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Production of vodka in Russia has plummetted by more than 13%, according to the latest data. The dip occurred between January and May as the country also deals with a shortage of potatoes. On May 14, President Vladimir Putin admitted that Russians "don’t have enough potatoes". Figures suggest that, in the first few months of 2025, the price of the crop surged by 52%, while the overall harvest dropped by 12%. In the first five months of 2025, Armenia exported nearly twice as many potatoes to Russia as it did during the first half of 2024, and almost 17 times...

Ukrainian drones struck two major facilities supplying Russia's military on Monday, dealing a double blow to President Vladimir Putin's war machine. The facilities struck in early morning attacks were a plant in the Chuvash Republic, which produces navigation systems for Russian drones and missiles, and a gunpowder factory in Kazan, according to local reports.

Ukraine's military launched another attack on a Russian airbase, thousands of miles from the frontlines. The attack took place overnight and targeted Savasleyka airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The airbase is home to a number of fighter jets, including the MiG-31 K, which can fire lethal Kinzhal ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s army said the attack had wiped out a MiG-31 K and a SU-30/34 aircraft, which are regularly used to launch aerial bombardments on the country. The airbase is home to a number of fighter jets, including the MiG-31 K, which can fire lethal Kinzhal ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s army said...

Russia, if you believe the Kremlin, is eager for peace with Ukraine. -snip- For more than a year, Russian forces have made incremental but glacial gains, seizing roughly 1,500 square miles of Ukrainian territory in 2024 – the equivalent of 0.7 percent of the country’s total landmass. But the cost in human blood has been enormous. According to Ukrainian estimates, Russia suffered 434,000 casualties last year: roughly 270 killed or wounded for every square mile seized. Now, however, momentum may be shifting. Last month, Russian forces advanced at the fastest pace since last November, seizing an average of 5.5 square...

PMC Wagner is withdrawing from Mali, the company's press service said, APA reports citing Pravda. According to the press service, "for 3.5 years, the orchestra has been fighting shoulder to shoulder with the people of Mali against terrorists."

Israel pounded central Beirut in a series of strikes, and rockets fired from Lebanon targeted northern and central Israel. The attacks came as the U.S. continues to push for a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. Photo: Hussein Malla/AP TEL AVIV—As Israel advances its invasion of southern Lebanon, its troops are finding large troves of Russian weapons, confirming longstanding suspicions in Israel that Hezbollah is enhancing its fighting capacity with the help of sophisticated Russian arms. Some of the weapons, which include modern Kornet antitank missiles manufactured as recently as 2020, were sent to southern Lebanon in recent years from Russian...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday greeted Muslims all over the world on Eid al-Adha, also known as the Feast of the Sacrifice and known in Russia as "Kurban Bayram." In a statement posted on the Kremlin website, Putin noted that this holiday marks the completion of a pilgrimage to ancient religious rituals, promotes unity among people, and gives believers joy by connecting with their ancestors' rich historical and spiritual legacy. "Following ancestral teachings and traditions, Muslims celebrate Kurban Bayram by performing kind and compassionate deeds, sincerely caring for those in need of help and sympathy," he said. The Russian...

Ukrainian forces struck multiple Russian airfields and military facilities overnight on June 6, hours before Russia launched one of its heaviest aerial assaults of the war, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported. Ukrainian strikes reportedly targeted Engels and Dyagilevo airfields — two key hubs for Russia's long-range bomber fleet, as well as logistics sites in Russia's Kursk Oblast. -snip- Engels-2 air base, located in Saratov Oblast, nearly 600 kilometers (370 miles) from Ukraine's front lines, hosts Russia's Tu-95, Tu-22M3, and Tu-160 bombers — aircraft regularly used in missile attacks on Ukrainian cities. Ukraine's General Staff said a strike...

Ukraine has told Russia’s President Vladimir Putin should “stop whining” about the strategic bombers destroyed in an audacious drone attack and agree to a ceasefire. “In response to the complaints of the Russian dictator, we emphasize that Russia once again confuses cause and consequence, black and white,” Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement published on Thursday. It pointed out that, as the attacked party, Ukraine has the right to defend itself and that “No territorial limitations are imposed on the exercise of this right to self-defense.” It added that, unlike Russia, Ukraine does not target civilians but only legitimate...

Pope Leo XIV urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to take a meaningful step in favor of peace during a phone call Wednesday that focused on the ongoing war in Ukraine and the worsening humanitarian situation. The conversation, described by the Vatican as “frank and focused on the urgency of dialogue,” saw the Pope appeal directly for a gesture from Moscow that could help reduce tensions and create the conditions for further diplomatic engagement. According to Matteo Bruni, director of the Holy See Press Office, the Pontiff underlined the “importance of dialogue to create positive contacts between the parties and seek...

I just finished speaking, by telephone, with President Vladimir Putin, of Russia. The call lasted approximately one hour and 15 minutes. We discussed the attack on Russia’s docked airplanes, by Ukraine, and also various other attacks that have been taking place by both sides. It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace. President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.

It is at moments like this when I wish General Michael Flynn had not comprehensively compromised his ability to provide advice and counsel to President Donald Trump. This is great advice shared via Twitter:“1. While most of America remains blissfully uninformed by our establishment press, the world’s two greatest superpowers are being manipulated by Dark Forces inside and outside our government, into a major military confrontation that no country wants, and no sane person would ever want.2. I have no role in the Trump Administration, but over a long career in the active uniformed military, specifically military intelligence, I have...

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a Wednesday interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s behavior is growing increasingly “desperate” as his war against Ukraine continues three years after Russia’s attempted takeover of its eastern European neighbor. “He seems to be more out of control than he used to be,” she told “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade. “He was always an imperialist, but there is something about him now that seems almost more desperate in wanting to extinguish Ukraine.” -snip- “It shows that the Ukrainians are very advanced in what they are doing in their defense industry with...

It is a fantasy that just will not die. Another Kremlin security scare, another flash of speculation online, another round of breathless commentary. Maybe someone is finally trying to kill Vladimir Putin. Maybe that is what it will take to end the war. One clean shot. One collapsing regime. Peace at last. But if that idea is serious – if we are not just indulging a lurid Western daydream – then we need to ask a much harder question.

Key Points - Russia's lack of large-scale retaliation to recent audacious Ukrainian drone strikes deep within its territory does not signify weakness or fear, but rather a calculated confidence in its ongoing attritional strategy. -Moscow is reportedly achieving its core, albeit limited, war aims—consolidating control over eastern Ukrainian oblasts, securing the land bridge to Crimea, and ensuring Ukraine's non-NATO, neutralized status—through methodical ground advances and superior industrial output. -Russia is perceived to be "already winning" this war of exhaustion by fighting "smarter, not harder," and therefore sees no current need for dramatic escalations that could play into Western or Ukrainian...

The Russo-Ukrainian War is now three years old, and the third Z-Day, on February 24, 2025, was marked by a substantively different tone than prior iterations. On the battlefield, Russian forces stand significantly closer to victory than they have at any point since the opening weeks of the war. After reversals early in the war as Ukraine took advantage of Russian miscalculations and insufficient force generation, the Russian army surged in 2024, collapsing Ukraine’s front in southern Donetsk and pushing the front forward towards the remaining citadels of the Donbas.At the same time, 2025’s Z-Day was the first under the...

While Spiderweb played out on Telegram and television, Russian forces continued to advance – slowly, methodically, and without spectacle. Around Chasiv Yar, in the ruins of Avdiivka, and along the land bridge to Crimea, Moscow is doing the work that wins wars. It’s pushing lines. It’s holding ground. It’s breaking down Ukrainian defenses by weight of numbers, firepower, and time. That kind of warfare doesn’t trend on social media, but it changes maps.

LONDON/KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine's finance ministry said on Friday it would not be paying more than half a billion dollars due to holders of its GDP warrants, marking the first payment default since it created the instruments. The war-ravaged country said it owes $665 million on June 2 to holders of the $3.2 billion worth of warrants, based on 2023 economic performance. Last year, Ukraine's parliament approved a payment moratorium on the GDP-linked securities from May 31. "Ukraine remains committed to implementing a comprehensive, fair and equitable restructuring of the GDP-linked Securities," it said in a statement, adding it must comply...

RussiaNews 🇷🇺 @mog_russEN 🚨⚡️ President Vladimir Putin: “In case of massive use, Oreshnik missiles will deliver a strike equal in power to a nuclear weapon.” No nukes needed — just Russian engineering. One launch... and it’s over. From الموجز الروسي | Russia news 🇷🇺 1:32 AM · Jun 2, 2025

Hand it to the Ukrainians: They’re not only fighting heroically on, more than three years after Moscow launched its savage and utterly unprovoked war to destroy their nation, they’re fighting with cheek and style. The latest, of course, is Sunday’s surprise drone strikes on airbases deep inside Russia, targeting strategic warplanes that have been pummeling mostly-civilian targets in Ukraine. It counts as an intelligence coup, too: The drones were infiltrated to near their final targets over months, with Vladimir Putin’s massive internal-surveillance agencies left utterly in the dark. Then again, Vlad’s secret police were caught clueless back when the Wagner...