Ukraine-Russia war latest: Three dead and dozens injured after Kyiv strikes Russian drone factory

Volodymyr Zelensky says Vladimir Putin has spent the first six months of the year stalling against a ceasefire or peace.

“Putin has already stolen practically half a year from diplomacy — another half a year — on top of the entire duration of this war,” he said on X.

“Russia is not changing its plans and is not looking for a way out of this war. On the contrary, they are preparing for new operations, including on the territory of European countries. That’s their principle, the Russians look for where to exploit a weakness.

He continued: “They must see that there is the wherewithal to stop them everywhere. Therefore, more of our joint production, more resilience, more coordination and efficiency of our common security architecture in Europe.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin had a “substantial” phone call with French President Emmanuel Macron on the Iran-Israel conflict and Ukraine, the Kremlin said on Tuesday, the first such exchange between the two leaders since September 2022.

In Paris, Macron’s office said the call lasted two hours and that the French leader had called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and the start of negotiations on ending the conflict.

According to the Kremlin press service, Putin said it was necessary to respect Iran’s right to the peaceful development of nuclear energy as well as its continued compliance with its obligations under the nuclear non-proliferation treaty.

The French president’s office said Macron had also stressed the need for Iran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Kremlin on Tuesday denied claims by US president Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine that Russia was stalling in peace talks, adding that Moscow had fulfilled all the agreements reached so far in the negotiations.

Trump’s senior envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said on Monday that “Russia cannot continue to stall for time while it bombs civilian targets in Ukraine.”

Asked about the remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia was grateful to Trump’s team for helping to facilitate talks but that Moscow was not stalling the talks.

“No one is delaying anything here,” Mr Peskov said.

“We are naturally in favor of achieving the goals that we are trying to achieve through the special military operation via political and diplomatic means. Therefore, we are not interested in drawing out anything.”

Russia has taken full control of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, more than three years after President Vladimir Putin ordered thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, the Russian-backed head of the region told Russian state television.

Luhansk, which has an area of 26,700 square km (10,308 square miles), is the first Ukrainian region to fall fully under the established control of Russian forces since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.

Putin in September 2022 declared that Luhansk – along with the partially controlled Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions – was being incorporated into Russia, a step Western European states said was illegal and that most of the world did not recognise.

Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Russia is “not looking for a way out of the war” and instead preparing to launch a new operation in Europe.

Posting on X on Monday (30 June), the Ukrainian president said that Vladimir Putin is “not changing his plans” and is always “looking for where to exploit a weakness”.

He cautioned: “They are preparing for new operations including on the territory of European territories.”

“They must see that there is the wherewithal to stop them everywhere,” he said, adding that Ukraine’s allies should show “more resilience, more coordination and efficiency of our common security architecture in Europe”.

On Tuesday (1 July), a Russia-appointed official claimed that Moscow troops have occupied all of illegally-annexed Luhansk, making it the only Ukrainian region to have fallen in its entirety during the war.

Ukraine’s top general ordered military officials on Tuesday to prohibit troop buildups in tent encampments and to build new shelters at training centres to protect soldiers against deadly Russian air strikes.

The order by Oleksandr Syrskyi comes after a spate of Russian attacks focused attention on lax discipline at military bases as Ukraine struggles to fend off a bigger and better-armed Russian military.

Last month Mykhailo Drapatyi resigned as commander of Ukraine’s ground forces after a Russian missile strike killed 12 soldiers and wounded scores more at a training ground.

“My unconditional demand is to ensure and improve the safety of servicemen in training centres and at rear training grounds,” Syrskyi wrote on the Telegram messaging app.

“The accumulation of personnel and military equipment, the placement of servicemen in tent camps is prohibited!”

Three people were killed and 35 others injured in a Ukrainian drone strike on a factory in the Russian city of Izhevsk, regional governor Alexander Brechalov on his Telegram channel on Tuesday.

Brechalov did not name the targeted facility, but a Ukrainian security official earlier told Reuters that at least two long-range drones operated by the Security Service of Ukraine struck the Kupol plant, which manufactures drones and air defence systems, and caused a fire.

A column of black smoke could be seen billowing into the sky from the site of a fire at a cluster of buildings in videos shared by the Ukrainian official who said the plant’s production facilities and warehouses had been hit.