Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky said yesterday that a turning point in the war with Russia was “still a long way off”, despite hailing a string of recent successes for his troops.

Ukrainian drones hit a dozen more Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov overnight, Ukraine’s military said yesterday, the latest in a campaign aimed at disrupting fuel supplies to Russian forces and isolating Moscow-occupied Crimea.

Russia hammered Kyiv with missiles and drones early yesterday, killing at least 20 people, officials said, as shortages of US-made interceptors left the Ukrainian capital struggling to defend itself, just days after the deadliest attack this year.

US President Donald Trump, speaking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin by telephone for nearly 90 minutes, offered to help find a solution to the Ukraine war, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said in comments made public early yesterday.

At least 10 people were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russia and Moscow-occupied territory, local officials said yesterday, as Ukraine reported five killed in Russian attacks.

Russia launched hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles at Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in the early hours yesterday, killing at least 21 people and damaging around 130 buildings in one of the biggest attacks of the war.

President Donald Trump wants a peace deal to end the "senseless killing" in Ukraine, a US official said Thursday after a massive Russian barrage on Kyiv killed at least 21 people

Ukrainian strikes on Crimea triggered power outages in its largest city, Sevastopol, both sides reported yesterday, as Kyiv intensifies its attempts to cut off the peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014.

Moscow shot down dozens of drones in the early hours of yesterday, just days after a repeated Ukrainian strike on the city’s oil refinery, while Russian attacks in Ukraine killed at least six people, including a boy and his father, authorities said.

Four people were killed, and fuel sales were suspended in Russian-occupied Crimea, the Moscow-backed authorities there said yesterday, after a massive Ukrainian barrage hit the Black Sea peninsula.

A Ukrainian drone hit a bus carrying a children’s football team from Belarus in Russia’s border Bryansk region, local authorities said yesterday.

A drone hit a major oil refinery just outside Moscow yesterday, triggering a fire and causing damage, Russian authorities said, as Ukraine claimed the attack was retribution for Russia’s own strikes.

Ukraine and Russia exchanged overnight drone strikes into early yesterday, with Ukraine hitting oil refineries and a petrochemicals plant while Russia attacked railway stations and electrical substations.

A Russian attack killed five and injured fourteen in Ukraine’s southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, the regional governor said on Telegram yesterday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in which he proposed the two leaders meet to agree an end to more than four years of war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise.

Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at Russia early yesterday, leaving one person dead and setting an oil depot ablaze on the final day of the country’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky published an open letter to President Vladimir Putin on Thursday in which he proposed the two leaders meet to agree an end to more than four years of war, warning that Kyiv stood ready to fight on otherwise.

Russian drones killed one person and wounded two dozen others in cities across Ukraine, local authorities announced yesterday, as Kyiv and Moscow step up long-range strikes with peace talks stalling.

Ukrainian drones yesterday struck an oil depot in southern Russia and a pumping station hundreds of kilometres from the front, Kyiv said, with Russian officials confirming strikes in the areas.

Ukrainian drones struck a college dormitory in the Russian-occupied region of Lugansk early yesterday, killing six people and wounding dozens of others, Russian officials said.