Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin ‘is being misled by his own generals’ as Zelensky warns he could strike again – UK Times

A drone attack has killed seven people and injured another 11 in a Russian-controlled part of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region this morning, the Kremlin-installed head of the region said.

Denis ‌Pushilin, posting on ⁠the Telegram messaging app, said the drone hit a passenger bus ‌travelling between ​Moscow ‌and Simferopol in ⁠Russian-occupied ⁠Crimea.

Former Irish rugby player Shane Leahy has travelled to the frontline city of Kherson to deliver medical supplies.

Leahy is chief executive of the telecoms company Oxygen8, which has co-ordinated the distribution of more than €200 million in medical aid since the war began in 2022, reported The Irish Times.

He set up a charity called One4Humanity which delivers the aid from US charity Heart to Heart International.

“We supply medicines to the Ukraine ministry of health, and they had a problem with a warehouse over here, so they asked us to deliver directly to the hospitals instead of bringing it to their distribution point… I loaded up the truck,” Leahy told the newspaper.

Russian president Vladimir Putin is being fed false information from the battlefield, a Washington-based think tank monitoring the war said.

“ISW recently assessed that the Russian military command’s repeated exaggerations of the Russian military’s successes on the ground have likely given Putin a false perception of the battlefield situation,” the Institute for the Study of War said.

It added: “These exaggerations are likely leading Putin to believe his forces can achieve his goals in the near to medium term despite the fact that Russia’s battlefield performance has steadily declined in 2026.”

This perception is despite senior Russian officials warning Putin that spending on the war in Ukraine is currently unaffordable, according to a report.

Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Ukraine was short of weapons to counter incoming Russian missiles and urged the US to provide more Patriot missiles to stop attacks from Russia.

“Unfortunately, the current level of supplies for our air defence does not enable us to intercept a significant portion of the missiles,” he said.

He said more than 70 missiles and 650 drones had been deployed overnight and Russian forces had deployed 100 more drones throughout the day on Tuesday.

The Ukrainian president urged Washington to send additional Patriot missile interceptors.

“If Ukraine is not protected from ballistic and other missile strikes, these attacks will continue,” Zelensky said on Telegram.

“Europe needs its own anti-ballistic missiles so that this war can finally end. And we definitely need the help of the United States in supplying missiles such as Patriots. We count on the support of our partners and effective responses to today’s strike,” Zelensky said.

Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow could launch a new assault for the second night in a row after a major attack yesterday left 23 dead and 130 wounded.

Zelensky said there was evidence Russian forces could strike again on Tuesday night.

“According to our intelligence, another large-scale attack may occur tonight,” he said in his nightly video address. “Please, I ⁠strongly urge you to pay attention to air raid alerts.”

Russia has downed three drones over the Leningrad region to the northwest of Moscow and continues ⁠to repel the attacks, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko said as a major annual economic ⁠forum was about to ​start.

The Leningrad region, home to crucial energy export infrastructure and a major oil refinery, is hosting its fifth wartime economic conference, president Vladimir Putin’s “Russian Davos”, in St Petersburg from today.

The investment forum, the ‌fifth since Russia sent ‌troops into Ukraine in 2022, opens just hours after a deadly drone and missile ⁠attack on Kyiv which Russia said was in response to a deadly attack on a dormitory in Russian-controlled Luhansk.

In St Petersburg, Russia’s second-biggest city and Putin’s hometown, the Pulkovo airport was temporarily restricting incoming and departing flights, Russian aviation watchdog, Rosaviatsia, said on Telegram.

Another 13 drones heading ⁠to Moscow were downed in the early hours ‌of Wednesday, ​mayor Sergei Sobyanin ‌said on Telegram.

Russia has banned five British nationals, including The Washington Post journalist Catherine Belton and The i Paper correspondent Richard Holmes, from entering the country, the foreign ministry said on its website late on Tuesday.

Belton is an investigative correspondent focusing on Russia and previously reported about the country for the Financial Times and Reuters among other media.

Holmes, an award-winning investigative journalist and a Pulitzer Prize finalist, ⁠is a security correspondent at Britain’s The ​i ⁠Paper.

The foreign ministry said the entry ban was an answer to the “provocative anti-Russian rhetoric of British officials, the spread of insinuations about Russia, and London’s practical steps to supply the Kyiv regime with weapons”.

Other Britons named under the ⁠ban were Alexander Browder, a contributor for the Henry Jackson Society policy think tank; Alice Laugher, chief executive of humanitarian staffing firm Committed to Good; and Richard Westbury, chairman of the Chelsea Group, parent company of ‌Committed to Good.

The UK is among ​countries which imposed sanctions on Russia, ‌including travel bans, ⁠after Moscow’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine ⁠in 2014.

Drones hit the city of Michurinsk in the central Russian Tambov region, governor Yevgeny Pervyshov said on Telegram this morning.

He added that outbuildings at an industrial facility, an apartment building and a library were among sites damaged. There ‌were no ​injuries, ‌he ⁠said.

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have been on hold since February, when the United States shifted focus to its new war in the Middle East.

Moscow and Kyiv walked away from talks in Geneva no closer to a deal, as Ukraine suggested the US was unfairly demanding Kyiv alone make concessions to end the war.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said the last round of direct talks had been “difficult” and accused Russia of deliberately stalling, with the issue of territory still in dispute.

What does either side want?

Russia insists on its demands for Ukrainian territory and the withdrawal of forces from its borders.

Ukraine insists it needs clear security guarantees from allies to stop Russia reopening the conflict and says it cannot and will not give up territory sought by Russia.

The lands in the east include industry heavy regions and Ukraine’s belt of ‘fortress cities’ to protect against invasion.

Volodymyr Zelensky said late in April that he was keen to meet with Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, in an effort to restart negotiations.

While Ukraine claimed a string of wins on the ground, Zelensky warned that US attention on the war with Iran was soaking up resources and leaving Ukraine with critical shortages of air defences.

But the Kremlin said Putin would only meet Zelensky in Moscow for the purpose of finalising agreements on the conflict.

Turkey said it was making efforts to restart talks and bring together the leaders, after hosting delegations in July 2025.

Zelensky told CBS on Sunday he wants to press on with talks on securing peace with Russia before the onset of winter to take account of Kyiv’s improved strategic position.