Spring AI is 1.0! This release was years in the making but represents the first GA release of Spring AI of dozens (but still less than a hundred, I think) of different modules support chat models, image models, transcription models, embedding models, and vector stores.
want to get started? Look no further than this blog: Your First Spring AI 1.0 application which features Anthropic as the chat model, PostgresML for embeddings, PostgreSQL as the vector store, and Spring AI.
This isn't the only place you can read about Spring AI 1.0, however! Some of our friends in the community chimed in, too! For example:
Speaking of Spring Data, did you see this incredible new Spring Data AOT repository support? Right now it's only available for JDBC and MongoDB, but we're working on expanding support. TL;DR: you can have Spring Data code-generate the repository at compilation that would otherwise be generated at runtime. This results in code that's more debuggable, takes less RAM, and starts up quicker. Nice!
vite-spring-boot 0.9.0 released with support for JTE as an alternative to Thymeleaf as template engine for Spring Boot so you can have all the Vite niceness for your CSS and JavaScript bits.
Embeddings are a vector representation of data in a high-dimensional space capturing their semantic meaning. Vector representations allow for more efficient and effective search (Vector Search) of similar items. Vector search is typically used to build Retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems and so there is demand for vector databases.
While new vector databases are on the rise, existing database engines are gradually incorporating vector search capabilities leading to two main types of databases:
Dedicated Vector Databases
Database Engines with Vector Search Capabilities
Dedicated Vector Databases originate in the need for searching for similar items in high-dimensional spaces. They are optimized for this purpose and often use specialized indexing techniques to improve search performance. Examples include Pinecone, Weaviate, Milvus, and Qdrant. All of these are projects emerged around the early 2020s.
A Vector Search typically requires a vector, which is an array of single-precision float numbers, a namespace (something like a table or collection) and a Top K (the number of results to return) argument. Vector search then run an Approximate Nearest Neighbor (ANN) or k-Nearest Neighbors (kNN) search.
Those databases allow additional filtering similarity and metadata fields, however, the core of the search gravitates around vector representations.
Existing Database Engines such as Postgres (pgvector), Oracle, and MongoDB have gradually added vector search capabilities to their engines.
They are not dedicated vector databases but rather general-purpose databases with vector search capabilities. Their strength lies in their ability to handle a wide range of data types and queries, especially when it comes to combining vector search with traditional queries. They also have a long history of supporting administrative tasks with a well-understood operating model for backup and recovery, scaling, and maintenance.
Another aspect to consider is that these databases are already being used in production, containing large amounts of existing data.
Elephant in the Room
Spring AI has a wide range of integrations with vector stores.
The obvious question is: "Why has Spring AI support for Vector Search and Spring Data does not?". And why does that even matter?
The goal of Spring AI is to simplify the process of building AI-powered applications by providing a consistent programming model and abstractions. It focuses on integrating AI capabilities into Spring applications and provides a unified API for working with various AI models and services.
AI is a hot topic: Several database vendors have contributed their integration for vector search to Spring AI to enable use-cases such as Retrieval Augmented Generation. This is a great example of how Open Source can drive innovation and collaboration in the database space.
When we consider what's after the peak of AI's hype cycle, we are faced with day-2 operations. Data has a lifecycle, new LLM models come and go, some are better for certain tasks or languages than others. While Spring AI's VectorStore has the means to reflect of data lifecycle to some extent, it is by no means its primary focus.
And here comes Spring Data into play. Spring Data is all about data models, access, and data lifecycle. It provides a consistent programming model for accessing different data stores, including relational databases, NoSQL databases, and more. Spring Data's focus is on simplifying data access and management, making it easier to work with various data sources in a consistent way.
Wouldn't it then make sense to have Vector Search capabilities in Spring Data?
Yes, it would.
Vector Search in Spring Data
With Spring Data 3.5, we've introduced a Vector type to simplify usage of vector data in entities.
Vector data types are not common in typical domain models.
The closest resemblance of vector data has been geospatial data types such as Point, Polygon, etc. but even those are not common.
Domain models rather consist of primitive types and value types reflecting the domain they are used in.
Vector properties use either vendor-specific types (such as Cassandra's CqlVector) or use some sort of array, like float[]. In the latter case, using arrays introduces quite some accidental complexity: Java arrays are pointers. Their underlying actual array data is mutable. Carrying arrays around isn't too common either.
Your domain model can leverage Vector property type reducing the risk of accidentally mutating the underlying data and giving the otherwise float[] a semantic context. Persisting and retrieving Vector properties is handled by Spring Data for modules where Spring Data handles object mapping. For JPA, you will require additional converters.
Vector.of(…) creates an immutable Vector instance and a copy of the given input array. While this is useful for most scenarios, performance-sensitive arrangements that want to reduce GC pressure can retain the reference to the original array:
You can obtain a safe (copied) variant of the float[] array by calling toFloatArray() respective toDoubleArray() if you want to use double[]. Alternatively, you can access the Vector's source through getSource().
Depending on your data store, you might need to equip your data model with additional annotations to indicate e.g. the number of dimensions or its precision.
When running a Vector search operation, each database uses a very different API. Let's take a look at MongoDB and Apache Cassandra.
In MongoDB, Vector Search is used through its Aggregation Framework requiring an aggregation stage:
VectorSearchOperation offers a fluent API guiding you through each step of the operation reflecting the underlying MongoDB API in a convenient way.
Let's have a look at Apache Cassandra. Cassandra uses CQL (Cassandra Query Language) to run queries against the database. Cassandra Vector Search uses the same approach. With Cassandra, Spring Data users have the choice to either use Spring Data Cassandra's Query API or the native CQL API to run a Vector Search:
CassandraTemplate template = …
List<Map<String, Object>> result = template.getCqlOperations().queryForList("""
SELECT id, language, comment, similarity_cosine(embedding, ?0) AS score
FROM my_table
ORDER BY embedding ANN OF ?0
LIMIT ?1
""", CqlVector.newInstance(1.1f, 2.2f), 10);
All in all these are small and simple examples of how to use Vector Search in Spring Data.
Coming from a domain model perspective, representing search results is different from representing the domain model itself.
Clearly, one could favor Java Records over classes but that isn't what the differences are about. Have you noticed the additional CommentVectorSearchResult class or List<Document> (MongoDB's native document type)? Cassandra has no detached raw type that you could use to consume result so we need CommentVectorSearchResult as dedicated type to map this specific Cassandra search result. We not only want to access domain data, but also the score. MongoDB's Java driver ships with a Document type that behaves is essentially a Map.
That's not how we envisioned a modern programming model.
When searching for items, the result is not a list of domain objects but rather a list of search results. How do we even represent those?
And can't we have a uniform programming model that combines the simplicity of expressing what I want with the power of the underlying database?
Vector Search Methods
If it is a search result, then it is a SearchResult<T>. What if repository methods could return SearchResults<T>? Searching is a slightly different concept than querying (finding) entities. Beyond that, search methods would work similarly to existing query methods.
The example above shows a search method that runs a Vector search. Searching in MongoDB requires an index hint that is specific to MongoDB. Beyond that, query derivation creates the pre-filter to filter by language.
By leveraging Near and Within keywords, Spring Data MongoDB is able to associate the given Vector and Similarity predicate to customize the actual Vector Search operation. The result is returned as SearchResults providing access to the found entity and its score respective similarity value.
Using Vector Search with Postgres or Oracle is even simpler. The following example shows a Vector Search method in a Spring Data JPA repository through Hibernate's hibernate-vector module:
Near and Within Search methods require a Vector and a Score, Similarity (subtype of Score), or Range<Score> parameter to determine how similarity/distance is calculated. Traditionally, query methods are intended to express predicates of a query while a typical Vector search is more about the Top-K limiting. That is something we have to consider in the future.
Search methods can also leverage annotations in the same way that query methods do. The following example shows a search method in a Spring Data JPA:
interface CommentRepository extends Repository<Comment, Integer> {
@Query("""
SELECT c, cosine_distance(c.embedding, :embedding) as distance FROM Comment c
WHERE c.language = :language
AND cosine_distance(c.embedding, :embedding) <= :distance
ORDER BY cosine_distance(c.embedding, :embedding) asc
""")
SearchResults<Comment> searchAnnotatedByLanguage(String language, Vector embedding, Score distance);
}
While it's not obvious, pgvector and Oracle calculate distances to compute a score. Spring Data allows consuming the native score value either directly or, when using Similarity.of(…) as argument with the appropriate ScoringFunction, Spring Data normalizes the native score into a similarity range between 0 and 1.
// Using a native score
SearchResults<Comment> results = repository.searchAnnotatedByLanguage(…, Score.of(0.1, ScoringFunction.cosine()));
// SearchResult.score will be an instance of Similarity
SearchResults<Comment> results = repository.searchAnnotatedByLanguage(…, Similarity.of(0.9, ScoringFunction.cosine()));
A final note on Vector with JPA. When using JPA, you can use Vector in your domain model to store the vector assuming you have configured an AttributeConverter to convert the Vector into a database type.
However, when using Hibernate's distance methods (such as cosine_distance), Hibernate doesn't consider any Attribute Converters, hence your model must resort to using float[] or double[] as embedding type:
We've explored the world of Vector Search and how it fits into the Spring ecosystem along with Vector Search origins in Spring AI. Support for the Vector type ships with Spring Data 3.5 (2025.0) in the May 2025 release.
Vector Search Methods are a preview feature of the Spring Data 4.0 (2025.1) release train with first implementations for JPA through Hibernate Vector, MongoDB and Apache Cassandra. We're excited to hear what you think about Vector Search methods and how we can improve them further.
You can find the documentation about Vector Search in the reference documentation, in JPA, MongoDB, and Cassandra.
The 13 June “Ramstein” meeting is part of the NATO Defence Ministers’ meeting. According to the published agenda, a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council on the defense ministers’ level will also be held today.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov will participate in both events. It is the last ministerial meeting before the NATO summit in Washington in July. Over these two days, ministers are expected to come to agreements on issues that will be formally approved by the leaders of the Alliance countries in a month.
The priority is the sustainable long-term support of Ukraine. This includes strengthening NATO’s role in coordinating military assistance to Ukraine and conducting training for its Defense Forces.
Earlier, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Hungary and held talks with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The visit’s purpose was to persuade Budapest not to block new initiatives to help Ukraine, as unanimity among NATO members is required for their approval. Hungary said it would not block the decisions but would not send funding or its troops to Ukraine.
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According to Nazar Voloshyn, a spokesman for the Khortytsia Operational-Strategic Grouping of Forces, Russian actions became “extremely active” starting on 10 June in the Chasiv Yar area. The enemy has almost continuously stormed the town with the aid of tanks and other armored vehicles.
Voloshyn stated that the occupiers are also trying to conduct assault operations supported by aircraft and drones. Russians are actively using unguided air-launched rockets and deploying unmanned aerial vehicles in the outskirts of Chasiv Yar, according to him.
Situation in Chasiv Yar as of 13 June 2023. Map: Deepstatemap.
Despite the onslaught, Ukrainian defense forces have successfully held their positions and even reinforced them in certain areas, the spokesman said. As of the early hours of 13 June, five combat engagements had already taken place – three Russian attacks were repelled near Andriivka, while two clashes were still ongoing near Ivanivske.
While the situation remains “somewhat tense”, the invading forces have suffered significant losses, according to Voloshyn. Over the past day alone, 90 Russian troops were killed and 138 wounded in this particular sector of the front.
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The UK Government has announced a new package of 50 sanctions designations and specifications aimed at degrading Russia’s ability to fund and sustain its illegal war in Ukraine. The measures, announced while Prime Minister Rishi Sunak attends the G7 Leaders Summit in Italy, are part of coordinated action with the UK’s G7 partners to support Ukraine.
These new sanctions target various entities and individuals involved in Russia’s war effort. Notably, the UK has imposed its first sanctions on vessels in Putin’s “shadow fleet,” used by Russia to circumvent existing sanctions and continue trade in Russian oil. The UK is also targeting suppliers of munitions, machine tools, microelectronics, and logistics to Russia’s military, including entities based in China, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, and Türkiye, as well as ships transporting military goods from North Korea to Russia.
Furthermore, the sanctions crack down on institutions at the heart of Russia’s financial system, such as the Moscow Stock Exchange, in coordination with the United States, which designated the exchange a day earlier, on 12 June.
UK Prime Minister Sunak emphasized that the UK will “always stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine in its fight for freedom,” and that “cutting off [Putin’s] ability to fund a prolonged conflict is absolutely vital.” British Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that the sanctions are “starving Putin of the revenue he desperately needs to fund his war chest and making it harder to supply his war machine.”
According to the press release, sanctions have deprived Russia of over $400 billion worth of assets and revenues since February 2022, equivalent to four more years of funding for the invasion. The UK has sanctioned over 2,000 individuals and entities under its Russia sanctions regime, including 29 banks accounting for over 90% of the Russian banking sector and over 130 oligarchs and family members with a combined net worth of around £147 billion or $187.6 at the time of the invasion.
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The Ukrainian border guards received evidence pointing to an illegal art dealing in progress. The relevant information was forwarded to their Polish counterparts who confirmed the initial tip. The two border agencies, together with Dutch officials, then launched a joint operation to recover the artwork.
On Ukraine’s territory, the Dutch Embassy’s liaison officer was involved in the effort. As a result, the stolen 17th century painting by the Dutch master Jan Linsen (1603-1635) has been successfully located in an apartment in Poland and seized.
Law enforcement detained the perpetrator and pressed charges. The individual will be remanded in custody for three months as the investigation is led by the District Prosecutor’s Office of Kraków, Poland.
A Ukrainian man has been charged with dealing in stolen property and could face up to 10 years in prison. A local border guard spokesperson noted that the recovered painting is now safely stored at the Royal Castle in Kraków.
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In a letter to EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell seen by Reuters, dated 11 June, the ministers stated that the “free movement of holders of Russian diplomatic and service passports, accredited in one host state, across the whole Schengen area is easing malign activities.”
The ministers, from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, and Romania, said that intelligence, propaganda “or even preparation of sabotage acts are the main workload for a large number of Russian ‘diplomats’ in the EU.“
While expulsions were acknowledged as important, the letter stated that the threat remained.
“We believe the EU should strictly follow the reciprocity principle and restrict the movement of members of Russian diplomatic missions and their family members to territory of a state of their accreditation only,” the ministers said, adding that “this measure will significantly narrow operational space for Russian agents.”
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A Chinese AI content creator has challenged cybersecurity firm 360 Security Technology over its use of an image of a woman wearing an ancient costume, which he claims he created via an AI model to showcase a “partially redrawn feature” on the company’s search engine.
The argument between creator DynamicWang and 360 Security escalated as the two parties failed to settle, with the company’s vice president Liang Zhihui saying it is willing to resort to legal action.
Repaint photo at 360 Security’s AI products launch event(Left); Original image by creator “DynamicWang”(Right). Credit: 21jingji Credit:21jingji
Why it matters: As the emerging technology of artificial intelligence is increasingly being used to create content, authorship attribution lacks a clearly defined legal framework.
Details: Even before DynamicWang publicly asked 360 Security to apologize over the alleged copyright infringement on June 8, the firm was in the midst of a public opinion storm, this time over its perceived disrespect toward women. When founder Zhou Hongyi introduced the repainting function at the company’s AI product launch on June 6, he used “sexy” as a prompt to ask the AI-powered search engine to redraw a woman’s breasts of the female in the controversial picture, which DynamicWang since claimed was based on his AI-generated work.
The creator said 360 Security should acknowledge the infringement and compensate him with a symbolic RMB 1 ($0.14). He said the firm “stole” the image generated by his self-trained AWPortrait model.
According to Liang, the author made a request to the company that he wants 360 Security paid him ten times the model price, together with the cost of compensation.
Local media outlet NBD quoted DynamicWang as interpreting the price to use his model as RMB 4,499 is for small- and medium-sized AI startups. This was not the price set for public-listed 360 Security, the creator said.
Each side has its own version of the story. While the creator mentioned compensation and apology were “prerequisites,” and buying the model was optional, Liang said purchasing the author’s AWPortrait model for ten times the price was “beyond our knowledge,” according to a WeChat screenshot of his conversation with DynamicWang. The current argument between the two sides is whether DynamicWang owns the copyright to the images generated by the model he trained.
In his latest Weibo post late Wednesday, the creator introduced himself as a photographer whose images are posted on Unsplash, Getty Images’ free gallery site, and that the training data he used to feed AWPortait model included his photography and Unsplash images, which he says means there are “no copyright issues” on his side.
Context: In January, the Beijing Internet Court granted copyright protection for an artificial intelligence-generated image, ruling that the image involved had an element of “originality” due to the plaintiff inputting multiple prompts and adjusting the parameters before generating a picture of a young woman through the text-to-image AI model Stable Diffusion. The ruling was seen as the first such AI-generated image copyright infringement case in China.
Why it matters: The rapid evolution of AI technology across multiple sectors has driven a surge in demand for advanced process chips. Increasing orders from major clients is expected to further push TSMC to innovate and develop advanced manufacturing processes.
Details: Currently, TSMC’s 3nm lineup includes N3, N3E, N3P, N3X, and N3A, according to the Economic Daily News report.
N3E, which entered mass production in the fourth quarter of last year, primarily serves AI accelerators, high-end smartphones, and data centers. N3P is expected to enter mass production in the latter half of this year and will become the preferred chip process for mainstream applications including mobile devices, consumer electronic products, base stations, and networking by 2026. N3X and N3A are designed for customized demands such as high-performance computing and automotive clients.
The latest high-end chips this year are all adopting the 3nm process, according to Chinese media outlet Icsmart. Apple will introduce the M4 series processors this year and is set to release the next-gen A18 series processors for its new iPhone16 series this September. Later this year, Qualcomm will launch its flagship mobile platform Snapdragon 8 Gen 4, while Nvidia is set to unveil the RTX 50 series graphics cards. AMD will release the fifth-gen EPYC Turin processors in the second half of the year, with plans to launch the MI350 series next year.
TSMC, as the exclusive supplier of Apple’s A-series processors for the new iPhones, will see a significant increase in demand for related 3nm orders. Apple’s iPhone 16 series this year is expected to increase sales volume by 5% year-over-year to 92-95 million units, the Economic Daily News report forecasted.
To ensure stable supply over the next two years, TSMC’s strategy is to convert some of its 5nm equipment to support 3nm production. Industry sources indicate that TSMC is likely to up its production of 3nm wafers to between 120,000 and 180,000 a month.
Context:The total production value of the top ten semiconductor foundries in the first quarter reached $29.2 billion, a decrease of 4.3% compared to the previous quarter, according to market research firm TrendForce.
In the first quarter, TSMC led with a revenue of $18.85 billion and a market share of 61.7%, followed by Samsung with $3.36 billion and an 11% market share. Shanghai-based chip foundry SMIC took third place with $1.75 billion in revenue and a 5.7% market share.
Russia carries out repeated indiscriminate aerial attacks on settlements near the frontline, possibly to demoralize the residents and depopulate the areas.
According to the Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office, the bomb impacted residential buildings, injuring five local civilians – a 65-year-old man and four women aged 63 to 88 years old. They suffered head injuries and multiple lacerations and were hospitalized to receive medical treatment.
Aftermath of Russia’s aerial bomb attack on Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, on 10 June 2024. Photo: Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor’s Office.
At least 13 apartment buildings sustained damage from the powerful blast wave, with shattered windows and broken glass throughout the residential units, according to the report.
The Donetsk Regional Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into the attack for violating the laws and customs of war, which carries a maximum penalty of 12 years imprisonment.
The KAB-500 guided air bomb weighing 370-560 kg depending on its variant, can carry a 250-380 kg warhead.
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The Azov Brigade, recognized for its determined yet ultimately unsuccessful defense of the Azovstal steel mill in Mariupol during the early stages of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, is considered a highly effective combat unit. At the end of the siege of Mariupol, Ukraine ordered the remaining troops in the steel factory to surrender to Russian forces for survival, leaving over 900 in captivity as of early May this year.
Back, in 2015, the US House passed an amendment barring Azov from using the US arms, based solely on media reports labelling Azov as a “neo-Nazi” and “fascist” unit. The image of a “Nazi unit” was amplified internationally by Russian propaganda outlets and was even used by Russia to justify its full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the claims that Ukraine allegedly needs to be “denazified.”
Now absorbed into the Ukrainian National Guard as a formal unit since 2015, the brigade, originally a volunteer militia, will have access to the same US military assistance as any other unit.
“After thorough review, Ukraine’s 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade passed Leahy vetting as carried out by the US Department of State,” the agency said in a statement, referring to the “Leahy Law” that prevents US military assistance from going to foreign units credibly found to have committed major human rights violations. The State Department found “no evidence” of such violations, its statement says.
Lifting the ban had been a top priority for Ukrainian officials, who argue that the brigade could have defended Azovstal more effectively in 2022 with access to US equipment. Additionally, members of the brigade were also prohibited from participating in training sessions organized by the US military.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has frequently cited the racist and ultranationalist allegations against the Azov Battalion to support his claim that Ukrainian fighters and their leaders in Kyiv are neo-Nazis. The shift in US policy is likely to reignite those Russian critiques, the Washington Post notes.
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According to the UK Defense Ministry’s latest intelligence update, Russia is significantly increasing its recruitment efforts in Africa to support its military operations in Ukraine, focusing on Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, and Uganda to enlist fighters. The expansion of recruitment across Global South is aimed at replenishing military losses in Ukraine, while avoiding mobilization in Russia, as per the Ministry.
The Ministry wrote:
On 28 May 2024, Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence (HUR) reported that Russia has intensified attempts to recruit Africans to fight in Ukraine. In particular these recruitment efforts focus on the central African countries of Rwanda, Burundi, Congo and Uganda. Russia is reportedly offering a sign-up bonus of $2,000, monthly pay of $2,200 and the promise of a Russian passport.
This recruitment campaign is likely to replace Russian battlefield losses, which are significant, and to sustain offensive activity in multiple axes across the front. With Russia’s finite pool of convict recruitment likely culminated, Russia is likely expanding its recruitment across the global south, to avoid additional mobilisations within Russia itself. As well as being domestically unpopular for President Putin and the Russian government, the previous mobilisation for the war resulted in a record labour shortage and an exodus of skilled workers such as doctors and IT professionals.
Earlier, referring to unnamed European officials, Bloomberg reported that the Kremlin has coerced thousands of migrants and foreign students to bolster Russian forces in their offensive in Kharkiv Oblast. Russian officials have increasingly threatened not to renew the visas of African students and young workers unless they enlist in the military, while also recruiting convicts and detaining some Africans on work visas, offering them a choice between deportation or military service, although some have bribed officials to avoid enlistment, as per the Bloomberg sources.
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Ukraine war erodes Russia’s grip on Black Sea, Mediterranean. The ongoing war in Ukraine has damaged one-third of Russia’s Black Sea warships and cut off its ability to rotate naval assets through Turkish straits, weakening the Kremlin’s power projection in the Mediterranean region it once dominated.
As of 10 Jun 2024, the approximate losses of weapons and military equipment of the Russian Armed Forces from the beginning of the invasion to the present day:
Pro-Ukrainian parties maintain majority in EU elections, far-right parties still make gains. The center-right European People’s Party (EPP), which largely backs Ukraine in its war with Russia, secured 186 out of 720 seats in the European Parliament, while far-right parties, especially in Germany and France, which have been found to have connections to Russia, received more seats in the parliament than before.
Biden, Macron agree on using frozen Russian asset profits to aid Ukraine. Group of Seven nations (G7) and the European Union (EU) are considering using profits from almost $300 billion frozen Russian assets to provide Ukraine with a substantial up-front loan, estimated at $2.6-$3.7 billion annually, and secure its financing through 2025.
Latvian charity music festival raises funds to support Ukrainian soldiers on frontlines. Osokins Festival of Freedom for Ukraine is a musical festival dedicated to Ukraine for the last three years and raises funds to purchase essential supplies for Ukrainian defenders, collecting more than $171,000 over the past 18 months and sending over 25,000 self-heating lunches to Ukrainian frontlines, as per the event’s organizer Andrejs Osokins.
Activists report mass repressions in Crimea against pro-Ukrainian supporters and Crimean Tatars. Since the beginning of the occupation of Crimea, the Russian Federation has initiated a broad repressive campaign against the peninsula’s residents, leading to over 300 political prisoners and numerous administrative and criminal proceedings targeting Crimean Tatars and pro-Ukrainian activists,
Ukrainians’ support for wartime criticism of authorities risen since 2022. When Russia’s full-scale invasion started in 2022, the majority of Ukrainians believed that it was not necessary to critisize the government to avoid destabilizing the situation, however a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) in May 2024 reveals that 31% of Ukrainians think criticism should be harsh and uncompromising, while 63% believe it should be constructive.
Political and legal developments
Ukraine’s government excludes top restoration official from annual recovery conference, he resigns. Mustafa Nayyem, head of Ukraine’s Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, claims he hasn’t received an invitation from the Ukrainian government to the annual Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, while the government justifies this decision by a scheduled meeting for the Agency on the same date.
New developments
Russian-installed authorities in Crimea ramp up army recruitment advertising. In temporarily occupied Crimea, a surge in recruitment advertising by Russian-installed authorities signals a desperate push to bolster military ranks, as Moscow intensifies efforts to turn the peninsula into a strategic launchpad for its ongoing war against Ukraine. According to Krym.Realii, outdoor and online advertisements for contractual army service have multiplied, amid promises of high pay and land incentives.
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Nevertheless, the center-right European People’s Party (EPP) takes the lead with 186 out of 720 seats, according to the European Parliament. This party largely supports Ukraine in its war against Russia. The centrist coalition, which currently forms the European Commission, is likely to maintain its majority, with Ursula von der Leyen from the EPP expected to be the candidate for the President of the European Commission once again, as stated by Radio Liberty (RL).
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, Ursula von der Leyen has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine, advocating for economic sanctions against Russia and providing financial and humanitarian aid to Ukraine while also encouraging Ukraine’s EU membership aspirations.
EPP is followed by its two main partners – the center-left Socialists and Democrats with 135 seats and the centrist Renew Europe party with 79 seats.
According to the European Parliament, the two far-right groups, European Conservatives and Reformists and the smaller Identity and Democracy party, follow with 73 and 58 seats, respectively.
The European Parliament is one of the core decision-making and budget allocation bodies of the European Union. Its responsibilities include matters such as financial aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia and Ukraine’s ascension to the EU.
France
In France, the far-right party National Rally secured first place in the elections, doubling the number of seats compared to President Emmanuel Macron’s allies. In response to the preliminary election results, Macron announced the dissolution of the French Parliament on 9 June and called for new elections on 10 June.
Germany
The conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) bloc won the elections in Germany by a large margin, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party coming in second place, as expected. Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s leading party in the ruling coalition, the Social Democrats, finished third.
In March 2024, German media suspected AfD members of receiving funds from Russia through a pro-Kremlin network, aiming to promote pro-Russian messaging ahead of EU elections.
Both Macron and Scholz have been active in providing military aid to Ukraine since 2022 and recently allowed Ukraine to strike military targets inside Russia
Austria, Spain, Italy
In Austria, the far-right Freedom Party, known for its criticism of anti-war sanctions against Russia, is leading. In Spain, the right-wing People’s Party is slightly ahead of the ruling Socialists.
In Italy, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party, the Brothers of Italy, is leading the European Parliament elections with an expected result of 26-30%.
The Netherlands
However, in the Netherlands, the alliance of Socialists and Greens, led by former European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, is ahead of Geert Wilders’ right-wing Party for Freedom, which had convincingly won the parliamentary elections in the fall, according to RL.
Belgium
In Belgium, the right-wing nationalists from the New Flemish Alliance won the elections. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo announced his resignation following the significant defeat of his party, the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, in both the national parliamentary elections and the European Parliament elections.
Approximately 360 million voters from the 27 EU countries were eligible to participate in the 6-9 June voting, which saw higher voter turnout in most countries compared to the 2019 elections.
In the spring of 2024, Russia escalated hybrid attacks on Western allies of Ukraine, including sabotage, cyberattacks, and propaganda ahead of the EU elections. Incidents included Russian agents’ increased activities, arrests for espionage in Germany, and cyberattacks in Czechia.
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We keep our reporting open and accessible to everyone because we believe in the power of free information. This is why our small, cost-effective team depends on the support of readers like you to bring deliver timely news, quality analysis, and on-the-ground reports about Russia's war against Ukraine and Ukraine's struggle to build a democratic society.
A little bit goes a long way: for as little as the cost of one cup of coffee a month, you can help build bridges between Ukraine and the rest of the world, plus become a co-creator and vote for topics we should cover next. Become a patron or see other ways to support.
