Ukraine war latest: Putin’s forces drop 100 deadly glide bombs in one day

Vladimir Putin’s troops have dropped over 100 deadly glide bombs on Ukrainian territory amid intense fighting in the east of the country, according to Kyiv’s military.

The Russian army used 111 Soviet-era KAB bombs – which are retrofitted with precision guidance systems – to attack Ukrainian positions and settlements over the past 24 hours.

The munitions can weigh more than a tonne, are often dropped from aircraft and are capable of reducing entire multistorey buildings to rubble, experts say.

Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has left for Russia, his first visit to the country to meet Vladimir Putin since the beginning of the Ukraine war.

Ahead of the visit, the Kremlin’s spokesperson said the West was watching closely.

“They are jealous – that means they are closely monitoring it. Their close monitoring means they attach great importance to it. And they are not mistaken, there is something to attach great importance to,” Dimitry Peskov said.

The Indian foreign ministry said the two leaders will review a range of bilateral issues, including defence, trade links, investment ties, energy cooperation, science and technology, education, culture and people-to-people exchanges.

The Kremlin said that no topics were off limits for discussion during their meeting.

India, which has long been heavily dependent on Russia for its weapon supplies, emerged as a major buyer of Russian oil since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine led to a host of Western sanctions. It now gets more than 40 per cent of its oil imports from Russia, according to analysts.

India says it maintains a neutral stance with regards to the Ukraine conflict, neither condemning nor condoning Russia’s war, and has called for negotiations to end the fighting.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) agents claim they have blocked an attempt by Ukraine to organise the hijack of a Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bomber.

The FSB said on its website on Monday that Ukrainian officials were trying to recruit a Russian pilot.

“Ukrainian intelligence intended to recruit a Russian military pilot for a monetary reward and the provision of Italian citizenship, to persuade him to fly and land a missile carrier in Ukraine,” the FSB said.

During the operation, Russia received information that helped Russian forces to strike the Ozerne airfield in northwestern Ukraine, the FSB claimed in its statement.

The timings of the operation and the alleged strikes on the Ozerne airfield in Ukraine‘s Zhytomyr were both unclear.

Ukraine is yet to comment on the allegations.

Ukraine says its air defences shot down three of six Kh-101 cruise missiles fired by Russia overnight.

The missiles were shot down over the central region of Cherkasy and northern Zhytomyr.

Regional governors have not yet provided any details of possible damages on social media.

Russia launched four Kh-101 cruise missiles and two Iskander-M ballistic missiles, the air force added.

Hungary views its six-month presidency of the European Union as a peace mission, its Prime Minister Viktor Orban told a press conference on Friday in Moscow alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Many steps are needed to end the war, but we took the first step to restore dialogue,” Orban said, adding that “points of view remained far from each other in Kyiv and Moscow.”

The German government said Friday it has reached agreement on the budget for 2025 and a stimulus package for Europe’s largest economy, easing a monthslong squabble that threatened to upend Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left coalition.

Scholz, a Social Democrat, and leaders of the Free Democrats and Greens reached agreement on plans including higher spending on defense and affordable housing after marathon talks that dragged into the early hours of Friday. Scholz said ministers would formally approve the plan at a Cabinet meeting later this month.

By balancing security, social cohesion and economic growth, Scholz said the budget was designed to reassure citizens unsettled by the war in Ukraine, the impacts of climate change and irregular migration, and offer an alternative to the “divisive” policies of far-right parties making gains across Europe.

Ukraine said on Friday it had taken receipt of its third German-supplied Patriot air defence system following months of pleas for equipment to protect its civilians and infrastructure from Russian air strikes.

Moscow renewed its aerial assaults on Ukraine‘s national power grid in the spring, causing sweeping blackouts. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said earlier this year his country needed at least seven additional Patriot systems to protect itself.

The Ukrainian defence ministry said on X the system had already been delivered and thanked Germany for “unwavering support”.

“It will help improve the protection of civilians and infrastructure. The Ukrainian crew has successfully completed appropriate training in Germany,” German Ambassador to Ukraine Martin Jaeger said on X.

Kyiv has indicated it hopes for progress on the matter of air defence supplies at a NATO summit in Washington next week. A senior U.S. State Department official has said Kyiv is expected to get “good news” at the summit.

Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and regularly uses its arsenal of missiles and drones to conduct long-range strikes.

Robert Woodland, a Russia-born U.S. citizen, was convicted of drug-related charges by a Moscow court and sentenced to 12 1/2 years in prison on Thursday, court officials and his lawyers said.

He was found guilty of attempted trafficking of large amounts of illegal drugs as part of an organized group, according to an online statement released by court officials. His lawyers told reporters after the verdict was delivered Thursday that they will appeal the ruling because Woodland’s guilt hasn’t been proven.

Lawyer Stanislav Kshevitsky also said that Woodland has been suffering from unspecified mental health issues. He didn’t provide any details, but said that the court didn’t take those issues into account.

Jailed British-Russian opposition leader Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to a Siberian prison hospital, his wife has said.

The 42-year-old – a leading Kremlin critic who has survived two poisoning attempts – is serving a 25-year jail sentence after repeatedly condemning Russia’s war in Ukraine and calling for Western sanctions against Moscow.

Mr Kara-Murza was transferred on Thursday evening to the hospital in Omsk prison, where he is jailed, according to his wife Evgenia, who said his lawyers had waited five hours to see him but were denied visitation rights.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had discussed the situation in Ukraine with visiting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday, but reiterated his belief that Russia‘s proposals should be the key to resolving the conflict.

Putin said he was grateful to Orban for an attempt to restore dialogue between Russia and Europe, but Kyiv was still not willing to stop the conflict.