But halting progress, ever-more deadly drone attacks and unmoving negotiating positions seem to have taken their toll. On Thursday, Trump used a striking analogy to concede the warfare was nowhere near over, and that he did not, at that moment, feel it was best to intervene.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz encouraged the president in an Oval Office meeting to help end the war.

In a few early June days, underlying assumptions about Ukraine and Russia were shaken in three ways. On June 1st Ukraine launched one of the most daring raids in the modern history of warfare, releasing killer drones from trucks to scavenge on strategic bombers deep inside Russia,

He said Russia showed little response to the June 3 special operation by Ukraine’s SBU Security Service, which marked the third confirmed attack on the Crimean Bridge. “They responded at sea about the same way they did in the information space — basically not at all.

Ukraine’s underwater strike on the Kerch Bridge targeted both a strategic supply route and a powerful symbol of Russian control over Crimea, dealing another blow to Putin’s image and logistics.