Russia downs 13 Ukrainian drones near Moscow region, defence ministry says
Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin wrote on Telegram that three drones headed towards Moscow had been shot down. He gave no further details of the incident.
The Reuters Tariff Watch newsletter is your daily guide to the latest global trade and tariff news. Sign up here.
The defence ministry said two Ukrainian drones had been downed over Moscow region, seven in Kaluga and four in Tula regions.
Several Russian media outlets shared videos purportedly showing debris from one of the downed drones in the city of Noginsk, east of the Russian capital.
Russia's aviation authority halted flights at two of Moscow's airports, Vnukovo and Domodedovo, on Tuesday evening.
The drone attack comes just days before President Vladimir Putin hosts several world leaders in Moscow to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany.
Separately, the governor of Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine said one woman had been killed on Tuesday when her car was struck by a Ukrainian drone.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Guardian
28 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Squeeze on Putin to accept direct peace talks with Zelenskyy
The Russian leadership continued to obfuscate on Wednesday, after European leaders and Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had agreed to a one-on-one meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy to kickstart peace talks. Sergei Lavrov said Moscow did not reject any format for Ukraine peace talks but the Russian foreign minister appeared to apply the brakes, saying any leaders' meeting 'must be prepared with utmost thoroughness'. On Tuesday, a Kremlin aide said only that Putin was open to the 'idea' of 'raising the level of representatives of the Ukrainian and Russian sides' at a future meeting. The White House also announced that Viktor Orbán, the pro-Putin Hungarian prime minister, and Trump had discussed the possibility of talks being held in Budapest. As with the Kremlin, there was no apparent confirmation of this conversation from the Hungarian side. A war crimes warrant could oblige Hungarian authorities to arrest a visiting Putin, but Hungary is withdrawing from the international criminal court. Orbán explicitly committing to play host could place unwanted pressure on the Russian ruler from one of his few allies to accept the meeting as an inevitability. Austria and Switzerland also said they would be ready to host the meeting. Switzerland said that during Putin's visit it could set aside its international criminal court obligations. 'This has to do with our diplomatic role, with international Geneva as [the European] headquarters of the United Nations,' said Ignazio Cassis, the Swiss foreign minister. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Geneva was a potential location for the talks. The Austrian chancellor, Christian Stocker, said his country supported any initiative leading to a just and lasting peace protecting Ukrainian and European security. Donald Trump has ruled out sending US troops to Ukraine to enforce a potential peace deal, tempering a promise to provide Kyiv with security guarantees in conjunction with European allies, write Andrew Roth and Pjotr Sauer. In a phone interview with Fox News, Trump did however say that Washington may be willing to provide air support to Ukraine in order to backstop a deal, in what would still be a remarkable shift in his administration's policy on the conflict. Putin opposes Ukraine joining Nato – Trump told Fox that 'there'll be some form of security. It can't be Nato. They're willing to put people on the ground. We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you could talk about by air.' Trump conceded that Putin might not want to make a deal after all, saying: 'We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks.' Nato military leaders are expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss Ukraine and the way forward, a US official and Nato official have told the Reuters news agency. The US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Gen Dan Caine, chair of the US joint chiefs of staff, was expected to teleconference in, but plans could still change. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Another Nato official said the alliance's top military commander, Alexus Grynkewich, would brief the leaders on the results of the Alaska meeting between Trump and Putin last week. Following Monday's meeting in Washington, Russia launched its biggest air assault in more than a month on Ukraine, with 270 drones and 10 missiles fired, the Ukrainian air force said. The energy ministry said the strikes caused big fires at energy facilities in the central Poltava region, home to Ukraine's only oil refinery. The governor of Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, Serhiy Lysak, said Russian shelling killed a resident of Nikopol, a frequent target of Moscow's attacks. A Ukrainian drone attack late on Tuesday knocked out power to Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, said the Moscow-installed governor, Yevgeny Balitsky. Kyiv maintains control of the region's main administrative centre and its attacks have periodically knocked out electricity in Russian-held areas. The illegally occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station was unaffected, the plant's director told Russia's RIA news agency. The plant produces no electricity but needs power for cooling and monitoring systems to maintain safety. Russia and Ukraine exchanged more bodies of their war dead, the Moscow-run Tass news agency reported on Tuesday, citing a source. Moscow handed over the bodies of 1,000 Ukrainian soldiers and had received 19 bodies of its own fallen soldiers in return, it was reported. Ukraine appeared to confirm the exchange.
Rhyl Journal
33 minutes ago
- Rhyl Journal
Trump offers assurances that US troops will not be sent to help defend Ukraine
Mr Trump also said in a morning TV interview that Ukraine's hopes of joining Nato and regaining the Crimean Peninsula from Russia are 'impossible'. The Republican president, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and other European leaders held hours of talks at the White House on Monday aimed at bringing an end to Russia's war against Ukraine. While answering questions from journalists, Mr Trump did not rule out sending US troops to participate in a European-led effort to defend Ukraine as part of security guarantees sought by Mr Zelensky. Mr Trump said after his meeting in Alaska last week with Vladimir Putin that the Russian leader was open to the idea of security guarantees for Ukraine. But asked on Fox News Channel's Fox & Friends what assurances he could provide going forward and beyond his term that American troops would not be part of defending Ukraine's border, Mr Trump said: 'Well, you have my assurance, and I'm president.' Mr Trump would have no control over the US military after his terms ends in January 2029. Speaking later, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that 'US boots will not be on the ground' as part of any potential peacekeeping mission. The president also said in the interview that he is optimistic that a deal can be reached to end the Russian invasion, but he underscored that Ukraine will have to set aside its hope of getting back Crimea, which was seized by Russian forces in 2014, and its long-held aspirations of joining the Nato military alliance. 'Both of those things are impossible,' Mr Trump said. Mr Putin, as part of any potential deal to pull his forces out of Ukraine, is looking for the withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as well as recognition of Crimea as Russian territory. Mr Trump said on Monday that he was arranging for direct talks between Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky. But the Kremlin has not yet said whether Mr Putin, who has resisted previous calls by Mr Trump and others for direct negotiations on ending the war, is committed to a face-to-face meeting with the Ukrainian leader. Asked whether Mr Putin had promised Trump that he would meet directly with the Ukrainian leader, Ms Leavitt responded affirmatively. 'He has,' she said of Mr Putin. Mr Trump, early on Monday during talks with Mr Zelensky and European leaders, said that he was pressing for three-way talks among Mr Zelensky, Mr Putin and himself. But after speaking to Mr Putin later in the day, Mr Trump said that he was arranging first for a face-to-face between Mr Zelensky and Mr Putin and that three-way talks would follow if necessary. 'It was an idea that evolved in the course of the president's conversations with both President Putin, President Zelensky and the European leaders yesterday,' Ms Leavitt said. But when discussing a phone call held after the meeting between Mr Trump and the Russian leader, Mr Putin's foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov gave no indication that either a bilateral or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine had been agreed. Mr Trump said he believed Mr Putin's course of action would become clear in the coming weeks. 'I think Putin is tired of it,' Mr Trump said. 'I think they're all tired of it. But you never know. We're going to find out about President Putin in the next couple of weeks. That I can tell you.' Later on Tuesday, Senator Lindsey Graham told The Associated Press in a phone interview that if peace talks between Ukraine and Russia are not 'moving in the right direction' by the time Congress returns next month, then 'Plan B needs to kick in'. For months, the Republican senator has been pressing Mr Trump to support a bipartisan sanctions bill that would impose steep tariffs on countries helping fund Russia's war. On Tuesday morning, following a phone call with Mr Trump, Mr Graham signalled the president may now be willing to back the effort. 'Trump believes that if Putin doesn't do his part, that he's going to have to crush his economy. Because you got to mean what you say,' Mr Graham told reporters in South Carolina earlier on Tuesday.
BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
Newshour Israel says not interested in 'partial deal' with Hamas
A day after Hamas accepts a new ceasefire proposal in Gaza, an Israeli government spokesman tells us Israel is not interested in a 'partial deal. We ask what's changed since Israel backed a very similar proposal three months ago. Also in the programme: the White House says work continues on hammering out security guarantees for Ukraine; and a cocoa connoisseur on new scientific insights into what makes great chocolate. (IMAGE: Israeli tanks deployed along the Israel-Gaza border in southern Israel, 19 August 2025. / CREDIT: Photo by ATEF SAFADI/EPA/Shutterstock (15447793c))
