Russians kidnapped and killed priest Stepan Podolchak from Kherson Oblast because he refused to hold sermons in Russian and transfer his church to the control of the Moscow Patriarchate.

His wife had to identify his body after he was taken from his home — United24. 1/ By 2024 Russians had killed around 50 priests. Russia uses religion as a tool of occupation as systematically as it uses schools, internet and property. 2/

U.S. is telling Europe to defend itself.
Trump is shrinking the US military footprint in Europe toward pre-2022 levels.

The Pentagon is cutting brigade deployments from 4 to 3 and delaying 4,000 troops bound for Poland — FT. 1/ The White House says this is about “maximising American security.”
Critics inside NATO call it a dangerous signal to Moscow.

Jim Townsend: “If we are pulling troops out willy-nilly, what messages does that send?” 2/

United24: No European capital can defend itself against Russia's Oreshnik.

Europe lacks reliable defense against ballistic missiles. The US produces only 700 Patriot interceptors per year, Gulf states fired over 800 in just a few days during the Iran war.

1/ On the night of May 24, Russia launched 90 missiles and 600 drones at Kyiv. Ukraine shot down 55 out of 90 missiles — but ballistic missiles remain the main problem.

There are simply too few Patriot interceptors available.

2/

Russia jams Ukrainian drones targeting its Baltic ports and redirects them into NATO airspace.

Baltic officials warn this could gradually erode public support for Ukraine in countries that have been among Kyiv's strongest backers, — Kyiv Independent.
1/ The first major incident: March 2026, several drones crashed in Finland. At least one confirmed Ukrainian.
Kyiv apologized, saying the drones were aimed at military targets inside Russia but sent off course by Russian electronic interference.
2/

Leverage in the war has shifted to Ukraine and Europe. Russia loses 30,000 troops a month. Ukraine makes 60% of its own weapons.

Brussels is floating Merkel, Draghi and Niinistö as envoys for Putin peace talks that do not exist — Nathalie Tocci, The Guardian. 1/ Russia is escalating the war. On Sunday it hit Kyiv with the hypersonic Oreshnik, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.
Last week Lithuanians sheltered after a drone alert. The hybrid war between Russia and Europe is already running. 2/

Snyder: The essence of MAGA is losing and pretending to win. Trump is a failed businessman whose political career depends on persuading people he is successful.

When he lost in 2020, he tried to convince people he had somehow won. 1/ Snyder: The Republican Party has become a one-person cult. For it to become a party again, Trump has to lose big.

His cult depends on the illusion of strength and invulnerability — and that illusion has to be broken. 2/

Snyder: Trump is very much on Putin’s side. He keeps saying Russia has to win, will win, or has already won — but none of that is true.

Trump moved a lot of American power onto Russia’s side, and still Russia has not won. Russia is losing the war. 1/ Snyder: America has two negotiators, and neither is a diplomat: the president’s son-in-law and the president’s friend.

In any other country, that would look corrupt and impossible to work. It has already failed with Ukraine and Iran. 2/

Zelenskyy: Lukashenko said it's time for the presidents of Ukraine and Belarus to meet.

Interesting result — Lukashenko spoke, but Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya showed up. Welcome, Sviatlana.

1/ Zelenskyy: We never relied only on leaders. Societies matter. Do people feel what Ukraine fights for — and what threatens them if Ukraine falls?

That shared sense of danger united leaders, politicians, civic figures, business and media across partner countries.

2/

The Telegraph: Macron tore up 65 years of doctrine to defend Europe with French nukes, with or without the US.

Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, Denmark, and now the Czech Republic will host French nuclear-armed Rafales. 1/ France holds 290 warheads, Britain 225. Their combined arsenal totals 515 weapons against Russia's 5,580 and America's 5,225.
Without Washington, Russia alone outguns Europe 11-to-1 in warheads. Macron's plan makes those 515 European weapons unpredictable enough to matter. 2/

Trump launched the Iran war to force capitulation. His exit ramp now lets the regime claim victory simply by surviving.

Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz and pledges no nukes. Trump releases frozen funds and lifts sanctions — David Ignatius, Washington Post. 1/ Iran reopens the Strait of Hormuz immediately, without tolls. Iran pledges not to seek nuclear weapons.

In exchange the US stops hostilities, releases Iran's frozen funds, and lifts sanctions gradually over 60 days. 2/

Foreman, ex-UK Attaché in Moscow: Ukraine’s strategy is to take the battle into Russia’s deep areas and bring the war home to Russians.

Directly challenging Putin’s claim that this is only a “special military operation” somewhere far away. 1/ Foreman: What we’re seeing is the fruit of years of Ukrainian investment and ingenuity.

Ukraine now has more capability: drones can fly farther, maybe up to 1,000 km, with heavier payloads, better accuracy, and more systems promised this year. 2/

Gen. Hertling: Trump keeps insulting NATO for not coming to the rescue in Hormuz, but this is not what NATO was built for.

NATO is designed mainly for collective defense in the Euro-Atlantic region — not a sudden Gulf naval operation. 1/ Hertling: If the U.S. Navy, the most capable naval force in the world, is hesitant to escalate its own direct maritime role.

Why would NATO ask European nations to rush into a more dangerous mission while they are already supporting Ukraine? 2/

Europe wants an envoy to talk to Putin. The EU still has not agreed what Europe wants to say.

Kyiv asked Europe to be present. Europe is debating red lines first. — The New York Times. 1/ Europe cut political contact with Russia after Feb 2022. Now even the idea of talks is back.

That change is not diplomacy, but a symptom of a vacuum in the process. 2/

Tugendhat, Conservative MP: "The Kremlin is at war with Europe and its allies in Beijing are helping."

Russia has been conducting warlike acts against every European democracy for years, but Britain is asleep at the wheel — The Telegraph.

1/ 2006 — Litvinenko poisoned in London.

2018 — Skripals poisoned with Novichok in Salisbury.

2024 — GRU plot to assassinate Rheinmetall CEO Papperger. Same year, incendiary devices disguised as pillows sent through DHL, nearly brought down a cargo plane over Europe.

2/

Russia wasted $40M just to destroy garage in Bila Tserkva, Kyiv region.

The city budget of Bila Tserkva is $70M

Russia fired the same system at Lviv and Dnipro with inert warheads.

Russia launches it not for physical damage, but to intimidate the West — Reuters. 1/ Oreshnik is an intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile.

The name means Hazel Tree because of payload geometry. 2/

Czech President Pavel: if Russia's violations of NATO airspace continue, the alliance will have to shoot down unmanned, or manned , aircraft.

Russia does not understand nice language. They mostly understand the language of power. — The Guardian. 1/ Pavel proposed asymmetric responses: switching off Russia's internet or satellites, cutting Russian banks from the global financial system.

"Not killing people — but sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go."

2/

Putin built legitimacy on easy wars: Crimea in 2014, Syria from the air in 2015. Ukraine broke that model.

The war is in year five, the battlefield keeps expanding into Russia, and in Moscow visible failure at war becomes political poison, — The Telegraph. 1/ The war is now eating Russia’s economy. Wartime priorities squeeze civilians, and living costs rise.

Manpower is harder. Russia takes at least 30,000 killed and wounded every month. 2/

Former Ukrainian FM Dmytro Kuleba: Poroshenko already understood Normandy was really a 3+1 format: Russia, Germany and France on one side, Ukraine on the other.

Not because Berlin and Paris wanted us destroyed, but because they imagined peace through Ukrainian concessions. 1/ Kuleba: In Paris, Putin realized Zelenskyy had become president of Ukraine. He expected a show-business Zelenskyy from the post-Soviet world.

Instead, Zelenskyy came as president — and refused the Minsk algorithm Russia had pushed onto Ukraine with Germany and France. 2/

Two years ago a Ukrainian seven-year-old boy named Oleh was declared an orphan and placed with the family of a Russian paratrooper from Pskov Oblast.

In 2022 his adoptive father served in the unit that killed civilians in Bucha — Ukrainska Pravda. 1/ Oleh is one of 37 children taken from the Donetsk orphanage “Teremok” on February 18, 2022 — six days before the full-scale invasion. That day 626 orphans were taken from occupied territories to Russia. 2/

Russia’s elites start to believe Putin is leading the country into a dead end — but still expect him to escalate the war, not stop it.

One businessman close to the Kremlin: “There is profound disappointment in Putin,” The Guardian. 1/ Putin publicly projects calm and control.

Days after reports claimed he was hiding in a bunker fearing assassination or a coup, Kremlin TV showed him casually driving his former schoolteacher to dinner at the Kremlin carrying flowers in jeans and a light jacket. 2/

Zelenskyy: Russians just destroyed the Chornobyl museum — built one month ago. Crazy assholes.

We strike military targets — weapons production, energy that funds their army. Russia hits museums, schools, apartments.

1/ Zelenskyy: Russia destroyed the Chornobyl museum — built to honor those who saved lives. Then hospitals, kindergartens, schools.

They call it retaliation. They started this war. When we respond, we hit military targets. When they respond, they kill civilians.

2/