Russian forces have entered Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk region for the first time in three years of war, widening the battlefield amid faltering ceasefire talks. Small Russian assault squads advanced westward from Donetsk, securing a limited foothold across the regional border last weekend, according to Ukrainian officers and verified battlefield footage. Though Ukrainian commanders deny that settlements have fallen, the incursion carries both symbolic weight and potential strategic impact, challenging Ukrainian morale and exposing new territory to direct combat. Military analysts view the Russian push not as an attempt to seize Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine’s industrial heartlands with 3 million residents, but as a bid to bolster Russian defensive lines in Donetsk and position forces for a possible assault on Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold. The advance also complicates Kyiv’s leverage in ceasefire negotiations, as Moscow may seek to trade newly contested ground for concessions. The Dnipropetrovsk border advance is the product of months of slow but deliberate Russian gains. In May, Russian forces captured over 200 square miles of territory, more than double April’s gains, reflecting renewed battlefield momentum. Russian units have shifted tactics from high-casualty assaults to more nimble small-group maneuvers, exploiting gaps in Ukrainian lines and forcing Ukrainian brigades to conduct serial retreats. Ukrainian medics from the 33rd Mechanized Brigade, for example, have relocated their field hospitals four times since the fall, now operating deeper into Dnipropetrovsk after recent Russian advances. The breach comes as Russia seeks to entrench its control over Donetsk, now roughly 70% occupied, and to create buffer zones that shield its positions from Ukrainian counterattacks. Ukrainian commanders fear that Russia will soon attempt to take Novopavlivka, a town on high ground near the border, and push toward Mezhova, the area’s main logistics hub. Securing this corridor would facilitate further Russian moves on Pokrovsk while deepening Ukrainian vulnerability along a new front. Russia’s entry into Dnipropetrovsk underscores its battlefield momentum as both sides posture for leverage in stalled negotiations. It also threatens to displace hundreds of thousands of civilians, many of whom fled earlier fighting in Donetsk and are now facing renewed insecurity. With no ceasefire in sight and Russia demonstrating operational flexibility and resolve, Ukraine now confronts the prospect of defending yet another front in an increasingly protracted and grinding war.

Tel Aviv came under direct Iranian missile fire on Friday, marking the most serious escalation in the Israel–Iran conflict in years. Israeli officials reported at least five injuries in the city after waves of ballistic missiles, fired from Iranian territory, penetrated Israel’s defenses. The strike followed Israel’s earlier, wide-ranging assault on Iran’s nuclear facilities and military leadership, an operation that killed senior IRGC commander Hossein Salami and struck dozens of key targets. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had publicly vowed “severe punishment” for Israel’s actions, a threat now visibly realized. Iranian state media claimed dozens of Israeli military bases and facilities were targeted, while Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz accused Iran of crossing a “red line” by firing on civilian areas. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the current military campaign would continue “as many days as it takes,” with Israeli officials confirming that a 14-day operational plan is already underway. Earlier intelligence groundwork had included smuggling drones and guided munitions into Iran, enabling precise pre-emptive strikes. Friday’s events also triggered immediate diplomatic fallout. A U.N. conference on Israeli-Palestinian statehood, scheduled next week and co-hosted by France and Saudi Arabia, was abruptly postponed. French President Emmanuel Macron insisted the conference would still occur but acknowledged that the current conflict rendered immediate diplomacy impossible. U.S. Senate leaders issued strong statements backing Israel’s right to self-defense, though they continued to press for a renewed diplomatic path to avert wider war. President Trump, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, confirmed the U.S. was aware of Israel’s plans but stopped short of publicly intervening. The broader risk calculus is now deteriorating. While Israel intercepted many of the 100 Iranian drones fired earlier in the day, the successful missile strike on Tel Aviv marks a new phase of direct warfare between the two states. Both Iranian and Israeli leaders remain rhetorically locked in escalation cycles, with Khamenei promising that Iran’s forces would “bring Israel to its knees.” Within Israel, pressure is mounting on Netanyahu’s government to deliver a decisive blow, while military planners brace for potential Hezbollah intervention from Lebanon, a move that would sharply widen the war. Even as Friday’s strikes unfolded, Israeli intelligence confirmed that Hezbollah units have been placed on high alert in southern Lebanon, though no large-scale rocket launches have yet been detected. Meanwhile, regional diplomatic space has shrunk. Iran’s leadership remains unlikely to negotiate under current conditions, while U.S. allies in Europe are struggling to reframe the conflict’s trajectory. The postponed U.N. conference now hangs in limbo as diplomats assess whether any progress toward a two-state framework can be salvaged amid open regional warfare. With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard promising further retaliation and Israel preparing additional strikes on Iranian and proxy targets, the region faces an acute risk of broader conflict in the coming days. Neither side currently shows any inclination toward restraint, leaving the Middle East more volatile than at any point since the 2006 Lebanon war.

Tensions between Cambodia and Thailand sharply escalated Friday as Phnom Penh severed internet links with Thailand, closed a key border crossing, and suspended cultural exchanges ahead of high-level talks. The measures followed a fatal border clash on May 28 that left one Cambodian soldier dead, inflaming a long-running dispute over the demarcation of the two countries’ 800-kilometer frontier. Ahead of Saturday’s Joint Boundary Commission talks in Phnom Penh, Cambodia closed the Doung international border crossing, responding to Thailand’s earlier move to halve operating hours, leaving dozens of Thai cargo trucks stranded. The Cambodian government also disconnected internet bandwidth routed through Thailand and ordered a halt to the broadcast of Thai films and TV series. All Thai boxing matches scheduled in Cambodia were canceled. Prime Minister Hun Manet said the measures were necessary to counter Thai military provocations, while former Prime Minister Hun Sen openly encouraged Thai farmers to protest their own government, blaming the border closures for disrupting Thai agricultural exports to Vietnam. In response, Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said Cambodia had misunderstood the situation, denying any Thai intention to cut power or internet to Cambodian border areas. She instructed her Foreign Ministry to clarify Bangkok’s position, emphasizing that Thailand prefers bilateral negotiations and rejects Cambodia’s efforts to involve the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Bangkok has refused to accept the ICJ’s jurisdiction in the current dispute. At the heart of the dispute are competing claims over the borders near three ancient Khmer temples, Ta Moan Thom, Ta Moan Toch, and Ta Krabei, and a sensitive tri-border area near where the May 28 clash occurred. The current flare-up follows a dangerous historical pattern: between 2008 and 2011, deadly clashes erupted around the Preah Vihear temple complex, which the ICJ ultimately ruled belonged to Cambodia. Social media images on Friday showed large crowds of Cambodians crossing from Thailand into Poipet, while some Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand reported facing rising workplace discrimination and safety concerns. However, many are awaiting the outcome of Saturday’s talks before deciding whether to return en masse. Meanwhile, both militaries remain on high alert. Hun Sen ordered Cambodian forces to 24-hour combat readiness and called for civilian evacuation plans along the frontier. The Thai military has reinforced border positions, while nationalist protests against the Thai government’s handling of the dispute erupted this week in Bangkok. With nationalist fervor surging on both sides and key border crossings disrupted, the upcoming talks will be a critical test of whether the two governments can deescalate the conflict, or whether Southeast Asia’s next serious border crisis is now taking shape.

As Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, Moscow is increasingly turning to one of its newest pools of expendable manpower: young African men lured, coerced, or forcibly recruited into Putin’s military ranks. France24’s investigation reveals how hundreds of Africans, dubbed Black Wagners, have been drawn into the conflict under false promises of high pay, jobs, or Russian citizenship, only to find themselves cannon fodder on the Ukrainian front. The recruitment network spans Senegal, Ghana, Cameroon, and other states where poverty, unemployment, and disillusionment create fertile ground for Moscow’s operatives. Some Africans are approached through social media ads or informal recruiters who promise generous contracts and resettlement opportunities. For others, particularly migrants already living precariously in Russia, the process is far more coercive, reports indicate that dozens have been forced into military service under duress. Once recruited, many are dispatched to the front with minimal training and inadequate equipment. France24 documents cases of African fighters killed or captured in Ukraine, with survivors pleading desperately for repatriation. Their appeals are met with bureaucratic indifference or outright denial, leaving them trapped between Russian forces and the Ukrainian military. The Russian effort to field Black Wagners reflects Moscow’s acute manpower strains after nearly three and a half years of war and heavy losses among Russian conscripts. It also showcases how Putin’s government is weaponizing its influence in Africa, built through arms deals, propaganda, and Wagner Group operations, into a new form of transnational exploitation. Analysts warn that this pipeline of African recruits could grow further as Russia seeks to offset its domestic recruitment shortfalls. In countries like Senegal and Ghana, grieving families now speak out about sons lost in a distant war they barely understood. Meanwhile, Russian state media continues to paint the recruitment drive as voluntary and beneficial, a narrative at odds with mounting evidence of coercion and abuse. For Moscow, African recruits offer a grimly pragmatic solution: politically expendable fighters who can be sacrificed in high-casualty operations without inflaming Russian public opinion. For African states and their citizens, the scheme underscores a stark new danger: the entanglement of their most vulnerable youth in a brutal European war from which few return.