Zelensky orders 40-day offensive, urges Putin to 'take a step towards peace'

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has told Vladimir Putin to “get out of Ukraine” and “take that step toward peace” after approving a 40-day offensive to “influence” Russia to end the war.

In a post on X Zelensky wrote: “Russia must get out of Ukraine with its war – we want no war.

“Ukraine has put forward proposals to our key partners, and Putin’s friends have also heard from us that a meeting is possible and that ending this war is possible. Russia must now take that step toward peace.”

Zelensky said he made the decision of ordering a 40-day offensive after consulting the head of the Ukrainian security service.

It comes after he confirmed that Kyiv's forces had attacked two more Russian oil refineries in Ufa, 1,500km from the frontline, and an oil depot in the Krasnodar region, 300km from Ukraine, in the latest blow to the rival's infrastructure.

Meanwhile, France claimed on Thursday that its forces had intercepted a Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tanker, just days after the British Royal Marines stormed a ship in the English Channel.

Ukraine has reportedly struck a Russian military facility in the city of Volgograd during today's early hours.

Explosions were heard while a fire was seen in the city as authorities issued a missile threat alert for Volgograd, Russian independent outlet Astra reported, citing locals.

Astra said it geolocated footage filmed on Moskovskaya Street, approximately 6.5km from the facility, and assessed that the smoke appeared to be coming from the direction of the plant.

The outlet reported that the Ukrainian strike was carried out using Ukrainian-made long-range Flamingo cruise missiles.

Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said president Karol Nawrocki's decision to strip Volodymyr Zelensky of Poland's Order of the White Eagle was an inappropriate response to the recent diplomatic dispute.

Sikorski told TVN24 that Poland's reaction "was inappropriate, because it humiliated the president of Ukraine personally".Had he been consulted, he would have recommended a different response, such as renaming Jasionka Airport after victims of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army, the foreign minister said.

Sikorski also argued that Zelensky should have taken Poland's historical sensitivities into account when approving the name of a Ukrainian Special Operations Forces unit honoring the Heroes of the UPA.

"He should have thought: all right, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army fought against Soviet rule, but it also killed Poles," Sikorski said, suggesting that Ukraine could instead have honored "a specific hero who fought against Soviet occupation."

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia must get out of Ukraine as he outlined Ukraine’s core diplomatic priorities ahead of the upcoming Nato summit in Ankara.

Moscow must now take a step toward peace, the president emphasized.

He thanked everyone working with Ukraine to push Russia toward diplomacy, as well as those helping defend the country and protect human life.

“Ukrainian warriors prove the strength of Ukrainian precision every day. Ukraine’s long-range sanctions and medium-range sanctions are being fully implemented. These are our fair responses to Russia for this war — the war that Russia started and that Russia must end," he said.

“Russia must take this war out of Ukraine. We do not need war,” the Ukrainian leader added.

Russia strikes Zaporizhzhia

Ukraine launched a major nighttime attack on a dozen Russian regions, Russian-held Crimea and the surrounding seas, Moscow’s defence ministry said yesterday.

Russian air defenses intercepted 660 Ukrainian drones, the ministry said.

Initial damage reports from Russia after the overnight attack provided scant information. The defence ministry usually doesn’t say what was targeted in Ukraine’s drone attacks, nor does it detail any damage.

Russian independent online outlet Astra reported that a chemical plant and a hydroelectric plant in Novomoskovsk were attacked and caught fire.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reported that 47 Ukrainian drones were downed as they flew toward the Russian capital.

Former Russian defence minister Sergei Ivanov, once seen as a possible successor to president Vladimir Putin, has died at the age of 73.

Ivanov was a key member of the ⁠group known as the "siloviki," or "strongmen," who, like Putin, had risen through the ranks of the Soviet KGB security service and wielded huge influence after Putin took power at the turn of the millennium.

The Kremlin issued a brief statement, saying only: "Vladimir Putin expressed his deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sergei Ivanov on his passing."

Ivanov helped shape Russia's post-Soviet security state and oversaw the armed ⁠forces during the early years of Putin's presidency. He was defence ​minister ⁠during the second Chechen war, launched by Putin to crush a separatist insurgency in the Muslim region of Chechnya that tried to break away from Russia after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

A fluent English-speaker, ⁠Ivanov was a combative figure who regularly jousted with journalists at the Munich Security Conference and cast himself as a ​pragmatist ⁠seeking to move beyond Cold War divisions.

At the same ‌time, he consistently warned that Russia's security interests were being undermined, particularly by US missile defence plans and the erosion of arms control agreements.

A Russian drone strike killed two passengers aboard a minibus in Ukraine's southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region and one person in the border Sumy ⁠region, regional officials said.

Dnipropetrovsk ​regional ⁠governor Oleksandr Hanzha said ⁠two people died and 12 ​were injured, ⁠including two children, ‌in the strike in Nikopol. The town, on the opposite bank of ‌the Dnipro River from ‌the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, is a frequent target of Russian attacks.

In the ⁠Sumy region, which is under nearly constant Russian attack on the border, regional governor Oleh Hryhorov said a drone strike killed a man in a village outside the main regional centre, ‌also called Sumy.

In the ​southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, governor Mikhail Fedorov ‌said two ⁠people were injured in day-long ⁠Russian strikes, which also damaged the facades of ‌apartment buildings.

Russian-installed authorities of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol have imposed a state of emergency on the peninsula to deal with economic issues, they said on Friday.

Crimea has suspended tourist activities and children's summer camps until September citing both fuel shortages and security concerns, and fuel stations halted all fuel sales to individuals and businesses from June 21.

The shortages come as Kyiv scales up its attacks on Russian oil and energy infrastructure.