The Washington Post

U.S. will boost Ukraine’s air defense by pausing exports to allies The United States will suspend the planned export of hundreds of air defense munitions to its allies and partners and redirect them to Ukraine, the White House said Thursday, as Russia continues its brutal assaults on Ukrainian infrastructure. The Biden administration “has made the difficult but necessary decision to reprioritize near term planned deliveries of foreign military sales to other countries, particularly Patriot and NASAMS missiles, to go to Ukraine instead,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters. The Patriot and NASAMS systems are the two most sophisticated air defense platforms the West has provided to Ukraine, and have been central to its defense against Russian missiles and drones that have attacked civilian infrastructure. Read the full story here.

Ukraine claims to be winning its war on corruption. The West says: Do more. Ukrainian officials insist they are battling corruption as fiercely as their troops are fighting Russia’s invaders in the east. But Western governments, including the United States, say it is still not enough — a source of increasingly raw tension between Kyiv and some of its strongest supporters that poses constant peril to additional economic and military assistance. Nearly every month adds a new case to a string of high-profile arrests and dismissals. In late May, the former deputy head of the presidential administration, Andrii Smyrnov, was charged with “illicit enrichment” by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, which said he had acquired real estate, vehicles and other assets worth more than 10 times his reported salary and savings. Read the full story here.

North Korea’s Kim declares ‘full support’ for Russian war in Ukraine SEOUL — In a show of defiance against Western sanctions, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un signed a comprehensive strategic pact on Wednesday pledging to come to each other’s assistance in case of a military attack — the starkest display yet of Russia’s alignment with anti-Western nations determined to topple the United States as a global leader. Putin, visiting the North Korean capital, Pyongyang for the first time since 2000, said Russia and North Korea “pursue an independent foreign policy and do not accept the language of blackmail and diktat.” “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today provides, among other things, for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Putin said. Read the full story here.

As Kyiv celebrates first Pride since invasion, LGBTQ troops demand equality KYIV — Pride in Ukraine is no longer just about defending and celebrating the right to love whom you choose. Like everything else here, it’s also about resisting Russia. A Pride march in Kyiv on Sunday — the first since Russia’s 2022 invasion — and a host of other events this month across the country are intended as a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that Ukrainians want to live in a country with Western freedoms — not Russian-style repressions. The events are also protesting Ukraine’s own policies, which advocates say perpetuate the marginalization of LGBTQ people, including soldiers who risk their lives for Ukraine’s future. Read the full story here.

Short on troops, Ukraine is freeing criminals to fight To fill a critical shortage of infantry on the front line, Ukraine has embraced one of Russia’s most cynical tactics: releasing convicted — even violent — felons who agree to fight in high-risk assault brigades. More than 2,750 men have been released from Ukrainian prisons since the parliament adopted a law in May authorizing certain convicts to enlist, including those jailed for dealing drugs, stealing phones and committing armed assaults and murders, among other serious crimes. Now — seeking revenge against Russia, or in pursuit of personal redemption and freedom — they are trading their prison jumpsuits for Ukrainian army uniforms and deploying to the front lines. Read the full story here.

Putin demands Ukraine surrender four regions to stop war Russian President Vladimir Putin demanded that Ukraine surrender four southeastern regions that Russian troops partly occupy and renounce plans to join NATO as conditions for Russia to “immediately” stop hostilities and start of negotiations to end the war. Putin’s demands would amount to capitulation by Ukraine and the loss of more than one-fifth of Ukraine’s sovereign territory — including Crimea, which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014. The Russian leader’s remarks appeared designed to get ahead of an international “peace” conference organized by Ukraine in Switzerland this weekend. President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to reiterate his call for Russia’s complete withdrawal of military forces and the end of Moscow’s illegal occupation of Ukraine. The Russian leader’s broader demands included cementing Ukraine’s “neutral, nonaligned, nonnuclear status” and lifting all Western sanctions against Russia. Read the full story here.

G-7 leaders agree to deal to tap frozen Russian assets for Ukraine Leaders from the world’s leading democracies came to an agreement Thursday to use frozen Russian assets to help provide Ukraine with some $50 billion over the next year in its ongoing war with Russia. The agreement, which comes after months of intense diplomacy, was one of the top goals of the Group of Seven leaders as they met at a five-star resort on the southern Italian coast. President Biden is also planning to sign a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky before the two hold a joint news conference later Thursday. The use of Russian assets marked a victory for Biden and other leaders who had been hoping to use the summit to send a strong signal of support for Ukraine at a precarious moment in the war. Read the full story here.

U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich to be tried on espionage charges in Russia American journalist Evan Gershkovich of the Wall Street Journal will soon stand trial in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg on charges of spying for the CIA, Russian authorities said Thursday, after announcing that they had finalized an indictment against the Wall Street Journal reporter. Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while on a reporting trip in Yekaterinburg and accused of espionage. Gershkovich, the journal and U.S. officials have repeatedly rejected the charges as baseless. Russian prosecutors said in a statement that they had “established and documented” that Gershkovich “collected secret information” about a military factory in the Sverdlovsk region “on assignment from the CIA.” Read the full story here.

‘Ram him’: How Ukraine is pushing U.S. combat gear to the extreme The Ukrainians’ radio crackled with an urgent announcement: A Russian vehicle stacked with infantry troops was lurking in a forest and had to be taken out. The mission went to Viktor, the commander of an American-made Bradley Fighting Vehicle, whose crew roared down the main road in the village of Sokil, in eastern Ukraine, where the Kremlin has gained ground this year. The Russians emerged from the trees, and for a few chaotic seconds, the two vehicles barreled toward each other while firing their heavy guns. Viktor’s took a catastrophic hit to its targeting system, disabling the main weapon. The May 31 exchange, captured on drone video that subsequently went viral online, underscores how Kyiv has used U.S.-provided Bradleys in unique and extreme ways to work around its depleted artillery stocks and manpower shortages, soldiers and analysts said. Read the full story here.

U.S. will send Ukraine a second Patriot air defense battery The Biden administration is planning to provide Ukraine an additional Patriot air defense system as Kyiv struggles to shield key cities and infrastructure from ongoing Russian assaults, three U.S. and a senior European official said Wednesday. According to the European official, who like others spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe plans that had not been made public, the United States has informed some allies of its decision to send Ukraine the additional battery. One of the U.S. officials said the system will be sent to Ukraine from an airfield in southeastern Poland that the Pentagon has used as a staging base to send weapons and supplies to Ukrainian forces. Multiple Patriot batteries have been based there since Russian’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. U.S. military officials plan to backfill the system in Poland with another Patriot from elsewhere, this person said. Read the full story here.