Russia's military losses top 1 million in 3-year-old war, Ukraine's military says
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Ukraine responded to the Russian attacks with drone raids. Russia's Defense Ministry said that air defenses downed 52 Ukrainian drones early Thursday, including 41 over the Belgorod region that borders Ukraine. Regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said three people were injured by Ukrainian attacks.
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The recent escalation in aerial attacks has come alongside a renewed Russian battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 600-mile) front line.
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While Russian missile and drone barrage have struck regions all across Ukraine, regions along the front line have faced daily Russian attacks with short-range exploding drones and glide bombs.
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On Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed its troops captured two more villages in the Donetsk region, Oleksiivka and Petrivske. The Ukrainian military had no immediate comment on the Russian claim.
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The attacks have continued despite discussions of a potential ceasefire in the war. During their June 2 talks in Istanbul, Russian and Ukrainian negotiators traded memorandums containing sharply divergent conditions that both sides see as nonstarters, making a quick deal unlikely.
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The only tangible outcome of the talks was an agreement to exchange prisoners of war and the bodies of fallen soldiers.
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Russia and Ukraine conducted another POW swap on Thursday that included severely wounded and gravely ill captives, although the sides did not report the numbers.
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'Our people are coming home,' Zelenskyy said in a statement on Telegram. 'All of them require medical treatment, and they will receive the necessary help. This is already the second stage of returning those who are severely wounded and seriously ill.'
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According to Ukraine's Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, some of the repatriated soldiers had been listed as missing in action. The oldest among them is 59, the youngest is 22, he said.
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At the same time, Rutte criticized Putin for appointing his aide Vladimir Medinsky as the top negotiator for the talks in Istanbul. Medinsky ascended through the Kremlin ranks after writing a series of books exposing purported Western plots against Russia and denigrating Ukraine.
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'I think that the Russians sending this historian now twice to these talks in Istanbul, trying to start with the history of 1,000 years ago and then explaining more or less that Ukraine is at fault here, I think that's not helpful,' Rutte said. 'But at least step by step, we try to make progress.'
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Also on Thursday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit, noting the stepped-up Russian attacks send a message from Moscow that it has 'no interest in a peaceful solution at present,' according to German news agency dpa.
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Pistorius said his visit underlines that the new German government continues to stand by Ukraine.
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'Of course this will also be about how the support of Germany and other Europeans will look in future — what we can do, for example, in the area of industrial cooperation, but also other support,' he said.
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