Britain to attend next Russia-Ukraine peace talks
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.
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Telegraph
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Nawrocki's victory is a huge triumph for Trump
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Daily Mail
22 minutes ago
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Putin's revenge for 'Russia's black day': Tyrant poised to axe spymasters after strike on nuclear bombers was launched from warehouse beside intelligence HQ - with Kyiv now braced for Vladimir's devastating response
Vladimir Putin is poised to axe his spymasters after Kyiv delivered a devastating blow to the Russian fleet on Sunday, hitting dozens of strategic nuclear bombers thousands of kilometres behind the frontline in a brazen show of force. The Russian tyrant has stayed out of sight since the attacks on multiple air bases in Ukraine's audacious Operation Spiderweb - a top-secret mission some 18 months in the making, showing off Ukraine's capability to stagger the Russian invasion. 'He will hit back at Ukraine, but also avenge his underlings who allowed this humiliation to happen,' said an insider. The sleeping FSB security service - headed by close ally Alexander Bortnikov, 73 - faces blame over Ukraine using a warehouse next door to an intelligence HQ in Chelyabinsk to prepare the drone strikes on his airbases. Pro-Russian Telegram channel Fighterbomb, believed to be run by Capt. 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Putin stayed out of sight since the attacks on multiple air bases in Ukraine's audacious Operation Spiderweb The attack was carried out exactly 29 years to the day after Ukraine handed over dozens of the same strategic bombers to Russia, along with up to 2,000 strategic nuclear warheads and 176 ICBMs in exchange for a promise not to be attacked, under the Budapest Memorandum. In their most daring attack of the war to date, Ukrainian special forces first smuggled 117 first-person view (FPV) kamikaze drones – which allow pilots to control them remotely through a live feed – into Russia. Then came mobile wooden cabins, whose roofs had hidden compartments into which the small flying weapons were stashed. They were loaded on to civilian trucks heading into enemy territory, their hired local drivers seemingly unaware of what they were carrying. Finally, yesterday afternoon, with all the lorries within range of five airfields stretching from northern Russia down to Siberia – a safe 2,500 miles from Ukraine – they struck. The roofs of the wooden cabins were opened remotely and the FPV drones took to the skies. Head of the Ukraine's Security Service Vasyl Maliuk looks at a map of an airfield, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in an unknown location in Ukraine With the help of front-positioned cameras, the missile-loaded drones headed straight for Russia's highly expensive bomber planes. Footage showed decimated enemy planes in flames on the runway and last night Ukrainian security sources claimed to have taken out 41 aircraft worth some £1.5billion. These, they say, include the nuclear capable Tu-95 and Tu-22M as well as the surveillance A-50 'Mainstay' plane, worth an estimated £250,000,000 that is used as a radar and command centre, of which Russia is only believed to have around ten in operation. 'Mainstays' are critical to coordinating Russian fighter jets and air defences, meaning that this will have severely hampered Putin's war effort. Moscow has long stopped producing any of these aircraft meaning, if confirmed, these assets could not be replaced. There are only around 120 Tu-95s and Tu-22Ms in operation and they are vital for Putin 's nightly bombing raids on Ukraine. They had been moved to bases thousands of miles away from Ukraine, out of reach of Western-donated Storm Shadows and ATACMS which have a range of up to 185 miles. The FPVs, which can reach just 12 miles, would have been the last thing on Russian minds. Mr Zelensky last night claimed that the operation took out a third of Russia's strategic bombers and had been conducted under the noses of its secret service. He said: 'What's most interesting, is that the 'office' of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to FSB headquarters in one of their regions. 'In total, 117 drones were used in the operation, with a corresponding number of drone operators involved, and 34 per cent of the strategic cruise missile carriers stationed at air bases were hit. We will continue this work.' He assessed that the attack on Putin's irreplaceable bombers 'will undoubtedly be in [the] history books'. Military blogger Roman Alekhin said the incident will go down as 'Russia's Pearl Harbour' - a reference to the Japanese attack against the US in 1941 that prompted Washington to enter the Second World War. But experts also drew comparisons to the 1942 SAS raid on the Sidi Haneish airfield in Egypy, when elite British commandos put 40 Luftwaffe aircraft out of action using jeeps mounted with machine guns. While the attack wasn't a pivotal moment in the Desert War, it massively boosted British morale and disrupted Axis logistics in North Africa. It was also one of the pivotal events that helped forge the legendary status of the SAS. Former RAF pilot and military analyst Mikey Kay told the BBC: 'The Russians would never have expected something like this. I mean, it's genius, if you think about just the devastating effect that it's had on strategic assets of Putin.' Philip O'Brien, professor of strategic studies at St Andrews University, said the raid was 'the most remarkable and successful operation of the war.' He told The Times: 'This is a big blow to Russian strategic air power, which is hard to overestimate. We do not know what the Russian reaction will be, however we can assume it will be violent.' Mr Zelensky, who is said to have overseen the operation over the last year and a half, celebrated the strike on social media last night. The Ukrainian president wrote: 'A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution. Our most long-range operation.' He added: 'These are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in [the] history books.' A delegation from Kyiv is due to meet counterparts from Moscow for a second round of peace talks in Istanbul today but it was not clear last night if it would still go ahead. Ukraine has said that its proposals will include a full 30-day ceasefire followed by the return of all prisoners held by each side. Negotiators also want some 20,000 Ukrainian children who were kidnapped by Russia to be repatriated before Mr Zelensky and Putin meet. Russia has so far refused to agree to a 30-day pause in fighting and overnight on Saturday launched its largest strike of the war so far with 472 drones and seven missiles. Kyiv's Operation Spider's Web struck Belaya air base in the Irkutsk region of Siberia; Dyagilevo air base in Ryazan, western Russia; Olenya air base in Murmansk, northern Russia; and Ivanovo air base in Ivanovo, central Russia. The fifth air base was yet to be identified last night. 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Hours later, in neighbouring Kursk where Ukraine launched its major cross-border incursion last August, a freight train was derailed by another fallen bridge. A Russian missile strike on a Ukrainian army training area killed at least 12 soldiers yesterday and wounded more than 60 others, the Ukrainian army said. Kyiv has carried out a series of daring attacks on Russia since the start of the war, with one of first being the counter-offensive which liberated the city of Kherson in November 2022. Ukrainian armed forces also took swathes of territory in Kursk last August in what was the first occupation of Russian land since the Second World War. Putin only succeeded in pushing Ukraine out of the territory in March.
The Guardian
23 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ukraine delegation arrives in Istanbul for talks with Russian officials following drone attack in Siberia – Russia-Ukraine war live
Update: Date: 2025-06-02T07:14:41.000Z Title: Ukraine delegation arrives in Istanbul for talks with Russian officials Content: A Ukrainian delegation has arrived in Istanbul for talks with Russian officials with a meeting planned for Monday afternoon, the spokesperson for Ukraine's foreign ministry said. The two sides are set to hold their second round of direct peace talks since 2022, but are still far apart on how to end the war amid an increase in fighting. After days of uncertainty over whether Ukraine would even attend, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said defence minister Rustem Umerov would meet Russian officials. The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the biggest prisoner exchange of the war – but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting. The two sides will in Turkey present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, according to US envoy Keith Kellogg, though it is clear that after three years of Russia's full-scale assault on Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart. Russia's lead negotiator, presidential adviser Vladimir Medinsky, was quoted by Tass news agency as saying the Russian side had received a memorandum from Ukraine on a settlement. Zelenskyy had complained for days that Russia had failed to provide a memorandum with its proposals. In other news: Ukraine said on Sunday it had destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars as far away as Siberia, in its longest-range assault of the war. In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it had damaged $7bn worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres (miles) away, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke. A source in the Ukrainian security services (SBU) said the strikes hit 41 planes that were used to 'bomb Ukrainian villages'. Several Russian and Ukrainian media outlets reported that Ukraine had carried out the operation by launching drones from lorries parked near military airfields deep inside Russia. Ukrainian officials told the media that the operation – codename 'Spiderweb' – had been in preparation for more than 18 months. Zelenskyy praised the attacks as a 'brilliant operation' that was 'aimed exclusively at military targets' and caused 'truly significant losses' for Russia. Those who assisted in the operation had been withdrawn from Russia on the eve of the attacks and were safe, he said. Russia has said several 'participants' have been arrested. Russian investigators on Sunday said they believed 'explosions' had caused two bridges in the border regions of Kursk and Bryansk to collapse overnight, derailing trains, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens. The incidents were being treated as terrorism. In Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, a road bridge collapsed onto a railway line late on Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow and killing at least seven people. A rail bridge in neighbouring Kursk also collapsed overnight, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver, officials said. Kursk also borders Ukraine. Separately, a railway track on the Unecha-Zhecha section in Russia's Bryansk region was damaged without casualties, the national operator, Russian Railways, said. The commander of Ukraine's land forces, one of the most senior positions in the country's military, announced on Sunday that he was tendering his resignation, saying he felt 'responsibility' for the deaths of at least 12 soldiers killed in a Russian strike on a training ground earlier that day. Maj Gen Mykhailo Drapatyi has been in charge of Ukraine's vast wartime land army since November last year. 'This is a conscious step dictated by my personal sense of responsibility for the tragedy at the 239th training ground, which resulted in the deaths of our soldiers,' Drapatyi wrote on Facebook. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in his nightly video address, said he would summon senior commanders, including top commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, to consider the circumstances of the strike. 'This is not the first strike of its kind when Ukraine has lost personnel. I have called a meeting … to deal with this,' he said. 'We need all our fighting men at the front to defend Ukraine.' Russia's military issued a statement saying its forces had launched a missile on a Ukrainian military 'tent camp' in central Dniepropetrovsk region.
