Kyiv |A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, a Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press on Sunday, while Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the attack took over 1 1/2-year to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said.
The drones reportedly hit 41 planes stationed at several airfields on Sunday afternoon, including A-50, Tu-95 and Tu-22M aircraft, the official said.
Moscow has previously used Tupolev Tu-95 and Tu-22 long-range bombers to launch missiles at Ukraine, while A-50s are used to coordinate targets and detect air defences and guided missiles.
Russia's Defence Ministry in a statement confirmed the attacks, which spanned five airfields. The FPV drones damaged aircraft and sparked fires on air bases in the Irkutsk region, more than 4,000 kilometres from Ukraine, as well as Russia's northern Murmansk, it said.
Strikes were repelled in the Amur region in Russia's Far East and in the western regions of Ivanovo and Ryazan, the ministry said.
The attack came the same day as Zelenskyy said Ukraine will send a delegation to Istanbul for a new round of direct peace talks with Russia on Monday.
In a statement on Telegram, Zelenskyy said that Defence Minister Rustem Umerov will lead the Ukrainian delegation. “We are doing everything to protect our independence, our state and our people,” Zelenskyy said.
Ukrainian officials had previously called on the Kremlin to provide a promised memorandum setting out its position on ending the war before the meeting takes place. Moscow had said it would share its memorandum during the talks.
Russian strike hits an army unit
Russia on Sunday launched the biggest number of drones — 472 — on Ukraine since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine's air force said.
Russian forces also launched seven missiles alongside the barrage of drones, said Yuriy Ignat, head of communications for the air force. Earlier Sunday, Ukraine's army said at least 12 Ukrainian service members were killed and more than 60 were injured in a Russian missile strike on an army training unit.
The strike occurred at 12:50 p.m., the statement said, emphasising that no formations or mass gatherings of personnel were being held at the time.
Ukrainian army commander Mykhailo Drapatyi later Sunday submitted his resignation following the attack. He was a respected commander whose leadership saw Ukraine regain land on the eastern front for the first time since Kyiv's 2022 counteroffensive.
The training unit was located to the rear of the 1,000-kilometre active front line, where Russian reconnaissance and strike drones are able to strike. Ukraine's forces lack troops and take extra precautions to avoid mass gatherings as the skies across the front line are saturated with Russian drones looking for targets.
Northern pressure
Russia's Ministry of Defence said on Sunday that it had taken control of the village of Oleksiivka in Ukraine's northern Sumy region. Ukrainian authorities in Sumy ordered mandatory evacuations in 11 more settlements Saturday as Russian forces make steady gains in the area.
Speaking on Saturday, Ukraine's top army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said that Russian forces were focusing their main offensive efforts on Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Lyman in the Donetsk region, as well as the Sumy border area.
Moscow | Russian Defence Ministry on Sunday confirmed that five air bases were attacked by Ukrainian drones damaging an unspecified number of aircraft.
Ukraine claimed that it has destroyed about 40 Russian aircraft including nuclear capable TU-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers in Sunday’s massive drone strikes on Russian bases in an operation prepared by Ukrainian Security Service - SBU during 11 months.
“Today, the Kyiv regime staged a terror attack with the use of FPV drones on airfields in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur Regions. All terror attacks on military airfields in the Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur Regions were repelled,”
“No casualties were reported either among servicemen or civilians. Some of those involved in the terror attacks were detained,” the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.
For the first time it was established that Olenogorsk (Murmansk region) and Sredny (Irkutsk region in Siberia) were attacked from close proximity by using trailer trucks by the attackers.
“As a result of the launch of FPV drones from territories in the close proximity to military airfields in the Murmansk and Irkutsk Regions, several aircraft caught fire. The fires were extinguished,” the Russian MoD said.
Observers here speculate that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to pressurise Moscow on the eve of tomorrow's second round of peace talks in Istanbul. The Russian delegation led by Kremlin aide Vladimir Medynsky has already reached Turkey for Monday’s talks.
However, experts opine that there is little hope of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine.
Paris | Russian President Vladimir Putin is stalling at the peace table while preparing a new military offensive in Ukraine, two senior US senators warned Sunday, arguing that the next two weeks could shape the future of a war that has already smashed cities, displaced millions and redrawn Europe's security map.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal spoke to The Associated Press in Paris after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and touring neighbourhoods shattered by what they called the worst Russian bombardments since the full-scale invasion began.
In Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron — who they say is “100% aligned” with them on the war — the senators warned the window to prevent a renewed assault is closing. A sweeping US sanctions bill could be the West's last chance to choke off the Kremlin's war economy, they said.
"What I learned on this trip was he's preparing for more war,” Graham said of Putin. Blumenthal called the sanctions proposed in legislation “bone-crushing” and said it would place Russia's economy “on a trade island”.
“It is crunch time for Putin and for the world because Russia is mounting a new offensive,” he said.
At the heart of their push is a bipartisan sanctions bill, backed by nearly the entire US Senate but still facing uncertain odds in Washington.
It would impose 500% tariffs on countries that continue buying Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports — targeting nations like China and India that account for roughly 70% of Russia's energy trade and bankroll much of its war effort.
Graham called it “the most draconian bill I've ever seen in my life in the Senate."
“The world has a lot of cards to play against Putin,” he said. “We're going to hit China and India for propping up his war machine.”
Peace talks or stalling tactic?
Peace talks are scheduled to resume Monday in Istanbul. But Ukrainian officials say Moscow has yet to submit a serious proposal — a delay both senators described as deliberate and dangerous.
“Putin is playing President Trump," Blumenthal said. “He's taking him for a sucker.” The senator said Putin "is, in effect, stalling and stonewalling, prolonging the conversation so that he can mount this offensive and take control of more territory on the ground.”
Graham added: “We saw credible evidence of a summer or early fall invasion, a new offensive by Putin... He's preparing for more war.”
Trump has yet to endorse the sanctions bill, telling reporters Friday: “I don't know. I'll have to see it.” Graham said the legislation was drafted in consultation with Trump's advisers.
Graham backed the president's diplomatic instincts but said, "By trying to engage Putin — by being friendly and enticing — it's become painfully clear he's not interested in ending this war.”
Blumenthal hoped the bipartisan support for Ukraine at least in the Senate — and the personal testimonies they plan to bring home to Congress and the Oval Office — may help shift the conversation.
“He needs to see and hear that message as well from us, from the American people,” he said of Putin.
A moral reckoning
In Kyiv, the senators said, the war's human toll was impossible to ignore. Graham pointed to what Ukrainian officials and Yale researchers estimate are nearly 20,000 children forcibly deported to Russia — calling their return a matter of justice, not diplomacy.
Blumenthal described standing at mass grave sites in Bucha, where civilians were executed with shots to the head. The destruction, he said, and the stories of those who survived, made clear the stakes of delay. “Putin is a thug. He's a murderer."
Both said that failing to act now could pull the US deeper into conflict later. If Putin isn't stopped in Ukraine, Blumenthal said, NATO treaty obligations could one day compel American troops into battle.
They see resolve in Europe
After a one-hour meeting with Macron in Paris, both Graham, of South Carolina, and Blumenthal, of Connecticut, said they left convinced Europe was ready to toughen its stance.
“This visit has been a breakthrough moment because President Macron has shown moral clarity in his conversations with us,” Blumenthal said. “Today, he is 100% aligned with that message that we are taking back to Washington.”
Blumenthal pointed to the rare bipartisan unity behind the sanctions bill. “There are very few causes that will take 41 Republicans and 41 Democrats and put them on record on a single piece of legislation,” he said. “The cause of Ukraine is doing it.”
Ahead, Ukrainian military leaders are set to brief Congress and a sanctions vote could follow.
“President Trump said we'll know in two weeks whether he's being strung along,” Graham said. “There will be more evidence of that from Russia on Monday.”