Reading view

Russia kills at least 12 on sixth night of drone attacks on Kyiv

Zelenskyy says Moscow is capitalising on shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors to lower morale in capital

At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.

Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four more in the surrounding region, after hours of air alerts culminating in a wave of strikes at about 2.30am.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

Russia kills at least 12 on sixth night of drone attacks on Kyiv

Zelenskyy says Moscow is capitalising on shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors to lower morale in capital

At least 12 people have been killed in and around Kyiv overnight as Ukraine’s capital endured a sixth consecutive night of Russian drone and missile attacks aimed at shattering infrastructure and lowering the morale of the city.

Eight of the dead were reported killed in Kyiv, including seven at a railway depot on the city’s left bank, and four more in the surrounding region, after hours of air alerts culminating in a wave of strikes at about 2.30am.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: State Emergency Service of Ukraine/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

German police investigating reported explosives at Brandenburg power substation – Europe live

Police responding to explosives reported in Turnow-Preilack, near the coal-fired Jänschwalde power plant

Over in Brussels, the European Commission is just starting its first midday briefing of the autumn.

It opens with an announcement that Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will receive Nato’s Mark Rutte tomorrow. This comes amid growing scrutiny of Russia’s activities on the eastern flank.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

German police investigating reported explosives at Brandenburg power substation – Europe live

Police responding to explosives reported in Turnow-Preilack, near the coal-fired Jänschwalde power plant

Over in Brussels, the European Commission is just starting its first midday briefing of the autumn.

It opens with an announcement that Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will receive Nato’s Mark Rutte tomorrow. This comes amid growing scrutiny of Russia’s activities on the eastern flank.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: John MacDougall/AFP/Getty Images

  •  

Ukraine war briefing: Pressure stays on Russian economy until war is over, says Bessent

US treasury secretary speaks with Russian counterpart who is controversially attending G20 talks; India’s Modi says war must end. What we know on day 1,651

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters

© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters

© Photograph: Oleksandr Ratushniak/Reuters

  •  

Kyiv suffers hours of daytime air raids as Russia deploys new jet-powered drones

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says about 800 Shahed drones fired into Ukraine in four days in effort to ‘wear down’ country

Kyiv is enduring hours of daytime air raids and air raid warnings as Russia has fired 800 jet-powered drones into Ukraine in four days, using the faster weapons to sustain prolonged waves of attacks

The new-model Shahed drones have a cruising speed of 200mph to 250mph , about double the 115mph achieved by the piston-engine version and beyond the speed of Ukraine’s cheap interceptors, making them harder to stop.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

© Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA

  •  

Germany poised to identify suspect in Leipzig drone attack on Ukrainian plane

Berlin expected to outline response to incident this month widely speculated to have been coordinated by Russia

The German government is imminently expected to announce who it believes was behind a suspected drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane earlier this month and to outline its response to the incident in coordination with its European and Nato partners.

The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told the public broadcaster ARD in an interview on Sunday evening: “We are in the process of concluding the investigations; we have reached a broad agreement within the federal government on how we will respond, and we will make this clear in the coming days. It won’t take much longer.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

  •  

Germany poised to identify suspect in Leipzig drone attack on Ukrainian plane

Berlin expected to outline response to incident this month widely speculated to have been coordinated by Russia

The German government is imminently expected to announce who it believes was behind a suspected drone attack on a Ukrainian cargo plane earlier this month and to outline its response to the incident in coordination with its European and Nato partners.

The chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told the public broadcaster ARD in an interview on Sunday evening: “We are in the process of concluding the investigations; we have reached a broad agreement within the federal government on how we will respond, and we will make this clear in the coming days. It won’t take much longer.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

© Photograph: Sebastian Willnow/DPA/AP

  •  

Europe Protests as U.S. Invites Russian Minister to G20 Finance Meeting

The meeting, which China and Russia are attending, is focused on the ongoing economic shock from the war in Iran, which has driven up oil prices globally.

© Melissa S. Gerrits/Reuters

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the Federal Reserve chairman, Kevin Warsh, in Asheville, N.C., before the summit. The International Monetary Fund has projected that global growth will slow this year and that inflation will rise.
  •  

‘Everything’s smashed to bits’: Ukrainians turn anger on those storing weapons near their villages

As Russia hits another ammunition warehouse, killing at least 38, locals put blame on poorly placed depots

It is a day and a half since a Russian jet-powered drone smashed into an ammunition dump in Myla, a village 15 miles outside central Kyiv. Volodymyr, 61, a security guard, leads visitors from his family’s badly damaged home, its roof blown off, back windows shattered, through the garden towards the impact site 300 metres away.

The garden, like so many in Ukraine’s villages and suburbs, is a sizeable allotment. But today the greenhouse is shattered, a vegetable patch is blackened and crisp underfoot. Several metres of grapevine have been destroyed. Even so, Volodymyr finds two surviving bunches to hand to the Guardian.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

  •  

‘Everything’s smashed to bits’: Ukrainians turn anger on those storing weapons near their villages

As Russia hits another ammunition warehouse, killing at least 38, locals put blame on poorly placed depots

It is a day and a half since a Russian jet-powered drone smashed into an ammunition dump in Myla, a village 15 miles outside central Kyiv. Volodymyr, 61, a security guard, leads visitors from his family’s badly damaged home, its roof blown off, back windows shattered, through the garden towards the impact site 300 metres away.

The garden, like so many in Ukraine’s villages and suburbs, is a sizeable allotment. But today the greenhouse is shattered, a vegetable patch is blackened and crisp underfoot. Several metres of grapevine have been destroyed. Even so, Volodymyr finds two surviving bunches to hand to the Guardian.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

  •  

Ukraine war briefing: Russia planning ‘massive strikes’ on power plants days after its deadliest attack of the year

Russia’s defence ministry preparing attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as death toll from warehouse strike rises to 38. What we know on day 1,650

Russia’s defence ministry says it is gearing up for large-scale attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in a tit-for-tat response to strikes by Kyiv. “Russian forces have begun preparations for massive strikes against facilities in Ukraine’s energy sector in response to the ongoing attacks by the Kyiv regime on civilian infrastructure and on Russia’s oil and energy complex,” it said on Telegram on Sunday. Last winter, Moscow repeatedly hit Ukrainian power plants, devastating the country’s energy sector and plunging millions of people into cold and darkness in sub-zero temperatures.

In comes as the death toll from a Russian strike on a warehouse west of Kyiv rose to 38, with four people still missing, making it the deadliest attack of the year, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Sunday. The Friday night strike on the warehouse, which Ukrainian officials said was storing ammunition, sparked massive explosions and fires that swept through dozens of nearby homes and buildings in the village of Myla.

Russian strikes on Kyiv on Saturday killed a 2-year-old girl and injured 12 others, the capital’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said. In the village of Bilbasovka in eastern Ukraine, a 13-year-old and an adult died after Russian troops dropped bombs on private houses on Sunday, according to local official Vadim Lyakh.

Meanwhile, a ⁠missile attack killed two ⁠people and ⁠injured another ​16 in the Russian ⁠city of Belgorod, close ⁠to the ​border ‌withUkraine, on ‌Sunday evening, the acting governor, Alexander Shuvayev, said on ‌Telegram. He said two ​people were killed after Ukraine hit ⁠a commercial facility, ​with the ​attack ​also causing ​fires ‌in ​seven ​warehouses in the city. Another ⁠person ⁠was ​killed ⁠in a Ukrainian ​attack ‌on ‌a mine ‌in the Russian-controlled ‌part of the Luhansk ​region ⁠in ​eastern Ukraine, ​the ​region’s Russian-installed ​governor, ‌Leonid ​Pasechnik, ​said.

Ukraine wants ⁠to bring forward part of ⁠a European ⁠Union ​loan earmarked for next year ⁠to help cover a $27bn budget ⁠deficit this year, ​said its defence ‌minister, Yevhenii Khmara. In comments to ‌reporters released on Sunday, he added that Kyiv’s war plan must be ‌clear to Ukraine’s partners, as well ​as across the military chain of command.

Khmara also said ⁠Ukraine has tested ​four ​potential interceptors to ​shoot down the ​jet-powered ‌drones ​Russia ​is increasingly firing at Ukraine. Swarms of the high-speed drones have plagued the capital Kyiv for four consecutive days, killing residents, damaging homes and warehouses and upending daily life.

Ukraine ⁠is preparing for further talks ⁠with ⁠representatives of ​the US president, Donald Trump, Zelenskyy said on ⁠Sunday. “There will ​be ‌more details ‌tomorrow. We ‌will do everything we can so that war does not remain ‌the only option for ​how events unfold further. It is important that ⁠America shares ​many of our ​views on ​the situation,” ​he ‌said ​in ​a televised statement.

A Nato official said on Sunday Russia is stepping up hybrid ⁠acts in Europe, but that at this time the alliance sees no imminent threat ⁠of attack. “Even as ⁠the ​Russians are facing very substantial resistance from Ukraine, they are stepping up attacks on Ukraine ⁠as well as hybrid acts in Europe,” the official said. “As always, Nato remains vigilant and alert to ⁠the variety of threats we face. At this time, we ​see no imminent threat ‌of attack,” the official ‌said, adding: “We continue to stand with Ukraine. And Nato continues ‌to work around the clock to keep our one billion people safe.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Dan Bashakov/AP

© Photograph: Dan Bashakov/AP

© Photograph: Dan Bashakov/AP

  •  

Ukraine war briefing: Nuclear plant has lost power and running on generators, UN watchdog says

Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia plant has 10-day diesel supply on site; Kyiv investigates deadly attack on warehouse. What we know on day 1,649

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine has been without off-site power for more than a week and is now relying on emergency diesel generators, the UN’s nuclear watchdog says. The plant, which needs power to keep its six non-operating reactors cool, has only a 10-day diesel supply on site, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said on Saturday.

“The availability of diesel fuel is of paramount importance whenever a nuclear power plant loses off-site power,” said agency director general Rafael Grossi. “The current situation once again shows why reliable external power and secure supply routes are indispensable for nuclear safety and security.” The plant had been supplied with diesel on Thursday and Friday from another off-site location, the IAEA added.

Zaporizhzhia lost its regular power supply “following military activity on the northern side of the Dnipro River”, the statement said. The IAEA said it was trying to negotiate a local ceasefire to allow repairs to electrical lines. The plant, in southern Ukraine, was seized by the Russian army in March 2022 and its six reactors have been shut down since that year.

Germany is reportedly preparing to blame Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport and impose sanctions on Russian entities. Friedrich Merz’s government is expected to announce the “extensive” measures in the next week, Politico reports, potentially alongside a new EU sanctions package.

Ukrainian prosecutors have opened an investigation into why munitions were stored so close to homes after a deadly Russian attack on a warehouse storing “explosive objects” near Kyiv’s western suburbs. At least 37 people were killed in the attack on the warehouse in Myla on Friday, making it the war’s deadliest attack this year, Donna Ferguson reports.

The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike.

The warehouse was a depot owned by the Ukrainian military and stored shells, drones and other munitions, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address. “The first impact was on a place where ammunition was being stored that absolutely should not have been there – a depot of the defence forces. [There was] detonation of shells, mines, other munitions and drones on a significant scale,” the Ukrainian president said.

Finland’s president said he did not believe Russia would risk an attack against a ⁠Nato country, with Alexander Stubb telling the Bild newspaper that it would “make no sense” to test the resolve of the alliance. “I simply see neither evidence nor facts to support it,” ​he told Bild, adding that he ‌did not believe that Russia “would ever want to attack Nato, the world’s most powerful military ‌alliance”.

Stubb, whose country joined Nato in 2023, said the alliance had to be prepared for any scenario but he did not believe Moscow was in a position to go to war with Nato. “It makes no sense ​for any power in the world to test the resolve of this alliance.”

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

© Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

© Photograph: Alexander Ermochenko/Reuters

  •  

Russian strike on a Ukrainian warehouse kills 37 in the war's deadliest attack this year

The Friday night attack on the warehouse in Myla, a village in the Bucha district, came on the second of three days of nearly round-the-clock Russian strikes that have severely disrupted life in and around the Ukrainian capital.

  •  

Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels in UK waters

Three vessels and a helicopter deployed to monitor four ships travelling through the North Sea to the Channel

The Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels as they passed through UK waters, it has emerged.

The “intense” 72-hour operation took place last week, with radars used to monitor four ships that made their way from the North Sea through to the Channel.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

  •  

Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels in UK waters

Three vessels and a helicopter deployed to monitor four ships travelling through the North Sea to the Channel

The Royal Navy spent three days tracking Russian vessels as they passed through UK waters, it has emerged.

The “intense” 72-hour operation took place last week, with radars used to monitor four ships that made their way from the North Sea through to the Channel.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos Jasso/Reuters

  •  

Russian drone strike on Kyiv warehouse storing weapons kills at least 37

Ukrainian prosecutors open investigation into why munitions were stored so close to residential buildings

At least 37 people have been killed after a Russian drone struck a warehouse near Kyiv’s western suburbs that was storing “explosive objects”.

The attack damaged at least 50 residential buildings, including a care home for elderly and disabled people, and sparked a huge fire and explosions in the Bucha district of the Kyiv region. The regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko, said a further 42 people, including four children, had been injured in the strike.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Aleksandr Gusev/SOPA Images/Shutterstock

  •  
❌