Russia and Ukraine continued to exchange air attacks on June 14, as indefinitely paused peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv appear to be overshadowed by developments on the battlefield.
A fresh wave of Ukrainian drone attacks inside Russian regions targeted Russia's key oil facility and a chemical plant, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv's deep strikes were in response to "Russia’s refusal to end this war."
"Ukraine is carrying out its plan of long-range sanctions against Russia," he wrote in an X post, as he shared videos of thick pillars of smoke purportedly rising from an oil facility in Russia's Yaroslavl region and the Azot chemical plant in the Tula region, one of the country's biggest suppliers of fertilizers.
While similar footage was posted across Russian and Ukrainian Telegram channels, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that a total of 249 aerial objects were shot down in various Russian regions overnight on June 14.
Separately, in the city of Oryol, south of Moscow, regional Governor Andrei Klychkov reported that a Ukrainian drone hit a high-rise apartment building, leaving one person dead and nine others injured.
The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said several drone attacks had been repelled but the capital's Zhukovsky airport had to be closed due to an air-raid alert and flights were also restricted at the city’s Domodedovo Airport.
Meanwhile, Russia continued to target Ukraine's railway, energy, and civilian infrastructure with strikes reported as damaging a train station, a post office, and residential buildings in the Kharkiv, Mykolayiv, and Dnipro regions.
The developments on the battlefield come a week after a rare public exhange between Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Amid the newly emerged military momentum, as Kyiv increased attacks on key Russian industrial sites in recent months, the Ukrainian president published an open letter urging the Kremlin to stop the war and suggesting a face-to-face meeting with his Russian counterpart.
Putin rejected the proposal to meet as "senseless," saying Zelenskyy's letter -- which among other things highlighted Ukraine's recent long-range strikes inside Russia -- was "rude" and calling for the country's military to "do the job."
As diplomatic efforts led by the administration of US President Donald Trump to end the war in Ukraine have stalled in recent months, Kyiv and Moscow remain far apart in their negotiating terms, with the Kremlin sticking to its hard-line stance and offering no compromise on control of Ukraine's key eastern region of Donetsk.
On June 14, which marks Trump's 80th birthday, Zelenskyy said he spoke with the US president, congratulated him, and discussed the latest developments on the front line as well as ways to bring peace closer.
The Kremlin reported that Putin also spoke with Trump on the same day.
