Four killed in Kyiv in new Russian aerial attack 12 minutes agoShareSaveJaroslav LukivBBC NewsShareSaveUkraine's emergencies service DSNSRescuers from Ukraine's emergencies service DSNS tackle fire in a residential building destroyed in the latest Russian attack on Kyiv At least four people have been killed in an overnight Russian missile and drone attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, the interior minister says. In a post on social media, Ihor Klymenko says residential areas, hospitals and sports infrastructure were hit. "An entire section of a residential high-rise building was destroyed" in the worst-hit Shevchenkivskyi district, he says, adding that some people are trapped under the rubble. In the Kyiv region, a woman was killed and another two people injured in the Russian aerial attack, regional head Mykola Kalashnyk says. The Russian military has not commented on the issue.

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.

Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine are slowing down dramatically, two analyses have found, continuing a pattern from 2024 at a time when both nations are trying to project strength in the face of United States-mediated negotiations aimed at ending the war. Britain's Ministry of Defence last week estimated that Russian forces seized 143sq km (55sq miles) of Ukrainian land in March, compared with 196sq km (76sq miles) in February and 326sq km (126sq miles) in January. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, spotted the same trend, estimating Russian gains at 203sq km (78sq miles) in March, 354sq km (137sq miles) in February and 427sq km (165sq miles) in January. These estimates are based on satellite imagery and geolocated open-source photography rather than claims by either side. Should this trend continue, Russian forces could come to a standstill by early summer, roughly coinciding with US President Donald Trump's self-imposed early deadline for achieving a ceasefire.

Russia pushed Ukrainian forces out of most of the territory they controlled in the Russian region of Kursk during the past week, raising questions about whether a weeklong US intelligence cutoff materially helped the Russian counterattack. The US said it had restored intelligence sharing and military aid to Ukraine on Tuesday night, after Ukraine agreed to a ceasefire plan discussed in Riyadh for nine-and-a-half hours. Russian efforts to recapture Kursk intensified on March 6, a day after the White House cut off military and intelligence assistance to Ukraine. Russian forces attacked 32 times in Kursk, said Ukraine's general staff. According to Russian military reporters, Russia had prioritised that front, moving some of its best drone operators there and deploying electronic warfare to prevent Ukrainian drone counterattacks.

Kyiv, Ukraine – On Sunday, a top Russian security official in Moscow lauded dozens of servicemen who used an abandoned natural gas pipeline as a tunnel to infiltrate a Ukraine-occupied area in the western Russian region of Kursk. "The lid of a boiling cauldron is almost closed! Good job!" Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president and prime minister before becoming deputy head of Russia's Security Council, wrote on Telegram. But a Ukrainian serviceman deployed in Kursk offered a starkly different version of how the Russians barely got out of the pipeline on Saturday – only to be reportedly killed en masse. "Some suffocated right [in the pipeline], some turned back. About a hundred came out in our rear, split into two groups and were almost immediately ambushed by our special forces. And [also killed by] a massive squall of artillery," Evhen Sazonov wrote on Telegram.

Russia appeared to ready itself for talks on the future of Ukraine with United States President-elect Donald Trump ahead of his swearing-in on Monday. "No special conditions are needed for this. What is required is the mutual intent and political will to have a dialogue," said Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Saturday. But Russia expressed its parameters very quickly. Putin aide Nikolai Patrushev told Russian news outlet KP that a Ukraine settlement should be reached by the US and Russia, without Ukraine and without the European Union.

North Korean soldiers began to go home in body bags over the weekend, as they fought alongside Russians in large numbers for the first time. "Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. Ukraine's military intelligence (GUR) reported the North Koreans were embedded with Russian Marines and Airborne troops – elite units – in the Russian region of Kursk, which Ukraine has counter-invaded. "At one of the positions in the Kursk region, the [Democratic People's Republic of Korea- DPRK] army soldiers were effectively'covered' with [First Person View] drones," the GUR said in a statement, estimating combined losses of Russians and North Koreans at 200 on the first day of engagement.

United States President Joe Biden has reportedly lifted restrictions on Kyiv on the use of long-range missiles, which means Ukrainian forces may fire American-made missiles inside Russian territory for the first time. The move, which comes weeks before Biden leaves office and hours after massive Russian missile and drone attacks, has angered the Kremlin, which accused Washington of "throwing oil on the fire". Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the decision would mean Washington's direct involvement in the conflict, echoing a similar sentiment expressed by President Vladimir Putin in September. The White House and President-elect Donald Trump have not commented yet, but Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, said: "The military industrial complex seems to want to make sure they get World War III going before my father has a chance to create peace and save lives." The elder Trump, who takes office on January 20, repeatedly pledged during his campaign to negotiate an end to the Ukraine war.

Ukraine prepared to fight North Korean troops in the Russian region of Kursk on Wednesday, as the entry of a second nuclear power in Russia's war against Ukraine threatened to escalate and broaden the conflict. The United States Pentagon confirmed on Tuesday that North Korean troops were in Kursk, where Ukraine launched a counter-invasion almost three months ago. Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder said there was "a small number [of North Korean troops] in the Kursk oblast, with a couple of thousand more that are almost there or due to arrive imminently". A senior South Korean official told reporters on Wednesday that about 3,000 North Korean troops were being moved close to the front lines. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed the deployment on Monday.

Kyiv, Ukraine – Svitlana Menyaylo doesn't want to hear a word about the success of Ukrainian forces in the western Russian region of Kursk. Since August 6, Ukrainian soldiers have occupied dozens of Russian villages on more than 1,000 square kilometres (620 square miles) and are digging in to repel an imminent Russian counteroffensive. But for Menyaylo, a seamstress from the besieged town of Pokrovsk in the eastern Ukrainian region of Donetsk, the very presence of Ukrainian troops in Kursk feels like treason. Pokrovsk, the administrative centre of a heavily industrialised agglomeration with a pre-war population of almost 400,000, is likely to be taken over by advancing Russian troops soon. They are less than 10km (6 miles) east of it – and keep inching in every minute after months of heavy bombardment and "meat marches", frontal attacks on Ukrainian positions that have cost Russian generals tens of thousands of servicemen.