Latest news with #Kharkiv
Asharq Al-Awsat
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Asharq Al-Awsat
At Least 14 Injured in Russia's Overnight Attack on Ukraine's Odesa
At least 14 people were injured when Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian Black Sea city of Odesa overnight, damaging high-rise buildings and railway infrastructure, local authorities said on Friday. Odesa is Ukraine's largest Black Sea port, key for imports and exports, and has been under constant missile and drone attacks by Russia since the war began. "Despite the active work of air defense forces, there is damage to civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, a higher education institution, a gas pipeline and private cars," local governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram messenger. Kiper released photos of burning houses and charred high-rise buildings. Local emergencies service said that during the attack there were at least 10 drone strikes on residential buildings, causing massive fires. Ukraine's air force said on Friday that Russia had launched 86 drones on Ukraine overnight. The military noted its air defense units shot down 34 drones while another 36 drones were lost - in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them - or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. However, the military reported that drones hit 8 locations. Ukrainian state railways Ukrzaliznytsia reported that Odesa railway station was damaged during the attack, with power wires and rails damaged. Russian drones also attacked Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine overnight, damaging several private and multi-storey houses, Kharkiv officials said.
Al Jazeera
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,220
Here is how things stand on Saturday, June 28: Fighting Ukraine's military has said it struck four Russian Su-34 warplanes at the Marinovka base outside Russia's city of Volgograd, some 900km (550 miles) from the Ukrainian border. A Russian missile attack has killed at least five people and wounded more than 20 in Samar in Ukraine's southeast, in the second strike on the industrial city in three days. Russian troops have captured the village of Nova Kruhlyakivka in Ukraine's eastern Kharkiv region, Russia's state news agency TASS reported. A Russian attack has damaged an 'important power facility' in Ukraine's southern Kherson region, causing power cuts in some settlements in the region, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. A Ukrainian drone attack on Russia's Kursk region injured a war correspondent from Chinese news outlet Phoenix TV, Russian authorities said, as they urged the United Nations to respond to the incident. Ukraine's air force said it downed 359 out of 363 drones and six of eight missiles launched by Russia in an overnight attack. Russia's drone production jumped by 16.9 percent in May compared with the previous month, data from a think tank close to the government showed, after President Vladimir Putin called for output to be stepped up. Ceasefire deal United States President Donald Trump said he thinks something will happen in Russia's war in Ukraine that would get it 'settled', citing his recent call with Putin but offering no other details. Putin said relations between Russia and the US were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by President Trump. Putin reiterated that he had 'great respect' for the US leader and was willing to meet him. Putin also said Moscow was ready to hold a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue have yet to be agreed. NATO Lithuania has notified the UN that it is leaving the treaty banning antipersonnel landmines. It joins Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Poland – all NATO and European Union members bordering Russia – in withdrawing from the treaty, citing the increased military danger from their Russian neighbour. The Kremlin said Estonia's stated readiness to host NATO allies' US-made F-35A stealth jets, capable of carrying nuclear weapons, posed a direct threat to Moscow. Putin said Russia was looking to cut its military expenditure from next year, contrasting that with NATO's plan to raise its collective spending goal to 5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in the next 10 years. Sanctions Senator Ron Wyden, the top Senate Finance Committee Democrat, pressed US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to commit to enforcing Ukraine-related sanctions against Russia and to clarify comments about Russia rejoining an international bank payments network. Wyden also sought answers on how the US-Ukraine critical minerals deal and investment agreement would help improve Ukraine's post-war security and not benefit any entity or country that aided Russia's war effort. Ukraine plans to ask the EU to sanction Bangladeshi entities it says are importing wheat taken from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, after its warnings to Dhaka failed to stop the trade, a top Ukrainian diplomat in South Asia said.
Al Jazeera
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russia kills 5 in Ukraine's Samar, as Putin seems ready for new peace talks
Russian forces have continued to hammer Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, launching a deadly attack on the industrial city of Samar for the second time in three days. Friday's missile attack killed five people and injured 23 others in southeastern Samar – located outside the region's main city, Dnipro – said regional governor Sergiy Lysak in a post on Telegram. At least four of the wounded were in severe condition and were taken to hospital, he added. The attack followed missile strikes earlier this week on both Dnipro and Samar, which killed at least 23, as Russian forces attempted to gain a foothold in Dnipropetrovsk for the first time in over three years of war. Officials gave no immediate details about the damage inflicted on Samar, where an attack on an unidentified infrastructure facility on Tuesday killed two people. Moscow earlier this week claimed to have captured two more villages near the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region. Separately, authorities in Ukraine's northern region of Kharkiv said Russian attacks killed one person and wounded three others. Hundreds of kilometres to the south, in the Kherson region, authorities urged residents on Friday to prepare for extended periods without power after a Russian attack hit a key energy facility. Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram that 'Russians decided to plunge the region into darkness'. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had launched 363 long-range drones and eight missiles overnight into Friday, claiming that air defences stopped all but four of the drones and downed six cruise missiles. Russia's Defence Ministry, meanwhile, said 39 Ukrainian drones were downed in several regions overnight, including 19 over the Rostov region and 13 over the Volgograd region. 'Find a path' in peace talks The continued attacks on Dnipropetrovsk came as President Vladimir Putin said that he intended to scale back military expenditure and also indicated he was ready for a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine. The Russian president said his country was ready to reduce the military budget in the long term, owing to budgetary pressures and the increased defence spending having fuelled inflation. Speaking to reporters in Minsk, Belarus, on Friday, he alluded to a new round of peace negotiations with Ukraine, potentially in Istanbul, although the time and venue had yet to be agreed. He acknowledged that the peace proposals from Russia and Ukraine 'are two absolutely contradictory memorandums', but added, 'That's why negotiations are being organised and conducted, in order to find a path to bringing them closer together.' Putin added that the two sides' negotiators were in constant contact and that Russia was ready to return the bodies of 3,000 more Ukrainian soldiers. He also said relations between Russia and the United States were beginning to stabilise, attributing the improvement to efforts by US President Donald Trump. 'In general, thanks to President Trump, relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out in some ways,' said Putin. Trump on Friday suggested progress may be on the horizon regarding Russia's war in Ukraine. 'We're working on that one,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'President Putin called up and he said, I'd love to help you with Iran. I said, do me a favour: I'll handle Iran. Help me with Russia. We got to get that one settled. And I think something's going to happen there.'
The Sun
a day ago
- Politics
- The Sun
Russians advance slower than a SNAIL with 50k pinned down as Putin's summer offensive mired in Ukraine's ‘dronegrinder'
THE Russian invasion of Ukraine has been advancing at an incredibly slow pace - with Kyiv's "dronegrinder" warfare miring Putin's summer offensive. The rate at which Moscow is capturing land has been dubbed "slower than a snail" - all while the human cost of Russian casualties is sky high. 8 8 8 After 448 days of fighting inside Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast, the Russians reportedly only managed to take control of 50 per cent of the city. Which means the troops, on average, are only able to take 0.00629 square miles of land per day - which is a painfully low conversion rate. Even snails, which have a speed of 0.03 miles per hour, can cover more land than what the Russians have gained in the region. Meanwhile, Kyiv has ramped up its defences as it seeks to thwart Vladimir Putin's final killer summer offensive, which military analysts say could start as early as July. Ukraine's fierce resistance forced Russian troops to stop in the Sumy region's border area, Kyiv's military Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky revealed. The military boss said that the Ukrainian armed forces managed to tie down a 50,000-strong force and stabilise the frontlines "as of this week". It comes after Putin cemented his territorial ambitions by proclaiming "all of Ukraine" belonged to Russia and threatening to seize Sumy. Some 125,000 Russian soldiers are reportedly massing along the Sumy and Kharkiv frontiers, according to Ukraine's military intelligence. Ukrainians have now tasked a special defence group to strengthen fortifications near the frontlines, build anti-drone corridors and 'kill zones' Vladimir Putin rages 'all of Ukraine is ours' as he threatens to seize key city while Kyiv slams tyrant as 'deranged' Though the Russian forces recently seized Andriivka (north of Sumy City) and advanced southeast of Oleksiivka, according to the ISW assessment. Putin's battlefield casualties have soared past the bloody one million milestone after 40 months of meatgrinder war. Ukraine's fierce resistance forced Russia to pay a mighty toll for every inch of land it has taken, and its advances remain painfully slow. The staggering milestone includes troops who have been killed or wounded so severely that they cannot fight on. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, one million Russian military troops have been put out of action since February 24, 2022, with 628,000 of those casualties occurring in the last six months. Burning through a million troops has won Putin just 20 per cent of Ukraine's total territory - mainly in southern and eastern areas - which is a humiliating conversion rate. A defiant Ukraine stunned the world with its new-age drone warfare, which now kills more Russians than conventional battlefield techniques, such as artillery firing and battle tanks. One-way attack drones now account for almost 80 per cent of all the casualties in the war, with experts now dubbing it a "dronegrinder" war. Inside Operation Spiderweb By James Halpin, Foreign News Reporter UKRAINE'S shock sleeper drone blitz on Russia's bomber fleet has delivered a hammer blow to Vladimir Putin's nuclear arsenal. The SAS-style strike against four airfields deep inside Russia is reminiscent of the most daring raids of the WW2 that turned the tide against the Nazis. Volodymyr Zelensky oversaw Operation Spiderweb - much like Winston Churchill did as Britain struck deep behind enemy lines. Putin's doomsday bomber fleet is now crippled with 41, or a third, of his most prized aircraft lying in smouldering wrecks on tarmac. Ukraine said the sneak attack was worth $7bn (£5.2bn) in damage to Russia - caused by only 117 cheaply made drones. Ukraine's spies spent 18 months putting the plan into action and struck on the eve of fresh peace talks in Istanbul. The drones and the containers were smuggled into Russia separately and were pieced together right under Vlad's nose. Clueless lorry drivers then parked the containers next to Russian airbases - where they sat and waited in plain sight. Then, on the morning of June 1, the fleet of flying bombs rose over the far reaches of Russia - and the most daring military operation of the war began. Nondescript shipping containers parked in laybys and verges had attracted little attention - before their lids blew open and the drone swarms poured out. The craft buzzed as they took off into the air and only had to travel a short distance to their valuable targets. Each of the 117 drones had their own dedicated pilot and Russia had little defences to protect their bases and stop them. Drones with cameras sent video back to HQ in Ukraine of the moment craft struck their targets and explosions ripped into the sky. Thick black smoke climbed high, with civilians near the bases sending video of Ukraine's successes around the world. The furthest strike was Belaya Air Base - so far inside Russia that the closest neighbouring country is Mongolia. Olenya Air Base near Finland and Ivanovo and Dyagilevo near Moscow were also struck in the country's west. IS PUTIN BLUFFING? Some senior commanders in Ukraine believe the Russian attack on Sumy could be a feint and that Moscow is actually preparing to attack further south to push further into the Donbas. If so, Russia is likely to attack through three areas near each other in the Donbas - Kramatorsk, Kostiantynivka, and Pokrovsk. Vlad already controls more than 95 per cent of Luhansk, but capturing Donetsk would cement his control over the Donbas region and achieve a war aim, albeit a scaled-down one. The Donbas is an important industrial and mining area - and some 200,000 to 300,000 people still live in four cities controlled by Ukraine. Moscow's military planners will be weighing up whether they want to fight through the cities like they did in Bakhmut or encircle them by going around through farmland. 8 Kramatorsk is the closest city to the front line and is under constant attack by Russia. Brutal fighting is going on in the city - with a recent kamikaze drone strike that managed to get inside an armoured vehicle carrying Ukrainian soldiers. Russia has an opportunity to conduct a pincer movement around Kostiantynivka with its soldiers controlling land to the east and west of the city. Instead of attacking the city directly, the could bypass it and attack Druzhkivka behind it - thereby cutting Kostiantynivka and any Ukrainian soldiers still there off. In nearby Pokrovsk, Russia already has a salient, a bulge, out from the front line after a previous advance. The Pokrovsk front line is also very near Dnipropetrovsk Oblast - a region of Ukraine the Kremlin hasn't yet officially claimed. A successful breakthrough there might mean Putin can actually expand his war goals. 8 THE SOVIET RHETORIC It comes after Putin reaffirmed his long-held claim that Russians and Ukrainians are "one people". He declared: "In that sense, all of Ukraine is ours. "There is a saying: wherever a Russian soldier sets foot, that is ours," he added. The narrative is central to Putin's rhetoric, which he has used to justify his invasion of Ukraine. He reiterated his demand that Kyiv accept the realities of Moscow's territorial gains and abandon plans to join Nato. Putin said: "We aren't seeking Ukraine's surrender, we want them to recognise the realities on the ground," adding that Moscow has repeatedly warned Kyiv to make a deal. 8 8 Asked about Moscow's goals in Ukraine, Putin threatened to take Sumy - a key Ukrainian city - as part of the creation of a "buffer zone". He repeated that Moscow was "advancing on all fronts" and that his troops had penetrated up to seven miles into the Sumy region. Putin said: "We have to create a security zone along the border. "We have no objective to take Sumy, but in principle I do not rule it out... They pose a constant threat to us, constantly shelling the border areas." Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga described Putin's comments as "deranged" and called for Kyiv's allies to slap "devastating sanctions" on Russia. 8
BBC News
2 days ago
- Politics
- BBC News
Ukrainian forces halt Russian advance in Sumy region, says army chief
The head of Ukraine's army, Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi, has said his troops have stopped Russian advances in the northeastern border region of a visit to the front on Thursday, Syrskyi said the line of combat had been "stabilised" and that the Russian summer offensive in the area had been "choked off".However, Syrskyi also added that he had personally gone to check on fortifications in the region and that more were urgently comments on the successes of the Ukrainian troops in Sumy back recent statements by Ukrainian officials that Russia's pressure on the region was declining. However, the situation remained "volatile", Border Guard spokesperson Andriy Demchenko said earlier this borders the Russian region of Kursk, parts of which were seized and occupied last year by Ukrainian forces in a surprise offensive before being almost totally driven out months Kursk incursion was an embarrassment for Russia and in April President Vladimir Putin announced a plan to create "security buffer zones" along the border to provide "additional support" to areas in Russia which border Ukraine's Kharkiv, Sumy and Chernihiv has been pushing in the Sumy area with renewed effort since then. In late May Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky said 50,000 of Russia's "largest, strongest" troops were concentrated along the border and were planning to create a 10km (6-mile) buffer in maps: Tracking the war with RussiaThere has been criticism about the lack of fortifications in some areas of the Sumy region - and in his statement on Thursday Syrskyi tried to quell growing public concerns over delays in their construction. "Additional fortifications, the establishment of 'kill zones', the construction of anti-drone corridors to protect our soldiers and ensure more reliable logistics for our troops are obvious tasks that are being carried out," he said. However, Syrskyi acknowledged that these improvements had to be done better and more the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the lack of fortifications in certain parts of Ukraine allowed Moscow to make advances across the country - from its northern borders and from the illegally annexed Crimean peninsula. The window of opportunity to build fortifications in Sumy safely and quickly was in autumn 2024, when Ukrainian troops were still advancing in the Russia's border Kursk region and Sumy remained relatively unscathed. Now may be too late, as Russia is undoubtedly well aware of the sections of the front line that lack strong fortifications. In the last several months Moscow has claimed to have captured several villages while pummelling the city of Sumy with heavy missile strikes, killing dozens. A single ballistic missile attack on 13 April killed at least 34 people and injured 117. DeepState, a group that monitors the latest frontline developments in Ukraine, has quoted sources as confirming that combat is raging in various unfortified areas of Sumy. The delays with erecting "much-needed fortifications" or the "low quality of some of the dugouts" could no longer be ignored, DeepState analysts said. Asked about the summer offensive at a forum in St Petersburg last week, Putin said Russia did not "have the goal of capturing Sumy, but I don't rule it out". He said Russian forces had already established a buffer zone of 8-12km in full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022, is now well into its fourth year. Large-scale Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian cities are on the rise. In recent weeks the capital Kyiv was targeted with record numbers of drones that overwhelm air defences and cause deadly explosions. Recent rounds of talks between Ukraine and Russia resulted in large prisoner exchanges but have so far failed to produce any tangible progress towards a ceasefire. Earlier this week Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte said that European and Canadian allies had pledged €35bn (£30bn; $41bn) to Ukraine. But there remains nervousness in Kyiv over the level of US President Donald Trump's commitment to the Ukrainian cause and his volatile relationship with Zelensky. However, Trump said on Wednesday a meeting he held with Zelensky on the sidelines of the Nato summit in The Hague "couldn't have been nicer". He told BBC Ukraine's Myroslava Petsa at a press conference afterwards that he was considering supplying Kyiv with US Patriot air defence missiles to defend itself against Russian strikes. "We're going to see if we could make some available. You know, they're very hard to get," he said.
