Sunday, June 8

Ukraine has been pounded with severe Russian attacks in recent days after executing a major operation earlier this week.

On Sunday, Ukraine put Operation Spiderweb into action, which they had been planning for over a year and a half. First, the operation saw Ukrainian forces sneak into Russia across the past year to place drones inside the country. Then, when the time came last Sunday, Ukraine launched their fleet of 117 hidden drones, which struck various air bases in five different Russian regions.

The attacks likely cost Russia billions of dollars, but officials have struggled to come up with a confirmed number on how many aircraft were destroyed. Russia claimed that no planes were destroyed at all, while Ukraine claimed that they had destroyed over 20 jets. After an extensive report by NATO, they confirmed that the attack's results were somewhere in the middle.

At least 40 aircraft were damaged, most of which were Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers and Tu-22 supersonic bombers, and around 10 to 13 of them were completely destroyed. German authorities backed up this report, adding that at least 10% of Russian strategic bombers had been destroyed in the attack-- a significant blow to a country that maintains a much larger military than Ukraine.

However, Russia has retaliated, and they have struck back hard. Strikes have taken place across the country, with missiles and drones bombarding various cities. Six people were killed earlier this week-- three in Kyiv, the country's capital; two in Lutsk, a city in the northwestern oblast of Volyn; and one other in Chernihiv, to the north. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that at least 400 drones and 40 missiles were used in the attacks, making it one of the largest of the entire war so far.

After widespread attacks over the past few days, a concentrated hit struck the city of Kharkiv yesterday. Kharkiv is Ukraine's second-largest city, with a population of around 1.4 million people, and is located in northeastern Ukraine just 19 miles from the Russian border. The city was assaulted with drones, missiles, and bombs, killing five people and injuring dozens of others.

This comes just as Ukraine and Russia had begun to make progress in ceasefire negotiations. Over the past few weeks, the countries had exchanged thousands of prisoners after a deal was agreed upon in Istanbul after lengthy talks, and additional exchanges were scheduled for the coming weeks. Unfortunately, those have been put on hold for the time being, and the ongoing escalation between the two countries could lead to a collapse in negotiations if not cooled down quickly.

Fact of the Day (BBC): If the Earth doubled in size, trees would immediately fall over. This is because surface gravity would be doubled. It would also mean dog-size and larger animals would not be able to run without breaking a leg.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): Knowledge speaks, but wisdom listens. (Jimi Hendrix)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Abstruse (adj, ub-STROOSS) - Abstruse is a formal word used to describe something that is hard to understand.

In a Sentence: I avoided taking this class in past semesters because the subject matter is so abstruse, but the professor does a good job explaining the concepts as clearly as possible.