Ukraine Deepens Drone War, Turns to Europe as US Mediation Fades

President Volodymyr Zelensky used a Saturday meeting with his top security and government officials -- National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, First Vice Prime Minister and Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, and Kyrylo Budanov -- to set Ukraine's priorities as US mediation recedes. He named anti-ballistic air defense, bilateral documents to scale drone production and a "Drone Deal" with the EU, and fresh energy support as the focus for the coming weeks, and flagged unspecified "important negotiations." With Secretary of State Marco Rubio conceding stalled talks, Kyiv is consolidating its European partners; the same day, Zelensky warned that intelligence indicated Russia was "preparing a new massive attack."

Those drones are now Ukraine's principal lever against front-line stalemate. Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said AI-equipped drones were enforcing a "logistics lockdown" on Russian convoys, with BBC Verify confirming at least 14 strikes over the past week on food, fuel and ammunition moving toward Crimea. Overnight on 29-30 May, the Unmanned Systems Forces hit positions of Russia's 64th Separate Motor Rifle Brigade -- the unit implicated in the 2022 Bucha atrocities -- striking training grounds and a gas-storage facility 70 to 100 km behind the line; operators from the 414th "Magyar's Birds" Brigade and the 413th Raid Regiment logged 21 confirmed hits and an estimated 31 losses in the brigade, including nine killed.

The campaign reached deeper into Russia. Zelensky confirmed an SBU strike on the Armavir oil depot in Krasnodar Krai, about 500 km from the border, part of what he called Ukraine's "long-range sanctions" strategy; the Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) claimed its drones can now fly up to 3,500 km, putting Siberian targets such as Krasnoyarsk within reach. The pressure on fuel logistics has bitten in occupied Crimea, where the Russian administration capped A-95 gasoline sales at 20 litres per person per day as strikes on the land corridor choked supplies.

The war remained two-sided. Russian attacks over the past day killed five people and wounded 40 across Ukraine and destroyed a train station in Sumy Oblast, while a brief 16-minute ballistic-missile alert sounded over Kyiv and several regions on May 29. On the ground, Kyiv reported a fresh push on the southern front, saying it had liberated the village of Novoselivka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. North Korea's role drew renewed attention as Ukraine highlighted two captured North Korean soldiers -- presented as the first hard evidence of a secret deployment of some 15,000 Pyongyang troops in support of Russia -- even as rights groups questioned the public exposure of the prisoners' identities.