At least two people were killed and 57 injured in a massive Russian drone attack on Kharkiv overnight, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.
According to Kharkiv mayor Igor Terekhov, “seventeen strikes by enemy UAVs were carried out in two districts of the city this night”.
A five-storey building caught fire, with over 15 apartments burning, and several houses were struck as well.
Mr Terekhov warned that people could still be trapped under the rubble.
Separately, Russian forces launched a devastating five-hour drone assault on Kyiv on Tuesday in one of the largest attacks of the war on the capital so far.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow’s forces fired over 315 drones at Ukraine overnight, killing seven people.
“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,” he said.
The attacks came a day after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the largest overnight bombardment of the war.
Kyiv had been anticipating a strong Russian response to its Operation Spiderweb, which targeted Russian airbases on 1 June.
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Key Points
- 2 killed in overnight drone attacks on Kharkiv
- 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
US to cut military aid to Ukraine, Hegseth says
06:30
,
Maroosha Muzaffar
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth has confirmed that the upcoming defence budget will reduce military aid to Ukraine, reflecting a major shift in US policy under president Donald Trump.
Mr Hegseth said the administration now favours a negotiated settlement to the conflict over continued military support for Ukraine.
The aid cuts come as Russia intensifies attacks on Ukrainian cities and advances towards new regions.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, the US has provided over $66bn in aid to Ukraine.
“It is a reduction in this budget,” Mr Hegseth told lawmakers. “This administration takes a very different view of that conflict. We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe.”
Cathedral described as ‘the soul of all Ukraine’ damaged in Russian attack
06:00
,
Maroosha Muzaffar
A Russian attack has damaged Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, a UNESCO world heritage site and one of Ukraine's most significant monuments, according to Ukraine's culture minister.
Mykola Tochytskyi announced on Facebook that the overnight attack struck "at the very heart of our identity again". He called the 11th-century cathedral "the soul of all Ukraine" and a shrine that "survived for centuries".
"Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, a shrine which survived for centuries and symbolises the birth of our statehood, was damaged," he said.
He added that the blast wave damaged the cornice on the main apse of the landmark. Video from the scene showed pieces of white plaster crumbled to the ground.
This is the first time since the start of the war that the cathedral has been damaged, first deputy director general of the site Vadym Kyrylenko told reporters.
Read more here:
2 killed in overnight drone attacks on Kharkiv
05:18
,
Maroosha Muzaffar
A Russian drone attack on Kharkiv overnight killed at least two people and injured 54.
Mayor Igor Terekhov reported 17 strikes across two districts, causing fires in a five-storey building with over 15 apartments affected.
Several houses were also hit, and there are fears people may be trapped under the rubble.
Russia has been ready to return dead Ukrainian soldiers 'for several days' - Kremlin
05:00
,
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.
Zelensky calls on Western allies to cut price cap on Russian oil
04:30
,
Maroosha Muzaffar
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is urging Western allies to cut the price cap on Russian oil from $60 to $30 per barrel to increase pressure on Moscow to seek peace.
This comes amid a sharp escalation in Russian attacks on Ukraine, including a major aerial assault on Kyiv.
While the EU has proposed lowering the cap to $45 as part of its latest sanctions, Mr Zelensky called that a “compromise price” and insisted that stronger economic measures are needed to curb Russia’s war efforts.
“Russia’s ability to continue the war is equal to its ability to sell its oil and bypass financial barriers,” the president said.
“That is why it is necessary ... to do everything possible to keep the price of Russian oil lower than they can withstand. Each of the partners knows what price cap is needed — $30, no higher. Such a price level will mean real pressure on Russia – they should be forced to seek peace.”
He added: “Enough compromises with Russia. Every such compromise is a postponement of peace. We are asking for a real reduction in the price of Russian oil, which would bring us closer to ending the war.”
“It is vital that there is no silence in response to the Russian escalation, and it is obvious that there is an escalation,” he said.
“Russia has been steadily increasing the number of lethal weapons in strikes for months now.”
Russian jet suspected of violating Finnish airspace, defence ministry says
04:05
,
Maroosha Muzaffar
A Russian military aircraft allegedly violated Finland’s airspace on 10 June, the country’s defence ministry said in a statement.
“The investigation into the suspect’s airspace breach has been launched immediately,” Finnish defence minister Antti Hakkanen said.
The ministry added the “Border Guard is investigating the case and will provide more information as the investigation progresses”.
The alleged airspace violation occurred near the city of Porvoo, about 50km east of Helsinki.
On 22 May, two Russian aircraft violated Finnish airspace, while the day prior, Polish fighter jets intercepted a Russian Su-24 bomber in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.
Poland's new president says Russia is country's 'greatest threat'
01:00
,
Alex Croft
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.
Ukraine maternity hospital hit in deadly Russian drone strikes
Wednesday 11 June 2025 00:00
,
Alex Croft
A Ukraine maternity hospital has been hit after Russia launched a deadly wave of drones and missiles in an attack on Odesa early Tuesday morning (10 June).
At least two people were killed and nine injured in the attack with the maternity hospital and residential buildings in the centre of the southern port city damaged, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said.
The fresh attacks came hours after Moscow launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment in the three-year war.
Ukrainian and Western officials have been anticipating a Russian response to Ukraine's audacious June 1 drone attack on distant Russian air bases.
Read more here:
Pictured: Kyiv suffers one of heaviest Russian attacks of the war
Tuesday 10 June 2025 23:02
,
Alex Croft
Ukraine's path to Nato membership 'irreversible', says Rutte
Tuesday 10 June 2025 22:02
,
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.
Watch: Mark Rutte issues Nato defence warning: 'You better learn to speak Russian'
Tuesday 10 June 2025 21:01
,
Alex Croft
Analysis | Why Nato is calling for Cold War levels of defence spending
Tuesday 10 June 2025 20:00
,
Alex Croft
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”.
Report: Russia skirts Western sanctions to ramp up its military footprint in Africa
Tuesday 10 June 2025 18:59
,
Alex Croft
Even as it pounds Ukraine, Russia is expanding its military footprint in Africa, delivering sophisticated weaponry to sub-Saharan conflict zones where a Kremlin-controlled armed force is on the rise.
Skirting sanctions imposed by Western nations, Moscow is using cargo ships to send tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and other high-value equipment to West Africa, The Associated Press has found.
Read the full report:
Ukraine shares footage of marine 'coastal assault' training
Tuesday 10 June 2025 18:29
,
Alex Croft
Ukrainian marines are mastering the art of coastal assault — rapid landing, securing the beach, and taking key positions.
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) June 10, 2025
: 30th Marine Corps pic.twitter.com/Bz7x1eRa9G
Tuesday 10 June 2025 18:00
,
Alex Croft
Slovak leader Robert Fico is seeking to install "a dam against progressivism" by declaring that Slovakia’s legal precedence on "national identity" issues, such as family and gender.
Critics of populist Prime Minister Fico, including some legal experts, fear the amendment will threaten Slovakia's commitments to European Union laws and international treaties.
Mr Fico has taken an increasingly anti-liberal stance in rights issues, building on his pro-Russian and pro-Hungarian international policy position. He has promoted closer relations with Russia and China and criticised sanctions on Moscow and the EU's military aid for Ukraine.
The amendment states that only male and female will be recognised as genders, and that school curriculums must respect the constitution, including its cultural and ethical positions. It will also tighten adoption rules.
"The Slovak Republic maintains sovereignty above all in issues of national identity," the amendments say, in particular on cultural and ethical issues.
EU commission proposes 18th Russia sanctions package
Tuesday 10 June 2025 17:28
,
Alex Croft
The EU Commission has proposed an 18th sanctions package against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, president Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
Aimed at Moscow’s energy revenues, banks and military industry, the sanctions will see transactions with Russia’s Nord Stream gas pipelines banned, as well as banks who engage in sanctions circumvention.
"Russia's goal is not peace, it is to impose the rule of might ... strength is the only language that Russia will understand," Ms von der Leyen told a news conference.
The Commission has proposed lowering the Group of Seven nations (G7) price cap on Russian crude oil to $45 a barrel from $60 barrel in a bid to cut Russia's energy revenues.
It also lists more vessels that make up Russia's shadow fleet and oil trading companies.
Volodymyr Zelensky pays tribute to Austria after school shooter kills nine
Tuesday 10 June 2025 16:56
,
Alex Croft
Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is “deeply saddened” after a school shooting in Austria in which nine people were killed before the attacker is believed to have turned the gun on himself.
Here’s what the Ukrainian president said:
Deeply saddened by the tragic school shooting in Graz, which claimed many innocent lives. Schools should never become places of violence. Our hearts go out to the victims, their families, and the people of Austria. We wish a swift recovery to all those wounded. Ukraine shares…
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) June 10, 2025
Russian opposition politician arrested
Tuesday 10 June 2025 16:26
,
Alex Croft
Russian opposition politician Lev Shlosberg was arrested on Tuesday and charged with discrediting the Russian army after describing the Ukraine war as a game of "bloody chess", his party said.
Mr Shlosberg, 61, made the comment in a video debate in January in which he urged an end to the war.
"We must first stop killing people," he said at the time. "If we achieve peace, we will regain freedom." The liberal Yabloko party has claimed that his arrest was linked to these remarks.
Mr Shlosberg was detained after authorities searched his home and the Yabloko office in Pskov, a city near the Estonian border, the party said.
It added that he was placed in pre-trial detention pending a court hearing on Wednesday.
Mr Shlosberg is one of relatively few opposition politicians remaining in the country. Scores of others who oppose the Kremlin have fled. Alexei Navalny, the most prominent domestic opponent of president Vladimir Putin, died suddenly in an Arctic penal colony in February last year.
Second Russia-Ukraine prisoner swap complete, says Moscow
Tuesday 10 June 2025 15:55
,
Alex Croft
The second swap of Russian and Ukrainian prisoners of war has been completed, the Russian defence ministry said according to Interfax.
It comes after an exchange on Monday say prisoners of war under the age of 25 swapped between the warring countries, following direct talks in Istanbul on June 2.
Boxing champion Oleksandr Usyk challenges Trump to live in his house for a week
Tuesday 10 June 2025 15:23
,
Alex Croft
Ukrainian boxer Oleksandr Usyk sends invitation to Trump over Russian war
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 14:52
,
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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 13:30
,
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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 13:20
,
Alex Croft
Moscow confirms strikes on Kyiv
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 10:13
,
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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 09:56
,
Alex Croft
Bulletin | Russia and Ukraine swap prisoners of war as fighting continues
Tuesday 10 June 2025 09:40
,
Alex Croft
Seven killed in barrage of Russian drone strikes across Ukraine
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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'
Tuesday 10 June 2025 09:11
,
Alex Croft
Ukraine's path to Nato membership 'irreversible', says Rutte
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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
Tuesday 10 June 2025 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.
