Serhii Kernytskyi spent 346 days at a position near Chasiv Yar, killed 23 Russians and took 6 prisoner.

He deliberately let them close to 20 meters before throwing a grenade. He has been nominated for the title of Hero of Ukraine — 24th Brigade. 1/ Throughout that year Kernytskyi kept a video diary — filming attacks, trophies and daily life on his phone. There was no signal, but the phone worked.

Hundreds of short videos survived: a dugout burning after an incendiary device, him counting trophy rifles, frying ribs and cooking soup. 2/

Madyar, Ukraine's Unmanned Systems Force Commander: Putin hits his own people hardest — drains their money, kills their social media. Every dictator needs to know the limit.

This one has no brakes and breaks himself.

1/ Madyar: Ending the war? Stopping it — maybe, under pressure. But Russia demands we leave Donetsk.

That won't happen. No deal without third parties. Even a frozen line buys time — they rearm in years, then push again: Ukraine, then NATO members.

2/

Kasparov: The Ukrainian flag over Sevastopol is the only thing that can knock imperial nonsense out of the average Russian's head.

The imperial idea has outlived many rulers — and may well outlive Putin, unless it's finally buried in the Ukrainian war.

1/ Kasparov: In Russia, victories in war have always been used to strengthen the regime.

WWII was ideological support for communism. Under Putin, it became just a marker — "We can repeat it" was preparation for a new imperialist war.

2/

63 nations in Brussels backed returning Ukrainian children Russia abducted.

Sybiha, Ukraine's FM: "Russians are afraid of this topic. They demand to remove it from the agenda, because they understand that they are committing a crime and fear justice" — United24 Media. 1/ Ukraine has returned 2,000+ children so far. Russia still holds tens of thousands.

The EU, Ukraine, and Canada convened the International Coalition for the Return of Ukrainian Children on May 11, on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council. 2/

Miroslav Simonov, a Russian drone operator from an elite unit defected to Ukraine, walking six miles through the front line at night, dodging sentries and minefields.

He carried drone secrets and intelligence on Russia's Rubicon Centre. — The Times.

1/ Miroslav Simonov, 24, was an estate agent in Novosibirsk. He arrived in Moscow for a prestigious course — and was immediately arrested for not completing national service.

Officers watched him sign a military contract. Within weeks, he was at the front.

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Putin said the war in Ukraine may be "coming to an end." In April, Russia lost 45 sq miles — its first net territorial loss since August 2024.

Ukrainian strikes cut Russian oil exports from 5.2M to 3.5M barrels a day. — The Guardian.

1/ In April, Russia lost 45 sq miles of Ukrainian territory — the first net loss since August 2024. Ukraine recaptured Kupiansk in December.

Gains in Zaporizhzhia reversed after Russia lost Starlink access. A slow-motion Russian victory no longer looks certain.

2/

The Iran war should have given Moscow an oil windfall, fiscal breathing room, and fresh leverage in Ukraine.

The opposite happened. Since the war began, Kyiv has been in its strongest stretch on and off the battlefield in years — Casey Michel, The Moscow Times. 1/ Russia's offensive slowed to a WWI-style slog while Kyiv held the line.

For the first time in nearly 3 years, Ukraine retook more territory than Russia — some of it captured by a brigade of robots and drones alone. 2/

“I am on the Kremlin’s assassination list because I help Ukraine with data and AI,” says Palantir CEO Alex Karp after meeting Zelenskyy and Fedorov in The Times. 1/ Palantir is a $311 billion company founded in 2003 with CIA funding. Its AI software helps Ukraine’s military process vast amounts of intelligence data in real time and improve the precision of strikes against Russian forces. 2/

Keane: Five weeks of talks have produced almost no progress.

Iran still refuses to dismantle its nuclear enterprise, wants indefinite control of Hormuz, and wants the US to finance regime recovery through reparations, unfrozen assets, and sanctions relief. 1/ Keane: A deal like that would favor Iran and set back both the Iranian people and US interests.

Tehran would use the money to rebuild its nuclear program, ballistic missiles, and proxies — the very things this war was launched to stop. 2/

Putin ran a parade he could not defend.

If the US and Europe keep Kyiv funded and armed, Ukraine can negotiate from strength.

The fastest way to prolong the war is to offer Putin an exit that preserves his system — The Telegraph. 1/ Putin sells inevitability. The parade showed vulnerability.
Ukraine can now hit deep inside Russia. Putin avoided parking real hardware at a known place and time. 2/

Belarus already gave Russia territory for the 2022 assault on Kyiv, launched missiles from its soil, repaired Russian tanks, and treated wounded soldiers.

But Putin appears to want more and is pressuring Lukashenko[Putin’s puppet] to deepen Belarus’s role in the war, Times. 1/ Ukraine now fortifies the 1,080 km Belarus border with mines, trenches, anti-tank barriers, sensors, barbed wire, and anti-drone defenses.

The Rivne crossing, once used by thousands daily, now sits behind minefields and armored patrols. 2/

Trump arrives in Beijing as a weakened president.

The Iran war unresolved, the Strait of Hormuz still closed, tariffs failing.

Xi holds the cards, including a near-monopoly over rare earths and critical minerals. — Gideon Rachman, FT.

1/ When Trump imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese goods, Beijing restricted mineral exports.

US factory production lines shut down within weeks. Within months — a trade truce.

2/

Germany and Ukraine will jointly produce long range drones that can fly 1,500 km.

Ukraine needs reach to hit launch sites and logistics deep behind Russian lines.

Germany wants Ukraine’s battlefield feedback loop built into production — Kyiv Post. 1/ Boris Pistorius came to Kyiv quietly for a reason.

Weapons cooperation is no longer about just deliveries. Now Ukraine is building joint manufacturing capacity. 2/

Sen. Kelly: Hegseth doesn't want to be held accountable. After 15,000 strikes, we have 13 dead Americans, the Strait of Hormuz closed, gas prices in Arizona at 4.80 a gallon.

We have a secretary of defense unprepared and unqualified for this job. 1/ Sen. Kelly: Hegseth requests $50 billion to replenish munitions used in Iran. Hegseth said it’s going to take years. They went into this without a strategic goal, without a plan, without a timeline. Now they have no exit strategy, and they’re flailing. 2X

Palantir CEO Alex Karp met with Zelenskyy and Fedorov in Kyiv. Ukraine is scaling AI for warfighting with real data.

Palantir is helping Ukraine to analyze air attacks. Now the task is to integrate AI into defense tech projects and deep strikes, using intelligence data at scale. 1/ Ukraine builds feedback loops. Drones and missiles produce data. Analysts turn it into targets and defenses. The system learns. If the loop runs faster than Russia adapts, Ukraine wins time and lives. 2/

Pomerantsev: Ukraine has all of society approaches to cognitive defense. It is way ahead.

When talking with partners, you have to be careful not to give anyone a sense that you're intervening in domestic politics. If you're dealing in truth, you have a duty to release it. 1/ Pomerantsev: Russia is aggressive inside Europe with assassinations, sabotage and cyber attacks. Some countries get intimidated, while others feel emboldened to act. The more aggressive Russia becomes, the more people see it as fair game to strike back. 2/

Kasparov: Trump always plays for Trump: his money, his glory, his family. But in the Ukraine war, he is playing on Putin’s side.

He never says a bad word about Putin, always explains Putin’s actions, and every concrete step helps Putin’s war effort. 1/ Kasparov: This is a world war. China stands behind Putin and wants it to continue because it drains the West, splits America and Europe, and weakens Russia.

Iran and the terrorist networks it funds are also part of the same global picture. 2/

Kasparov: Putin’s dictatorship is built not on communist ideology, but on imperial thinking and personal power.

Stalin, not Lenin, is Putin’s idol. A personality-cult dictatorship in a country like Russia always needs to prove the leader’s greatness. 1/ Kasparov: This is not just Putin’s war. It is a war against Russia’s imperial essence. Without Ukraine, there is no empire.

Nothing except a Ukrainian flag over Sevastopol can knock this imperial madness out of the average Russian mind. 2/

One US sanction was enough to break normal life for a ICC judge in Europe.

Nicolas Guillou lost access to credit cards, bank transfers, hotel bookings, UPS deliveries, Paris bike rentals and parts of his health insurance because they all depended on American companies, FT. 1/ The US sanctioned Guillou in August 2025 after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and former Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant over alleged war crimes in Gaza. 2/

Hodges: The war has shifted in Ukraine’s favor. Ukraine is killing and wounding more Russians than Moscow can replace.

That is a negative trend for Russia and may force full mobilization, including in Moscow and St. Petersburg — something the Kremlin does not want. 1/ Hodges: Ukraine’s long-range strikes on Russia’s oil and gas infrastructure will make it much harder for Moscow to keep fighting even into next year.

With drones and defense production, Ukraine has stopped Russian ground operations and opened a vector to victory. 2/

Hodges: The Kremlin’s fear over what could happen above Moscow on Victory Day is a powerful signal of Ukraine’s success.

Holding the parade while fearing an attack in central Moscow is already shocking for Russians. This war has come home to them. 1/ Hodges: Ukraine should no longer put its only hope for negotiations in the United States.

I am disappointed that my country and my president have taken an approach that can generally be called pro-Kremlin. Witkoff and Kushner’s team never even got to Kyiv. 2/