Rusia

The following investigation, conducted over the course of six months with a consortium of five international partners, was scheduled to run Thursday morning. After receiving a list of detailed questions based on months of research and reporting, the Lithuanian Prosecutor’s Office and the Criminal Police Bureau decided to reveal part of our findings preemptively and publicly, naming three of the suspects involved in sabotage operations targeting Europe and North America. These operations were stagemanaged by the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, via the social media platform Telegram. Given Vilnius’ unexpected disclosure, VSquare and its partners have decided to publish this story on Wednesday, recounting the actors involved and the route their dangerous consignment took throughout Europe, a day early. (On Thursday, we finally published our originally planned, in-depth visual investigation, which you can find here.)

Donald Trump ne cesse de surprendre par ses réflexions, cette fois encore au sujet des récents sommets et célébrations en Chine. Si, la dernière fois, il a plaisanté au sujet d’un complot ourdi à Pékin contre l’Amérique par Xi, Poutine et Kim (même si la frontière entre plaisanterie et irritation était ici pratiquement imperceptible), il s’inquiète désormais au sujet d’un autre trio. Vendredi, il a publié une photo de Poutine, Xi et Modi au sommet de l’OCS avec le commentaire suivant : «Il semble que nous ayons cédé l’Inde et la Russie à la Chine, plus puissante et plus sombre. Qu’un long et heureux avenir commun les attende !»

Toplines
Ukrainian officials warned that the Russian military command is regrouping and reinforcing its troops in western Donetsk Oblast, likely ahead of a major offensive operation. Ukrainian Dnipro Group of Forces Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Oleksiy Belskyi reported that the Russian military command is concentrating significant forces in Donetsk Oblast and that the most intense fighting is occurring in the Pokrovsk direction.[1] Belskyi stated that Russian forces are now accumulating significant numbers of drones and heavy armored vehicles in the area after failing to seize Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad during Summer 2025. The Ukrainian 7th Army Corps reported that the Russian military command recently redeployed experienced naval infantry units to the Pokrovsk direction, indicating that Russia is preparing to re-intensify assaults in the area.[2] The Ukrainian 7th Army Corps reported that Russian forces began leveraging infiltration tactics with small teams with the aim of getting as close as possible to Ukrainian drone and artillery positions, overextending Ukrainian forces, gaining footholds in forward positions, and expanding the contested “gray” zone. The Ukrainian 7th Army Corps noted that Russian forces intensified offensive operations on the flanks of Pokrovsk using armored and motorized vehicles in an effort to interdict ground lines of communication (GLOCs) and envelop Pokrovsk. The Ukrainian 7th Army Corps reported that the Russian military command remains committed to seizing Ukraine’s fortress belt, which consists of Slovyansk-Kramatorsk-Druzhkivka-Kostyantynivka and forms the backbone of Ukrainian forces’ defense in Donetsk Oblast. A senior non-commissioned officer (NCO) of a Ukrainian brigade operating in the Siversk direction reported that Russian forces are conducting troop rotations in the area and that Ukrainian forces anticipate that Russian forces will soon conduct intensified offensive operations.[3] The NCO noted that the Russian military command is pressuring Russian units to advance during Fall 2025, given that Russian forces did not achieve their given objectives during Summer 2025. The deputy commander of a Ukrainian battalion operating in the Kramatorsk direction also reported that Russian forces are building up their force presence in preparation for future assault operations in the Kramatorsk area and that the Russian military command has deployed unspecified naval infantry units to the area.[4]

Ukrainians know how to make their voices heard—and to make their leaders listen. They will never accept capitulation to Russia, whether in the form of the surrender of Ukrainian land or the abandonment of Ukrainian citizens to Russian occupiers. President Volodymyr Zelensky knows this. It is why he avoided making unacceptable concessions to U.S. President Donald Trump in his latest visit to the White House.

It’s not enough to stop a war; it must then stay finished.

Among the most critical but least developed elements of a potential arrangement to end Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is the security guarantee that Kyiv will need to deter another attack from Moscow. That will require a deterrent force with substantial presence in Ukraine, including forces from the United States. Deterring future Russian military aggression is an achievable but nonetheless challenging and grave undertaking for the transatlantic community—one that is the subject of ongoing discussions among transatlantic officials following the recent White House leaders’ summit.

Moscow’s tactics, on the battlefield and domestically, are incentivising men to join and stick to the army.

When President Vladimir Putin ordered a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ivan Chenin left his comfortable life as a student in Moscow to deliver aid as a volunteer to the separatist Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics of eastern Ukraine, which Russia now claims as its “new territories”.

The summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and subsequent meeting of the U.S. president with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Washington have given rise to new hopes that an end to the Russia-Ukraine war may finally be in sight. After all, for the first time in several years, the parties have begun to discuss the practical parameters of a settlement.