Ukraine-Russia live: Putin quiet over throwing North Korean forces into war as troops are spotted in Kursk

Ukraine destroyed 36 out of 63 drones launched by Russia during an overnight strike, Kyiv’s air force said on Friday.

The drones were downed over various parts of Ukraine while 16 were “locationally lost”, it added.

In a memoir released eight months after he died in prison, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny never loses faith that his cause is worth suffering for while also acknowledging he wished he could have written a very different book.

“There is a mishmash of bits and pieces, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary,” Navalny writes in “Patriot,” which was published Tuesday, and is, indeed, a traditional narrative followed by a prison diary.

“I so much do not want my book to be yet another prison diary. Personally I find them interesting to read, but as a genre — enough is surely enough.”

Russia sent two waves of drones at the Ukrainian capital overnight in its 15th air attack on Kyiv this month, city officials said this morning.

More than a dozen drones were downed during the strike, which lasted around four hours, city military administrator Serhiy Popko said on Telegram.

He added that authorities had not received any reports of injuries and that debris had ignited a fire that was later extinguished.

Reuters correspondents reported hearing multiple explosions over the city early on Friday.

Russian forces have made a fast advance into the eastern Ukrainian coal mining town of Selydove, according to Russian media and war bloggers.

“The enemy’s defences crumbled suddenly,” said Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. Other pro-Russian bloggers gave similar accounts, and said that Russia was now in control of part of Selydove.

The Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper said that Russian forces were approaching the centre of Selydove, which had a population of over 20,000 before the war.

Ukraine’s General Staff of the Armed Forces said the most intense Russian assaults along the entire front line were currently taking place in the vicinity of Selydove, and that Russia used both fighter and bomber aircraft to support its attack there.

The General Staff did not say whether or not the Russians were in the town or if Ukrainian forces had fallen back.

A Ukrainian frontline mapping project known as DeepState showed in its map Russian forces controlling the eastern outskirts of Selydove, while a significant chunk of its centre was assessed as a disputed “grey zone”.

Capturing Selydove would pave the way for a Russian advance on the key logistical hub of Pokrovsk, located about 20km (12 miles) northwest of Selydove.

Vladimir Putin was asked about former US president Donald Trump’s promise to end the fighting in Ukraine at a news conference last might “What Mr Trump said recently, what I heard, (is) he spoke about the desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine,” Putin said. “It seems to me that he said it sincerely. We certainly welcome statements of this kind, no matter who makes them.”

If the United States was open to normal relations with Russia, Moscow would be as well, Mr Putin added.

Moscow was ready to consider any options to end conflict in Ukraine, but only proceeding from “reality on the ground”, Russian president Vladimir Putin said.

“We are prepared to consider any options for peace agreements based on the realities on the ground. And are not ready for anything else,” Mr Putin said.