This embarrassment points to something that SHOULD be evident….
The Russian President IS STUCK….
He Cannot sign a cease-fire agreement right now….
His goal to capture the Ukraine has NOT happened….
His effort to show Russian ‘might’ is seriously in doubt ….
His countries economy is suffering in a conflict that has lasted for more than TWO years…
His goal of keeping NATO from expanding is a failure….
Even his wanting to use American President Trump isn’t working….
We CAN expect the Russian military to strike back at the Ukraine….
Not its military….
But at it’s civilians , as it has for weeks, and month’s….
U.S. officials said that Ukraine did not give the Trump administration advance notice that forces with Ukraine’s Security Service, or S.B.U., were planning the attack, which targeted several air bases inside Russia, including one in Siberia.
In carrying out the strikes, Ukraine deployed agents far from its borders. For instance, the distance from Kyiv, the Ukrainian capital, to Belaya Air Base, one of the targets, is more than 3,000 miles. The drones were smuggled into Russia and packed inside wooden transport containers that had remote-controlled lids and then loaded onto trucks, the S.B.U. said in a statement.
One U.S. defense official compared the Ukrainian move to the Israeli operation last year that targeted the pagers of Hezbollah operatives in Lebanon.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Monday that the drone strikes had “seriously weakened” Russia’s military operations…
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Mr. Zelensky said the operation had been in the works for a year and a half.
American officials said they expected that Russia would mount a significant retaliation against Ukraine for the strikes. U.S. intelligence has not, so far, identified what Russia is likely to strike, but officials believe Moscow could renew drone strikes on civilian targets, hit the energy grid or launch new waves of intermediate-range ballistic missiles…..
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The United States has assisted Ukrainian drone manufacturing, spending millions to build up their production capability and transferring some key technology.
But Ukraine “has now taken warfare to the next level,” said Evelyn Farkas, a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia….
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Ben Hodges, a former top U.S. Army commander in Europe, said in an interview on Monday that “it’s safe to say that there has been a significant reduction in Russia’s capability launch cruise missiles.”
But General Hodges and several other people said that Ukraine’s strikes should, at least, force the Trump administration to rethink its plans for a “golden dome” missile defense shield, which President Trump unveiled last month.
The Pentagon is drawing up plans for the project. Administration officials say it will be a next-generation military system designed to guard against a variety of ballistic, hypersonic and cruise missiles deployed by adversaries such as Russia.
But the missile shield as envisioned wouldn’t protect the United States from the types of drones Ukraine used…..
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Russian shelling killed at least five people on Monday in different frontline areas of eastern Ukraine, officials said. One death was in the city of Kramatorsk, where two others were injured; and two deaths were further south in the town of Illinivka where another three were injured. In the Kharkiv region, further to the north, prosecutors said two women were killed in a village south of Kupiansk, which has come under heavy Russian attack for months.
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The whole part of the Zaporizhzhia region controlled by Russia lost poweras a result of shelling by Ukrainian armed forces, Russia’s news agencies reported. High-voltage equipment was damaged, RIA reported, citing Yevgeny Balitsky, the head of the Russian-installed administration of the Zaporizhzhia region. The power outage did not affect the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Tass news agency reported, citing an official at the plant.
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy said “no one cares whether Russia is angry” after 117 Ukrainian drones hidden on board trucks hit dozens of warplanes at Russian airfields. “Just a day earlier, Russia had launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine, over 480 drones and missiles. There were casualties, people killed and injured. This happens every single day. So no, no one cares whether Russia is angry. What matters is that Russia must move toward ending this war,” he said. Ukraine carried out an audacious attack on Sunday, smuggling the drones into Russia in trucks and then firing them at airbases, damaging about 40 strategic bombers worth $7bn.
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Zelenskyy said that “we really expect Trump to take strong steps”, urging the US president to toughen sanctions on Russia to “push” it to agree to a full ceasefire. Negotiations between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul ended without agreement on a ceasefire on Monday. The two sides agreed to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war each, with the possibility of swapping an additional 200. The deal includes swapping all severely wounded soldiers and those under the age of 25, according to the negotiators.
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An agreement had been made to return the remains of killed service personnel, but this would take careful preparation, said Ukrainian negotiators. Russia proposed a ceasefire of two or three days in some areas of the frontline to allow the Russian army to collect the many bodies it has left lying on the battlefield.
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Ukrainian officials said the Russians rejected Kyiv’s call for an unconditional ceasefire of at least a month, instead handing over a proposal that would need to be studied by Kyiv. The Ukrainians suggested the talks should reconvene towards the end of June.
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Russian state news agency RIA said the Russian document proposed two options for a ceasefire, one of which would require Ukraine to begin a complete withdrawal of its troops from four of its regions invaded by Russia – a maximalist and unrealistic demand considering Russia only partly controls those areas. RIA described the second option only as a “package” containing a number of unspecified conditions. The Ukrainians also gave the Russians a list of nearly 400 abducted Ukrainian children that Kyiv wants Moscow to return home. The Russian delegation agreed to work on returning only 10 of them.
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Donald Trump is “open” to meeting his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts in Turkey, the White House said, after the two sides failed on Monday to make headway towards a ceasefire. Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has proposed that Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump meet this month in either Istanbul or Ankara. Putin has thus far refused such a meeting, while Zelenskyy has said he is willing. Trump, who wants a swift end to the three-year war, “is open to it if it comes to that, but he wants both of these leaders and both sides to come to the table together”, said White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt.
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The Republican leader in the US Senate said it could begin work this month on stiffer sanctions against Russia and secondary sanctions on countries that trade with it. John Thune said he was discussing with the White House sanctions legislation including 500% tariffs on countries that buy Russian oil, gas, uranium and other exports. Trump has threatened the sanctions but shown little sign of moving forward, claiming he fears jeopardising peace talks. There has been no indication from the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives that they would allow the corresponding vote on the sanctions legislation that it would need, along with Trump’s signature, to go into effect.
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Zelenskyy said on Monday that he agreed to a deal with Norway for gas supplies worth €1bn. Ukraine is likely to face a gas shortage this year due to Russia’s attacks on gas production facilities, the president said.
ISW…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 2, 2025
- Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on June 2 and only reached agreements about prisoner of war (POW) exchanges. Russia’s refusal to give Ukraine its memorandum with its terms for a peace settlement before the meeting ensured that the meeting was largely unproductive and further protracted the negotiation process.
- Ukrainian and Russian media published the major points of both sides’ memorandums on June 1 and 2, respectively.
- Russia’s memorandum reflects the Kremlin’s long-standing public demands for Ukraine to make significant territorial and political concessions while Russia offers no concessions of its own.
- The Russian delegation dismissed Russia’s systemic kidnapping of Ukrainian children.
- Russian forces appear to be intensifying efforts to widen the frontline in northern Sumy Oblast along three axes of advance north and northeast of Sumy City.
- Open-source analysts continue to clarify the battlefield damage following the Ukrainian long-range drone strike series on June 1.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Velyka Novosilka. Russian forces recently advanced near Lyman, Chasiv Yar, and Toretsk.
Daily Kos grunt report for Today….
Note…
There WERE Ukraine/Russian talks today in Instabul….
They lasted for about a hour….
The talk was about POW swaps….
Cease-Fire pitchs where exchanged….
They have no chance in their present form…
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