Russia-Ukraine war updates: Moscow dismisses Trump’s criticism of attacks

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We’ll be closing this live page soon. Here are some of the major developments of the day:

• Ukraine says Russia launched a record number of drones overnight, with President Volodomyr Zelenskyy saying the attacks were a sign Moscow is “acting with impunity”.
• Ukrainian air defences downed most of the drones, but several broke through defences, causing casualties, according to Ukrainian authorities. Two elderly women were killed in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, said the regional governor.
• Russia, meanwhile, accused Ukraine of launching aerial attacks on its “social infrastructure”. The Defence Ministry said it had shot down at least 48 Ukrainian drones today, including five over the Moscow region.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced that Ukraine’s key Western allies are no longer limiting the range of weapons they supply, a move the Kremlin said would be “dangerous”.
• The Kremlin also responded to Donald Trump’s remark that Putin has gone “absolutely crazy” over the scale of Russian air attacks, suggesting the US president may be experiencing “emotional overload”.

The Russian president has held a meeting with members of the country’s business community, addressing economic growth, import challenges and competition from foreign firms.

Vladimir Putin praised what he said was strong economic growth over the past year despite “very difficult conditions”, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

“I want to assure you that the state will definitely continue to support you and your efforts, and will lend a helping hand to implement your initiatives,” he told the business leaders, TASS reported. “Your companies are taking an increasingly strong position within the country, and are also confidently competing abroad.”

Putin also took aim at foreign IT firms that he claims are continuing to operate in Russia despite announcing their departure, such as video-call service Zoom.

“We need to strangle them,” Putin said. “I say this without any embarrassment, because they are trying to strangle us. We need to reciprocate, that’s all!”

The European Union has declined a request from Russia to hold consultations over the bloc’s carbon border tax, according to a World Trade Organization (WTO) document cited by Reuters.

Russia had sought consultations over the EU’s carbon border adjustment mechanism – which imposes taxes on imports based on their carbon emissions – as a preliminary step before initiating formal dispute proceedings.

However, the EU responded in a May 26 document submitted to the WTO that such talks “cannot be fruitful and cannot lead to a mutually satisfactory solution”, citing Russia’s “war of aggression” against Ukraine as a key reason, the news agency reported.

Petteri Orpo has called on the international community to heap pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to begin negotiating a ceasefire in the Ukraine war.

“Without force, Putin will not try to find a solution. That’s why we need more pressure,” the Finnish prime minister told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting of Nordic prime ministers in Paimio, Finland.

He said what was needed to fend off Russia’s invasion was “sanctions, military aid to Ukraine, more military aid, political support – all that we can”.

Meanwhile, Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said there had been no signs of Russia wanting a ceasefire in Ukraine so far.

“We haven’t seen any indication of that, unfortunately,” he told the news agency.

“I hope this will lead to the US being more explicit, and also putting pressure, not pulling out,” he said, referring to Russia’s recent attacks on civilians.

He said the attacks demonstrated Putin’s “lack of will … to seriously engage in ceasefire or peace negotiations”.

Ukraine’s SBU internal security agency says it has detained six people, including five youth aged 16 to 23, who gave information to Russia, including coordinates of attack targets.

“The investigation established that the group of agents included a student from [the city of] Zaporizhzhia, his local acquaintance and her cohabitant,” the SBU said, adding that “two brothers” from the eastern city of Kharkiv also worked with them. “After being recruited remotely, the agents were tasked with preparing coordinates for strikes on Ukrainian defence facilities.”

The SBU added that the suspects, who are facing life in prison on treason charges, had “travelled around cities, parking cars with video recorders turned on near potential targets”.

The SBU later said it detained another “informant” – a 57-year-old man in the Mykolaiv region, accusing him of helping Russia to coordinate strikes on southern Ukraine.

Russia’s Defence Ministry says its air defences have intercepted 21 Ukrainian drones from 2pm to 5pm Moscow time (11:00 to 14:00 GMT).

Five of the drones were destroyed over the Moscow region, six over the Oryol region and six over the Tula region, the ministry said in a post on Telegram. The rest were shot down over the regions of Kaluga and Kursk, it added.

These reported interceptions add to the 27 Ukrainian drones Russia claims to have taken down this morning, most over Oryol, Tula and Kursk.

As we reported earlier, Germany’s chancellor has announced that Ukraine’s main Western allies are no longer putting range limits on weapons they supply to Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded that the news is “quite dangerous” and contrary to Russia’s plans for a settlement.

Ukrainian authorities say Russian cluster munitions have hit a home in Ukraine’s northeastern region of Sumy, killing a woman who was outside working on her garden and injuring another.

The attack, which caused a fire, took place in the rural community of Mykolaivka, according to the Sumy regional military administration.

As we reported earlier, Russia’s recent attacks also killed two women in the Ukrainian city of Kupiansk.

The German chancellor has said Western-supplied arms to Ukraine no longer come with any range limits.

“There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine – neither by the British, nor by the French, nor by us, nor by the Americans,” said Merz.

“This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by attacking military positions in Russia … With very few exceptions, it didn’t do that until recently. It can now do that.”

Merz, as we reported earlier, is expected to receive Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin on Wednesday.

Russian Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov is pushing for the central bank to take steps to slow inflation when it decides on interest rates next week, warning the economy has symptoms of “hypothermia”.

Reshetnikov, speaking in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, suggested that inflation in recent weeks had been about 3-4 percent when recalculated in annual terms.

“We expect that May data will consolidate this trend, and we of course expect that the central bank will duly take this into account when taking decisions because we also see risks of economic hypothermia in the current regime,” Reshetnikov said.

The ministry forecasts annual inflation for 2025 at 7.6 percent, an estimate that Reshetnikov believes is “realistic”.

Grappling with stubbornly quickening inflation, Russia’s central bank has kept its key interest rate at 21 percent since October last year, a tight monetary policy that has stifled investment.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot says there should be a ceasefire in Ukraine “to provide an opportunity to hold negotiations that will guarantee the establishment of a lasting and just peace”.

“Ukraine is ready for peace, and it is Russia’s turn to show whether it wants to continue the war or is ready for negotiations,” he said at a joint press conference with Armenian Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan in Yerevan.

“France and Europe are not at war against Russia or the Russian people. But we are against the revision of borders on the European continent by force. Our opposition to this will manifest itself in the form of more severe sanctions. Our desire is for the war to end,” he added.

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has accused Russia of being duplicitous by expressing openness to peace talks while simultaneously waging mass air raids in Ukraine.

“During the day, Putin talks about negotiations, then he bombs Ukraine during the night,” Frederiksen said at a meeting of Nordic leaders in Finland.

A Ukrainian drone has injured a civilian in the Russian-occupied town of Kreminna, according to a local military expert cited by Russia’s TASS news agency.

The injured man, suffering from shrapnel wounds, has been hospitalised in the region, said the report.

Russian forces seized Kreminna, located in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, early in the war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin interprets Western calls for negotiations as “a sign of weakness” and appears set to press on with his offensive in Ukraine, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.

Speaking to public broadcaster WDR, Merz said Moscow’s resistance to meeting at the Vatican for peace talks – an idea floated by Italy and the US – is evidence that it is not prepared for swift negotiations.

“If even an offer to meet at the Vatican does not get [Russia’s] approval, then we must be prepared for this war to last longer than we all wish or can imagine,” said Merz.

The Ukrainian president plans to visit Berlin to meet Chancellor Merz on Wednesday, according to Germany’s Der Spiegel publication.

The leaders are expected to review steps towards additional Russia-Ukraine technical talks and a potential new round of EU sanctions against Russia, according to the magazine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has told the French newspaper Liberation that his country is “ready to talk in any format about measures that will help end this war”.

“We really want to end it this year. That is why it is so important to continue the pressure on Russia with our allies both in Europe and from the US,” he said.

Nine of the drones have been shot down over Russia’s Oryol region, nine over the Kursk region, six over the Tula region, and three over the Yaroslavl region, according to TASS news agency, citing a Defence Ministry update.

The interceptions took place today between 8:30am and 2:00pm Moscow time [05:30 to 11:00 GMT], it said.