Russia launches biggest air attack on Ukraine since start of war
Russia has launched its biggest air attack on Ukraine since the war first began in 2022, with Vladimir Putin 's forces launching over 500 drones across several cities.
Photos and video footage shared by Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday (29 June) document the impact of the attacks across Kyiv, Cherkasy, Lviv, Poltava, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Mykolaiv.
The Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that one F-16 pilot was killed in the onslaught on Saturday (28 June).
Ukraine has said 475 out of 537 aerial targets were shot down.
Poland scrambled its Nato jets and activated its ground-based air defence in response to the six-hour assault.
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The Guardian
2 hours ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy to pull Kyiv out of convention banning anti-personnel landmines
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday he had signed a decree to pull Ukraine out of the Ottawa Convention banning the production and use of anti-personnel mines as a necessary step in view of Russian tactics in their 40-month-old war. Ukraine ratified the convention in 2005. Other countries bordering Russia, notably Finland, Poland and the three ex-Soviet Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – have either withdrawn from the convention or indicated that they would do so. Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address that Russia had never been a party to the convention 'and is using anti-personnel mines with utmost cynicism' along with other weapons, including ballistic missiles. 'This is a hallmark of Russian killers. To destroy life by all means at their disposal … We see how our neighbours in Europe react to this threat,' he said. 'We also know the complexities of the withdrawal procedure when it is conducted during war. We take this political step and give a signal to our political partners on what to focus on. This concerns all countries that border Russia,' he said. Anti-personnel mines, Zelenskyy said, are 'often the instrument for which nothing can be substituted for defence purposes.' Russia fired more than 500 aerial weapons at Ukraine overnight to Sunday, in a barrage that Kyiv described as the biggest air attack so far of the three-year war. Ukraine's air force said that Russia had fired 477 drones and decoys as well as 60 missiles overnight. While 475 of these were shot down or lost, the onslaught marked the 'most massive airstrike' on the country since Russia began its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yuriy Ihnat, head of communications for Ukraine's air force. Officials confirmed three deaths and said another two died in Russian shelling. A Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot died in a crash while repelling the Russian air attack. Zelenskyy praised the pilot, Maksym Ustymenko, and bestowed upon him posthumously the title of Hero of Ukraine, the country's highest decoration. The pilot flew the damaged jet away from a settlement but had no time to eject before it crashed, the Ukrainian air force said. 'The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,' the air force said on Telegram. The Kremlin said in remarks published on Sunday that the tougher the sanctions imposed on Russia by Europe, the more painful the recoil would be for Europe's own economies as Russia had grown resistant to such 'illegal' sanctions. The European Commission on 10 June proposed a new round of sanctions against Russia, targeting Moscow's energy revenues, its banks and its military industry, though the United States has so far refused to toughen its own sanctions. Russia's spy chief said on Sunday he spoke to his US counterpart, marking a new official exchange after their first call in mid-March amid rapprochement between Moscow and Washington. 'I had a telephone conversation with my American counterpart, and we agreed to call each other at any time to discuss issues of mutual interest,' Sergey Naryshkin said on Russian state television, without providing further details about his call with CIA chief John Ratcliffe.
BBC News
5 hours ago
- BBC News
Ukraine war: Mariupol residents deny Russian stories about the city
"What they're showing on Russian TV are fairy tales for fools. Most of Mariupol still lies in ruins," says John, a Ukrainian living in Russian-occupied Mariupol. We've changed his name as he fears reprisal from Russian authorities."They are repairing the facades of the buildings on the main streets, where they bring cameras to shoot. But around the corner, there is rubble and emptiness. Many people still live in half-destroyed apartments with their walls barely standing," he been just over three years since Mariupol was taken by Russian forces after a brutal siege and indiscriminate bombardment – a key moment in the early months of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Thousands were killed, and the UN estimated 90% of residential buildings were damaged or recent months, videos and reels from several pro-Russia influencers have been painting a picture of a glossy city where damaged structures have been repaired and where life has gone back to the BBC has spoken to more than half a dozen people - some still living in Mariupol, others who escaped after spending time under occupation - to piece together a real picture of what life is like in the city."There are a lot of lies floating around," says 66-year-old Olha Onyshko who escaped from Mariupol late last year and now lives in Ukraine's Ternopil. "I wouldn't say they [Russian authorities] have repaired a lot of things. There's a central square – only the buildings there have been reconstructed. And there are also empty spaces where buildings stood. They cleared the debris, but they didn't even separate out the dead bodies, they were just loaded on to trucks with the rubble and carried out of the city," she adds. Mariupol is also facing severe water shortages."Water flows for a day or two, then it doesn't come for three days. We keep buckets and cans of water at home. The colour of the water is so yellow that even after boiling it, it's scary to drink it," says James, another Mariupol resident whose name has been have even said the water looks like "coca cola".Serhii Orlov, who calls himself Mariupol's deputy mayor in exile, says the Siverskyi Donets–Donbas Canal which supplied water to the city was damaged during the fighting."Only one reservoir was left supplying water to Mariupol. For the current population, that would've lasted for about a year and a half. Since occupation has lasted longer than that, it means there is no drinking water at all. The water people are using doesn't even meet the minimum drinking water standard," says are frequent power cuts, food is expensive, and medicines are scarce, residents tell us."Basic medicines are not available. Diabetics struggle to get insulin on time, and it is crazy expensive," says BBC has reached out to Mariupol's Russian administration for a response to the allegations about shortages and whether they had found an alternative source for water. We have not got a response so the hardships the most difficult part of living in the city, residents say, is watching what Ukrainian children are being taught at Kozhushyna studied at a university in Mariupol for a year after it was occupied. Now he's escaped to Dnipro."They are teaching children false information and propaganda. For example, school textbooks state that Donetsk, Luhansk, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Odesa, Crimea and even Dnipropetrovsk regions are all already part of Russia," says Andrii. He also described special lessons called "Conversations about Important Things" in which students are taught about how Russia liberated the Russian-speaking population of these regions from Nazis in 2022."Teachers who refuse to take these lessons are intimidated or fired. It's like they are reprogramming the minds of our children," says John, a Mariupol World War Two Victory Day celebrations in May, images from Mariupol's central square showed children and adults dressed up in military costumes participating in parades and performances – Soviet-era traditions that Ukraine had increasingly shunned are now being imposed in occupied territories. Mariupol was bathed in the colours of the Russian flag – red, blue and some Ukrainians are waging a secret resistance against Russia, and in the dead of the night, they spray paint Ukrainian blue and yellow colours on walls, and also paste leaflets with messages like "Liberate Mariupol" and "Mariupol is Ukraine".James and John are both members of resistance groups, as was Andrii when he lived in the city."The messages are meant as moral support for our people, to let them know that the resistance is alive," says main objective is collecting intelligence for the Ukrainian military."I document information about Russian military movements. I analyse where they are transporting weapons, how many soldiers are entering and leaving the city, and what equipment is being repaired in our industrial areas. I take photos secretly, and keep them hidden until I can transmit them to Ukrainian intelligence through secure channels," says James. Occasionally, the resistance groups also try to sabotage civil or military operations. On at least two occasions, the railway line into Mariupol was disrupted because the signalling box was set on fire by risky work. Andrii said he was forced to leave when he realised that he had been exposed."Perhaps a neighbour snitched on me. But once when I was at a store buying bread, I saw a soldier showing my photo to the cashier asking if they knew who the person was," he left immediately, slipping past Mariupol's checkposts and then travelling through numerous cities in Russia, and through Belarus, before entering Ukraine from the those still in the city, each day is a challenge."Every day you delete your messages because your phone can be checked at checkpoints. You're afraid to call your friends in Ukraine in case your phone is being tapped," says James. "A person from a neighbouring house was arrested right off the street because someone reported that he was allegedly passing information to the Ukrainian military. Your life is like a movie – a constant tension, fear, distrust," he talks continue between Ukraine and Russia, there have been suggestions from within and outside Ukraine that it would need to concede land in exchange for a peace deal."Giving away territory for a 'deal with Russia' will be a betrayal. Dozens risk their lives every day to pass information to Ukraine, not so that some diplomat in a suit will sign a paper that will 'hand us over'," says John."We don't want 'peace at any cost'. We want liberation."Additional reporting by Imogen Anderson, Anastasiia Levchenko, Volodymyr Lozhko and Sanjay Ganguly
Telegraph
7 hours ago
- Telegraph
Cancel military aid to Ukraine, says transport union
The RMT transport union has called for Britain to stop giving military aid to Ukraine. A motion titled The Labour Movement Stands for Peace was submitted by the union's Paddington branch, urged Labour ministers to 'commit to work for a diplomatic, negotiated, lasting peace settlement'. Passed at the RMT's annual meeting last week in Manchester, it said: 'Despite the defeat of the Conservative government by the Labour Party at the 2024 general election, Britain continues to play a belligerent role in international relations by supplying British-made weapons, military support, credit and billions of pounds in public funding in trying and failing to achieve a military defeat for Russia in Ukraine. 'We reject the politics of lower living standards and cuts in living standards to fund a policy of unending and escalating war that last year took us to the brink of nuclear Armageddon.' The Ukraine Solidarity Campaign said news of the motion passing was 'very bad' and added on X: 'This is a union with an unusually strong Stop the War and particularly Communist Party of Britain influence in its leadership and apparatus. 'In the run-up to the AGM, we helped pro-Ukraine RMT members renew and extend contacts with rail workers in Ukraine.' A spokesman for the RMT said: 'The motion was calling for a de-escalation of war zones across the world from Gaza, Yemen and Iran as well as Ukraine. 'As many commentators from Left and Right have commented, pouring billions into the Ukraine war zone will not create the conditions for peace negotiations but simply make them harder to achieve. 'The RMT does not support the Russian invasion of Ukraine but pouring weapons into one side against the other is counterproductive to creating the conditions for a peaceful solution.' Posing with pro-Putin separatists Eddie Dempsey, who replaced Mike Lynch as general secretary earlier in 2025, has faced questions after posing with pro-Putin separatists in eastern Ukraine. Mr Dempsey visited eastern Ukraine in 2015, where he posed for a picture with Aleksey Mozgovoy, a commander in the 'Ghost Brigade' of pro-Russian separatists branded a terrorist organisation by Ukraine's supreme court. At the time, an RMT spokesman said: 'The union does not support either Vladimir Putin or his actions in Ukraine, and we are backing global union pressure for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.' Mr Dempsey said: 'I fully agree with the union's position.' Meanwhile, Mr Lynch was in 2024 accused of peddling Kremlin propaganda after he claimed the EU had provoked trouble in Ukraine before Russia's invasion. In an interview with the New Statesman, he said: 'There were a lot of corrupt politicians in Ukraine. And while they were doing that, there were an awful lot of people [in Ukraine] playing with Nazi imagery, and going back to the [Second World] War, and all that.'
