Russia launched nearly 500 drones into Ukraine last night, in the most massive drone attack since the start of the three-year war, the Associated Press reported, citing a statement from the Ukrainian Air Force, BTA reports.
Direct peace talks have yet to yield progress in halting the fighting. Despite the failure to reach a ceasefire, however, the two sides have exchanged new groups of prisoners of war.
In addition to the 479 drones, 20 missiles of various types have also been sent to various parts of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Air Force said, noting that the shelling mainly targeted the central and western regions of the country. A total of 277 drones and 19 missiles were intercepted and destroyed, with only 10 drones or missiles hitting their targets. One person was injured, the same source said.
The recent escalation in airstrikes coincided with renewed Russian pressure on the battlefield in the eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 1,000-kilometer front line.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said late last night that in some of those areas "the situation is very difficult," without providing details.
Ukraine is short of personnel on the front line against its larger enemy and needs more military support from its Western partners, especially in terms of air defense. But uncertainty about U.S. policy has heightened doubts about what help Kiev can count on.
Ukraine, however, has mounted some stunning counterattacks. The June 1 drone strike on remote Russian air bases was unprecedented in its scope and sophistication, the AP recalls. The Ukrainian General Staff said special operations forces had struck two Russian fighter jets based at Savasleyka airfield in Russia’s Nizhny Novgorod region, about 400 miles northeast of the Ukrainian border. The statement did not say how the planes were hit, and there was no immediate comment from Russian authorities. Some Russian military bloggers said that no damage was done to the planes.
Russian officials said that the recent intensified attacks were part of a series of retaliatory strikes in response to the Ukrainian drone attack on air bases housing strategic bombers capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The strike on the Ukrainian air base in Dubno, in the western Rivne region, was one of these retaliatory strikes, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibikha, for his part, said that as long as Russia continues its aggression and attacks on civilians, Ukraine will attack its military infrastructure and means of terror and destroy them, as in the special operation "Cobweb", Ukrinform reported. He made the statement at a joint press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Kestutis Budrys in Kiev.
Sibiha added that the central topic of their talks was the inextricably linked security of Ukraine, Lithuania, the Baltic states and the whole of Europe. He noted that the two sides coordinated steps to accelerate Ukraine's integration into the EU and NATO ahead of the upcoming European Council and NATO summit in The Hague.
The two recent rounds of direct peace talks between the Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Istanbul have not led to any significant breakthrough, apart from promises to exchange prisoners, as well as thousands of their dead and seriously injured soldiers. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he will continue fighting until his conditions are met. The exchange of hundreds of soldiers and civilians was a small sign of cooperation in the largely unsuccessful effort to reach a ceasefire agreement. More prisoners were exchanged today in a phased process that will continue in the coming days, Zelensky and the Russian Defense Ministry said, although neither side said how many. Among those exchanged were wounded soldiers, as well as those under 25, Zelensky added.
"The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue practically every day", he noted.
Russia will continue to work on the return of its captured servicemen, Vladimir Medinsky, head of the Russian delegation negotiating with the Ukrainian side, said today.
"Within the framework of the Istanbul agreements, our soldiers began to return home today. Some are quite young men, but the language does not turn to call them that. They did not break. They resisted to the end," he said in Telegram.
"Russia does not abandon its own", stressed Medinsky, promising to continue working on their release.