On the eve of peace talks, Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war with one of the biggest drone battles of their conflict, a Russian highway bridge blown up over a passenger train and an ambitious attack on nuclear-capable bombers deep in Siberia.Ukraine said it destroyed Russian bombers worth billions of dollars in a ‘large-scale’ drone assault on enemy soil.In a spectacular claim, Ukraine said it damaged $7bn worth of Russian aircraft parked at four airbases thousands of kilometres away, with unverified video footage showing aircraft engulfed in flames and black smoke.A source in the Ukrainian security services said the drones were concealed in the ceilings of shipping containers which were opened up to release them for the assault.A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said.Ukraine did not tell the Trump administration about the attack in advance.After days of uncertainty over whether or not Ukraine would even attend, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Defence Minister Rustem Umerov would sit down with Russian officials at the second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul Monday.The first round of the talks more than a week ago yielded the biggest prisoner exchange of the war – but no sense of any consensus on how to halt the fighting.Amid talk of peace, though, there was much war.At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board. No one has yet claimed responsibility.Russia's Defence Ministry acknowledged on the Telegram messaging app that Ukraine had launched drone strikes against Russian military airfields across five regions Sunday.Russia launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's air force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the air force said.Russia said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and open source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450 sqkm of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months.The United States says over 1.2mn people have been killed and injured in the war since 2022.Russia currently controls a little under one fifth of Ukraine, or about 113,100 sqkm, about the same size as the US state of Ohio.
