Ukraine Update: Ukraine recaptures Irpin; Putin's pal Trump can't help himself

Ukrainian defenders continued to make incremental gains over the weekend, using small-unit tactics to great effect against overextended Russian troops. Larger-scale operations appear to be successfully forcing Russian retreats in several key locations, including a retaking of Irpin, northwest of Kyiv, again pushing Russian artillery positions away from the city. Ukrainian forces may plausibly even push Russia back from key highways west of Kyiv in the coming days, simplifying supply lines to Kyiv and points east.

A Ukrainian government official today again rejected the idea that the nation would give up land in exchange for peace. Meanwhile, Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin's most outspoken United States ally continues to pipe up to defend Putin's aggression, with Donald Trump dismissing Putin's murderous war as a business negotiation gone bad.

Some of today's news:

• Ukraine's small-unit offensive makes gains in northwestern Kyiv
• Trump again boosts Putin, calling the war a 'great negotiation' that went wrong
• 'De-Nazifying' Russian troops desecrate a second Holocaust memorial
• Making sense of a battlefield that defies logic in a war that defies reason