Ukraine losing Kursk, while support from the US withers away

Putin states that Ukraine belongs to Russia at a speech in St Petersburg

The Russians have been biding their time for a summer offensive, and have been retaking Kursk while advancing in Sumy. The US seems to have lost interest in Ukraine after the minerals deal was signed and are focused on the Israel-Iran conflict with the US bombing sites in Iran that were developing nuclear weapons. The world is focused on that and Ukraine, again is resigned to the back seat.

The current US government has been quietly supportive of Russia, refusing to impose sanctions, refusing to sign statements that say they are an aggressor, and where no aid package to Ukraine has been offered in 5 months. Most countries offer a new package every other month or after a Ramstein meeting, and the fact that the US did not attend the last Ramstein is a clear indication that they are not willing to offer additional support. The leaders in Europe know this and are finding ways to replace the loss of the US aid. This naturally is ideal for Russia as they want the West to stop supplying weapons to Ukraine and to destroy the ones they have.

Zelenskyy still refuses to lower the mobilisation age to 18, not even compromising with 21, while all other countries have soldiers of those ages. The current conscription age in Ukraine is 25, and his refusal to budge on this means Ukraine has less soldiers than Russia. Is it right that Ukrainian men of 18-25 sit around in bars and enjoying themselves while other men fight for their freedom? The reduction of 2 years (from 27 years to 25) has not made a difference to the number of soldiers in Ukraine, and came too late and has no impact.

From what I can see, the current US government will do the minimum while stating ‘give Russia a chance’ even though they have been given more than 100 days to respond to the peace proposal. It seems Trump is letting Putin off, while he doesn’t give Iran the same treatment. Putin has been using the ruse of peace talks to stall sanctions and also it has given the Russian army time to the group.

The Baltic states and countries near Russia are taking their own measures by fortifying their borders, limiting Russians and Belarusians from visiting or living in their countries, and by increasing their defences. They expect Russia to attack and this time, the US will not come to their aid. Many are saying Article 5 is no longer of any use, which makes NATO seem weak and perhaps they need to rethink their charter for this new phase of foreign warfare? Reports claim that the Russians are willing to test NATO to see how effective Article 5 is.

Ukraine in the meantime are holding off the Russians, but without US aid, it’s a matter of time when they run out of weapons and the race is on to manufacture them as quickly as possible.

Day 1200 (8 Jun)

• Russia captures Loknia in Sumy, which is near the Russian border.

• Trump administration redirects 20,000 anti-drone missiles for Ukraine to the Middle East. The drones had been agreed by the previous administration and the defence secretary Lloyd Austin and comes at a time where Ukraine had relied on the missiles to counter the Russian drone attacks

  

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• An evacuation has been declared in 213 settlements of 18 territorial communities in Sumy due to the advances of the Russian army.

Day 1201 (9 Jun)

• Renault will partner with a French defence company to equip production lines in Ukraine. The drones that they will produce will be used by Ukrainian and French military forces.

• The first wave of prisoner swaps under the Istanbul agreement begins and includes prisoners from Mariupol

  

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• Two prisoners from Azov have been imprisoned by Russia for allegedly shooting three civilians in Mariupol in April 2022. Artem Novikov and Ruslan Orlov was sentenced to 24 to 26 years in prison.

• Russia shows no sign of wishing to end the war in Ukraine as it makes a year’s worth of NATO ammunition that takes their alliance three months to produce.

• The Strategic Defence review has revealed that the U.K.'s armed forces are a present unprepared to fight Russia or China in a high intensity war similar to that that is occurring in Ukraine. Basically, that means that the UK would not be able to defend itself in the an attack by Russia therefore the country needs to we think it's defences rather than spending money on asylum seekers

Day 1202 (10 Jun)

• Russia launches another large attack on Kyiv and Odessa with 315 drones launched as well as ballistic and cruise missiles. The Russian air strikes were recorded in 11 locations with Kyiv being the main target.

• Zelenskyy says that the allies won't impose new sanctions on Russia because Ukraine refuses to lower the age of mobilisation to 18. Well, there's a simple solution to that reduce the age of mobilisation to at least 21 or 22 years of age to compromise.

• Russia has said it has submitted its peace memorandum and it is an ultimatum that Ukraine won't accept. Zelenskyy even said that the Russians told the Ukrainian delegation that they know they won't accept it, making such talks pointless as Russia uses them as delay tactics.

• The US defence secretary has stated that the US will reduce funding allocated from military assistance to Ukraine in the defence budget. This comes as no surprise however it does mean that the other allies need to work faster and to implement action to replace US aid, but also that's a Zelenskyy needs to compromise wherever possible.

• A Russian jet was suspected of violating finish airspace. The incident happened near Porvoo.

Day 1203 (11 Jun)

• Vucic of Serbia refuses to sign Ukraine declaration at the Ukraine – Southeast Europe summit as he didn’t want to betray Russia who offered reconstruction aid. Other attendees included representatives from Romania, Moldova, Greece, Croatia, and Bulgaria.

• Russia has been exploiting medical exemptions to bypass sanctions for goods entering Lithuania. Customs had blocked more than 28,000 shipments destined for Russia and Belarus under the guise of medical exemption.

• Putin announces a drone branch in the Russian by military indicating that he has no intention of withdrawing from Ukraine.

Day 1204 (12 Jun)

• The US group tracking Russian abduction of Ukrainian children will be shut down within the next two weeks as funding has been halted.

• Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State issues a press statement congratulating the Russian people on Russia day going further to say that the US remains committed to supporting the Russian people. This seems unnecessary and hypocritical given that Russia is threatening not only Ukraine but all of the democratic nations in the world

  

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• German defence minister Pistorius visit Ukraine and meet with Zelenskyy, and agrees to supply new Iris-T air defence system to Ukraine under a three year supply plan.

• Trump shows his lack of understanding of world politics when he says he wonders why everyone hates Russia.

  He (Putin) fought with us in World War II and now everybody hates Russia and loves Germany and Japan. It's a strange world. (Trump).

• A Russian spy plane was intercepted by British jets over the Baltic Sea. Poland said it was Russia testing NATO's readiness and was another act of provocation.

Day 1205 (13 Jun)

• Overnight there was another Russian attack where 55 drones were launched from Kursk.

• A further reparation was carried out with 1200 Ukrainian bodies being repatriated in accordance with the Istanbul agreement.

• The EU has extended temporary protection for refugees from Ukraine until March 2027.

Day 1206 (14 Jun)

• The G7 says it will go ahead to lower the price cap on Russian oil from $60-$45 per barrel despite US opposition.

• The Russian deadline of 2 weeks to respond to the latest peace proposal comes and goes without comment from the US.

• The fourth prisoner swap this week takes place and 1200 bodies of four the Ukrainians were returned home.

Day 1207 (15 Jun)

• Ukraine finds a Russian agent filming an airfield in Rivne Oblast using a hidden camera in his car. The 24-year-old man was detained.

• Russia had offered Ukraine to exchange abducted Ukrainian children for Russian soldiers but Zelenskyy rejected this stating that the proposal is outside of international law as the children should be returned in any case.

• Satellite images show that Russia has been modernising at least five of its nuclear basis in Europe one being the territory of Kaliningrad.

Day 1208 (16 Jun)

• The G7 summit is held in Canada (16-17 June 2025). Ukraine secures some support but the Middle East crisis was given more priority. Trump left the meeting early and had been reported to have set up a meeting with Zelenskyy, however Zelenskyy arrived after Trump had already left. No official reason was given as to why Trump left early except that he said he had work to do with the Middle East crisis, although some thought he was trying to avoid Zelenskyy.

• The final stage of the exchange agreement takes place where Ukraine receives the bodies of 1245 bodies of fallen soldiers and citizens from the Istanbul agreement. The total number of Ukrainian bodies returned under the deal was 6057.

• Claims are made that Russia is handing over bodies of its own soldiers in recent exchanges. There's a number of reasons for this which would include additional work for the Ukrainians to identify the bodies were authorities say it will take about 14 months to identify all the bodies. Another reason would be for Russia to avoid paying compensation to the families of the dead soldiers if there is no body or proof of death.

Day 1209 (17 Jun)

• Shoigu visit North Korea on a special assignment, as North Korea seems to be open about supplying Russia with soldiers and weapons.

• Another large Russian missile and drone attack hits Kyiv.

• Zelensky arrives at the G7 Summit hours after Trump has departed. There was no joint statement issued on the war in Ukraine as the US had pushed to weaken the language according to Canada. This is another indication that the US is withdrawing its support for Ukraine and is quietly supporting Russia instead and this is not good for world peace

  

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• The photo of a recent prisoner of war who has been returned to Ukraine has been shown with a scar on his abdomen with the words glory to Russia on his body.

Day 1210 (18 Jun)

• Ukraine dismisses the Russian demand for dismantling Western arms as part of the ceasefire conditions. Not only did Russia want all western weapons to be halted any that remained needed to be destroyed.

• Ukraine has said that it will take at least 14 months to identify the bodies that have been returned in the prisoner swap as the repatriated bodies have arrived in different packages with the remains of one person mixed with another. More than 6000 bodies have been repatriated.

Day 1211 (19 Jun)

• North Korea is considering sending 25,000 workers to a Russian Shahed drone manufacturing plant, in exchange for weapons and training on UAV operations. This would be in the Alabuga special economic zone in the Republic of Tatarstan.

• Putin, allegedly says he will meet Zelenskyy but only if the West stop pushing Ukraine to fight. We all know that won't happen because Ukraine will continue fighting to defend itself and the West is not pushing Ukraine to fight but is supporting them.

• It is 100 days since Ukraine agreed to a US proposal for a ceasefire, and 100 days of Russia failing to respond to the proposals and disregarding the proposal from the US.

• The Russian ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin has said that Ukraine must accept Moscow's demands or surrender.

• A Russian official confirmed that quarter of 1 million men have been lost in the invasion of Ukraine so far.

Day 1212 (20 Jun)

• Putin speaks at the St Petersburg International economic forum, and when asked about Ukraine's right to independence he stated Russians and Ukrainians are one people and that all of Ukraine is Russian. Putin also said that Russia was not seeking Ukraine to surrender but wanted them to recognise the realities on the ground.

  All of Ukraine is ours. (Putin).

• As a result, Ukraine is urging the west to isolate Moscow after Putin's remarks on his ambitions for Ukraine.

• A security council meeting, the Russian representative said that this is the best offer Ukraine can get as Russia will not back down on peace talks. In the Russian memorandum, the demands include that Ukraine destroy all weapons provided by the Western allies as well as international recognition of the occupied territories in Ukraine as Russian.

Day 1213 (21 Jun)

• The Baltic states, Nordics, and Poland propose a Schengen band on Russians who fought in Ukraine.

• Russia seems to be recruiting central Asian migrants as cannon fodder, and includes citizens of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

• Ukraine has asked allies to earmark 0.25% of GDP for joint defence production. The countries include Denmark, Norway, Germany, UK and Lithuania.

Day 1214 (22 Jun)

• Russia strikes that Ukrainian military training facility leaving dead and wounded the location has not been identified.

• Russia has condemned the US strikes on Iran as violating international law and of Iran's sovereignty.

• The Russians are advancing along the front line of the Ukrainian East with 695,000 Russian troops across a 750 mile front.

Day 1215 (23 Jun)

• Released Ukrainian prisoners of war have died a month after being released due to the severe injuries.

• Ukraine says it is still defending a small area of territory inside of Russia since the Kursk incursion in August 2024. However, Ukrainian troops have been forced to retreat with more than 10,000 Russian troops forcing them back. Ukraine still holds around 56 mi.² in the region but no longer can use this as a bargaining chip for occupy territories to be swapped in Ukraine.

• Serbia has halted all arms exports due to Russian scrutiny over Ukraine, but denies that this was in response to Russian criticism over alleged munitions reaching Ukraine. What this means is that Serbia may have exported to a country for example Poland, and Poland has then transferred those weapons to Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy met with storm in the UK for a visit to a UK military training site for Ukrainian personnel and also discussed military co -production.

• Airbus said it will now train Ukrainian specialists in aircraft maintenance, and will also send representatives to Ukraine to train local specialists.

Day 1216 (24 Jun)

• Russia carried out an attack at Dnipro, striking civilian infrastructure and also a train killing at least 17 people and injuring at least 200 and native people.

• The Council of Europe and Ukraine will sign an accord on 25 June to set up a tribunal on Russian aggression.

• The UK will jointly produce drones with Ukraine with the drones being manufactured in the UK and designed by Ukraine.

• Zelenskyy arrives at the native summit in the Hague at the two day summit. He is also reported to have a meeting set up with Trump.

• Rutte for NATO has said that NATO needs to face the threats of Russia and China and pledges to support for Ukraine, stating NATO must ensure Ukraine has the military means to stay in the fight until they are serious peace negotiations.