01.06.2025

Reuters: Ukrainian negotiators at talks scheduled for June 2 in Istanbul will present to the Russian side a proposed roadmap for reaching a lasting peace settlement (see the text of Ukraine's peace proposals).

Bloomberg: Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, said he aims to have new sanctions imposed on Russia before the Group of Seven summit in late June (archive).

The Kyiv Independent: An operation by Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) using FPV drones smuggled deep into Russian and hidden inside trucks has hit 41 Russian heavy bombers at four airfields across the country. The SBU reported that the drone operation caused approximately $7 billion in damages and disabled 34% of cruise missile carriers in key Russian airbases.

AFP: Ukraine said Sunday it was hit by 472 Russian drones overnight, a record since the beginning of the invasion, ahead of talks between Kyiv and Moscow in Istanbul.

The Kyiv Independent: A Russian military train carrying fuel and food was blown up overnight on June 1 near Melitopol, according to Ukraine's military intelligence.

Reuters: The commander of Ukraine's land forces, one of the most senior positions in the country's military, announced on Sunday that he was tendering his resignation, citing a lethal strike on Ukrainian military training facility.

BBC: The defence review will send a "message to Moscow", the UK defence secretary has said, as he warned Russia was launching cyber-attacks on UK military networks "every day". John Healey said the review would set out plans to deter "growing Russian aggression" in a "world that is changing".

The Kyiv Independent: The U.K. is looking to revamp its defense capabilities and on the wish list of new weapons are U.S.-made fighter jets capable of launching tactical nuclear weapons to, in part, counter the threat from Russia, the Sunday Times reported on June 1.

Meduza: At least two bridges have collapsed in Russian regions bordering Ukraine over the past 24 hours, killing at least seven people and injuring dozens more, according to local authorities.

31.05.2025

The Insider reports that the Kremlin’s most notorious black ops squad (GRU Unit 29155) also fielded a team of hackers — one that attempted to destabilize Ukraine in the months before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The Kyiv Independent: According to the Telegraph, senior European diplomats meeting in The Hague agreed to shift their focus from deploying troops to enforce a ceasefire to preparing long-term strategies for supporting Ukraine without American backing.

Euronews: Lithuanian defmin Šakalienė has accused Russia of "mocking" Trump over the Kremlin's refusal to engage meaningfully in ceasefire talks. She warns that instead of being pressured into ending the war, the Kremlin is pushing forward with mobilizing 1.5 mln students by the end of the year.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on May 31 that Russian forces have ramped up assault operations across key fronts in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Sumy oblasts.

The Telegraph: A new sinister genre of nationalistic fantasy fiction is on the rise in Russia, targeting the country’s most impressionable demographic. Teenagers and young men are being pulled into patriotic fervour by “Z literature”, which delivers a simple message: enlist, fight, and glorify the Russian state (archive).

Bloomberg: The European Union should revisit the question of how hundreds of billions of euros in frozen Russian assets can be used to finance Ukraine, a top German official said (archive).

AP News: Sweden said Saturday it will step up insurance checks on foreign ships in a move aimed at tightening controls on Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet ” of aging ships.

Politico: China denounced comments by French President Emmanuel Macron comparing Beijing’s dispute over Taiwan to Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine.

30.05.2025

Reuters: The U.S. Senate is set to move ahead next week with a bill imposing more sanctions on Russia over its three-year-old war in Ukraine, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Friday after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The Times: Sir Keir Starmer is pressing ahead with plans to deport migrants to “return hubs” in the western Balkans despite an MI6 warning that they could be hijacked by Russian spies. Security advice from the intelligence service says the region is unsafe for migrant deportation schemes because of its proximity to Russia (archive).

Reuters: One of Microsoft Corp's subsidiaries in Russia plans to file for bankruptcy, according to a note published on the official Fedresurs registry on Friday.

The Moscow Times: When Putin visited Kursk this month, reports said his helicopter was targeted by Ukrainian drones. In reality, this was a PR move aimed at convincing Russians that Putin is ready to put his own life at risk for the country, officials told MT.

Reuters: Russia is prepared to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine to pave the way for a lasting settlement, but during any truce Moscow wants Western states to stop arming Kyiv and for Ukraine to stop mobilising troops, Russia's U.N. ambassador said on Friday. However, Vassily Nebenzia told the U.N. Security Council that a simple ceasefire was not enough to end Moscow's more than three-year war in Ukraine.

FT: As Ukraine and Russia race to outmanoeuvre each other on a fast-changing battlefield, one Ukrainian assault regiment is putting its faith in horsepower — of the two-wheeled kind. The 425th Skala Assault Regiment earlier this month said it set up the country’s first combat unit on motorcycles, training soldiers to ride hard, strike quickly and disappear before Russian drones can lock on (archive).

Reuters: Liechtenstein is examining tightening control of scores of Russian-linked trusts abandoned by their managers under pressure from Washington.

Reuters: Trump's envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said Russia's concern over the eastward enlargement of NATO was fair and the United States did not want to see Ukraine in the U.S.-led military alliance.

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