Russia is planning to send a number of Oreshnik missile systems to Belarus by the end of this year, a Belarusian official has said. Meanwhile, Donald Trump appears to have set a two-week deadline for Vladimir Putin to prove he wants to end the war in Ukraine. Follow the latest below.
Thursday 29 May 2025 12:14, UK
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Ukraine will not take part in the World Judo Championships in Budapest next month after Belarus was allowed to take part under its national flag.
Despite an appeal submitted by Kyiv, the Executive Committee of the International Judo Federation (IJF) has confirmed Belarusian athletes will be allowed to take part in the competition using their national flag – rather than as neutral athletes.
The Judo Federation of Ukraine has today responded by saying it “strongly condemned” the decision of the international federation and considered it to be “contrary to the basic principles of justice, responsibility and solidarity in the world sports movement”.
“We are convinced that the participation of athletes from aggressor countries under national symbols is not only political blindness, but also contempt for the victims of war and international law,” the Judo Federation of Ukraine said in a statement on Facebook.
“The Judo Federation of Ukraine will continue to consistently defend a position based on moral values, freedom and dignity of the Ukrainian people.”
Ivor Bennett, Moscow correspondent, reports from the scene after a Ukrainian drone was shot down on the outskirts of Moscow.
Debris from one of the Ukrainian drones shot down by Russian air defences last night hit a residential building on the outskirts of Moscow, around 10 miles to the southwest of the centre.
Around a dozen windows were smashed across two floors, approximately 75 metres up.
Several cladding panels have fallen off, leaving an ugly gash on the apartment block’s exterior.
Moscow’s mayor said there were no casualties, and there are reports on social media claiming the occupants of the flats, which bore the brunt of the impact, were shielded from broken glass by heavy curtains covering the windows.
On the ground, people are going about their everyday lives as if nothing has happened. There is a nursery within the gated complex, and children are playing in the courtyard outside, seemingly oblivious to events overnight.
Competing explanations for strikes
Swarms of drones have been launched by both sides throughout this week in a sign the conflict is intensifying, despite pressure from the US to move towards a peace deal.
The Ukrainian attacks have caused Moscow’s airports to suspend operations numerous times, day and night, causing chaos for passengers.
Russia tends to cast the Ukrainian attacks as assaults on civilians, as it tries to reinforce its narrative that Ukraine is the aggressor.
Ukraine insists it doesn’t target civilians, only military facilities.
In this case, there are a number of Ministry of Defence properties nearby and the residential block was hit by falling debris.
I think Kyiv would also say that it’s merely retaliating against Moscow, since Ukraine has been living under these kinds of attacks for more than three years.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Russia’s proposal to hold another round of peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul next month has heightened hopes for peace.
Speaking to reporters on a flight from Azerbaijan, Erdogan said his government was in contact with both countries, and added that the recent momentum in peace efforts was an opportunity to reach lasting peace.
“The road to a resolution goes through more dialogue, more diplomacy,” the Turkish leader was cited as saying by his office today.
“We are using all our diplomatic power and potential for peace.”
Earlier, the Kremlin said it was still waiting for a response from Ukraine on Russia’s proposal to hold the next round of peace talks in Istanbul on 2 June to begin discussions on draft memoranda for a peace accord.
Russia yesterday proposed the new round of direct negotiations, aiming to present Ukraine with a memorandum outlining what it described as the key elements for “overcoming the root causes” of the conflict.
We reported earlier that Russian air defences intercepted 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, including three over Moscow.
Here are just a few of the scenes emerging from the Russian capital today…
We have more comments coming through from the Kremlin this morning – this time in reference to Donald Trump.
On the possibility of another call between the two leaders, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said Vladimir Putin currently has no plans to speak to Trump.
The comments come as Trump warned Putin this week that he was “playing with fire” after Russia launched some of its biggest drone and missile attacks on Ukraine since its invasion began in early 2022.
Here’s what Trump said on Truth Social this week…
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realise is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD… He’s playing with fire!”
The Kremlin has said this morning that it is still awaiting a response from Ukraine on Russia’s proposal to hold the next round of peace talks in Turkey on 2 June.
Last night, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia had proposed the next round of talks with Ukraine.
Istanbul is the host of choice, he added.
For context: The first direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in three years were held in the Turkish city of Istanbul on 16 May, after US negotiators had separate talks with Russian and Ukrainian officials in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in March.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy flew to Turkey for the talks and challenged Vladimir Putin to meet him there – but the Russian leader did not.
The talks failed to achieve Ukraine’s aim of a full and unconditional ceasefire, but the two sides did agree to swap 1,000 prisoners of war each.
Firefighters in northeastern Ukraine’s Sumy region have been trying to tame the flames after a Russian attack.
Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia had gathered 50,000 troops near the Sumy region.
He said the Kremlin’s “strongest forces” were currently at the frontline in Kursk, in western Russia, adding that he believed Russia wanted a buffer zone of about six miles.
But he added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there.
Sumy is across the border from Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukraine previously seized and held a pocket of land for months, before being almost fully pushed out last month.
After Russian air defences intercepted 48 Ukrainian drones overnight, our Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett has been taking a look at the latest strikes.
He notes three of the drones made it to Moscow which is “pretty rare”.
“This is the latest sign of this conflict heating up. It started at the weekend when Russia launched a series of massive aerial bombardments on Ukraine,” he says.
“That prompted that criticism from Donald Trump aimed at Vladmir Putin.”
Bennett says Ukraine responded with several attacks of its own.
“All this comes when the two sides are supposedly moving closer to a ceasefire,” he adds.
“That’s what both sides say they want to achieve.”
He also says that attacks like these on Russia are a way for Ukraine to show “it can still cause Russia problems”.
“And it’s a way to show they are not going to just roll over at the negotiating table and that they want conditions of their own,” he says.
Russia has offered a second round of direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on 2 June but it is still to send its memorandum – the document outlining their terms for a ceasefire.
Yesterday, Reuters reported that three Russian sources familiar with the peace negotiations had stated that Vladimir Putin wants Western states to submit a “written” pledge stipulating that NATO will not expand eastward and ensuring Ukrainian neutrality.
He also wants sanctions relief, the unfreezing of Russian assets in the West and unspecified protections for Russian speakers in Ukraine.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) now states that Kremlin officials have repeatedly used allegations that the Ukrainian government is discriminating against Russian-speakers in Ukraine to “justify Russia’s calls for Ukrainian regime change”.
And Russia’s demands for a ban on NATO expansion, Ukrainian neutrality, and regime change are the same demands that Russia issued before it invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Looking at Russia’s demands that any future peace settlement must eliminate the “root causes” of the war, the ISW notes that Russian officials have previously defined this as “NATO’s alleged violation of unofficial commitments not to expand into eastern Europe and along Russia’s borders in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s”.
It is also a reference to the Ukrainian government’s alleged discrimination against Russians in Ukraine.
The US-based thinktank says: “ISW continues to assess that these demands are part of the Kremlin’s efforts to force the West into surrendering Ukraine and breaking the NATO security alliance.”
Near the town of Chasiv Yar, in the eastern Donetsk region, Ukrainian troops have been firing weapons at Russian positions on the frontline.
Russian forces have been trying to push through along the eastern flank of Ukraine and in the north, with reports that they could be preparing for a summer offensive.
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