August 10, 2023. 2:10 AM, Moscow time. The Luna-25 mission launches from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. For the first time in 47 years, Russia is launching an unmanned lunar mission, which aims to touch down near the Moon's south pole, study its soil, and search for traces of frozen water. On August 16, the spacecraft enters lunar orbit and, three days later, begins its landing maneuvers. But at the crucial moment, something goes wrong. The engines do not shut off when they should, the craft adopts an incorrect trajectory, and it crashes into the lunar surface.

“A swallow does not make a summer” would be the Russian equivalent of our “A flower does not make a summer”. In this winter Orthodox Easter Week, with temperatures near 0 degrees and snow in Moscow, the Easter truce will have passed like a fleeting mirage of 32 hours. Faced with Vladimir Putin's refusal to extend the ceasefire beyond midnight on Sunday, as Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked him to, both sides have mutually accused each other of repeatedly violating the pause in fighting in the hope that Donald Trump will see that the other is the main obstacle to peace.

Pessimism has taken hold of Russian military commentators. After the Kremlin's army managed to close the gap with Ukraine in the drone race in the autumn of 2025, in recent weeks Kyiv's unmanned aerial vehicles have once again left Russian technology behind. Their superiority on the front has helped to slow down Volodymyr Putin's spring offensive, while, for the first time since the start of the invasion, more long-range Ukrainian drones than Russian ones are being launched.the distance to Ukraine in the drone raceThe ability to disrupt Kyiv's troop supplies was one of the successes of the Molnia-2, the Russian attack drone that allowed the Kremlin to increase pressure on the Ukrainian rear in late last year and facilitated the progress of Russian soldiers. Now, however, it is the new generation of Ukrainian drones that is causing Moscow's troops to falter. In March, they only advanced 25 square kilometers, according to military observers from the Blackbird group, far from the monthly average of 380 in 2025. The great hope of Russian commanders is that, with the arrival of good weather, the foliage of the trees will serve their men to camouflage themselves from the threat from the sky and allow them to survive the so-called

The territorial dispute clouds the peace negotiations over Ukraine, now suspended due to the conflict in the Middle East. Although the recognition of the occupied regions as Russian is important for Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin's ambitions involve the Belarusianization of Kyiv, that is, its political subordination. Moscow wants a meek and friendly neighbor that poses no threat in itself to Russia, nor as a vanguard of hypothetical Western aggression. However, the Russian president missed the opportunity to depose Volodymyr Zelensky at the start of the war, and after four years of daily bombings, the advent of a pro-Russian government in Ukraine seems like a fantasy or a bad joke.

“Are there any men in the audience? No? What a shame! Take off your pants and put on a skirt!” With these words, the dean of Voronezh State University of Engineering, in southwestern Russia, tried to pressure his students to go fight in Ukraine. The Kremlin has demanded that the rectors of the institutions send 2% of enrolled students to the war. They promise them one year of service in a drone unit far from the front lines, astronomical salaries, and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives. astronomical salaries and a secure future, but activists warn that it is a trap and that they are very likely to get caught and lose their lives.

Volodymyr Zelensky fears a perfect storm: a prolonged conflict in the Middle East, from which Vladimir Putin continuously benefits with the sustained increase in oil prices, which fattens the Russian budget for the war in Ukraine and stalls the economies of Kiev's European allies. To prevent this, the Ukrainian president is carrying out the most intense campaign of attacks against Russia's crude oil export ports since the start of the invasion. However, this strategy could be counterproductive to Zelensky's short-term interests, as it could contribute even more to the increase in oil prices and, therefore, to the Kremlin's revenues.

After a three-week journey from the Baltic Sea, crossing the Atlantic Ocean, to the Caribbean, the Russian tanker Anatoli Kolodkin will finally be able to dock in a Cuban port and will break the blockade that Donald Trump has been imposing on the island since January. “If a country wants to send oil to Cuba right now, I have no problem with it, whether it's Russia or other countries. It will have no impact, Cuba is finished.”, said the President of the United States, a few hours before the vessel reaches its destination. The 730,000 barrels of crude oil that the ship is carrying – about 100,000 tons – are estimated to alleviate Havana's fuel crisis for a month. At the same time, they will offer Vladimir Putin a geopolitical victory in the dispute with Washington over spheres of influence.

The Russian military has carried out its most massive attack on Ukrainian cities since the start of the war. In 24 hours, it launched 948 drones and 34 missiles, killing at least four people and wounding around 40. The bombardment is aimed at weakening Kyiv's air defense systems, which rely on US Patriot missiles, now more difficult to replace due to the Middle East war. Meanwhile, Ukraine has again struck one of Russia's main export terminals, the Baltic port of Ust-Luga, in an attempt to stifle the Kremlin's growing revenues from oil and fertilizer sales.

"The United States doesn't want allies, but vassals, and Russia cannot accept that framework for relations." These words of Vladimir Putin in 2015 resonate with increasing force among Russian analysts since the US attack on Iran. The aggression, in the midst of negotiations, has alarmed Moscow. who doubts the usefulness of engaging in dialogue with Donald TrumpAfter a year of rapprochement, Washington has once again revealed itself as a geostrategic adversary, and the Kremlin is becoming convinced that it cannot expect anything regarding the resolution of the war in Ukraine.

Despite Vladimir Putin's efforts to conceal the ravages of the war in Ukraine from residents of major cities, the conflict has once again become a part of daily life for Muscovites in recent hours. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin has denounced the largest Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow since the start of the invasion. According to him, nearly 250 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down as they headed toward the capital. Russian military analysts believe this is an aerial escalation by Kyiv, while independent observers warn that the Kremlin may be exaggerating the threat to justify its actions. internet outages within the country and to convince Donald Trump of Volodymyr Zelensky's unwillingness to reach a peace agreement.

A cartoon that appeared in the Russian press shows a billboard with a caricature of Vladimir Putin and the text "He brought us back from the 90s." At its base, a man asks another, "Where did you get that? Does he look for people?" His interlocutor replies, "I'll show you on the map," and unfolds a huge map of Moscow. Walking through the Russian capital these days is like stepping back in time and, at the same time, contemplating a science fiction set. On March 5, the authorities blocked mobile internet in the city's central districts, and more than a week later, the network is still failing. The Kremlin justifies this action as being for "security reasons," but activists warn that this is just one more step toward Russia's inevitable disconnection from the global internet.

In the volcanic rivers of Kamchatka and the snow-fed torrents of Siberia, locals brave raging currents to hunt their prey. Russia has a long tradition of fishing in turbulent waters, a tradition that also extends to foreign policy. Donald Trump's attack on Iran has offered Vladimir Putin an unexpected lifeline. the rise in energy prices in a context of global instabilityHowever, just as these fishermen expose themselves to great dangers to catch the most coveted fish, short-term gains for the Russian economy threaten to become new risks if the conflict in the Middle East drags on.

"I don't even want to discuss this possibility," Vladimir Putin stated last June when a journalist asked him how he would react if Israel or the United States were to assassinate Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Once the possibility became a reality, the Russian leader merely sent a telegram of condolence to the Iranian president, criticizing what he considers a "cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law." He has repeated this message in the following days. The man who invaded Ukraine without warning four years ago and who bombs its cities daily is not so much concerned about the image he projects to the world—his inability to help an ally—as he is about the ghosts this death evokes, inevitably linked to the trauma of the execution of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. The assassination of Gaddafi in 2011 horrified and obsessed Putin, who began to fear a similar fate. The Kremlin leader perceived it as a betrayal by the United States and Europe, and this was one of the causes of the break with the West. However, fifteen years later, Russia is not in a position to raise its voice forcefully against the White House. The initial telegram, much shorter and more neutral than a televised statement, avoided pointing fingers at those responsible for Khamenei's death and made it clear that Moscow cannot and does not want to antagonize an omnipotent Donald Trump, who has broken Putin's isolation and is mediating to resolve the war in Ukraine. Since then, Putin has barely spoken about events in the Middle East.

Vladimir Putin appeared on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine to point to Volodymyr Zelensky's government as the main obstacle to peace. In a meeting with the top brass of the intelligence services, and without explicitly mentioning the anniversary, he stated that Kyiv is preparing to use "nuclear components" against Russia. The Kremlin is taking as fact a report from the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) that claims France and the United Kingdom intend to provide nuclear technology to Ukraine. "They probably understand how this could end," Putin warned them, after the Kremlin suggested that this would be a factor "to be taken into account" in peace talks. The Russian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement warning of the risk of a direct clash between nuclear powers and its grave consequences. Paris, London, and Kyiv have all categorically denied this "falsehood" and attributed it to an attempt by Moscow to deflect attention from its "atrocious actions." The SVR had previously declared without evidence that Ukraine was working on creating a "dirty bomb"—a conventional bomb with added radioactive material. No evidence was ever found.

One of Vladimir Putin's great achievements on the fourth anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine is having shielded the pain of war from the major cities. How can a society that, week after week, sends thousands of men to die on the front lines not implode? The answer lies in asking Muscovites how many of their relatives, friends, or acquaintances have gone to fight. The combat death rate for soldiers from the Russian capital is the lowest in the country, at one in 5,000, followed by St. Petersburg and Chechnya. In contrast, in the Buryatia region (in the Russian Far East, bordering Mongolia), the ratio is one soldier killed for every 250 inhabitants, and in Tuva (in southern Siberia) or Chukotka (in the far northwest of Russia), it drops to one in every 200 inhabitants. The population of these areas is twenty-five times more likely to die in combat than a resident of Moscow.

It had been sixty years since Moscow had seen such heavy snowfall in a single winter. Citizens walk around with even more grim expressions than usual, hurrying to the frost-proof warmth of their homes. Virtually no one seems to find it obscene that, while radiators here are simmering 24 hours a day, their government... residents of large Ukrainian cities are suffering from the cold. After four years of war, the vast majority of Russians absolutely do not want Vladimir Putin to make any concessions to Volodymyr Zelensky and believe the conflict must end with Kyiv's surrender.

As happened in last year's Istanbul talks, in Geneva, the Ukrainian delegation has pointed to one person as being responsible for the lack of progress on the most sensitive issues in the peace negotiationsVladimir Medinsky. The head of the Russian delegation has once again displayed an inflexible stance, based on the conviction that Russians and Ukrainians are part of the same nation and that the Kremlin is prepared to fight indefinitely to rectify the historical error that, from his point of view, was Ukraine's independence. However, far from representing a radical position, the Russian negotiator embodies Vladimir Putin's ideological approach to the conflict better than anyone.

From Saudi Arabia to Switzerland: exactly one year has passed since the first meeting between Russian and American representatives to end the invasion of Ukraine. On that occasion, Volodymyr Zelensky lamented the attempt to decide how to end the war without consulting Kyiv. A year later, on the cusp of the fifth year of the conflict, one might consider trilateral talks with both sides and American mediation, such as those that began this Tuesday, to be progress. However, Vladimir Putin's inflexibility, the resistance from the Ukrainian side, and Donald Trump's haste to score another international victory without considering the underlying issues of the conflict foreshadow a 2026 of more war and more peace negotiations.

At the gates of Borisovskoye Cemetery in southeast Moscow, the two Russias of the future gathered on the second anniversary of the death of Alexei Navalny, the dissident whose name Vladimir Putin never uttered while he was alive. Carrying bouquets of flowers, dozens of young people queued to enter the grounds, determined to pay tribute to their political idol, despite the snowstorm and temperatures below -10°C. Standing by the entrance gate, half a dozen other very young people, their eyes uncovered, filmed and photographed all those attending the commemoration.

Vladimir Putin had long since I had Telegram in my sightsBut it wasn't until this week that Russia formally declared war on it. Russian authorities have slowed the app down so much that it barely works for its more than 60 million users in the country. The Kremlin accuses its founder, Pavel Durov, of breaking the law, but he maintains that the Russian government's true objective is to push citizens toward a newly created national messaging service overseen by the secret services. The move has not only generated unrest on the streets but also within the military, where many soldiers have complained that the platform is vital for communications on the front lines and for drone defense.