Ukraine-Russia war live: Fighting escalates as Putin’s troops attempt to invade new Ukrainian city – UK Times

Russian troops are inching towards the city ​of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, trying to establish a foothold close to a heavily defended area, Ukraine’s top army official said yesterday.

Kostiantynivka, along with other cities, forms a so-called fortress belt in the country’s east – ⁠an area well fortified by the Ukrainian military.

“We are repelling the Russian occupiers’ persistent attempts to gain a foothold in the outskirts of Kostiantynivka using infiltration tactics. Counter-sabotage measures are going on in the city,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s army chief, said on the Telegram app.

A Ukrainian battlefield mapping ⁠project called DeepState shows that Russian troops control an ​area ⁠around only one kilometre (0.6 mile) from the city’s southern outskirts.

Small chunks of Kostiantynivka, in southeast Ukraine, are marked as a grey zone, meaning neither ⁠Ukraine nor Russia has full control over them.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said his forces observed an unusual activity along the country’s border with Belarus.

“Yesterday, there was rather unusual activity along sections of the Ukraine–Belarus border – on the Belarusian side. We are closely documenting everything and keeping the situation under control,” Zelensky said, without sharing the details of the movement.

“If necessary, we will react. Ukraine is ready to defend its people and its sovereignty. Everyone who is being drawn into any aggressive actions against Ukraine must understand this,” he said.

Ukrainian drones are flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea.

The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for its grinding invasion of Ukraine. But the economic impact is so far unclear, as the rise in oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers.

Still, the range of the attacks and their environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

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Russian troops took control of the village of Myropillia in Ukraine’s Sumy region, the defence ministry said on Saturday.

Reuters ‌could not ⁠independently verify the battlefield report.

The ministry also said its air defence forces shot down 505 drones overnight.

Hezbollah has introduced a new, difficult-to-detect weapon against northern Israel: small drones controlled by fibre-optic cables. These devices, with cables the width of dental floss, are designed to evade electronic detection, posing a fresh challenge to air defences.

Unlike many drones vulnerable to electronic jamming, which can cause them to crash, these fibre-optic variants are directly connected to an operator.

This direct link makes them impossible to jam electronically, a characteristic widely seen in the war in Ukraine. Though not infallible – wind or other drones can tangle their cables – their lethality is high.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he ​discussed Ukraine’s accession ‌to the European Union with Slovakia’s prime ​minister Robert Fico ​in a conversation on ⁠Saturday.

“We need strong ​relations between our ​countries, and both of us are interested in this. ​It was ​important to hear that Slovakia ‌supports ⁠Ukraine’s membership in the European Union and is ready to ​share ​its ⁠experience of accession,” he said ​on X.

Ukraine has recorded “unusual activity” along the Ukraine-Belarus border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, after urging Minsk in recent weeks not to get more involved in Russia’s war.

“Yesterday, ⁠there was some ​rather ⁠unusual activity ‌along the Ukraine-Belarus border – on the Belarusian side,” ‌Zelensky said in ‌his daily address to the nation.

Ukraine’s ​air force ‌and border ⁠guard did not ⁠immediately respond to a request ‌for ​comment.

“We are closely monitoring the situation, keeping everything under control, and will respond if necessary,” he added.

Friedrich Merz calling out Trump’s foreign policy – which has led to an announced withdrawal of US troops – is an effort to get the president to think less about Vladimir Putin and protect America’s allies, explains world affairs editor Sam Kiley:

Western powers are determined to see off Russian military “hard” power; they are familiar with “soft power” operations to undermine democracies. But how to deal with the Kremlin’s relationship with Donald Trump is now an emergency.