James Reynolds4 June 2026 11:35

Preview: 'Russian Davos' carries on despite Ukrainian attacks

Ukraine kicked off Russia’s largest economic forum with a bang on Wednesday, claiming attacks on an oil terminal in St Petersburg and a naval base nearby.

The glitzy annual economic forum is designed to attract foreign investment, with growth in focus amid reports of disarray in Moscow’s budgeting as the four-year war starts to pinch.

On Thursday, speakers including Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Aleksandr Pankin, and former Italian deputy minister of economic development, Michele Geraci, will ask whether there is “any room for diplomacy in contemporary international relations”.

Saudi Arabia’s industry and mineral resource minister, Russia’s minister of natural resources and the environment, and first deputy prime minister of Russia Denis Manturov will discuss international cooperation on rare earth elements and critical minerals.

Steven Seagal is expected to join a talk on Russo-American ties, discussing the value of cross-cultural ties in a “shifting international landscape and ever-changing format of cooperation”, including opportunities for “joint humanitarian initiatives” and “new areas of common interest”.

There are separate talks to come on Russia and India, Russia and the UAE, ‘how to avoid losing billions in a cyberattack’ and dealing with fake news and information attacks in the modern age.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 11:30

Recap: Vladimir Putin warned by his own officials that mounting cost of Ukraine war is ‘unsustainable’

Vladimir Putin has been warned that he cannot afford to sustain his war in Ukraine at the current pace, as Kyiv continues to tally frontline wins and devastate energy infrastructure deep inside Russia.

Top finance officials and Russia’s central bank are said to have urged the Kremlin to rein in spiralling defence spending, as both sides ramp up costly aerial attacks on vital infrastructure.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on Tuesday that Moscow is “losing on the battlefield” and “has no cards except terror”, despite a major blitz of cities across Ukraine overnight that killed at least 22 people.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 11:01

Ukraine strikes centres in Russian-annexed Crimea

Ukraine launched attacks on the two main centres in the Russia-annexed Crimea peninsula, Kremlin-installed officials in the region said early on Thursday, a day after Moscow and Kyiv traded strikes on each other's cities.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, writing on Telegram, said Ukrainian forces had hit a non-residential part of Simferopol, the peninsula's main administrative town. The strike killed three people and injured seven, he said.

In the Crimean port of Sevastopol, the local Russia-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said air defence units had intercepted more than 20 Ukrainian drones.

Razvozhayev made no mention of casualties, but said drone debris had damaged some buildings. The air raid alert remained in effect in the city for nearly five hours.

In the Boryspil area outside Ukraine's capital of Kyiv, firefighters were extinguishing a blaze after an industrial facility was hit in a drone attack overnight, with one person injured, Ukraine's emergency service said on Telegram.

In Kramatorsk, one of Ukraine's critical "fortress cities" along the 1,200-km (775-mile) front line, Russian shelling killed at least three civilians, according to Vadym Filashkin, governor of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

In the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk region, local governor Oleksandr Hanzha said Russian forces had injured eight people near the main regional centre of Dnipro.

In Russia's border region of Bryansk, Acting Regional Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said a Ukrainian drone had killed a crane operator working for the local utility.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 10:30

Watch: Putin’s UK envoy admits war has ‘cost a lot’

James Reynolds4 June 2026 10:00

Recap: Rubio promises news on Ukraine aid soon

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday there will be news "pretty soon" on $400 million Congress approved for its war in Ukraine but delayed at the Department of Defense.

He added that the current risk of escalation in the conflict is “real” - more so than it was two years ago.

Rubio also revealed that president Trump will attend the Nato meeting of heads of state in Turkey in July.

"I think the next meeting of NATO and Turkey in July is probably the most important meeting in NATO's history, because there are some things here that need to be cleared up and fixed," Rubio told lawmakers adding that "The president himself will be attending."

James Reynolds4 June 2026 09:30

Preview: 'Russian Davos' carries on despite Ukrainian attacks

Ukraine kicked off Russia’s largest economic forum with a bang on Wednesday, claiming attacks on an oil terminal in St Petersburg and a naval base nearby.

The glitzy annual economic forum is designed to attract foreign investment, with growth in focus amid reports of disarray in Moscow’s budgeting as the four-year war starts to pinch.

On Thursday, speakers including Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Aleksandr Pankin, and former Italian deputy minister of economic development, Michele Geraci, will ask whether there is “any room for diplomacy in contemporary international relations”.

Saudi Arabia’s industry and mineral resource minister, Russia’s minister of natural resources and the environment, and first deputy prime minister of Russia Denis Manturov will discuss international cooperation on rare earth elements and critical minerals.

Steven Seagal is expected to join a talk on Russo-American ties, discussing the value of cross-cultural ties in a “shifting international landscape and ever-changing format of cooperation”, including opportunities for “joint humanitarian initiatives” and “new areas of common interest”.

There are separate talks to come on Russia and India, Russia and the UAE, ‘how to avoid losing billions in a cyberattack’ and dealing with fake news and information attacks in the modern age.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 09:24

Russia continues attacks on Ukraine's logistics, deputy PM says

Russia is continuing its “systemic” attacks on Ukrainian logistics infrastructure and carried out more than 500 drone attacks in April alone, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Kuleba said on Thursday.

Writing on Telegram, Kuleba said that Ukrainian ports came under the attacks practically every other day.

“Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, 935 port infrastructure facilities have been damaged or partially destroyed, 191 civilian vessels have been damaged, and 255 people have been injured,” he said.

Despite the attacks, Ukrainian maritime export corridor continued working and Ukrainian sea ports handled close to 35 million tons of cargo so far in 2026, he said.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 09:00

One killed, three injured in Ukrainian drone strike on Crimea train, governor says

One person was killed and three injured when a Ukrainian drone struck a commuter train in Crimea, the peninsula's Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Thursday.

James Reynolds4 June 2026 08:30

Zelensky thanks Starmer for work on holding negotiations to end war

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke with prime minister Keir Starmer yesterday to discuss the negotiations to end the war.

“I spoke with @Keir_Starmer, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. We are preparing for negotiations and meetings, and this includes both weapons for our defence and our diplomacy – our joint diplomacy with Europe – to bring the war closer to an end,” he said on X.

“Europe definitely needs its own voice, its own position, and its own contribution to all diplomatic efforts that can help end the war. We coordinated on how to get there,” Zelensky said.

He also thanked Sir Keir for the latest UK sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency schemes.

“It is absolutely essential that all forms of pressure on the aggressor be further strengthened. I am grateful to the United Kingdom for its support!,” he said.

Arpan Rai4 June 2026 08:06