Exclusive

Ukraine’s new bike unit mirrors Russia’s dumbest suicidal tactic — and that’s a strategic problem. Ukraine’s new bike unit adopts a Russian-style tactic: fast, deadly, and often doomed. It’s a gamble Kyiv may not be able to afford.

Military

60 Sumy border settlements completely abandoned amid intensified Russian attacks and offensive threat. More than 400 people evacuated from Ukrainian border communities in a single week, with 26 children among those forced to leave their homes.

UK intel: North Korea sent 11,000 troops to help Russia in Kursk—over half never came back. Kim Jong-un sent troops to back Putin in Kursk. UK intel says over 6,000 didn’t return.

Ukrainian actor-turned-soldier killed in combat. He traded stage for battlefield to defend Ukraine. Yurii Felipenko was known for theater work at Kyiv Academic Drama Theater and television appearances spanning a decade before he became a drone operator when Russia’s full-scale invasion started.

Intelligence and Technology

Ukrainian drone veterans train Estonia’s Defense League in battlefield tactics. Estonia’s Defense League volunteers are learning drone warfare from Ukrainian operators who spend up to 29 days at a time on the front lines, where drones serve as the “eyes of God” in modern combat.

German Vector and Twister drones already help Ukraine track targets. Soon, they’ll come armed with power to hear artillery before it hits. They will be linked to neural networks are being developed to automatically identify weapons — and guide counterstrikes.

Diplomacy can wait, but weapons can’t. Kyiv is ready to spend cash on American equipment. The Ukrainian president reveals plans to negotiate a new defense deal with Trump

International

Russia still cashing in: EU’s $ 231 bn fuel bill exposes nuclear blind spot. Brussels faces a $278 bn investment bill to wean the EU off Russian nuclear technology by the 2030s, as the bloc’s 101 nuclear reactors depend on Moscow for up to 25% of their uranium supply chain.

Ukraine’s people have bridged historic divides—up to 90% now stand united behind NATO and EU membership. Once split by language and geopolitics, Ukrainian society has been fundamentally reshaped.

Politico: Baltic hospitals go underground as NATO’s eastern flank braces for Russian threat. Three years into Russia’s war in Ukraine, hospitals across NATO’s eastern flank are moving operations underground, stockpiling tourniquets by the thousands, and asking medical staff to sign pledges promising they won’t flee if war arrives at their borders.

Canada’s uranium could replace Russia’s resources, choking off Kremlin money, say expert. Beyond oil and gas, Canada’s uranium production offers the West a rare chance to break nuclear dependency on Russia and Kazakhstan, says expert John Kirton.

Axios: Trump and Zelenskyy to meet at G7 summit in Canada first time since April. The last time the two leaders met in April before Pope Francis’ funeral.

Humanitarian and Social Impact

Umerov: Ukraine managed to return over 6,000 bodies of the dead, the fight for prisoners is ahead. Over 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers returned home following the completion of Istanbul agreement implementation, marking the end of this repatriation stage and the beginning of prisoner exchange efforts, according to Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.

What three years of Russian captivity did to Ukrainian soldier. Mariupol defender Oleksandr was captured in 2022 and returned home in a recent prisoner exchange.

Doctors began removing “Glory to Russia” words carved on Ukrainian POW body. The propaganda inscription was discovered when the wounded serviceman regained consciousness after surgery in Russian custody.

Political and Legal Developments

Moscow quietly rushes to reinforce its nuclear sites just 300 km from Sweden. Meanwhile, Russia’s revised policy allows nukes in response attacks supported by NATO members.

Latvian MP faces 20 years in prison after shouting in Russian at parliament. Latvia’s State Security Service detained former parliamentarian Aleksejs Rosļikovs after he shouted “There are more of us, our language is Russian!” during a 5 June parliamentary session.

Russia planned to destroy Mariupol before 2022 — first public evidence emerges. From official plans to ash and silence — Mariupol’s fate was sealed in Kremlin documents.

Russia expands nuclear facilities near European borders, satellite images reveal. Russia knows that these threats cause panic in the Western world and exploits this fear strategically, according to a former NATO nuclear policy expert.

Read our earlier daily review here.

Moscow is lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons and strengthening its infrastructure less than 300 km from Sweden’s border, EurActiv.com reports. 

Russia has significantly intensified the construction and modernization of nuclear facilities near Sweden, particularly in Kaliningrad, Belarus, and the Arctic, according to new satellite imagery.

“We are closely monitoring Russian capabilities in this area. It is about both Russian investments in nuclear weapons capability and the development of a new doctrine,” said Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson.

Key developments include:

• Kaliningrad base – new fencing, communications systems, and up to 100 tactical nuclear weapons
• Asipovichy, Belarus – reinforced storage facilities and improved transport logistics
• Kola Peninsula and Novaya Zemlya – new underground storage for sea-launched missiles

In November 2024, the Kremlin revised its nuclear doctrine to permit the use of nuclear weapons not only in response to a nuclear strike, but also in cases of any “critical threat,” including conventional attacks supported by NATO countries. Such strikes can now be interpreted as “joint aggression” against Russia or Belarus.

These changes, along with Russia’s withdrawal from key arms control treaties, are creating a dangerous precedent, with Moscow increasingly using nuclear rhetoric to intimidate the West.

“Russia has lowered the threshold for threatening to use nuclear weapons, and we have seen since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it has done so more than 200 times at different political levels,” Jonson emphasized.

Earlier, expert Oleksii Izhak said that Russia was creating a risk for its nuclear force with its own hands. By deploying elements of its nuclear triad in the war against Ukraine, it is turning its strategic delivery systems into legitimate military targets, including strategic aviation. 

The confrontation between Israel and Iran is gaining momentum. These developments will have a direct impact on the Russia-Ukraine war. The coming weeks will show how intensely the situation in the Middle East will escalate, Ukrainian diplomat and former Ambassador to the US Valery Chalyi told Channel 24.

In the short term, Chalyi believes the events in the Middle East will not significantly affect Ukraine. However, global risks are very real.

“It is important that Russia loses money. That would be possible if oil prices dropped,” Chalyi explains.

Bloomberg: US blocks EU and UK push to cut Russian oil price cap to $45

But if Iran blocks the Strait of Hormuz and oil prices skyrocket, the Kremlin would receive additional profits to fund the war.

Another threat is the West’s shifting focus. In the event of a major war, the US might choose to prioritize arms supplies to Israel over Ukraine, Chalyi warns.

However, there is also an opportunity: if Israel destroys Iran’s ballistic missiles and Shahed drones, that would directly reduce Russia’s ability to strike Ukrainian cities.

“Although the Russians are manufacturing drones, they’re doing it using Iranian technology. The Iranians are helping them tremendously,” the diplomat notes.

According to Chalyi, a prolonged Israel-Iran war would clearly work against Ukraine. The Kremlin could attempt to exploit the situation to negotiate with the West. 

Chalyi emphasizes that Iran is an enemy of Ukraine. In 2020, its military shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 people on board. Today, Iran supplies Russia with drones, and possibly missiles.

Iran’s downed Ukrainian airliner trial lacks impartiality and transparency

“If Israel destroys the rockets and Shaheds that could kill Ukrainians—maybe that’s karma,” Chalyi suggests.

He adds that Ukraine is now a global player with one of the strongest armies in the world. Therefore, it must act strategically in cooperation with the EU and the US to prevent a drawn-out war in the Middle East while simultaneously securing victory on its own front.

Russia is creating a risk for its nuclear force with its own hands. By deploying elements of its nuclear triad in the war against Ukraine, it is turning its strategic delivery systems into legitimate military targets, says expert Oleksii Izhak from Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, Espreso reports. 

This trend became especially evident after Ukraine’s large-scale Operation Spiderweb, a series of precision strikes on Russia’s strategic airbases. These attacks exposed the vulnerability of sites previously believed to be immune to any assault. It was only after this campaign that Moscow began warning of a “threat to Russia’s nuclear security.”

But the expert is convinced: if Russia itself involves potential nuclear delivery systems in a conventional war, it forfeits its so-called nuclear immunity.

Moscow employs nuclear force components in its war effort. Russian dual-use systems, Iskander-M, Iskander-K, Kinzhal missiles, Su-24M, Su-34, and Tu-22M3 bombers, are regularly used with conventional warheads to strike targets in Ukraine.

“Ukraine is systematically destroying and will continue to destroy these systems on the battlefield, and there is no argument the West can make that undermines the logic of Ukraine’s actions,” says Izhak.

In such circumstances, Russia cannot expect that the mere nuclear potential of its systems will grant them any immunity.

According to him, Moscow has chosen a dangerous path, invoking nuclear weapons in rhetoric while actively using their delivery systems in a conventional war. But the war against Ukraine has proven these platforms are far from invulnerable.

It’s not just the strategic bombers that have proven to be large, exposed targets. Even mobile launchers like the Topol-M and Yars are barely protected.

For decades, the Kremlin justified its opposition to NATO expansion by claiming that non-nuclear missile deployments near Russian borders would undermine its nuclear security. But now, as Ukrainian drones and missiles destroy nuclear-capable delivery systems deep inside Russia, that argument is losing all credibility.

“NATO may expand or not — the new vulnerability of Russia’s nuclear forces will remain,” says Izhak.

At the same time, he stresses that no one would target Russia’s nuclear triad if it posed no threat. If Russia were to cease its aggression against Ukraine, it would no longer need its strategic arsenals.

Ukraine warns of a nuclear disaster risk that could impact all of Europe. Moscow is reportedly considering reconnecting the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the Russian energy grid despite serious technical problems, UNIAN reports.

According to Yury Sheiko, First Deputy Minister of Energy of Ukraine, the plant’s power units remain in cold shutdown and are not generating electricity. The station is still being powered by Ukraine’s energy grid.

“They have no spare parts, no equipment, and no idea how to maintain or repair it,” Sheiko stresses.

The situation is even more dangerous due to a lack of qualified personnel. Most Ukrainian specialists do not have access to the equipment, and the technical condition of the plant remains unknown.

“No repairs have been carried out. The plant is not ready to be restarted. It’s extremely risky,” he warns.

Ukraine believes that Russia is using the prospect of restarting the plant as a tool of nuclear blackmail, trying to pressure both Kyiv and the international community.

Earlier, Petro Andriushchenko, head of the Center for the Study of Occupation, reported that Russia may be preparing to connect the ZNPP to its own grid, constructing a power line to restore the plant’s full operation.

Meanwhile, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi stated that the agency has no evidence that the plant is being reconnected to the Russian grid. He also noted that the ZNPP cannot be restarted due to a lack of cooling water for the reactors.

The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the biggest in Europe, occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, remains completely shut down, with all six reactors in a cold shutdown state.

In an interview with Reuters, IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi emphasized that restarting the plant is not feasible under current conditions.

The key issues are an unstable power supply and, more critically, a lack of cooling water, which is essential for the safe operation of nuclear reactors.

“We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done,” Grossi said.

He explained that to bring even a single reactor back online, it would be necessary to install a new pumping system to draw water from the Dnipro River and inspect all equipment that has remained inactive for nearly three years.

Currently, IAEA missions access the plant from Russian-occupied territory, as Moscow no longer guarantees the safety of international experts entering from the Ukrainian side, as was previously the case.

Meanwhile, Greenpeace reports that Russian forces are building a new power line along the Azov Sea coast to connect the plant directly to Russia’s power grid. This may signal preparations to restart the plant independently, bypassing Ukrainian oversight.

In response, Ukraine has sent a formal diplomatic note to the IAEA, stressing that any attempt to restart the plant without authorization from Ukraine’s nuclear regulatory authority is illegal and poses an unacceptable threat to nuclear safety.