Russia-Ukraine tensions heightened on June 5, 2025, when Russian drone strikes killed five people, three of whom were from the same family, in Pryluky, Chernihiv province, northern Ukraine. The atrocity, one in a broader series of Russian missile and drone attacks, has raised tensions as Moscow threatens reprisals following Ukraine’s recent drone strikes on Russian military bases. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attacks, urging international pressure and sanctions to curb Russia’s aggression. As the war escalates amid peace talks, the global community is more and more summoned to arrest the humanitarian and geopolitical fallout.
A Russian drone strike on Pryluky in the Chernihiv region of Ukraine left five dead, including a wife, daughter, and one-year-old grandson of a local emergency responder, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported. Six other individuals were injured in the nighttime attack and hospitalized. The Ukrainian government said Russia launched 103 drones and one ballistic missile in an attack targeting multiple regions, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro, and Kherson.
In Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, 18 people, four of them children, were injured in another drone strike, pointing to the wide-ranging civilian infrastructure damage. Anastasiia Meleshchenk, a local, as quoted by Reuters, described how she and her child had to run after a drone destroyed her neighbor’s apartment, highlighting the fear among civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned Russia’s actions, accusing Moscow of “always seeking to buy time for itself to continue killing.” He called for tighter international sanctions and pressure, stating, “When it does not seem like strong enough condemnation and pressure from the world—it kills again.” The attacks are a part of a series of Russian drone attacks on civilian areas, with Human Rights Watch reporting dozens of civilian deaths and hundreds of injuries caused by such attacks, in violation of international law.
Ukraine Counteroffensive Targets Russian Military Bases
In retaliation for Russia’s intensified attacks, Ukraine waged a large-scale drone attack mission named “Spider’s Web” on four Russian military air bases in Siberia and the far north. The mission, during which 117 drones were launched from containers near the targets, struck as many as 20 warplanes, with roughly 10 being destroyed, US officials told Reuters. The targets included strategic bombers and missile defense systems, like bases in Bryansk, which Ukraine claimed were launching attacks on its own territory. Al Jazeera correspondent John Hendren, in Kyiv, described the strike as “an audacious strike, one that Ukraine has been waiting a long time and patiently to deliver.”
The Ukrainian military also claimed to have destroyed railroad bridges in southern Russia, killing seven people, an act Moscow attributed to Kyiv. These border raids mark a new high for Ukraine’s attempts to disrupt Russia’s military capabilities, particularly withthe collapse of the peace talks in Türkiye. The Kremlin, through spokesman Dmitry Peskov, threatened a response “when its military deems appropriate,” and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov acknowledged destruction of warplanes but claimed they would be rebuilt.
Global Implications and Calls for Action
The deployment is amidst diplomatic efforts to end the war, with recent negotiations between Türkiye collapsing without a ceasefire agreement. US President Donald Trump, in an 85-minute phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, was told that Moscow would retaliate against Ukraine’s attacks, sending alarm about growing violence. The US embassy in Ukraine warned citizens of imminent major strikes, meaning heightened risk. Zelenskyy urged a ceasefire until such time as the leaders might get together, but Putin’s refusal to meet with him in person and his dismissal of Kyiv’s invitations as “ultimatums” have deepened the standoff.
The world beyond generally is being urged more and more to act.
Zelenskyy requested America, Europe, and global partners to place “maximum sanctions” in a bid to halt Russia’s aggression. The European Union’s consideration of blaming Russia for chemical weapons and Canada’s freezing of Russian assets for Ukraine’s benefit alike reflect rising Western support for Kyiv.
But both Moscow’s accusations of Ukraine and its allies disrupting peace talks and reported interference in Poland’s elections both reflect the broader geopolitical stakes of the war.
With the Russia-Ukraine war ongoing to dismantle civilian lives and infrastructure, the demand for a unified global response grows more and more indispensable. The attack on Pryluky emphasizes the human cost, and Ukraine’s defiant counterattacks prove its commitment to stand up to the aggression. As both belligerents are escalating aerial bombardments, the path to peace remains tenuous, necessitating stern diplomatic and economic measures to prevent further escalation.
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