Russia says it has downed at least 105 Ukrainian drones

Russia says it has shot down at least 105 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, including dozens heading towards Moscow, as the war in Ukraine heats up even as major powers talk about ways to end Europe's deadliest conflict since World War II.

US President Donald Trump is pressuring Russia and Ukraine to end the more than three-year war but the two sides remain far apart. Ukraine and its Western allies are demanding an immediate, unconditional ceasefire but Russia says certain conditions must first be met that Kyiv says are unacceptable.

But while leaders talk of the prospects for peace, the war is intensifying: swarms of drones are being launched by both sides while fierce fighting is underway along key parts of the front.

Russia's defence ministry on Thursday said 105 drones had been shot down over Russian regions between midnight and the early morning, including 35 over the Moscow region. The previous day, Russia said it shot down well over 300 Ukrainian drones.

Separately, Russia said on Thursday it had fired an Iskander-M missile at part of the city of Pokrov, formerly known as Ordzhonikidze, in Ukraine's Dnipropetrovsk region, destroying two Patriot missile launchers and an AN/MPQ-65 radar set.

Ukraine's air force reported damage in the Dnipropetrovsk region after an attack but did not specify the type of weapon.

Russia's defence ministry said its forces were advancing at key points along the front, and pro-Russian war bloggers said Russia had pierced Ukrainian lines between Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address that the heaviest frontline battles were around Pokrovsk. He made no reference to any Russian advances.

Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, and says the territory is now formally part of Russia, a position Ukraine and its European allies do not accept.

Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014. Russian forces also control almost all of Luhansk and more than 70 per cent of the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, according to Russian estimates. Russia also controls a sliver of Kharkiv region.

Meanwhile, Ukraine should abandon any notion of restoring its borders established with the 1991 collapse of Soviet rule or even those dating from the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion, the country's former military commander was quoted as saying on Thursday.

Valery Zaluzhnyi, now Ukraine's ambassador to London, was replaced as top commander in February 2024 after months of reported disagreements between him and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Zelenskiy and other public figures have long called for the eviction of Russian forces and a return to Ukraine's 1991 post-Soviet borders, including Crimea, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014.

But as efforts over recent months have focused on launching talks to secure a ceasefire, public statements by Kyiv have been more moderate on the question of ceding territory.

"I hope that there are not people in this room who still hope for some kind of miracle or lucky sign that will bring peace to Ukraine, the borders of 1991 or 2022 and that there will be great happiness afterward," the RBK Ukraine news site quoted Zaluzhnyi as telling a forum in Kyiv.

"My personal opinion is that the enemy still has resources, forces and means to launch strikes on our territory and attempt specific offensive operations."

Zaluzhnyi said Russia had been waging a war of attrition for a year and, given Ukraine's smaller forces and difficult economic circumstances, its only hope was to rely on advanced technology.

"We can speak only about a high-tech war of survival, using a minimum of economic means to achieve maximum benefit," he was quoted as saying.