Moscow’s forces bombarded Ukraine overnight, forcing Poland to scramble jets after the western city of Lviv was hit. Meanwhile, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, has criticised Ukraine’s European allies. Follow the latest.
Thursday 21 August 2025 12:28, UK
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Sergei Lavrov’s hardline remarks today have cast serious doubt on the prospect of peace talks, Moscow correspondent Ivor Bennett says.
Speaking to presenter Gareth Barlow, he says it’ll be very interesting to see how US President Donald Trump reacts to Lavrov’s comments.
“For a second day in a row now, Russia’s foreign minister has poured some pretty cold water on the American president’s diplomatic push to find a peace deal.”
Lavrov said the “so-called coalition of the willing” was trying to undermine the “progress” made between Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week.
He also said Ukraine’s allies were “trying to shift the focus away from resolving the root causes” of the war.
“Clearly, I think he is trying to drive a wedge there between Donald Trump and the European leaders,” Bennett adds.
He says last night’s huge Russian aerial attack on Ukraine – the biggest in over a month – shows Moscow’s intentions.
“This is not the kind of activity you would associate with a country that claims to want peace,” Bennett says.
Russian forces have captured the village of Oleksandro-Shultyne in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Moscow’s defence ministry said.
The ministry also said its troops carried out strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, military-industrial facilities and airfield infrastructure overnight.
Sky News could not independently verify the battlefield reports.
Russia has slowly been taking more land in Ukraine’s east as part of a renewed summer offensive.
Analysts believe Moscow’s forces are seeking to gain as much territory as possible ahead of peace talks, which could see land swaps take place.
Russia’s top diplomat has attacked the “so-called coalition of the willing,” accusing them of trying to undermine the “progress” made between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Alaska.
Sergei Lavrov said the group of Ukraine’s allies are “trying to shift the focus away from resolving the root causes” of the war.
“I hope such European adventurism fails,” he said.
The Russian foreign minister also called attempts to discuss post-war security guarantees for Ukraine which departed from those set out by Russia in talks with Kyiv in Istanbul in 2022 as “hopeless”.
On a possible meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin, Lavrov said the Russian president has “said repeatedly he is ready to meet”.
However, he added that when it comes to “signing something,” there are “issues of legitimacy” surrounding the Ukrainian leadership.
These, Lavrov says, “will have to be resolved” before a meeting can take place.
For context: Zelenskyy’s presidential term was initially scheduled to end in 2024. He has said Ukraine’s constitution stops him from holding elections while the country is under martial law.
He has also warned against an election taking place before then due to fears over Russian interference.
Moscow and the Kremlin have often suggested Zelenskyy’s “illegitimacy” as president could stand in the way of a face to face meeting with Putin.
Italian police have arrested a Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating attacks on the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, Germany’s prosecutor general said.
The suspect, identified only as Serhii K in line with German privacy rules, has been accused of planting explosives on the pipelines carrying Russian gas to Germany near the Danish island of Bornholm.
He was arrested overnight in Italy’s Rimini province, prosecutors said. They added that he is believed to be one of the coordinators of the operation.
The attack hastened Europe’s switch to other energy suppliers following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Ukraine’s special forces said it conducted an operation near the Dzhankoy railway station in occupied Crimea last night.
It said personnel struck a Russian train carrying fuel and lubricants.
“As a result of special operations, the supply of the southern grouping of Russian troops has been disrupted,” it said.
Ukrainian drones also struck Russia’s Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, in its southern Rostov region, during an overnight attack that caused multiple explosions, the Ukrainian general staff said.
Kyiv also attacked a fuel base in Russia’s southwestern Voronezh region, and a drone warehouse and logistics hub in Russia-occupied Donetsk, it added.
Russia has “far more manpower” on the battlefield but “their economy is creaking”, says Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In wide-ranging remarks to journalists yesterday, he said Russia is ramping up production but they “can’t sustain it”.
“Their economy will keep deteriorating. I believe Putin knows this. In a year, he’ll face noticeable problems; in two years, they’ll be far worse.”
Zelenskyy said it would take four years for Putin to take the land he wants in Ukraine: the rest of the Donbas.
“I think they’re considering how to end the war while claiming some kind of ‘victory’ for themselves.”
“They’ve invented this idea of victory – our withdrawal from Donbas. That’s what they’ve concocted as their win, something to sell domestically.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has heaped praise on his troops deployed to help Russia in its war against Ukraine.
Kim “conveyed warm encouragement” to the officers and the soldiers who served in Russia’s Kursk region, the official Korean Central News Agency reported.
“Ours is a heroic army,” Kim was quoted as saying in a speech to members of the military in the capital.
“Our army is now doing what it ought to do and what needs to be done. It will do so in the future, too,” he added.
Russia and North Korea have been forging increasingly close ties, with Pyongyang in April confirming for the first time that it had deployed a contingent of its soldiers to fight alongside Russian troops.
Ukraine won’t accept “any ultimatums or blackmail” during peace talks aimed at ending the war, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top aide says.
Posting on X, Andriy Yermak said Kyiv is ready for “any format of dialogue – bilateral or trilateral”.
“The main thing is the result: ending the war. We want to restore a just and lasting peace and prevent a recurrence of aggression.”
He adds: “The situation is difficult, but we have been fighting for over 1,000 days and we have endured.”
Ukraine has successfully tested is longest-ranged missile yet, Volodymyr Zelenskyy says.
Mass production for the “Flamingo”, which has a range of 3,000km, should begin between December and February.
“Success depends on testing outcomes and funding for the programme,” he added.
Russia has ramped up the scale of its aerial attacks on Ukraine in the past few months, breaking its record for the most number of missiles and drones launched in one night several times.
Last night’s bombardment, which saw 574 drones and 40 missiles fired into Ukraine, was the third-largest of the war so far, according to figures from the country’s air force.
In fact, all of Russia’s largest aerial attacks on Ukraine have come since the beginning of June.
Here they are in order:
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