Ukraine Update June 1

2026 — Zugzwang All Around, Ireland is in Trouble, German Vocabulary Day

EDITOR’S NOTE: The first sixteen presidents were: John Hanson (0), Washington (1), Adams (2), Jefferson (3), Madison (4), Monroe (5), Q Adams (6), Jackson (7), a bunch of people nobody remembers, Lincoln (16)… and don’t even get me started on Peyton Randolf. (The “editor” is me, but with less caffeine.)

**<<<FIEND LINK>>>** FREE TO READ.

Today is the one-year anniversary of Operation Spider Web.

Today is also the birthday of Evgeny Prigozhin, the former head of the neo-nazi mercenary group Wagner. He was famous for invading Ukraine in 2014 and 2022, losing 50–80,000 men to take over Bakhmut, running slave camps in Africa, losing 85 mercenaries to American forces in Syria, and dying because he finally told the truth to Putin.

So Goes the Invasion of Ukraine

Russian drones attacked another Nova Poschta location, this one in Sloviansk. No workers were injured, probably because the location wasn’t operating at the time. Anyone whose package was destroyed will be compensated for the insured amount, NP assures customers.

Last week, Russia launched a total of over 2,300 drones and 108 missiles at targets in Ukraine, the highest weekly total of the war so far. (many of them made from aluminum that came from Ireland).

Russia hit an auto-parts warehouse in Dnipro, also destroying a delivery truck.

A target was attacked in Chernihiv, Ukraine, where some heavy equipment and a building were destroyed, and 8 people, including three children, were injured.

Russia attacked an apartment building in Odesa. Seven were injured.

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Among yesterday’s strikes by Ukraine in Russia, the Rostov refinery and the pumping station at Lazarevo on the Surgut-Polotsk pipeline were heavily damaged. There was also a fuel and lubricants warehouse in Matveyev Kurgan, Rostov region (which was unidentified in yesterday’s article), a command center in Begoscha, Rostov region, a UAV control center in occupied Donetsk, and other operational-level military strikes.

Recent footage from the Ukrainian 3rd Army shows them conducting operational drone strikes 206km from their positions on the front lines, deep behind Russian lines. Several of the videos show the drones flying, unmolested, over the city of Luhansk, searching for military vehicles.

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The last three days have seen heavier than usual Russian casualties, around 1400, instead of the normal 950–1000. Is Russia engaging in some sort of “major offensive”? I mean, I would think that a “major” offensive would see more than a 50% uptick in offensive actions, but I guess that’s where we are in the war now.

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Germany delivered another IRIS-T air defense system. Generic image of an Iris-T, below.

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As part of the 1000 for 1000 exchange of prisoners, Russia wanted to give Ukraine the kidnapped children instead of POWs. This seems like a very stupid move from Russia’s perspective. First, they admit that they are kidnapping children. Second, it suggests that they either don’t have 1,000 POWs to trade or that they have abused the ones they do have to such a degree that releasing them would be politically dangerous. There is no good way to interpret this Russian offer.

“Can you imagine how we can exchange our children? We can’t. You can return civilians. You don’t exchange civilians.” — Zelenksy

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A Ukrainian rabbit (hare?) sacrificed itself to destroy a Russian drone that was waiting for a vehicle to ambush. It is a great honor to the animal; his sacrifice will not go unappreciated. He jumped onto the drone, and the feed died.

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France and the UK have seized a shadow fleet vessel, the tanker “Tagor”, in the Atlantic. It was sailing from Murmansk.

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A Russian reports from the trenches. The video contains graphic scenes of Russian trench life.

“Drones are killing all of us, completely fucking 100s of men a day. And you’re telling me Russia is winning. Look at this shit, what do we need this war for? All these dead.” (He shows in the video that he is surrounded by the corpses of Russian soldiers.) “Putin is a fucker. Who will carry them out of here, who will bury them? I’m the only one left. I don’t know how long I will stay alive. I am alone. Who can I defend this trench with? Every day, they kill us, hundreds of us.”

Politics

Ireland is still shipping a shipload of alumina to Russia every two to three days.

But that’s about to change. Caolan Reports (Caolan Robertson) is in Ireland, highlighting the hypocrisy of alumina exports to Russia, which puts Ireland in trouble. The world is going to start looking very closely at Ireland, and a lot of things are going to be bubbling up from below. Already, we find out that Ireland is approving 90% of visa applications from Russians, making it a massive vulnerability to European security. Given a little more time, we will find out which media personalities and politicians are on the FSB payroll. <<TICKETS AVAILABLE HERE>> (I am not affiliated with Caolin beyond a very quick video chat some months ago, and get nothing from the cost of the tickets. He did “like” my message that I would like to link to the event in my blog, so I interpreted that as permission.)

https://x.com/CaolanReports/status/2061080889170207153

Ireland, it would seem, should understand the problems Ukrainians are facing, at least as much as the Baltic states do. Ireland has had part of its territory occupied by an imperialist power, had its language all but erased, its religion replaced, its culture demeaned and insulted for centuries. The Irish share a unique parallel with the Ukrainians, but have somehow lost sight of their principles in search of wealth. The Irish government and business community is even lying about how much alumina they export to Russia, and the lies aren’t even that hard to debunk.

Russia even exploits the sentiments of the Irish against the UK by pretending that by supporting Russian causes, they will somehow be supporting Irish causes. Hungarians fell into the same trap, being told that supporting Russia meant fighting back against the EU, as though either was a worthy goal. MAGA in the US falls for it, told to believe that Russia is some haven for Christianity and white people, and a “natural ally” of the United States. Although I suppose Russian “Christianity” and MAGA Christianity are very similar: subjugation of women, racism, misogyny, hatred towards everyone, and war are the highlights of both mental institutions.

(His name is pronounced Kay-lin, the spelling is Irish, which is embarrassing, because I’ve been saying it wrong for a while now. That’s why I write, and don’t do video.)

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Tamas Sulyok, the corrupt president of Hungary who served under the Orban regime, has decided not to resign by May 31st, the deadline set by the Tisza supermajority, led by Peter Madyar.

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The Trump administration has cut funding for investigating Russian war crimes, including the kidnapping of children, torture, and attacks on civilians.

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While Trump’s disgusting Idiocracy party at the White House is losing even second-rate acts like Milli Vanilli, Bono and the Edge are in Mexico, meeting with the president, and talking about actual issues.

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Greg Bovino, former head of the Border Patrol, is a nazi. Let’s not beat around the bush here. Every thinking person could see it, but MAGA was in denial for a while.

He has given an interview where he cited Erwin Rommel as an inspirational figure, and attended a far-right, neo-nazi adjascent event in Portugal where the language used to describe immigrants is identical to that which was used in Germany 90 years ago to talk about Jewish and Roma people. The event also included, of course, politicians from Germany’s AfD party, Spain’s Vox, and other far-right parties in Europe. Most of them have ties to Russian intelligence and influence operations. Bovino attended the event with white nationalist Jared Taylor, founder of “American Renaissance,” a now-defunct online magazine for white supremacists. But wait, Bovino didn’t just “attend”. He was a surprise guest, a highlight of the event.

The event also included Martin Sellner, head of the “Identitarian movement” in Austria, a group linked with neo-nazis. Sellner is one of the organizers of the event.

Bovino, who is short, standing with Sellner, also short, and two other white supremacists. They are all champions of the “remigration” movement and talk constantly about “ethnic purity,” and, for the rucking fecord here, “umsiedlung”, or “resettlement” is what the actual 1930s German Hitler-nazis talked about doing with the Jewish, Roma, and other ethnic groups. So, yeah, calling these guys nazis is not some kind of political game. They are, in their beliefs and advocacy, identical to the nazis of the 1930s. They haven’t gotten to the 1940s stage yet, but they are working on it.

They also use terms such as Auswanderung (“emigration”), Umsiedlung (“resettlement”), Evakuierung (“evacuation”), and, later, Sonderbehandlung (“special treatment”), all of which were used in the 1930s.

Amazing how three different sources can give such a variety of summaries of a white supremacist. I wonder what Grok is trying to avoid saying.

For the record, as someone who has studied a lot of military history at university, yes, Rommel was a brilliant field commander. He was also a nazi. He later tried to kill Hitler, which was a good thing. He was still a nazi. The only acceptable response to nazis is to punch them in the face, reject them and everything they stand for, and disassociate. Don’t talk to them, don’t do business with them, don’t work for them. There is no forgiveness, even if one later decides that they’ve “gone too far” or “I didn’t know.” Yes, you did know. You chose not to believe.

Rommel is rather like Prigozhin, whose birthday is today. Prigozhin was a nazi. He was a horrible person. He smashed people’s skulls with a sledgehammer and ran slave mines in Africa. In the end, he turned against the Russian war machine, but not because it was evil and genocidal, but because it was inefficient. Prigozhin, too, was a competent military commander, in his own way, ideally suited to running a neo-nazi mercenary group. His final days do not erase his sins.

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Right-wing streamer Cam Higby was caught trying to escalate a protest against ICE. Dressed as a civilian, he walked up and started spraying people with pepper spray (note: this is called “assault” in the legal community), then was told by an ICE agent, “It’s not worth it, time to go,” and escorted into the ICE facility.

This was not the first time for Higby, either. He did this last year in October at Union Station in DC. His schtick is going around to university campuses and saying things like, “The left is violent, let’s talk.” He runs a social media campaign spreading lies and slander, but reality catches up in the end.

This is the kind of right-wing crap that happens all the time in Russia, but the Russians are at least more competent about it, and the FSB will perform a fake arrest of their planted agent, so that it doesn’t look so obviously evil on camera.

Meanwhile, in Russia

Russia has added aviation kerosine to the list of refined oil products that will no longer be exported from Russia. This ban is until November 30.

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Candace Owens, right-wing conspiracy nutjob, is in Russia talking about how great it is. Like this bullshit post here.

That smaller building to the left, with the two black doors? That’s a public toilet. I’ve been in that building. They don’t even have toilets, just holes in the floor, and you still have to pay to use them. Candace posted several images, and NONE of them were from Orsk. Or even outside the inner ring road. No, not even the main ring road, but the INNER ring road.

Here is a friendly guide for people visiting Moscow, based around the four “ring roads” of Moscow.

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Meanwhile, in Iran

Kuwait reports that the air defense system is engaging Iranian drones. The ceasefire is, apparently, over.

The longer this goes on, the more apparent it is that Trump is doing this for Russia’s benefit, and nobody else’s.

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Zugzwang

This is a chess and other board-game term for a situation in which a player has no good moves and the best move is to do nothing, but, of course, that is not an option. Trump and Putin find themselves in this situation today.

For Putin, there are no good moves in Ukraine. He can’t call up a large mobilization because of the economic effects it will have in Russia, and it will turn the Moscowites, the only Russians that matter in politics, against him. He can’t launch a major attack because there isn’t the manpower, the vehicles, and now the logistics to do so. Any attack simply results in more casualties, further reducing his options in the future. He can’t launch Oreshnik because half of the missiles have been falling on his own territory anyway, he has a limited number of them, and they have no value beyond the psychological effect on people who don’t read past the headlines. He can’t sign a peace treaty, because everyone knows that would be admitting that he lost. He can’t retreat, because that’s an even bigger loss. Any cessation of combat operations will result in 700,000 (allegedly) hyper-criminalized, sadistic Russian soldiers returning home and demanding jobs and money from the state.

Headline — PUTIN LAUNCHES ORESHNIKS

First Paragraph — One of the warheads hit a private garage, destroying a hobby project of an elderly resident who was rebuilding an old motor. The other missile impacted Russian-controlled territory.

For Trump, there are no good moves in Iran. He can’t attack because the response to any major air campaign would destroy the oil infrastructure of the Middle East for years to come, wrecking the world economy. He can’t surrender because he will end up forced to sign a deal that is demonstrably and in every way worse than the deal he decided to tear up in 2019, simply because Obama had signed it. He can’t even wait it out, because the world economy will collapse before Iran cares about their own economic collapse, and there are elections in November in the US. His only good move would be to “win”, but there doesn’t seem to be a path to victory available.

They can’t move. They can’t stand still. Clock is ticking…

Thank you for reading.

Ahhh,… Wagner memories.

[embed]Wagner recounts US air strikes during Battle of Khasham - AeroTime The first Wagner account of US airstrikes destroying a large force of Russian mercenaries was published by a Telegram…www.aerotime.aero