Russian Strikes Kill 12 Across Ukraine as UN Highlights Systematic POW Torture

Volodymyr Zelensky has mocked Vladimir Putin for his reliance on ally North Korea, saying Russia is no longer capable of waging its war on Ukraine alone.

The Ukrainian president said Russia used North Korean ballistic missiles in its strikes overnight, which killed six in Zaporizhzhia and another six in Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, according to local authorities.

There were also explosions in Kyiv overnight, with reports of at least one person wounded.

“For the first time in its history, Russia cannot wage war without reinforcements from North Korea,” Zelensky said earlier in his overnight address.

He also issued a warning to countries in Asia, saying North Korea will present a “greater danger” to Japan, South Korea and the Philippines as it gains military experience, correcting any shortcomings in the process.

Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person in Russia's Voronezh region overnight, while falling debris triggered fires at a Wildberries warehouse, Alexander Gusev, the regional governor, and the company said on Tuesday.

Death toll rises to six in Zaporizhzhia after Russian strikes

Russian attacks killed six people and wounded 20 in the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia early on Tuesday and also struck Kyiv, triggering fires in the capital, officials said, taking the death toll to 12 across Ukraine in the last 24 hours.

Zaporizhzhia regional governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian troops launched missiles and aerial bombs at the city.

Air raid alerts were sounded in both Zaporizhzhia and in Kyiv, where the capital's military administration said warehouses in a central district were ablaze. One person was reported injured.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko said medical personnel had been dispatched to a central district.

Elsewhere in Ukraine, local authorities reported another six people were killed and 16 wounded overnight in the regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk.

Latest pictures from Kyiv show emergency workers tackling fire

Air raid alerts were sounded in Kyiv, where the capital's military administration said warehouses in a central district were ablaze after Russian strikes.

Pictures showed emergency workers dousing fire at multiple places in Kyiv.

UN expert says 95% of Ukrainian POWs faced torture or ill-treatment

More than 95 per cent of Ukrainian prisoners of war interviewed by the UN reported experiencing torture or ill-treatment, while more than half reported sexual violence.

The UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, Claudia Fuentes Julio, said her office had documented widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment of both Ukrainian POWs and civilian detainees by the Russian authorities, including sexual violence.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the UN human rights office has documented the execution of 129 Ukrainian prisoners of war at the beginning of their captivity and the deaths of 48 in custody, linked to torture, denial of medical care and other inhumane detention conditions.

The UN also documented severe beatings, electric shocks, dog attacks and mock executions.

Fuentes Julio said the UN had documented torture and ill-treatment of Russian and third-country prisoners of war held by Ukraine, but on a “fundamentally different scale”, with about half of those interviewed reporting abuse during the initial stages of captivity.

Where have peace talks been left?

Peace talks between Russia and Ukraine have been on hold since February, when the United States shifted focus to its new war in the Middle East.

Moscow and Kyiv walked away from talks in Geneva no closer to a deal, as Ukraine suggested the US was unfairly demanding Kyiv alone make concessions to end the war.

Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said the last round of direct talks had been “difficult” and accused Russia of deliberately stalling, with the issue of territory still in dispute.

What does either side want?

Russia insists on its demands for Ukrainian territory and the withdrawal of forces from its borders.

Ukraine insists it needs clear security guarantees from allies to stop Russia reopening the conflict and says it cannot and will not give up territory sought by Russia.

The lands in the east include industry-heavy regions and Ukraine’s belt of ‘fortress cities’ to protect against invasion.

Will talks start again?

Volodymyr Zelensky said late in April that he was keen to meet with Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, in an effort to restart negotiations.

While Ukraine claimed a string of wins on the ground, Zelensky warned that US attention on the war with Iran was soaking up resources and leaving Ukraine with critical shortages of air defences.

But the Kremlin said Putin would only meet Zelensky in Moscow for the purpose of finalising agreements on the conflict.

Turkey said it was making efforts to restart talks and bring together the leaders, after hosting delegations in July 2025.

Russia uses North Korean missiles in deadly overnight strikes, Zelensky says

A missile strike damaged an infectious diseases hospital in Kyiv during overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine, president Volodymyr Zelensky said, describing the strikes as calculated to inflict “maximum damage” on civilian infrastructure.

Zelensky said six people were killed and 19 wounded in strikes on the city of Zaporizhzhia, while more than 120 drones were used in attacks across Ukraine.

He said the city was targeted with North Korean ballistic missiles, Zircon missiles and guided aerial bombs, describing it as an attack “calculated to inflict maximum damage” on civilian infrastructure.

“In Kyiv, a missile strike damaged an infectious diseases hospital building and businesses. Drone terror continues virtually every day in our frontline communities,” he said.

“Every step Russia takes – increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilisation – all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation,” he added.

More than 300 places of detention identified in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory, official says

Oleg Gushin of the Ukrainian government's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said Ukrainian prisoners were “killed and tortured” in detention during the UN Security Council meeting.

He said Kyiv had identified “more than 300 places of detention” in Russia and occupied Ukrainian territory and that while more than 9,000 Ukrainians had been returned through exchanges, “thousands” remained in Russian captivity.

First-hand testimonies were heard from former prisoners of war held by Russia.

A Ukrainian with a Cuban father, he said guards targeted him particularly because of his Latino name, accusing him of being "a mercenary and an American spy."

Crimean Tatar activist Leniie Umerova, released in a prisoner exchange in 2024, said she was detained while trying to visit her seriously ill father in Crimea.

She described being moved through “seven detention facilities” in what she called “a carousel of repression” and accused Russia of using torture against Ukrainians in captivity.

Former Ukrainian detainees speak of systematic torture and sexual abuse in Russian prisons

Former Ukrainian detainees and Ukrainian officials accused Russia on Monday of systematically torturing prisoners of war and civilian detainees, holding captives incommunicado and subjecting them to beatings, electric shocks and sexual abuse, with thousands still in captivity.

Russia rejected the allegations made at an informal UN Security Council meeting, with its deputy UN representative Maria Zabolotskaya calling it “a disinformation campaign” and alleging that Russian prisoners in Ukraine were subjected to “torture and degradation and moral and physical abuse.”

Khuan Alberto Levya Garsiya, still an active member of the Ukrainian military, said his Russian captors subjected him to every imaginable form of torture during 1,183 days in captivity.

"Yes ... I was tortured," he told reporters after the UN meeting. "Anything you can think of that can be done hurtful, humiliating to a man, unwillingly. Anything that comes to your mind, not only verbal, physical abuse, daily beatings, electrocution, excessive, excessive exercises in freezing cold when it's minus degrees ... sexual abuse. Everything that can be applied to a person into making a person break mentally. It was all applied to me and most of my comrades."

Garsiya said he was lucky to survive but two of his friends were beaten to death in detention centres in the Donetsk region.

Prisoners were held in “overcrowded barracks without adequate conditions,” where “almost all POWs were ill with dysentery” and many were starving, he told the UN meeting.

Ukraine's chargé d'affaires Volodymyr Pavlichenko called for greater international pressure and accountability for Russia's treatment of prisoners.

Ukrainian central bank issues biggest currency liberalisation since 2022 invasion

Ukraine's central bank has announced the country’s biggest currency liberalisation measures since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 in an effort to boost business and investor confidence.

The regulations, issued late in the evening on Monday, provide significant increases in allowances in purchases of foreign currency and withdrawals from Ukrainian bank accounts.

The monthly amount permitted for purchasing non-cash currency and investments, bank metals and foreign securities was increased fourfold from 50,000 to 200,000 Ukrainian hryvnias ($4,450).

The daily limit for cash withdrawals from accounts in Ukraine and abroad was doubled to 200,000 hryvnias.

And the monthly limit for transactions from cards denominated in hryvnias was raised to 200,000 hryvnias.

"The package for easing currency restrictions includes a strong component that makes life easier for Ukrainians abroad and expands opportunities for citizens living in Ukraine," the central bank said in a statement.

The bank said the measures "will not create risks for the stability of the currency market, given the established conditions and careful analysis of each individual measure".

The measures, it said, had "already been taken into account in the NBU's updated macroeconomic forecast, which predicts that international reserves will grow to nearly $70bn by 2026".

Russia says it struck military factories and warehouses in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia

Russia's defence ministry said on Tuesday that its forces had carried out overnight strikes on defence industry facilities and transport and logistics centres in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia.

Ukrainian officials said the attacks had killed five people and injured 20 in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia and had triggered fires in Kyiv, the capital.

Both sides deny deliberately targeting civilians.

The Russian defence ministry said it had also intercepted or destroyed 396 Ukrainian drones over 15 regions overnight.

Australia uncovers network supplying missile and fighter jet parts to Russia

Austria's intelligence agency has uncovered an international network circumventing EU sanctions against Russia's cruise missile and fighter jet programmes, the country's interior ministry said.

“It is unacceptable that highly precise European technology is being channelled into the production of cruise missiles and air defence systems. We will continue to take decisive action, with full international cooperation, against those actors who attempt to circumvent legal prohibitions to support the Russian arms industry,” Austrian state secretary Jorg Leichtfried said.

The ministry said an Australian shell company had been established to export sanctioned defence equipment to Russia for use in cruise missiles and fighter jets.