Notes and Essays -- John Brown

The Ukrainian city of Izium still bears the scars of Russian occupation from four years ago. As Moscow’s forces approach, residents are bracing for the worst. Unmarked wooden crosses at a mass grave in Izium, Ukraine, that was left behind by Russian troops four years ago. By Cassandra Vinograd and Oleksandr Chubko Photographs by Finbarr O’Reilly Reporting from Izium, Ukraine   [JB:]  location of Izium  Sept. 11, 2026 Updated 2:08 p.m. ET The New York Times Unknown woman. Unknown woman. Bits of bone. Unknown woman, six more times — all hand scrawled on signs tacked to rough wooden crosses. The line of graves is a visceral reminder of the enduring horrors of Russia’s occupation four years ago of the eastern Ukrainian city of Izium. Now, as Moscow’s forces again move closer, battering Izium with glide bombs and drones, residents fear that another battle for the city would be far worse than what came before. After the five-month occupation in 2022, Russian troops left behi...

  Account Russia-Ukraine War Diplomatic Efforts Ukrainian Military Audits War Escalation Fear of Russian Draft Photos Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT In Ukraine, Fraud and Waste Are Rewarded With More Weapons Contracts Secret military audits reveal a military procurement system riddled with mismanagement. In 2024 alone, Ukraine lost $1.2 billion to fraud and waste. Listen · 14:26 min Share full article122 A mortar being fired from a wooden bunker filled with smoke and flying debris. In the foreground, a man wearing a cap covers his ears. A second man is in the background. Ukrainian soldiers firing a mortar toward Russian positions on the outskirts of Kupiansk, Ukraine, last year.Credit...Tyler Hicks/The New York Times By Andrew E. KramerBianca Pallaro and Evelina Riabenko Andrew E. Kramer and Evelina Riabenko reported from Kyiv, Ukraine. Bianca Pallaro reported from New York. Sept. 6, 2026 As Russian soldiers attacked trench lines in eastern Ukraine in 2024, Ukrainian arti...

U.S. envoys in Ukraine seem desperate while Germany’s right surges . September 9, 2026 at 1:38 p.m. EDT Today at 1:38 p.m. EDT Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner on Sunday.  By John R. Bolton , writing in The Washington Post John R. Bolton was the White House national security adviser from 2018 to 2019. *** jb : The readers' conversation section below notes: " The conversation explores the skepticism and criticism surrounding the involvement of Jared Kushner and Steven Witkoff in diplomatic efforts under the Trump administration."     jb: More on Bolton and Ukraine also below (from Wikipedia ) *** From today's below article:  Conventional wisdom holds that negotiations to resolve international conflicts are always useful. The media, encouraged by negotiators themselves, often reinforces this view, noting that talks are progressing, referring to their quickening pace or intensifying efforts and the anticipation of further mee...

Russia is shifting its strategy to erase Kyiv’s battlefield advantages. September 9, 2026 EDT  at 7:15 a.m.  A Ukrainian "Chaklun" long-range strike drone takes off from an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Aug. 6. (Dan Bashakov/AP) By Eric Schmidt, The Washington Post Eric Schmidt [JB -- see Wikipedia ] is the former CEO and chairman of Google and chair of the Special Competitive Studies Project. One night this summer, as my colleagues and I traveled by train from eastern Ukraine to Kyiv, we received warnings that dozens of Russian ballistic missiles were inbound. We pulled into Kyiv and joined the crowds rushing to the underground shelters. Within minutes, multiple explosions roared nearby as the missiles rained down, shaking the train station we were hiding in. Hundreds of passengers were crammed in there with us, many of them families with children, all waiting for the Russian onslaught to cease. I have traveled to Ukraine throughout its long war with Russia, helping th...