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.
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.”
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 with Ukraine, 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.”
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 Stubbtelling 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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
‘At a time when Russia is trying to spread gloom and darkness … it is important to create something beautiful,’ says combat medic Tetiana as she weds army captain Oleksandr
In the bright early afternoon sun of Kramatorsk’s central and now ironically named Peace Square, Tetiana, in her bridal dress, and Oleksandr, in his military uniform, are holding up their phones at the ready. It is a public holiday, 35 years since Ukraine’s declaration of independence, and a popular day for a wedding, though the open-air location is not obviously ideal.
Three days earlier, Kramatorsk, perhaps Vladimir Putin’s principal target, was formally designated part of the combat zone, the front inching towards the city as Russia closes in on the parts of the Donetsk region it does not control. It is quiet at 2pm though; the ceremony brief. There are no guests other than the Guardian team.
Tetiana and Oleksandr pose for a wedding photo on Mount Karachun, near Sloviansk, the scene of fierce fighting in 2014.
There is little sign that public exhaustion, economic headwinds or increased Ukrainian strikes are changing the Russian leader’s view that he will eventually achieve victory.
Moscow recruits an estimated 1,000 people a day but western officials say it cannot keep up with casualty level
Russia is losing about 6,000 more troops in Ukraine each month than it can recruit, western officials have said.
While Russia is still acquiring new battlefield recruits at speed, with an estimated rate of 1,000 a day, in the last two months even this has not been sufficient to replace those killed or injured.
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