Emergency services personnel work to extinguish a fire following a Russian drone attack on a gas pipeline in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.
| Photo Credit: AP
More than 100 Russian drones targeted areas of Ukraine on Wednesday (May 13, 2026), President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, hours after another barrage of missiles killed at least eight people.
“Russia continues its strikes and is doing so brazenly deliberately targeting our railway infrastructure and civilian sites in our cities,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in a post on X.
The overnight strikes targeted Ukraine’s residential and railway infrastructure in the central Dnipro and northeastern Kharkiv regions, port infrastructure in the southern Odesa region, and energy facilities in the central Poltava region, according to Mr. Zelenskyy. On Tuesday (May 12, 2026), he said, 14 regions came under attack throughout the day.
“It is important to support Ukraine and not remain silent about Russia’s war. Every time the war disappears from the top of the news, it encourages Russia to become even more savage,” Mr. Zelenskyy said, in an apparent reference to world attention being gripped by the Iran war.
Moscow’s attacks on its neighbour are unrelenting, even as Ukraine is emboldened by its recent military accomplishments and as U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin claim without providing evidence that the war could be approaching the end.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin talk of a possible end to the war. Mr. Trump said on Tuesday (May 12, 2026) that he believes Moscow and Kyiv will soon reach a deal to end fighting.
“The end of the war in Ukraine, I really think, is getting very close,” Mr. Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for a summit in Beijing. “Believe it or not, it’s getting closer.” Mr. Putin said in a speech last weekend that his invasion of Ukraine is possibly “coming to an end.”
Neither leader elaborated on what persuaded them about the possibility of peace in Europe’s longest conflict since World War II. U.S.-led diplomatic efforts over the past year to end the war have fizzled after making no progress on key issues, such as whether Russia gets to keep Ukrainian land and what can be done to deter Russia from invading again.
Meanwhile, European governments are assessing the merits of opening talks with Mr. Putin. Europe has for years tried to isolate the Russian leader and punish his country with international sanctions.
War appears to shift in Ukraine’s favour. The correlation of forces in the war has shifted in recent months. Ukraine has gone from pleading for international help with its defence to offering foreign countries expertise on how to counter attacks, thanks to its domestically developed drone technology.
Ukraine’s long-range drone and missile attacks have disrupted energy facilities and manufacturing deep inside Russia, with three Russian regions reporting strikes on Wednesday (May 13, 2026). The Russian Defence Ministry said that its air defences intercepted and destroyed 286 Ukrainian drones over Russian regions, the illegally annexed Crimea peninsula, the Azov Sea and the Black Sea.
On the 1,250-kilometre (780-mile) front line, the advance of Russia’s bigger and better-equipped army has been slowing every month since last October, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia’s spring offensive has floundered, with Russian forces recording a net loss of territory last month for the first time since 2024, the Washington-based think tank said.
“Not only are Ukrainian defensive lines holding, but Ukrainian forces have managed to contest the tactical initiative in several areas of the front line even as Russia continues to lose disproportionate amounts of manpower to achieve minimal gains,” the ISW said Tuesday (May 12, 2026).
Published – May 13, 2026 07:17 pm IST
