Russian forces launched a devastating five-hour drone assault on Kyiv on Tuesday in one of the largest attacks on the capital of the war so far.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing a total of seven people.
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said four people were injured in the attack on the capital, which sparked fires across the city.
In a statement posted on Telegram, Mr Zelensky said: “Every night, instead of a ceasefire, there have been massive strikes with Shaheds, cruise missiles and ballistics. Today was one of the largest strikes on Kyiv. Odesa, the Dnipro region and Chernihiv region were also targeted.”
The attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war.
Kyiv had been anticipating a strong Russian response to its Operation Spider Web attack on June 1 that hit Russian aircraft.
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Key Points
- Seven dead after barrage of Russian drone strikes across Ukraine
- Two killed in Russian attack on maternity ward in Odesa
- 'Our people are home,' Zelensky says as young POWs return from Russia
- Kyiv ‘damages more fighter jets in nighttime raid’ after success of Operation Spiderweb
- Russia is already at war with Britain, defence adviser warns
Boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk challenges Trump to live in his house for a week
15:23
,
Alex Croft
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk sends invitation to Trump over Russian war
14:55
,
Alex Croft
Oleksandr Usyk has challenged Donald Trump to spend a week in Ukraine, at his home, to witness firsthand the realities of the conflict.
The invitation comes after Trump claimed he could resolve the war "in 24 hours" before became US president. With the conflict now past its third year since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, Usyk believes Trump needs a deeper understanding of the situation.
Speaking to the BBC, Usyk, the current WBC, WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion, painted a stark picture of life in Ukraine. He stated, "I advise American president Donald Trump to go to Ukraine and live in my house for one week, only one week."
Ukraine's path to Nato membership 'irreversible', says Rutte
14:52
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Alex Croft
Political commitment to Ukraine’s future in Nato will not change even if it is not explicitly mentioned in a communique published following a summit in the Hague, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Monday.
"The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit," Mr Rutte said at Chatham House in London, according to The Kyiv Independent.
"Whether it is again in the communique or not, I think that's not relevant, because all the language we previously agreed on is there — until we decide it is no longer there."
The Nato summit will take place from June 24-25, and Mr Rutte said the following communique may exclude Russia and Ukraine.
Orban: Russians are too weak to attack Nato
13:30
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Alex Croft
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has said Russia is too weak to attack Nato, noting that it is “not even capable of defeating Ukraine”.
Regarded as the EU’s most pro-Russian leader, Mr Orban said it would not be in the bloc’s interest to have a “direct conflict with Russia” and therefore Ukraine must not join Nato.
But he added that Russia would not be capable of taking on Nato, while speaking with French TV channel LCI according to The Kyiv Independent.
"The Russians are too weak for that," he said. "They're not even capable of defeating Ukraine, so they're incapable of really attacking NATO."
"Europe must be strengthened in the long term, and there must be a strategic agreement with Russia," he said, adding that sanctions against Russia are "destroying Hungary and the whole of Europe."
More pictures of Russian attack on Odesa
13:20
,
Alex Croft
Moscow confirms strikes on Kyiv
13:00
,
Alex Croft
Russian forces struck Kyiv with high-precision weapons and drones overnight, Russia's TASS state news agency cited the defence ministry as saying on Tuesday.
The ministry claimed it had struck military targets - but Ukraine and its allies have repeatedly cast Moscow’s definition of military targets as dubious.
The air strikes on Kyiv, among the largest in over three years of war, were part of intensified bombardments that Moscow says are retaliation for attacks by Ukrainian forces on Russia.
Ukraine says the strikes hit civilian targets and at least four people were treated in hospital.
Russia has been ready to return dead Ukrainian soldiers 'for several days' - Kremlin
12:33
,
Alex Croft
Russia has been ready to return the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war “for several days”, the Kremlin has claimed.
Moscow and Kyiv are still in talks on the subject, the Kremlin said
On Saturday Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky said the Russian side had shown up at the agreed exchange point with the bodies of 1,212 Ukrainian dead soldiers only to find nobody from Ukraine to take them.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Moscow of "trying to play some kind of dirty political and information game" around the issue of the exchanges.
The exchange was agreed during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2. The Kremlin said it did not yet know exactly how many bodies of Russian soldiers Ukraine was ready to hand over.
Flights halted in Moscow as Ukraine launches drone attacks
12:11
,
Alex Croft
Russia has been forced to observe a temporary suspension of flights at all airports serving Moscow and the country's second-largest city St Petersburg due to an overnight drone attack by Ukraine, Russian officials reported this morning.
Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said.
Nearly half of the drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said. At least three drones were downed over the Moscow region and two over the Leningrad region, of which St Petersburg is the regional capital.
Russian officials only report how many were downed, not the number Ukraine launched.Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporarily halted flights at all four major airports serving Moscow and St Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport as well as at airports in nine other cities to ensure safety, it said on Telegram.
Flights in Moscow and some other cities were restored by morning, but restrictions were still in place in St Petersburg at 0430 GMT.
Regional governors, who wrote about the attacks on Telegram, did not report any damage caused by the attacks.
Watch: Russian missile hits hospital in Odesa
11:26
,
Daniel Keane
Two people were killed after Russian drone attacks residential buildings and a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Odesa on Monday night.
Regional officials said a maternity ward was damaged in the attack, which injured 13 people in the port city.
Kremlin says it is still talking to Ukraine about exchanging bodies of dead soldiers
11:05
,
Daniel Keane
The Kremlin has said it is in talks with Kyiv over the return of bodies of Ukrainian soldiers killed in the war.
It said some of the bodies were still waiting inside refrigerated trucks for a handover.
Russia has previously said that the trucks, initially carrying over 1,000 bodies, have been parked near an exchange point since at least Saturday for Ukraine to collect and has complained that Kyiv has not yet done so.
Such an exchange was agreed during a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.
Analysis | The West squandered the post-Cold War peace
10:13
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Alex Croft
World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Nato chief Mark Rutte has called for a 400 per cent boost to air and missile capabilities – and his demand to raise defence spending across the alliance to 5 per cent has raised the voices of doom to a scream.
A return to Cold War levels of defence spending is not, however, a hysterical plea from a lackey of the military-industrial complex.
It is a sad acknowledgement that the peace dividend that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union has been squandered by the West in a pointless war in Afghanistan and a criminal conflict in Iraq which expanded the list of peoples with a good reason to hate democracy.
But there were plenty around already. Vladimir Putin is one of them, Xi Jinping is another – Donald Trump is rushing to their ranks. Autocracy is on the rise around the world while democracies have been consumed by complacency.
Latest images of heavy Russian drone attack on Kyiv
09:56
,
Alex Croft
Bulletin | Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners of war as fighting continues
09:40
,
Alex Croft
Seven killed in barrage of Russian drone strikes across Ukraine
09:23
,
Alex Croft
At least seven people were killed as Russia launched a barrage of drone attacks across Ukraine.
Three were killed in the eastern Donetsk region, two in the southern Odesa region, one in the southern Kherson region and one in the central Dnipropetrovsk region.
At least 34 others were injured in the mass drone strikes, local authorities reported.
Russia launched 315 drones at Ukraine overnight on Tuesday, 284 of which were shot down by Ukraine’s air force, it said on Telegram.
Watch: Mark Rutte issues Nato defence warning: 'You better learn to speak Russian'
09:11
,
Alex Croft
Ukraine's path to Nato membership 'irreversible', says Rutte
09:03
,
Alex Croft
Political commitment to Ukraine’s future in Nato will not change even if it is not explicitly mentioned in a communique published following a summit in the Hague, Nato secretary-general Mark Rutte said on Monday.
"The irreversible path of Ukraine into NATO is there, and it is my assumption that it is still there after the summit," Mr Rutte said at Chatham House in London, according to The Kyiv Independent.
"Whether it is again in the communique or not, I think that's not relevant, because all the language we previously agreed on is there — until we decide it is no longer there."
The Nato summit will take place from June 24-25, and Mr Rutte said the following communique may exclude Russia and Ukraine.
Kyiv main target of overnight attack as 284 drones shot down - Ukrainian air force
08:43
,
Alex Croft
Let’s bring you more details on Russia’s mass drone attack on Ukraine last night.
The Ukrainian air force shot down 284 of the 315 drones fired by Russia overnight, it said on Tuesday, adding that Kyiv was the principal target of the attack.
Of the drones, 220 were shot down by fire weapons and 64 disappeared from the radar, the air force said.
Russia used 315 Shahed-type drones, two KN-23 ballistic missiles and five Iskander-K cruise missiles ballistic missiles in the attack, along with various types of decoy drones.
In pictures: Destruction in Odesa after major drone strike
08:27
,
Alex Croft
Russia launches 315 drones, says Zelensky, in one of war's biggest drone attacks
08:08
,
Alex Croft
Volodomyr Zelensky has now confirmed on X that Russia launched 315 drones at sites across Ukraine - making it one of the largest attacks of the war.
Seven missiles, including two North Korean-made ballistic missiles, were involved in the attack according to the Ukrainian president.
“Residential buildings and urban infrastructure were damaged. In Odesa, even a maternity hospital became a Russian target. Thirteen people were injured. Tragically, there are fatalities,” he said.
Russian missile and Shahed strikes drown out the efforts of the United States and others around the world to force Russia into peace. For yet another night, instead of a ceasefire, there were massive strikes with Shahed drones, cruise and ballistic missiles. Today was one of the… pic.twitter.com/t3uEzzoCsL
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 10, 2025
Two killed in Russian attack on maternity ward in Odesa
07:44
,
Arpan Rai
Russia launched another prolonged drone attack on Ukraine, killing two people and damaging swathes of Kyiv as well as striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, officials said early this morning.
In the southern port of Odesa, a "massive" overnight drone attack targeted an emergency medical building and a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, said regional governor Oleh Kiper.
At least two men were killed in the attack, and nine people were injured, according to the Ukrainian prosecutors. Patients and staff were safely evacuated from the maternity hospital, Kiper added.
He posted photos of broken windows in what looked like a medical facility and of damage to the facade of several buildings.
The overnight strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault on Ukraine on Monday – part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks in Russia.
Poland's new president says Russia is country's 'greatest threat'
07:14
,
Arpan Rai
Poland’s newly elected president Karol Nawrocki has warned that Russia is the “biggest threat” his country faces, as he expressed a desire to meet with Hungary’s Viktor Orban, who is perhaps the European leader most closely aligned with Vladimir Putin.
It was not yet clear what Mr Nawrocki’s policy on Ukraine would be, but he reiterated that he opposed Kyiv’s plans to join the European Union.
However, Poland supports Ukraine strategically, because “the greatest threat to me, as an anti-communist, and in my opinion to the entire region, is the Russian Federation”, he said.
Mr Nawrocki claimed that “Ukraine must also understand that other countries – including Poland, Hungary, and other European nations – have interests of their own.”
And in his first foreign interview, given to a Hungarian magazine Mandiner, Mr Nawrocki said that Budapest is a “very important partner for Poland”, adding: “We are facing serious tasks, such as building the Visegrad Group, which will be an important format for me, as well as strengthening Nato’s eastern flank and the Bucharest Nine.”
He added: “I certainly wish to meet prime minister Viktor Orban, who is a very effective politician, as proven by his repeated election results in Hungary. And I count on good cooperation with him, just as with other countries, in the interest of the region.”
Mr Orban said on Friday that Mr Nawrocki’s victory was “fantastically good”, hailing the success of an ally of US president Donald Trump.
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk sends invitation to Trump over Russian war
06:59
,
Arpan Rai
Oleksandr Usyk has challenged Donald Trump to spend a week in Ukraine, at his home, to witness firsthand the realities of the conflict.
The invitation comes after Trump claimed he could resolve the war "in 24 hours" before became US president. With the conflict now past its third year since Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, Usyk believes Trump needs a deeper understanding of the situation.
Speaking to the BBC, Usyk, the current WBC, WBA, and WBO heavyweight champion, painted a stark picture of life in Ukraine. He stated, "I advise American president Donald Trump to go to Ukraine and live in my house for one week, only one week."
Zelensky confirms Ukraine and Russia have begun prisoner of war exchange
06:49
,
Arpan Rai
Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that Ukraine and Russia have exchanged prisoners of war, the first swap since the two nations engaged in a second round of peace talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
The Ukrainian president said that the swap involved those that are seriously wounded as well as those under the age of 25.
“I thank everyone who is helping to carry out the exchange and working to ensure that all our people can return home – home from Russian captivity,” he said, adding that the trade will be done in several stages over the coming days.
Russia’s defence ministry also confirmed the return of the first group of Russian POWs, without providing information on the swapped military personnel.
In photos: One killed and several injured in Ukraine after overnight attacks
06:42
,
Arpan Rai
Flights halted in Moscow as Ukraine launches drone attacks
06:29
,
Arpan Rai
Russia has been forced to observe a temporary suspension of flights at all airports serving Moscow and the country's second-largest city St Petersburg due to an overnight drone attack by Ukraine, Russian officials reported this morning.
Russian air defence units destroyed a total of 102 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said.
Nearly half of the drones were destroyed over the Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, the ministry said. At least three drones were downed over the Moscow region and two over the Leningrad region, of which St Petersburg is the regional capital.
Russian officials only report how many were downed, not the number Ukraine launched.Russia's civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia temporarily halted flights at all four major airports serving Moscow and St Petersburg's Pulkovo Airport as well as at airports in nine other cities to ensure safety, it said on Telegram.
Flights in Moscow and some other cities were restored by morning, but restrictions were still in place in St Petersburg at 0430 GMT.
Regional governors, who wrote about the attacks on Telegram, did not report any damage caused by the attacks.
Russia producing more ammunition in three months than Nato does in a year
05:41
,
Arpan Rai
Russia is producing more ammunition in three months than the whole of Nato produces in a whole year, Nato chief Mark Rutte has warned.
“Russia is reconstituting its forces with Chinese technology and producing more weapons faster than we thought,” said the Nato secretary-general.
“In terms of ammunition, Russia produces – in three months – what the whole of Nato produces in a year.”
“And its defence-industrial base is expected to roll out 1,500 tanks, 3,000 armoured vehicles and 200 Iskander missiles this year alone. Russia could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years. Five years.”
Analysis | Why Nato is calling for Cold War levels of defence spending
05:40
,
Arpan Rai
Our world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Nato chief Mark Rutte has called for a 400 per cent boost to air and missile capabilities and his demand to raise defence spending across the alliance to 5 per cent has raised the voices of doom to a scream.
A return to Cold War levels of defence spending is not, however an hysterical plea from a lackey of the military-industrial complex.
It is a sad acknowledgement that the peace dividend that came with the collapse of the Soviet Union has been squandered by the West in a pointless war in Afghanistan and a criminal conflict in Iraq which expanded the lists of peoples with a good reason to hate democracy.
But there were plenty around already. Vladimir Putin is one of them, Xi Jinping is another – Donald Trump is rushing to their ranks. Autocracy is on the rise around the world while democracies have been consumed by complacency.
“Wishful thinking will not keep us safe,” said Rutte, who called for Nato to become a “stronger, fairer and more lethal alliance”.
Russia has plans to test Nato's resolve, German intelligence chief warns
05:22
,
Arpan Rai
Russia is determined to test the resolve of the Nato alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, Germany's foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organisation.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had intelligence indicating that Russian officials believed the collective defence obligations enshrined in the Nato treaty no longer had practical force.
"We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward," Mr Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.
"That doesn't mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards," he added. "But we see that Nato’s collective defence promise is to be tested."
Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory.
Without detailing the nature of his intelligence sources, Mr Kahl said Russian officials were envisaging confrontations that fell short of a full military engagement that would test whether the US would really live up to its mutual aid obligations under Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty.
"They don't need to dispatch armies of tanks for that," he said.
"It's enough to send little green men to Estonia to protect supposedly oppressed Russian minorities."
In photos: Ukrainians spend another sleepless night in shelter as Russian drones fill skies
04:53
,
Arpan Rai
One killed as Kyiv, maternity ward hit by Russian barrage of drones overnight
04:38
,
Arpan Rai
Russia launched a massive drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing one person and damaging swathes of Kyiv and striking a maternity ward in the southern port of Odesa, regional officials said early this morning.
The strikes followed Russia's biggest drone assault on Ukraine yesterday – part of stepped-up operations that Moscow said were retaliatory measures for Kyiv's recent brazen attacks in Russia.
At least four people were hospitalised as a result of the hours-long attacks that hit seven of the city's 10 districts, city officials said.
Air raid alerts in Kyiv and most Ukrainian regions lasted five hours until around 5am, according to military data.
"A difficult night for all of us," Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military district, said on Telegram. "Throughout the night, the enemy relentlessly terrorised Kyiv with attack drones. They targeted civilian infrastructure and peaceful residents of the city."
The attack sparked fires in residential and non-residential neighbourhoods and open space areas, city officials said. Reuters' witnesses heard and saw countless loud explosions shaking the city and lighting the night sky.
Photos and videos posted on Telegram channels showed heavy smoke rising in the darkness in different parts of Kyiv. The scale of the attack was not immediately known.
"You can't break Ukrainians with terror," Andriy Yermak, president Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff, said in a Telegram post after the attacks.
UK had 'better learn to speak Russian' unless it ramps up defence spending, warns Nato chief
04:27
,
Arpan Rai
People in the UK had “better learn to speak Russian” if the UK does not ramp up defence spending, Nato chief Mark Rutte has suggested.
Speaking at Chatham House in London, Mr Rutte was asked if he believed chancellor Rachel Reeves should be raising taxes to meet Nato’s defence spending commitments.
He replied: “It's not up to me to decide, of course, how countries pay the bill. I mean, what I know is that if we want to keep our societies safe.
But he added: “Look, if you do not do this, if you would not go to the 5 per cent, including the 3.5 per cent core defence spending, you could still have the National Health Service, or in other countries their health systems, the pension system, et cetera, but you had better learn to speak Russian.”
Mr Rutte would not reveal the deadline for when he hopes Nato allies will spend 5 per cent of GDP on defence.
Asked about a deadline, he told reporters: “I have a clear view on when we should achieve that. I keep that to myself, because we are having these consultations now with allies, and these discussions are ongoing, and we will in the end agree on a date when we have to be there.”
