Russia Ukraine war update: Kyiv strikes Russia ‘with kamikaze drones’ as Putin’s troops suffer in Kharkiv

If Russian President Vladimir Putin’s current proposals for a peace treaty with Ukraine are rejected, the next peace terms will be tougher, Russian spy chief and close Putin ally Sergei Naryshkin has said, according to the Kremlin-approved Tass news agency.

He didn’t specify whom the proposals could be accepted or rejected by in the report.

Denmark is considering ways to limit the passage of old tankers carrying Russian oil through the Baltic Sea, the Nordic country’s foreign minister said in a statement on Monday, in a move that could trigger confrontation with Moscow.

Russia sends about a third of its seaborne oil exports, or 1.5 per cent of global supply, through the Danish straits that sit as a gateway to the Baltic Sea, so any attempt to halt supplies would send oil prices higher and hit the Kremlin’s finances.

Denmark has brought together a group of allied countries evaluating measures targeting the so-called shadow fleet of ageing ships transporting the Russian oil, Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen told Reuters.

Ukraine could begin negotiating a peace plan with Russia “even tomorrow” if it takes seriously Kyiv’s demands to withdraw its troops entirely from Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

In his concluding speech at a Swiss peace summit over the weekend, Mr Zelensky said: “If Russia is at the next summit, it shows that it wants peace … it can start [negotiations] even tomorrow, if it withdraws its troops from our territory.”

He added that the next summit could take place “in months, not years”.

Russian leader Vladimir Putin claims he is willing to negotiate a peace deal but the terms of his proposal, which includes not only the seizure of Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia but also land still within Ukraine’s control, has been described by Kyiv as a Hitler-like “ultimatum”.

An exception to Vladimir Putin’s travel embargo, the result of an arrest warrant for genocide issued last year by the International Criminal Court, “can be made” if the Russian leader wishes to attend Switzerland’s next peace summit, the country’s president has said.

Speaking after the first summit over the weekend, Swiss president Viola Amherd said: “An exception can be made. In the case of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, this could be an exception.”

A similar statement was made by Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis. He also said that the second conference on Ukraine could be held before the US presidential election scheduled for November this year.

After the ICC issued an arrest for Putin in March 2023 for his commanding role in the forcible deportation of tens of thousands – if not hundreds of thousands – of Ukrainian children to Russia, the autocrat has been barred from visiting any of the 124 countries that are signatories to the international court. They are legally obliged to arrest him as soon as he steps on their territory.

It is unclear how Switzerland would circumvent this obligation.

The number of countries that have signed their support for a Ukraine peace plan after an international summit in Switzerland has dropped to 78, a Swiss statement has said.

Originally, it was reported that 80 countries had signed their backing for the proposal, which calls for Russian forces to withdraw completely from Ukrainian territory.

But the communique shows that Iraq and Jordan have withdrawn their signatures.

At least 12 countries – including Saudi Arabia – had already withheld their signature.

Below we have some of the latest photos coming from Ukraine.

Ukrainian soldiers are looking to isolate Russian units that are advancing across the nearby border in Vovchansk near the Kharkiv battlefield. The past weekend has seen massive escalation in fighting in the region.

Military bloggers on both sides have confirmed heavy combat at an aggregate plant on the northern edge of Vovchansk.

“Ukrainian military observer Kostyantyn Mashovets stated that around 200 Russian soldiers, including dead and wounded, are currently isolated in the Aggregate Plant after Russian forces tried to cross the Vovcha River east of the plant on an unspecified date and entered the plant after coming under Ukrainian fire,” said The Institute for the Study of War in its latest analysis.

The situation in Vovchansk, east of Kharkiv and a few miles from the state border, is “difficult but controlled”, said on Ukrainian squad commander. He claimed Russian troops were “surrounded”.

“Our guys are not losing their positions, occasionally conducting successful assaults, liberating positions and pushing the enemy back,” Buniatov said in a post on Telegram yesterday.

The ISW’s assessment added that the Russian military command is “trying to withdraw degraded elements of the 25th Motorized Rifle Brigade (6th CAA, LMD) and 83rd Separate Guards Airborne (VDV) Brigade that have become combat-ineffective due to high losses”.