“Ukraine – Russia”

Ukraine has launched a “large-scale” drone attack against Russian military bombers in Siberia, striking more than 40 warplanes thousands of kilometres from its own territory, a security official said.

The claims could not be independently verified. But if confirmed, the attacks would mark Ukraine’s most damaging drone strike of the war to date, amid an escalation in cross-border incursions before planned peace talks in Istanbul on Monday.

“Ukrainian security services are carrying out a large-scale special operation aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front, in Russia,” the official was quoted by Agence France-Presse as saying, adding a fire had broken out at the targeted Belaya airbase.

I AM SPEECHLESS ABOUT THIS DRONE ATTACK BY UKRAINE ‼️‼️‼️ pic.twitter.com/FmlJ3O4WZW

— WW3 Monitor (@WW3_Monitor) June 1, 2025

In one corner is Vitali Klitschko, the towering mayor of Kyiv who, when he was a world champion heavyweight boxer, was renowned for his knockout power. In the other is President Zelensky, the diminutive president who has demonstrated remarkable staying power during three years of war with President Putin.

The two men are perhaps Ukraine’s most internationally recognised politicians. But they are now effectively at war after a simmering grudge between them became public. Zelensky has forced Klitschko, who is said to harbour presidential ambitions despite an aborted run in 2014, into a political clinch from which his escape looks improbable. The president has used martial law to appoint a rival military administration in the capital to mirror the mayor’s responsibilities.

A senior Russian military officer accused of ordering deadly airstrikes on the Ukrainian city of Mariupol has been killed in an apparent suicide bombing in southern Russia.

Zaur Gurtziyev, a major in the Russian armed forces, died in a grenade blast in Stavropol, a city more than 700 miles from Moscow, according to Shot, a Telegram channel with links to the security services.

☠️ Participant of the war against Ukraine and first deputy mayor of the Russian city of Stavropol, 29-year-old Zaur Gurtsiev, died from a grenade explosion.

This monster led part of the strikes on Mariupol.

He implemented his developments in the technology of missile… pic.twitter.com/DNWapdtHXU

— MAKS 25 (@Maks_NAFO_FELLA) May 29, 2025

An acrid smell hangs over the town of Rodynske. A couple of minutes after we drive into the city we see where it’s coming from.

A 250kg glide bomb has ripped through the town’s main administrative building, and taken down three residential blocks. We’re visiting a day after the bomb struck, but parts of the wreckage are still smoking. From the edges of the town we hear the sound of artillery fire, and of gunshots – Ukrainian soldiers shooting down drones.

Rodynske is about 15km (9 miles) north of the embattled city of Pokrovsk. Russia has been trying to capture it from the south since the autumn of last year, but Ukrainian forces have so far managed to stop Russian soldiers from marching in.

Fiber optic drones are future in the drone warfare. Cable attach for signal and the anti-drone equipment doesn’t work on them. Only the good all shotgun works on everything, even on optic drones. pic.twitter.com/HU0Yc0huLY

— Tuth (@TUTHorchestra) January 14, 2025

The US, Britain, France and Germany have agreed to lift all remaining range restrictions on the weapons they have given Ukraine, according to the German chancellor.

The shift, which has yet to be confirmed by Washington, would be not only a symbolic gesture of support from the Trump administration but also a military fillip for Kyiv, which could use western-made cruise missiles to strike up to 200 miles inside Russia instead of confining itself to the border regions.

Friedrich Merz, Germany’s conservative chancellor, said Ukraine would be able to defend itself with “long-range fire”.

Faulty invisibility cloaks being used by Russian soldiers have turned Putin’s troops into sitting ducks for Ukrainian drones.

The coats and blankets are designed to hide army members from thermal and night vision sensors by masking their body heat.

The burning man died far from the front line. He was 55 years old and had two daughters. He sat back in the driver’s seat of his incinerated car, beyond help, the driver’s door open, smoke drifting off his body.

The main street in Kostiantynivka was deserted. No one wanted to linger, in case they should also be hunted down and similarly slain by a Russian FPV (first person view) drone. So the dead man burned unattended in his car outside the town hall, a scatter of drone fragments and rubble shards around him.

It took some time, but Ukraine now allows its prisoners to have early release in return for taking up a gun to fight Russia.

When he pulled a knife and robbed a jewellery shop in President Zelensky’s home city of Kryvyhi Rih, the convict and career criminal codenamed “Makar” was not thinking of a future in the army.

Yet since he was freed from prison along with thousands of other Ukrainian convicts last summer on condition they fought at the front, the 47-year-old, now a respected and wounded veteran of Ukraine’s 71st Jaeger Brigade, is certain that his life of crime and prison prepared him well for the stresses of war.

Makar is proud to have commanded three other convicted thieves — Zippo, Alavarez and Dronik — in an assault team sent up against Russian positions near the gutted city of Vovchansk.

link fixed

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke for more than two hours Monday, after the White House said the U.S. leader has grown “frustrated” with the conflict and planned a separate call with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in hopes of making progress toward a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Moscow is ready to work toward ending fighting in Ukraine, Putin said following the call. He said Russia was in favor of a “peaceful settlement” and that compromises would need to be found to suit both parties. He also described the conversation with Trump as “frank and meaningful.”

Big plumes of smoke are visible on a screen that’s providing a live feed from Ukrainian drones hovering over the outskirts of the eastern city of Pokrovsk, one of the most intense front lines in Ukraine.

A few seconds earlier, Ukrainian artillery strikes Russian positions, places where we’d seen Russian soldiers moving about as they try to advance towards a key road going into Pokrovsk.

At least one Russian soldier is injured, possibly dead after the strike.