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Ukraine's UAVs have struck the Russian Bashneft refinery in Ufa, located around 1,400 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, triggering explosions and a inferno, per a insider in the Ukrainian Security Service.

This marks the latest Ukrainian security service far-reaching assault in the region in the recent weeks. Those strikes show that there are no protected areas in the distant backlines of the Russian state.

Ukrainian President Appeals to Trump to Broker Peace in Ukraine

Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on the US President to mediate a ceasefire in the Ukrainian conflict in a phone call on Saturday.

"Provided that a hostilities can be ended in one region, then surely further hostilities can be stopped as well, encompassing the Russian aggression," the President said, hailing the US President's "remarkable" Middle East peace initiative and requesting the American leader to pressure the Kremlin into talks.

Russian Attacks Take Victims in Ukraine

Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory resulted in the deaths of several civilians on the weekend and disrupted electricity to parts of the south Odesa region, as stated by Ukrainian officials.

Two people were killed in a church in the town when it was struck, per regional officials.

In Russia's frontier area of Belgorod, a truck driver was killed by a attack from Ukraine, per municipal sources.

Power Restoration Operations in the Capital

Work carried on on Saturday to repair energy infrastructure in Kyiv, after strikes by Moscow.

Power had been returned to more than 800,000 inhabitants by the weekend and the biggest utility provider said the main efforts to repair the grid was complete though some outages continued.

Anti-Aircraft Efforts and UAV Jamming

Ukraine's air defences downed or disrupted fifty-four of 78 total enemy drones launched targeting Ukraine during the night, the aerial defense command reported on the weekend.

The Russian defence ministry claimed it intercepted 42 enemy drones over Russian territory.

Cuba Rejects Allegations of Providing Soldiers to Ukraine

Cuba on the weekend refuted American allegations it has provided military personnel to participate in the hostilities, while declaring the government "do not have exact data about citizens of Cuba" participating "voluntarily" or "within the troops of the conflicting parties".

The government department in Havana said twenty-six nationals had been given prison terms to jail sentences varying between five up to fourteen years for mercenary activity since September 2023 when reports spread of Cubans being sent to the front in the conflict.

Surrender Initiative Project Discloses Information on Cuban Involvement

The program, a official Kyiv project that urges enemy combatants to lay down arms, said in May: "We have confirmed the personal data of 1,028 Cubans who entered into agreements with the Russian military in 2023-2024."

The government in Havana stated of those who might be participating: "It is irrefutable that no individual have the backing, allegiance, or approval of the Cuban state for their activities."

Relatives of individuals who departed to Russia in the year reported to Agence France-Presse at the time that their relatives had been misled into enlisting through ads on online platforms.