The departure of British prime minister Keir Starmer, a strong supporter of Ukraine, is unlikely to change London’s hostile attitude towards Russia, the Kremlin said on Monday.

Starmer announced his resignation on Monday, promising to ensure an orderly transfer of power to a new leader by September at the latest to try to avoid political instability as Britain prepares for its seventh leader in 10 years.

“Starmer has not done anything to distinguish himself on the issue of British-Russian relations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“He has always been in favour of keeping relations at a zero level. It is unlikely that anyone on the British political scene will hold a position on our country that differs from Starmer’s,” said Peskov.

Ukraine’s stronger position in the war with Russia has yet to relieve the humanitarian crisis felt by millions of displaced Ukrainians and worsened by a plunge in aid spending, the head of the International Rescue Committee said.

Ukraine has slowed Russia’s advances on the battlefield to a virtual halt in recent months, prompting G7 leaders to recognise at a summit last week that ⁠momentum in the war has shifted.

Speaking during a visit to Ukraine, David Miliband, the IRC’s president and CEO, said it was still vital to recognise the impact of aid cuts, led by the US, that have halved the IRC’s budget in the country to a current estimate of $20m in 2027 from $40m last year.

“It feels particularly important at a time when there is this new sense of a different geopolitical narrative to recognise the brutality and strain that’s being ‌faced by millions of Ukrainians,” Miliband said on Saturday, ‌World Refugee Day.

The UN calculates roughly 118 million people are displaced globally, often as a result of conflict, violence and persecution. Ukraine accounts for around 10 million, with nearly four million of those internally displaced inside the country.

A Russian drone attack has killed three members of one family, including a 13-year-old boy, in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region, regional prosecutors have said.

The boy’s 36-year-old father and 73-year-old grandmother were killed, while his mother and two siblings were injured in the attack, which occurred close to 4:50 a.m. (0150 GMT) local time, the prosecutors said.

We’re working to bring you more on this attack.

We’re hearing news that a Turkish dry cargo vessel, called Victress, has been struck in a Russian drone attack, causing a major fire aboard.

An Egyptian cook was killed in the attack, deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba said.

The ship was sailing under the Panamanian flag, the Ukrainian navy said in a Telegram post on Monday.

There were casualties among the nine crew members who are nationals of Egypt, Turkey and India, it said.

The post did not provide details on the casualties.

One person was killed and three were injured after Russia hit Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with an Iskander ballistic missile on Sunday evening, Oleh Kiper, the regional governor, said on Telegram.

He said vehicles ‌and fuel storage ⁠tanks caught fire after the strike hit an agricultural facility in the ‌Odesa district.

The details could not be independently verified.

Russian forces carried out three missile strikes, 84 air strikes and dropped 275 guided aerial bombs across Ukraine over the past day, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In its operational update released on Sunday morning, the military said Russian troops also deployed 9,629 kamikaze drones and launched 2,932 attacks, including 55 using multiple-launch rocket systems.

Ukraine said its Air Force, rocket forces and artillery struck four Russian command posts, five areas where troops and equipment were concentrated, six artillery systems, two drone command posts and two other military targets.

Fighting continued along several sections of the front line. In the North Slobozhansky and Kursk directions, four combat engagements were recorded, while Russian forces carried out 54 shelling attacks.

The General Staff reported 13 Russian assaults in the South Slobozhansky direction, including near Izbytske, Lyman, Starytsia and Vovchansk. In the Kupiansk sector, Russian troops launched eight attacks towards Glushkivka, Kurylivka, Shykivka and Mala Shapkivka.

Russian forces have entered the strategic eastern Ukrainian city of Kostyantynivka and are attempting to encircle it, according to a BBC report citing Ukrainian soldiers and military officials.

The city, regarded as a gateway to the wider Donbas region, has become a focal point of fighting as Moscow seeks to secure full control of eastern Ukraine.

Ukrainian troops told the BBC that Russian soldiers have established positions within parts of the city, making it increasingly difficult to remove them in urban combat.

While Russia has claimed rapid advances and the encirclement of Ukrainian units, Kyiv has rejected those assertions.

Brig Gen Oleksandr Bakulin, commander of Ukraine’s 19th Corps, said “the situation remains under control” and “the enemy has no success”, though he acknowledged that 130 Russian troops were operating inside the city.

Ukrainian soldiers told the outlet that supply routes were under sustained pressure and described growing logistical challenges.

Authorities in Russian-controlled Crimea on Sunday suspended civilian petrol sales after Ukraine intensified its attacks on fuel infrastructure across the Black Sea peninsula.

Sergei Aksyonov, the Moscow-installed governor of Crimea, said overnight Ukrainian strikes left four people dead and 28 others injured. In a subsequent post on social media, he announced that petrol stations across the region would temporarily stop selling fuel to private individuals and non-governmental organisations, although no timeline was given for the restriction.

“Fuel will be sold only to government agencies that ensure the functioning and security of the Republic of Crimea,” Aksyonov said. “I ask everyone to remain calm and to only trust official sources of information.”