The attacks come amid Kiev’s mounting battlefield setbacks and pressure by the US to agree to peace terms, reportedly including territorial concessions
At least ten Ukrainian long-range drones were intercepted on Monday as they headed toward Moscow, the Russian capital’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin has announced. No casualties or damage were reported.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had stated earlier that ten Ukrainian drones had been downed between 8am and 2pm Moscow time, including two believed to be targeting the capital.
Overnight, Russian air defenses intercepted 93 Ukrainian unmanned aircraft over various regions of Russia as well as the Black and Azov seas, according to the military.
The attempted strikes come as Ukrainian forces face mounting battlefield setbacks. On Monday, the Russian Defense Ministry said its troops had liberated two neighborhoods in the city of Krasnoarmeysk (Pokrovsk) in the Donetsk People’s Republic over the preceding 24 hours.
The Ukrainian government is also under pressure amid a major corruption scandal involving close associates of Vladimir Zelensky, who allegedly ran a large-scale kickback operation in the energy sector using foreign funds.
Compounding the pressure, the US has presented Kiev with peace plan proposal reportedly requiring territorial concessions to Russia. Ukraine’s European backers have taken issue with the terms of the deal, calling for substantial revisions.
US and Ukrainian officials held discussions on the proposed deal in Geneva over the weekend, with the Trump administration reportedly arguing that Kiev risks worse terms in the future if it refuses to compromise.
Moscow has distanced itself from the debate over the leaked drafts. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Russia only comments on proposals received through official diplomatic channels and will not react to documents circulated in the media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously stated that his country has the upper hand on the battlefield and will achieve its strategic aims regardless of whether Ukraine accepts US-brokered mediation.
The Brazilian president has called for a peaceful solution before a potential conflict breaks out
Brazil is “enormously worried” about the US military buildup near Venezuela, President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has said, calling for a solution to be found “before a conflict begins.”
The Pentagon has deployed multiple warships and the largest US aircraft carrier in the Caribbean near the South American nation, and has killed scores of people in controversial attacks on boats it claimed were linked to alleged Venezuelan-led drug trafficking operations. Caracas has denied the accusations.
“I am very concerned about the military deployment that the United States has stationed in the Caribbean Sea,” Lula told reporters at the G20 Summit in South Africa on Sunday, according to Globo News.
“This worries me enormously, and I intend to discuss this with President [Donald] Trump because it concerns me… It is important that we try to find a solution before a conflict begins.”
Washington is poised to begin operations against Venezuela in the coming days, Reuters reported on Sunday, citing anonymous US officials. Clandestine operations would likely kick off the effort, and the overthrow of President Nicolas Maduro is under consideration, the agency cited its sources as saying.
Maduro has consistently denied US allegations of drug-trafficking, arguing that Washington was using the claims as a pretext for a regime-change and resource-grab operation.
Earlier this month, the Venezuelan military was placed on high alert in response to the US buildup, which reportedly involves about 15,000 personnel.
Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez has condemned the US deployment in the Caribbean.
“We strongly reject maneuvers, exercises, and deployments in our immediate area of interest,” the top general said in a speech on Saturday. “Enough of the threats, lies, slander, and imposition of power, all for the sake of preserving regional hegemonies.”
Foreign adversaries are targeting the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader, Tehran’s intelligence boss has reportedly alleged
Iran’s intelligence chief has accused the US and Israel of plotting to kill Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in an effort to destabilize the country, the ISNA news agency has reported.
According to the outlet, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib said on Saturday that “the enemy seeks to target the supreme leader, sometimes with assassination attempts, sometimes with hostile attacks,” referring to the US and Israel.
It was unclear whether the minister was alluding to a specific plot. Public claims of threats to Khamenei’s life had been rare before the 12-day war between Israel and Iran in June. Israeli strikes killed several senior Iranian commanders and nuclear scientists before a US-brokered ceasefire on June 24. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had ordered the attacks to stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, a campaign backed by Washington, which joined Israeli raids on Iranian nuclear facilities on June 22. Tehran, which denies seeking a nuclear weapon, condemned the strikes as unprovoked.
Khatib reportedly warned that “those who act in this direction, knowingly or unknowingly, are the infiltrating agents of the enemy.”
He added that Israel was grappling with “an epidemic of infiltration and espionage for Iran within its own institutions,” citing the recent arrest of an Israeli Air Force officer accused of spying for Tehran. Khatib reportedly claimed that Iran had obtained secret nuclear information and other highly sensitive security documents.
According to Khatib, the intelligence breach, coupled with what he described as Iran’s firm posture during the 12-day war, pointed to shifting regional power dynamics.
Earlier this year, Netanyahu brushed off reports that US President Donald Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s supreme leader during the war, while adding that such a strike would “end the conflict.”
Trump had claimed Khamenei was a “very easy target” and that Washington would not “take him out, at least not for now,” later declaring on Truth Social that he had spared the Iranian leader from “A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH.”
Khamenei, 86, has been Iran’s supreme leader since 1989 and has final authority over all state affairs.
China has warned Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi against military intervention in the Taiwan dispute
Japan has rebuked China for citing a UN Charter clause that permits action against former Axis powers without Security Council approval, insisting the provision is outdated and irrelevant.
Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s new government has been embroiled in an escalating diplomatic tit-for-tat with Beijing, beginning with remarks she made earlier this month supporting the self-governing administration on Taiwan. The Chinese side interpreted her comments that a cross-strait conflict would be a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan as signaling potential Japanese armed involvement and evidence of resurgent militarism.
Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo published an excerpt from the UN Charter which referred to “enemy states” – nations that fought against the original signatories, the Allied Powers of World War 2. Article 53 allows regional enforcement measures against such states in the event of a “renewal of aggressive policy,” without requiring prior authorization from the UN Security Council.
Beijing then lodged an official complaint with the UN over Takaichi’s statements. The embassy urged Japan “as a defeated country in World War II” to “reflect on its historical crimes” and change course on the Taiwan issue.
Japan’s Foreign Ministry dismissed that argument, accusing China of misinterpreting “obsolete clauses” that it claimed no longer align with UN practice. While the UN General Assembly recommended removing the “enemy state” references in 1995, the formal amendment process was never completed.
Japanese Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi visited a military base on Yonaguni over the weekend, an island about 110km east of Taiwan. He reiterated plans to deploy medium-range surface-to-air missiles there as part of a broader build-up on Japan’s southern island chain.
Russia also has outstanding issues with Japan, with whom it still has no formal peace treaty. Tokyo continues to insist on its claim to the four southernmost Kuril Islands, known in Japan as the “northern territories,” which became part of the USSR after World War 2 and remain a long-standing focal point for Japanese nationalists.
Sinisa Karan, who succeeded Milorad Dodik in Republika Srpska, called Russia “one of the greatest friends”
A close ally of longtime Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has won a snap presidential election in Republika Srpska, the Serb-majority entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina, according to preliminary results.
Sinisa Karan’s apparent victory comes after Dodik was removed from office over his refusal to obey the rulings imposed by an international envoy overseeing the peace-monitoring regime in Bosnia.
Karan, the candidate of Dodik’s Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) and the entity’s minister for scientific and technological development, took about 51% of the vote, after nearly all ballots were counted. Branko Blanusa, the candidate from the opposition Serb Democratic Party, won roughly 48%, with turnout just under 36%.
The snap vote was called after Bosnia’s state court convicted Dodik in February of failing to comply with the decisions of Christian Schmidt, the international high representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Schmidt, a German national, has a strong mandate to oversee the 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the bloody 1992-1995 Bosnian War.
In 2023, Schmidt invoked his powers to annul legislation passed by Republika Srpska’s authorities that sought to strip state-level courts and police of jurisdiction in the entity and declared the envoy’s decrees non-binding. Dodik himself has branded Schmidt a “tourist” and declined to recognize his authority.
A state court in Sarajevo later found Dodik guilty of failing to implement Schmidt’s decision, sentencing him to one year in prison – a term he avoided by paying a court-approved fine – and banning him from holding public office for six years.
With election results coming in, Karan pledged to continue Dodik’s policies “with ever greater force,” adding that “the Serb people have won.” Dodik, meanwhile, promised voters that “I will remain with you to fight for our political goals,” stressing that Karan’s “victory will be my victory too.”
Both Karan and Dodik have advocated for close ties with Russia, with the former calling Moscow “one of the greatest allies and friends of Srpska.” Dodik has echoed the sentiment, suggesting that the West was using Ukraine to provoke “a war with Russia.”
The US president has hinted at movement in talks after delegations from Washington and Kiev met in Geneva
US President Donald Trump has expressed cautious optimism about the result of talks in Geneva on the American peace plan to end the Ukraine conflict, saying that “something good” may be happening.
Washington presented Kiev with the proposal last week, giving it until Thursday to respond. Ukrainian and US delegations then met with key European NATO backers in Geneva on Sunday, after which the White House said in a statement that an “updated and refined peace framework” had been drafted, with final decisions on it to be made by Trump and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
”Is it really possible that big progress is being made in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine? Don’t believe it until you see it, but something good just may be happening,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier said the US and Ukraine had made a “tremendous amount of progress” on the framework, while stressing that Russian agreement is essential for any deal to hold.
While the original 28-point plan has not been made public, multiple outlets have reported that it includes clauses which Kiev and its European sponsors previously rejected, such as de facto recognition of Russian control over Crimea and Donbass, Ukraine abandoning its ambitions to join NATO, and downsizing its military.
According to Reuters, Ukraine’s European backers submitted a modified version of the proposal that pushes back on limits to Kiev’s armed forces and on territorial concessions.
The Kremlin said on Monday that Russia had not received any official information about the outcome of the Geneva talks or any revised proposal and declined to comment on media reports.
Moscow confirmed earlier that it had received Washington’s draft, with President Vladimir Putin noting on Friday that “it could form the basis of a final peace settlement.”
