Ukrainian and Russian delegations at the Ciragan Palace, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2, 2025

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

Monday’s Coverage: Kyiv’s Drones Decimate Russia’s Strategic Bombers

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1641 GMT:

The Trump Administration staffer who shut down the US Government’s disinformation monitor is married to a Russian woman whose uncle is linked to the Kremlin.

Darren Beattie, a far-right activist, was appointed in February as Acting Undersecretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. In May 2021, he married Yulia Kirillova, the niece of Sergei Chernikov, a Russian drinks magnate.

Chernikov, whose net worth was estimated in 2005 to be $150 million, reportedly received a letter of thanks from Putin for his help in the election campaign that first brought the Russian leader to power.

The businessman served in the Ministry of Natural Resources, became deputy governor of the Nenets region in Siberia, and was a member of Russia’s Civic Chamber, which nominally scrutinizes the activities of the Russian government.

Before joining the Administration in its second term, Beattie posted on social media that Western institutions should be “infiltrated” by Vladimir Putin and derided the “globalist American empire”.

In December 2021, two months before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he said: “Imagine the whining from the Globalist American Empire if Putin ‘invades’ Ukraine… I love it when our national security bureaucrats fail!”

Beattie also has repeatedly called on the US to surrender Taiwan to China and labeled the UK a “poor and pathetic kingdom” that would be “far better off under Chinese dominion”.

The activist was sacked from the first Trump Administration in 2018 for attending a white nationalist conference.

UPDATE 1632 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s rocket attacks on Sumy city on Tuesday morning (see 0838 GMT) has risen to four civilians killed and 24 injured, including three children.

A 43-year-old man died in hospital around 4:30 p.m. His 7-year-old daughter was severely injured.

UPDATE 1340 GMT:

Russia’s former President Dmitry Medvedev has declared, “The Istanbul talks are not for striking a compromise peace on someone else’s delusional terms but for ensuring our swift victory and the complete destruction of the neo-Nazi regime.

Medvedev, now Deputy Secretary of the State Security Council, made clear, “That’s what the Russian Memorandum published yesterday is about.”

US Senator Lindsey Graham, co-sponsor of a bill for toughened sanctions on Russia which is supported by 82 of 100 senators, responded:

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances. It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs.”

UPDATE 1329 GMT:

Ukraine’s State security service SBU says it struck the Kerch road and rail bridge linking Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and occupied Crimea.

The SBU said it detonated 1100 kg (2420 lbs.) of explosives below the water level at 4:44 a.m., damaging pillars of the bridge. The operation was planned “for several months, with agents mining the supports of this illegal construction”.

SBU head Vasyl Malyuk celebrated, “God loves the Trinity, and the SBU always brings what is conceived to the end and never repeats itself. Previously, we struck the Crimean Bridge in 2022 and 2023. So today we continued this tradition underwater.”

The Kerch Bridge is a flagship personal project of Vladimir Putin. Celebrating Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014, it was opened in 2018.

The Bridge was seriously damaged in October 2022 and July 2023 by explosions in Ukrainian sabotage operations.

UPDATE 1249 GMT:

The Kremlin has pushed back calls by Ukraine and Turkey for a meeting between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “In the near future, it is unlikely” that a meeting will take place soon.

After Monday’s Istanbul meeting, Ukraine proposed a Zelensky-Putin meeting with Donald Trump in attendance. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan eagerly promoted the proposal, and the White House said Trump was “open” to it.

UPDATE 0838 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s attack on Sumy city on Tuesday morning has risen to three killed and 20 wounded, including four children.

The city in northeast Ukraine was struck at least five times by rockets. A medical facility, cars, and houses were damaged.

Some victims are in serious condition.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky commented:

It is obvious: without global pressure – without decisive actions from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who has the power – Putin will not agree even to a ceasefire. Not a single day goes by without Russia striking Ukrainian cities and villages. Every day, we lose our people to Russian terror. Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defense.

UPDATE 0828 GMT:

A high-level Ukrainian delegation has arrived in the US for talks with the Trump Administration.

The group is led by Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and includes Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak.

Yermak said discussions will cover “defense support, the battlefield situation, and strengthening sanctions against Russia”, including the Senate bill to toughen restrictions on Moscow and those countries who enable its invasion.

Talks will consider efforts to bring abducted Ukrainian children back from Russia, a U.S.-Ukrainian minerals agreement, Russian propaganda about Ukrainian churches, and Monday’s talks in Istanbul.

UPDATE 0735 GMT:

US and European security officials estimate that Ukraine’s mass drone attacks on Sunday seriously damaged around 20 Russian warplanes, including six Tu-95 and four Tu-22M strategic bombers and an A-50 radar detection and control aircraft.

American officials expect a “significant response” from Russia. Officials believe that Moscow could resume drone strikes on civilian infrastructure, hit the Ukrainian power grid, or launch new waves of medium-range ballistic missiles.

Russian officials say the number of damaged aircraft is closer to 10. However, there is “anger and alarm” in the Kremlin over the unexpected vulnerability of Russia’s air fleet far from frontlines.

The Russians maintained that, as only a few bombers are needed to attack Ukraine, the pace of strikes will not decrease.

UPDATE 0701 GMT:

As the Kremlin’s representatives issued demands in Monday’s Istanbul talks, Russia continued its killing of Ukrainian civilians.

At least seven civilians were murdered and 42 injured over the past day.

Air defenses downed 60 out of 112 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 15 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

At least three people were slain by Russian shelling across the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. One murder was in Kramatorsk, where two civilians were injured; and two in the town of Illinivka, with three wounded.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, two women, aged 62 and 64, were killed in a village south of Kupyansk near the frontline.

In the Kherson region in the south, one civilian was killed and 13 wounded, including a child, by attacks on 35 settlements.

Russian first-person-view drones struck a State Emergency Service building and service vehicles in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, injuring 12 emergency workers.

On Tuesday morning, a civilian was killed in Sumy city in the northeast with “many more” injured and taken to hospital.

Casualties were also reported in the Odesa region.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The second set of Istanbul talks between Ukraine and Russia made no progress in ending Moscow’s 39-month full-scale invasion, as the Kremlin’s delegation restated their ultimata for Kyiv’s surrender.

The Russians gave Ukraine two options in Monday’s meeting, which lasted less than two hours: 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.

Those conditions include Ukraine’s abandonment of aspirations to join NATO or other military alliances; a ban on redeployment of its troops; and an end to arms supplies and intelligence sharing from Western countries. No foreign troops will be permitted on Ukrainian soil.

Kyiv must give up its claims for compensation for damages, guarantee amnesty for “political prisoners”, and make Russian the official language.

Ukraine’s Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak posted:

Under pressure to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire, the Kremlin said for several days that it had drawn up a proposal. However, it only presented the document at the talks, which began two hours late.

Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, said he suggested a “partial” ceasefire for two to three days.

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, Medinsky’s Ukrainian counterpart, noted that Russia was rejecting “even the very idea of halting the killing” and stalling for time.

Another Exchange of POWs — But Will Ukraine Get Its Deported Children?

Umerov summarized that Ukraine had again tabled the proposal for the 30-day ceasefire on land, at sea, and from the air. Kyiv proposed another meeting between 20 and 30 June, and a face-to-face discussion between its President Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

The two sides agreed on a second 1,000-for-1,000 exchange of prisoners of war, following the swap after the first Istanbul talks last month. Zelensky said the focus would be on severely wounded troops and those aged 18 to 25, with the possibility of another 200 added to the arrangement.

Kyiv and Moscow will each return the bodies of more than 6,000 fallen soldiers.

Ukraine handed the Russians a list of almost 400 children deported to Russia. Medinsky confirmed “339 names”, but the Ukrainians said the Russians agreed to consideration of only 10 cases.

Medinsky reportedly told the Ukrainians, “Don’t put on a show for bleeding-heart European old ladies with no children of their own.”

Speaking to reporters at a leaders’ conference in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius, Zelensky said:

We are very much awaiting strong steps from the United States. We hope he will support sanctions and push Putin to stop this war, at least to take the first step toward ending it: a ceasefire.

These are critical things. I believe that from the position of the U.S., we will be able to achieve this faster.