MOSCOW, June 15 — Russia fired a barrage of missiles at several major Ukrainian cities, setting Kyiv’s historic Dormition Cathedral on fire and killing eleven, while Ukraine strikes claimed three lives in a city south of Moscow.

AFP journalists across Kyiv witnessed residents running through the streets seeking shelter throughout the night as projectiles were intercepted in the sky and glowing debris fell across the city.

In response to the assault Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for more pressure on Moscow from G7 leaders, who were gathering at a summit in France set to be dominated by the US-Iranian deal to end the Middle East war.

Five rescue workers were killed during firefighting operations in northeast Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Monday.

The violence killed another five people and wounded 25 in the capital as fire broke out on the grounds of the UNESCO world heritage site Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra and the roof of the Dormition Cathedral was on fire.

One more person was killed in the frontline southeastern city of Kherson.

The Russian army said the Lavra was hit by an outdated US Patriot air defence missile.

Ukraine’s air force said Moscow had launched 70 missiles and 611 drones, mainly targeting the capital, adding that Ukrainian air defence units had downed 50 missiles and 582 drones.

Russia’s military said it had carried out a “massive strike” on Ukrainian military sites in the capital Kyiv, as well as Kharkiv and Dnipro regions.

More than a dozen fire trucks surrounded the cathedral in Kyiv, with firefighters working tirelessly to extinguish the blaze from the inside and from aerial platforms, an AFP journalist saw.

A gaping hole could be seen on one side of the church, with flames visible from the roof which has been partially destroyed.

The fire had been put out by the morning, Zelensky said.

“This is one of Russia’s most serious crimes against Christian culture to date,” he said.

He called for G7 leaders, meeting for a summit in France, to give a “decisive and substantive” response to the attacks: “more pressure on the aggressor and more support for Ukraine’s air defence, especially anti-ballistic capabilities.”

‘Against Christianity’

A building in the capital’s Mystetsky Arsenal National Art and Museum Complex also caught fire, according to Ukraine’s emergency service.

Russian attacks damaged several buildings in the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra complex in January, the Ministry of Culture reported at the time.

The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, a monastery with emblematic golden domes, had made headlines in recent years after the expulsion of its monks, who were accused of having ties with Moscow.

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine officially broke away from Russia in 2022 and two years later the Ukrainian government went so far as to ban the Ukraine branch of the Orthodox Church linked to Moscow.

Institutionally, the Russian Orthodox Church has stood full-square behind President Vladimir Putin since he launched Russia’s offensive on Ukraine in 2022.

Head of the local military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, condemned the “direct strike” on the site.

Kyiv’s Metropolitan Epiphanius also denounced the attack as a “crime against humanity, history and Christianity.”

‘Bring about peace’ 

The major city of Kharkiv, in the northeast, also came under missile attack.

“Five State Emergency Service rescuers were killed during firefighting operations as a result of a repeated Russian strike,” Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said on Telegram. At least nine people were also injured.

Two people were injured in the Dnipropetrovsk region, and three were wounded in the Sumy region, local authorities said.

A Ukrainian drone strike killed three people and wounded three others in the Russian city of Tula, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of Moscow, the regional governor Dmitry Milyaev said on Monday.

Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin both called their US counterpart Donald Trump on Sunday to discuss the conflict in Ukraine.

Zelensky said on X that he had “discussed things that could help bring about peace now,” while his adviser Dmytro Lytvyn told the press he was pleased with a “quite substantive conversation about everything” between the leaders.

The Kremlin, for its part, said that the conversation between Putin and Trump focused on peace negotiations with the United States and Iran.

Kremlin adviser Yury Ushakov told the press that “US presidential special representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who are currently closely involved in Iranian affairs, will return to Russia soon”.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has turned into Europe’s worst conflict since World War II, with thousands of civilians and hundreds of thousands of troops killed.

Amid near-daily pummelling of its cities by Russian drones and missiles, Ukraine has in recent weeks stepped up its own aerial attacks, which it says mostly target Russia’s oil infrastructure to sap its profits that fund the war. — AFP

President Xi Jinping hailed China and Russia’s “unyielding” ties in talks with Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, as the pair met to underscore their alliance days after Donald Trump’s own visit to Beijing.

The two countries’ ties have deepened since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, as Russia has become increasingly dependent on China, its main oil customer.

Putin was received by Xi outside Beijing’s opulent Great Hall of the People in much the same fashion as Trump last week, complete with chanting children and military fanfare.

But the language was much warmer, with Xi telling the Russian leader Beijing and Moscow have “continuously deepened our political mutual trust and strategic coordination with a resilience that remains unyielding”, according to Chinese state media.

Opening talks, both were quick to laud their countries’ special ties as they extended their treaty of “friendly cooperation”.

Putin, quoting a Chinese phrase, told Xi: “A day apart feels like three autumns”, adding that relations had reached an “unprecedentedly high level” despite “unfavourable external factors”, Russian media footage showed.

In an apparent swipe at the United States, Xi warned of “unilateral and hegemonic countercurrents running rampant” in the world.

In contrast to Trump’s visit last week, which yielded little in the way of immediate concrete announcements, Putin and Xi signed a slew of agreements on Wednesday on trade, media and energy.

The two leaders later had talks over tea, which the Kremlin had previously said would be reserved for “the most important issues” such as Ukraine, Iran and relations with the US.

That session lasted around 1.5 hours before Putin headed to the airport, according to Russian media.

Fossil fuel push

Beneath the camaraderie, Putin is now perceived by many to be the junior partner in the relationship.

The Russian leader has been weakened over four years of the Ukraine conflict, with his country’s economy shrinking in the first quarter of the year as factors such as wartime spending, labour shortages and sanctions take their toll.

Analysts believed Putin would use his visit to push for progress on the “Power of Siberia 2”, a major natural gas pipeline running from Russia to China through Mongolia.

But Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian media Wednesday that while the two sides had reached a “basic understanding” — including on “the route and how it will be built” — there was no “clear timeline”, and “there are still some details to be worked out”.

The US-Israeli war on Iran has hampered crude and gas flows from the Middle East, giving an opportunity for Putin to offer Russian energy sources as an alternative.

“Russia and China are actively cooperating in the energy sector… We are, of course, ready to continue reliably supplying all these types of fuel to the rapidly growing Chinese market,” Putin said Wednesday.

His priorities may differ from China’s, which wants the Middle East conflict concluded as soon as possible.

Underlining that, Xi told Putin on Wednesday that “a comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency, resuming hostilities is even more inadvisable and maintaining negotiations is particularly important”.

‘Sovereign foreign policy’

Xi has played host to a series of world leaders as an increasingly unpredictable United States under Trump has pushed many to shore up alliances with Beijing.

Many have urged him to use his influence with Russia and Iran to help bring an end to the respective conflicts there.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had asked Trump to discuss ending the war during his meetings with Xi last week.

The pair did talk about the issue, but the US president left China without a breakthrough.

Beijing has regularly called for talks to end the war in Ukraine, but has never condemned Russia for sending in troops — presenting itself instead as a neutral party.

The two leaders talked about Ukraine, Chinese state media said after the visit had ended, without giving further details.

On Wednesday Putin said that Russia and China were “committed to an independent and sovereign foreign policy”.

In a joint statement released by the Kremlin, Russia said it “positively assesses the objective and unbiased position of the Chinese side regarding the situation in Ukraine and welcomes China’s aspiration to play a constructive role”.

WASHINGTON, June 13 — Little is known about what President Donald Trump hopes to achieve at next week’s G7 summit in Evian, France, beyond one certainty: the US president is likely to set the tone – and perhaps the agenda.

Much may depend on the outcome of peace talks involving Iran, which appeared to be gaining momentum on Friday.

“It is not possible to ‘manage Trump’ the way it has been possible during his first term,” Liana Fix, an associate fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, told AFP ahead of the summit.

The gathering will bring Trump face-to-face with the leaders of France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Most of those leaders have at some point been targets of Trump’s trade threats, diplomatic pressure or public criticism, with the notable exception of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whom he is known to admire.

‘Expect the worst’

Neither Trump’s declining approval ratings nor the US Supreme Court’s decision to strike down his blanket tariffs is expected to soften his approach towards allies.

European leaders, in particular, have learned through disputes over Greenland, trade and the Iran conflict “to hope for the best but to expect the worst”, Fix said.

The US has also informed European partners of plans to significantly reduce the number of aircraft and warships committed to Nato operations in Europe, according to a New York Times report.

“I don’t think you’re going to see a weakened president,” Jackson James, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the US, told AFP.

“I think he’s going to go over there and do what he always does, which is just try to bully his way through these very, very complicated issues and try to get the American agenda, as he sees it, fulfilled.”

Trump “says he doesn’t like these multilateral meetings”, but “cannot bear for an assembly of world leaders to meet and he not being there”, said Victor Cha of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“So he shows up at these things and he leaves early,” Cha said, referring to Trump’s behaviour at previous summits.

Versailles charm offensive

French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly hoping to persuade Trump to stay for a dinner at Versailles on Wednesday evening, appealing to the US leader’s fondness for grandeur and ceremony.

France has already adjusted the summit dates so they do not clash with Trump’s 80th birthday celebrations or a mixed martial arts event he is due to host at the White House.

Some analysts also see the absence of South Africa from the summit guest list as a gesture towards Washington.

Paris has denied any pressure to withdraw an invitation to South Africa, which Trump has repeatedly accused – without evidence – of discriminating against its white population.

Analysts say one topic likely to attract Trump’s attention is trade relations with China.

Ukraine dynamics shift

The balance of power has also evolved on the issue of Ukraine, where Europe is no longer viewed as being as dependent on Washington as it was a year ago.

In 2025, “Europeans just sort of agreed that they had to bend the knee to Trump because of Ukraine” and its need for US military support, said Max Bergmann, a Europe expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“But now we’re just in a different dynamic where Ukraine is not as dependent on the United States.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been invited to participate in discussions in Evian, setting the stage for another potentially high-stakes encounter with Trump. — AFP

KYIV, June 11 — Robert “Madyar” Brovdi’s underground command post features walls of blinking screens playing footage of Ukrainian drones attacking Russian troops, frontline maps, and scoreboards of destroyed targets.

The drone attacks that the grey-bearded 50-year-old oversees from the bunker—in a secret location in Ukraine—are recorded and analysed, for him to develop strategies to stop the Russian invasion.

The secretive and unlikely head of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces, whose recent strikes have embarrassed the Kremlin, grumbles that he does not like interviews, but his face lights up when the conversation turns to maths and war.

“Numbers are the foundation of war. Everything starts there. Anyone who ignores this cannot play this game. They will be followers rather than leaders,” Brovdi told AFP.

Better known by his call-sign of Madyar, Brovdi was a wealthy grain trader with no military background when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

He volunteered to fight, then set up his own drone unit—“Madyar’s Birds”—well before many had realised the full importance of the technology, quickly earning plaudits inside the military.

Zelensky appointed him in June 2025 to command the army’s overall unmanned systems forces.

His path reflects how Ukraine has leveraged innovation to fight Russia’s more conventionally powerful army.

“I simply brought my accounting system with me to the war. We took the names of grain varieties from the table and entered the types of drones and ammunition there,” he told AFP.

Brovdi has masterminded some of the biggest attacks on Russia, with long-range drone strikes on oil and military facilities chipping away at Vladimir Putin’s war chest.

These attacks have made Madyar a priority target for Russia, he says, forcing him into secret underground bunkers.

On a visit to one site, AFP journalists had to follow strict protocols, including a ride in a car with blacked-out windows.

Dangerous, committed

Ukrainian artwork and drone carcasses provide an eclectic decor to the interior of Brovdi’s underground bunker, from where he commands a unified force of some of Ukraine’s highest-ranking drone units.

He receives a stream of calls in his windowless office, stepping in and out to speak to teams hunched over screens in a command post.

Last week his forces hit Saint Petersburg, just as Putin’s flagship economic summit commenced in the city.

Other long-range strikes have sparked fires that have burned for days at oil facilities hundreds of kilometres behind the front line.

The strikes have drawn grudging recognition from Russian military analysts.

“Madyar is a dangerous, committed, and professional enemy,” Andrey Medvedev, a blogger and Russian-state news reporter wrote last year.

Another, the Rybar Telegram channel, credited Madyar with creating “the most effective formation of its kind” within the Ukrainian army.

His unmanned systems forces claim responsibility for 30 to 35 percent of all confirmed destroyed Russian targets, even though they make up just two percent of the Ukrainian army.

His strategy to win the war is a bet on numbers: kill more Russians than Moscow can mobilise.

To improve the effectiveness of strikes, Madyar relies on data from the videos streaming into his command post.

They show Ukrainian drones chasing Russian forces near the front, hunting them as they flee through fields and forests until the feed cuts on impact.

Some videos make it onto Brovdi’s social media accounts—where he is followed by hundreds of thousands—with cartoony music and mocking captions.

Inside Ukraine, some have found the footage mocking the dead morally questionable, with legal experts suggesting it could qualify as a war crime under the Geneva Convention.

•    ‘Revenge’ -

He is widely popular in Ukraine, especially on social media, and his drone forces are vaunted by President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Next to the screens of combat videos in Madyar’s bunker is artwork from renowned Ukrainian painters, including a still life of flowers by Maria Prymachenko.

“Art allows us to ground ourselves and take our minds off the circumstances that have brought us here,” Madyar told AFP.

Before the war, he ran an art foundation in his native region of Transcarpathia in western Ukraine.

The works give him a feeling of home, where he can no longer go for security reasons.

“I can’t lay my eyes on my favourite place at home, on some elements of my house, a vase, a view from my window,” he said.

His wife enlisted in the army shortly after him, and heads his unit’s troop support service.

Apart from her, only a small circle knows where he will be even two hours ahead.

The father of two says his force’s success is compensation for the personal sacrifices.

“That momentary satisfaction, when you have taken revenge by taking the remote control into your own hands and seen the results of your work with your own eyes.” — AFP