Poland should be involved in Ukraine talks, says PM Tusk
Poland should be involved in discussions aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, the Polish prime minister said yesterday, after the leaders of Britain, Germany and France met president Volodymyr Zelensky in London and said they supported ceasefire talks.
Prime minister Donald Tusk’s absence from the talks in London has raised questions in Warsaw as to whether Poland is being sidelined as Western European powers try to steer Kyiv towards talks with Moscow in the near future.
“I’m… very cautious regarding the ideas emerging in Western Europe about initiating some kind of dialogue or conversation with (Russian president Vladimir) Putin regarding Ukraine as quickly as possible,” Tusk told a news conference.
Poland has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, its eastern neighbour, in its more than four-year-old war against invading Russian forces, contributing financial and military help. It has also emerged as one of the biggest spenders on defence in Nato.
“I spoke with (Italy’s) prime minister (Giorgia) Meloni, who is not thrilled that this format exists,” Tusk said.
“Any arrangements in which Poland does not participate will not be binding on Poland,” he said.
Tusk said a meeting would take place on Ukraine in the “coming days” that would include Poland and Italy as well as Britain, Germany and France.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 06:57
Russia faces major overnight attacks as public transport suspended
Russian air defences were repelling drone attacks in the city of Novokuibyshevsk in the early hours today, the Samara regional governor said.
Novokuibyshevsk is a major oil hub on the Volga river that hosts several refineries operated by the state-controlled oil giant Rosneft.
Authorities urged Samara city’s one million residents to seek shelter as public transportation was suspended amid air raid alerts, local media reported.
In the southern Rostov region of Russia bordering Ukraine, falling debris from a drone triggered a fire in a fuel tank at a civilian site, and in the central Vladimir region two industrial facilities were on fire, regional governors said on Telegram.
The remote Russian oil-producing regions Khanty-Mansiysk, Perm and Tyumen, as well as industrial regions Chelyabinsk and Sverdlovsk in the Ural mountains thousands of kilometres from Ukraine, issued rare air raid alerts, according to social media posts by local authorities.
Overall, Russia downed 326 Ukrainian drones overnight, of which over a dozen were heading for Moscow, the defence ministry and Moscow’s mayor said in social media posts.
Fire at a gas pipeline in the town of Kizilyurt in Russia’s Dagestan region (Reuters)
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 06:35
Photos from scene of car bomb attack that killed Russian general
The wreckage of a car is loaded onto the platform of a truck after a blast caused by an explosive device killed its driver in Balashikha outside Moscow (AFP/Getty)
Investigators work at the site of a car bomb in Balashikha outside Moscow (AFP/Getty)
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 06:14
Zelensky says ready to share drone technology with Nordic and Baltic countries
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met with Nordic and Baltic leaders who were in Estonia for a regional summit yesterday in a visit that comes amid friction over Ukrainian drones straying into the region in recent months.
Zelensky and Estonian president Alar Karis agreed to work on cheaper ways to shoot down drones that have flown over Estonia, including one that a Nato fighter jet shot down over the south of the country in May.
“We have shown that we can shoot the drones down with the planes,” Karis said at a news conference. Using fighter jets to shoot down the drones is expensive, he added, so he hopes to partner with Ukraine for its technology and expertise to do it more cheaply.
Zelensky said Ukraine was ready to do so, drawing on its experience with helping countries in the Middle East shoot down drones, where it had sent experts to train local forces.
“We did this in the Middle East, and it worked,” he said.
He said Ukraine could offer the low-cost interceptor drones it has deployed at home to build an inexpensive shield against Russian drone attacks, and that Kyiv could send experts to its European partners “at any moment.”
Karis said he expects drones to cross into Baltic airspace as the war continues and urged the public to remain calm. Estonia and the other Baltic nations are among Ukraine’s staunchest supporters in its war against Russia.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and Estonia’s prime minister Kristen Michal address a joint press conference during the Nordic and Baltic Prime Ministers’ (NB8) Summit 2026 at the Stenbock House (Statehood House) in Tallinn, Estonia (AFP/Getty)
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 05:53
Two industrial facilities on fire in Russia’s Vladimir region after drone attack
Two industrial facilities have been reported on fire in the Vladimir region of central Russia after a drone attack, Interfax news agency quoted the regional governor Alexander Avdeyev as saying.
The facilities are located near the towns of Kameshkovo and Aleksandrovo, he said, adding that no one had been injured.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 05:26
Drones hit historic museum in Russia-annexed Crimea as officials alter train schedule
Ukrainian drones hit a historic museum in Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea, local authorities said today, as they reduced the number of nighttime trains in the face of intensifying air attacks.
The museum commemorates the 1853-1856 Crimea War between the Russian Empire and a coalition that included the Ottoman Empire. Russia was defeated in that war.
Sevastopol’s Russian-installed governor, Mikhail Razvozhayev, said on Telegram the museum’s roof was hit. He did not provide details about the damage or whether there were any casualties.
“The enemy will pay for this sacrilege!” Razvozhayev said in his post early on Wednesday.
Elsewhere in Crimea, authorities cut train schedules for night hours, the peninsula’s Russian-installed governor Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram, after a drone attack this week injured a train driver and killed his assistant.
The Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, annexed by Russia from Ukraine in 2014, is facing a fuel shortage following recent Ukraine drone attacks just as the holiday season starts.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 05:22
Russia says Europe not ready to mediate peace talks
The Kremlin has claimed that the European Union was far from ready to act as a mediator in any Ukraine peace process and appeared to be more focused on continuing the war.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was speaking to journalists when he was asked about the possibility of the EU stepping in as a mediator at a time US-led negotiations have taken a backseat due to the war in Iran.
“First of all, starting mediation efforts by putting forward certain conditions to Russia is likely illogical and wrong. And, of course, this is unacceptable to us,” Peskov said.
His remarks came after Volodymyr Zelensky returned from a meeting in London with the leaders of Britain, France and Germany who said they were ready to support ceasefire talks and engage with Russian president Vladimir Putin, if required.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 04:42
Russian banks targeted as EU proposes 21st package of sanctions
The EU has proposed a 21st package of sanctions against Russia for its war in Ukraine, heavily targeting the country’s banks and crypto networks as well as drone production, oil traders and refiners, EU chief diplomat Kaja Kallas said.
The new package will propose listing 170 individuals and entities. These include close to 90 banks – the biggest in one go – and would take the total number of listed banks to over 100, or more than half of Russia’s 213 internationally connected lenders.
The banks will come under the full weight of EU sanctions including asset freezes, travel and transaction bans.
“We intend to deal a heavy blow to Russia’s financial sector, imposing assets freezes on close to 90 banks and additional transactions bans on over 30 banks in Russia and other third countries,” Kallas said in a post on X.
An EU diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the aim was to weaken Russia’s financial system and incentivise Moscow to negotiate a peace deal with Ukraine.
The package will be presented to EU ambassadors today for negotiations. Sanctions require unanimity to be adopted.
Western sanctions already heavily target Russia’s banking system and its major banks were disconnected in 2022 from SWIFT, a secure global financial payment instructions system.
Russian companies now use a broad network of smaller lenders to evade sanctions and continue trading.
The logo of Alfa Bank, Russia’s privately-held lender is seen atop of a building behind revolutionary militiamen in Moscow (AFP/Getty)
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 04:16
Russian ammunition chief killed in car bomb
A Russian general handling the ammunition supplies for the Russian army has been killed in an attack in the Moscow region, officials said.
Damir Davydov, the head of the Russian defence ministry’s missile and artillery wing, has been named in reports of the car explosion in Balashikha, reports said.
The explosion took place around 5.30am on Tuesday, when a BMW X3 exploded near Koldunova Street in Balashikha’s Aviatorov neighbourhood, with reports saying the driver was pulling out of a parking space.
Witnesses reached the driver, Davydov, while he was still alive but he died shortly after at the scene.
Officials also found a second car bomb and blew it up in south-west Moscow.
The Russian federal Investigative Committee and the prosecutor’s office for the Moscow region confirmed the explosion but did not name the victim.
Ukraine has not issued a comment on his death so far, though Kyiv has claimed responsibility for several attacks on Russian generals since the start of Vladimir Putin’s war.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 04:04
Drones attack Novokuibyshevsk city in Russia’s Samara region
The city of Novokuibyshevsk in Russia’s Samara region was under drone attack in the early hours today, regional governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev said on Telegram.
Russian state oil company Rosneft runs the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the area. Fedorishchev said air space in Samara was closed, without providing details.
Arpan Rai10 June 2026 03:53