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A Question Swirling Around Putin’s Big Conference: Could the War End?

At the St. Petersburg economic forum, business and political elites said Russia faced a choice of halting the conflict or sacrificing more. Vladimir Putin seemed to signal more war. Vladimir V. Putin, seated in a white chair, in front of a blue backdrop, speaks into a microphone, holding a notebook and pen in his right hand, and the index finger of his left hand in front of his chin. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia speaking at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on Friday.Credit...Dmitri Lovetsky Associated Press By Ivan Nechepurenko  Reporting from St. Petersburg, Russia/ June 5, 2026, 1:41 p.m. ET Over the past month, President Vladimir V. Putin has said on two separate occasions that Russia’s war against Ukraine is “moving toward its conclusion” and “coming to an end.” Speculation followed. Was Mr. Putin ready to end his invasion, with Russian troops stalled on the front lines and the economy weighed down by war? Or did he plan to keep pressing toward his s...
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Real-Time Satellite Intelligence Is Making Ukraine’s Drone Strikes Deadlier Than Ever

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Members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces viewing Vantor software displaying geospatial intelligence.   Bravo1Alpha (jb: image from the body of the article) By Hearher  Somerville June 4, 2026 10:00 pm ET The Wall Street Journal article contains 2 videos Quick Summary   --Ukrainian forces are using commercial satellite images from Vantor directly on soldiers’ devices for real-time battle decisions.  --The technology has shortened the time to locate and strike Russian assets by up to 90%, according to providers.   --This marks the first known instance of unclassified commercial satellite imagery going directly to a soldier.  This summary was generated with AI and reviewed by an editor. The small unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, stationed about 6 miles from the front line in the country’s southeast, knew there was something afoot in a building obscured by thick tree cover. The spring foliage hid its outline but not the signals from the electronic dev...
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Ukraine could be a big win for Trump

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is weakened. Now is the moment to push him to end the war. Opinion,  Fareed Zakaria,  The Washington Post , June 5, 2026 at 6:00 a.m. EDT 5 min Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow on Wednesday. (Ramil Sitdikov/Reuters) Original article contains numerous links. President Donald Trump faces plunging public approval at home and a messy war he initiated abroad. But he has an opportunity to change that narrative, not in the Middle East but more than a thousand miles away, in Europe, where a bloody war rages on between Russia and Ukraine. In recent months, the tide has turned in that conflict in ways that make peace finally possible. Ukraine is now in the fifth year of a war against an adversary with roughly 12 times its economy and more than four times its population. Its mere survival has been one of the great military and national achievements of the modern era. But now, Kyiv is no longer simply surviving. It is changing th...
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Zelensky Mixes Taunts and Peace Talks Offer in Letter to Putin

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“After 26 years in power, age is beginning to take its toll,” President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine wrote of his Russian counterpart, bragging of a recent strike on St. Petersburg. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, speaking in Sweden last week. Credit... Christine Olsson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Andrew E. Kramer Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine. The New York Times ,  June 4, 2026,  7:34 p.m. ET The original article contains informarive underlining links to texts (not to all othose below). On the heels of a flurry of Ukrainian drone strikes deep in Russia and recent shifts in Ukraine’s favor on the battlefield, President Volodymyr Zelensky published on Thursday an open letter to President Vladimir V. Putin. The letter, posted on the Ukrainian president’s website, offered to resume peace talks — but taunted the Russian leader over wartime setbacks, inflation and Russia’s dependence on China. It also made note of Mr. Putin’s advancing age. Mr. Zelensky has at ...
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[Americana:] Hegseth Pantsed In Pentagon Men’s Room

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  Hegseth Pantsed In Pentagon Men’s Room (AP) Newswire In a bizarre incident at the Pentagon today, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was reportedly pantsed in a men’s room by a disgruntled female soldier angry about Hegseth’s stance on women in combat. Assisted by PFPA officers, a shaken Hegseth is seen emerging from a men's room at the Pentagon. Hegseth later remarked that the assailant was remarkably strong, although he said he would not revisit his stance on women in combat roles. The unidentified woman remains at large inside the Pentagon. According to unnamed sources at the Pentagon, Hegseth had just left a high level meeting where he had once again berated high level officers and other military leadership, calling them effeminate, weak, and out of shape. Once the meeting adjourned, Hegseth reportedly entered a men’s room where he was confronted by an unidentified woman, dressed in combat fatigues, hiding in one of the stalls. Hegseth claims to have then been overpowered and, whi...
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Hungary lifts block on Ukraine’s E.U. bid, but long timeline could put Kyiv at risk

Hungary agreed to drop its opposition to opening the formal access talks but is still opposed to the fast-track membership process that Ukraine says it needs as protection from Russia. June 4, 2026 at 7:15 a.m. EDT 4 min/ Summary Hungary's Prime Minister Peter Magyar, flanked by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, addresses the media at E.U. headquarters in Brussels on May 29. (Virginia Mayo/AP) By Serhii Korolchuk, David L. Stern and Beatriz Ríos, The Washington Post KYIV — Hungary has lifted its longtime opposition to Ukraine opening formal talks to join the European Union − offering a glimmer of hope to a country traumatized by war that sees membership as crucial to escaping the claws of Russia and securing a free, democratic future. But even as Hungary lowered the roadblock imposed by then-Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was voted out in April, his successor, Peter Magyar, said the country would continue to oppose a fast-track accession process sought by Ukra...
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Why Russia’s invasion of Ukraine hangs over tennis like no other sport

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Elina Svitolina is one Ukrainian player on the WTA Tour, where Ukrainians and Russians meet regularly.   Sebastien Bozon / AFP via Getty Images By Charlie Eccleshare [see below for bio] The New York Times , June 2, 2026 l Updated June 3, 2026;  original article contains numerous links The Athletic has live coverage of the 2026 French Open quarterfinals. It’s easy to think of tennis’ relationship with Russia’s war in Ukraine through the prism of a few key moments. Russian player Andrey Rublev wrote “no war please” on a camera lens in February 2022, shortly after Russia’s invasion. In September 2022, Daria Kasatkina, also Russian, described the war as a “full-blown nightmare” in a series of interviews in which she also came out as gay. Kasatkina earlier this year defected to Australia, saying in a news conference, “if I want to be myself, I have to make this step.” Wimbledon banned Russian and Belarusian players from competing in 2022, to which the ATP and WTA Tours responded b...
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