Moscow has broken through Kyiv's defensive lines, reclaiming dozens of square kilometers of territory, according to military bloggers

Russian troops hunched, dirt on their faces, as they crept through an empty gas pipeline under Ukrainian defence lines. - 'Difficult situation' - From the outset, analysts were sceptical of the purpose of diverting thousands of Ukrainian troops and key military assets from front lines inside Ukraine that were under immense Russian pressure.

The dawn attack unfurled as U.S. officials were to meet a Ukrainian delegation in Saudi Arabia to seek an end of the three-year-war.

Five people were killed in a Ukrainian strike on Monday on a shopping centre in a village of Russia's Kursk region, local governor Alexander Khinshtein said on Tuesday.

Russia's Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 343 Ukrainian drones overnight, in what appeared to be Kyiv's largest ever cross-border aerial attack.

Ukraine reportedly launched at least 337 drones into Russia on Tuesday in the largest-yet drone attack of the Moscow-Kyiv conflict, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Ukraine launched its biggest ever drone attack on Moscow, killing at least two workers at a meat warehouse, injuring 18 others and causing a short shutdown at the Russian capital's four airports, Russian officials said.