Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Drones launched by both Russia and Ukraine are veering off course, menacing countries that are not at war. Ligita Visockiene, the principal of a primary school in Vilnius, Lithuania, in a room the school uses as a shelter. The school has detailed plans for what to do in the event of attack but, she added, “We never thought we would have to actually use the plan.” Credit... Andrej Vasilenko for The New York Times By Andrew Higgins Reporting from Vilnius, Lithuania and Tallinn, Estonia June 9, 2026  Updated 9:26 a.m. ET  original article contains links The red alert came from a crisis control room buried under the Lithuanian capital. It sent the president, prime minister, mayor, school children and hundreds of thousands of other residents racing to underground shelters for cover from a fast approaching drone. Military radar showed the drone coming in from the east, where Russia and its close ally Belarus have long loomed as a menace to NATO’s eastern flank. But, according to Lit...

From Quora Elena Gold  ·  Follow Media analyst  59m Do the arrogant Russian "patriots" find it humiliating when Zelensky pointed out that Putin is the only leader in this world that begs for North Korea's help? Volodymyr Zelenskyy is telling things as they are: for the 2nd time in this war, Putin had to beg North Korea for help, because he cannot handle the Ukrainian advance . The 1st time was in 2024 when Ukraine invaded part of Russia’s Kursk region, taking positions all the way to a wide river, which served as the natural barrier holding up Russian/North Korean troops. At that time, Russia was unable to free the area, even with the help of North Korea—they could only push the Ukrainians back half a year later, with the help of Donald Trump (the U.S. switched off intel sharing that left the Ukrainian troops blind; some allege the Russians also got intel about the Ukrainian troops location; this is the story linked to Trump’s tales about “thousands of Ukrainians surround...

A visit to Odesa and Kyiv reveals a country anxious to stop the killing and determined to keep living. By Robert Doar The Wall Street Journal June 7, 2026 3:28 pm ET JB: On Doar, see Musicians perform at the Kyiv central train station.   Genya Savilov/ Agence France-Presse/ Getty Images Odesa, Ukraine If you don’t count the military checkpoints, air-raid sirens or 11 p.m. curfew, you wouldn’t know Ukraine was at war. I spent three days here at the end of May at the Black Sea Security Forum with 1,000 other people from Europe and the U.S. The seaport was bustling, the food exquisite, the Moldovan wine plentiful. Between speeches on Ukrainian drones and Europe’s newfound resolve to defend itself, we visited the Odesa opera house to hear the city’s orchestra and see a ballet. “Ukraine has not won, but Russia has already lost,” I heard repeatedly, along with laments that the U.S. was providing much less help than in the first three years of the war. Stepping into the breach are Germa...