Notes and Essays -- John Brown

May 30, 2026 With Russian drones hitting Romania, now is not the time for Washington to up pressure on NATO allies. Opinion Editorial Board The Washington Post , May 29, 2026 at 2:30 p.m. The original article contains links. An apartment building in Romania, near the border with Ukraine, burns on Friday after being hit by a suspected Russian drone. As the fifth year of the Ukraine war grinds on, the besieged nation is slowly gaining the upper hand. This dynamic makes Russian President Vladimir Putin more unpredictable and dangerous — and makes the case for supporting Kyiv as persuasive as ever. On Friday, what is suspected to be a Russian drone crossed into NATO airspace and crashed into an apartment building in Galati, Romania, setting it ablaze and wounding two people. It was apparently part of a salvo of 232 drones that Russia sent toward Ukraine in the wee hours of the night and the 28th time Russian drones have breached Romanian airspace since Moscow began hitting Ukrainian ports ...

Ukrainian marines attach bomblets to a drone at a training site.  (Brendan Hoffman for The Post ) Russia’s advance has suddenly stalled, and Ukraine is fighting on its own terms — a comeback credited to Kyiv’s efforts to steadily strengthen the capabilities of its UAVs. Today [no date provided] at 5:00 a.m. EDT   By Steve Hendrix and Serhii Korolchuk; original article contains very useful links; not all of its images could be adequately published here, evidently for technical reasons. DONETSK OBLAST, Ukraine — As a fifth summer fighting season begins in Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine, Vladyslav Tovstyi directs dozens of operators flying thousands of drones from an underground command center that looks more like a tech start-up than a forward bunker. High-definition monitors lined the insulated walls, each showing a drone’s-eye view of a doomed Russian soldier in a foxhole, an enemy supply truck, countryside striped with trenches and razor wire. On one, a ground robot...

Treasury planning $250 bill with Trump’s face on it May 28, 2026 Credit... Evan Vucci/Reuters Credit... Evan Vucci/Reuters Treasury planning $250 bill with Trump’s face on it Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House that his department  had prepared designs of a $250 bill bearing the president’s likeness . Current law, however, does not allow the image of a living person on U.S. currency; Bessent said an act of Congress would be needed to issue the bill, meant to celebrate the country’s 250th birthday (and the president, of course). From  The New York Times

By The Associated Press Updated 3:59 PM EDT, May 28, 2026 King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and Ukraine's President Volodymyr  (image [not from below article]  from ) Article contains a brief video of Zalenskyy's arrival in Sweden, as well as links to other articles. KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he's being "very persistent" in pressing the United States to provide his country with more Patriot air defense missiles that can counter devastating Russian ballistic missile attacks. Zelenskyy said he hasn't yet received a reply to a letter he sent earlier this week to U.S. President Donald Trump and Congress asking for more of the American-made ammunition. He warned that deliveries to Ukraine are falling dangerously short as the Iran war diverts and depletes U.S. stocks. "I believe (the U.S.) must act quicker. We are being very persistent," Zelenskyy told reporters during a visit to Sweden. Zelenskyy is kee...

Aspects such as drone technology and diplomacy show how the wars intersect on the battlefield and in global alignments, providing a model for future conflicts. Assessing the damaged buildings following Russian strikes in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, on Sunday. Credit... Roman Pilipey/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images By Lara Jakes The New York Times ,  March 26 Updated 10:31 a.m. ET [original article contains many links;] Jakes image in the cited NYT article smaller than the above.] Lara Jakes covers conflict and diplomacy, with a focus on weapons and the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The trench warfare and heavy artillery on Ukraine’s battlefields in 2022 don’t look much like the war by air and sea that began when the United States and Israel attacked Iran. But similarities between the two conflicts soon became evident and remain so almost three months later. In both, the country with the more powerful military has been unable to vanquish its adversary. President Vladimir V....