Ukrainian video of the detonation at the Kerch Bridge, between southwest Russia and occupied Crimea, June 3, 2025

Germany Replaces “Unreliable” US to Guarantee Europe’s Security

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

Tuesday’s Coverage: Kremlin Restates Its Ultimata at Istanbul Talks

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1823 GMT:

Just after speaking with Vladimir Putin about Ukraine’s mass drone strikes on Russian warplanes, Donald Trump has retweeted an opinion piece calling for tougher sanctions on Moscow.

The article, by right-wing commentator and former White House speechwriter Marc Thiessen, endorses the sanctions bill supported by 82 of 100 Senators.

UPDATE 1720 GMT:

The European Commission has recommended that more than 4 million Ukrainians living in the European Union should have their right to stay extended by one year until March 2027.

EU member states must approve the extension, which applies to 4.3 million Ukrainians, one-third of whom are children.

The Commission urged EU governments to think beyond the extension by making it easier for Ukrainians to obtain other types of residence permits, such as work and student visas. Governments should set up programs to promote voluntary returns to Ukraine, including support of exploratory visits.

Magnus Brunner, the EU’s Internal Affairs Commissioner, emphasised that all returns will be voluntary. The end of temporary protection status would be a decision taken with EU member states and Ukraine “once we have a stable situation”.

The Zelensky Government has set out plans for “unity hubs”, community centers offering information about returning home and integrating into host societies. The first unity hub is due to open this summer in Berlin, with others planned in Prague and Alicante.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov told reporters:

We desperately need Ukrainians back home once the war is over. We need to develop the Ukrainian economy, we need to transform Ukraine into a prosperous economy and develop democracy.

Chernyshov said that for Ukraine to reach the goal of doubling the size of its economy in the decade after the Russian invasion, it could need an additional 4 million people in the labor market.

“Only the strong economy can pave the way to the future success of Ukraine and successful integration into the European Union,” he noted.

UPDATE 1714 GMT:

Donald Trump says he spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin for 75 minutes, including discussion of Ukraine’s mass drone strikes on Russian warplanes on Sunday.

According to Trump, Putin said “very strongly” that Russia must respond to the attacks, which destroyed at least 13 bombers and damaged other aircraft on six Russian bases.

“It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace,” Trump posted.

UPDATE 1541 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has virtually addressed 57 nations of the Ukraine Defense Contact (Ramstein) Group:

We must not allow Russia to blur reality or mislead the world. Moscow must be forced into diplomacy. We need a ceasefire. We need real peace. We need real security. We must use every method available to achieve this – our front line and our defense, our production and technology, our work to build a real security architecture. We must be effective in all of it.

In a press conference, Zelensky said Russia has agreed to release 500 Ukrainian prisoners of war as part of the 1,000-for-1,000 swap agreed in Monday’s talks in Istanbul.

He noted that Russia’s memorandum, presented for the first time as the two sides met, was an “ultimatum” demanding Ukrainian territory with the remainder of the country weak and demilitarized.

The President concluded, “The bottom line is that Russians are not ready for a ceasefire. If there’s no ceasefire, there must be sanctions….It’s meaningless to continue meetings in Istanbul where Russians are represented at the level that doesn’t decide anything.”

However, he continued:

UPDATE 1533 GMT:

Ukraine’s State security service SBU has published footage of Sunday’s mass drone attack on six Russian airbases, which Kyiv says destroyed 13 strategic bombers and damaged 28 other warplanes.

UPDATE 1527 GMT:

Two days after a Kremlin delegation met Ukrainian officials in Istanbul, Vladimir Putin has dismissed the talks.

Putin blamed Kyiv for explosions on two bridges in western Russia on Saturday: “The current Kyiv regime does not need peace at all. What is there to talk about? How can we negotiate with those who rely on terror?”

He declared that the Zelensky Government is “degenerating into a terrorist organisation, and its sponsors are becoming accomplices of terrorists”.

UPDATE 1523 GMT:

Continuing his meetings in Washington (see 0649 GMT), Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak has conferred with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio:

UPDATE 1228 GMT:

A Ukrainian official says the military intelligence agency HUR has obtained sensitive data from Russia’s strategic aircraft manufacturer Tupolev.

Tupolev’s bombers launch long-range cruise missiles against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure.

The official said HUR’s cyber-corps gained access to 4.4 gigabytes of internal data, including official correspondence, personnel files, home addresses, resumes, purchase records, and minutes of closed meetings.

UPDATE 1039 GMT:

The Kremlin has acknowledged Ukraine’s strike on the Kerch Bridge but downplayed its effect.

“There indeed was an explosion. There was no damage, the bridge continues to function,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

UPDATE 1031 GMT:

Addressing the Ukraine Defense Contact (Ramstein) Group, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has confirmed that Ukraine has been invited to the bloc’s summit in The Hague, Netherlands later this month.

Rutte played down the Trump Administration’s absence from the meeting, the first time the US has skipped the gathering during Russia’s invasion. He said US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will attend NATO talks tomorrow.

The Administration is “completely committed” to NATO, Rutte maintained.

There are no plans at the moment for the US to withdraw troops….

They expect European and Canadian allies to spend much more…so we have to increase spending first of all, because we have to reach all those capability targets and close the gaps we still have to make sure that we can also fight the Russians if they try to attack us in three to five years, but also to equalize with the United States.

And I think that is only fair.

UPDATE 0822 GMT:

The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, met Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and other officials in Kyiv on Tuesday.

The meetings considered how to prevent a nuclear accident during Russia’s invasion and how the IAEA can assist in the rebuilding of Ukraine’s damaged and degraded nuclear energy infrastructure.

Driving home the seriousness of the situation, air raid sirens forced Grossi’s meeting with Ukraine Energy Minister German Galushchenko into an underground shelter.

IAEA expert teams based at two of Ukraine’s operating nuclear power plants, Khmelnytskyy and Rivne, sought shelter during a day of frequent air raid alerts.

UPDATE 0805 GMT:

Switzerland has joined the 17th package of European Union sanctions against Russia over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Swiss assets of 17 individuals and 58 legal entities, including those with ties to Russia’s defense industry, will be frozen, and they are banned from entering the country and transiting.

Sanctions have been extended to 189 vessels belonging to third countries to put pressure on Russia’s “shadow fleet”, circumventing international restrictions to transport oil. Export controls have been tightened for 31 companies, including organizations from non-EU countries.

UPDATE 0729 GMT:

At least seven civilians were killed and at least 52 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 36 of 95 drones launched by Russia, and 25 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

In Sumy city in northeast Ukraine, Russian rockets killed four people and injured 28, including three children.

One person was slain and two injured in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, and two killed and five injured in the neighboring Kharkiv region.

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

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke of the killings in Sumy in his nightly address to the nation:

The Russians struck right on the street, hitting ordinary residential buildings. Sleazebags.

There have been virtually no days without killings during this whole time, while the United States, Europe, and other global actors have been urging Russia to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations to end the war.

But Russia remains fully committed to war, and they prove it with both their strikes and their statements. All of this is the argument for new, tougher sanctions against Russia.

UPDATE 0713 GMT:

Satellite images confirm the destruction of six Russian strategic bombers at the Belaya airfield, one of six bases hit by Ukrainian drone attacks on Sunday.

The photos show the remnants of two TU-22 long-range, supersonic bombers and four Tu-95 heavy bombers at Belaya, in the Irkutsk region around 4,500 km (2,800 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

Ukrainian officials say the attack by 117 drones, launched from trucks that entered the bases, destroyed 12 bombers and damaged another 29 warplanes.

The Kremlin finally acknowledged the attacks on Tuesday.

Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “The President received information about the incident online. An investigation has been launched by the Investigative Committee.”

UPDATE 0702 GMT:

For the first time during Russia’s invasion, the US will not attend the meeting of the Ramstein Group, the 58 nations organizing military support of Ukraine’s resistance.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth will not join the meeting, in person or by video link.

The UK confirmed that it will make a pledge to supply 100,000 drones to Ukraine by April 2026. The £350 million ($473 million) package is part of a broader £4.5 billion ($6.09 billion) military support initiative to be annoucned by Defence Secretary John Healey.

UPDATE 0649 GMT:

Ukraine’s Presidential Chief of Staff, Andriy Yermak, posted after meeting Donald Trump’s envoy Keith Kellogg in Washington on Tuesday:

Yermak referred to discussions about Ukrainian children abducted and deported by Russia, with Kyiv awaiting a response from Moscow to a list of almost 400 juveniles handed over at the Istanbul talks last week.

The official noted:

Russia is doing everything to avoid a ceasefire. This must be stopped by force, because Ukraine has done everything to bring the war to an end.

But if Russia refuses to stop the aggression voluntarily, we are compelled to conduct operations and destroy its military potential.

Ukraine is reinforcing the efforts of US Senators Lindsey Graham and Richard Blumenthal for a bill toughening sanctions on Russia and countries who support Moscow’s invasion. The measure is supported by 82 of 100 senators.

Kellogg later told Fox TV that the bill with “pretty onerous” sanctions is “ready to go”.

Yermak also met Trump’s envoy to Russia, real estate developer Steve Witkoff.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainian forces have again struck the Kerch Bridge, Vladimir Putin’s flagship symbol of his quest to conquer Ukraine.

The State security service SBU detonated 1100 kg (2420 lbs.) of explosives below the water level of the road and rail bridge, which links Russia’s Krasnodar Krai region and occupied Crimea, at 4:44 a.m. on Tuesday.

Video showed damage to pillars of the structure, which was closed to traffic for several hours.

Celebrating his seizure of Crimea in spring 2014, Putin opened the bridge in 2018. Ukrainian services also seriously damaged the structure in October 2022 with a truck bomb and in July 2023 with a naval drone.

The SBU said that Tuesday’s attack 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.”

Russian officials played down the strike, saying they had reopened the bridge in the afternoon.