Russian rockets kill 4 in Ukrainian metropolis as Kyiv claims it broken key bridge

A Russian rocket assault focused the northeastern Ukrainian metropolis of Sumy on Tuesday (June 3, 2025), killing at the very least 4 individuals and wounding 25, officers mentioned. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the assault, saying it underscored that Moscow has no intentions of halting the 3-year-old battle.

The assault got here a day after direct peace talks in Istanbul made no progress in ending the preventing. Local authorities mentioned the barrage of rockets struck condominium buildings and a medical facility within the centre of Sumy.

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Secret Service mentioned they struck inside Russia once more, two days after a spectacular Ukrainian drone attack on air bases deep inside the country.

An important bridge to Crimea

The Ukrainian Security Service, recognized by its acronym SBU, claimed it broken the foundations of the Kerch Bridge linking Russia and illegally annexed Crimea — a key artery for Russian army provides within the battle.

The SBU mentioned it detonated 1,100 kilograms (2,400 kilos) of explosives on the seabed in a single day, in an operation that took a number of months to arrange. It was the third Ukrainian strike on the bridge since Russia’s invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, the SBU mentioned.

“The bridge is now successfully in an emergency situation,” the SBU claimed.

The company mentioned no civilians have been killed or injured within the operation. It was not doable to independently affirm these claims.

Traffic throughout the Kerch Bridge was halted for 3 hours early Tuesday (June 3, 2025), but it surely reopened at 9 a.m., official Russian social media channels mentioned. It closed for a second time at 3:20 p.m. and reopened after two and a half hours.

President Zelenskyy appeals for stress on Moscow

The Ukrainian President referred to as the assault on Sumy a “fully deliberate” strike on civilians.

“That’s all it’s worthwhile to learn about Russia’s want to finish this battle,” the Ukrainian President wrote on social media.

President Zelenskyy appealed for world stress and “decisive action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who holds power”. Without it, he mentioned, Russian President Vladimir Putin “will not agree even to a ceasefire”.

The Russia-Ukraine war has killed greater than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, in response to the United Nations, in addition to tens of hundreds of troopers on each side alongside the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) entrance line the place the preventing grinds on regardless of U.S.-led efforts to dealer a peace deal.

A shocking Ukrainian drone assault

Though Russia has an even bigger Army and extra financial sources than Ukraine, the Ukrainian drone assault over the weekend broken or destroyed greater than 40 warplanes at air bases deep inside Russia, Ukrainian officers mentioned, touting it as a critical blow to the Kremlin’s strategic arsenal and army status.

The Russian Defence Ministry acknowledged that the Ukrainian assault set a number of planes ablaze at two air bases, however mentioned the army repelled tried assaults on three different air bases.

Both President Zelenskyy and President Putin have been keen to indicate U.S. President Donald Trump that they share his ambition to finish the preventing — and keep away from doable punitive measures from Washington. Ukraine has accepted a U.S.-proposed ceasefire, however the Kremlin successfully rejected it. Mr. Putin has made it clear that any peace settlement must be on his phrases.

Delegations from the warring sides agreed Monday (June 2, 2025), to swap useless and wounded troops, however their situations for ending the battle remained far aside.

Dmitry Medvedev, a former Russian President who now serves as deputy head of the nation’s Security Council, chaired by Mr. Putin, indicated on Tuesday (June 3, 2025) that there could be no let-up in Russia’s invasion.

“The Istanbul talks aren’t for hanging a compromise peace on another person’s delusional phrases however for making certain our swift victory and the whole destruction” of Ukraine’s Government, he mentioned.

In an obvious touch upon the most recent Ukrainian strikes, he declared that “retribution is inevitable.”

A Putin-Zelenskyy-Trump assembly is unlikely anytime quickly, Moscow says. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded to strategies {that a} face-to-face assembly between Mr. Putin, Mr. Trump, and Mr. Zelenskyy might break the impasse, saying the likelihood was “unlikely in the near future”.

Meanwhile, a senior Ukrainian delegation led by First Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko has traveled to Washington for talks about defence, sanctions, and postwar restoration, mentioned Andrii Yermak, the Head of Ukraine’s Presidential Office.

The delegation will meet with representatives from each main U.S. political events, in addition to with advisers to Trump, Mr. Yermak added.

Ukrainians in Kyiv welcomed the strikes on Russian air bases, however have been gloomy about prospects for a peace settlement.

“Russia has invested too many sources on this battle to only … cease for nothing,” mentioned Ukrainian Diplomat, Oleh Nikolenko, 43.

His spouse, Anastasia Nikolenko, a 38-year-old designer, mentioned diplomacy can not cease the preventing. “We want to indicate by power, by bodily power, that we can’t be defeated,” she mentioned.

Russia not too long ago expanded its assaults on Sumy and the Kharkiv area following President Putin’s promise to create a buffer zone alongside the border which may forestall long-range Ukrainian assaults from hitting Russian soil. Sumy, about 25 kilometres (15 miles) from the border, had a prewar inhabitants of round 250,000.

The Russian Defence Ministry claimed its troops had taken the Ukrainian village of Andriivka, near the border within the Sumy area. Ukraine made no speedy touch upon the declare, which couldn’t be independently verified.

Russia additionally fired rocket artillery at Chystovodivka village within the Kharkiv area, killing two individuals and injuring three others, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov mentioned.