: take the deal or we walk
Russia has still refused to share its peace memorandum with Ukraine
As a result, Kyiv's attendance at the June 2 peace talks is still uncertain
Zelensky refused to comment on whether Germany will send Taurus missiles to Ukraine
Kremlin is 'considering' three-way meeting with Zelensky, Trump and Putin
Britain will attend the next Russia-Ukraine talks
Macron said Trump faces a 'credibility test' over Russia stalling peace talks
Ukraine on today resisted pressure from Moscow and Washington to commit itself to attending peace talks with Russia on June 2, saying it first needed to see the proposals Russian negotiators plan to bring to the talks.
'We are ready for dialogue, but we demand clarity - clear and, most importantly, balanced proposals,' the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak said.
There has been days of uncertainty over whether Kyiv would attend the further meeting proposed by Moscow in Istanbul.
Ukrainian officials have insisted that the Kremlin provide its proposed peace settlement in advance of the talks, which Moscow has refused to do.
Expectations for the talks are modest because the positions staked out so far by the two sides are far apart and work between them has yet to begin in earnest on narrowing the gap.
Emmanuel Macron has warned China to stop North Korea from sending forces to help Russia in Ukraine if it wants to avoid Nato expanding its role in Asia.
'If China doesn't want NATO being involved in Southeast Asia or in Asia, they should prevent DPRK to be engaged on European soil,' the French president said at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore.
Vladimir Medinsky will lead Russia's delegation during potential peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.
Medinsky, an aide to Vladimir Putin and historian, also led the delegation earlier this month.
Ukraine is yet to confirm whether it will attend.
Who is Vladimir Medinsky?
An ultranationalist populist historian, he is alleged to have ghostwritten a number of the Russian president's 'academic' articles, including his famous essay of 2021 that provided the rationale for the full-scale invasion of Ukraine the following year.
It questioned Ukraine's right to exist as a separate entity, arguing that Ukrainians and Russians were one people and that the US had turned Ukraine into an anti-Russia.
He also co-authored a history textbook now in use in all Russian schools that claimed Ukraine was an 'ultranationalist state' where 'opposition is forbidden' and that the West had used it as a 'battering ram' to destroy Russia.
The book also presents Joseph Stalin as a wise leader who improved the lives of ordinary people and justified the deaths of the millions of Russians and Ukrainians who fell foul of him, saying they got what was coming to them for their lack of patriotism.
The Russian captain of a container ship that crashed into a US oil tanker in the North Sea has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter.
Vladimir Motin, 59, the Solong's master, is accused of the unlawful killing of crew member Mark Angelo Pernia, 38, in the collision off the East Yorkshire coast.
On Friday, Mr Motin appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from HMP Hull for a plea hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft KC.
Assisted by a Russian interpreter, Mr Motin, of Primorsky, St Petersburg, confirmed his identity before pleading not guilty to a single charge of the manslaughter of Pernia, a Filipino national, on March 10.
Mr Motin was charged over Pernia's death after his vessel collided with Stena Immaculate, an American tanker, near the Humber Estuary on March 10.
All 23 people on the tanker were rescued along with 13 crew from the Solong, but Pernia could not be located.
Russian forces targeted a Ukrainian town that borders Nato member Romanian overnight, Ukrainian officials said.
The drone attack hit the town of Izmail, Ukraine's biggest port on the Danube river in the Odesa region in southwestern Ukrtaine, which is important for critical imports and which lies across the river from Romania.
A post office branch was destroyed in the drone attack, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said.
He reported no casualties.
Jonathan Powell, Britain's national security adviser, will attend the next round of Russia-Ukraine peace talks on Monday alongside other US and European officials.
General Keith Kellogg, the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine, told ABC News: 'We'll have what we call the E3. That is the national security advisers from Germany, France, and Great Britain…When we were in London, they kind of helped us mould a term sheet for Ukraine.'
Moscow and Kyiv are expected to meet for their second round of talks in Istanbul, where they held their first direct negotiations in more than three years earlier this month.
It follows pressure from Donald Trump, who this week labelled Vladimir Putin 'crazy' and appeared to set the Russian leader a two-week deadline for peace.
Gen Kellogg said Mr Trump was ready to stop Ukraine and other Eastern European nations from joining Nato in order to secure peace, a position he said was shared by other members of the alliance.
'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. You know, I can probably give you four countries in Nato, and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come into Nato.'
The Kremlin said it was considering a three-way peace summit between Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky.
But it said it would only do so if peace talks on Monday yielded 'results'.
'President Putin has repeatedly stated that he is fundamentally in favour of high-level contacts,' spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding: 'But first, results must be achieved through direct negotiations between the two countries.'
Moscow has proposed Istanbul for the next round of peace talks on June 2, the same location where the two sides held their first direct negotiations in three years earlier this month.
Kyiv has said it wanted to ceasefire Russia's proposals for a peace deal before sending officials to the talks.
Speaking on Friday, the Kremlin said the conditions of a potential ceasefire would be discussed on Monday.
Peskov, Putin's spokesman, also said he was glad 'Putin's messages are heard in Washington' after Mr Trump's peace envoy said the US would not allow Ukraine to join Nato.
Listen to the latest episode of Battle Lines below:
Turkey has offered to host a meeting between Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Vladimir Putin as part of a push to end the war in Ukraine.
'We sincerely think that it is possible to cap the first and second direct Istanbul talks with a meeting between Mr. (Donald) Trump, Mr. (Vladimir) Putin and M. (Volodymyr) Zelensky, under the direction of Mr. (Recep Tayyip Erdogan),' Turkey's foreign minister, Hakan Fidan, said on a visit to Kyiv.
Volodymyr Zelensky has refused to be drawn on whether Germany will allow Ukraine to use its long-range Taurus missiles.
Asked about the delivery of long-range cruise missiles, Mr Zelensky said: 'We are working in this direction.
'There are certain topics that Chancellor Friedrich Merz and I have agreed not to discuss in public. I promised him this, and I am keeping my promise.'
Mr Merz, meanwhile, said delivering the missiles was 'within the realms of possibility'.
Vladimir Putin should reach a peace settlement in Ukraine or risk losing us involvement in negotiations, a senior US official has said.
A 30-day ceasefire was 'Russia's best possible outcome', according to John Kelley, acting deputy US ambassador.
'If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict,' he said.
'We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict.
'The deal on offer now is Russia's best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal.'
Both Russia and Ukraine want a ceasefire that brings about an end to three years of war, Turkey's top diplomat has said.
'I observe that the issue is beginning to take a more optimistic turn as negotiations start. Both parties want a ceasefire. No one says they don't want it,' Hakan Fidan, Turkey's foreign minister, said as he made his way to Kyiv following a trip to Moscow.
Emmanuel Macron has said that Donald Trump faces a 'credibility test' over his response to Russia dragging its feet on a Ukraine ceasefire.
Moscow has rebuffed calls for an immediate ceasefire and kept up an intense bombardment of Ukraine even as diplomatic efforts to end the war have gained momentum.
Mr Trump called Vladimir Putin 'crazy' late on Sunday in a rare rebuke of the Russian leader but he has yet to follow up on repeated threats to impose fresh sanctions on Moscow.
Macron said that if Russia gives 'confirmation that it is not ready to make peace' Washington must then confirm its 'commitment' to impose sanctions on Moscow, stressing it was a 'credibility test for the Americans'.
'I spoke 48 hours ago to President Trump who showed his impatience. The question now is what do we do? We (Europeans) are ready,' he said during a visit to Singapore.
Russia has not sent its outline of a future ceasefire to Ukraine ahead of next week's peace talks, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
'Words do not work with Moscow. Even the so-called memorandum, which they promised and allegedly spent over a week preparing, no one has seen it yet,' Mr Zelensky said.
Both sides agreed during negotiations earlier this month to outline their vision of a future ceasefire, which would be shared before the next round of talks on Monday.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, little has been done to contain Russia's consolidated dominance in the murky waters of the Black Sea.
The dissolution of the Soviet bloc saw Moscow inherit much of the Black Sea fleet, a regional force it shared with Ukraine, and a leasing arrangement for the strategic naval base of Sevastopol, Crimea.
Vladimir Putin's eventual illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula not only gave him complete control over the fleet's home base but also further territory to dominate the Black Sea.
It allowed Russia control over Ukraine's shipping routes, and the modernisation of its military presence on the peninsula saw the introduction of area denial capabilities – known as A2/AD in military parlance – such as coastal defences, more submarines and surface-to-air missiles to contest Nato's presence.
On the first day of the Russian invasion, in February 2022, Putin's men pushed as far as Snake Island, a 46-acre rocky outcrop just off Ukraine. Kyrylo Budanov, Kyiv's spy chief, once said the island grants control of 'the surface, and to some extent the air, situation in southern Ukraine'.
But more than three years since Putin's full-scale invasion, Snake Island is back in Ukrainian hands and the Russian choke hold over the Black Sea has all but ended.
Russia continued its relentless assault on Ukraine overnight, launching a massive drone attack that injured several people, including two teenagers, in Kharkiv.
The Ukrainian air force said Moscow launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles, targetting Kharkiv, Odesa, and Donetsk.
The Kharkiv region's main city also came under attack which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
'Today, Kharkiv suffered another attack: the enemy fired 8 'shaheds' at one of the depots where our trolleybuses were being repaired and maintained,' he said on the Telegram messaging app.
The US will prevent Ukraine from joining Nato as Russia's concern over the alliance's eastward enlargement is fair, the US envoy for Russia-Ukraine has said.
General Keith Kellogg told ABC News: '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 - you know I could probably give you four other countries in Nato and it takes 32 of the 32 to allow you to come in to Nato.'
He continued: 'They're not just talking Ukraine, they're talking the country of Georgia, they're talking Moldova.'
It follows a report by Reuters that Vladimir Putin wants a written pledge from western leaders to stop Ukraine from joining the military alliance as part of any potential peace deal.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the war in Ukraine.
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