War Archive 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Ukraine, Russia trade aerial attacks

Russia and Ukraine traded a barrage of drone strikes overnight on Wednesday, in attacks that killed two in Kyiv and forced Moscow to shut major airports hours before a swathe of foreign leaders was to arrive...

www.newagebd.net

Ukraine, Russia trade aerial attacks
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 May, 2025, 00:44

Russia and Ukraine traded a barrage of drone strikes overnight on Wednesday, in attacks that killed two in Kyiv and forced Moscow to shut major airports hours before a swathe of foreign leaders was to arrive.

The Kremlin has announced a unilateral three-day truce — set to start at 2100 GMT on Wednesday — to coincide with its grand May 9 military parade on Red Square, marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

China’s president Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among 29 foreign leaders expected in Moscow to mark the occasion, which has become Russia’s most important public holiday under president Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has dismissed Putin’s order to his troops to halt their attacks as a ‘manipulation’ and ‘game’ designed to protect his parade rather than a genuine peace measure.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire — a proposal back by US president Donald Trump and previously rejected by Putin.

Zelensky called for more pressure on Moscow to end its invasion.

‘Only significantly intensified pressure on Russia and stronger sanctions can pave the way to diplomacy. Any measures depriving the aggressor of resources to wage war must be implemented to bring lasting peace,’ Zelensky said on social media.

Hours before Putin’s order was set to come into effect, Russia unleashed a barrage of drone attacks across Ukraine.

Zelensky said Russia fired 142 drones and four ballistic missiles.

‘Unfortunately, there are fatalities — a woman and her son,’ Zelensky said, referring to the Kyiv attack.

The emergency services said falling debris from a drone attack on the central Shevchenkivsky district sparked a fire in an apartment block.

AFP journalists in the capital heard loud explosions over the city at around 1:00am (2200 GMT).

In the morning, a first-aid tent had been erected next to the charred facade of the building, blackened by the fire and with windows blown out on its top floors.

Men in camouflage were inspecting debris from a fallen drone part.

Attempted drone attacks by Ukraine across Russia triggered hours of travel chaos, as airports across the western part of the country were repeatedly closed on Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday.

Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s main Sheremetyevo international airport were suspended for hours overnight, aviation authorities said.

‘The restrictions were imposed to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights,’ Artyom Korenyako, press secretary for the Federal Aviation Transport Agency, wrote on Telegram.

Moscow regularly halts air traffic in areas where its air defence systems are operating, but the scale of the forced closures has escalated significantly in the run-up to Friday’s parade.

Russia’s defence ministry reported downing dozens of Ukrainian drones targeting the country, including Moscow, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ukraine claimed it had hit a fibre-optic plant in Saransk, a central Russian city far from the borders, where the authorities announced a state of emergency, cancelling all lessons in schools — but without confirming damage to the plant.

Numerous unverified photos and videos on social media shared by locals showed smoke rising from an industrial building and multiple drone flyovers.

On the streets of Moscow, AFP reporters noticed a significant police presence, and mobile internet in the capital was being jammed.

Since Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine has on several occasions launched attacks at the Russian capital and other major cities and infrastructure sites hundreds of miles from its border.

Kyiv calls it fair retaliation for Moscow’s daily missile and drone barrages on its own cities.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded, with towns and cities across Ukraine’s south and east levelled under intense Russian aerial attacks.

Moscow’s army controls around 20 per cent of the country, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

A wave of deadly Russian ballistic missile strikes on civilian areas in April triggered fresh outrage in Kyiv and saw Trump issue a rare rebuke to Putin.

Ukraine has said it cannot be held responsible for the safety of foreign leaders visiting Moscow for the parade, in an apparent rejection of Putin’s truce proposal.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says Ukraine keeps trying to breach border

Ukrainian troops have made further attempts to breach the Russian border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin hosted world leaders at a major military parade in Moscow. The Defence Ministry said the attacks occurred during a thr

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia says Ukraine keeps trying to breach border
REUTERS
Published :
May 09, 2025 16:56
Updated :
May 09, 2025 16:56

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov attends a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 19, 2024. Photo : Sputnik/Valery Sharifulin/Pool via REUTERS

Ukrainian troops have made further attempts to breach the Russian border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin hosted world leaders at a major military parade in Moscow.

The Defence Ministry said the attacks occurred during a three-day ceasefire running from May 8-10 that Russia has unilaterally declared to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Kyiv has called the ceasefire proposal a "farce" and did not agree to it, proposing instead that the two countries adopt a 30-day truce.

The Russian Defence Ministry said it had registered four attempts by Ukrainian forces to smash through the border into the Kursk and Belgorod regions in the past week.

In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's troops had attacked Russian forces 15 times during the ceasefire, the ministry said.

Ukraine has said Russia had repeatedly breached its own truce this week. The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that Russia hit eight Ukrainian frontline villages 220 times since the ceasefire went into effect.

In Russia's Belgorod border region, the local governor said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a government building on Friday.

In Kursk, Ukrainian troops launched a major incursion last August and held onto a chunk of Russian territory for many months as Moscow's forces battled to eject them with help from North Korean soldiers. Some fighting has continued, even after Putin last month declared "victory" in Kursk.

Rybar, a pro-Russian war blogger, said there was "high-intensity fighting" between Russian and Ukrainian troops near Tetkino, a village in the region. Rybar and other bloggers said Ukrainian attacks on multiple villages in the neighbouring Belgorod region were continuing on Friday.

Reuters could not independently verify statements by war bloggers or battlefield reports from either side.

Ukraine and Russia both accused the other of repeatedly violating a previous 30-hour Easter ceasefire declared by Putin.​

 

[Saif]

Kyiv will meet Russia for talks if it agrees to ceasefire: Zelensky

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv would meet with Moscow for talks in Istanbul on May 15, but that Russia must first commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting from Monday...

www.newagebd.net

Kyiv will meet Russia for talks if it agrees to ceasefire: Zelensky
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 11 May, 2025, 23:56

A local resident looks at a damaged private house after Russian shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region on Sunday, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. | AFP photo

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv would meet with Moscow for talks in Istanbul on May 15, but that Russia must first commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting from Monday.

Zelensky, using rare language since Moscow invaded more than three years ago, described Russia’s proposal to convene direct peace talks as a ‘positive sign’.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ‘ready to host negotiations’, telling Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call that a ‘window of opportunity’ had opened for peace.

Moscow and Kyiv have not held direct talks since March 2022, shortly after the Kremlin launched its invasion in February of that year.

Those talks, which also took place in Istanbul, led to a now-aborted peace deal that would have seen Kyiv adopt neutral status and renounce any NATO ambitions.

Russia’s invasion has since dragged on, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the destruction of Ukrainian cities and a total collapse in relations between Moscow and the West.

Moscow now occupies a fifth of the country and has claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own, in addition to Crimea, which it seized in 2014.

‘There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day. We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire — full, lasting and reliable — starting tomorrow, May 12, and Ukraine is ready to meet,’ Zelensky said on social media.

‘It is a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war,’ the Ukrainian leader said, in a break of tone.

‘The entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time. And the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire.’

Kyiv and its Western allies have said an unconditional ceasefire to pause the fighting is the only way to advance a diplomatic solution in three-year-old conflict — Europe’s worst since the Second World War.

On a visit to Kyiv on Saturday the leaders of France, the UK, Germany and Poland pressured Russia — with US president Donald Trump’s support — to commit to an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine starting from Monday.

Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said that Kyiv would only come to the table if Moscow agreed to the ceasefire from Monday.

‘First, a 30-day ceasefire, then everything else,’ he said on social media.

‘A ceasefire is the first step towards ending the war and it will confirm Russia’s readiness to end the killing.’

Russia has hit Ukraine with a string of deadly attacks this spring.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 collapsed and fighting has been raging ever since.

Communication channels have only been open for exchanges of prisoners of war and bodies.

At a press conference close to 1:00am (2200 GMT) in the Kremlin, Putin did not respond to the 30-day ceasefire proposal put forward by Kyiv’s allies.

He instead suggested resuming the Istanbul talks scuppered in 2022.

‘We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions,’ he said.

‘We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday May 15 in Istanbul,’ Putin said.

‘We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,’ the Russian leader added.

But he also accused Ukraine’s Western backers of wanting to ‘continue war with Russia’ and — without mentioning the specific proposal for a 30-day ceasefire — slammed European ‘ultimatums’ and ‘anti-Russian rhetoric’.

Turkish president Erdogan told Putin in a phone call Sunday that Ankara was ready to host talks ‘aimed at achieving a lasting solution’.

Returning from Ukraine, French leader Emmanuel Macron said he expected Russia to commit to the ceasefire ‘without setting any condition’.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia’s offer to negotiate directly was a ‘good sign’ but ‘far from sufficient’, pressuring Moscow to agree to a truce.

But US president Donald Trump said it was a ‘potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine’ and vowed to work with both sides to end the fighting.

Kyiv on Sunday accused Moscow of launching more than 100 drones on Ukraine, after a Russian-announced 72-hour ceasefire had ended at midnight.​

 

[Saif]

Russia has hours to abide by truce initiative or face sanctions, Germany says

European countries will start preparing new sanctions on Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of Monday starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, Germany’s government said. Ukraine’s military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukr

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia has hours to abide by truce initiative or face sanctions, Germany says
REUTERS
Published :
May 12, 2025 20:21
Updated :
May 12, 2025 20:21

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov in Moscow, Russia April 19, 2025. Photo : Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS/Files

European countries will start preparing new sanctions on Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of Monday starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine, Germany’s government said.

Ukraine’s military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukraine on Monday as well as an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite the ceasefire proposal by Europe and Kyiv.

“The clock is ticking,” a German government spokesperson said at a news conference in Berlin.

“We still have 12 hours until the end of the day, and if the ceasefire is not in place by then, the European side will (set in motion) preparations for sanctions,” the spokesperson said.

It is not clear though how much impact fresh European sanctions would have on Russia, especially if the United States does not join in as well.

The leaders of four major European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.

In a fresh twist in the stop-start peace talks process, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he would travel in person to Istanbul where, he said, he would be waiting to meet Putin.

The Kremlin has not responded to that latest proposal. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 - over two years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

Responding to the proposal of a ceasefire, Russia said at the weekend it is committed to ending the war but that European powers were using the language of confrontation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia was “completely ignoring” the ceasefire initiative, citing what he said were continued attacks on Ukrainian forces.

He said he shared information about the continued fighting with European partners and with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a joint phone call. The allies had agreed sanctions would be needed to pressure Russia if it snubbed the truce move.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

The Ukrainian military’s general staff said that as of 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday there had been 69 clashes with Russian forces along the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire was to have come into effect.

The intensity of the fighting was at the same level it would be if there were no ceasefire, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the military on Ukraine’s eastern front.

The Ukrainian air force said Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting from 11 p.m. (2000 GMT), an hour before the proposed ceasefire was due to kick in. Attacks of this kind unfold over the course of hours as drones fly much slower than missiles.

Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said, while the Ukrainian state railway company said a Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in the east.

Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show U.S. President Donald Trump that they are working towards his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the U.S. military backing it received from Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world’s biggest economy.

Europe meanwhile is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite his imposition of tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine’s cause, which they see as central to the continent’s security.​

 

[Saif]

Drones hit Ukraine as Zelensky awaits Putin reply on talks

Russia fired more than 100 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv said on Monday as it awaits the Kremlin’s response to Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin this week...

www.newagebd.net

Drones hit Ukraine as Zelensky awaits Putin reply on talks
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 13 May, 2025, 00:14

Russia fired more than 100 drones at Ukraine overnight, Kyiv said on Monday as it awaits the Kremlin’s response to Volodymyr Zelensky’s call for a personal meeting with Vladimir Putin this week.

Ukraine and its allies urged Moscow to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting Monday, but Putin came back with a counter-proposal for direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul on Thursday.

The Kremlin is yet to respond to Zelensky’s apparent acceptance of the offer, with the Ukrainian leader upping the stakes by saying he would be ‘waiting for Putin in Turkey on Thursday. Personally.’

The prospect of direct Russia-Ukraine talks on ending the war — the first since the early months of Russia’s 2022 invasion — has been welcomed by Washington and across Europe.

But Moscow appeared to have rejected the call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire — that Zelensky had earlier on Sunday presented as a precondition to the Istanbul talks — with a wave of fresh drone attacks.

‘From 11:00pm on May 11, the enemy attacked with 108 Shaheds and other types of drones,’ the Ukraine air force said, adding that ‘as of 08:30am, 55 drones were confirmed downed.’

Overnight attacks in the east killed one person and wounded six, damaging railways infrastructure and residential buildings, local officials said.

‘Ceasefire proposals are being ignored, and the enemy continues attacks on railway infrastructure,’ Ukrainian national railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia said.

US president Donald Trump, who has threatened to stop trying to mediate a peace deal if he does not see compromises from both sides, has called for them to sit down immediately.

‘President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH,’ Trump wrote on his Truth Social network on Sunday.

‘Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY,’ he added.

Tens of thousands have been killed and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Russia’s army controls around one-fifth of the country, including the Crimean peninsula, annexed in 2014.

Putin said any direct talks with Ukraine should focus on the ‘root causes’ of the conflict, and said he did not ‘exclude’ a possible ceasefire coming out of any talks in Istanbul.

Russia’s references to the ‘root causes’ of the conflict typically refer to alleged grievances with Kyiv and the West that Moscow has put forward as justification for its invasion.

They include pledges to ‘de-Nazify’ and de-militarise Ukraine, protect Russian speakers in the country’s east and push back against NATO expansion.

Kyiv and the West have rejected all of them, saying Russia’s invasion is nothing more than an imperial-style land grab.

Russian and Ukrainian officials held talks in Istanbul in March 2022 aimed at halting the conflict but did not strike a deal.

Contact between the warring sides has been extremely limited since, mainly dedicated to humanitarian issues like prisoner-of-war exchanges and the return of killed soldiers’ bodies.

EU leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, welcomed the prospect of direct talks, but pressed Russia to agree to a ceasefire first.

‘First the weapons must be silenced, then the discussions can begin,’ Merz said on Sunday.

Russia’s key ally China on Monday called for a ‘binding peace agreement’ that was ‘acceptable to all parties.’

Elsewhere on the front lines, Russia’s army said it had captured a small village in the eastern Donetsk region, while Moscow-backed authorities said four people were killed in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region over the last 24 hours.​