Russia and Ukraine fired hundreds of drones at each other’s territory over the weekend as fighting continued to rage across the frontlines in eastern Ukraine amid a stalled peace process.
Ukrainian officials said that Russia launched its largest drone attack on the war overnight Thursday into Friday, which killed one person in Kyiv and injured at least 39. Russia fired at least 322 drones and decoys into Ukraine overnight Friday into Saturday, and Russian attacks continued on Sunday, with drone and missile strikes reported across the country.
Ukraine also fired a significant number of drones into Russian territory and claimed to have hit a Russian airbase on Saturday. According to SouthFront, from Saturday to Sunday, Russian air defenses destroyed 159 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions.
Also on Sunday, Russia said that its forces captured two settlements, one in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk Oblast and another in the northeastern Kharkiv Oblast.
The heavy fighting comes after President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said he made no “progress” on reaching a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Friday, Trump hinted that he could impose sanctions on Russia, saying he discussed the possibility with Putin. “He understands that it may be coming,” Trump said.
Trump held a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday, which came after the US halted a series of weapons shipments to Ukraine. Despite the pause in some arms supplies, Zelensky appeared to be very happy with the call. “This was probably the best conversation in all this time, it was maximally productive. We discussed the topic of air defenses. I am grateful for the readiness to help,” he said.
The pause in US weapons shipments included a halt in the supply of Patriot air defense missiles. The US used a significant number of Patriots to repel the recent Iranian retaliatory attack on the Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar, which came after the US bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities.
