Ukraine war briefing: Ukraine’s military commander vows to increase ‘scale and depth’ of attacks on Russia

Authorities in Kyiv said early on Monday the Ukrainian capital was being subjected to “another massive attack” by Russian drones, reporting at least one person wounded. “Another massive attack on the capital. Possibly several waves of enemy drones,” said a statement from Tymur Tkachenko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration that urged people to stay in shelters.

Ukraine’s top military commander has vowed to increase the “scale and depth” of strikes on Russia in remarks made public on Sunday, saying Kyiv would not sit idly by while Moscow prolonged its three-year invasion. Diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled in recent weeks. The last direct meeting between the two sides was almost three weeks ago and no follow-up talks have been scheduled. “We will not just sit in defence. Because this brings nothing and eventually leads to the fact that we still retreat, lose people and territories,” Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky told reporters including AFP.

In wide-ranging remarks, Syrsky conceded that Russia had some advantages in drone warfare, particularly in making fibre-optic drones that are tethered and difficult to jam. “Here, unfortunately, they have an advantage in both the number and range of their use,” he said.

About 10,000 Russian soldiers are fighting in Russia’s Kursk region, about 90 sq km (35 sq miles) of which is controlled by Ukraine, Ukraine’s top military commander said. “We control about 90 sq km of territory in the Hlushkov district of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and these are our preemptive actions in response to a possible enemy attack,” Oleksandr Syrsky said without elaborating, in remarks released by his office for publication on Sunday.

This month, Russia’s wartime toll of dead and wounded reached a historic milestone: according to the British Ministry of Defence, more than one million Russian troops have been killed or injured since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022. Since the start of its war in Ukraine, Russia’s military casualties have remained a closely guarded state secret. But the signs of devastation are unmistakable – from the booming funeral industry to the rising number of veterans returning home without arms or legs.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed forces had taken control of two villages in Ukraine – Petrovske in the eastern Kharkiv region and Perebuda in the Donetsk region.

Ukraine said on Sunday that US and Israeli strikes on Iran were justified to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons, praising the military intervention as a “clear signal”. “Ukraine is convinced that Iran’s nuclear programme must be stopped so that it never again poses a threat to the countries of the Middle East or any other state,” the Ukrainian foreign ministry said.

Meanwhile a senior Russian official said on Sunday that Trump had started a new war by attacking Iran that would only strengthen Tehran’s leaders by consolidating society around supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The Kremlin, which has a strategic partnership with Iran and also maintains close links to Israel, had repeatedly cautioned Washington that US strikes on Iran would plunge the entire region into the “abyss”.