Moscow says it intercepts and destroys 286 Ukrainian drones overnight.

At least six people have been killed and dozens injured in “one of the longest, massive Russian attacks against Ukraine”, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite renewed claims from the Russian and United States presidents that the war may be nearing an end.

Zelenskyy said the barrage began on Wednesday morning and lasted for hours, striking Kyiv, the western city of Lviv near the Polish border and the Black Sea port of Odesa, among other areas.

“Our soldiers are defending Ukraine, but Russia’s obvious goal is to overload air defences,” Zelenskyy said on Telegram, warning that cruise and ballistic missile strikes could follow the drone attacks.

In the southern region of Kherson, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said a woman was killed when a Russian drone struck a bus in the town of Bilozerka.

Another drone attack in the western region of Rivne killed three people and injured four, according to Governor Oleksandr Koval.

In the Kharkiv region in northeastern Ukraine, authorities said a 60-year-old man was killed when Russian forces attacked a community near the city of Zolochiv with first-person view drones. Police said two homes and several outbuildings were damaged.

Farther south, Governor Ivan Fedorov said a 76-year-old man was killed in an attack on an agricultural enterprise in the region of Zaporizhia.

“The Russians attacked the territory of one of the agricultural enterprises with a guided aerial bomb,” Fedorov wrote on Telegram. “The blast wave and debris damaged the buildings.”

The latest attacks were carried out as US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, suggested that the more than four-year war could be approaching an end.

Trump said on Tuesday that he believed Moscow and Kyiv would “soon reach a deal” to end the fighting.

“The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close,” Trump told reporters before departing the White House for a summit in Beijing. “Believe it or not, it’s getting closer.”

Putin also said last weekend that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was possibly “coming to an end”.

Al Jazeera’s Audrew MacAlpine said hundreds of drones were launched across Ukraine overnight on Wednesday, striking regions far from the front lines and leaving people dead and injured.

“The target is allegedly energy infrastructure but also civilian areas have been damaged in the process,” she said.

MacAlpine added that despite the escalating attacks, Kyiv says it still believes diplomacy remains possible.

“Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on Wednesday speaking to the Bucharest Nine and other Nordic leaders said Ukraine hasn’t given up on diplomacy,” she said. “He also added that he hopes US President Donald Trump in his meeting with [Chinese leader] Xi convinces them to put pressure on Moscow to end the war.”

However, fighting continued on both sides of the border.

In Russia’s Bryansk region, Governor Alexander Bogomaz said Ukrainian drones injured two people in the village of Antonovka. Eight homes and a civilian car were damaged, he said.

In the Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Kherson region, Moscow-installed Governor Volodymyr Saldo said two women were killed in separate drone attacks in the cities of Oleshky and Hola Prystan, and a man was injured in the community of Velyka Lepetykha.

In Russia’s Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said four people were injured in recent drone attacks, including three in the village of Bessonovka.

Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces intercepted and destroyed 286 Ukrainian drones overnight across multiple regions, including Belgorod, Bryansk, Kursk and Rostov as well as over the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/13/russian-attacks-across-ukraine-kill-at-least-six?traffic_source=rss

Wallace last year recommended helping Ukraine carry out a strike on the bridge linking Russia to annexed Crimea.

Russia ‌has placed British former Defence Minister Ben Wallace ⁠on a ⁠wanted list in connection with an unspecified criminal investigation, according to the Russian ⁠Interior Ministry’s database cited by state media.

State-run news agency TASS quoted an unnamed source in law enforcement as saying that the investigation was linked to “terrorism-related charges”.

Wallace served as the UK’s defence minister from 2019 – before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in ⁠2022 – until August 2023. He has continued to advocate boosting military support for Kyiv and condemned Russian aggression.

In October last year, a regional Russian lawmaker called for Wallace to be put on Russia’s wanted list over comments he made the previous month at the Warsaw Security Forum about Crimea, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

On that occasion, Wallace recommended helping Ukraine carry out a military strike on the bridge linking southern Russia to Crimea.

“We have to help Ukraine have ⁠the long-range capabilities to make Crimea unviable. We need to choke the ⁠life out of Crimea. And if we ⁠do that, I think [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will realise he’s got something to lose,” he said. “We need to smash the cursed bridge.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov at the time described Wallace’s remarks as “stupid”, stressing that Moscow does not consider it necessary to comment on statements by former Western officials.

Numerous individuals and groups inside and outside Russia have been prosecuted as the Kremlin has cracked down on dissent concerning its narrative of the war in Ukraine.

In 2024, Putin signed a law allowing authorities to confiscate the assets of people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the military. It covers offences such as “justifying terrorism” and spreading “fake news” about the military, and has been used extensively to silence Putin’s critics.

Last year, Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) opened a criminal case against exiled oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, accusing him of creating a “terrorist organisation” and plotting to violently seize power.

The FSB said the charges related to the activities of a Khodorkovsky-backed group that opposes the war in Ukraine. Khodorkovsky said Russia was a “fully fledged totalitarian dictatorship” and promised to “fight for a Russia governed by the rule of law and political pluralism”.

Moscow issued an arrest warrant for the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Karim Khan in 2023 after he issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest on war crimes charges.

It is not ‌clear how many foreign officials or public figures are on the Russian Interior Ministry’s database of wanted persons. ‌Independent news outlet Mediazona reported that the list includes dozens of European politicians and officials.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/13/russia-places-uk-former-minister-ben-wallace-on-wanted-list?traffic_source=rss

Church leaders killed in latest ethnic violence in India's Manipur

Protests were held after three church leaders were killed and three others injured in a deadly ambush in India’s Manipur state, the latest incident of ethnic violence that has killed more than 260 people since 2023.

📰 மூல செய்தி (Source): https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2026/5/13/church-leaders-killed-in-latest-ethnic-violence-in-indias-manipur?traffic_source=rss