The events in the Middle East has, somewhat, thrown a spectacular spanner in the works of Putin's war with Ukraine.
Notwithstanding the continuous bombardment of Ukraine's civilians each night to coerce them into submission; Putin now finds himself been dragged by a 'political and diplomatic' hook in his jaw into supporting Iran's attack against Israel's devastating pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
The Iranian 'Shaheed' drones of Iran, that is the backbone of Putin's nightly assault against Ukraine's civilian population, has placed Putin in such a tight 'diplomatic' corner that he is being forced to lash out even more vigorously against Ukraine.
As reported by Thomas d’Istria,
"In recent days, after months of slowly gaining territory in the neighboring region at the cost of heavy losses in personnel and equipment, Moscow authorities declared having reached and crossed the border of the Dnipropetrovsk region – a claim Kyiv immediately contested." (Le Monde: 13 June 2025) (my emphasis)
This 'near-demented lashing out of Putin' against Ukraine also comes against the backdrop of
- Ukraine is expected to get nearly 1.7 billion pounds ($2.26 billion) from the U.K. to buy air defense systems and missiles, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on June 11, citng a decision by Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers.
The new funding will be used to buy Rapid Ranger air defense systems and Martlet lightweight multirole missiles, Shmyhal said, describing the deal as a "significant strengthening" of Ukraine's air defense capacity amid intensifying Russian air assaults. (Tim Zadorozhnyy (right): Kyiv Independent on MSN: 12 June 2025) (my emphasis) - "Ukraine has received another $1 billion as a fifth tranche from the EU under the G7-backed Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) initiative, the Ukrainian Ministry of Finance reported on June 13.
It is another payment to Ukraine through the ERA, financed by interest income from frozen Russian sovereign assets. The assets were frozen following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ukraine still aims to obtain the principal €210 billion ($227 billion) in immobilized Russian central bank assets." (Olena Hrazhdan (right): Kyiv Post: 14 June 2025) (my emphasis) 
"Ukraine's army has posted a video of a series of attacks carried out on Russian military positions using lethal precision weapons. The attacks appear to have taken place over the course of the last few weeks and are said to have involved the use of French "Hammer" bombs.
…
The French government hopes to step up production of the weapon, as it races to resupply Ukraine's air force." (John Varga (right): Daily Express: 13 June 2025) (my emphasis)
Having lost 1 million Russian troops in his ill-fated and demented ideas about re-creating "Novorossiya" since 2014, Putin now finds himself unable to supply Iran with Russian troops or armaments but, and this is critical, Putin can supply Iran with the FINAL where-with-all to now hastily construct an A-bomb, or have his fervent Middle East supporter, Iran, erupt into another 'Syrian failure'.
The danger that now faces Ukraine is whether Putin himself, together with his 'headless' siloviki, will justify a nuclear attack on Ukraine, thus setting the scene for surreptitiously affording Iran the ability to rapidly build an A-bomb to be used against Israel.
Is it any wonder that Trump, desperate to avert the eyes of America from his tacit support of Putin regarding Ukraine by sending in the US National Guard to supress public demonstrations in Los Angeles, now finds himself wedged between Putin, Netanhayu, and Zelensky.
As reported by Chris Boccia and Martha Raddatz,
"Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News' Martha Raddatz that his defense minister told him Friday the U.S. was sending anti-drone weapons promised to Ukraine to the Middle East instead.
Zelenskyy said the U.S. would divert "20,000 missiles" earmarked for Ukraine in an agreement with the Biden administration to the Middle East, where it appears the U.S. would use them for its own force protection"(ABC News: 9 June 2025) (my emphasis)
That Trump has diverted the delivery of 20,000 US-made anti-drone missiles from Ukraine to Netanhayu signifies, on the one hand, that his 'bromance' with Putin has not quite ended.
Putin now stands at the crossroads of defeat in Ukraine or 'nuclear' armageddon.
UPDATE: 14 June 2025: GMT 21.00
"According to his foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov, in the fifty-minute conversation with Donald Trump (14June), President Putin “condemned the Israeli operation against Iran".
...
Despite Donald Trump’s suggestion yesterday that he and his team had known the Israeli attacks were coming, the Kremlin has voiced no public criticism of Washington.
Instead, Ushakov noted that in their telephone call Putin had wished Trump a happy birthday and had spoken about American Flag Day.
What’s more, according to the Kremlin, the two leaders expressed “satisfaction” with their personal relationship.
...
Russia may well have concluded that good working relations with the Trump administration – plus Moscow’s offer to mediate in the Middle East – will make it increasingly unlikely that President Trump will exert pressure on Russia over the war in Ukraine." (BBC News: 14 June 2025) (my emphasis)
Trump's 'bromance' with Putin has not quite ended.
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