Notes and Essays -- John Brown

Kyiv government and country’s industry say steel exports to the bloc have already been sharply reduced. By Nia Simeonova,  The Wall Street Journal  May 22, 2026 5:30 am ET article contains a graph European Commission data show Ukraine is the largest exporter of carbon border adjustment mechanism goods—mainly steel and cement—to the EU in volume terms.   Photo:  Dmytro Smolienko/ Zuma Press In the fourth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine’s industrial heartland, Kyiv faces another challenge—this time from a partner: the European Union’s carbon border adjustment mechanism.[CBAM] The levy, which the Ukrainian government and industry say has already sharply reduced steel exports to the bloc, is designed to narrow the carbon-cost gap between EU producers and foreign competitors. It puts a price on the embedded CO₂ emissions of imports in six sectors: cement, aluminum, fertilizers, iron and steel, hydrogen and electricity. “CBAM and the war are not very co...

Buildings rattled in the Ukrainian capital for hours early Sunday. It was unclear if Russia’s Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile had been used./   The sky lit up from the glow of fires during a Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early Sunday.Credit...Evgen Kotenko/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images/  By Andrew E. Kramer Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine/   The New York Times, May 24, 2026, 2:21 a.m. ET/   Russia unleashed a huge missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital early Sunday morning, with explosions rattling buildings for hours and igniting several fires throughout the city./  The bombardment damaged two entryways to the subway system — which is used as an underground refuge for thousands of people during air attacks — including in a strike on or near Kyiv’s central Independence Square, known as the Maidan and a symbol of the country’s resistance to Russia./   President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had wa...

How the War in Iran Helped Ukraine Go From Problem to Solution The Middle East quagmire has given Kyiv an unexpected lifeline—and a new hand to play A soldier in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The country is offering its hard-won expertise and counterdrone technology to other countries. A soldier in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The country is offering its hard-won expertise and counterdrone technology to other countries. Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images By Yaroslav Trofimov Following May 22, 2026 8:00 pm ET Turns out, Ukraine has got cards. Just last fall, Russia was inexorably advancing on the battlefield, money was running out and President Trump was pressing a peace deal on terms that favored Moscow. Then, Trump’s war against Iran reshuffled the world. Drone warfare—the kind in which Ukraine has garnered four years of unmatched experience—went global with Iranian attacks throughout the Middle East. Instead of being seen as a problem to be solved, Ukraine became a sought-a...

Reporter Martin Fornusek Friday May 22 7 minutes read Field report: Training at Russia's doorstep, NATO readies for a drone-ruled battlefield VORU COUNTY, Estonia — In southeast Estonia lies a lake-studded, woodland region locals call Missomaa, which makes up the country's three-way borderland with Latvia and Russia. Its innocuous-looking woods are overlaid by cameras and sensors feeding data to a British unit stationed nearby, informing their first-person-view (FPV) drone operators about an "enemy" vehicle closing in. Corey, an operator of the British 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots), simulates a strike by doing a low fly-by and landing his drone next to the vehicle. The exercise takes place just a short drive from the Luhamaa checkpoint at the Estonian-Russian border. This is only a small part of Spring Storm 2026, Estonia's flagship military drills meant to prepare the country's forces and its allies for a possible Russian invasion — a pr...

Credit... Sergiy Maidukov May 20, 2026 An illustration shows a person walking in front of a colorful false front of the skyline. In the background, the skyline is grey. Credit...Sergiy Maidukov By Maria Malmer Stenergard Ministry for Foreign Affairs Ms. Stenergard is Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs. She wrote from Stockholm.   Original article contains links . *** The war in the Middle East may be consuming much of the world’s attention, but Russia’s war against Ukraine has not abated. It will not end until we make it cost President Vladimir Putin more than he believes it is worth.   Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has tried to make the world believe that the Russian economy is strong and that sanctions don’t work. The Swedish government disagrees, and has commissioned several studies by leading economists and intelligence services to uncover the truth behind Russia’s official statistics: The economy is more fragile t...

B Y: Elena  Gold  USSR was a state made of 15 so called “Republics” with the capital in Moscow—when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was Russia that announced herself “the legal successor” of the USSR, keeping the privileged Soviet Union’s seat on the United Nations Security Council . Moscow was the capital of both the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic and the USSR (Union of the Soviet Socialistic Republics). RSFSR was also the largest republic of the USSR. Kazakstan was the 2nd largest republic, with a total area of 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,000 square miles). After the USSR was voluntarily dissolved by presidents of the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic, Ukrainian and Belarus SSR (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) in December 1991, the president of the USSR Gorbachev found himself a chief of state without a state. The Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic became “the Russian Federation,” in the same borders, with the same capital...