Ukraine war latest: Huge fires seen at Russian oil port after Ukrainian drone strike

“Painstaking work” of diplomacy, and not a meeting between Russian president Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump, is needed to resolve the situation in Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said today, according to Russian news agency Tass.

“At the moment, what is needed is very painstaking work on the details of the settlement,” Mr Peskov was quoted as saying by Tass.

The Kremlin’s statement comes following the cancellation of a planned meeting between the two leaders in Budapest next month, after US officials reviewed Russia’s conditions.

Russian officials sent a formal memo of their demands to end the war in Ukraine, which included sweeping concessions on sanctions and recognition of its territorial claims.

Moscow’s troops are reportedly intensifying infiltration efforts into Pokrovsk during poor weather conditions, as precipitation inhibits both Russian and Ukrainian drone operations.

While dozens of Russian personnel can infiltrate into Pokrovsk when rainy or foggy weather inhibits Ukrainian drone operations, no more than 10 of Moscow’s soldiers do so during fair weather when Kyiv is able to operate all its drones, Ukraine’s Hromadske reported, citing a military official.

Troops on both sides in the key Ukrainian city are fighting for control over multi-storey buildings from which to conduct drone operations, the Institute for the Study of War reported.

Kyiv is preparing for new drone and long-range strikes on Russian energy infrastructure that could lead to widespread blackouts in Russia, Robert Brovdi, commander of Ukraine’s drone systems forces, said yesterday.

The attacks would force Russian regions to adapt to disruptions in power supply, Brovdi wrote on Facebook.

“Blackouts are not scary. They’re just a bit inconvenient… The birds of the drone systems forces, together with other components of Ukraine’s deep strike capabilities, promise you a rapid, if somewhat forced, adaptation,” he said, referring to drones as “free Ukrainian birds”.

The drone force commander said Russia would increasingly face fuel shortages as gas and oil reserves were “burning fast”.

Ukraine’s top commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi said Kyiv’s forces are holding out against a “multi-thousand-strong” Russian group infiltrating the key town of Pokrovsk.

“Our soldiers have to restrain the pressure of a multi-thousand-strong enemy group, which continues to try to infiltrate residential areas and cut off our supply routes,” Syrskyi said in a statement yesterday.

Ukraine has dispatched its Special Operations Forces, security service, and other units such as the intelligence directorate in the city, he said.

“I emphasise once again that in the current difficult conditions, effective interaction between units and coordinated implementation of the assigned tasks are extremely important,” the military commander said.

Russian authorities are cracking down on Telegram channels and users for alleged “doxxing and extortion” of Kremlin officials and Russian security service agents.

The social media platform is reportedly removing channels considered “irritants” by Russian law enforcement.

Last week, Russian forces detained the head of a Telegram channel in St Petersburg who had leaked insights into Kremlin factional dynamics, according to the Institute for the Study of War.

The crackdown is seen as part of a wider effort to remove sources that publish information that the Kremlin deems threatening to its regime.