<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at the Bucharest B9 summit held at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Vadim Ghirda\/AP<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the awarding ceremony for the Order “For Valiant Labor” to employees of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, part of the Roscosmos state space corporation, in Moscow, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Vyacheslav Prokofyev\/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)<\/p>\n
Vyacheslav Prokofyev\/AP<\/p>\n
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian drone attack on a gas pipeline in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Emergency Service\/AP<\/p>\n
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Service, emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian drone attack on a gas pipeline in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, May 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)<\/p>\n
Ukrainian Emergency Service\/AP<\/p>\n
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives at the Bucharest B9 summit held at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, Romania, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Vadim Ghirda\/AP<\/p>\n
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) \u2014 Russia fired at least 800 drones in a massive daytime barrage on about 20 regions of Ukraine on Wednesday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, including children, in one of the longest attacks by Moscow in the 4-year-old war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.<\/p>\n
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The attack began in midmorning and lasted for hours in the capital of Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near Poland, and the port of Odesa on the Black Sea, among other population centers, Zelanskyy said on the Telegram messaging app.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia\u2019s obvious goal is to overload air defenses,\u201d Zelenskyy said, as the bombardment stretched into the late afternoon. He cautioned that a cruise and ballistic missile attack could follow the drone barrage.<\/p>\n
It was \u201cone of the longest, massive Russian attacks against Ukraine,\u201d he said on social media.<\/p>\n
It also rattled neighbors. Hungarian Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar said his new government has summoned the Russian ambassador over a drone attack near Hungary\u2019s border, in a significant shift from his predecessor Viktor Orb\u00e1n’s friendly relations with Moscow.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe Hungarian government strongly condemns the Russian attack on Transcarpathia,\u201d Magyar told journalists, adding that Foreign Minister Anita Orb\u00e1n will speak with the ambassador Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
The foreign minister will ask \u201cwhen Russia and Vladimir Putin plan to finally end this bloody war,\u201d Magyar added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you for your compassion and strong position!\u201d Zelenskyy said on X after Magyar\u2019s comments.<\/p>\n
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Three people are killed in a region near Kyiv<\/p>\n
Drone debris fell in an open area in Kyiv\u2019s Obolonskyi district with no casualties, city officials said, as air defense systems engaged Russian drones over the capital. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said emergency services responded to the scene. Explosions were heard across the city earlier Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Three people were killed in a drone attack in the Rivne region west of Kyiv, according to Oleksandr Koval, head of the regional military administration.<\/p>\n
Moscow\u2019s attacks are unrelenting, even as Ukraine is emboldened by its recent military accomplishments and as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin said \u2014 without providing evidence \u2014 that the war could be approaching an end.<\/p>\n
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On Tuesday, Zelenskyy said, 14 Ukrainian regions came under attack, followed by overnight strikes on Ukraine\u2019s residential, energy and railway infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia\u2019s war. Every time the war disappears from the top of the news, it encourages Russia to become even more savage,\u201d Zelenskyy said, apparently referring to the world’s attention being focused on the Iran war.<\/p>\n
Trump and Putin talk of a possible end to the war<\/p>\n
Trump said Tuesday said he believes Moscow and Kyiv will soon reach a deal to end fighting.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close,\u201d Trump said as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing. \u201cBelieve it or not, it\u2019s getting closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
Putin said in a speech last weekend that his invasion of Ukraine is possibly \u201ccoming to an end.\u201d<\/p>\n
Neither leader elaborated on what persuaded them about the possibility of peace in Europe\u2019s longest conflict since World War II. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts over the past year to end the war have fizzled after making no progress on key issues, such as whether Russia gets to keep Ukrainian land it has seized and what can be done to deter Moscow from invading again.<\/p>\n
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov indicated Wednesday that Moscow\u2019s fundamental terms are unchanged, with Putin insisting that Ukraine pull its troops from the four regions \u2014 Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia \u2014 that Russia illegally annexed in September 2022 but hasn’t fully captured.<\/p>\n
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\u201cAt that point, a ceasefire will be established, and the parties can calmly engage in negotiations, which, incidentally, will inevitably be very complex and involve a lot of important details,\u201d Peskov said.<\/p>\n
Zelenskyy vowed to keep pressure on Moscow to make concessions in talks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not giving up on diplomatic efforts, and we hope that pressure on Russia, together with negotiations in different formats, will help bring peace,\u201d he said in a speech Wednesday in Bucharest, Romania, to representatives of countries on NATO’s eastern flank.<\/p>\n
\u201cSanctions are working, our long-range (drone and missile) capabilities are working, and every form of pressure is working,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Meanwhile, European governments are assessing the merits of opening talks with Putin. Europe has for years tried to isolate the Russian leader and punished his country with international sanctions.<\/p>\n
Fighting appears to shift in Ukraine’s favor<\/p>\n
The correlation of forces in the war has shifted in recent months. Ukraine has gone from pleading for international help with its defense to offering foreign countries its expertise on how to counter attacks, thanks to its domestically developed drone technology.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s long-range drone and missile attacks have disrupted energy facilities and manufacturing deep inside Russia, with three regions reporting strikes Wednesday. The Russian Defense Ministry said that its forces intercepted and destroyed 286 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea.<\/p>\n
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On the 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) front line, the advance of Russia\u2019s bigger and better-equipped army has been slowing every month since October, according to the Institute for the Study of War.<\/p>\n
Russia\u2019s spring offensive has floundered, with Russian forces recording a net loss of territory last month for the first time since 2024, the Washington-based think tank said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot only are Ukrainian defensive lines holding, but Ukrainian forces have managed to contest the tactical initiative in several areas of the front line even as Russia continues to lose disproportionate amounts of manpower to achieve minimal gains,\u201d the ISW said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
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Hatton reported from Lisbon, Portugal. Sam McNeil in Brussels and Bela Szandelzsky in Budapest, Hungary, contributed,<\/p>\n