Exclusives
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Hungary's new government summons Russian envoy after strike on Zakarpattia. Russia hit the Hungarian-bordering Ukrainian region with drones, days after Magyar's government took office. |
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Nicolas Tenzer: stop talking about peace, the question is victory. French geopolitical expert on his book Our War, Putin's nihilist regime, and the strategic autonomy Europe must build with or without Washington. |
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A pro-government think tank wants Russia's central bank chief replaced—the trap stays. The trap doesn't care who chairs the bank. |
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Ukraine retrains workers over 50 as the younger labor force vanishes. The new strategic reserve has gray hair. |
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Ukrainian drones halted Russia's spring advance. Russia is bombing back. It's a race. Can Ukrainian drones deplete Russian forces faster than Russian bombs deplete Ukrainian forces? |
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So many Ukrainian AI drones are hunting Russian trucks they're crossing each other's paths. Ukraine's AI drones are stacking up over the Russian logistical zone, each looking for a truck to blow up. |
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BBC: 184 sanctioned Russian tankers made 238 journeys through UK waters since the PM's March intercept threat. 94 instances saw vessels enter actual UK territorial waters, and a Russian frigate escorted one tanker through the Channel — with zero publicly confirmed boardings. |
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Ukraine's IMF lifeline depends on tax reforms parliament keeps stalling. A $614 million parcel tax that unlocks $8.1 billion in IMF funding is six weeks past its deadline. |
Military
Russia is abandoning its push on Stepnohirsk where average mobilized Russian soldier survived 12 minutes. Russia threw elite units at Stepnohirsk. The average newly mobilized soldier lasted 12 minutes. Now Russia is leaving.
Intelligence and technology
Pentagon is now studying Ukraine's drone warfare up close.
Europe doesn't make missile defenses at scale. Thirteen countries just joined Ukraine to fix that. Thirteen European countries and NATO met in Kyiv on 12 May to launch coordinated anti-ballistic missile production—a shift from US Patriot dependence.
International
Russia wants joint economic projects with US — but only if Washington stops linking them to peace in Ukraine. Russia is offering Trump a deal that makes peace unnecessary.
Kremlin terms unchanged: Moscow repeats Putin's 2024 demand for four Ukraine's oblasts as peace push stalls. That is a demand for capitulation, not for peace.
One of few Western officials to witness war firsthand: What did Germany's defense minister see on Ukraine's front line? Boris Pistorius went to the front line. Then he joined an EU defense ministers meeting from headquarters near combat area.
Possessing weapons is only one of three essentials in modern war, Zelenskyy tells NATO's eastern flank at B9 summit. Meanwhile, Russia chose the moment of a NATO summit on its eastern flank to demonstrate it will strike anywhere, anytime, including regions it had previously avoided.
Lukashenka announces war preparations—Ukrainian official calls it Russian "information agenda". A war-readiness regime Belarus can run indefinitely without invading.
Humanitarian and social impact
Russia is hitting Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast, bordering Hungary with drones, for first time. Expert says this is linked to end of Orbán's era. The scale of the May 13 attack may break all previous records. And the timing is not a coincidence.
Russia seizes 900 Mariupol apartments from owners it forced to flee. Russia is redistributing nearly 900 Mariupol apartments. The owners fled the bombing. The new tenants will be Russian officials.
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