This week, battles continued to rage along the front lines. Ukraine’s mid-range strike campaign against Russian ground lines of communication is disrupting Russian logistics across the war theater, from occupied Luhansk region to Crimea, the Institute for the Study of War said on May 31.
Russia carried out massive aerial attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns deep in the rear. It unleashed a major drone and missile attack on Ukraine overnight on Tuesday, killing seven people in Kyiv and 16 in Dnipro. Ninety others were wounded in Kyiv and 42 in Dnipro. Ukraine’s air defenses destroyed more than 57,000 Russian aerial targets in May 2026, the country’s Air Force said Tuesday.
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant occupied by Russia lost power after a drone struck the Nikopol power substation on the opposite river bank overnight on Wednesday. The International Atomic Energy Agency said the attack targeted the Zaporizhzhia thermal power plant that powers the nuclear plant.
Ukrainian drones hit an oil terminal in St. Petersburg and a warship at the Kronstandt naval base on Wednesday, hours before an international economic forum was due to open. Russian leader Vladimir Putin is scheduled to give a keynote address at the event on Friday.
Zelenskyi issues open letter to Putin.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi released a public letter to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday.
Russia is taking heavy battlefield losses, with 63 per cent of all casualties being those killed and 37 per cent wounded. It also constantly moves its deadline for capturing all of Donetsk region. The Russians are increasingly discontent with Ukraine’s drone and missile attacks, gasoline shortages, growing restrictions and the Kremlin’s plans to launch a second wave of mobilization, the letter reads.
“You will not have enough money or political capital to keep buying the loyalty of Russians the way you have for the past 26 years,” Zelenskyi said in the letter.
Ukraine has “brought the war onto your territory,” he also said, adding: “Today, you are fully dependent on China.”
