08.06.2025

ABC News: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News' Martha Raddatz his country is ready for a ceasefire brokered by the United States, accusing Putin of aiming for the "total defeat" of Ukraine.

Reuters: France's defence ministry has approached Renault with a view to helping to manufacture drones, the automaker said on Sunday, after the ministry last week floated the idea French companies could help with production in Ukraine.

The Kyiv Independent: Russian forces continue their efforts to break into Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces reported on June 8, saying that the situation around the 31st Separate Brigade's positions remains "tense."

France 24: The Russian paramilitary group Wagner has left Mali and its units there have been taken over by the Moscow-run Africa Corps, diplomatic and security sources told AFP on Sunday.

The Kyiv Independent: President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that Trump's administration diverted 20,000 anti-drone missiles originally intended for Ukraine to American forces in the Middle East.

Reuters: Slovakia will block any European Union sanctions against Russia that damage its national interests, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Sunday after parliament approved a resolution calling on the government not to back any new measures.

The Kyiv Independent: The exchange of the bodies of deceased soldiers, agreed upon during Ukraine-Russia negotiations in Istanbul on June 2, is scheduled for next week, Kyrylo Budanov, Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, said on June 8.

Reuters: The United States believes that Putin's threatened 'retaliation' against Ukraine over its drone attack last weekend has not happened yet in earnest and is likely to be a significant, multi-pronged strike, U.S. officials told Reuters.

07.06.2025

NYT: In public, Putin says his country’s growing friendship with China is unshakable — a strategic military and economic collaboration that has entered a golden era. But in the corridors of Lubyanka, the headquarters of Russia’s domestic security agency, known as the F.S.B., a secretive intelligence unit refers to the Chinese as “the enemy.” (archive)

Reuters: Russia attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at night and in the evening with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing at least four people and injuring more than 60, including a baby, local officials said on Saturday.

The Guardian: Germany is drawing up plans to rapidly expand its network of bomb-proof bunkers and shelters, the government’s most senior civilian protection official has said, warning the state needs to be prepared for an attack from Russia within the next four years.

AFP: Germany's armed forces have three years to acquire the equipment to tackle a possible Russian attack on NATO territory, the head of military procurement said Saturday.

The Kyiv Independent: President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected Trump’s comparison of Russia’s war against Ukraine to “children fighting in a park”. "We are not kids with Putin at the playground in the park," Zelensky said. "He is a murderer who came to this park to kill the kids."

Reuters: A Ukrainian drone attack last weekend likely damaged around 10% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet and hit some of the aircraft as they were being prepared for strikes on Ukraine, a senior German military official said.

The Kyiv Independent: The parliamentary foreign affairs committees of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania issued a joint statement on June 6, affirming their firm support for Ukraine both in its defense against Russia and in its pursuit of EU and NATO membership.

Reuters: Ukraine's air forces shot down a Russian Su-35 fighter jet on Saturday morning, the Ukrainian military said.

06.06.2025

Canada will provide Ukraine with over $25.5 million in military equipment, the Canadian Defense Ministry said in a statement on June 6.

Reuters: Russia will take years to replace nuclear-capable bomber planes that were hit in Ukrainian drone strikes last weekend, according to Western military aviation experts, straining a modernisation programme that is already delayed.

The Kyiv Independent: The Trump administration is trying to get Sen. Lindsey Graham to significantly weaken his Russia-sanctions bill while the White House seeks to patch up its relationship with Moscow instead of punishing it for the continued invasion of Ukraine.

Bloomberg: Trump is holding back from pushing China to halt support for Russia’s war machine as he focuses on other issues in the relationship with its biggest geopolitical rival (archive).

Reuters: Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine's resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany's arms supplies told Reuters.

The Kyiv Independent: Ukrainian forces struck multiple Russian airfields and military facilities overnight on June 6, hours before Russia launched one of its heaviest aerial assaults of the war, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported.

Reuters: Some U.S. lawmakers do not understand the scale of Russia's rearmament campaign, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday, a day after he held talks with Trump in the White House.

The Kyiv Independent: Russia aims to occupy all Ukrainian territory east of the Dnipro River and advance toward Odesa and Mykolaiv in a broader plan to sever Ukraine's access to the Black Sea, President Volodymyr Zelensky's Deputy Chief of Staff Pavlo Palisa said.

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