Ukraine-Russia conflict newest: Zelensky visits troops simply 20km from besieged frontline metropolis Pokrovsk

Ukraine’s military units are competing with each other by launching deadly drone attacks to earn points that can be used to buy more weapons.

The video game-style rewards system is proving to be very popular, Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister said, with hundreds of units participating. Launched a year ago, it is now being expanded to reconnaissance, artillery and logistics operations, according to reports.

“It’s become truly popular among units,” deputy prime minister Mykhailo Fedorov told The Guardian. “All the defence forces know about this and there’s competition for the points, for getting these drones, electronic warfare systems and other things to help them in warfighting.

Bryony Gooch has more.

Russian and Ukrainian troops fought battles yesterday in the ruins of Pokrovsk, a transport and logistics hub in eastern Ukraine that Moscow has been trying to capture for over a year.

Ukraine’s military yesterday said fierce fighting was underway in a part of the city that was key for Kyiv’s frontline logistics. It said additional special forces had arrived there, and more weapons and equipment were being sent.

Russia’s defence ministry said its soldiers had cleared 35 buildings of Ukrainian troops. It also said that Russian forces were squeezing surrounded Ukrainians near the town of Kupiansk in the Kharkiv region, about 160km to the north.

On Monday, a spokesperson for the General Staff of Ukraine’s military reaffirmed, in comments to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, that not a single military unit was encircled in the Pokrovsk sector.

With peace talks at an impasse in the fourth year of the war, Russia says it has the initiative on all sections of the front, yet it has not captured a major town since taking Avdiivka in early 2024.

Ukraine says the fighting is largely stalemated and its territorial losses have been marginal.

Russia’s Vladimir Putin has awarded the developers of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater torpedo at a ceremony last night.

At the event in the Kremlin, Putin claimed the two nuclear-powered, nuclear-capable weapons were of “historic significance” for Russia and “for the entire 21st century”.

“In terms of flight range, the Burevestnik … has surpassed all known missile systems in the world,” Putin said in a speech, praising the state of Russia’s defence technology.

The Russian leader said that Moscow has commenced the serial production of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile.

Last month, Putin said Russia had successfully tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, which he claimed was capable of piercing any defence shield.

Russia says the 9M730 Burevestnik (Storm Petrel) – dubbed the SSC-X-9 Skyfall by Nato – is “invincible” to current and future missile defences, with an almost unlimited range and unpredictable flight path.

Since first announcing the 9M730 Burevestnik in 2018, Putin has cast the weapon as a response to moves by the US to build a missile defence shield after Washington in 2001 unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, and to enlarge the Nato military alliance.

Ukraine’s navy says it has struck an “elite” Russian special unit located on a Black Sea oil rig.

An anti-tank missile crew was killed in the strike and reconnaissance equipment was destroyed at the Syvash drilling rig, near Russian-occupied Crimea, the naval forces said in a Telegram post.

Russia has disputed the account by distributing a video that alleges a Ukrainian naval boat was destroyed by a Lancet drone, but Kyiv’s forces said the video actually showed them deploying a kamikaze drone successfully.

More here.

Russia’s air defence units destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, TASS news agency reported this morning, citing data from the Russian defence ministry.

Volodymyr Zelensky has expressed his desire for Ukraine to join the EU by 2030.

“Ukraine is fighting for its independence, and our future is in the EU, which is part of our independence … and for us, it is an important factor that we are highly assessed in this [report],” he said, speaking during a visit to frontline troops near Pokrovsk.

The president said he “would not like this [accession] process to be too long,” but acknowledged that this “does not depend on us”.

“The quicker Ukraine is able to open the clusters and to have the fully fledged negotiations, the better it is for us,” he added.

His statement comes after the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said the EU could admit new members by 2030.

“Russia’s full-scale invasion in Ukraine and the geopolitical shifts make the case for enlargement very clear cut,” Kallas told reporters.

“It is a necessity if we want to be a stronger player on the world stage.”

She added that “new countries joining the European Union by 2030 is a realistic goal” and said Montenegro was the most advanced in the accession process.

An explosion at the Sterlitamak petrochemical plant in Russia’s Bashkortostan caused a partial collapse of a water-treatment facility, the administration of the city of Sterlitamak has said.

There were no immediate reports of injuries, the administration said yesterday.

It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion.

Brussels Airport has been closed and all flights grounded after the reported sighting of a drone, Belgian air traffic control has said.

“There are no flights currently landing or taking off,” a spokeswoman said, adding she could not estimate how long the airport would remain closed.

Belgium’s busiest airport briefly reopened on Tuesday evening after two hours of disruption, but was closed again after more drone sightings. It was unclear when flights would resume.

Nicole Wootton-Cane reports.