The War in Ukraine Arrives at a Crucial Juncture

by James Carden | Jul 2, 2026

Though relegated to the sidelines thanks to President Donald Trump’s decision to launch an illegal and unjustified war on Iran at the behest of the Israeli warfare state, the war in Ukraine grows more dangerous with each passing day. In fact, recent reports indicate a perilous increase in attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure from both Moscow and Kiev.

On June 17, Kiev launched the largest aerial attack of the war on Moscow with an estimated 550 drones and missiles. One attack resulted in the spectacular explosion at the Kapotnya refinery southeast of Moscow. It was the third time in a month that the refinery had been targeted by Kiev. Whether the explosion was caused by a Russian MANPAD defending Moscow or by a direct hit from a Ukrainian drone remains unclear. Shortly after the attack, a Ukrainian commander sent a message to the Russian people: “This war has now reached your homes as well. We hope that message helps Russia bring this war to an end.”

Only days later, on June 20, another attack struck the Antipinsky oil refinery in Tyumen in Western Siberia, some 1,200 miles from Ukraine. That same evening, Ukraine struck the oil terminal at Kerch in Crimea. A week later, Ukraine hit Russian refineries in the Krasnodar and Yaroslavl regions.

In response, Russian forces have struck both Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia, killing numerous civilians. For his part, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, noted that “strikes on our infrastructure, wherever they are directed, have absolutely no effect on the situation at the front, on the line of contact.”

For Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky, there would seem to be a number of motives at play — none of which portend an end to the conflict, now in its fifth year. For one thing, Zelensky has seen a dip in the robust support he once had from Washington under Trump II. He seems convinced that such shows of force will shore up what remains of his support among Democratic war hawks, as well as among his European collaborators such as the German Chancellor Frederich Merz and the now-departing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

Yet Zelensky’s stepped-up drone war, far from being, as some US analysts suggest, a show of strength, may be the beginning of the end for the budding despot, the desperate last gasp of a wartime leader with an economy in ruins, a shrinking population, and a generation of young men irretrievably lost. Putting Zelensky’s drone war into proper perspective may require recalling how ultimately ineffective the flurry of Nazi Germany’s V2 missile attacks on London and the Japanese Kamikaze attacks on the US Navy were during the final year of the Second World War.

The mood among ‘official’ Moscow has, as might be expected in light of these developments, grown darker than usual. In addition to the unprecedented drone attacks on Moscow, Russia has suffered an estimated 1.2 million war casualties, including approximately 325,000 dead. And while there are growing signs of war weariness and disgust with Putin’s regime among pro-Western elements in Moscow and St. Petersburg, there are voices close to the Kremlin that are, in a manner not terribly dissimilar to our own neoconservatives whenever Israel attacked, baying for blood.

Sergei Karaganov, an academic who heads the Kremlin’s Council for Foreign and Defense Policy, has repeatedly called for Russia to strike Europe with nuclear weapons in order to “restore deterrence.” For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov promised that Russia would retaliate for the refinery attack on a “mass scale.” Lavrov also warned that the current “state of affairs poses serious threats to global security. A direct confrontation between NATO and Russia could rapidly escalate into an exchange of nuclear strikes, with catastrophic consequences.” Lavrov’s comments were originally meant for publication in POLITICO Europe, but the outlet, owned by the shamelessly pro-war Axel Springer group, pulled the piece at the last minute. Heaven forbid we hear from the “enemy” directly.

That said, with Donald Trump distracted by more pressing matters of state such as the deteriorating condition of the Reflecting Pool and his duties as host of the Great American State Fair (his promise to end this war now, as with so many other promises, forgotten) few, if any, remaining world leaders outside of Pope Leo XIV have called for a cessation of hostilities in between Russia and Ukraine and her sponsors in Washington and Brussels.

With Moscow married to its narrative, and Kiev married to its, now would seem the time for diplomacy – to assist Moscow and Kiev seek, as Kissinger once put it, a “common interest for different purposes.” Yet the war drags on. And its potential to suck both Europe and the United States into a far more disastrous conflagration grows as both parties to the conflict become increasingly desperate for a breakthrough.

James W. Carden is the author of The Great Betrayal: How the Democrats Became the Party of War. He is the editor of The Realist Review and a contributing editor at The Nation.

James W. Carden is the editor of The Realist Review.  He is a columnist and former adviser to the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission at the U.S. Department of State. His articles and essays have appeared in a wide variety of publications including The Nation, The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, The Spectator, UnHerd, The National Interest, Quartz, The Los Angeles Times, and American Affairs.

Strike on Kyiv cathedral highlights rush to preserve Ukrainian artifacts

(RNS) — The Ark for Ukraine project has brought three mobile labs in vans to Ukraine to help preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage by scanning archives of thousands of manuscripts, artifacts and even buildings to digitize them.

Rescue workers try to put out a fire at the Dormition Cathedral of thousand-year-old Monastery of Caves, also known as Kyiv Pechersk-Lavra, following a Russian strike on Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

David I. Klein
July 1, 2026

RNS

(RNS) — For those working to safeguard Ukraine’s religious and cultural heritage, the threats of moisture, sunlight and mishandling have taken a backseat to bullets, bombs and looting.

Up against four years of destruction and counting, a dedicated cadre of scholars, artists and museum workers in Ukraine and around the world is working to preserve and immortalize what they can — if not physically then digitally.

In mid-June, Russian drones struck an 11th-century church, Ukraine’s most important religious site. The church and its associated cave and monastery complex, called the Kyiv Perchesk-Lavra, is revered by Eastern Orthodox Christians globally and contains hundreds of icons and relics, including a crypt of saints from across the centuries.

The June 15 strike started fires in the Dormition Cathedral and damaged several other buildings on the grounds, which will take an estimated 10 million euros to restore, according to Ukrainian officials. The strike was among the most damaging to Ukraine’s cultural and religious heritage since the outbreak of the full-scale war in February 2022.

“Before this attack, we knew that they could target our culture, so we are already trying to preserve everything we can,” said Kateryna Shapovalova, the custodian of collections at the Museum of Kyiv History.

An Ark III 3D scan at Kyiv Pechersk-Lavra in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo © 2026 Paul Safko)

The Ark for Ukraine project, which Shapovalova is part of, has, since 2023, brought three mobile labs to Ukraine to help preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage by scanning archives of thousands of manuscripts, artifacts and even buildings to digitize them.

Shapovalova signed up to train with an ark unit after surviving a missile strike on her apartment complex that destroyed her own home.

“I want to save our culture and preserve what I can because I can see how it can stay in mine and everyone’s mentality when something precious can be destroyed,” she said, saying she felt so devastated after losing her apartment that she needed medication.

Arks I and II mobile units, established as a partnership between the national libraries of Ukraine and the Czech Republic, scan in 2D.

The Ark III mobile lab at Kyiv Pechersk-Lavra in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo © 2026 Paul Safko)

Ark III, a partnership between the Kyiv Perchesk-Lavra and the National Museum of the Czech Republic, takes on another dimension, equipped with drones to 3D scan everything from the smallest pieces of jewelry to entire cathedrals and monasteries.

“With all the technology we have on hand, we are able to create so-called digital twins to have perfect clones, digital clones, of all the real items,” Paul Safko, one of the architects behind ARK III, told Religion News Service.

The digital clones will never compare to seeing a real piece of history in front of your face, holding it in your hands, or in the case of Orthodox Christian worship, kissing an icon or asking a saint for intercession in the presence of their mummified body. But digital copies can be an essential tool for researchers around the world and for repairing and restoring damage.

The lab, built into the chassis of a Volkswagen Crafter van, was unveiled in front of Perchesk-Lavra in late May, less than a month before the complex was struck.

“We had to develop a unique solution, as, after I did some research, I found nothing like it existed before,” Safko said. “We decided to create a mobile station, a lab on wheels … the main idea was that if it’s in a dangerous zone, in case of an airstrike, alarm or any shooting nearby, the car is able to move, to run.”

The vans themselves have become targets, with their locations needing to be kept closely guarded, according to a spokesman for The Czech-based Karel Komarek Family Foundation, which funds the project.

The June 15 attack also struck Ukraine’s national film studio, destroying its entire historic costume collection, containing more than 100,000 outfits stretching back decades. A day earlier, a drone strike on the Kharkiv Museum of Art damaged over a thousand exhibits. And on June 16, a music hall in Dnipro and Kyiv’s National Chernobyl Museum were also damaged in attacks.

At the Museum of Kyiv History, precious underground space is saved for the most historically significant exhibits, while others are stored in aboveground safes, said Shapovalova.

The recent drone strike shattered glass throughout her museum, but that has become a normal occurrence, she explained, joking that she was thankful the history museum is in an old building rather than a modernist one with glass architecture.

According to UNESCO, some 536 registered cultural heritage sites have been verified as damaged or destroyed as of the beginning of June 2026. Of those, 154 are religious sites, like Perchesk-Lavra. A report by Ukrainian authorities estimated more than 1,700 damaged heritage sites.

In a country where 85% of the population identifies as Christian, and with longstanding Muslim and Jewish communities, those sites are a key part of Ukraine’s national identity, said Cyril Hovorun, a Ukrainian Orthodox theologian and scholar and associate dean at Sankt Ignatius Theological Academy in Sweden and senior lecturer at the Stockholm School of Theology.

Ark III 3D equipment on May 25, 2026, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo © 2026 Paul Safko)

Ukraine has remained on the border of Eastern and Western worlds for much of its history.

“Ukraine never wanted to be isolated; however, it always was on the fringes of different worlds, hence the name — which means borderland,” Hovorun said. “But it wasn’t just the borderland of Moscow, but of everything else in which Ukraine participated, of the Roman world, the Arabic world, the Slavic world, you name it.”

Ukraine’s Orthodox monasteries tell of its ties to the Eastern Roman world, its Catholic cathedrals to the Western one, its mosques to the Ottoman Empire and Islamic caliphates and its synagogues and Jewish cemeteries to the global Ashkenazi Jewish culture that spread from Ukraine to America, Israel and beyond, Hovorun said.

“That continues to this day. It’s reflected in our culture, our artifacts, archeological findings, literature and the mentality of the people,” he continued. “Largely this war of Russia against Ukraine has been a war against our identity. They want to destroy and obliterate our identity, and because those sites are part of our identity, they target them.”

Russia has not acknowledged intentionally targeting Ukrainian heritage sites and denied responsibility for the attack on Perchesk-Lavra, instead blaming American armaments for the damage.

But the denial of a Ukrainian culture and history distinct and separate from Russia’s has been one of Moscow’s justifications for the war since its start.

Russia has also been accused of systematically removing evidence of that culture from the regions of Ukraine it occupies, of “Russifying” Ukrainian children, and a year ago banning the Ukrainian language from being taught in schools in the occupied regions (areas that were largely Russophone before the war.)

Rescue workers carry out temporary repairs of the roof of the Dormition Cathedral of thousand-year-old Monastery of Caves, also known as Kyiv Pechersk-Lavra, damaged after a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

Lukáš Pfauser, spokesman for the Karel Komárek Family Foundation funding the Ark project with support from prominent Czech philanthropists, said that the organization was drawn to the project due to their country’s own experience as a satellite state in the Soviet bloc. Many accuse Russia’s leaders, who espouse a Russian World ideology, of trying to imitate the Soviet-era attempt at authoritarian unity.

“For 50 years we were under the totalitarian regime, so we have a huge experience from our own culture,” Pfauser said.

“The main quote in our minds was, ‘If a nation’s culture survives, then so too does the nation,’” he added, referencing the words of the famed Czechoslovak economist and art collector Jan Viktor Mládek.

Shapovalova wants everyone learning about Ukraine to know that Ukrainians are their own people, preserving their own culture that is hundreds of years old.

Ultimately, Shapovalova and her colleagues know they won’t be able to save everything.

“You always need to have priorities, and we’re always glad that we know we need to save our people first, and our items after that,” Shapovalova said.

AU CONTRAIRE

Ukraine, Europe and Global Security - Lavrov

Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov penned an article that was originally planned to be published in the Brussels-based Politico-Europe but got pulled. The ministry subsequently published the piece on its own website. / bne IntelliNewsFacebook

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By Ben Aris in Berlin June 23, 2026

Below is the text of an article by Russia’s veteran Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that was originally planned to be published in the Brussels-based Politico-Europe outlet, but according to reports was pulled at the last minute by editors.

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs subsequently published the article on its own website. It comes in the context of America’s withdrawal from the ceasefire negotiations led by the Trump administration that came close to doing a deal at the Moscow meeting on December 3 that produced a 27-point peace plan (27PPP) that the Kremlin largely accepted.

But then the Gulf War broke out and US President Donald Trump lost interest in the Ukraine war talks which hit a roadblock over the issue of control over Donbas and the West’s reluctance to offer Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a real security deal.

Since then the burden has fallen entirely on Europe’s shoulders. At the E3 London summit on June 8 the leaders of France, Germany and the UK drew up a five point plan to end the war. But it starts with a call for an unconditional ceasefire before any negotiation can start – a position the Kremlin categorically rejected at the similar “final offer” summit in London a year earlier.

The Kremlin has said repeatedly that it is open to talks and Russian President Vladimir Putin said the “end of the war is close” at a press conference following the Victory Day parade this year. But observers say that the Kremlin’s position remains unchanged: the war will end when either Russia captures, or Bankova concedes, control over the remaining unoccupied parts of the Donbas are in Russia’s hands.

Lavrov discusses these points and more in his article:

 

Some Reflections on Resolving the Ukrainian Crisis, Europe and Global Security

At a meeting in London on 7 June 2026, the leaders of Britain, France, and Germany, as well as Vladimir Zelenskiy, laid out five preconditions for Russia to secure a "just and lasting peace" in Ukraine. The united Europe now presents this list of demands as the basis for dialogue with Moscow.

Background

More than two decades of negotiation with Europe, as part of the collective West, leads to only one conclusion: engaging Russia in dialogue has served as a diplomatic smokescreen for the geopolitical expansion of Western institutions, above all Nato and the European Union, eastwards, right up to Russia's borders.

Europe's complicity in fuelling the Ukrainian crisis is undeniable. Together with the United States, European countries orchestrated the Orange Revolution in Kyiv in 2004. To create an anti-Russian bridgehead in Ukraine, they spent years buying off politicians and entire parties, rewriting history and educational curricula, cultivating and nurturing Ukrainian nationalism, and went to great lengths to pull Ukraine away from Russia.

In 2013, the European Union rejected outright our proposal for a compromise on the association agreement – a deal Brussels had long been pressing Viktor Yanukovych to sign. It is worth recalling: Ukraine was offered unilateral market opening, without reciprocal commitments – terms that would have proved incompatible with Kyiv's continued membership in the CIS free-trade zone. When Viktor Yanukovich requested a deferral, the Europeans incited street riots which swiftly escalated into a coup d'état in Kyiv in February 2014.

Germany, France and Poland then proved themselves to be equally treacherous. Having guaranteed that the agreement struck between the opposition and Viktor Yanukovych would be honoured, they washed their hands of it the instant that same opposition, their own handiwork, took power. "Democracy," they shrugged, "takes unexpected turns."

Europe thereafter lent its backing to the new authorities. In Odessa on 2 May 2014, the burning alive of dozens of innocent supporters of closer ties with Russia did not draw a single word of condemnation from European capitals.

As co-guarantors of the 2015 Minsk Agreements, France and Germany effectively encouraged the Ukrainian regime to sabotage its own commitments. As Angela Merkel and François Hollande later conceded – after the special military operation had already begun – the implementation by Kyiv of the Minsk Agreements, unanimously approved by the UN Security Council, was never genuinely intended. The objective, they admitted, was merely to buy time: to shore up the Armed Forces of Ukraine and flood them with Western weaponry.

Russia, for its part, explored every diplomatic avenue to defuse Europe's security crisis. However, in January 2022, the United States and Nato rejected Russia's proposal for legally binding mutual security guarantees. European Nato members actively endorsed that rebuff.

Following the launch of the special military operation, the united Europe threw its support behind the British Prime Minister's efforts to sabotage the Istanbul negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. Boris Johnson's appeal to Kyiv – "don't sign anything, just fight" – slammed the door on genuine diplomacy for the foreseeable future.

Current Situation

So what has prompted European leaders to suddenly shift their rhetoric and start talking of negotiations and what are they aiming for with these statements? For instance, the EU diplomacy head Kaja Kallas has stated: the purpose of any dialogue with Russia is to dictate Europe's terms. These include: paying "reparations" to Ukraine; withdrawing troops from Transnistria and the South Caucasus; abolishing the "foreign agents" law; and accepting hard limits on the size of the Russian Federation's Armed Forces. In her framing, "there can be no just and lasting peace without accountability for Russia." During the UN Security Council session on 19 May 2026, an EU representative made the point unequivocally: "supporting Ukraine militarily does not contradict the pursuit of peace, but rather serves as a fundamental prerequisite for any credible, good-faith negotiations."

Europe's plan is to talk with Russia while simultaneously pressing ahead with a campaign of legal warfare orchestrated through the Council of Europe. Within this once-respected organization, an entire infrastructure is being assembled for the express purpose of "holding Russia accountable": a Register of Damage, a Claims Commission, and a Special Tribunal.

The European Union has also given the green light to detaining merchant vessels on the high seas. Several incidents have already taken place in the Baltic and the Atlantic. At the same time, the West studiously averts its gaze from the terrorist acts of sabotage perpetrated by the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Black and Mediterranean Seas.

The real objective of Europe's leaders, then, is not to negotiate with Russia. It is to shore up the Zelenskiy regime and preserve it as a launchpad for continued confrontation against Russia. With this in mind, European leaders are scrambling to secure a ceasefire as quickly as possible and for one reason only: to prevent the collapse of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the battlefield. The plan is to "freeze" the conflict without addressing its root causes, and then rapidly deploy military contingents from the Anglo-French "coalition of the willing" onto Ukrainian soil.

It is widely known that European elites have invested their "political capital" in the confrontation with Russia, pouring hundreds ofbns of dollars into propping up the Kyiv regime and ramping up the military budgets of EU member states and Nato. Europe now aims to achieve "defence readiness" against Russia by 2030. Until then, they mean to buy time by whatever means available. In a strikingly candid remark this April, Belgium's chief of staff put it bluntly: "We still have a few years. Thanks to the courage and blood of the Ukrainians, who are buying us that time."

The united Europe continues to dream of expansion. It intends to absorb Ukraine and Moldova, while pulling Armenia into its sphere of influence. Nato has already expanded eastward, swallowing up Finland and Sweden. As for Ukraine, it is increasingly eyed as the "striking fist" of a future European military force, independent of the United States and independent of Nato.

Risks to Global Security

This state of affairs poses serious threats to global security. A direct confrontation between Nato and Russia could rapidly escalate into an exchange of nuclear strikes, with catastrophic consequences.

Under the banner of "strategic autonomy," Europe is witnessing a significant build-up of its military capabilities, including in the nuclear sphere. Paris's intention to extend its "nuclear umbrella" to several EU and Nato member states is a source of deep concern. This will do nothing to strengthen the security of France itself or the recipients of its so-called protection.

For all that, Europe's political and military establishment continues to attribute aggressive plans to Russia – plans that, they claim, reach far beyond Ukraine. The Russian President has stated on numerous occasions that all of this is nonsense, provocation, and disinformation, all aimed solely at extracting budget funds for the fight against Russia. That is scarcely the climate for substantive dialogue.

Russia's Position

As for negotiations, Vladimir Putin reiterated at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum that Russia is not opposed to contacts with any party. We see Europe, however, as a party bent on Russia's defeat – a stance the Europeans themselves openly avow. Dialogue with Europe, therefore, cannot be conducted as though it were an impartial third-party observer.

Russia would prefer to achieve the goals of the special military operation through diplomacy. That requires reliably guaranteeing security along Russia's western borders and ensuring respect and dignity for our citizens and compatriots, including the right to speak their native Russian language and practice Orthodox Christian faith. Further military, political and economic expansion by the West is unacceptable: it runs counter to the imperatives of a multipolar world.

European leaders should recognize that the model of regional security built in Europe over decades, ever since the adoption of the Helsinki Final Act in 1975, has been destroyed by their own hands. And it will never be restored. We must now move toward creating a continent-wide security architecture open to all Eurasian countries and that reflects today's multipolar reality.

The principle of equal and indivisible security trampled upon by the Euro-Atlantists, can be embodied within a new Eurasian architecture. When the time is ripe, Europe too will be able to join this great effort.

The key point is that meaningful dialogue requires the restoration of trust, shattered by the anti-Russian actions of the West, and Europe as part of it, in the post-Cold War era. Trust can be recovered only through concrete steps that demonstrate a sincere commitment to move away from using diplomacy as a cover for expansionist ambitions. Trust cannot be restored, nor can dialogue be resumed, through ultimatums such as the one issued to Russia in London on 7 June 2026.

P.S.: It is noteworthy that the London ultimatum was unequivocally reaffirmed by the ambassadors of Britain, France and Germany at the meeting at the Russian Foreign Ministry on 11 June 2026, – a meeting they had so insistently requested. That was the sole purpose of their visit to the Ministry.

REST IN POWER

Mighty is the paintbrush: Semyon Skrepetsky, the Russian dissident artist shot and killed in Poland

PROFILE

Russian artist and dissident Semyon Skrepetsky was famous for his audacious, even malicious, caricatures of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. Skrepetsky was shot and killed on Tuesday in the eastern Polish town of Biała Podlaska at the age of 44.


Issued on: 18/06/2026 - 

FRANCE24
By: Sonya CIESNIK

Semyon Skrepetsky was murdered on June 15, 2026. © Semyon Skrepetsky Facebook page

Several shots at close range and a final bullet to head. These were the violent last moments of exiled Russian artist Semyon Skrepetsky, known for his satirical, neo-primitivist paintings. From a painting in the Russian Orthodox style depicting Soviet leader Joseph Stalin cradling Putin to portraying pro-Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov as a hooker, the artist had a wide range of political targets.

Skrepetsky often courted the absurd and mixed it with a good dose of offensiveness. He favoured bold, beautiful colours, using the terms “psychedelia” and “skreprealism” for his art. Communism, dictatorships, exile, death: better to make fun of these heavy subjects than be crushed by them, seemed to be his motto.

And he entertained himself and his international audience until the very end. On the Friday before his assassination, he staged a protest in the streets of central Berlin on Russia Day, carrying his iconic painting of Stalin holding Putin like the baby Jesus before pulling a Russian flag out of his pants and putting it in a trashcan. It would be his last act of defiance against authoritarianism, which he hated in all forms.

He was killed while walking his dog the following Monday in Biała Podlaska, a Polish town near the border with Belarus.

“The murder that took place is an unprecedented incident in Poland. It has deeply shocked many people and has increased concerns among Belarusian activists and journalists living here,” said a Belarusian exile based in Warsaw. “Given the history of transnational repression in the region, many are now worried about their own safety and future.”

Skrepetsky, whose real name was Robert Kuzovkov, was born in 1981 in a village in Altai, a mountainous region in Russia. He emigrated to Poland in 2021, fearing political persecution. In recent videos posted on Facebook, he wore his signature beret and displayed arms covered in tattoos. With a strip-teaser’s flair, he removed layers of clothing to reveal T-shirts with provocative messages like, “Russia is a prison of nations” or “Russian culture” with the words bleeding onto a Russian doll bearing Putin’s face.

The artist’s flight to Poland came at a time of regional tumult. Belarus’s 2020 presidential election results – which the European Parliament described as “fraudulent” – sparked a wave of massive protests. The Belarusian regime, led by President Alexander Lukashenko and supported by Moscow, reacted by ordering its goons to beat up and imprison the protesters they encountered in the streets. Fearing the repression, several hundred Belarusians sought asylum in Poland and Lithuania. Among them were several Russians – including Skrepetsky.

In an iconic painting by Skrepetsky, Joseph Stalin holds Putin like the baby Jesus. © Semyon Skrepetsky via Facebook

A life in limbo

The émigrés found themselves in limbo. Their home was only several hundred kilometres away, but they couldn’t return. Planning a future in their host country was also difficult. Government policies toward the refugees were constantly shifting, and acts of sabotage by Russian agents, often involving young and vulnerable exiles, heightened the sense of fear and paranoia among the local population.

Skrepetsky came to Poland alone but soon managed to bring his wife and five children to Biała Podlaska. He rented a spacious, 70-square-metre apartment in the northern part of the city and soon got back to work. He would sit down at his table scattered with markers and film himself patiently filling his drawings in with color. Activism was his oxygen and what fuelled him.

His works of art multiplied, as did his activism – and so did the objects of his attacks.

Decaying regimes and the dictators – like Putin and Lukashenko – who run them were his main target. Constantly trolling Kadyrov was also part of his agenda. A versatile artist, he created a pencil sharpener with the Chechen on all fours, with the pencil’s tip designed to sodomise him.

But the Russian opposition was also on his radar, with special criticism reserved for late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and his wife Yulia Navalnaya. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and even the Ukrainian people also became the object of his fierce attacks over the past two years.

Skrepetsky was a free spirit, capable of aligning himself with ideologies he had previously lambasted. When he learned that Russia would have a pavilion at the Venice Biennale in May, he went there and recorded himself in a crowd of people brandishing Ukrainian flags and singing a patriotic hymn, “We will fight for our freedom (svobodu)”.

As a Russian citizen, he knew about the seductive allure of Russian soft power – from the splendid Nutcracker ballet to the literary works Fyodor Dostoyevsky – and how the Kremlin used these cultural masterpieces to normalise its image while it demolished Ukraine’s own priceless heritage. He wanted to expose the cracks in the regime and show its rot; in a February portrait of Putin, the gleaming, alabaster face is impassive as in real life, but marred by maggots crawling out of his cheek.

One of Skrepetsky's paintings of Russian President Vladimir Putin. © Semyon Skrepetsky via Facebook

BRINGING THE WAR HOME

Massive drone attack puts Moscow in flames during G7 summit

Drone attack on Russian capital industrial area. / bne IntelliNewsFacebook

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By bne IntelliNews June 18, 2026

Russian authorities reported intercepting at least 200 Ukrainian drones targeting Moscow during the early hours of June 18, making it the largest drone attack on the Russian capital since the start of the war, according to official statements and regional authorities.

 Ukraine has steadily expanded the scale and range of its long-distance drone campaign against Russian military, energy and infrastructure targets. 

Earlier this month, the flagship Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) kicked off as Ukraine struck Saint Petersburg oil terminals with long-range drones.

The timing of the latest attack on Moscow coincides with the G7 summit, where Kyiv is seeking additional air defence systems, weapons and political support from Western allies. 

The previous largest attacks on Moscow occurred on March 11, 2025, when more than 90 drones were reportedly intercepted, and on May 17, 2026, when authorities reported shooting down more than 120 drones, according to The Bell. 

Russian military bloggers and pro-war Telegram channels argued that some targets inevitably penetrated air defences because of the scale of the attack, while maintaining that Moscow's air defence system had generally performed effectively.

One of the most significant targets appears to have been the Moscow Oil Refinery in the Kapotnya district.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin admitted that several drones had "managed to reach" the facility. Videos widely circulated on social media showed fires and large columns of black smoke coming from the refinery's territory. The refinery is a key supplier of fuel to Moscow and the surrounding region. 

Air traffic was also disrupted. All four major airports serving Moscow, Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo, Vnukovo and Zhukovsky, temporarily suspended operations during the attack. According to reports in Russian media, passengers were evacuated from some aircraft at Sheremetyevo Airport. Telegram channel SHOT estimated that a total of 527 flights were delayed or cancelled.

The latest drone attack also caused damage to civilian infrastructure. Debris from drones intercepted by Pantsir air defence systems reportedly fell on the Sadovod shopping centre, damaging one of its buildings. 

In Zhukovsky district, a drone struck a residential apartment building, while in Lyubertsy, debris damaged a fitness centre and the roof of the Belaya Dacha shopping centre, which suspended operations for what management described as technical reasons. Moscow Region Governor Andrei Vorobyov reported 16 people injured.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the operation as a "fair response" to Russian attacks on Ukrainian cities and simultaneously called for negotiations, as cited by The Bell. 

 

MOSCOW BLOG: Ukrainian drone strikes spark fuel fears in the Russian capital

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By Newsbase June 19, 2026

Ukraine has once more brought the war to Russia’s capital, launching its biggest drone strike against Moscow since the start of the conflict, causing what may be extensive damage to the city’s main oil refinery and sparking fears of fuel shortages.

Nearly 200 drones struck targets across the city, demonstrating Ukraine’s growing drone capability, in terms of scale, frequency and range of attacks. According to Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, almost as many drones were shot down — but enough still got through to damage critical infrastructure, disrupt airports and remind Muscovites that the war is no longer confined to Russia’s border regions.

The attack on Gazprom Neft’s 240,000 barrel per day (bpd) refinery in Moscow’s southeast Kapotnya district was the most strategically significant strike. The plant supplies 40% of the capital’s fuel supply, including jet fuel to the city’s four airports.

The extent of damage is unclear, but video footage shows multiple fires sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky. According to Reuters, a 140,000-bpd crude distillation train was damaged, along with a catalytic reformer and a diesel hydrotreatment unit. Some secondary units, piping and auxiliary equipment were also affected, and storage tanks caught fire.

It was the second strike against the refinery this week – on June 16 a drone also damaged and set alight one of the plant’s crude distillation units. 

Ukraine has shifted the focus of its drone campaign over the past two months, from targeting terminals and other oil export infrastructure to the country’s refineries. Rather than causing further disruptions to global fuel supply, the aim now it seems is to intensify pressure on Russia’s domestic fuel demand, not only depriving the Russian military of critical diesel but also making average motorists aware of the toll that Moscow’s war is taking on their daily lives.

The Moscow refinery was one of a number of processing plants nationwide to be targeted over the past month – a coordinated attack aimed at inflicting maximum damage to fuel supply all at once. The consensus among analysts is that over 2mn barrels per day of refining capacity — a third of the national total – has been struck by drones since late April. How much of this capacity is still offline is unclear, however. 

But the recent strikes on the Moscow plant set a precedent. While previous attacks have mostly affected only fuel supply in Russia’s regions, Kyiv’s drone campaign now risks causing shortages in the Russian capital. 

For now, Moscow is not facing an obvious city-wide fuel panic. There is no evidence of long queues emerging at filling stations, and fuel prices set by Russia’s integrated oil companies such as Rosneft and Gazprom Neft have seen relatively little change, as they are best positioned to absorb supply pressure for longer. But there have been sharp increases in prices charged by some independent retailers. On June 18, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service asked Neftmagistral, an independent chain with around 100 filling stations in Moscow and the surrounding region, to explain why it raised the price of AI-95 gasoline by 19% in a week.

While the city may not be facing widespread panic-buying, several motorists who spoke with IntelliNews confirmed that they had stocked up on extra fuel in the wake of the June 18 attack, anticipating that prices would rise over the coming days. Authorities have taken steps to reassure the public – the mayor’s office issued a statement on the same day as the attack that fuel supply to Moscow was “proceeding as normal.”

The government has already mostly maintained a ban on gasoline exports over the past two years because of refinery disruptions. According to Reuters, the country has even begun importing fuel following the latest strikes. The government has also eased regulations regarding fuel quality – some refineries can now sell gasoline and diesel on the domestic market that falls short of the Euro-5 standard for sulphur and other emissions. While the move will enable refiners to maximise output, lower standards could cause damage to some modern vehicles. 

The main question is whether Ukraine can sustain the frequency of its attacks. While today’s refineries in Russia often have similar designs as those built during the Cold War – built to withstand major aerial bombardments, the facilities will be rendered inoperable if Kyiv can continue striking them often enough that repairs simply cannot take place.

Ukraine’s prowess in drone technology continues to grow. The US has even sought access to the country’s homegrown drone technology, which is all the more proficient as it has been tested and refined in battlefield conditions rather than merely in laboratories. Russia’s aerial defence systems – and its own drone capabilities – have simply failed to keep up. 

While Russia’s fuel supply situation for now appears manageable, risks are growing. A single damaged refinery can be worked around, but repeated strikes on core processing units, storage tanks and logistics infrastructure are harder to absorb. Ukraine does not need to collapse Russia’s entire refining system to bring the war home to Muscovites. It only needs to show that the capital’s fuel supply is vulnerable, and that the costs of the war are no longer confined to the border regions or the federal budget. 

In Moscow, car ownership is high, commutes can be long and driving remains central to daily life for many of the city’s citizens. Fuel shortages or sharp price rises would therefore be felt quickly and personally, creating exactly the kind of visible, everyday grievances that can fuel civil unrest and greater war fatigue. 

Russia Targets Cultural Landmarks, As Ukraine Deepens Defense Ties With Europe – Analysis

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visits the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery and a museum complex in Kyiv to inspect the aftermath of the Russian attack. 

Photo Credit: Ukraine Presidential Press Service

June 19, 2026 
Hudson Institute
By Can Kasapoğlu

1. Battlefield Assessment

Last week the Ukrainian battlespace continued to witness over two hundred tactical engagements each day. Russian offensives again targeted Huliaipole, Pokrovsk, and Kostyantynivka, while Lyman, Sloviansk, Kramatorsk, Orikhiv, Oleksandrivka, and Kupiansk also saw increased combat. Additionally, the Ukrainian General Staff noted that Russia used thousands of attack drones to target Ukrainian positions, rear areas, and population centers.

Russian forces reached the outskirts of Kostiantynivka from multiple directions and continued to infiltrate the city. Infantry activity emerged from the east of the city through Novodmytrivka, with additional pressure from the Berestok and Illinivka axes. Kostiantynivka is quickly becoming anotherattritional flashpoint in Donetsk Oblast. Russian forces appear to hold a manpower advantage around the city and are shifting focus to a longer campaign to capture it.

In addition to their strikes against military infrastructure, Russian forces targeted the cultural symbols of Ukrainian statehood. On June 15, Russian strikes badly damaged the Dormition Cathedral at Kyiv’s historic Pechersk Lavra monastery, a vital symbol of Ukraine’s Orthodox Christian heritage and national identity. The attack set fire to the roof of one of Ukraine’s key religious sites and formed part of a larger barrage of missiles and drones that killed at least 11 people nationwide.


The Security Service of Ukraine stated that a Shahed-type drone hit the Dormition Cathedral, which had previously suffered war damage, including during a January strike that hit monastery buildings and caves. The latest attack coincided with increased diplomacy around the Group of Seven summit in France, where President Donald Trump spoke separately with Ukrainian and Russian leaders about ending the war.

Ukraine, for its part, conducted a drone strike that forced a major refinery in southeastern Moscow to suspend operations after a fire damaged its main processing unit. The refinery is a key fuel supplier for Moscow Oblast. Though a second processing unit at the installation may recover, the attack supports Ukraine’s expanding campaign against Russia’s refining and fuel distribution network.

2. Ukraine Deepens Its Strategic Defense Ties with Europe

Ukraine continued to deepen its ties with the most prominent European defense companies. The relationship between Ukraine and its private-sector European partners now reaches beyond arms deliveries to strategic systems, including missiles, turbojet and turboprop propulsion, joint production, and deep-strike and counter-drone systems.

MBDA, a multinational European defense corporation, is among the firms moving deeper into Ukraine’s long-range strike ecosystem. The European missile manufacturer signed a memorandum of understanding with LUCH, a Ukrainian designer of components for the defense industry, to support further development of the Neptune cruise missile, including the NEPTUNE2 with deep-strike capability.

This agreement matters for two reasons. First, it links Ukraine’s wartime missile experience with one of Europe’s most important weapons developers. Second, it signals that Ukraine’s long-range strike program is moving beyond wartime emergency adaptation and toward structured industrial cooperation with European partners.

MBDA also agreed to partner with Ukrainian Armor, a defense company located in Kyiv, on deep-strike and counter-drone solutions, with a focus on technology exchange, joint production, and other possible joint ventures. Additionally, Ukrainian Armor signed a separate agreement with a Czech firm, AviaNera Technologies. This partnership covers turbojet and turboprop engines for Ukrainian missile and drone platforms, and aims to expand production, localize technologies, and explore joint ventures. This agreement will likely improve Ukraine’s propulsion capabilities, which have been a critical bottleneck for Kyiv.

Collectively, Ukraine’s agreements with its European defense partners mark a shift from arms delivery to coproduction. Kyiv is securing technology and production transfers with Europe to enable scalable defense growth. In addition to seeking weapons, Ukraine is building a European-integrated industrial base for missiles, drones, air defenses, and counter-drones.

Another Ukrainian defense technology firm, Fire Point, signed a memorandum of understanding with the German radar manufacturer Hensoldt at Eurosatory 2026, the world’s largest land and air-land defense and security trade show held last week in Paris. The agreement supports the development of the Freyja air-defense system, a mobile radar designed to detect and track more than 1,500 targets at ranges of up to 155 miles.

Under the terms of the deal, Hensoldt commits to producing, testing, and supplying the Freyja ground-based missile-defense architecture. Hensoldt’sTRML-4D radar is the most important sensor in the Freyja system. Fire Point, for its part, will have overall design authority over the system. The company will produce, test, and deliver its Fire Point FP-7 missiles and integrate the main components into the system. The Ukrainian company’s FP-7.x interceptor concept is designed for high speeds and recently passed a controlled maneuvering flight test.


This deal marks Ukraine’s attempt to move from improvised wartime air-defense adaptations to a structured missile-defense industrial program. The cooperation between Fire Point and Hensoldt demonstrates tangible progress in Kyiv’s effort to add a proven European radar layer to its defense-industrial architecture. Progress in this arena may offer Ukraine a pathway to counter Russia’s missile threat using systems built to Ukrainian requirements.

3. What to Monitor in the Coming Weeks

While Kostiantynivka has turned into a meat grinder for Russia’s invading forces, Ukraine’s hold on the city is weakening. The coming weeks will determine whether Ukrainian forces can hold critical terrain and deny Russian assaults further tactical gains.

About the author; 

Can Kasapoğlu is a nonresident senior fellow at Hudson Institute. His work at Hudson focuses on political-military affairs in the Middle East, North Africa, and former Soviet regions. He specializes in open-source defense intelligence, geopolitical assessments, international weapons market trends, as well as emerging defense technologies and related concepts of operations.

Source: This article was published by the Hudson Institute

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Russian drones hit two foreign-flagged civilian ships in the Black Sea, Ukraine says

Copyright Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved

By Nathan Rennolds

Published on 19/06/2026 - EURONEWS

Local air defences shot down 79 of 90 Russian drones from Thursday evening into Friday morning, per Ukraine's air force.

Russian drones struck two foreign-flagged civilian ships in the Black Sea on Thursday night, Ukrainian authorities said.

According to Oleksii Kuleba, Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister for Restoration, the drones hit one vessel flying the flag of Saint Kitts and Nevis and one Panamanian-flagged ship, leaving one person dead and five injured. One of the injured sailors is in a critical condition, per Kuleba.

"This is yet another proof that Russia is waging a war against freedom of navigation, international trade, and global food security," he wrote.

The governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, Oleh Kiper, said the vessels were now on the move again.

The strikes came amid a wave of overnight Russian attacks across Ukraine.

Kiper said strikes in southern Odesa had resulted in a fire at a truck parking lot, killing one person and injuring four others.

At least four people were also reported to have been injured in another Russian drone strike on a minibus in the city of Kherson in southern Ukraine.

The Kherson Regional State Administration said a 46-year-old woman and three men aged 67, 46, and 59 had been taken to hospital after suffering blast injuries and shrapnel wounds in the attack.

Image shared by Oleh Kiper. Oleh Kiper/X

A guided bomb assault on the Kholodnohirskyi District of Kharkiv injured nine people and damaged more than 40 homes, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov added.

Local air defences shot down 79 of 90 Russian drones from Thursday evening into Friday morning, per Ukraine's air force.

It follows a huge Ukrainian strike on a Moscow oil refinery on Thursday morning.

Video footage circulating on social media appeared to show an enormous explosion and large fire at the facility.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the strike in a post on X, calling it "a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities".

It was the second time Kyiv had targeted the refinery this week, as it continued its efforts to hamper Moscow's energy industry.