Russia has been using small drones ⁠flown ⁠via fibre-optic cables to bypass Ukrainian defences ⁠and damage high-voltage electricity substations in the frontline northern Ukrainian region of Sumy, open-source analysis ​shows.

Vladimir Putin’s fuel nightmare has worsened as Ukrainian drones set two oil tankers ablaze in the Sea of Azov and torched depots deep inside Russia. Thursday’s strikes are the latest blows in a punishing months-long campaign that has crippled Russia’s refineries and plunged roughly 50 million people—about a third of the population—into a fuel crisis on a scale not seen since the dying days of the Soviet Union.

Russia’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine has now cost the country some 450,000 lives, according to a new study that estimates the war’s total casualty numbers to have surpassed 2 million.

All the ballistic missiles launched by Russia struck their targets, underscoring Kyiv's need for more U.S. Patriot interceptor missiles, Ukraine officials say.

President Vladimir Putin is rejecting calls to negotiate peace with Kyiv, three sources close to the Kremlin told Reuters, with Ukraine's recent drone strikes on Russia's oil refineries and ports strengthening his resolve to keep fighting for now.

The attacks appear to be the latest phase of Ukraine's bid to choke off supplies and routes into and out of occupied Crimea.

Ukraine is engaged in a campaign in Crimea to take out Russian air defenses, sever vital supply lines, and cripple the peninsula's energy grid and fuel reserves.

"The risk is that Russia could take advantage of this window of opportunity," one European security expert told Newsweek.

President Donald Trump’s inability to find peace in Ukraine — a war he once claimed would be over the day he took office — has caused him enormous frustration. But the focus of his ire has zig-zagged throughout his second term in office.