Ukraine claims to have left more than 40 Russian bomber planes "burning" in a large-scale drone attack
Drones that attacked a military base in Sredniy, Siberia, were launched from trucks, the Irkutsk governor says
"Operation Spider's Web" took one year-and-a-half to organise and has been overseen by Ukraine's President Zelensky, according to his country's security service
Zelensky says he's instructed the security service to release details of the operation to the public and says "these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books"
Ukraine has conducted audacious attacks on Russia before – but this is a new level, our diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams writes from Kyiv
The Russian Ministry of Defence says Ukraine carried out a "terrorist attack" in five regions but says the attacks were "repelled"
Edited by Jenna Moon
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Video appears to show Ukraine drone attack in Russia
A swarm of Ukrainian drones have attacked a number of military airbases deep inside Russia’s borders and left more than 40 bomber aircraft in flames, according to Ukrainian officials.
Sources say FPV drones were smuggled into Russia, along with mobile wooden cabins. The cabins were carried by trucks with the drones hidden inside. The cabin roofs opened remotely – and then the drones took off and zoned in on the nearby bases.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described the operation as "an absolutely brilliant result" and said the Ukrainians' actions will "undoubtedly be in the history books".
He said planning for the operation began 18 months ago, and those involved “were withdrawn from Russian territory in time".
Moscow said Ukraine carried out a "terrorist attack" in five regions but they were "repelled". Russia's defence ministry added multiple participants in the operation had been arrested.
Russian and Ukrainian officials are due to meet in Istanbul tomorrow but, as BBC Monitoring's Russia editor Vitality Shevchenko writes, these attacks "won't necessarily alter the course of talks".
We're pausing our live coverage but you can stay across this story on BBC News.
Vitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring
Last night saw the largest-ever aerial attack on Ukraine, followed by Ukraine's daring raid on bombers deep within Russian territory.
This shows that Russia is as keen to attack Ukraine as ever, and, in turn, President Zelensky is keen to prove wrong those who think – to use Donald Trump's phrase – that he has "no cards".
Extraordinary developments, but they won't necessarily alter the course of talks on Monday. The people attending them are there to deliver and hear messages, but not to make big decisions.
All we know is that in the absence of progress on the diplomatic front, both Ukraine and Russia are more than willing to let the drones and missiles do the talking.
Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Kyiv
Far from Ukraine’s borders, an attack of astonishing audacity.
Russian strategic bombers picked off, one by one, by a fleet of tiny drones. Ukraine is calling this Operation Spider’s Web. Personally overseen by President Zelensky, it’s one of Kyiv’s boldest attacks so far.
A reminder, despite Russia’s overwhelming strength in numbers, that Ukraine is a resourceful, determined enemy.
Sources say it took a year and a half to prepare. Dozens of drones, smuggled into Russia. Stored on wooden pallets. Loaded onto trucks. Driven to distant airbases and launched remotely.
Swarms of drones were picked up on social media videos recorded from Siberia to the Arctic circle.
In one video, filmed at a petrol station north of Irkutsk, drones can clearly be seen taking off from a parked truck. And there’s gunfire, as police officers desperately try to bring it down.
With smoke rising from bases across Russia, Ukrainian sources said they had done $2bn (£1.5bn) worth of damage – a claim impossible to verify.
Earlier, it was Ukraine counting the costs.
Cities, including Zaporizhzhia, were targeted in another major drone and missile attack. Twelve Ukrainian soldiers were killed at a training base, leading the head of Ukraine’s land forces to tender his resignation.
What chance, then, for another round of peace talks, due to take place in Istanbul tomorrow?
Russian and Ukrainian delegations are expected to be there – but after 24 hours of mayhem, the omens for a breakthrough do not seem good.
Earlier, Russian state-operated media outlet Tass reported that the driver of a truck believed to be involved in the drone attack will be questioned by police.
Russia's defence ministry also says on Telegram that multiple participants in the operation had been arrested.
However, in his first statement since the drone operation took place, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's says the people involved in preparing the major drone attack "were withdrawn from Russian territory in time".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has shared more details on the strike, saying 117 drones were used.
He says each drone had its own pilot.
"The most interesting thing – and we can already say this publicly – is that the 'office' of our operation on Russian territory was located right next to the FSB of Russia in one of their regions," an English translation of his post on Telegram reads. The FSB is Russia's security service.
He claims 34% of the cruise missile carriers at the targeted airfields were hit.
We're hearing from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time about the drone strikes.
He's just posted on social media calling today's operation "an absolutely brilliant result" and one "achieved solely by Ukraine".
"One year, six months, and nine days from the start of planning to effective execution," he continues. "Our most long-range operation. Our people involved in preparing the operation were withdrawn from Russian territory in time."
Zelensky says he met with the head of the the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Gen Vasyl Maliuk, and asked him to disclose the details and results of the operation to the public.
"Of course, not everything can be revealed at this moment, but these are Ukrainian actions that will undoubtedly be in history books," he adds.
"Ukraine is defending itself, and rightly so – we are doing everything to make Russia feel the need to end this war. Russia started this war, Russia must end it. Glory to Ukraine!"
Zelensky says he met with SBU head Gen Vasyl MaliukVitaliy Shevchenko
Russia editor, BBC Monitoring
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claims today’s attack on airfields in Russia has struck 34% of Russia’s strategic bombers capable of carrying cruise missiles.
In a post on social media, the SBU said its "Operation Spider's Web" cost Russia $7bn (£5.2bn).
"We’re doing all we can to drive the enemy from our land! We’ll strike them at sea, in the air and on land. If necessary, we’ll get them from underground," the SBU writes in a Telegram post.
We're starting to see more reaction to Ukraine's drone attack on Russian airfields earlier today.
While the White House has not yet responded to the attack, the BBC's US partner, CBS, reports that the US government wasn't given a warning about the strikes.
An administration source tells CBS News that the Trump administration was not "aware that today's large-scale drone attack by Ukraine on the Russian military aircraft was coming".
Olga Malchevska
BBC News
A Russian call-up poster urges the local population in occupied Melitopol to "Defend the Motherland, professionally"
A fifth of Ukrainian territory is now under Russian control, and for Ukrainians living under occupation there seems little chance that any future deal to end the war will change that.
Ukrainians in different Russian-controlled cities have told the BBC of the pressures they face, from being forced to accept a Russian passport to the risks of carrying out small acts of resistance.
The potential dangers are the same, whether in Mariupol or Melitopol, seized by Russia in the full-scale invasion in 2022, or in Crimea which was annexed eight years before.
One woman, Mavka, says she chose to stay in Melitopol when the Russians invaded her city on 25 February 2022, "because it is unfair that someone can just come to my home and take it out".
In recent months she has noticed a ramping up of not only a strict policy of "Russification" in the city, but of an increased militarisation of all spheres of life, including in schools.
Meanwhile, children at nursery school in Crimea are told to sing the Russian anthem every morning, even the very youngest. All the teachers are Russian, most of them wives of soldiers who have moved in from Russia.
We're hearing a little from Ukrainians in Kyiv, who are responding to news of their country's massive drone strikes on Russian bombers earlier.
Speaking to the Reuters news agency, construction worker Pavlo Fesenko says: "I think it will have huge influence … it can bring [Russia] back to reality and give us sort of a pause."
However, he doesn't think the strikes will translate into immediate results for Ukraine. "I do not think it will have influence we want it to be now. It is one of the steps that in future should lead to other talks where we should dictate terms," Fesenko says.
He's hopeful that this summer will be Ukraine's "last war summer", he adds.
"I hope they will not have new miracle or new resources from nowhere and that they will finally fall. That is when we will have different talks on different terms."
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Watch: Video appears to show drone attack on Russian planes
Footage showing several large aircraft on fire has been shown to the Reuters news agency by a Ukrainian security source.
Ukraine claims to have hit more than 40 Russian bombers, in what appears to be one of the most audacious attacks so far on Russian aviation.
The video shown to Reuters shows attacks on airfields in Russia's Irkutsk and Murmansk regions, an unnamed security official identified as one of the agency's anonymous sources says.
We're now seeing an update from Russia's Ministry of Defence acknowledging the strikes on airfields across five regions earlier today.
On Telegram, the ministry writes that Ukraine carried out what it said was a "terrorist attack" in the regions of Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan and Amur.
The ministry says that all of the attacks were "repelled".
It says: "As a result of the launch of FPV drones from the territory located in the immediate vicinity of airfields, several pieces of aviation equipment caught fire."
The fires have now been extinguished, it adds.
Russian state-operated media outlet Tass has reported that the driver of a truck believed to be involved in the drone attack will be questioned by police.
The report further adds that the "exact number of UAVs [drones] has not yet been counted", but says there is no threat to the public at this time. 
Hugo Bachega
Middle East correspondent, in Istanbul
Delegations last met on 16 May – but talks didn't yield more than a prisoner exchange
Ukraine’s attacks happen as a second round of direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian officials is scheduled to happen in Istanbul on Monday. This is part of revived diplomatic efforts, spearheaded by US President Donald Trump, for a ceasefire deal – and, eventually, an end to the war.
Before the attacks, it was already very difficult to see any kind of breakthrough in these negotiations, given how far apart both sides remain in their conditions. Their first round of talks, on 16 May, reached little more than an agreement for a prisoner exchange.
On Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelensky listed Ukraine’s positions for the talks that included a complete and unconditional ceasefire, the release of prisoners and the return of abducted children. Russia, so far, has rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire and repeatedly made demands that have already been rejected by Ukraine.
Ukraine also says Russia’s refusal to share its terms ahead of the talks is part of a strategy to delay the negotiations. Russia, meanwhile, has intensified its air attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks, and officials in Kyiv have warned that Moscow may be preparing a new summer offensive. This, Ukrainian officials say, show Russia is not interested in a ceasefire.
Both countries have reason to demonstrate to President Trump they support his efforts for a deal: Ukraine wants more military aid from the US while Russia hopes the US will ease economic sanctions imposed on the country.
On social media a little earlier, Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, made an apparent comment about his country's massive drone operation.
Yermak posted an emoji of a spider web on both his Telegram channel and on X – seemingly a reference to the attack's name of "Operation Spider's Web".
Chris Partridge
BBC News weapons analyst
These attacks will have dealt a significant blow to Russia's aerial cruise missile strike capability.
Tu-95 bombers, which are among the type of aircraft that have been destroyed, are said to have launched a large-scale Kh-101 missile attack on Ukraine earlier this year. They have been used extensively since the full-scale invasion of February 2022 and so are a vital target for the Ukrainian military.
Each bomber can carry eight guided cruise missiles and each missile itself carries a 400kg (882lb) warhead. The weapons' range is thousands of kilometres, which allows such strategic aircraft to deploy well inside the relative safety of Russian airspace.
A file photo shows a Tu-95 strategic bomber in Moscow – this type of aircraft is among those hit
But just as significant is the reported loss of an A-50, the Russian equivalent of AWACS, whose role is to detect enemy aircraft and missiles, and feed those targets to Russian fighter jets. It performs a management role for aerial assets, by giving a big picture view and direction.
As for the strikes themselves, the use of drones in at least one, so close to the targets means that traditional Russian self-defence systems such as S-300 / S-400 long range SAMs, and even their shorter-range counterparts, Pantsir SA-22s, are ineffective. It also means that there was little warning that such an attack was coming to get aircraft to the relative safety of hardened shelters.
It may be that some of the Russian aircraft were not completely destroyed, and they can be repaired, but that still takes them – at the very least – out of the fight for a long time. More worrying for Moscow, it again points to the vulnerability of major military assets well inside Russian Federation territory itself.Paul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Kyiv
Astonishing details have been leaked to the media about how this morning’s Ukrainian attack on at least four Russian airbases was organised.
According to sources at the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), “Operation Spider’s Web” took one year-and-a-half to organise and was personally overseen by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Sources say the SBU's first smuggled FPV drones into Russia, followed later by mobile wooden cabins.
Once on Russian territory, the drones were hidden under the roofs of these cabins, which had been placed on to trucks. At the time of the attack, the roofs were remotely opened, allowing the drones to take off and hit the nearby airbases.
Video has emerged showing drones emerging from the roof of one of the vehicles involved. Ukraine estimates the damage caused by the attacks at over $2bn (£1.5bn).
The targets hit included TU-95s (the large strategic bomber known as “Bear”), TU-22M3s (supersonic long-range bomber) and A-50 (early warning and control aircraft).
In a separate development Ukraine’s head of land forces, Maj Gen Mkyhailo Drapatyi, has tendered his resignation, following a Russian ballistic missile attack which hit a Ukrainian army training facility earlier today, in which 12 soldiers were killed.
We have some more from Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev, who has said that the drones that attacked the military base in Sredniy, in Siberia, were launched from a truck.
Kobzev posted on Telegram to say that the launch site had been secured and there was no threat to life.
Russian media outlets have also reported that other attacks were similarly started with drones emerging from the backs of lorries.
Let's recap some of the other developments from Russia and Ukraine in the last few hours.
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Watch: Footage shows debris at collapsed bridgePaul Adams
Diplomatic correspondent, reporting from Kyiv
As Ukrainians digest today’s news, they are wondering if this is the most audacious attack on Russia yet.
Four airfields attacked across a vast area of Russia and, according to Ukrainian sources, more than 40 aircraft were hit, including some of Moscow’s huge strategic bombers.
Ukraine has attacked such aircraft before, but never on such a scale. Videos appear to show attack drones homing in on their targets as they sit on the tarmac.
It’s not clear how the attack was orchestrated, but given the small size of the drones involved, it’s likely that it was launched from inside Russia.
Earlier, Ukrainian and Russian officials gave differing accounts of two attacks on Russian trains, one of them carrying civilian passengers.
Sources in Moscow spoke of Ukrainian terrorism, while a national security official here in Kyiv accused Russia of mounting a false flag operation to discredit Ukraine ahead of a round of peace talks due to take place in Turkey tomorrow.
All this came as Russia launched one of its biggest drone and missile attacks so far, on targets across Ukraine – 472 drones were recorded, the largest number in a single night.
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