A general in charge of 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, was reportedly killed in a car explosion in Balashikha.
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.
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.
It comes after a Russian minister warned Moscow could deploy nuclear weapons "to ensure security" if threatened by Nato.
And 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.
Key Points
- Russian ammunition chief killed in car bomb
- Russia says Europe not ready to mediate peace talks
- Drones attack Novokuibyshevsk city in Russia's Samara region
- Pregnant woman among three killed in Russian attacks on Kharkiv
- Zelensky accuses Russia of trying to 'divide' Europe with claims of drone interference
Russian banks targeted as EU proposes 21st package of sanctions
08:15 , Arpan Rai
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.
Kremlin says mediation with Ukraine on hold as no plans for Putin-Trump call
08:00 , Arpan Rai
There are currently no plans for a telephone call between US president Donald Trump and Russian president Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, adding that American negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner continue to maintain contacts with both Russia and Ukraine.
"The mediation process on Ukraine is currently on hold. That said, US negotiators are maintaining contacts – discussions are continuing with us through existing channels and with the Ukrainians. There is no exact date for their visit yet, but we would be delighted to welcome them in Russia at any time," Peskov said.
Witkoff and Kushner had previously been involved in mediation efforts between Russia and Ukraine, which stalled in February after the United States and Israel began military action against Iran.
Russian ammunition chief killed in car bomb
07:45 , Arpan Rai
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.
Russia-backed officials say Kyiv will 'pay for sacrilege' after attack in Crimea
07:25 , Arpan Rai
Ukrainian drones hit a historic museum in Sevastopol in Russia-annexed Crimea, local authorities said this morning, 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 on fire. He did not provide further 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.
Poland should be involved in Ukraine talks, says PM Tusk
06:57 , Arpan Rai
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.
Russia faces major overnight attacks as public transport suspended
06:35 , Arpan Rai
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.
Photos from scene of car bomb attack that killed Russian general
06:14 , Arpan Rai
Zelensky says ready to share drone technology with Nordic and Baltic countries
05:53 , Arpan Rai
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.
Two industrial facilities on fire in Russia's Vladimir region after drone attack
05:26 , Arpan Rai
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.
Drones hit historic museum in Russia-annexed Crimea as officials alter train schedule
05:22 , Arpan Rai
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.
Russia says Europe not ready to mediate peace talks
04:42 , Arpan Rai
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.
Russian banks targeted as EU proposes 21st package of sanctions
04:16 , Arpan Rai
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.
Russian ammunition chief killed in car bomb
04:04 , Arpan Rai
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.
Drones attack Novokuibyshevsk city in Russia's Samara region
03:53 , Arpan Rai
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.
The Independent View: Zelensky is an indispensable ally in Britain’s new security partnership with Europe
03:00 , James Reynolds
While Britain has an embarrassingly underpowered military plagued by incompetence, the Ukrainians have the biggest army of any European nation:
Zelensky is an indispensable ally in Britain’s new security partnership with Europe
Watch: Aftermath of Russian strike on postal terminal in Kharkiv's district
02:00 , James Reynolds
Debris from Ukrainian drone triggers fire at civilian site, Rostov regional governor says
01:00 , James Reynolds
Falling debris from a Ukrainian drone triggered a fire in a fuel tank at a civilian site, the governor of Russia's southern Rostov region said early on Wednesday.
Yuri Slyusar, writing on Telegram, said the drone attack was still going on in the region's Millerovsky district, just over the Ukrainian border. He said there was no indication so far of any casualties.
Ukraine, Latvia sign drone deal, Zelenskiy says
Wednesday 10 June 2026 00:00 , James Reynolds
Ukraine has signed a drone deal with Latvia, Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday as he met with Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs.
"These are concrete things to strengthen our joint defense and co-production, and, importantly, this also means Ukraine's expertise and experience helping to strengthen our partners," the Ukrainian president said in a post on X.
He gave no details of what the deal entailed.
Kulbergs said the agreement would give Latvia technological know-how and co-production opportunities.
"We need to protect our skies, and nobody knows how to do that better than Ukraine," he told a joint press conference with Zelensky and other leaders attending the summit, adding that drones were responsible for the vast majority of deaths of Russian troops in the Ukraine war.
Bulgaria's new government says it will not provide arms for Ukraine
Tuesday 9 June 2026 23:00 , James Reynolds
Bulgaria's newly appointed defence minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, said on Tuesday his country would no longer provide arms to Ukraine and urged Moscow and Kyiv to sit down at the negotiating table to end the war, the BTA news agency reported.
Bulgaria, a NATO and European Union member state that holds a strategic position on the Black Sea, sent Ukraine anti-tank missiles, armoured vehicles, mortars, anti-aircraft guns and howitzers in 2024 and 2025, as well as infantry weapons, after a change in policy course.
In 2022 and 2023 it did not officially export weapons and ammunition to Ukraine, but instead exported to mostly European intermediaries, with Bulgarian officials saying they could not control what buyers did with these exports.
"It is not planned for the Bulgarian side to provide more weapons to the Ukrainian army," Stoyanov said while presenting the priorities of his ministry.
Tuesday 9 June 2026 20:00 , James Reynolds
Disruptions to fuel supplies have triggered panic-buying in Russia's Krasnodar region, the governor said, as Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure hit fuel deliveries across several southern regions and Russian-held Crimea.
Some smaller gas stations in the southwest of Krasnodar region, which borders Crimea, are short of fuel, but the situation is under control, Governor Veniamin Kondratyev said on Telegram on Monday evening.
"Against the backdrop of a difficult situation in neighbouring regions, many people decided to stock up on gasoline, which caused artificial panic buying," he said, adding that any supply difficulties were temporary and distributors were taking steps to prevent long-term shortages.
Russia's Energy Ministry said a recent surge in Ukrainian attacks on energy facilities had caused temporary supply difficulties in several southern regions. It said a task force had been set up to help stabilise the sector nationwide.
Russia threats to UK at highest level since the Cold War, military chief warns
Tuesday 9 June 2026 19:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
In case you missed this piece:
The UK is facing the highest level of threat from Russia since the Cold War, the chief of defence staff has said in a chilling warning for the country.
Stressing that Britain faces its “most dangerous period” in decades, Sir Richard Knighton said the country needs to prepare for “longer conflicts” like in Ukraine.
The threat comes as Russia is “definitely raising the stakes and risks crossing a line,” through cyber attacks, assassination attempts, “or trying to smuggle technology and reckless sabotage,” he said.
Russia threats to UK at highest level since the Cold War, military chief warns
Pregnant woman among three killed in Russian attacks on Kharkiv
Tuesday 9 June 2026 18:30 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
Russian drone and missile attacks on Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region killed a pregnant woman and two other people, Ukrainian officials said on Tuesday, while Russia-annexed Crimea said it was repelling drone attacks.
An overnight missile attack on the town of Chuhuiv in the Kharkiv region killed three people, including a 22-year-old pregnant woman, regional prosecutors said on Telegram.
The attack damaged residential buildings, garages and shops, they said, adding that six more people were injured.In the city of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest, a Russian drone attack had caused 16 people to seek medical assistance, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
Officials posted photos of a building engulfed by fire and firefighters battling the flames and dousing burnt-out cars.
The strikes follow large air attacks by Russia on Ukraine in recent weeks, while Kyiv has intensified long-range drone strikes on Russian oil facilities, leading to shortages of fuel in Crimea and elsewhere.
What Zelensky said to Putin in open letter suggesting face-to-face meeting
Tuesday 9 June 2026 18:00 , Maryam Zakir-Hussain
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Volodymyr Zelensky has published a letter appealing to Russian president Vladimir Putin for a meeting, while launching a blistering verdict on his 26-year tenure in Moscow.
The message warned it would be misguided to simply await the Trump administration’s renewed focus on ending the conflict in Ukraine while its attention remains heavily directed towards the war in Iran, proposing that Moscow and Kyiv alone take the next steps.
Kyiv is looking to seize the initiative in what is a pivotal moment in the war, with Ukraine beginning to regain some leverage on the battlefield in part due to improved long-range strike capabilities.
In full: Zelensky’s letter to Putin as he calls for face-to-face meeting
