Ukraine War News Today – Top Stories and Breaking Updates from Kyiv Post

Stay informed with the most important Ukraine breaking news today. This page compiles the top headlines and critical updates from across Ukraine, offering a real-time snapshot of key developments.

Whether it’s military updates, political changes, or international reactions — we bring you the latest Ukraine news as it happens. All reports are carefully curated from verified sources and KyivPost correspondents on the ground.

The Ukrainian military said on Saturday that Russia has launched a total of 114 drones and missiles across Ukraine between Friday evening and Saturday morning.

The attacks, recorded since 7:30 p.m. on Friday, targeted eastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Sumy and Donetsk regions.

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As a result of the attack, fires broke out across multiple communities in the Sumy region, damaging a cultural center, a livestock farm, non-residential buildings and an agricultural enterprise, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service on Saturday.

The drone and missile attack consisted of 107 drones (including decoys), two S-300 missiles air defense repurposed for ground strikes and three Kh-59/69 air-launched cruise missiles, according to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).

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Russia also dropped aerial guided bombs in central Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region overnight, killing a nine-year-old girl and wounding a 16-year-old boy.

Ukraine downed 69 drones and the three air-launched cruise missiles, out of which 42 were downed by conventional interception and the other 30 were downed by electronic warfare (EW) systems, the update says.

Russian troops also used two unspecified jet-powered drones launched from the Belgorod region bordering Ukraine, according to the update.

The attack came just days before Monday’s planned peace talks in Istanbul unilaterally initiated by Moscow.

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced the talks on Wednesday evening and said Moscow would present a memorandum towards a ceasefire to Kyiv at the talks. Kyiv has not confirmed its attendance and said the memorandum should be presented after last weekend’s prisoner swap as agreed, adding that the meeting would not yield results unless it saw a copy of the memorandum in advance.

Kyiv has presented its version of the document to Washington and Moscow, where unnamed Ukrainian officials reportedly told the New York Times that it centered on a full ceasefire monitored by international partners.

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Reuters, citing its Kremlin sources, said Moscow’s version contains maximalist demands such as a freeze on NATO expansion, removal of sanctions, and Ukraine’s permanent neutrality

Despite the lack of documents from Moscow before the talks, Washington’s Ukraine Envoy Keith Kellogg has urged Kyiv to attend Monday’s talks nonetheless.

Two powerful explosions occurred near Desantnaya Bay in the city of Vladivostok in Russia’s Far East on the morning of 30 May. Ukrainska Pravda sources have reported that the blasts were the result of a successful operation by Defence Intelligence of Ukraine.

Source: Ukrainska Pravda sources in the special services

Details: At least two explosions were reported in the area where the 47th Separate Air Assault Battalion of the 155th Separate Guards Marine Brigade (military unit No. 30926) is stationed. One blast occurred near a checkpoint and the other at a location where personnel and command staff of the unit were present. Military personnel, equipment and special assets were hit.

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Local residents stated that at least ten ambulances and a medical evacuation helicopter arrived at the scene. Damaged equipment is being removed from the military site in military Ural trucks.

In contrast, regional authorities claimed the incident was caused by the explosion of two gas cylinders, asserting that “no one was injured”.

A counter-terrorist operation regime has been declared in Vladivostok. The area around the military site has been sealed off. The road between Lazurnaya Bay and the village of Shchitovaya has been closed.

The 155th Marine Brigade has been actively involved in combat operations against Ukraine, including documented participation in the battles in Mariupol, Vuhledar and Russia’s Kursk Oblast.

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Russian forces conducted a series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine on the night of May 29 and 30.

The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched two Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles from Voronezh Oblast and 90 Shahed and decoy drones from the directions of Oryol and Kursk cities; Millerovo, Rostov Oblast; Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Krai; and Shatalovo, Smolensk Oblast.[72] The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces downed 26 drones and that 30 were ”lost” or suppressed by Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) systems. Ukrainian officials reported that the strikes targeted civilian infrastructure in Donetsk, Kharkiv, and Odesa oblasts.[73]

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Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian forces downed 26 drones and that 30 were ”lost” or suppressed by Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) systems.

Russian shelling and air strikes on southern Ukraine overnight killed a man and a nine-year-old girl in separate attacks, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, “Russians hit a residential area with guided aerial bombs”, killing the girl and wounding a 16-year-old boy, Ivan Fedorov, head of the regional military administration, said on the Telegram platform.

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One house was destroyed and several others damaged by the blast, he added.

In a separate assault on the city of Kherson, a “66-year-old man sustained fatal injuries” from Russian shelling, Oleksandr Prokudin, Kherson region’s governor, wrote on Telegram.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes.

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One person was wounded in a Russian drone strike in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, its mayor said.

In Russia, Ukrainian drone attacks wounded 10 people in the Kursk region overnight, acting governor Alexander Khinshtein said.

Diplomatic efforts to end the war have accelerated in recent weeks, with both sides meeting earlier this month for their first round of direct talks in more than three years.

But the negotiations in Istanbul yielded only a prisoner exchange and promises to stay in touch.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that his government did not expect results from further talks with Russia unless Moscow provided its peace terms in advance, accusing the Kremlin of doing “everything” it could to sabotage a potential meeting.

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“There must be a ceasefire to continue moving towards peace. We need to stop the killing of people,” Zelensky added in a statement on Telegram.

The Ukrainian leader also said he had discussed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a possible next meeting in Istanbul and under what conditions Ukraine is ready to participate”, with both agreeing that the next round of talks with Moscow “cannot and should not be a waste of time”.

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Russia has said it will send a team of negotiators to Istanbul for a second round of talks on Monday, but Kyiv has yet to confirm if it will attend.