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Here’s where things stand on Wednesday 11 June 2025:
Fighting
- Russia launched a large-scale drone-and-missile assault on Ukraine, killing one person in Kyiv and two in the southern port city of Odesa. At least 13 people were injured.
- A Ukrainian drone attack on a petrol station in the Russian city of Belgorod killed one person and injured four others, the region’s governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said.
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia’s attack on Kyiv was “one of the biggest” in the three-year-old war. It caused several fires and damaged buildings, including St Sophia Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage landmark.
- In northeastern Ukraine, the governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said the region’s defence council decided to order the mandatory evacuation of seven villages.
- The Ukrainian military said that Russia launched 315 drones and seven missiles at Ukrainian cities in total. Ukrainian air defenders shot down 213 drones, two ballistic missiles and two cruise missiles, the military said.
- Ukrainian forces also engaged in 167 firefights with Russian troops across multiple fronts on Tuesday, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said.
- The Russian Ministry of Defence said that air defence units shot down 109 Ukrainian drones from Monday night into Tuesday.
Prisoner exchange
- The Russian Defence Ministry confirmed a “second group of Russian servicemen was returned from the territory controlled by the Kyiv regime” after a prisoner exchange took place on Monday. They will now undergo “treatment and rehabilitation”, the ministry said.
- Zelenskyy said Ukraine also received prisoners in the “first stage of the return of our injured and severely wounded warriors from Russian captivity”.
- “The exchanges are to continue,” Zelenskyy added. Both sides are expected to release more than 1,000 prisoners each, under an agreement struck at talks in Istanbul, Turkiye, last week.
- Ukrainian families of missing soldiers said they are anxiously awaiting information as the exchanges continue.
Politics and diplomacy
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz denounced Russian “terror against the civilian population” of Ukraine after Moscow’s heavy drone and missile strikes.
- United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told lawmakers that the US will reduce military aid to Ukraine in the upcoming defence budget.
- “This administration takes a very different view of that conflict. We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation’s interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe,” Hegseth said.
- The European Commission proposed an 18th package of sanctions against Russia, targeting its oil revenues, banks and weapons industry.
- Russian authorities have arrested opposition politician Lev Shlosberg, and charged him with discrediting the Russian army after he called the war on Ukraine a game of “bloody chess”.
- Finnish Minister of Defence Antti Hakkanen alleged that a Russian military aircraft violated Finland’s airspace, prompting an investigation by the Finnish Border Guard.
Russian drone attacks kill three, wound 60 in Ukraine’s Kharkiv
Russian drone strikes have killed three people and wounded 60, including children, in the northeastern city of Kharkiv, officials say.
The city, just 30 kilometres (18 miles) from the Russian border, bore the brunt of Russia’s latest aerial assault early on Wednesday, with 17 drones striking two residential areas, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
“Those are ordinary sites of peaceful life … that should never be targeted,” he wrote on Telegram.
Among the 60 wounded in the attacks were nine children aged between 2 and 15, according to Kharkiv regional head Oleh Syniehubov.
One Kharkiv resident, Olena Khoruzheva, told the AFP news agency how she had run with her two children away from the windows of her building when she heard the drones approach.
“The younger one lay on the floor, hands on his head. I was on top of him,” the 41-year-old pharmacist said.
“We heard it approaching. Silence, and then we were thrown against the wall … there were more explosions, then we heard people shouting ‘Help! Help!’”
Her 65-year-old neighbour was killed in the attack, she said.
The assault left emergency crews, city workers and volunteers scrambling through the night to rescue people from burning buildings and restore essential services in the city, which has been frequently targeted in recent months, The Associated Press news agency reported.
“We stand strong. We help one another. And we will endure,” the city’s mayor wrote on Telegram.
Nightly assaults
The strikes on Kharkiv were part of a wave of 85 drones deployed by Russia overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said, adding that its air defence systems had intercepted 40.
The latest assault followed much larger Russian drone and missile attacks in the previous days, in retaliation from Moscow for an audacious Ukrainian drone operation, codenamed “Spiderweb”, that knocked out aircraft stationed at military bases on Russian soil.
Moscow sent a record bombardment of almost 500 drones overnight on Monday, followed by a wave of 315 drones and seven missiles the following night.
Kyiv has sent its own drones in response, with Moscow’s Ministry of Defence saying 32 Ukrainian drones were intercepted overnight, the AFP news agency reported.
The exchange of aerial attacks has continued even as both sides have participated in recent days in prisoner exchanges agreed to in talks in Istanbul earlier this month.
The exchanges began on Monday and continued on Tuesday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posting footage of emotional reunions as shaven-headed prisoners stepped off a bus and draped themselves in Ukrainian flags.
Two rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine have failed to yield a breakthrough in agreeing to a ceasefire and ending the war.
In recent days, Zelenskyy has urged Ukraine’s Western allies to ramp up pressure and take action against Russia, arguing that the Kremlin’s aggression shows it has no interest in a ceasefire.