Vira Kravchuk

As France is preparing to announce the deployment of military instructors to Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned that any French military personnel sent to Ukraine, whether official or mercenary, would be considered “absolutely legitimate target” for Russian forces.

According to a recent survey by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS), 50% of respondents believe that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy fulfilled few or none of his promises during his five years in office, with half of them attributing this to the presence of dishonest and corrupt individuals within his team.

A recent survey reveals that 49 % of German citizens support a decision to allow Ukraine target Russian bases with Western weapons, however opinions divide between West Germans and East Germans.

In light of Russia's offensive in Kharkiv Oblast and intensified attacks on civilians, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, Chair of the Bundestag's Defense Committee, welcomed Germany's policy shift allowing Ukraine to use German-supplied weapons against Russian military targets but emphasized that this decision "should have happened much earlier”.

On 4 June, Ukrainian parliament passed the law on the use of English language in Ukraine which determines specific positions for which knowledge of English is required.

Despite receiving electricity imports and emergency assistance from European countries, Ukrenergo emphasized that these measures are not enough to maintain balance in the energy system due to the extensive damage caused by Russian attacks on Ukrainian power plants.

From the morning of 4 June, Polish farmers began blocking the movement of trucks at the Rava-Ruska - Hrebenne border crossing point, demanding to reduce the import of grain crops from Ukraine.

The New York Times identified 22 children out of 46 from Kherson Children’s Home, now listed for adoption in Russia, all of whom Russian authorities forcibly took to annexed Crimea before Kherson was liberated from Russian occupation in 2022; some of the kids still have their birth parents alive in Ukraine.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) caught a Ukrainian man working for Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) while he was preparing terrorist attacks aimed at Ukraine's Defense Forces servicemen by putting remote-controlled explosives under their vehicles.

Ukrainian soldiers are providing invaluable feedback to global defense companies by testing their weapons, equipment, and technologies in real combat situations, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov reveals.

With approximately 80% of Ukraine's shelters situated in schools, the Ministry of Strategic Industries made it a top priority to guarantee that these facilities not only provide a safe space but also foster an environment good for learning and creativity, even during air raids.

In a bid to facilitate repatriation of Ukrainian refugees, the Czech Ministry of the Interior will reimburse travel costs to Ukraine for 400 of Ukrainians and provide medical transport for up to 30 individuals.

Freshly appointed Russian Defense Minister Andrey Belousov significantly overstated Russian territorial advances in Ukraine since the start of 2024, claiming 880 square kilometers captured compared to ISW's assessment of approximately 752 square kilometers.

Ahead of the upcoming G-7 summit in Italy in mid June, allies are discussing measures to crack down on third-country lenders such as China, Belarus, Armenia, Tajikistan and Kazakhstan using Russia's SWIFT alternative, SPFS, to bypass trade restrictions imposed on Moscow.