Russian drone strikes have killed two people in Ukraine, authorities confirmed on Sunday, as world leaders convened in London to discuss intensifying pressure on Moscow over its four-year war.
A 56-year-old minibus driver was killed in a drone strike in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service. In a separate attack, a 59-year-old man died in the central Dnipropetrovsk region, where Russian drones and aerial bombs struck two districts.
A 35-year-old man was also wounded and infrastructure damaged in the attacks. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is scheduled to meet the leaders of France, Germany, and Britain on Sunday for talks on the way forward, as Russia faces continued military setbacks on the battlefield.
Ukraine recaptured more territory than it lost to Russian forces in May for the second consecutive month, according to AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. On the diplomatic front, Zelensky on Thursday proposed a face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, expressing readiness for a full ceasefire. Putin, speaking at Russia’s flagship economic forum on Friday, dismissed suggestions that the Russian economy had collapsed.
Meanwhile, Russia’s prolonged offensive has triggered rising prices, tax increases, two-decade-high borrowing costs, business closures, and labour shortages — placing its economy under its greatest strain since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
