While Pressing Ukraine to Stop Striking Russian Energy Targets, Trump Signs Major Russian Oil Deal with Putin

Ukrainian drones struck a data center of Russian tech company Yandex for the third time in four days, this time targeting a facility in Vladimir, east of Moscow. In a statement on Telegram, Yandex Cloud said: "Due to the drone attack, equipment at the Vladimir data center has been damaged, related operations have been completely suspended, and there are no casualties at this time."

According to Russian independent media Astra, the impact extended far beyond Vladimir — users in dozens of Russian cities as well as in Kazakhstan, Belarus, and Armenia could not use ride-hailing services or access banking services. Yandex's position in Russia is similar to that of Google: it operates the country's main search engine and is extensively involved in digital services and artificial intelligence. This is the latest daily cost borne by ordinary Russian-speaking civilians as the war grinds on.

While Russia and Ukraine continue to exchange long-range strikes, large-scale fighting on the front lines has ground to a stalemate, four and a half years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

On the Ukrainian side, Russian bombing of the southern city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least 20 people, including 4 children, with more than 30 others injured. According to The Times of India, former head of the Zaporizhzhia region and co-chair of the Defense Council Ivan Fedorov said in a Sunday briefing that search and rescue operations had concluded that day, with 8 of the injured still receiving hospital treatment.

As the fighting spreads, US policy toward Ukraine reveals sharp self-contradictions. Citing the Associated Press, The Times of India reported that US President Trump publicly called on Ukraine to change its leadership on Saturday: "I would suggest they pick a new leader, someone who can make a deal, because he could have made many deals, but for some reason he never did."

Trump's remarks came after he and Russian President Putin reached a deal on Friday to purchase diesel from Russia. The US side claims this move is aimed at easing rising domestic fuel prices and paving the way for the upcoming midterm elections. But Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha pushed back on X, saying: "President Zelensky has the support of the Ukrainian people; how to choose their leaders is their own decision. Statements from abroad only prove he is doing a good job."

Trump has in recent weeks kept up pressure on Zelensky, demanding that Ukraine halt strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. The Times of India reported that Trump blames Ukraine's attacks for record-high US diesel prices, rather than the US's own war in Iran — the latter of which has also pushed up global energy costs.

Ukrainian and European officials have voiced concerns over the US-Russia diesel deal, fearing that the procurement arrangements could provide funding for Russia's war effort. The specific scale and pricing terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed.

On the other side of the Russia-Ukraine border, a Ukrainian drone strike on Russia's Bryansk region killed one man and injured two women, local officials reported on Sunday.