Overview
- Ukraine said Russia launched more than 1,560 attack drones since Wednesday, with dozens of missiles overnight, in one of the largest two-day air assaults of the war.
- Kyiv reported multiple deaths and dozens injured as a nine-story residential block partially collapsed, power equipment and rail assets were hit, and residents sheltered in metro stations.
- The barrage followed a three-day, US-mediated truce that ended Monday and left both sides trading violations, undercutting near-term hopes for negotiations.
- The Kremlin on Wednesday reiterated it will not enter real talks until Ukrainian forces leave Donbas, days after Vladimir Putin said the war was “coming to an end,” a stance Kyiv rejects as capitulation.
- Signs of strain inside Russia include an official admission that the prison population has fallen sharply since 2021 in part because inmates signed military contracts to fight in Ukraine.