Attention to the Unseen

The New York Times reports: Even in a war that has razed entire cities, the destruction of the Kakhovka hydroelectric dam in southern Ukraine stands out. Thousands of people were displaced by flooding from one of the world’s largest reservoirs, which was vital for irrigating farmland considered the breadbasket of Europe. The disaster puts global food supplies for millions at risk and could threaten fragile ecosystems for decades. The dam was visibly scarred by fighting in the months before the…

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Michael Weiss and James Rushton write: It has been nine days since the destruction of the Kakhovka Dam and hydroelectric facility caused the worst ecological disaster in Ukraine’s history since Chernobyl. Because Ukraine is a nation that has been at war for almost a year and a half, the flooding of more than 80 settlements in the Kherson region, resulting in the death of at least 10 people, with another 42 still missing, has already slipped from international headlines. The…

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The Wall Street Journal reports: Around 3:30 a.m. one recent morning, more than a dozen Russian missiles flashed on the radar screens of the Ukrainian air-defense crew defending this capital city. The missiles were coursing toward Kyiv, some as fast as six times the speed of sound and many heading directly for the crew’s missile battery. The Ukrainians didn’t panic, their commander said in an interview. They didn’t have time. But they did have a U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system,…

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The Guardian reports: Is Russia about to experience a period of dramatic political change? If so, can exiled democratic forces unite into a coherent bloc, and is there any way for them to force themselves on to the political scene? Nearly 300 exiled Russian opposition politicians and activists gathered to discuss these questions in the European parliament earlier this week, the congress coming as news broke of the Nova Kakhovka dam destruction, the latest grim episode in Vladimir Putin’s war…

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On May 17, the New York Times reported: Water levels at a reservoir that supplies southern Ukraine with drinking water have reached a 30-year high, increasing the possibility of flooding in the area and signaling a lack of regulation. The sudden increase in levels at the Kakhovka reservoir appears in altimetry data — which uses satellites to measure height — published on Friday by Theia, a French earth data provider. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service has not…

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The Washington Post reports: Three months before saboteurs bombed the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, the Biden administration learned from a close ally that the Ukrainian military had planned a covert attack on the undersea network, using a small team of divers who reported directly to the commander in chief of the Ukrainian armed forces. Details about the plan, which have not been previously reported, were collected by a European intelligence service and shared with the CIA in June 2022….

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Politico reports: Ukraine dismissed claims that Russia has repelled its counteroffensive on Monday, insisting that its long-awaited assault has not yet begun. The Russian defense ministry on Monday reported that Kyiv’s forces had attempted to storm several Russian positions in parts of the southern Donetsk front on Sunday. According to Moscow, Russia repelled what it called Ukraine’s counteroffensive, pushing Kyiv’s troops back to their original positions on Monday and imposing significant losses in manpower and equipment. Kyiv, meanwhile, dismissed the…

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Andrew A. Michta writes: As the war in Ukraine enters yet another phase with the coming Ukrainian offensive, it is clear that China is positioning itself to benefit from the outcome regardless of which side ultimately prevails. China has already been able to pocket significant gains in its relations with Russia as Moscow has grown more dependent on Beijing for its economic survival and for political support. China also has gained ground in its relations with the European Union, especially…

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Poltico reports: Barely six months ago, Russian media released a propaganda film showing freezing Europeans huddling together for warmth and cooking their pets, in a dystopian future without fossil fuels supplied by Russia. More than a year on since the start of the war in Ukraine, the Continent has more or less kicked its addiction to Moscow’s gas — and nobody’s had to eat a hamster. European wholesale natural gas prices have reached a two-year low, ending last week at…

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The Washington Post reports: When Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive finally begins, the fight will be led by brigades armed not only with Western weapons but also Western know-how, gleaned from months of training aimed at transforming Ukraine’s military into a modern force skilled in NATO’s most advanced warfare tactics. As other Ukrainian units were fighting to expel the Russian occupiers from the country’s east and south, the brand-new 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade was preparing for the next phase of war from…

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The Washington Post reports: The Russian fighters aligned against Moscow who launched a cross-border raid from Ukraine into the Belgorod region of Russia last week used at least four tactical vehicles originally given to Ukraine by the United States and Poland, U.S. officials said, raising questions about the unintended use of NATO-provided equipment and Kyiv’s commitments to secure materiel supplied by its supporters. Three of the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, also known as MRAPs, taken into Russia by the fighters…

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France 24 reports: After a six-month inquiry and more than 50 hearings, the cross-party parliamentary inquiry found that the National Rally (Rassemblement national or RN) party had served as a “communication channel” for Russian power, notably supporting Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea, according to the leaked report. The text, due to be published next week, was adopted on Thursday by eleven votes to five – to the dismay of the inquiry’s chair and instigator, RN lawmaker Jean-Philippe Tanguy, who promptly…

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