Despite Monday's prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, the war is at one of its peak points. This morning, Putin's troops have launched another massive attack with drones and missiles, this time targeting Odesa and Kiev. There are at least two dead in the port city, while several have been injured in the capital. In total, Russia has launched 315 drones, including 250 Shahed kamikaze drones, and seven missiles.
The attack is part of the aerial escalation that Russia is carrying out in Ukraine, where between Sunday night and Monday, the Russian Army launched a record number of 479 drones. In Russia, where Ukraine has also intensified drone attacks on strategic infrastructures, 13 airports were closed overnight for security reasons, including the four air terminals in Moscow and St. Petersburg.
Peace negotiations remain stalled. Moscow demands that Ukraine cede the territories it claims to have annexed and give up joining NATO. It also rejects an "unconditional" 30-day ceasefire requested by Kiev and its European allies, as it believes it would allow Ukrainian forces to rearm with Western supplies.
Ukraine, on the other hand, demands that Russian troops withdraw and requests "security guarantees" from its Western allies, either in the form of troop deployments or military agreements.
A Ukrainian woman searches for her husband missing in combat for two years
As emaciated Ukrainian soldiers descend from buses as part of prisoner exchanges with Russia, Mariia Pylnyk tries to find out as much as possible about her missing husband through the released men, hoping, perhaps, that he is among them, Reuters reports
Holding a photo of Dmytro Pylnyk, missing in combat in early 2023, she has many questions. What happened to his unit when it was ambushed by Russian forces? Was he captured by Russia? Could he finally be released? Last month's massive prisoner exchange provided people like her the opportunity to ask the newly liberated troops from Russian captivity about their missing loved ones, whom they believe, or simply hope, are prisoners of war. The alternative is unthinkable.
"I have great hopes that someone has heard or seen something," said Pylnyk, 29, to Reuters in a recent exchange in May, surrounded by other relatives of those missing in combat.
"My son and I hope that his father will come home. Hope is the last thing to die. God willing, everything will be fine, and dad will return."
Man planning attack on energy facility arrested in Russia
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) arrested a 22-year-old Russian citizen accused of terrorism in the Krasnodar region, on the shores of the Black Sea, who was planning an attack on a crowded place in the Krasnodar region, Efe reports.
"The FSB detained a Russian citizen born in 2003 who, following instructions from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), was planning to commit a terrorist attack in a crowded place in the Krasnodar region," the TASS agency reported, citing the secret services.
Specifically, the detainee planned to obtain a 2.5-kilogram explosive that was hidden to later detonate it in an administrative building of one of the energy facilities in the region at the request of a Ukrainian coordinator.
Russia shoots down 102 Ukrainian drones
Russian anti-aircraft defenses shot down 102 Ukrainian drones during the night, four of them over the Republic of Tatarstan, a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported on Tuesday, according to Efe.
"Between 9:50 p.m. on June 9 and 5:50 a.m. Moscow time on June 10, the air defense alert systems intercepted 102 Ukrainian drones," the military report specified.
Most were destroyed over the border regions of Bryansk (46) and Belgorod (20).
Russian defenses intercepted nine flying over the Voronezh region, four in Kaluga, and another four in the Republic of Tatarstan, a thousand kilometers from the Ukrainian border.
"One of the biggest attacks on Kiev"
"Today's attack was one of the biggest on Kiev, Odesa, and the Dnipropetrovsk and Chernihiv regions as well," said Zelensky, explaining that the drones and missiles - including two North Korean ballistic missiles - caused damage to residential buildings and urban infrastructure, Efe reports.
According to the Ukrainian president, a maternity hospital in Odesa was among the Russian targets of last night's attack, which resulted in several deaths and at least 13 injuries.
Zelensky once again called for new sanctions against Moscow "to force Russia to peace." "Russian missile and Shahed drone attacks thwart U.S. and other countries' efforts to force Russia to peace," declared the Ukrainian president in his message, posted on social media.
Russia launches 315 drones and seven missiles against Ukraine
Russia launched 315 attack drones and seven missiles against Ukraine overnight, as reported by the Ukrainian Air Force on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
"The main direction of the attack was the capital of Ukraine, Kiev!" declared the Air Force on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukrainian units destroyed or neutralized 284 drones and all the missiles, they added.
Death toll rises to two in Odesa
At least two people died in the Ukrainian port of Odesa, and several more were injured in that city and in Kiev, in a new massive attack by Russia against Ukraine, according to the Prosecutor's Office and local authorities, Efe reports.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office, Russia launched at least 10 drones against Odesa, killing two people and injuring nine others.
The sound of machine guns shooting down Shahed drones and the explosions of destroyed drones and missiles could be heard for much of the night in the Ukrainian capital.
According to its mayor, Vitali Klitschko, at least 4 people have been hospitalized after being injured by the fall of Russian drones or missiles.
Russia plans to test NATO's resolve
Russia is determined to test NATO's resolve, even extending its confrontation with the West beyond Ukraine's borders, as stated by Germany's foreign intelligence chief to Table Media news organization, Reuters reports.
Bruno Kahl, head of the Federal Intelligence Service, stated that his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defense obligations enshrined in the NATO treaty no longer had practical force.
"We are quite confident, and we have intelligence to prove it, that Ukraine is just a step on the way to the West," Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.
"That doesn't mean we expect tank armies to advance to the west," he added. "But we see that NATO's promise of collective defense will be tested."