Russia and Ukraine step up the war on eve of peace talks

MOSCOW – On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war between both sides, with one of the biggest drone battles in their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.

After days of uncertainty over whether Ukraine’s delegation would even attend the peace talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on June 2.

The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the

biggest prisoner exchange

since the war began but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting.

Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war.

At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia’s Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine,

was blown up

over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board.

No one has yet claimed responsibility.

Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on June 1, the first such attack so far from the front lines more than 4,300km away.

The official said the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases.

A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said.

Russia acknowledges air base attacks, says fires put out

Ukraine did not tell the Trump administration about the attack in advance, Axios reporter Barak Ravid said on X, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official.

Russia’s Defence Ministry acknowledged on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military airfields across five regions on June 1.

It said the attacks repelled the assaults in all but two regions – Murmansk in the far north and Irkutsk in Siberia - where “the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire”.

The fires were extinguished without casualties. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said.

Russia launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine’s air force said, the highest nightly total in the war so far. Russia also launched seven missiles, the air force said.

Russia said it advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and open-source, pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450 sq km of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.

US President Donald Trump has demanded Russia and Ukraine make peace, and has threatened

to walk away

if they do not – potentially pushing responsibility for supporting Ukraine onto the shoulders of European powers, which have far less cash and much smaller stocks of weapons than the US.

According to Trump envoy Keith Kellogg, the two sides will, in Turkey, present their respective documents outlining their ideas for peace terms, though it is clear that, after three years of intense war, Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart.

Mr Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops to

invade Ukraine

in February 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine between Russian-backed separatists and Ukrainian troops.

The US says over 1.2 million people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.

Mr Trump has called Mr Putin “crazy” and berated Mr Zelensky in public in the Oval Office, but the US President has also said he thinks peace is achievable and that he could impose tough sanctions on Russia if Mr Putin delays progress towards it.

In June 2024, Mr Putin set out his opening terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw all of its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.

Ukrainian negotiators in Istanbul will present to the Russian side

a proposed road map

for reaching a lasting peace settlement, according to a copy of the document seen by Reuters.

According to the document, there will be no restrictions on Ukraine’s military strength after a peace deal is struck, no international recognition of Russian sovereignty over parts of Ukraine taken by Moscow’s forces, and reparations for Ukraine.

The document also stated that the current location of the front line will be the starting point for negotiations about territory.

Russia currently controls a little under one-fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 sq km – about the same size as the US state of Ohio. REUTERS