Smoke rises from the Belaya airbase in Russia’s Irkutsk region, more than 4,400 km from the Ukraine border, after Ukrainian drone strikes on strategic bombers

EA on WION: Ukraine’s Drone Strikes Put Putin on the Defensive

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelensky — “No Clear Information” About Russia’s “Memorandum” Ahead of Talks

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1907 GMT:

Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak posted:

Russian State media said the Kremlin’s delegation gave Ukraine two options: a complete withdrawal of all Ukrainian forces from four regions — Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — “annexed” by Vladimir Putin in September 2022, or a “package” deal with a number of conditions.

Ukraine must also abandon aspirations to join NATO or other possible military alliances; ban redeployment of its troops; and end arms supplies and intelligence sharing from Western countries. No foreign troops will be permitted. Kyiv must give up its claims for compensation for damages, guarantee amnesty for “political prisoners”, and make Russian the official language.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Ukrainian delegation, said Russia was rejecting “even the very idea of halting the killing” and stalling for time.

UPDATE 1857 GMT:

Ukraine and Russia have agreed to swap the bodies of more than 6,000 fallen soldiers on each side.

Russian lead negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said there will be another exchange, with “no less than 1000 soldiers from our side”. Without giving a number, the Ukrainians said the focus will be on soldiers aged 18-25 and severely wounded prisoners.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky later spoke of an exchange of 1,000 prisoners each, with the possibility of an additional 200.

Ukraine’s officials handed the Russians a list of “several hundred” children deported to Russia. Medinsky cited a list “that contains 339 names”, without commenting further.

Zelensky said the Russians agreed to work on only 10 of the cases.

UPDATE 1615 GMT:

Ukrainians celebrate Sunday’s drone strikes on six Russian airbases, destroying or disabling 41 strategic bombers and surveillance planes.

To the tune of “Freed from Desire” by Gala, they sing, “Airbase on fire, your defense is terrified.”

UPDATE 1454 GMT:

Russia has rejected an unconditional ceasefire with Ukraine at the Istanbul talks.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, the head of Kyiv’s delegation, reiterated:

We are insisting on a full and unconditional end to the killing now: An unconditional ceasefire, meaning air, sea and land for at least 30 days. This demand has been unchanged for three months and we consider it the basis of a peaceful resolution.

Umerov said, “We propose to the Russian side to hold a meeting by the end of this month, from 20th to 30th of June.”

He said the delegations should try to agree a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

The Defense Minister said Ukraine has agreed to return 6,000 bodies of fallen soldiers, as it provided the Russians with a list of Ukrainian children deported to Russia or Russian-occupied territory during the invasion.

“This matter is a fundamental priority for us: If Russia is genuinely committed to a peace process, the return of at least half the children on this list is positive,” Umerov emphasized.

Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsya noted that the Russians, after proclaiming for days that they had prepared a memorandum over an end to the invasion, had only presented it today.

“We could not react to the Russian proposals as they were literally only advanced during the meeting. Nevertheless we manage to construct our conversation in a way that we can have a tangible humanitarian outcome,” he said.

The head of the Russian delegation, Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, said, “We have proposed a specific ceasefire for two to three days in certain areas of the front line so that commanders can collect the bodies of their soldiers.”

UPDATE 1411 GMT:

Twelve emergency workers have been injured by Russian “double tap” drone attacks against a State Emergency Service building in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukriane.

Russian first-person-view drones struck the building and service vehicles in the Stepnohirsk community. As first responders evacuated the wounded, Russian forces attacked again.

All of the victims have been hospitalized. One is in critical conditions, are others are moderately injured.

UPDATE 1223 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the Trump Administration to impose a “strong new package” of sanctions against Russia if talks to end Moscow’s invasion fail.

Speaking at a joint summit of the Bucharest Nine and Nordic leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, Zelensky said:

If the Istanbul meeting brings nothing, that clearly means strong new sanctions are urgently needed — from the EU’s 18th package, and from the United States specifically, the strongest sanctions President Trump promised.

Sanctions should hit Russian energy — especially oil and tankers — price caps, of course, and also Russian banks and the financial sector overall.

“Without pressure Putin will just keep playing games with everyone who wants this war to end,” Zelensky said. “The key to lasting peace is clear: the aggressor must not receive any reward for war. Putin must get nothing that would justify his aggression. Any reward would only show him that war pays off.”

He added that Russia must not be allowed to veto Ukraine’s NATO membership as this would only feed Putin’s “appetite for war”.

UPDATE 1215 GMT:

Before meeting Russia’s delegation, Ukrianian officials have conferrred with European partners in Istanbul.

The Ukraine Foreign Ministry said, “The sides coordinated positions ahead of today’s meeting between Ukrainian and Russian delegations. Members of the Ukrainian delegation reiterated Ukraine’s commitment to peace efforts.”

Discussions with Russia were scheduled for 1 p.m. local time (1000 GMT). They began two hours late.

UPDATE 0942 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has congratulated right-wing politician Karol Nawrocki, who narrowly won Poland’s Presidential election on Sunday.

Nawrocki, who won 50.89% of the vote against the pro-Europe Mayor of Warsaw, Rafal Trzaskowski, has criticized Ukraine’s candidacy to join NATO and has threatened restrictive measures on Ukrainian refugees in Poland.

UPDATE 0938 GMT:

Andriy Kovalenko of Ukraine’s National Security Council says the mass drone attacks on six Russian airbases destroyed at least 13 warplanes among the 41 that were disabled.

UPDATE 0732 GMT:

The death of a New Zealand volunteer on the battlefield has been confirmed.

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

Ahead of Tuesday’s second round of talks in Istanbul over its full-scale invasion, Russia has killed at least nine civilians and injured at least 49, including children, across Ukraine.

Air defenses downed 15 of 80 drones launched by the Russians. Another 37 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Russia also fired three Iskander-M or KN-23 ballistic missiles and one Iskander-K cruise missile.

Russian missile, bomb, and drone attacks across the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine killed five civilians and injured nine. Among the slain were three women killed by Russian shelling of the village of Ternuvate, east of Zaporizhzhia city.

In the neighboring Kherson region, three people were killed and 19 injured, including two children.

One civilian was killed and three injured in Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Casualties were also reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, and Mykolaiv regions.

Overnight into Sunday, Russia launched a record 472 drones, as well as seven missiles.

Air defenses downed 210 drones, and 172 were lost to electronic counter-measures. UAVs were intercepted in 18 different locations across Ukraine.

The previous record of more than 350 Russian drones was set on May 26, as Russia tries to break civilian resistance in Ukraine.

UPDATE 0653 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is summoning senior military officers, including commander-in-chief Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, over a Russian missile strike on a training ground which killed 12 troops and injured 60.

The Russians struck the 239th Polygon, north of the city of Dnipro, on Sunday morning.

Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi, the commander of Ukraine’s Land Forces, resigned. He said in a statement:

Twelve dead. There are injured. These are young lads from the training battalion. Most of them were in shelters. They should have learned, lived, and fought – not died.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky said:

This is not the first strike of its kind when Ukraine has lost personnel. I have called a meeting … to deal with this. We need all our fighting men at the front to defend Ukraine.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: In raids on six airbases deep inside Russia, Ukraine’s drones have disabled 41 Russian strategic bombers — more than 1/3 of Moscow’s fleet.

Operation Pavutýna (Spiderweb) was planned over 18 months and personally supervised by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. Dozens of small, first-person view drones were armed with explosives and smuggled into Russia, followed by small wooden mobile cabins. The drones were concealed under the roofs of the cabins which had been loaded onto trucks.

On Sunday morning the UAVs were released by remote control. As they struck the bombers, the trucks were detonated.

Video showed men scrambling aboard trucks to prevent UAVs being launched. At the burning Voskresensk airbase in the Moscow region, a Russian serviceman said, “It’s fucked here,” as smoke rose from bombers in the background.

Ukrainian officials, including Zelensky, said 117 of 150 drones hit their targets.

The six Russian airfields are Belaya in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,400 km (2,734 miles) from the Ukrainian border; Severomorsk, the main base of the Russian Northern Fleet, in the Murmansk region near the Arctic circle; Olenya in Murmansk; Ivanovo, a base for military transports, in the Ivanovo region; Dyagilevo Air Base, a training center for the strategic bomber force, in the Ryazan region; and Voskresensk.

The destroyed warplanes included A-50 surveillance planes and Tu-95 and Tu-22 M3 bombers involved in cruise missile strikes on civilian areas across Ukraine.

Security expert Maria Avdeeva summarized:

Zelensky: “This Will Be in History Books”

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky hailed the “brilliant operation”.

He added a note about the audacity of the plan, “What’s most interesting is that the ‘office’ of our operation on Russian territory was located directly next to [Russian State security service] FSB headquarters in one of their regions.”

In his initial report, Zelensky praised, “A result achieved solely by Ukraine. One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution.”

He noted, as the Russian Defense Ministry insisted that it had detained several suspected, “Our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time.”

Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books. Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war. Russia started this war, Russia must end it. Glory to Ukraine!

The State security service SBU quoted Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko:

And you thought Ukraine was easy? Ukraine is exceptional. Ukraine is unique. All the steamrollers of history have rolled over it. It has withstood every kind of trial. It is tempered by the highest degree. In today’s world, its value is beyond measure.

The SBU pledged, “We will strike them at sea, in the air, and on the ground. And if needed, we’ll get them from underground too.”