Ukraine-Russia war latest: Moscow suspends shipping in Sea of Azov trading route after Ukrainian drone strikes

How will it ever end? This has been one of the questions hanging over the war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin launched his all-out invasion, aimed at taking Kyiv and subjugating the entire nation, in February 2022.

Sir Bill Browder has a plausible answer. In an exclusive interview with The Independent’s Sam Kiley on the World of Trouble podcast, President Putin’s great enemy said: “I don’t believe you are ever going to have Putin signing a peace treaty. I don’t think the war is ever going to end officially, but I can imagine it is going to grind down to a low level, potentially even totally quiet front, in the same way as North and South Korea did.”

At least three people were killed and five injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow Region, governor Andrei Vorobyov said this morning.

Air defence units downed 81 drones ‌over ​the ‌region overnight, he ⁠added.

France will summon the Russian ambassador to Paris in the coming days over an alleged cyberhacking campaign conducted by Russia against European countries including France, foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Monday.

“We are ⁠going to publicly condemn a widespread cyber campaign carried out by Russia ‌against at ​least ‌10 ⁠European countries,” Barrot ⁠told BFM TV.

Germany is funding 50,000 attack drones for Ukraine, a source familiar with the matter said, in an order ⁠that marks one of the biggest known purchases of drones for Kyiv by a Western government.

The ​attack ⁠drone order involves Shrike first-person-view (FPV) drones made by major Ukrainian manufacturer SkyFall and equipped with software from US defence technology firm Auterion designed ⁠to autonomously track and hit moving targets in the final phase of the ​flight.

Auterion CEO Lorenz Meier confirmed the size of the contract, adding that it was worth about €90m (£76.6m) and was funded by a European country.

A version called Shrike 10-F produced by SkyFall with UK company Skycutter recently topped the leaderboard in the first round of a Pentagon-run competition as part of a $1.1 billion initiative to buy hundreds of thousands of one-way attack drones.

Auterion said its software was being used in several entries in the competition.

Meier said Auterion was helping ​to supply a total of 100,000 drones for Ukraine this year ‌in partnership with different hardware makers, ⁠funded by several Western governments.

Meier told Reuters some of the drones had already been delivered to Ukraine’s government with the rest due for dispatch this year.

SkyFall confirmed Germany’s involvement, but said the company could not comment on the details of the purchase.

Germany’s defence ministry declined to comment, citing operational security.

Russia’s Federal ⁠Security Service (FSB) said on Monday ⁠that ​it ⁠had ⁠foiled ​an attempted series ⁠of ‌large-scale Ukrainian attacks ‌using drones ‌against military ⁠infrastructure facilities, defence industry enterprises, and military personnel, ‌Interfax ​reported.

EU countries have no agreement yet on their broad 21st package of sanctions against Russia, but might agree on Monday to add 250 Russian individuals and entities to their sanctions list, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.

“We are hoping that ‌we get 250 ‌listings agreed… this is the biggest number ⁠of listings we have done so far,” Kallas said before a meeting of EU foreign affairs ‌ministers in Brussels.

“When ​it comes ‌to the ⁠21st package, there ⁠are still some open questions,” ‌she ​added.

Ukraine’s increasing attacks on Russian oil infrastructure has forced the officials to suspend their operations.

Robert Brovdi, Ukraine’s drone forces chief said his units had hit 10 tankers and four ferries on Saturday to Sunday overnight, as well as a major oil refinery in the city of Syzran. There had been several strikes on electricity substations in occupied Crimea, he added.

A Ukrainian drone struck a tanker as it was entering the Azov-Black Sea Canal, Yury Slyusar, governor of Russia’s Rostov region, said on Sunday.

The fire caused by the ⁠attack has ​been brought ⁠under control and there was no risk of ⁠an oil spill because ​the ⁠vessel was empty, ‌Slyusar said on messaging app Telegram, adding that there were ‌no casualties.

The Ukrainian military ‌has recently attacked more than 40 Russian tankers in the ⁠Sea of Azov as part of what Ukraine describes as a campaign aimed at disrupting fuel supplies to Russian forces and isolating Moscow-occupied Crimea.

At least three people were killed and five injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on the Moscow Region, governor Andrei Vorobyov said this morning.

Air defence units downed 81 drones ‌over ​the ‌region overnight, he ⁠added.

Russia’s banned spies, which faced the international wrath in their deployed countries, have started turning up in Japan and using their technology, according to a report by The New York Times.

The spies kicked out of the western nations following the full-scale invasion launched by Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Japan’s weak espionage laws and sought-after technology industry has made it lucrative for Russia to operate a part of its war effort through the country.

At least 90 per cent of Russian missiles and drones include Japanese components, said the Ukrainian government in its new estimates.

Russia is also operating its 20th Directorate, a military intelligence unit, which has unit officers pretending to be diplomats or business people holding important positions as they purchase or steal combat technology to introduce it to Russia, said former and serving members of five Western intelligence agencies, the report added.