Ukraine-Russia war latest: Russian troops launch offensive to retake Kursk as Zelensky says Kyiv committed to peace

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 88 Ukrainian drones overnight with no injuries or damage reported, Russian authorities said on Sunday.

The Russian defence ministry said that 52 of the drones were destroyed over the border Belgorod region, while 13 were over the Lipetsk region and nine were over the Rostov region, both in Russia’s southwest.

The rest of the Ukrainian drones were downed over Russia’s Voronezh, Astrakhan, Krasnodar, Ryazan and Kursk regions.

Governors of the Lipetsk and Ryazan regions said overnight that their regions were under air raid alerts but they did not report any damage or injuries.

Russia’s aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said on Telegram that the airports of Astrakhan, Nizhny Novgorod and Kazan were closed for traffic for several hours overnight to ensure air safety.

Unofficial Russian news Telegram channels reported that the Ukrainian attack on Ryazan and Lipetsk targeted local oil refineries.

Ukrainian Lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, who heads the Center for Countering Disinformation, part of the National Security and Defense Council, said, without providing evidence or saying directly that Ukrainian drones were involved, that the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant in Lipetsk was under attack.

The reports on what was targeted in the attacks could not be independently verified.

Ukraine’s air defences shot down 73 of 119 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack on Sunday, the air force said.

It said that 37 drones were “lost”, in reference to the military’s use of electronic warfare to redirect them. The military said damage was recorded in six Ukrainian regions but provided no immediate details.

Rishi Sunak warned that Kyiv could be left without support and compensation if Russian assets are not seized.

The former prime minister reiterated his calls for ministers to seize frozen state assets to help Ukraine in the war and put more pressure on Russia.

Writing in the Sunday Times, Mr Sunak said that Moscow “will undoubtedly owe Ukraine reparations for the horrific damage it has inflicted on the country”.

He said that “Ukraine needs financial support without delay as it continues to defend itself against this brutal assault”, and warned “there is a danger that if these assets are not seized now, Ukraine may never get the support it needs and the compensation it deserves.”

“Now is a time for action,” Mr Sunak added.

“We must move to seize Russian state assets and transfer them to Ukraine so it can defend itself at its moment of maximum need.”

Defence secretary John Healey is expected to join talks with counterparts next week, as the UK and France lead efforts to get nations to commit to a “coalition of the willing” to back a peace deal in Ukraine.

The UK’s diplomatic push on securing a peace deal continued on Saturday, as Keir Starmer welcomed a commitment from Australia to “consider contributing” after a call with his counterpart Anthony Albanese.

A readout of the conversation from a Downing Street spokesperson said: “He welcomed prime minister Albanese’s commitment to consider contributing to a coalition of the willing for Ukraine and looked forward to the chiefs of defence meeting in Paris on Tuesday.”

Officials from about 20 largely European and Commonwealth countries took part in the talks about the peacekeeping coalition earlier this week.

Not all the countries interested in the plan would necessarily provide troops to a peacekeeping force but they could potentially contribute in other ways.

Russian troops have launched a large-scale offensive to retake swaths of the western Kursk region from Ukrainian forces, war bloggers and a senior Russian commander said.

Ukrainian troops stormed into Russia’s Kursk region last summer, taking chunks of territory in an unexpected lightning attack more than two years after Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine.

“In all directions of the Kursk section of the front, all units have launched a large-scale offensive,” Major General Apti Alaudinov, commander of a Chechen unit fighting for Russia in Kursk, said on Telegram. “The enemy is abandoning its positions.”

Ukraine’s military did not immediately comment.

Open source maps showed this week that Ukraine’s positions in Kursk have deteriorated sharply and its troops are nearly surrounded by Russian forces.

The precarious situation for Ukraine follows a pause in US military aid and intelligence sharing with Kyiv as US President Donald Trump puts pressure on Kyiv to agree to a ceasefire with Moscow.

Pro-Russian war blogger Two Majors said on Saturday Russian troops had begun an assault on Sudzha, a town about six miles (9.5km) from the border with Ukraine, and that the situation for Ukrainian troops there was “close to critical”.

Major General Alaudinov said Russian airborne brigades, motorised rifle regiments and the Akhmat special forces were taking part in “fierce battles” and “our guys are moving forward very well”.

Russian troops recaptured three villages in Kursk – Viktorovka, Nikolaevka and Staraya Sorochina – from Ukraine on Saturday, the defence ministry said. Reuters could not independently verify its report.

At least 25 people have been killed in Ukraine following a wave of Russian strikes, officials said, with the deadliest attack hitting the Donetsk region town of Dobropillya late on Friday. Two ballistic missiles struck residential buildings and a shopping centre, killing at least 11 people.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia then launched another strike targeting emergency responders. “Such strikes show that Russia’s goals are unchanged,” he wrote on Telegram.

Elsewhere in Donetsk, nine more people were killed and 13 injured between Friday and Saturday, according to local officials. In the Kharkiv region, drones hit a company in Bohodukhiv, killing three and injuring seven, while another attack in Odesa damaged energy infrastructure. Officials said it was the seventh attack on the region’s energy system in three weeks.

David Lammy has condemned the latest Russian strikes on Ukraine as “abhorrent”, as Moscow continued its barrage.

The foreign secretary said the “barbaric aggression only strengthens our resolve” to support Kyiv, after further strikes over the weekend.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday further Russian strikes prove “they are not thinking about how to end the war” and that he is “grateful to all the leaders, diplomats from partner countries, and civil society figures who support Ukraine”.

In a post on X, Mr Lammy said: “This barbaric aggression only strengthens our resolve to stand with Ukraine.”

Mr Zelensky had earlier said that 11 people had died in a strike in the city of Dobropillya, and that there had been further attacks in Donetsk, Kharkiv and the southern regions.

He added: “Russia continues to prove with its cruelty, day after day, that nothing has changed for them in Moscow – they are not thinking about how to end the war, but how to destroy and capture more while the world allows them to continue. Of course, we are doing everything we can to protect lives.”