Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow says it destroyed more than 3,000 Kyiv drones as it faces biggest attack of the year – UK Times

Russia ​attacked Ukraine overnight with drones and missiles, targeting the southern ⁠city of Odesa and Dnipro in the country’s southeast, Ukrainian officials said this morning.

In Odesa, a major Black Sea export port, drones hit residential buildings along with a school and a kindergarten, injuring a 11-year old boy and a 59-year old man, Serhiy Lysak, the head of the local military administration, said on Telegram.

Separately, three people were injured after Russia hit the southeastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro with ‌missiles, regional governor Oleksandr ​Hanzha said on ‌Telegram.

• Russia says its air forces intercepted and destroyed at least 3,124 Ukrainian drones over the past week, as the country under one of its biggest attacks in the course of war with Ukraine
• At least 1,054 drones were destroyed, respectively, mostly over European ⁠Russia, its defence ministry said
• In Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine’s military response to Russia’s heaviest bombardment of his country was “entirely justified” and accused Moscow of prolonging the war
• At least four people were killed, including three in the Moscow region, after Ukraine launched its biggest ‌overnight drone attack on ​the Russian ‌capital in ⁠more than a ⁠year, local officials said ‌on ​Sunday

Russia has intercepted and destroyed at least 3,124 Ukrainian drones over the past week, the RIA state news agency said, citing data from the defence ministry.

RIA, after compiling ⁠the data, said the ​most ⁠drones were downed ‌on 13 May and 17 May ‌with 572 and ‌1,054 units destroyed, respectively, mostly over European ⁠Russia.

At least four people were killed, including three in the Moscow region, after Ukraine launched its biggest ‌overnight drone attack on ​the Russian ‌capital in ⁠more than a ⁠year, local officials said ‌on ​Sunday.

The Trump administration on Saturday allowed a sanctions waiver to lapse that had previously allowed countries, including India, to buy Russian seaborne oil after a month-long extension aimed at easing oil supply shortages and high prices due to Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said he would not renew the general license allowing the purchase of Russian oil stored on tankers. As of early afternoon Washington time ⁠on Saturday, no renewal notice had ​been ⁠posted on the Treasury website. A Treasury spokesperson declined further comment.

Two top Democratic U.S. senators, Jeanne Shaheen and Elizabeth ⁠Warren, on Friday urged the Trump administration against renewing the waiver, ​arguing ⁠that it was providing revenue to ‌Russia to aid its war in Ukraine, but there was no evidence it was bringing down fuel costs for American consumers.

The prior extension was part of the ‌Trump administration’s effort to control global energy prices that have shot higher during the Iran war.

The Ukrainian flag has been removed from outside Essex County Council’s offices by the newly elected Reform UK administration, according to reports by the BBC.

A second Union flag was instead put up in its place outside County Hall in Chelmsford on Friday.

Council leader Peter Harris said in a statement to the BBC that it was a “proud moment”.

Harris said: “The replacement of the Ukraine flag does not diminish the support and generosity that Essex residents have shown the people of Ukraine since 2022, and I know this will continue.”

A spokesman said there would be discussions with the county’s Ukrainian community before finding the flag a new home.

Pictures showing the aftermath of Russia’s strike in Kyiv that killed 24 people.

Russia is witnessing a decrease in its population inside prison, with a drop of more than 180,000 people, in the past five years, the country’s prison chief said.

“If at the end of 2021 there were 465,000 (prisoners), then now there are 282,000,” said Arkady Gostev, the head of Russia’s penitentiary service.

Around 85,000 of the current prison population is held in pre-trial detention, he told TASS state news agency.

Gostev said the major decline in the prison population was partly driven by the army’s recruitment drive, but also due to more suspended sentences and other forms of punishment handed out.

Moscow has regularly relied on recruiting its prisoners in exchange for buying out their sentences and sent them on the Ukraine frontline, but experts flagged that their lack of military and battlefield knowledge made them vulnerable to killings.

A young woman, Maryna Homeniuk, who died in the Russian strike on Ukraine, which killed 24 people, was a sensitive soul who took in abandoned animals, her friends told reporters.

She died with her partner Yurii Orlov, who captained the Kyiv Floorball Club after playing hockey for teams in the Ukrainian capital.

Russia’s foreign ministry accused Kyiv of targeting civilians.

“To the sound of Eurovision songs, the Kyiv regime, financed by the EU, carried out yet another mass terrorist attack,” TASS news agency cited the ministry’s spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.

Both sides in the conflict deny deliberately targeting civilians.