Ukraine honored the SBU team behind 'Spiderweb,' the drone raid that destroyed 41 Russian aircraft, as Russia's May territorial gains turned net-negative. The Iran war reignited: Tehran suspended US talks and threatened to keep Hormuz closed after Israel struck Beirut's suburbs, sending oil up more than 5 percent. Europe hardened against Russia -- France seized the shadow-fleet tanker Tagor with UK help, and Germany accelerated rearmament after Trump pulled 5,000 troops. In Colombia, a far-right outsider led a leftist into a June 21 runoff.

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Zelensky honors the SBU officers behind 'Spiderweb,' the drone raid that struck 41 Russian aircraft

On June 1, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded state honors to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) officers behind Operation Spiderweb -- the covert drone raid that a year earlier struck four strategic Russian airfields and hit 41 aircraft, including Tu-95, Tu-22M3 and Tu-160 bombers and an A-50 radar plane. Ukraine says the operation disabled about 34 percent of Russia's strategic aviation, roughly $7 billion in losses, using drones 'incomparably cheaper' than their targets. Zelensky revealed it took more than 18 months to prepare and was coordinated by him and SBU chief Vasyl Malyuk, with the strike carried out by the agency's Alpha special-forces unit.

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France seizes Russian 'shadow fleet' tanker Tagor in the Atlantic with UK support

The French Navy boarded and seized the sanctioned Russian oil tanker Tagor in international waters about 400 nautical miles west of Brittany, with British support, President Emmanuel Macron announced, releasing video of commandos rappelling from helicopters onto the ship. The Tagor, which left Murmansk under a false flag, is part of Russia's 'shadow fleet' of aging tankers used to evade oil sanctions; it is France's fourth such boarding since September 2025. The Kremlin condemned the seizure as 'illegal' and 'bordering on international piracy,' while Macron said it aimed to 'choke off' the funds for Russia's war in Ukraine.

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Iran suspends US talks and threatens to keep Hormuz closed over Israel's Lebanon offensive

Iran suspended its US-mediated peace negotiations until Israel halts its operations in Lebanon and Gaza, the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim agency said, with the Revolutionary Guards threatening to open 'new fronts,' keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and 'activate' the Bab el-Mandeb. Oil prices jumped more than 5 percent and equities slid; US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at American troops in Kuwait, with no casualties. Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned that 'violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts,' even as the EU urged Israel to stop and Lebanon's speaker said Hezbollah was ready for an immediate ceasefire.

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Germany scrambles to accelerate rearmament after Trump pulls troops and cancels a missile deployment

Germany is racing to speed up its military buildup after President Trump ordered the withdrawal of 5,000 of the 35,000-plus US troops based there and cancelled a planned long-range missile deployment -- retaliation for Chancellor Friedrich Merz's apparent criticism of the US over the Iran war. Berlin, which has pledged hundreds of billions of euros to build Europe's strongest conventional army, must lift its forces from about 186,000 toward a target of 260,000 active troops plus 200,000 reservists, and is pressing Washington to sell Tomahawk cruise missiles to offset its lack of deep-strike weapons against Russian Iskanders in Kaliningrad. European partners remain wary of a militarily dominant Germany, even as talk grows of a 'coalition of the willing' with France, Italy, Poland and the UK.

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