Notes and Essays -- John Brown

The Russian president donned military fatigues as he tried to counter a narrative that Moscow is stumbling in its war after Ukrainian drone strikes set off an acute fuel shortage. Today at 4:31 p.m. EDT Russian President Vladimir Putin, shown speaking at a command post in 2025, visited the front line again on Friday in an effort to challenge the narrative that Ukraine holds any military advantage. (AP) By Mary Ilyushina Russian President Vladimir Putin made a rare frontline appearance late Friday, donning green military fatigues, to claim breakthroughs in Russia’s war effort and counter what he called Ukraine’s “information and propaganda operation on illusory battlefield results.” In recent weeks, Kyiv appears to have gained momentum through medium- and long-range drone strikes that have hammered occupied Crimea and damaged oil refineries and other energy infrastructure in Russia, leading to gasoline shortages. That perception of success even drew rare praise from President Donald Tr...

Putin just admitted the Anchorage summit didn’t yield a plan to end the war in Ukraine — perhaps because he needs a real deal now.   June 30, 2026 at 8:10 a.m.  By Mary Ilyushina , The Washington Post Article contains links, including the following (in color): "Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a wreath-laying ceremony in Moscow on June 22 marking the 85th anniversary of the Nazi German invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/Pool/AP)." Russia’s war in Ukraine is stalling — on the battlefield and in the corridors of diplomacy.   For months, high-ranking Russian officials insisted that a path to ending the war in Ukraine — largely on Moscow’s maximalist terms — had been decided at a meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump last August in Anchorage. Only Ukraine’s intransigence stood as an obstacle. But that narrative has unraveled — perhaps because the only way to get the United States to help broker a ...

 

 via QUORA Does Ukraine still hope to re-take Crimea, or is that seen as not possible? Elena Gold  ·  Follow Wrote book about Russo-Ukrainian War TAP ON PICS TO VIEW THEM. https://www.quora.com/Does-Ukraine-still-hope-to-re-take-Crimea-or-is-that-seen-as-not-possible The reason is geography: once the Crimean bridge is destroyed (and it will be destroyed), it becomes cut off from the mainland and supplies can get in only via the narrow land bridge. Every time in history, Crimea was unable to resist the troops attacking from the mainland. The strategic plan of the Ukrainian troops is to cut the road to Crimea by land, destroy the Crimean bridge, connecting it to the mainland Russia, and take over the peninsula. Russians know the history and this is why they built the bridge to the mainland. Meanwhile, the Netherlands sent to Kyiv the “Scythian gold”, putting the end to the legal case between Russia and Ukraine that took almost 10 years. The Archaeological Museum of the Univ...

By Dan Peleschuk and Anatolii Stepanov, Reuters June 29, 2026 2:05 AM EDTU - updated 5 hours ago Kostiantynivka Summary [image from Wikipedia ] --Kremlin troops converge on Kostiantynivka --City anchors 'fortress belt' of key eastern cities --Russian gains come even as Kremlin's war machine strained KYIV / NEAR DRUZHKIVKA, Ukraine, June 29 (Reuters) - Russia is grinding its way into Kostiantynivka, a key stronghold in Ukraine's eastern "fortress belt" long coveted by the Kremlin, even as its gains across the rest of the 1,200-km front line have largely stalled.   Fighting has begun to seep into the city ​itself. Small groups of Russian soldiers are attempting to infiltrate its outskirts, senior Ukrainian commanders said last week, suggesting close-quarters assaults could follow. Kostiantynivka is the southernmost of four key ‌settlements forming a defensive line central to Ukraine's effort to hold the heavily industrialised Donetsk region. The push toward...