Russia’s army yesterday began three days of nuclear weapons drills involving thousands of troops across the country, as Kyiv escalates its drone attacks and with President Vladimir Putin headed to China.

Ukrainian drones killed four people, including a child, in the central Russian city of Ryazan yesterday, damaging high-rise apartment buildings and hitting an unnamed industrial enterprise, the regional governor said.

Family members say Abdur Rahim had gone to Russia as a migrant worker and are now seeking government help to bring his body home

Meeting with Zelenskiy only possibe once peace deal agreed, Putin

Russian attacks hit cities in eastern Ukraine as deadline runs out

Russian strikes across Ukraine killed at least six people, officials said yesterday, most of them in an attack on a residential building in the eastern city of Dnipro.

Russian forces have taken 1,700 square km (656 square miles) of territory in Ukraine this year and are advancing on its so-called fortress belt in Donbas, Moscow’s top general said while inspecting his forces.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday said that US peace negotiators “have no time for Ukraine” because of the war in Iran, in an interview on German television on Tuesday.

A Russian drone hit a covered market in the eastern Ukrainian city of Nikopol yesterday, killing five people and wounding 19, officials said, as Moscow pressed on with intensified daytime attacks.

Russian forces repelled a drone attack early yesterday on part of the TurkStream gas pipeline that connects southern Russia and Turkey, the pipeline’s operator Gazprom said in a statement.

Russian air attacks across Ukraine early yesterday killed at least four people and damaged critical infrastructure, including a port and a maternity hospital, authorities said, as Russia’s pressed on with its war with Ukraine.

Russia fired almost 1,000 drones at Ukraine over the last 24-hours, unleashing one of its largest-ever daytime attacks, killing at least eight people and hitting the UNESCO-protected city centre of Lviv, officials said yesterday.

A Ukrainian drone attack in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region killed one person, its governor said yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that 11 countries had tapped Kyiv for help in how to counter Iranian drones being fired by Tehran in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes.

Bangladeshi men are being flown out of Dhaka, routed through Saudi Arabia and the UAE, before being taken to Moscow and forced onto the frontlines of Russia’s war in Ukraine.

More than 100 Bangladeshis have been recruited into Russia’s war against Ukraine, and dozens have been killed on the front lines, according to rights groups that say many of the men were misled, exploited, or financially trapped before ending up in combat.

Ukrainian missiles struck the Russian town of Belgorod near the border, inflicting serious damage on energy installations and disrupting power, water and heating, the regional governor said early yesterday.

Global consequences of a continental war

As the conflict reaches its four-year mark, AFP looks at the state of the conflict and some of the consequences for both countries

Ukraine's air force downs most projectiles, 13 targets hit