Russia’s answer to last weekslong reaching Ukraine drone attacks….
Russia Troops have started a Spring Offensive…..
The preomised POW swap happens….
NATO feels that Putin IS coming for it also….
The Crimea may NEVER return to beingUkrainian…
Israel give’s Ukraine old Patriot missile unit’s…
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Kyiv and the port city of Odesa came under “massive” drone attacks from Russia early Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said. One person was killed and at least four wounded in Odesa after residential buildings and medical facilities were hit, the port city’s governor said on Tuesday. “Residential buildings in the centre of Odesa were destroyed and damaged. A 59-year-old man was killed,” said Governor Oleg Kiper, adding that medics were treating four wounded people.An AFP journalist in central Kyiv heard at least a dozen explosions and gunfire, as air defences tried to down the drones. Buildings and cars in several districts were burning and debris fell near a school.
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The attack came a day after Russia launched almost 500 drones at Ukraine in the biggest overnight drone bombardment of the three-year war, according to the Ukrainian air force, as the Kremlin presses ahead with its summer offensive. In addition to the 479 drones, 20 missiles of various types were fired at different parts of Ukraine from Sunday to Monday, according to the air force, which said the barrage targeted mainly central and western areas.
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A recent escalation in aerial attacks has coincided with a renewed Russian battlefield push along eastern and northeastern parts of the roughly 1,000-km, (620-mile) frontline. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late on Sunday that in some of those areas, “the situation is very difficult.” He provided no details.
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Amid direct peace talks that have yet to deliver progress on stopping the fighting, Russia and Ukraine swapped another batch of prisoners of war Monday. Those who were swapped included wounded soldiers, as well as those under 25, Zelenskyy said. “The process is quite complicated, there are many sensitive details, negotiations continue virtually every day,” he added.
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The exchange was the result of direct talks between the two sides in Istanbul on 2 June that resulted in an agreement to exchange at least 1,200 PoW on each side and to repatriate thousands of bodies of those killed in Russia’s war in Ukraine. Neither side said how many prisoners had been swapped on Monday.
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Russia’s civil aviation authority Rosaviatsia said early on Tuesday it temporarily halted flights at all four major airports serving Moscow to ensure safety, after the defence ministry said Ukraine was carrying out a drone attack on Russia.
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Russia is determined to test the resolve of the Nato alliance, including by extending its confrontation with the West beyond the borders of Ukraine, Germany’s foreign intelligence chief told the Table Media news organisation. Bruno Kahl, the head of the Federal Intelligence Service, said his agency had clear intelligence indications that Russian officials believed the collective defence obligations enshrined in the Nato treaty no longer had practical force. “We are quite certain, and we have intelligence showing it, that Ukraine is only a step on the journey westward,” Kahl told Table Media in a podcast interview.
“That doesn’t mean we expect tank armies to roll westwards,” he added. “But we see that Nato’s collective defence promise is to be tested.” -
Germany, already the second-largest provider of armaments and financial support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, has pledged to step up its support further under the new government of chancellor Friedrich Merz, promising to help Ukraine develop new missiles that could strike deep into Russian territory.
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Is Crimea ALREADY a Lost Cause to Ukraine?
Ever since Russia seized Crimea in 2014 in a preview of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine eight years later, the peninsula has been a focal point of the conflict between the countries.
Moscow says its conquest righted a historical wrong, and demanded in cease-fire negotiations in Istanbul last week that any settlement include international recognition of Russian control. Ukraine vows to never abandon its claim.
President Trump, amid his spurtive attempts to end the war in Ukraine, has also waded into the argument, suggesting that any peace settlement might include Washington’s recognizing Russian sovereignty over Crimea.
Overall, the war has solidified changes to life in Crimea that began with the annexation, isolating the peninsula as a scenic but volatile beach destination limited largely to Russians. The majority “Crimea is Ours” crowd, nicknamed after a Kremlin slogan celebrating the annexation — tends to downplay the conflict as an inconvenience….
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Despite improved living standards, Crimeans rank below the Russian national average in income, especially as the war has pushed up prices, although some benefit. Crimean wines gained a new cachet after the European Union banned most wine sales to Russia, so the cost of vineyard land more than quintupled in four years, one vintner said.
Tens of thousands of Ukrainians have left the peninsula, and a wave of Russians emigrated from the mainland, although concrete numbers are elusive.
Ukraine says acknowledging Russian sovereignty would reward aggression. Crimeans often react to the idea that a war settlement might include recognition of the peninsula as Russian with a shrug, although they would welcome the end of sanctions that restrict travel and deter outside investment.
“Honestly speaking, the majority of Crimean people don’t think about recognition, because they consider Crimea a part of Russia,” said Lubov V. Gribkova, a foreign relations adviser to the mayor of Yalta….
ISW…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, June 9, 2025
- Russian forces recently advanced to the Dnipropetrovsk-Donetsk administrative border as Kremlin officials continued to demonstrate that Russia has wider territorial ambitions in Ukraine beyond Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson oblasts and Crimea.
- The Kremlin appears to be dangling the prospect of bilateral arms control talks with the United States to extract preemptive concessions from the United States about the war in Ukraine.
- Western security officials continue to assess that Russia is preparing for a protracted confrontation with NATO.
- Russian forces conducted the largest combined missile and drone strike of the war overnight on June 8 and 9.
- Ukrainian forces continue to conduct drone strikes against Russian military and defense industrial targets that are involved in Russia’s long-range drone and missile strikes against Ukraine.
- Ukraine and Russia on June 9 conducted the first round of the prisoner of war (POW) exchanges that the parties agreed to during the latest bilateral talks in Istanbul on June 2 as Russian officials continued to baselessly accuse Ukraine of failing to repatriate the bodies of killed in action (KIA) soldiers.
- Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Lyman. Russian forces recently advanced near Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Novopavlivka, and Kurakhove
Daily Kos grunt Report for Today…
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