“Ukraine – Russia”

“Ukraine will stop Putin” declared America’s failing president whose uncertain political fate and cognitive issues loomed over NATO’s 75th annual conference hosted last week in Washington, where many participants took time on the side to meet with some of Donald Trump’s top advisors such as former ambassador to Germany, Rick Grennel, and ex-NSC chief of staff, general Keith Kellogg. The Europeans are now “paying” more for NATO as 23 members cross the 2 percent of GDP for defense threshold this year, long insisted by Trump , so they may be looking to get their money’s worth in advice.

American and German intelligence services have thwarted a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of Germany’s largest arms manufacturer, it has been claimed.

Armin Papperger, under whose leadership Rheinmetall has set up artillery shell factories and tank repair workshops in Ukraine, is said to have been the main target of a conspiracy to kill senior figures from the European defence industry who have been instrumental in supporting Kyiv.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office on Wednesday banned the online newspaper The Moscow Times.

The website was blocked in Russia for allegedly discrediting the country’s military shortly after the start of Kremlin-backed invasion of Ukraine.

In a brutal and terrifying three days, Russia has wreaked havoc on the tiny, battered Ukrainian air force – lofting drones to surveil the air force’s front-line airfields and then firing ballistic missiles to destroy hard-to-replace warplanes.

As the missile campaign continues and the toll mounts – four or five aircraft were destroyed in 72 hours – it’s increasingly clear just one thing can save what’s left of Ukrainian air power. More Western-made air defenses.

But they’d better come fast.

Ukraine will be told it is currently too corrupt to join Nato, in a major blow to Volodymyr Zelensky.

The alliance will request “additional steps” from Kyiv before membership talks progress, a senior official in the US State Department said.

The position will be set out in writing in the Nato communique to be signed at the alliance’s annual summit on July 9.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he’s drawing up a “comprehensive plan” for how Kyiv believes the war with Russia should end.

“It is very important for us to show a plan to end the war that will be supported by the majority of the world,” the Ukrainian president said at a news conference in Kyiv alongside Slovenian President Natasa Pirc Musar on Friday.

“This is the diplomatic route we are working on.”

I wonder what debate result brought this on?

h/t Mauser

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine removed one of his top generals from his post on Monday amid public criticism that the commander’s decisions had led to excessive casualties.

The dismissal of the general, Yurii Sodol, as commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces, was a clear indication that the discord that had rankled the army since Mr. Zelensky replaced his commanding general, Valery Zaluzhny, with Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky in February, continued to threaten military cohesion.

Mr. Zelensky announced that he was replacing General Sodol with Brig. Gen. Andrii Hnatov.

In an office block with no door numbers or names, Serhii Krupiienko slams his green, “military-grade” laptop on to the floor to prove its resilience. He hands it to me: “Have a go!” he urges with a grin. “It’s really fun. Throw it!”

This 39-year-old father of three has reason to be cheerful. He believes his start-up military technology (mil-tech) company is on the verge of a breakthrough that could give Ukraine an edge in its David and Goliath-like war with Russia.

Russia has effectively dismantled and replaced the Wagner Group in the year since the mercenaries shocked the world by launching a mutiny against President Vladimir Putin’s government, experts have told the BBC.

Yevgeny Prigozhin – the late leader of the paramilitary force – crossed from Ukraine on 23 June 2023 and seized the southern city of Rostov after months of increasing tensions with military leaders in Moscow.