Tag: ukraine

Kyiv On Fire As Russian Pummels Ukrainian Capital

Russian missiles and drones are attacking the capital of Ukraine – Kyiv.

Kyiv International Airport is apparently one of the main targets. Ukrainian air defense assets have been known to be located at the airport.

The attacks come after the phone call today between Russian President Putin and President Trump. POTUS said he was not happy after the call.

It looks like Moscow has decided to push for complete destruction of Ukraine’s military capability to resist, prior to suing for peace. This decision may be based on the Ukrainian destruction of Russian strategic nuclear aircraft just weeks ago.

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Ukrainian Government Targets Orthodox Church in Controversial Crackdown

In a move that has sparked outrage among religious communities, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has escalated his administration’s campaign against the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), a cornerstone of spiritual life for millions of Ukrainians.

The latest blow came when Zelensky signed a decree stripping the revered 80-year-old leader of the UOC, of his Ukrainian citizenship, according to Ukraine’s SBU security service agency.

The SBU claims Onufriy, also known as Orest Berezovsky, acquired Russian citizenship in 2002, a charge the metropolitan has denied. In April 2023, Onufriy admitted to briefly holding a Russian passport but insisted he relinquished it, affirming his loyalty to Ukraine.

“I spoke out against Russia’s war with Ukraine and condemned Russian aggression. I consider myself a citizen only of Ukraine,” he declared. Despite this, the Zelensky government has used a new law on multiple citizenship, which flags Russian passport holders for denaturalization, to target the cleric.

For years, Zelensky’s administration has waged a relentless campaign against the UOC, Ukraine’s largest religious body, citing its historical ties to the Russian Orthodox Church. These ties, which date back to the era of Imperial Russia, have been weaponized to justify a sweeping crackdown.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the SBU reports that over 100 UOC clergy have faced criminal probes for alleged collaboration with Russian forces or spreading pro-Kremlin rhetoric. Nearly 50 have been charged, with 26 convictions handed down.

The government’s actions extend beyond legal measures. Supporters of the state-backed Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), established in 2019 with recognition from the Patriarch of Constantinople, have seized UOC properties, often with apparent impunity.

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Deputy Head Of Russian Navy Killed In Ukraine Missile Strike

In a rare battlefield development, a very high-ranking general officer for Russia’s military has been killed by Ukrainian forces, and it actually happened on Russian soil.

Major General Mikhail Gudkov, deputy commander of the Russian Navy and a brigade leader in the Ukraine war, has been confirmed dead in Russia’s Kursk region, according to a statement Thursday by a Kremlin official.

The news broke when Russian and Ukrainian military Telegram channels reported that Gudkov was killed along with 10 other soldiers in a Ukrainian strike targeting a command post in Korenevo, which lies near the Ukrainian border.

Gudkov is among the highest-ranking Russian military figures killed by Ukrainian forces since the conflict began. A slew of international headlines are reporting his death on Thursday.

Reuters reports the following, citing a Russian regional governor:

Kozhemyako, who said he had spoken to Gudkov a lot over the years, said in a statement that Gudkov had been killed “carrying out his duty as an officer” along with others, and expressed his condolences to the dead men’s relatives.

“When he became Deputy Chief of the Navy, he did not stop personally visiting the positions of our marines,” Kozhemyako said on Telegram.

The 42-year old general had only been promoted by President Putin to the number two command spot over the Navy in late March, according to the Institute for the Study of War think tank.

According to more emerging details in regional media, “An obituary posted by a Russian Navy servicemen’s organization states that on July 2, 2025, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a missile strike on the command post of the 155th Marine Brigade.”

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MI6 fueled Ukraine proxy war and fabricated intel on Iran – Grayzone investigative journalist

The UK Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6, has played a central role in spreading false intelligence and engaging in provocative actions aimed at escalating global conflicts, British whistleblower and investigative journalist for The Grayzone, Kit Klarenberg, has told RT.

Speaking to host Rick Sanchez on Thursday, Klarenberg said MI6 was at the forefront of efforts to push the West deeper into the Ukraine conflict.

“I have since the very start of the Ukraine proxy war been reporting on how Britain is leading this effort,” he said, adding that many see MI6 as merely a tool of the CIA, but “no, they go into business for themselves all the time.”

Klarenberg pointed to the 2022 bombing of the Kerch Bridge, which connects Crimea with mainland Russia, claiming it was orchestrated by British operative and NATO adviser Chris Donnelly as part of an effort to pull Washington further into the conflict.

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Russian forces discover cache of Ukrainian chemical drone munitions – FSB

Russian troops have discovered a makeshift chemical lab and vials containing banned toxins at a former Ukrainian hideout in the Donetsk People’s Republic, the Federal Security Service (FSB) announced on Tuesday. The cache, found near the village of Ilyinka during an advance by Russian forces, marks the second such discovery this year, the agency said.

In footage released by the FSB, personnel in chemical protection gear are seen handling the vials, which reportedly contain chloropicrin – a choking agent prohibited under the Chemical Weapons Convention. According to the agency, the substances were packaged with plastic explosives and rigged into improvised munitions designed to be dropped from drones.

“This year we have discovered two caches with munitions intended for drone strikes on Russian positions. These munitions were a mix of chloropicrin and plastic explosives, to maximize the area of effect,” an FSB officer stated.

The official further claimed that the use of prohibited warfare methods by Ukrainian forces has become “commonplace,” recalling prior discoveries of a lab for producing hydrogen cyanide in May 2024 and a chloropicrin stockpile uncovered last October.

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Pentagon halting some promised munitions for Ukraine

The Pentagon has halted shipments of some air defense missiles and other precision munitions to Ukraine due to worries that U.S. weapons stockpiles have fallen too low.

The decision was driven by the Pentagon’s policy chief, Elbridge Colby, and was made after a review of Pentagon munitions stockpiles, leading to concerns that the total number of artillery rounds, air defense missiles and precision munitions was sinking, according to three people familiar with the issue.

The initial decision to withhold some aid promised during the Biden administration came in early June, according to the people, but is only taking effect now as Ukraine is beating back some of the largest Russian barrages of missiles and drones at civilian targets in Kyiv and elsewhere.

The people were granted anonymity to discuss current operations. The Pentagon and White House did not respond to a request for comment.

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Moscow Forces Complete Conquest of Luhansk Region, One of the Cradles of the War, Fighting Since 2014 to Secede from Ukraine and Join Russia

While the world is fixated on Middle East tensions, Russian forces continue pounding military and strategic targets all over Ukraine.

Having amassed an enormous cache of kamikaze drones and missiles, Moscow is methodically implementing its ‘war of attrition’.

As we have often discussed here on TGP, in this kind of warfare the main objective is not so much territorial gains, but rather a campaign to degrade the enemy’s capabilities to the point it can’t fight anymore.

The only reason why this ‘attrition’ took more than a few months to be accomplished is that the US under Biden and all the other western powers have flooded the Kiev regime with unprecedented amounts of military aid to the tune of half a trillion dollars – but now, three and a half years later, the Ukrainian capabilities are again on the brink of destruction.

To accomplish that, the Russians have now in June unleashed the strongest drone and missile strike campaign of the whole war.

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Israel and Ukraine Used Smuggled Drones To Wreak Havoc on Their Enemies. Could China Do the Same?

A covert Israeli drone base secretly installed in the heart of Iran. More than 100 Ukrainian remote-controlled military aircraft smuggled deep into Russia, concealed under wooden sheds. Israel and Ukraine have activated these assets to devastating effect over the past year, decimating the Iranian military command and crippling Russia’s Air Force—all with a flip of a switch.

The stunningly successful asymmetric attacks have some experts wondering: Could China, America’s “number one geopolitical foe” in the words of Secretary of State Marco Rubio, be laying the groundwork to do the same in the United States?

“Mossad did this in secret. The Chinese Communist Party is doing it openly,” warned Michael Sobolik, a veteran China analyst with the Hudson Institute. “The mullahs in Iran had no idea. Putin had no idea. But we know, and we have no excuse. Do we have the political will and the self respect to make sure we can survive in a crisis?”

Several China experts told the Washington Free Beacon that the United States has left the door wide open for its communist adversary to establish a foothold in the country. Top of mind for many is the Chinese-owned farmland adjacent to at least 19 military bases across the United States, which Craig Singleton, a senior China fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, described as the elephant in the room following Israel’s covert strikes against Iran.

“Letting firms or individuals with CCP ties buy property next to U.S. bases hands Beijing the hardest part of that playbook—the forward staging area—no smuggling required,” Singleton told the Free Beacon. “A prudent policy starts with the assumption that a determined, tech-savvy adversary will exploit every acre it controls.”

The threats, however, go far beyond Chinese-owned farmland. Former FBI director Christopher Wray warned in a speech last April that China has been laying the groundwork to “physically wreak havoc on our critical infrastructure at a time of its choosing.”

That includes America’s shipping ports, which are almost entirely reliant on automated cranes manufactured by ZPMC, a Chinese state-owned military contractor. A joint congressional investigation in 2024 discovered unauthorized cellular modems embedded in some of those cranes, potentially giving China the ability to remotely shut down U.S. ports and wreak havoc on America’s food chains and manufacturing capabilities.

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Russia captures over 100-acre lithium reserve, one of Europe’s biggest ‘white gold’ sites

Russian forces have seized control of a key lithium-rich zone near the village of Shevchenko in Ukraine’s Donetsk region.

The site, located roughly 2 miles (3 km) from the border of Dnipropetrovsk oblast, spans approximately 100 acres (40 hectares) and contains one of the largest lithium reserves in Europe, according to a report by The New York Times. 

One of Europe’s richest lithium sites

The Shevchenko deposit lies about 6 miles (10 km) from Velyka Novosilka, a town that fell to Russian forces in January. 

Though the village holds little tactical value, its subsurface resources are of growing strategic significance. 

Lithium, often called “white gold,” is a critical input for producing electric vehicle batteries, aerospace alloys, energy storage systems, and electronics.

With global demand for lithium rising parallel with decarbonization efforts and military modernization programs, control over such reserves offers more than a battlefield advantage. 

It provides long-term leverage over industrial supply chains. In 2022, lithium prices peaked at over $80,000 per metric ton. 

As of June 27, 2025, the price in China stands at approximately $8,500 per ton, down significantly, yet still commercially and strategically relevant, according to Defence Blog.

The Russian occupation of the Shevchenko site allows Moscow to further consolidate its hold over Ukraine’s natural resources. 

The war shows a pattern of attacks on military targets and important resources like energy, minerals, and industry.

These attacks can hurt Ukraine’s recovery after the war and may impact future investments from the West.

Before the invasion, the Shevchenko area had attracted foreign interest and was under consideration for development by Ukrainian state agencies aiming to reduce dependence on imported raw materials.

Analysts suggest the seizure may form part of a larger Russian campaign to dominate resource corridors and inhibit Ukraine’s access to domestic revenue streams. 

With critical mineral extraction sites under Russian control, Ukraine faces new obstacles in rebuilding its industrial base, even as reconstruction frameworks gain international support.

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Russia Launches Another Massive Drone Strike On Kyiv

The Russian Federation launched another massive drone and missile strike on the nation of Ukraine today in the ongoing war; over 400 drones, and 40 missiles were used, according to local news reports.

Many of the attacks appear to have targeted civilian infrastructure, as Russia pressures the Ukrainian population.

There is no moral authority on either side, as targeting civilians has become a feature of this war for both combatants.

Ukraine continues its ‘mobilization’, further traumatizing the population, as the draft age appears to have been reduced to 18 as Ukraine runs out of soldiers.

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