Russia Ukraine war latest: Putin warns of retaliation if Ukraine strikes with Western long-range weapons

Russia launched a multi-wave drone attack on Kyiv for the second straight night, the military administration of the Ukrainian capital said this morning.

“It seems that now every night, without long breaks, the Russian armed forces attack the peaceful city of Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, head of the military administration said on Telegram messaging app.

“Last night, the enemy made another attack on the capital.”

He added that Russia launched around 10 drones in several waves, from different directions and at different heights, but Ukrainian air defence units destroyed all of the weapons on their approach to the city.

No injuries or major damage were reported, Mr Popko added. He said that the Air Force will release data on the full-scale of the overnight attack on Ukraine later on Sunday.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment from Russia on the overnight attack on Kyiv.

Russia’s president Vladimir Putin said Moscow will use “a range of responses” if the US and its Nato allies allow Ukraine to use Western long-range weapons to strike inside Russia, according to remarks published on Sunday.

The Russian defence ministry “is thinking about how to respond to the possible long-range strikes on Russian territory, it will offer a range of responses”, Putin told state TV reporter Pavel Zarubin in video remarks published on Zarubin’s Telegram messaging account.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed or intercepted 51 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said early this morning.

Eighteen of the drones were intercepted over the Tambov region, some 450km southeast of Moscow, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

Another 16 were destroyed over the Belgorod border region and the rest over the Voronezh, Oryol and Kursk regions in Russia’s south.

One woman was moderately injured as a result of the drone attack on Belgorod, regional Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, said on Telegram. He added that a few cars were also damaged.

Tambov governor Maxim Yegorov said a Ukrainian drone fell onto the Michurinsky district, sparking a short-lived fire but causing no injuries or material damage.

The Russian defence ministry reports only how many drones its units destroy, not how many Ukraine launches. Russian officials also rarely disclose the full scale of damage inflicted by the attacks, especially when they involve military or energy infrastructure.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

A string of Russian attacks killed and injured civilians in widely separated parts of Ukraine, prompting president Volodymyr Zelensky to issue a new call to Kyiv’s allies yesterday to intensify pressure on Moscow.

Rescue teams in the central city of Dnipro completed operations on Friday after Russian missile attacks that killed five people, including a child, and injured more than 20.

A Russian glide bomb killed one person and injured three yesterday in Kostiantynivka, near the front line in Donetsk region, the regional governor said. Russian shelling killed two people in a small town west of the Ukrainian-held southern city of Kherson.

And in Kyiv, a drone struck a high-rise apartment building on Friday west of the city centre, killing a teenage girl.

Mr Zelensky, in his nightly video address, said the assaults showed Russia was “determined to continue its aggression”.

“These are conditions in which the lack of stronger decisions from partners to support Ukraine only encourages (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to invest further in terror,” Mr Zelensky said.

“The world can stop the escalation of war. Abstractions and words are not enough for this. Concrete steps are needed.”

Ukraine’s air defence units were in operation early this morning trying to repel a wave of Russian drones headings towards Kyiv, the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said.

“Stay in shelters,” Vitali Klitschko, the mayor, said on the Telegram messaging app.

Russian forces have advanced further into several eastern Ukrainian towns, bringing them closer to capturing the strategic city of Pokrovsk, Russian and Ukrainian bloggers said.

“The enemy advanced in Selydove,” DeepState, a group with close links to the Ukrainian army that analyses combat footage, wrote on the Telegram messaging app late yesterday. It posted a map indicating Russian troops in the town’s southeast.

Russian forces have been storming the coal mining town of Selydove in Ukraine’s Donetsk region for the past week. Capturing it would pave the way for a Russian advance on the logistical hub of Pokrovsk 20km (12 miles) northwest.

The Russian news outlet Shot said on Telegram that Moscow’s troops control 80 per cent of Selydove.

The Russian-installed head of Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, said Russian forces had hoisted their unit’s flag on the roof of one of the buildings in the town of Hirnyk, some 14km south of Selydove, Russia’s state news agency RIA reported.

Russian military bloggers also reported that Russian forces were close to taking over the town of Kurakhove, just southwest of Hirnyk. Reuters could not independently verify the reports. Ukraine has not commented on them.

Russia’s air defence destroyed at least 30 Ukrainian drones overnight, the defence ministry said early this morning.

The drones were destroyed over Russia’s southern regions of Voronezh, Bryansk, Oryol, Lipetsk and Belgorod, the ministry said on the Telegram messaging app.

One woman was moderately injured as a result of the drone attack in the border region of Belgorod, the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on Telegram. He added that a few cars were also damaged.

Maxim Yegorov, governor of the Tambov region, some 450km southeast of Moscow, said a Ukrainian drone fell in the Michurinsky district of the region, sparking a short-lived fire but causing no injuries or material damage.

The Russian defence ministry reports only how many drones its units destroy, not how many Ukraine launches. Russian officials also rarely disclose the full scale of damage inflicted by the attacks, especially when they involve military or energy infrastructure.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine. Kyiv has often said that its attacks inside Russia target infrastructure key to Russian war efforts and are in response to Moscow’s continued strikes on Ukrainian territory.

Former diplomats tell Tom Watling that Vladimir Putin’s deepening ties with North Korea risks damaging relations with China