Moscow used the “ceasefire” to stockpile missiles and drones, only to rain them down on Ukraine's population. Over 650 drones and more than 50 missiles were fired last night alone at residential buildings and civilian infrastructure.
At least 1 person was killed and 39 were injured in Kyiv and the region.
Over the past 24 hours, Russians targeted centers of life all across Ukraine, even entering the sovereign airspace of neighboring countries.
As mothers, fathers, children, and families are pulled from the rubble this morning, understand the real function of Russia’s “peace” proposals. Stronger air defense systems for Ukraine and stronger sanctions for Russia are the only way to save people.
Well, as they say, to each their own.
Doctors take pride in saving lives in extraordinary cases, scientists in their discoveries, generals in victories on the battlefield -- and JD Vance’s ceiling is taking frenzied pride in the fact that, during the largest aggressive war in Europe since WWII, this administration betrayed a nation fighting for its freedom, staged a disgraceful clown show in the Oval Office, switched sides to a totalitarian aggressor for the promise of shared profits, and undermined its own alliances across the world for nothing.
You might as well frame that great achievement and hang it in your office -- because everything else you touch doesn’t seem to be going quite as well, like with Iran and Hungary 😆
❗️Crimean journalist Iryna Danylovych, illegally sentenced in Russia, is facing new torture, according to her family. Despite losing hearing in one ear, she is subjected to loud noise and bright light, with no medical care. The world must act: stop torture and secure the release of all unlawfully detained Ukrainian civilians and POWs.
"Bucha" is the one-word answer to why Ukrainians cannot surrender land to Russian occupation. Land is people, and it means torture and death. Ukrainian victory is the only way the war ends.
“Why are the russians doing this to Ukraine? Because they can, because the world has allowed them to.”
Testimony of Taira (Yuliya Payevska) to the US Helsinki Commission. She was captured and imprisoned by russians on March 16, 2022 and released on June 17, 2022.
▪️ Taira about herself: "My name is Yuliya Payevska. By profession, I am a graphic designer, as well as the president of one of the Aikido federations of Ukraine. Russians call me a Nazi. This is what they call everyone who opposes them, or simply does not want to see russia in Ukraine. I spent the first 20 days of this war in Mariupol, which turned into hell. After that, I spent 3 months in russian captivity. And it was hell too."
▪️ About the proposal to commit suicide: "When my executioners suggested that I commit suicide, I said no. I wanted to see what would happen tomorrow, I wondered how far they would go in their madness and malice. And then one day, when it seemed that there was no hope, someone looked into the window and called my name. "Take your things and go out" — that's how my path to freedom began.
▪️About those who remained in russian captivity: "Pregnant prisoners whose fate is unknown neither to their families nor to the state. A soldier who was beaten for three hours and then thrown into the basement like a sack, and only a day later someone came to him."
▪️ About horrors in Mariupol: "A dead child in his mother's arms, a seven-year-old boy with a gunshot wound dying in my arms because I cannot stop his death. Prisoners screaming for weeks in their cells, dying of torture in hellish agony. I remember my friend's eyes, which I closed before his body went cold, and another friend, and another, and another... I saw half a million people dying under air strikes. Air strikes on hospitals and residential areas. A hospital full of wounded people, with no medicine. Surgeons and medical staff sleeping for three hours a day as operations followed one after another. Medical evacuation vehicles arriving every 5 to 10 minutes, with the living and the dead lying on top of each other. Cars that are on fire with people inside. Police officers pulling women and children from the rubble, mutilated beyond recognition. People collecting water from puddles. Dogs that were once pets dragging human limbs around the city."
▪️About questions from the executioner: "One of my executioners asked me: "Do you know why I do this to you?" I answered: "Because you can." He did not expect such an answer. But it is true. They do it because they can. Because their leaders told them they had the right to do so. Because once they were allowed to. Because the world gave them such permission. The world was silent, watching the crimes of the russians in Georgia, Syria and so on."
Maks Levin (RIP) was probably one of the best war photographers of our time. Very much underrated in the West. His most famous work is the one he managed to do in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, so here's my favourite photos of his from back in 2014-15.
Tomorrow, the Russian invasion of Ukraine will reach 1,418 days, the exact same number of days as the German invasion of the Soviet Union, from the border crossing on June 22nd to the official proclamation of Victory on May 9th and capitulation of Berlin.
A powerful text by Yevhen Spirin, written after a conversation with a young Ukrainian soldier:
You know, I never wanted to become a hero, and I am not one. And I definitely don’t want to die so that people post a “candle GIF” about me. I like myself alive. I wanted a child — better yet, two — a dog, and a small vegetable garden. I wanted to write my short stories, pickle cucumbers, smoke a pipe, and watch the sunset. I wanted to make love to my wife, kiss her lips, and say, “Darling, shall we go to the fair tomorrow?”
I never wanted to be a hero, and I am not one. I feel ashamed when people thank me; it hurts that I am alive while someone else isn’t. I never wanted to be a hero. And this friend didn’t want to either — at 21, he came back from his position and sat there with empty eyes. I took the gun from him and wiped his face. He didn’t even notice. He definitely didn’t want to be a hero, yet somehow he became one. And some of us didn’t even try.
Anhelina was born under russian attack in October 2022 and died from a russian attack in August 2025.
She was only 2 years old when russia killed her yesterday along with her mother.
I don't know where Rutte is pulling these magic numbers from (Russia producing 500 tanks and 1,000 armored vehicles per month? Is that why they are attacking in bathtubs attached to motorcycles? Also, the more relevant drone production is missing) but two things stand out from this panicked diatribe:
1) The West made a gargantuan error trickling aid to Ukraine over three years instead of a massive immediate investment like some of us demanded from the start. The Russian offensive could have been crushed in 2022, and the Russians could have been thrown out of Ukraine by the end of that year before they had time to fortify their conquests if the West had the strategic courage to help Ukraine properly. Now, we have to spend a fucking 5% of GDP to prepare to confront a deranged bunker dwarf high on his own supply of distorted Russian history. Thanks for that, big strategic thinkers, whoever you are.
2) The West made a giant unforced error by not permitting Ukraine to strike immediately at Russians logistics and military capabilities in depth, another thing we advocated from the very beginning. The idiotic nature of this policy is exposed by NATO's own fighting doctrine with respect to Russia, which envisions significant destruction of their second echelon of forces within several hundred kilometers from the line of contact, all done within 24 to 72 hours from the start of hostilities. We intend to fight that way but God-forbid we permit the Ukrainians to do so. Because some illusory "escalation management." Now the Ukrainians have to figure out how to reach the Russian bases in fucking Siberia because our smarter-than-you strategic thinkers did not let them use longer-range weaponry when the Russians had conveniently positioned everything close to the frontline, apparently secure in their knowledge that said idiots would protect them by tying Ukraine's hands behind its back.
The Russians might be led by donkeys but we are led by deer in headlights whose greatest strength is self-deterrence through all sorts of imaginary fears they themselves create and which the Kremlin skillfully manipulates.
And now, welcome to bloated military budgets for years to come. I get so mad thinking about the hundreds of millions of people Putin's insane invasion is affecting. What a massive fuckup by the West to permit him to do so.
Ukraine. One night.
452 (!) air weapons launched.
406 stopped.
Targets: civilian infrastructure across Ukraine, people sleeping in their homes.
This is not a game. This is full-scale daily state terrorism that goes unpunished. russia is a terrorist state.