Nobody interested in the Russia-Ukraine conflict?

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Interesting comparison

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7YWdoL9-IY

What a bunch of twiddle twaddle!

The US has not bombed Tahiti, either. Is that because we are terrified of Tahiti? Not hardly.

Methinks you are missing the most important point -- the US is not going to bomb North Korea just because the North Koreans are being belligerent little twats. In case of a war, the ones who would really suffer would be South Korea, not the US.

We must be scared of them because we haven't bombed them?

There is nothing about such ideas that rings the slightest bit true.

The North Korean military is so outmatched that beating them in war wouldn't be at all difficult.

They may have a large military for their country size, but they aren't a good military. They showed in the Ukraine that they aren't even prepared to fight a modern war. They flat out do not have the capacity to take on a modern military. They would be wiped out in no time at all.

Their military is ranked as 34th in the world, behind Mexico and Argentina and ahead of Bangladesh and the Netherlands.

South Korea, on the other hand, has the 5th ranked military in the world.

As American and Ukrainian officials met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for talks on ending Russia’s invasion, Kyiv and Moscow were counting the costs from a night of firing hundreds of missiles and drones at each other.

Russia resumed its almost nightly strikes on Ukraine, whose defenses shot down 114 drones, Ukrainian officials said. But less familiar was the massive wave of drones Kyiv launched on Moscow, which Russian authorities said was the largest such attack on the capital and surrounding area.

The Russian Defense Ministry said it downed 337 Ukrainian drones, 91 of which came down in the Moscow region. Two people were killed and 18 were injured, while air and rail travel faced huge disruptions. Ukraine said among its targets were oil production and pipeline control facilities.

Meanwhile in Saudi Arabia, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Adviser Mike Waltz met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Andriy Yermak, head of Ukraine's presidential office.

"We have to understand the Ukrainian position and just have a general idea of what concessions they would be willing to make," Rubio told reporters on the plane to Saudi Arabia on Monday. "You're not going to get a ceasefire and an end to this war unless both sides make concessions."

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin called the drone strike on his city as the “largest” such attack on the Russian capital.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a Telegram post that their drones successfully struck the Moscow Oil Refinery, on the southeastern edge of the capital, which it said provides up to half of the city's gas and diesel needs.

It blamed Russian air defense for damage to civilian infrastructure facilities."

American podcaster Lex Fridman posted to X on Tuesday that he was in Moscow and that the "mass drone attack hit very close to where I am located." He added that "when I traveled to Ukraine there were a few close calls. And same in Moscow now. These are not actions of two sides that are pushing for peace."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy criticized the United States and the international community Sunday for remaining silent after Russia unleashed what Ukrainian officials described as the largest aerial assault on the country since the war began.

The silence, however, didn't last. President Donald Trump said Sunday on Truth Social that Russian President Vladimir Putin is "needlessly killing a lot of people."

"I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him," Trump wrote. "He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever."

Putin, Trump said, wants to take over all of Ukraine. But, he warned, "it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”

Russian forces launched a massive overnight barrage Saturday as 367 drones and missiles targeted more than 30 cities and villages across Ukraine, including the capital, Kyiv. At least 12 people were killed, including three children, according to officials, in the northern region of Zhytomyr.

“The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram. “Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.”

Trump said in his social media statement that Zelenskyy is not helping his country's cause by lashing out at the United States.

“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop," Trump said, blaming the war on Zelenskyy, Putin and former President Joe Biden.

"I am only helping to put out the big and ugly fires, that have been started through Gross Incompetence and Hatred," Trump said.

Saturday’s massive air raid follows a drone attack Friday that killed four people and coincided with the final day of a large-scale prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.

Moving independently of Washington, the European Union and the United Kingdom announced a new round of sanctions last week, targeting Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet” — roughly 200 vessels used to transport Russian oil exports globally.

The E.U. said these were the 17th set of Europeans sanctions imposed on Russia since it invaded its neighbor in 2022.

In Washington, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers that the administration would continue to push an existing bill that could impose a 500% tariff on buyers of Russian oil and gas if there was no progress on a peace deal.

But, he added that Trump “believes that right now, you start threatening sanctions, the Russians will stop talking, and there’s value in us being able to talk and drive them to get to the table.”

While the bombs continue to fall on Ukraine, Zelenskyy posted on Telegram on Sunday that the third phase of the “1,000-for-1,000” exchange agreement had been completed after two exchanges last week, with pictures of returning soldiers draped in Ukrainian flags.

"I’ve always had a very good relationship with Vladimir Putin of Russia, but something has happened to him," Trump wrote. "He has gone absolutely CRAZY! He is needlessly killing a lot of people, and I’m not just talking about soldiers. Missiles and drones are being shot into Cities in Ukraine, for no reason whatsoever."

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev raised the specter of World War III on Tuesday, as the rhetoric between the White House and the Kremlin ramped up over the war in Ukraine.

Medvedev, now a top security official, was responding to President Donald Trump's post on Truth Social berating his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin as Moscow continued to rain strikes down on its neighbor.

“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,” Trump, who appears to be losing patience over the lack of a ceasefire deal, wrote, adding, “He’s playing with fire!”

Around three hours later, Medvedev took to X, writing, “I only know of one REALLY BAD thing — WWIII. I hope Trump understands this!”

This in turn drew an almost immediate rebuke from Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg who called Medvedev’s remarks “reckless” in a post on X. Cautioning that Russia was stoking fears of another world war, Kellogg wrote that it was “unfitting of a world power.”

Trump, he added, has been working towards brokering a truce in the war that entered its fourth year in February and has claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov appeared to play down the tension during a press briefing Wednesday, where he thanked Trump “personally” for his efforts. But he said “at the same time there are a lot of nuances based on the national interests, which cannot be sacrificed and which neither side will sacrifice.”

While Putin has never raised the specter of world war, he has broached the use of nuclear weapons on several occasions since he launched his invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

In a speech in Moscow’s Red Square last May, the Russian leader vowed to stand firm against attempts by Ukraine's western allies to contain Russia. “We will not let anyone threaten us,” he said. “Our strategic forces are always at combat readiness,” he added referring to Russia’s arsenal of nuclear weapons, the world’s largest.

Trump, who promised on multiple occasions to end the war within 24 hours of taking office, has found the reality much different since beginning his second term, while offering mixed messages about Putin.

Trump has praised Putin as a strong leader with whom he can do business with and the pair exchanged a friendly, if fruitless, phone call last week. Shortly afterward, he announced that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire.”

But as Putin has stalled on the peace talks, Trump's frustration appears to have grown with the Russian leader, who he called “crazy” in a post on Truth Social Sunday after Moscow launched widespread strikes on Ukraine. The Kremlin dismissed his comments as “emotional overload.”

Russia previously said it was working on a memorandum of understanding outlining Moscow’s demands as part of the negotiations with Kyiv. But on Tuesday, Kellogg said the U.S. was still awaiting “receipt of RU Memorandum (Term Sheet) that you promised a week ago.”

Earlier, Russia's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a statement the Kremlin was continuing to draft that memorandum and it would include a timeline for a peace agreement and potential ceasefire scenarios.

She added that this would be sent to Ukraine, which has previously rejected Russian demands that it never join NATO, accept permanent “neutrality” between Moscow and the West and cede its demand for four territories in the east of the country that Russia illegally annexed months after the war began.

Inside Ukraine, Russian forces continue their slow grind forward on the battlefield. Ukrainian officials said one person was killed and more than two dozen injured by ballistic missile strikes across the country overnight.

Elsewhere, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with Germany's news Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday, his office said in a statement.

The two leaders are expected to discuss Kyiv’s readiness to respond to Russian strikes and threats, including increasing the production of drones and missiles, Zelenskyy said in his overnight address Wednesday.

It comes after Merz said Tuesday that his government would lift all range restrictions on weapons it sends to Ukraine, allowing Kyiv to defend itself by attacking military positions deep into Russia.

Peskov called Merz’s decision “extremely dangerous,” adding, “all this in a big way goes against the peace efforts, against the peace process that is beginning and is still in a very fragile state.”

Ukraine destroyed dozens of enemy bombers using a horde of drones smuggled deep into Russia in a stunning attack Russian war bloggers are calling Moscow's Pearl Harbor. It was the most damaging Ukrainian attack on Russia in the three years since Moscow invaded.

Ukrainian intelligence said the coordinated strikes on June 1 took a $7 billion toll on Russia's military and demolished more than a third of Moscow's strategic cruise missile carriers, including planes cabable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called the massive attack, which he said used 117 drones, his counntry's "longest-range operation."

Russia's Pearl Harbor?
"It had an absolutely brilliant outcome," Zelenskyy said on Telegram. "Russia has had very tangible losses, and justifiably so."

Oksana Markarova, Kyiv's ambassador to the U.S. called the attack a "very successful defensive operation in Russia against Russian aircraft that, on a daily basis, bomb our hospitals and schools and kill our kids."

Speaking at an AI event in Washington, Markarova said it was "the best example of how innovation can and should work in defense."

With Ukraine set to meet Russia for U.S.-brokered peace talks the next day and amid aggressive Russian advances on the battlefield, the ambitious attack showed neither side is counting on a breakthrough in negotiations.

"We hope that the response will be the same as the US response to the attack on their Pearl Harbor or even tougher," Russian war blogger Roman Alekhin wrote on Telegram, comparing the Ukrainian strike to the 1941 Japanese raid on a US base in Hawaii.

“It is impossible to restore these losses,” Rybar, a pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, said.

‘Ukrainian 'Spider's Web
The operation – codenamed "Spider's Web" – was characteristic of the style of warfare Ukraine has made its brand as it attempts to undercut Russia's larger military – flooding the zone with cheap, deadly drones.

But the scope of this attack set a new precedent. The drones, strapped with explosives, were hidden inside the roofs of wooden sheds, which were dropped off by trucks at the outer edge of Russian military bases, a Ukrainian security official told Reuters.

The roofs then opened by remote control, unleashing the drones to swarm the military bases.

Ukraine's intelligence service said 41 Russian aircraft were hit at four air bases stretching from the Finnish border to Siberia. One targeted base, in the Irkutsk region, lies more than 2,600 miles from the frontlines, making it the farthest target Ukraine has hit during the conflict.

Russia's defense ministry acknowledged in Sunday Telegram messages that drones launched "from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire."

The operation came a day after Russia launched a massive overnight attack on Ukraine using 472 drones and seven missiles, according to Ukraine's air force – the most drones launched in one operation throughout the conflict.

Separately on Sunday, Ukraine struck two highway bridges in Russian regions close to its borders, killing seven people and injuring 69. One bridge collapsed on a train carrying nearly 400 passengers to Moscow, according to Russian investigators.

Three of the missiles and 372 drones were downed, the air force said.

Russia launched a barrage of drones and ballistic missiles across broad swaths of Ukraine early Friday, killing at least six people and injuring dozens of others, days after Kyiv launched a daring raid on Moscow’s fleet of strategic bombers.

For residents of Kyiv, the night’s soundtrack was familiar: the shrieking whir of drones, air raid sirens and large explosions overhead – whether from air defenses successfully downing missiles, or projectiles puncturing the capital.

Three firefighters were killed in Kyiv, two civilians were killed in Lutsk, and another person was killed in Chernihiv, according to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russia had used more than 400 drones and 40 missiles in the overnight attack, making it among the war’s largest. He said Moscow’s attack injured 80 and targeted “almost all” of Ukraine, listing nine regions, from Lviv in the west to Sumy in the northeast.

Although Russia has pummeled Ukraine almost daily over three years of full-scale war, Ukrainians had been bracing for retaliation since Sunday, when Kyiv launched an audacious operation that struck more than a third of Russia’s strategic cruise missile carriers.

In a call with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow would have to respond to Kyiv’s assault.

Russia’s Ministry of Defense said its strikes were in response to what it called Kyiv’s “terrorist acts.” It was not immediately clear if the attack was the extent of Russia’s pledged retaliation, or if Putin intends to escalate further. After the embarrassment of Kyiv’s operation, there was a chorus of bellicose calls from pro-Kremlin pundits for a severe – potentially nuclear – response.

Although Ukrainians had been buoyed last weekend by the news of Kyiv’s successful operation, many were wary of how Russia might strike back. But after Friday’s strikes, Kyiv residents told CNN they supported Ukraine’s strikes against the aircraft Moscow has used to bomb Ukraine for more than three years.

“It didn’t break us at all. The morale is as high as it was. We strongly believe in our armed forces,” said Olha, a 39-year-old from the capital who did not wish to give her last name.

She said the apparent “retaliation” from Russia was not so different to countless other nights of the war. “Maybe (this was the retaliation), but maybe the retaliation is yet to come. Either way, it doesn’t change our attitude towards the enemy or towards our country.”

Meanwhile, Ukraine’s general staff on Friday said it launched overnight strikes on two Russian airfields, where it said Moscow had concentrated many of the aircraft that had not been damaged in Kyiv’s “Spiderweb” operation last weekend.

Ukraine stressed that the operation, which blindsided the Kremlin, had targeted the planes that Russia uses to launch missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and kill civilians. After Russia’s large-scale attack Friday, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Moscow had “responded” to its destroyed aircraft by once again “attacking civilians in Ukraine.”

As daylight broke, images from Kyiv showed flames rising over apartment buildings and firefighting crews at work, with residents picking through the debris of damaged apartments. Several cars parked in the streets below were covered with shards of glass and slabs of masonry torn from the walls of residential buildings.

Ukraine’s air force said Russia’s barrage comprised 407 drones, six ballistic missiles, 38 cruise missiles and an anti-radar missile. Of those 452 projectiles, the air force said it had downed 406, including 32 of the cruise missiles and four of the ballistic missiles. The other two ballistic missiles did not reach their targets, it added.

The strikes also hit Chernihiv, near the border with Belarus, which was rocked by 14 explosions from drones and ballistic missiles, including cruise missiles and Iskander-M missiles, local officials said. Five others were wounded in strikes in the northwestern city of Lutsk, near the border with Poland. Footage geolocated by CNN showed at least four missiles slamming into the city, kicking up fiery explosions on impact.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said it had also intercepted and destroyed 174 Ukrainian drones from Thursday evening to early Friday morning and had destroyed three Ukrainian Neptune-MD guided missiles over the Black Sea.