France’s promise to hand Ukraine its first Rafale fighters will leave Kyiv operating one of the most mixed combat-jet fleets in the world—eight types built in four countries—according to RFE/RL. Analysts say Ukraine is taking on that complexity by choice—a wartime bridge it means to dismantle once its Soviet jetsContinue Reading
The Ukrainian partisan movement Atesh says Russia is responding by pulling scarce military units—including operators from its elite Rubicon (also spelled Rubikon) drone center—off other duties to guard the tankers. This comes as Ukraine struck 147 vessels of Russia’s sanctions-dodging shadow fleet between 6 and 16 July, collapsing maritime traffic in theContinue Reading
Ukraine’s Air Force has received a second batch of mobile F-16 flight simulators, the Defense Ministry announced on 13 July. The machines let pilots rehearse combat without taking off—and, unlike an ordinary simulator, they can be packed up and driven somewhere else when the airfield gets hit. Ukraine fights aContinue Reading
Russian ruler Vladimir Putin claimed in late June that his forces are “just over 10 kilometers” from the city of Sumy in Ukraine. The figure corresponds to nothing on the map, ArmyInform reports. Ukraine’s Defense Forces have held Russian troops more than 20 kilometers from the regional center for overContinue Reading
If Russia attacked Poland today, only two of the country’s six army divisions could enter combat within seven days, Rzeczpospolita reported, citing Polish military sources. The other four range from partially staffed to still forming. And Poland would go to war, the paper noted, without most of the modern equipment it has orderedContinue Reading
Russia is recruiting civilians to commit arson, sabotage, and terrorist acts across Ukraine and Europe—and in Ukraine, its operatives have refined the playbook: they now forge official Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) summonses, complete with the signatures of senior SBU officials, to coerce targets who believe they are complying withContinue Reading
Ukraine’s domestically produced guided aerial bombs (KABs) have entered combat use, Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced at the Brave1 Advantage event, Militarnyi reported. Products from two of eight Ukrainian developers involved in the program have reached frontline units; the others remain at various stages of development and testing. Russia hasContinue Reading
The numbers are impressive. But two days in Gdańsk—25 and 26 June—revealed developments that matter more than any single agreement. The conference showed how European thinking about Ukraine is changing from postwar reconstruction to wartime resilience, from humanitarian support to strategic investment. It also exposed the distance that still separatesContinue Reading