Russia carried out its largest drone attack on Ukraine since the start of the war just hours after U.S. President Donald Trump said he would provide Kyiv with “defensive” weapons and criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for throwing a lot of “bullshit” during ceasefire talks.
Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor, said last week that Russia inflicted about $540 billion worth of damage inside Ukraine since the war started on 24 February 2022, and it should be Moscow that pays for the rebuild, an idea that was mocked by the Kremlin.
Russian forces now control a vast lithium deposit in the eastern part of Ukraine, which would have been used in the minerals deal that was reached between Kyiv and the Trump administration that sees the alkali metal as a top priority for national security in the future.
The Russian military now completely occupies the entire Luhansk region in Ukraine, the Associated Press reported on Monday, citing Leonid Pasechnik, the Kremlin-installed leader in the region.
Steve Witkoff, U.S. President Donald Trump’s special envoy, spoke with Tucker Carlson in March and was asked about the likelihood that Russia decides to roll over Ukraine and enter further into Europe.
Lithuania, the tiny Baltic state with a population of about 2.8 million, told Politico in an interview last week that it will never stop pushing for Ukraine to join NATO, which Russia has identified as its brightest red line.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that his military operates the most advanced nuclear weapons on the planet and said his country continues to make upgrades to its nuclear triad.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) played a major role in Kyiv’s attack on Russian air bases and bombers earlier this month, showcasing how military technology is playing a more important role than ever in warfare.
While Ukraine has had to resort to attacks on soft targets across Russia to try and prove to the West that it still has a viable military that can inflict pain on Moscow, the Russian military has taken more land in Ukraine in recent weeks on several fronts.
There were quite a lot of what Donald Trump might describe as “bad things” taking place in Washington over the past week, to include the worsening of relations with China shortly after what appeared to be an agreement had been reached over tariffs.