Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: Fighting escalates as Putin’s troops try and invade new Ukraine metropolis | EUROtoday

Ukraine has recorded “unusual activity” along the Ukraine-Belarus border, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday, after urging Minsk in recent weeks not to get more involved in Russia’s war.

“Yesterday, ⁠there was some ​slightly ⁠uncommon exercise ‌alongside the Ukraine-Belarus border – on the Belarusian aspect,” ‌Zelensky said in ‌his daily address to the nation.

Ukraine’s ​air force ‌and border ⁠guard did not ⁠immediately respond to a request ‌for ​comment.

“We are carefully monitoring the scenario, holding every part underneath management, and can reply if mandatory,” he added.

Ukrainian drones are flying deep into Russia to strike oil facilities, sending up plumes of smoke that can be seen from space and bringing toxic rain to tourist destinations on the Black Sea.

The attacks are aimed at slashing Moscow’s oil exports, a key source of funding for its grinding invasion of Ukraine. But the economic impact is so far unclear, as the rise in oil prices from the Iran war, and a related easing of U.S. sanctions, have helped replenish the Kremlin’s coffers.

Still, the range of the attacks and their environmental impact is bringing the war home to ordinary Russians far from the front lines.

Rishi Sunak has said the Iran war demonstrates the value of Ukraine as a key ally to the UK.

In an article for The Times, the former prime minister said Ukraine boasts “the most advanced defence tech industry in the world”, making them a “valuable partner” for the UK.

He wrote: “The Iran conflict has confirmed that the nature of warfare has changed, and Ukraine is the western-aligned nation that knows best how to fight in this new way.”

President Volodymyr Zelensky said he ​discussed Ukraine’s accession ‌to the European Union with Slovakia’s prime ​minister Robert Fico ​in a conversation on ⁠Saturday.

“We want sturdy ​relations between our ​international locations, and each of us have an interest on this. ​It was ​necessary to listen to that Slovakia ‌helps ⁠Ukraine’s membership within the European Union and is able to ​share ​its ⁠expertise of accession,” he stated ​on X.

Two people were killed after a Russian drone attacked a minibus in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson, local officials said Saturday, in the latest barrage of civilian areas, a hallmark of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Seven people were also wounded in the attack, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Hours later Russia attacked another minibus in Kherson, wounding the driver, he said.

On Ukraine’s Black Sea coast, a Russian strike damaged port infrastructure in the city of Odesa. No casualties were reported.

Russian troops are inching towards the city of Kostiantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, trying to establish a foothold close to a heavily defended area, Ukraine’s top army official said on Saturday.

Kostiantynivka, along with other cities, forms a ⁠so-called fortress belt in the country’s east – an area well fortified by the Ukrainian military.

“We are repelling the Russian occupiers’ persistent makes an attempt to achieve a foothold within the outskirts of Kostiantynivka utilizing infiltration ways. Counter-sabotage measures are going `on within the metropolis,” Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s `army chief, said on the Telegram app.

A Ukrainian battlefield mapping project called DeepState shows Russian troops control an area around ⁠only one kilometre (0.6 mile) from the city’s southern outskirts.

Small chunks of `Kostiantynivka in the southeast are marked as a grey zone, meaning neither Ukraine nor Russia has full control over them.

Russia’s defence ministry said on Wednesday its forces ‌had taken control of Novodmytrivka, just north of ‌Kostiantynivka.

Moscow’s top general Valery Gerasimov said in April that troops were advancing in the north and south of the city.

Ukrainian drones have hit the oil refinery and export terminal in the Black Sea town of Tuapse on four occasions in just over two weeks, sparking fires that prompted local evacuations and sent up massive plumes of smoke.

The town is roughly 450km (280 miles) from the front lines.

In a video posted by local governor Veniamin Kondratyev after the third attack on 18 April, an emergency official said boiling oil products had spilled onto the street, damaging cars.

Ukraine said on Thursday that it hit an oil pumping station in Russia’s Perm region, more than 1,500km (900 miles) from Ukraine, two days in a row.

Russian media reported the attacks, though Perm governor Dmitry Makhonin said only that drones had hit industrial facilities.

Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea, one of Russia’s largest oil and gas export terminals, was hit three times in the space of a week in late March. It is more than 800km (500 miles) away from Ukraine.

In a broadcast several weeks later, regional governor Alexander Drozdenko declared that the area around St Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city, was a “front-line area” resulting from aerial threats.

The United States is withdrawing 5,000 troops from Nato ally Germany, the Pentagon announced on Friday, as a rift over the Iran war widens between President ⁠Donald Trump and Europe.

Trump had threatened a drawdown in forces earlier this week after sparring with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, who said on Monday the Iranians were humiliating the US in talks to end the two-month-old war.

A senior Pentagon ⁠official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said ​recent ⁠German rhetoric had been “inappropriate and unhelpful.”

Several strikes were reported from Ukraine after Russian forces launched overnight drone attacks targeting energy infrastructure, regional officials said.

The strikes targeted Mykolaiv, Kryvyi Rih, and Odesa Oblasts, officials said.

Russia targeted port infrastructure in Izmail, a city in southern Odesa Oblast.

In Mykolaiv, Russian forces hit the energy infrastructure with Shahed-type attack drones, said Vitaliy Kim, head of the regional military administration.

In Kryvyi Rih, Russian drones targeted an infrastructure facility overnight, Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the Kryvyi Rih Defence Council, said. Explosions were heard across the city, according to local residents.

No casualties were immediately reported in the attacks, according to the preliminary assessment.

Russian president Vladimir Putin warned of “severe environmental penalties” after attacks on Tuapse refinery while insisting things were under control.

Officials warned that high levels of benzene, a carcinogen found in oil products, had been recorded in the air while fires burned and urged residents to limit time outdoors.

Residents also widely reported “black rain,” oily droplets falling on their skin and clothes. Local news outlets posted images of stray dogs and cats with their coats stained gray. Oil spills along the coastline have coated birds and fish, and Russian media recently circulated images of beached dolphins.

Those images are shocking to Russians accustomed to vacationing on the Black Sea coast.

Vladimir Slivyak, co-chairman of the Russian environmental group Ecodefense, said there could be long-term consequences for human health and the region’s ecosystem.

“There is a lot of oil in the sea,” he said. “In the next few years, every storm will be bringing more oil pollution onto the coast.”

There has not yet been a public backlash to the strikes, as authorities wage a crackdown on dissent. But that could change as the damage spreads.

“I believe lots of people perceive that there’s a very large distinction between what Putin says and what regional authorities are saying, and what’s actually happening,” Slivyak stated.