Drone war, ground offensive continue despite new Russia-Ukraine peace push

Tit-for-tat drone attacks as Russia blames Ukraine and Europe for efforts to disrupt diplomacy.

Russia and Ukraine have launched a wave of drone attacks against each other overnight, even as Moscow claimed it was finalising a peace proposal to end the war.

Ukrainian air force officials said on Tuesday that Russia deployed 60 drones across multiple regions through the night, injuring 10 people. Kyiv’s air defences intercepted 43 of them – 35 were shot down while eight were diverted using electronic warfare systems.

In Dnipropetrovsk, central Ukraine, Governor Serhiy Lysak reported damage to residential properties and an agricultural site after Russian drones led to fires during the night. In Kherson, a southern city frequently hit by Russian strikes, a drone attack on Tuesday morning wounded a 59-year-old man and six municipal workers, officials said.

The barrage came days after Ukraine endured one of the heaviest aerial offensives of the war. On Sunday night alone, Ukraine’s air force claimed Russia launched 355 drones, a record number.

That escalation prompted United States President Donald Trump to declare that Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” and to threaten new sanctions. The Kremlin brushed off the remarks, accusing Trump of suffering from “emotional overload”.