"I slowly looked to the side and saw my legs. One leg was bent like the letter G. Hysteria started.
You can't move, no help coming, and you can do nothing." — Volodymyr Prostokishin, 23, lost both legs in Bakhmut.
Ukrainska Pravda writes his story.
1/
He was evacuating a 100-kilogram wounded soldier across an open minefield. A 120mm mortar hit. Two legs gone. Right arm shattered. Shrapnel entered his body and exited in spirals.
His comrade Grusha, who he was saving, died. It was two days before Volodymyr's 24th birthday.
2/
When he regained consciousness, his first thought was about his rifle. Then he tried to stand.
"I woke up and thought — I'll get up, go to work. What a dream — both legs gone." He says this with a smile now.
3/
"Russians call it games. They put a bag over your head, pour water on your face until you almost drown.
They stick needles under your fingernails and apply electric shocks to your ears, your testicles, your fingers." — Yevhenii Malik, Mariupol defender — Kronen Zeitung.
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Malik on daily beatings: "In the morning they beat the whole barracks — just to say hello." Ten men in a 20-square-meter cell, standing from 6 AM to 10 PM.
No walking, sitting, talking, looking out the window, or smiling. Toilet and water only on command.
2/
The torture had a goal: to extract confessions of war crimes.
"They bombed Mariupol for a month with jets and artillery, killing enormous numbers of civilians. But they wanted to portray us as war criminals." Malik signed under torture. "You have no other option," he says.
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Russia shifted air defense systems to Moscow from elsewhere in the country. Ukraine still penetrated them — The Atlantic, Phillips Payson O’Brien.
By revealing the limits of Putin's power, Ukraine has to be making his allies and flatterers very nervous.
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Ukraine struck the Dubna Space Communications Center twice in one week. Russia uses it to collect intelligence and coordinate army units in occupied Ukraine.
Zelenskyy: "Relevant actions are also being prepared against other similar enemy facilities."
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The Moscow refinery hit on June 18 produces 40% of the Moscow region's fuel. It is reportedly out of action for the remainder of 2026. The strike created a massive black smoke plume visible across the city.
The message: Ukraine hits the most important economic targets.
3/
After 2022, NATO drilled scenarios that still assumed technological superiority and uninterrupted supply chains. In Ukraine, soldiers improvised with software updated overnight.
NATO is not prepared for the battlefield of the future. — Myroslava Gongadze, Ukrainska Pravda.
1/
For decades, NATO exported military knowledge to its partners. Today, Ukraine exports combat experience in drone warfare, electronic warfare, and battlefield adaptation back to NATO.
Integrating Ukraine is a strategic necessity.
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Ukraine's factories that once produced furniture and consumer electronics now manufacture drones and military equipment. Ukraine is no longer only a recipient of military aid.
It is a source of combat innovation that can strengthen the US, NATO and the democratic community.
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Foreman: Putin is becoming the Robert Mugabe of Russia. Each year he grows older, more detached from the man he used to be and more surrounded by aging sycophants.
He'll die in harness. He's driving Russia into the ground with no plan. When he goes, Russia will face crisis. 1/
Foreman: The Kursk submarine disaster was a huge political lesson for Putin.
He learned never to expose himself that way again. Everything since then has been stage-managed. 2/
Foreman: When the cruiser Moskva sank in 2022, the losses were hidden, families weren't informed and Putin made no public comment.
He had learned the lesson of Kursk and refused to be exposed that way again. 3/