“Ukraine – Russia”

President Putin “very strongly” set out his intention to retaliate against Ukraine for its devastating attacks on Russian airfields, President Trump said after they held a 75-minute phone call.

Putin’s determination to respond to Sunday’s drone assault signals an escalation of the war, which Trump vowed to end on his first day. Trump admitted that it was “not a conversation that will lead to immediate peace”.

The pair had last spoken on May 19, in a discussion Trump said went “very well” and would lead to immediate face-to-face Russia-Ukraine talks. Since then the fighting has only intensified.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy silently planned Drone attacks on Russia for 18 months

Yesterday Ukraine destroyed 40+ Bomber aircrafts capable of carrying nuclear warheads & extensively damaged Russia's Pearl Harbour.

Zelenskyy never sold ukraine to the US pic.twitter.com/zlxGiK6WhW

— Ravinder Kapur. (@RavinderKapur2) June 3, 2025

Russia is projected to surpass the grim milestone of one million soldiers killed or wounded in action within the coming weeks amid a mounting summer offensive in Ukraine.

Despite continuing peace talks, Moscow has intensified its offensive action on the eastern front in Donbas and along the northern border in the Sumy region, capturing more territory in May than in any month since the end of 2024.

Russian forces are now taking an average of 14 sq km per day, twice as much as in April, according to Ukraine’s Deep State website, which monitors frontline movements.

On May 9, Russian troops paraded their tanks, armoured vehicles and missiles through Red Square, past the man who sent them to war in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin.

The Victory Day procession in Moscow also showcased, for the first time, the military drones that have proven indispensable to Putin’s invasion. But Russian drones are not really Russian on the inside.

They are built out of electronics purchased around the world by a global procurement network that allegedly relies on suppliers in several countries, including Canada.

Russia offered Ukraine a limited ceasefire to collect the bodies of soldiers from the battlefield, Moscow’s lead negotiator said after today’s peace talks in Istanbul.

Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to Vladimir Putin, said the truce would be for “two to three days in certain areas of the front line…so that commanders can collect the bodies”.

It is not yet clear if Ukraine has agreed to the proposal. Russia has previously announced limited ceasefires, but Kyiv is pushing for a full and unconditional truce.

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.