Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow launches ‘largest overnight bombardment' of war so far
Ukraine's air force reported 479 drones and 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine, focusing on central and western parts of the country.
Ukrainian air defences claimed to have destroyed 277 drones and 19 missiles mid-flight, adding that only 10 drones or missiles hit their target. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned on X that 'Russia only truly understands one language — the language of force.'
Ahead of the G7 Summit in Canada and the NATO Summit on the Netherlands, he said Ukraine was doing everything to ensure the summits were 'not hollow.' He continued that force 'is precisely the language that must become the working one across all formats of international engagement in the coming months.'
Polish and allied aircraft were activated earlier on Monday to ensure the safety of airspace after Russia launched air strikes targeting western Ukraine near the border with Poland, the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said.
"The steps taken are aimed at ensuring security in the regions bordering the areas at risk," the Command said on X.
WATCH: Zelensky says Russia is 'ignoring all peace proposals'
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 12:00
Ukraine's drone attack halts work at electronic plant in Chuvashia, Russia says
A Ukrainian drone strike, among the deepest into Russia in more than three years of the war, forced a temporary suspension of production at an electronics company in the Volga river region of Chuvashia, the head of the region said on Monday.
The strike, some 1,300 km (800 miles) from the border with Ukraine, caused no casualties, Chuvashia Governor Oleg Nikolayev said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
But "the responsible decision was made to temporarily suspend production to ensure the safety of employees" of the VNIIR enterprise where the drones fell, Nikolayev said.
It was not immediately clear whether the drones caused any damage. Nikolayev said that another drone fell onto some fields in the area of the capital of the region, Cheboksary.
Ukraine's military said in a Telegram statement on Monday that "at least two drones" hit the VNIIR facility that specialises in manufacturing navigation equipment used in attack drones, guided aerial bombs and high-precision weapons.
The Ukrainian military said the drone attack sparked a large -scale fire at the VNIIR plant.
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 11:40
Mapped: Regions targeted in Russia's overnight assault on Ukraine
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 11:30
Russia is already at war with Britain and we can no longer rely on Trump, defence adviser warns
Britain is already at war with Russia, one of the authors of the government's strategic defence review has warned, while arguing that the UK can no longer rely on the US as a dependable ally.
Dr Fiona Hill, who served as the White House's chief Russia adviser during Donald Trump 's first term, said the UK is in 'pretty big trouble', warning that the country is stuck between 'the rock' of Russia aggression and the 'hard place' of an increasingly unreliable US under Mr Trump.
Political Correspondent Millie Cooke reports:
Russia is already at war with Britain, defence adviser warns
'Russia is at war with us', one of the authors of Sir Keir Starmer's flagship strategic defence review has warned
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 11:20
In pictures: Russia repatriates 1,200 bodies of Ukrainian servicemen in lorries on Ukraine-Belarus border
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 11:00
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk invites Trump to 'live in my house' to experience Russian war
Oleksandr Usyk has issued an invitation to Donald Trump, urging the US president to spend a week at his home in Ukraine to gain an insight into the ongoing conflict.
Trump had previously asserted he could resolve the war "in 24 hours" upon assuming office. However, more than three years after Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, a resolution remains elusive.
Usyk, a former undisputed world champion in both the cruiserweight and heavyweight divisions, conveyed a grim depiction of life in Ukraine, emphasising the necessity for Trump to develop a more profound understanding of the situation.
'I advise American president Donald Trump to go to Ukraine and live in my house for one week, only one week,' Usyk, the WBC, WBA and WBO heavyweight champion, told the BBC.
Albert Toth reports:
Ukrainian boxer Usyk invites Trump to 'live in my house' to experience Russian war
Trump should 'go to Ukraine and live in my house for one week,' the heavyweight champion said
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 10:40
Putin approves big revamp of Russia's navy, Kremlin aide says
Russian President Vladimir Putin has approved a new naval strategy which aims to fully restore Russia's position as one of the world's leading maritime powers, Kremlin aide Nikolai Patrushev said in an interview published on Monday.
Russia has the world's third most powerful navy after China and the United States, according to most public rankings, though the navy has suffered a series of high-profile losses in the Ukraine war.
Patrushev said the new naval strategy - entitled "The Strategy for the Development of the Russian Navy up to 2050" - had been approved by Putin in late May.
"Russia's position as one of the world's greatest maritime powers is gradually recovering," Patrushev told the Argumenti i Fakti newspaper in an interview.
"It is impossible to carry out such work without a long-term vision of the scenarios for the development of the situation in the oceans, the evolution of challenges and threats, and, of course, without defining the goals and objectives facing the Russian Navy," Patrushev said.
Patrushev gave no further details about the strategy, though Russia is believed to have ramped up spending on defence and security to Cold War levels as a percentage of gross domestic product.
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 10:20
Ukraine's military says it struck two planes at Russia's Savasleyka airfield overnight
The Ukrainian military said on Monday that it had struck two planes at Russia's Savasleyka airfield overnight.
"According to preliminary information, two enemy aircraft (presumably MiG-31 and Su-30/34 aircraft) were struck," the military said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 10:00
Ukraine to do 'everything possible to secure prisoners of war' - Zelensky
Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine will do 'everything possible to secure the release of our POWs and the return of our fallen warriors.'
He said that Russia had yet to provide a full list of exchange for over one thousand people.
'The full lists from Russia for the exchange of over one thousand people, as agreed in Istanbul, have still not been provided.
'In typical fashion, the Russian side is once again trying to turn even these matters into a dirty political and information game.
'For our part, we are doing everything we can to keep the exchange track moving forward.'
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 09:30
Russia used almost 500 drones and missiles in overnight assault
Ukraine's air force said on Monday that Russia had used 479 drones and 20 missiles during an overnight assault whose targets included an airfield. This is one of the biggest attacks of the whole war so far.
The air force downed 460 of the drones and 19 of the missiles, including four Kinzhal missiles, it said in a statement. The air force added that it had recorded hits in 10 locations and debris falling in 17 locations.
Bryony Gooch9 June 2025 09:22
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The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukrainian mood hardens as MPs insist country should not be forced to surrender
A string of Ukrainian politicians and public figures condemned the idea of handing over unoccupied land to Russia for peace on Sunday, arguing that their country had not been defeated and should not be forced into a surrender. The hardening of the mood came at the end of a weekend where there was first ridicule and disgust in Ukraine at the red-carpet treatment of Vladimir Putin by Donald Trump at their summit in Alaska, followed by frustration as it appeared that Trump was siding with the Russian leader. Trump reportedly told European leaders that he believed a peace deal could be negotiated if Volodymyr Zelenskyy agreed to give up the areas of the Donbas region that the Russian invaders have not been able to seize in more than three years of fighting. Halyna Yanchenko, an independent member of Ukraine's parliament, said the suggestion that Ukraine should 'simply surrender new territories without a fight – just because Putin wants it – is absurd from the very start'. The MP, an anti-corruption activist previously part of Zelenskyy's Servant of the People party, said hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians would be affected by Putin's proposal, initially favoured by Trump after Friday's Alaska summit. Official estimates are that 255,000 people still live in the 3,500 square miles (9,000 sq km) of Donetsk province that Russia has been unable to seize in its three-and-a-half-year invasion, which includes the industrial cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. The Donbas also comprises Luhansk province, which is almost totally occupied by Russia. Prior to Russia's full-scale invasion the population of Donetsk was 1.9 million, so the number of people with property and other connections to the area wanted by Russia is higher. 'So when someone brings up the idea of 'trading territory', we must understand that in practice it is trading people,' Yanchenko said. Serhii Kupavykh, who was born and raised in Kramatorsk but now lives in Kharkiv, said he believed that allowing Russia to take his city and the rest of Donetsk would amount to 'a defeat in the war, which will lead to a split in society', though he recognised that gradual Russian advances had made the defence of them difficult. He said Zelenskyy had 'no right to resolve such issues unilaterally' and he believed that 'renouncing the territory is political suicide for the entire government' – though he acknowledged that Ukraine was in a complex position. Cartoons and memes circulated widely online over the weekend with a particular focus on the sight of US soldiers kneeling to straighten out the red carpet in Alaska for the Russian president. 'Dishonored,' wrote Serhii Sternenko, a Ukrainian drone fundraiser, on X, comparing the image to soldiers raising the US flag at Iwo Jima towards the end of the second world war. Maksym Palenko, a cartoonist, drew a picture of a glum-looking Trump with his trademark red tie spooling out beneath him and turning into a carpet on which a laughing Putin was standing. It reflected shots of Putin smiling as he was sitting in Trump's limousine while it was setting off. 'We do not deserve to surrender and we are not in a position to surrender,' said Oleksiy Goncharenko, an MP with the opposition European Solidarity party. 'This part of Donetsk is a fortress and Putin has tried and failed to take it for 11 years. Now he wants to take it through diplomatic tricks and manoeuvres.' Russia's military has struggled to capture urban centres during the war, and the Kramatorsk area is one of the most heavily defended in Ukraine. Last week Zelenskyy said it in effect protected the centre of the country and there was no guarantee that handing it over would not prevent a new war. Goncharenko said Putin's offer to freeze the conflict in the western Kherson and central Zaporizhzhia provinces if Ukraine hands over Donetsk was designed to provoke splits in Ukraine and abroad and the situation needed to be handled with care. Zelenskyy's response needed to be 'well framed, to persuade Trump that Putin has set a trap, because we have seen in the past that the relationship between Trump and Zelenskyy can be quite explosive,' Goncharenko said. On his previous visit to see Trump at the White House, Zelenskyy was ambushed by Trump and his vice-president, JD Vance, and got into a bitter public argument with both, leading to a pause in intelligence sharing and arms deliveries at a crucial point in the battle. Sevgil Musaieva, the editor of Ukrainian Pravda, said in a column published on Sunday: 'We are being forced to behave as if we have to admit defeat. Not military, but political. Not a surrender of arms, but a surrender of thought.' She said this was 'the most dangerous form of defeat. Because if we accept it internally then external defeat will only be a matter of time.' In fact, 'for the first time in a century, Ukrainians put up a worthy resistance,' she said. 'We have no right to forget Bucha, Izium, Mariupol. We have no right to forget the torture, the mass graves, the children killed and abducted by Russia,' she said, arguing that 'without memory we will lose ourselves'. Oleksii Kovzhun, a popular Kyiv-based video blogger, said Putin's demands were 'akin to capitulation' and that 'Zelenskyy could not legally hand over Donetsk even if he would want to (and he does not)' because it would have to be subject to a referendum. 'Ukrainians will not allow it,' he said.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Top Trump envoy dodges on peace deal specifics although won't rule out US military involvement in Ukraine
Donald Trump's top Middle East envoy said that a trilateral meeting between the leaders of Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. was likely to occur in the days ahead but did not give any specifics regarding the deal reached between Trump and Vladimir Putin on Sunday. Steve Witkoff appeared on CNN's State of the Union where Jake Tapper questioned him about the three-hour meeting Friday between Trump and Putin, after which Russian and U.S. officials stated that progress was made towards the frameworks of a peace agreement to end the years-long war in Ukraine. Witkoff would not give many details about that progress, however, and wouldn't confirm whether a Russian demand for Ukraine to cede the entire occupied Donbas region was being considered. 'There is an important discussion to be had with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there. And that discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday, when President Zelensky arrives with his delegation,' said Witkoff. 'We made so much progress at this meeting with regard to all the other ingredients necessary for a peace deal that President Trump pivoted to that place,' he continued. 'We are intent on trying to hammer out a peace deal that ends the fighting permanently very, very quickly, quicker than a ceasefire.' The biggest win for the U.S. was something Witkoff was able to share, he said: 'We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO.' Witkoff wouldn't specify if the above security guarantee could lead to what Trump and his followers have long opposed — a promise to directly engage U.S. troops in the defense of Ukraine should Russia continue crossing the president's red lines. The U.S. president is set to meet on Monday with Volodymyr Zelensky along with several European leaders, including NATO's secretary-general. Coverage of that meeting has largely centered around the theme of damage control, with European leaders insistant on having a seat at the table for future negotiations. At the same time, his administration is signalling that it will not put significant pressure on Russia to force a peace agreement. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, appearing separately on ABC's This Week, told anchor Martha Raddatz that further sanctions on Russia were, for the time being, likely off the table. 'The minute you levy additional sanctions, strong, additional sanctions, the talking stops. Talking stops. And at that point, the war just continues,' said Rubio, who along with Witkoff joined Trump in Alaska for the meeting with Russia's president. He added that meant 'more people dead. More people killed. More people maimed. More families destroyed.' Congressional pressure over the issue of Russia sanctions has ramped up in recent weeks. Many Republicans are still unwilling to break with Trump over the issue, but have come out publicly to state that Trump was wrong about his assumption in February that Putin 'wants peace' in Ukraine. 'I think he's going to be very careful about what he does,' Sen. Mike Rounds said of Trump backing further sanctions in early August, as Congress left for a month-long recess. 'But I think he is clearly disappointed in Putin and I think he is now coming around to recognizing that many of us were right.'
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Vladimir Putin agrees to major Ukraine security guarantees during Donald Trump talks
Russian President reportedly backs US-EU deal offering Ukraine 'game-changing' security guarantees as Zelensky, Trump & EU leaders prep for crunch peace talks. Vladimir Putin has reportedly signed off on a dramatic peace deal which would see the US and Europe give Ukraine sweeping new security guarantees. Donald Trump's right-hand man Steve Witkoff confirmed the shock move, just minutes after the ex-President boasted of 'big progress on Russia'. In a stunning twist, Russia is even said to have made concessions on the five regions it illegally claimed – Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea. Diplomatic insiders say Putin could accept a territorial swap to keep Donetsk and Luhansk in return for halting advances in the south. It comes after Putin warns of nuclear war after unleashing another night of hell on Ukraine. Witkoff said: 'We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing. The US could offer Article 5-style protection – one of the main reasons Ukraine wants NATO membership. We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal.' The breakthrough comes on the eve of crunch talks in Washington between Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, with Sir Keir Starmer and a string of European heavyweights flying in to show support. Starmer will join Zelensky at the White House, with No10 insisting Britain's backing for Ukraine will remain 'for as long as it takes'. Also lining up alongside the Ukrainian leader are EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, French president Emmanuel Macron, Germany's Friedrich Merz and NATO boss Mark Rutte, the Sun reports. Sources say Zelensky begged Europe's top brass to come with him as 'moral support and solidarity' ahead of the showdown with Trump. It will be Zelensky's first return to the Oval Office since his fiery bust-up with Trump and JD Vance earlier this year, when he was humiliatingly kicked out of the White House. The move piles pressure on Putin, who has been scrambling to claw back influence after his own peace summit with Trump in Alaska. But despite the frantic diplomacy, both Russia and Ukraine were still trading drone strikes today, underlining just how fragile the path to peace remains. Putin's deal reportedly goes beyond Ukraine's borders, with draft provisions suggesting Moscow would commit not to launch attacks against other European nations. In exchange, Kyiv would halt its NATO membership bid, formally recognise Crimea as Russian territory, and agree to a land swap involving Donetsk and Luhansk. Western diplomats told Reuters that the package also includes phased sanctions relief if Russia holds to the ceasefire.
