Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin’s forces strike Kharkiv with ‘most powerful’ attack since start of war

Ukraine kept its latest attacks on Russia secret from America but its spectacular success shows it can win the war against Putin, writes world affairs editor Sam Kiley.

President Donald Trump once accused Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky of lacking “cards” to play in his country’s years-long fight against Russia, but now he’s paying far more attention to what might be in Zelensky’s hands.

In the wake of Ukraine’s brazen, and successful, attack on multiple Russian air bases over the weekend, Trump was reportedly left marveling at the ingenuity and sheer chutzpah of Kyiv’s counteroffensive using dozens of armed drones launched from trucks traveling deep inside Russia, swarming over military airfields across the country and raining down onto nuclear-capable long-range bombers.

According to Axios, Trump has privately described it as “strong” and “badass.”

Andrew Feinberg, White House Correspondent, reports:

Ukraine's major drone strike on four Russian military airbases was captured in new footage released on Wednesday (4 June).

Video released by Ukraine's security service showed multiple large aircraft, some of which appeared to be Tu-95 strategic bombers, alight after the strikes.

Ukraine said its forces hit 41 military aircraft using 117 drones in Sunday's (1 June) attack on Russian airfields.

Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had a "good conversation" with Vladimir Putin, as the US president reported that his Russian counterpart told him Russia "will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields."

Holly Patrick reports:

The Kremlin is smarting. For the last four months Donald Trump was relied upon to parrot the words of Vladimir Putin and reliably take Russia’s side in largely performative negotiations to bring a ceasefire to the churning battlefields of Ukraine, writes our World Affairs Editor Sam Kiley.

Now, Dmitry Peskov, has peevishly hit back at the American president, who said that both Ukraine and Russia were behaving “like kids fighting in a park”.

A petulant Peskov, who is his master’s voice, insisted that the conflict was an “existential question” for Russia and "a question of our security and the future of ourselves and our children, the future of our country”.

He is absolutely right. But not for the reasons he might give.

Trump has endorsed the Russian invasion of Ukraine as an inevitable result of the loss of Russian control over the former Soviet state and its drift towards joining Nato.

For Putin the loss of Ukraine when the Soviet Union broke up was a devastating blow as it was the intellectual heart of the Soviet empire, its biggest breadbasket, and most important colony. If only it were not so full of Ukrainians.

But the real reason for a full-scale invasion is that Ukraine is a democracy heading towards full integration with the European union, Nato membership, with an economy ridding itself of the kleptocracy he has entrenched in his own nation.

Ukraine offers Russians an alternative vision of the future. It is an existential threat to Putin’s authoritarian oligarchy. That’s why Putin is an existential threat to Ukraine, and its neighbours.

The Kremlin has hit back at jibes from US president Donald Trump in which he compared Ukraine and Russia’s war to a fight between children.

They said “for us this is existential” and added their latest strikes are a response to actions of the “terrorist regime” in Kyiv.

Trump compared the war to a sports brawl, saying: “Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.”

“You see it in hockey, you see it in sports.”

Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia “targeted almost all of Ukraine” in a massive attack on the country which has injured almost 50 people so far.

The president said on social media: “Russia doesn’t change its stripes – another massive strike on cities and ordinary life. They targeted almost all of Ukraine – Volyn, Lviv, Ternopil, Kyiv, Sumy, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Cherkasy, and Chernihiv regions. Some of the missiles and drones were shot down.

“I thank our warriors for their defense. But unfortunately, not all were intercepted. In total, over 400 drones and more than 40 missiles – including ballistic missiles – were used in today’s attack. 49 people were wounded.”

Kyiv has been bombarded with drones shortly after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to respond to a massive Ukrainian attack in Russia.

Ukraine’s Air Force reported on Telegram that Russia had launched ballistic missiles and drones into the war-torn country early on Friday, per CNN.

A Telegram post from the air force warned, “Several Tu-95MS strategic bombers are in the air. They allegedly launched cruise missiles!”

CNN reported that Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv City Military Administration, said that there were reports of fires in buildings across Kyiv, and that a high-rise in the Solomyansky district was damaged.

Full report: