Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as Ukraine seeks further military support amid a recent escalation in Russia's bombing campaign, despite United States-led efforts to end the war. During their talks in Berlin on Wednesday, Zelenskyy and Merz are also expected to discuss sanctions on Russia. According to a German government spokesperson, Merz will receive Zelenskyy with military honours at the federal chancellery at 10:00 GMT. The Berlin talks follow Russia and Ukraine's direct face-to-face talks in Turkiye earlier in May. Despite pressure from United States President Donald Trump to end the war, the talks failed to produce a ceasefire agreement.

Russian attacks on the Donetsk and Sumy regions of eastern Ukraine killed at least three people on Monday, Ukrainian authorities said. A Ukrainian drone attack on a car in Russia's Kursk region killed two women, Governor Alexander Khinstein said in a post on Telegram. He said a 53-year-old man was also killed when an explosive device was dropped onto his car. Russian forces destroyed 105 Ukrainian drones overnight, the RIA Novosti news agency reported, citing the Russian Ministry of Defence. Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said at least 19 Ukrainian drones were destroyed as the capital was targeted for a second night in a row, prompting the closure of all airports for several hours.

United States President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff has arrived in Moscow for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin, hours after Russia killed at least five people in Ukraine. A child was among three people killed overnight on Friday in Russian drone attacks on central Ukraine's industrial city of Pavlohrad, according to Serhiy Lysak, governor of the Dnipropetrovsk region. He said 14 people were also wounded in the attack on a five-storey building, including a six-year-old boy and teenagers, aged 15 and 17. Five of the wounded remained in hospital, he added. Two more people were killed on Friday morning in Donetsk region's Yarova settlement, where an aerial bomb was dropped on a residential building, according to Donetsk regional prosecutors.

At least three blasts were heard in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine amid an Easter ceasefire declared by Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing local "operative services." Ukraine's forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia's own ceasefire pledge, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv's forces were instructed to mirror the Russian Army's actions. Russia's Ministry of Defence said Ukraine had broken the Easter ceasefire declared by the Kremlin more than a thousand times, claiming that Ukrainian forces shot at Russian positions 444 times. The ministry also said Kremlin forces encountered more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks during this time. At least three blasts were heard in the Russian-controlled Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine amid an Easter ceasefire declared by Moscow, Russian state news agency TASS reported, citing local "operative services."

A Russian drone attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa overnight injured three people, sparked fires and damaged homes and civilian infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Kiper said. Russia's Ministry of Defence said its units destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones overnight. Nine of the drones were shot down over the southern Voronezh region, while eight were taken down over the border region of Belgorod. The remaining drones were downed over the Kursk, Lipetsk and Moscow regions, as well as over the Russian-annexed Crimean peninsula, the ministry said. The Defence Ministry also said Russia has taken control of Kalynove village in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.

At least 34 people were killed and another 117, including 11 children, were injured by a Russian missile attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy, Ukraine's state emergency service said. This was the deadliest attack on Ukraine this year. The Ukrainian Air Force said its units intercepted and destroyed 43 of 55 Russian drones launched at Ukraine overnight. The attacks reportedly targeted the northern, southern and central areas of Ukraine. Russian forces captured the village of Yelyzavetivka in Ukraine's Donetsk region, Russia's Ministry of Defence said.

Russia claims it has captured two villages in eastern Ukraine where its forces have been steadily advancing for months, as Ukraine's president urged allies to deliver all the weapons they have promised to send to Kyiv. The Russian Defence Ministry said on Sunday that soldiers have captured the village of Yantarne in the eastern Donetsk region, about 10km (six miles) southwest of Kurakhove, a key logistics hub that Moscow claimed to have seized last week – a day after Russia's army said it had also taken new territory northwest of Kurakhove. The Defence Ministry added that soldiers had also captured the village of Kalinove in the northeastern Kharkiv region. The village is on the western bank of the Oskil River, which for a long time formed the front line between the two armies in the region. A Ukrainian official, quoted by the AFP news agency, said on Thursday that Russian forces had managed to establish a bridgehead on the western bank after crossing the river.

Russia's Ministry of Defence said the army gained control of the settlement of Shevchenko, near the logistical centre of Pokrovsk, a key target in its advance through Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region. Ukraine has yet to acknowledge the loss of the town. Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said it repelled 46 of 56 Russian attacks around a dozen towns in the Pokrovsk sector and several clashes were ongoing. A Ukrainian drone hit one of Russia's largest oil refineries – in Taneko, Tatarstan – according to Russian Telegram channel ASTRA. Fuel oil that spilled from wrecked Russian tankers has spread into the Sea of Azov and reached the shores of Ukraine's partly Russian-occupied Zaporizhia region, a Moscow-installed official said.

Russia's creeping advance in Donetsk has captured 4,168 square kilometres (1,609sq miles) of territory at the cost of 430,000 soldiers, according to a new analysis. Ukraine will reportedly receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighters this month, according to French magazine Avions Legendaires. A Russian court has ordered the largest search engine in Russia, Yandex, to hide maps and photos of one of the country's biggest oil refineries after repeated attacks by Ukrainian drones, state news agency TASS reports. Russia's creeping advance in Donetsk has captured 4,168 square kilometres (1,609sq miles) of territory at the cost of 430,000 soldiers, according to a new analysis. Ukraine will reportedly receive its first French Mirage 2000-5F multirole fighters this month, according to French magazine Avions Legendaires.

Russia's gradual, grinding advance in parts of Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk succeeded in wresting away 4,168 sq km (1,609 square miles) of fields and abandoned villages in 2024 – equivalent to 0.69 percent of the country. That was the assessment of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think-tank, based on satellite imagery and geolocated video footage. "Russian forces have seized four mid-sized settlements – Avdiivka, Selydove, Vuhledar, and Kurakhove – in all of 2024, the largest of which had a pre-war population of just over 31,000 people," said the ISW. Russian forces spent four months taking Avdiivka, and two months each for Selydove and Kurakhove. "Seizing these settlements has not allowed Russian forces to threaten any notable Ukrainian defensive nodes," said the ISW, adding that Moscow's troops failed to conduct the kind of rapid, mechanised manoeuvre necessary to convert these "tactical gains into deep penetrations of Ukraine's rear".