Ahead of peace talks, Russia’s bombers are destroyed by a shocking barrage of drones

The “Spiderweb” attack on the Ukraine’s security service and a joint investigation of a “Russian attack on strategic aircraft” and the Kremlin

In an earlier statement about the operation, officially dubbed “Spiderweb,” Ukraine’s security service claimed it destroyed $7 billion worth of Russia’s strategic aviation with the strikes — about a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers

The attack took over a year to execute and was supervised by the Ukrainian President, according to the official.

Zelenskyy said that a delegation from Ukraine would go to Istanbul for a new round of peace talks with Russia on Monday.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov is the leader of the Ukrainian delegation, according to Zelenskyy. “We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” Zelenskyy said.

Before the meeting took place, the Ukrainian officials had called on the Kremlin to give them a promised memo on their position on ending the war. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.

The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m., the statement said, emphasizing that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time. An investigative commission was created to uncover the circumstances around the attack that led to such a loss in personnel, the statement said.

The attack on Kiev airspace by drone strikes on the Ukrainian Pearl Harbor: a video release by the top army chief of Ukraine says “Russian Pearl Harbor”

The training unit is located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike.

Ukraine’s forces suffer from manpower shortages and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.

The Ukrainian Ground forces said that officials responsible for the deaths of servicemen will be held accountable.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area.

Russian forces were concentrating their efforts in the Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman area, among other areas, said the top army chief of Ukraine, Olekandr Syrskyi.

The ministry also said its forces had thwarted additional attacks on three other bases and made several arrests — without providing details. It added no one had been injured in the attacks.

Russia’s Defense Ministry later confirmed the attacks on the military bases but played down their impact — claiming “only several pieces of aviation technology caught fire.”

“Our people operated in different Russian regions in three time zones,” he said. “And our people were taken out of Russian territory on the eve of the operation. Those who helped us are safe.”

In his video address on Sunday, the Ukrainian President said there was an operation that had been planned over the course of a year under the control of the security service of Russia.

One video posted online showed the drones take off from a truck bed parked along a highway as the Russian narrator let obscenities fly. A Russian serviceman is shown swearing into the camera while planes burn behind him. The pro-Kremlin military website referred to the attack as “Russian Pearl Harbor.”

Witnessing the collapse of a Russian passenger train in the Bryansk region and calling for an end to the U.S.-Russia dialogue in the Ukraine conflict

At least seven people were killed and more than 104 injured after a bridge collapsed on a passenger train traveling through western Russia’s Bryansk region Saturday night — sending debris and several trucks onto the train compartments below.

Russia’s Investigate Committee said it had launched a criminal probe into both incidents on terrorism grounds — but pulled back on initial claims the bridges had both collapsed due to planted explosives.

A large buffer zone will be built so that terrorists won’t be able to enter Russia in the future, said a senior member of the Federation Council.

The Ukrainian military said that a Russian military train was hit in the occupied part of the Ukranian region of Zaporizhzhia.

The most deadly: what Ukraine’s army said was a “missile strike on the location of one of the training units” — killing a dozen soldiers and injuring more than 60. Ukraine’s military rarely confirms losses and did not disclose the precise location of the training camp, though Zelenskyy said in his evening address that it was in Ukraine’s central Dnipropetrovsk region.

The commander of Ukraine’s armed forces, Major General Mykhailo Drapatyi, submitted his resignation after the attack “out of a personal sense of responsibility” for the casualties. “An army where no one is held responsible for losses dies from within,” he wrote on his Facebook page.

While Moscow and the US are engaged in some of the first direct peace talks in three years, Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops at its border with northeast Ukraine in preparation for an attack this summer.

Writing on social media, Zelenskyy said his priorities for the talks include a full and unconditional ceasefire, the release of prisoners and the return of abducted children.

President Trump has advocated for the direct talks to be a part of the future of the U.S. engagement in the Ukraine conflict.

Political observers in Moscow suggested that the Ukranian drone operation had undermined Moscow’s influence on the terms of negotiations for now.

The “Ukrainian delegation is heading to Istanbul not feeling itself the ‘losing side of the war’,” wrote Bovt, who is based in Moscow.

“Our strikes will continue as long as Russia terrorizes Ukrainians with missiles and Shaheds,” he said, referring to the Iranian-designed drones that have played a central role in Russia’s aerial assault on Ukraine

Ukraine’s Security Service smuggled first-person view drones laden with small explosives onto trucks driven deep into Russia. The Ukrainian officials recognized the win of the operation.

The planned attack meant to hit Russian bombers that would launch missiles onUkrainian cities was a huge hit with the Ukrainian people.