“Ukraine – Russia”

The European Commission has proposed extending the temporary protection regime granted to displaced Ukrainians until March 2028, but with a politically explosive change: newly arriving Ukrainian men of military age who do not have authorization to leave their country would be excluded from that automatic protection.

For now, the restriction would not affect those already covered by the European system. But it would change the entry route for a very specific category of people: Ukrainian men with the legal or potential capacity to fight.

Russia and Ukraine exchanged devastating missile and drone strikes on each other’s capitals last week. Ukraine dazzled the world with its onslaught of jet-powered drones over Moscow, which destroyed the city’s main oil refinery, but Russia also demonstrated that despite Western sanctions and consistent drone strikes on key industrial facilities, it’s managing to produce a growing arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles with improved precision, targeting, and guidance systems — which could be shared with Iran.

Ukraine’s UN envoy, Andrii Melnyk, warned that Kyiv could reconsider its current ceasefire proposal if there was no meaningful international push to end the war, saying “our patience is not endless”.

Melnyk said Ukraine remained open to direct negotiations with Russia but cautioned that its offer of a ceasefire along the current front lines was already a significant concession. “If the security council would further choose a wait-and-see approach, I cannot exclude that Ukraine may recalibrate and modify its offer. Ceasefire along the de facto ‌front line is already a great compromise,” he said.

Ukrainian drones have hit several locations across Moscow in Kyiv’s biggest air raid on the city since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, setting a major ⁠oil refinery on fire and forcing evacuations at the country’s largest airport.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, described the attack as a response to Russia’s striking of a historic Kyiv monastery complex earlier this week.

Footage of a Ukrainian attack drone hitting a storage tank at the Moscow Oil Refinery this morning, sending the tank lid perfectly soaring hundreds of feet. pic.twitter.com/2GIHEGk52M

— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) June 18, 2026

This week, the war in Ukraine will pass a sombre milestone: it will have lasted longer than the First World War.

Much Western discussion continues to focus on tactical successes, technological innovation, and dramatic long-range strikes. Ukraine’s remarkable courage, resilience, and ingenuity in resisting Russia’s invasion deserve recognition. Supported by its allies, it has imposed very substantial costs on its adversary and will continue to do so for as long as the war lasts.

The hall at St. Vladimir’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Calgary is packed. Three gigantic, artistically painted wooden Easter eggs dominate the stage. Heavily accented voices rise and fall amid the chatter as attendees nibble on poppyseed cake and other Ukrainian delicacies. No one wears the bright blue-and-yellow of the war’s early days, but embroidered vyshyvanky peek from under sweaters and jackets.

A Russian drone has struck a storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near the disused Chernobyl (Chornobyl) plant, Ukrainian officials said on Sunday.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said it had been informed of the attack and that radiation levels at the site had remained stable.

The facility is located around 15 kilometers (9 miles) from the Chernobyl plant, the site of the world’s ​worst nuclear disaster in 1986.

Pic – Chernobyl Doggo

A successful drone strike on an oil terminal in St Petersburg this week has dramatically illustrated the increasing damage that Ukraine’s air campaign is doing to the Russian economy. Together with the bloody stalemate on the battlefield in eastern Ukraine, this is contributing to growing war weariness in Russia.

For the first time, Russian establishment figures have begun to call publicly for an early peace, even at the price of giving up key Kremlin demands. In the words of Russian commentator Alexander Nosovich in the newspaper Moskovsky Komsomolets, “the expert community is split between those in favor of continuing the special military operation until the goals are achieved, and those who believe it’s time to end it, since the worst-case scenario is not even defeat. It’s an endless special operation.”

Ukraine says it has struck five ships carrying illegal cargo in the Sea of Azov and in coastal waters of Russian-occupied territories.

The Ukrainian drone forces commander said the vessels were involved in “stealing” Ukrainian grain, as well as transferring military cargo and fuel.

The strikes come a day after Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky offered face-to-face talks with Vladimir Putin on ending the war, an offer the Russian leader rejected while visiting St Petersburg for an economic forum.

A major corruption scandal has once again engulfed Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned energy giant, after anti-corruption investigators uncovered an alleged embezzlement scheme involving nearly UAH170 million (€3.3 million) during the construction of critical infrastructure at the Tashlyk hydroelectric power plant.

The case was exposed by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO), the same Western-backed agencies that previously uncovered an alleged $100 million extortion operation at Energoatom linked to businessman Timur Mindich, a close associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky.

European Union member states are weighing whether Ukrainian men of military age should be excluded from future extensions of the bloc’s temporary protection scheme for people fleeing the war with Russia.

According to an internal Council of the EU document seen by Euractiv, one of the options under consideration would be to extend temporary protection while narrowing its eligibility criteria. The paper references “the exclusion of men of conscription age” as well as individuals who did not leave Ukraine legally. The current framework is due to remain in effect until March 2027, and any such restriction would apply only to future applicants seeking temporary protection status.