In a June 1 covert operation dubbed "Spiderweb," the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) destroyed or damaged 41 Russian warplanes at four air-bases across the Russian Federation—Belaya (Irkutsk oblast, Siberia), Olenya (Murmansk oblast, in the Arctic), Dyagilevo (Ryazan oblast, near Moscow) and Ivanovo (in the eponymous oblast, also near Moscow). Kyiv claims it has disabled 34% of Russia's strategic bomber fleet in the operation, carried out with over 100 drones launched from trucks hidden across Russian territory. While the Kremlin's top officials, including President Vladimir Putin, have not commented on the Ukrainian operation at all, Russian pro-war propagandists are calling it "Russia's Pearl Harbor," and demanding vengeance. Prominent state TV personality Vladimir Solovyov said on his program that the Ukrainian operation is "grounds for a nuclear attack," and called for retaliatory strikes on the Ukrainian president's office in Kyiv and airfields in NATO members Poland and Romania allegedly used by Ukrainian aircraft. (Kyiv Independent)

The so-called Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) insurgent group has launched its most successful military campaign to date in northeast Nigeria's Lake Chad Basin region. Throughout May, ISWAP raided a series of supposedly impenetrable army bases, forcing the military's withdrawal and the displacement of civilian communities—some of whom had been recently resettled by the Borno State government following its closure of internally displaced persons camps in the state capital, Maiduguri.

The Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine published a report May 28 declaring Russian drone attacks on Ukrainian civilians in Kherson oblast to be war crimes and crimes against humanity. The commission found that roughly 150 Ukrainian civilians have been killed over the past year as a result of the systematic Russian drone attacks:

The Israeli government on May 29 announced the establishment of 22 new settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank—including the recognition and expansion of several already existing "wildcat" outposts, built without government permission. Defense Minister Israel Katz said that building the settlements was "a strategic move that prevents the establishment of a Palestinian state that would endanger Israel." The announcement comes amid expanding Israeli military operations and settler violence on the West Bank, and open calls from Israeli officials—including cabinet members such as Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich—to annex the territory. (TNH, ToI, Reuters)

Russian media outlets reported May 25 that police in Yekaterinburg stormed an event hosted by the pro-democratic opposition party Yabloko (Apple), aimed at supporting political prisoners. The authorities reportedly detained 10 attendees, who have been subsequently released, with legal action against them by the prosecutor's office now pending.

As Israel escalates its genocide in Gaza and prepares to execute its final cleansing or "transfer" of the populace of the Strip, calls are mounting for humanitarian intervention to protect the Palestinians. In Episode 280 of the CounterVortex podcast, Bill Weinberg explores the concrete steps already taken by elements of the international community to implement the "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine in the Gaza Strip—as well as exploring the critique of humanitarian intervention repeatedly raised in other contexts by Noam Chomsky and the anti-imperialist left.

India's government claims to have killed a top Naxalite rebel leader as part of a month-long military operation targeting the Maoist guerillas. Nambala Keshav Rao AKA "Basavaraju," secretary-general of the banned Communist Party of India–Maoist (CPI-M), was killed alongside 25 other insurgent fighters in a May 21 shoot-out in Narayanpur district, Chhattisgarh state. The Naxalites have waged an armed struggle for more than two generations in the impoverished interior regions of East and Central India, but New Delhi has now vowed to clear the country of the rebel movement by March 2026. (TNH)

Following his visit to Moscow for the Victory Day celebrations earlier this month, Burmese junta leader Min Aung Hlaing thanked Russia for the fighter jets and helicopters it has provided his military government. The junta, which came to power in the February 2021 coup, is currently facing an insurgency by a number of armed ethnic and opposition groups across Burma. Rights groups accuse the Tatmadaw, as the Burmese military is known, of routinely targeting civilian populations and infrastructure in its aerial attacks. While in Moscow, Min Aung Hlaing also met for the first time with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, another key patron of his regime. (TNH)