*** Official Russia vs. Ukraine Discussion - Invasion has begun *** (2 Viewers)

[SaintsInDome2006]

Trump has suspended delivery of Patriot missiles, hellfires, Howitzer shells & other systems.

That link appears to be dead, and at least some of the wording in the quotes is from as far back as May, in the Washington Post. What am I missing here? Thanks.

You’re right, thank you, I’ll delete. It appears a couple sources on twitter recirculated the old report. I should’ve looked for a news report. - However after looking at it (& this is from late July) it appears the Patriot systems won’t be getting delivered until Spring of 2026. Apparently this was reported by Der Spiegel. - RBC. & Here.

 

[Dezbelief]

Russian oil refineries, terminals burn as Ukraine hits Putin's war economy

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and exporting infrastructure, striking the most important sector of President Vladimir Putin's economy to show it can fight back as the United States seeks to broker a peace deal.

www.reuters.com

Ukrainian attacks on 10 plants disrupted at least 17% of Russia's refinery capacity, or 1.1 million barrels per day, according to Reuters calculations.

The refinery hits come as Russia's seasonal demand for gasoline from tourists and farmers peaks.
Russia had tightened its gasoline export ban in July to deal with a spike in domestic demand even before the attacks.
There were shortages of gasoline in some areas of Russian-controlled Ukraine, southern Russia and even the Far East, forcing motorists to switch to more expensive petrol due to shortages of the regular A-95 grade.

 

[Dezbelief]

Russian-backed head of Donetsk says Moscow must capture canal from Ukraine to solve water crisis

DONETSK, Russian-controlled Ukraine (Reuters) -The head of the Russian-held Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine said a water crisis that is forcing people to queue at water trucks can only be fixed if Russia takes full control of the region, including a vital canal. Donetsk is one of four...

www.yahoo.com

 

[Dezbelief]

Leeds volunteers repurpose vapes to power Ukrainian drones

Disposable vapes are being turned into powerbanks for Ukrainian soldiers living on the front line.

www.bbc.com

Disposable vapes are being repurposed into powerbanks and sent to the Ukrainian front lines.

Volunteers at Leeds Ukrainian Community Association (LUCA) recycle components, such as batteries and wires, from the discarded vapes to send to Ukraine to be turned into energy sources for soldiers in remote locations.

The recycled components are used to power drones, phones and night vision devices in the trenches.

Viacheslav Semeniuk, a LUCA trustee, said the repurposed vapes are used "as a light source and in cooking" adding, "this is sometimes the only source of power".

 

[Dezbelief]

Ukrainian Drones Smash and Torch Russia’s Main Natural Gas Export Facility

It wasn’t Ukraine’s first long-range kamikaze robot plane air raid targeting Russia’s oil and gas industry and Kremlin energy export earnings. It likely was not the last.

www.kyivpost.com

Ukraine’s campaign to cripple Kremlin oil and gas production with relentless drone strikes chalked up another processing plant set ablaze on Sunday, with long-range robot aircraft scoring hits and touching off fiery explosions on the premises of a major condensate gas processing site near the Baltic Sea port city St. Petersburg.

Flying wing drones tipped with explosive warheads swooped down on the Ust-Luga facility, Russia’s main processing site for natural gas piped from the Arctic and West Siberia, during the morning work shift. Eyewitnesses reported at least two massive fires following the daylight attack.

The Gazprom-owned processing center facility is one of the largest natural gas processing plants in Europe and the main outlet for Russian natural gas exports by the Baltic Sea. According to Russian news reports, the local plant operator is an energy company called Novatek.

Video recorded by plant workers and placed on the internet shows precise hits on the site’s cryogenic gas condensate/gas unit and orange fireball explosions. Russian media reported the unit suffered substantial damage.

According to open sources, the Ust-Luga complex at full capacity can process up to 45 billion cubic meters of natural gas annually and from that produce 13 million tons of liquified natural gas (LNG), practically all of it for export. The site’s annual capacity also includes 3.6 million tons of ethane, 1.8 million tons of propane-butane, as well as naphtha, jet fuel, fuel oil, and gas oil for export. Repairs could take weeks to months, industry reports say.

The Ukrainian aircraft visibly concentrated on the site’s gas-processing equipment and no storage reservoirs were hit. Ukraine’s Army General Staff on Sunday evening took credit for the attack and called it successful. The official statement did not identify the exact type of aircraft used.

St. Petersburg’s main airport, Pulkovo was shut down most of Sunday with 39 flights canceled and 60 flights delayed, St. Petersburg media reported.

Regional governor Aleksandr Drozdenko in a mid-morning statement said that “falling debris” from 10 Ukrainian drones destroyed by Russian army air defense units deployed around the plant sparked a minor blaze that firefighters quickly brought under control.

Video of the strikes showed the Ukrainian drones flying low and slow and seemingly unimpeded by small arms fire from the ground, and at least two aircraft detonating after impacting on or near the base of the plant’s main gas processing tower.

Ukraine’s military in May announced it was fielding a new, flying-wing drone called a Batyar which in shape and size is similar to the silhouettes of attack aircraft recorded in the plant worker videos. The Batyar has a reported maximum 800-kilometer (500-mile) range and is rated to carry an 18-kilogram (40-pound) warhead. Ust-Luga is 700-750 kilometers (435-466 miles) from probable Ukrainian drone launch sites.

The Ukrainian military geolocation group Cyber Broshono in a Sunday evaluation of the Ust-Luga strike rated the scale of damage caused by the drone strikes and fires as “critical” and called the facility the “heart” of Russian natural gas processing for export.

This… is a significant blow not only to Russia’s energy infrastructure, but also to its export potential and ambitions in the petrochemical sector,” that evaluation said in part.

Ukrainian energy market researcher Evhen Instrebin in Sunday X comments estimated each day the Ust-Luga plant is not operational the facility loses $12 million/day or almost $0.4 billion per month. The cost to Gazprom and Novotek to repair the damage was still unassessed, he said.

Ukraine in mid-2023 launched a campaign to degrade Russian economic capacity and energy exports earnings with long-range strikes targeting energy production, power grids and transportation infrastructure. In 2025 Kyiv’s bombardment effort intensified with more frequent attacks, increased numbers of drones used, and more effective penetration of Russian air defenses. Beginning in late July, strikes have taken place almost nightly with Russian oil and gas processing facilities the clear top priority target.

In an attack directly targeting Russian oil export earnings, Ukrainian drones on Thursday struck and set afire the Unecha crude oil pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline, the main land route by which Russian crude oil reaches European markets. This followed a strike on Monday, and a strike preceding that on Aug. 13. European Pleiades satellite imagery from Sunday showed major damage.

In the wake of the Unecha attacks Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán – both leaders of downstream countries with no other source of crude oil but the Druzhba pipeline – accused Ukraine of waging economic warfare against their countries.

Both Orbán and Fico have aligned themselves with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Russo-Ukrainian War and have suggested Ukraine should surrender to Russia in order to end the fighting. Both Slovakian and Hungarian representatives have vetoed Ukrainian support measures and sanctions on Russia proposed in the EU. Neither Fico nor Orbán support military assistance from their countries to Ukraine.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha in a Sunday X comment said Kyiv regrets Hungary’s energy problem but noted that Budapest has had three years to diversify its economy away from Russian energy “like the rest of Europe.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Sunday comments to Kyiv media said that Ukraine considers Hungary “a friend” and said that Hungarian national energy policy was the sovereign responsibility of the Orbán regime.

Prior to Sunday, likely the single most damaging recent Ukrainian attack on Russian domestic fossil fuel processing capacity took place on Thursday, Aug. 21, in a strike hitting and setting ablaze the biggest oil refinery in the Russian Federation, near the Azov Sea port city Rostov. Fires were finally extinguished on Sunday afternoon. It is not clear when the site will be able to come back on line.

A Friday fuel market report published by Instrebin found that actual retail prices for gasoline in Russia’s Far Eastern Primorskiy Krai region, are about 26 percent higher than “official maximum” prices allowed by the government.

 

[Chadstroma]

Russian oil refineries, terminals burn as Ukraine hits Putin's war economy

Ukraine has stepped up drone attacks on Russian oil refineries and exporting infrastructure, striking the most important sector of President Vladimir Putin's economy to show it can fight back as the United States seeks to broker a peace deal.

www.reuters.com

Ukrainian attacks on 10 plants disrupted at least 17% of Russia's refinery capacity, or 1.1 million barrels per day, according to Reuters calculations.

The refinery hits come as Russia's seasonal demand for gasoline from tourists and farmers peaks.
Russia had tightened its gasoline export ban in July to deal with a spike in domestic demand even before the attacks.
There were shortages of gasoline in some areas of Russian-controlled Ukraine, southern Russia and even the Far East, forcing motorists to switch to more expensive petrol due to shortages of the regular A-95 grade.

Enforcer (youtube) has been showing numerous reports of the occupied areas basically out of gas as well as the Kamchutka (sp?) area as well. The Ukrainian attacks on gas has been crippling and the Russians are falling behind. As us usual, they are prioritizing the upper echelon areas of Russian society (around Moscow and St Petersburg) and letting the rest of the nation suffer. It could have significant impact on the battlefield as well.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

The Ukrainian Attacks That Are Forcing Russia to Ration Its Fuel

The intensifying Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian refineries has taken some 13% of Russia’s fuel production offline, according to analysts. Sanctions imposed by the West after the 2022 invasion, meanwhile, have limited Moscow’s ability to repair infrastructure and service remaining installations.

At the same time, the now frequent disruptions by Ukrainian drones to Russia’s rail networks and airports have forced more Russians to travel by road during their summer holidays, just as fuel demand spiked because of the harvest season.

As a result, several regions, including Russian-occupied Crimea and parts of Siberia, have implemented rationing at gas stations. Where gas is available, it is much more expensive—Russian wholesale prices for 95-octane gasoline have risen 45% this year so far, even as global crude oil prices have significantly declined.

Analysts agree the fuel crunch by itself won’t move the needle on Putin’s strategic war aims in Ukraine or his domestic grip on power. “It is painful but not strategically disrupting,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official who is now a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

Yet, any disruption matters in the kind of war that is waged in Ukraine, said Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s former defense minister. “Modern war is a war of resources, and Ukraine is a David that tries to find Goliath’s weaknesses,” he said.

Ukrainian strikes disrupt around 17% of Russia’s oil refining capacity, Reuters reports

Ukrainian strikes on 10 Russian oil refineries have disrupted at least 17% of the country's refining capacity, equivalent to 1.1 million barrels per day, Reuters reported on Aug. 25, citing its own calculations.

https://x.com/BBCSteveR/status/1960245701725622529

A gasoline shortage is headline news in today's Russian papers, which report: “Russia on the verge of a full-scale fuel crisis” and “In Primorye [Russian Far East] & Khabarovsk region drivers report kilometre-long queues at gas stations.”

Fire at Rostov Oil Refinery Extinguished Nearly a Week After Ukrainian Drone Attack

Authorities in southern Russia’s Rostov region said that a large fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery was extinguished early Tuesday, almost a week after a Ukrainian drone strike set the facility ablaze.

The refinery, which produces fuel mainly for export, was attacked on Thursday night. Firefighters battled the blaze for days, using so much water that nearby communities faced shortages until supplies were restored on Monday.

“I just received a report that the fire at the Novoshakhinsk oil production plant was extinguished at 5:45 a.m.,” acting Rostov region Governor Yuri Slyusar wrote on Telegram.

Novoshakhtinsk, with a processing capacity of 110,000 barrels of oil per day (5 million metric tons), is considered one of the most important oil refineries in southern Russia. Located around 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, it is regularly targeted in drone attacks.

https://x.com/frontel_asia/status/1959886860299206773

The lessons that North Korea appears to have learned from the Ukraine war include drones, new portable anti-tank missiles, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The Frontier Insights team scrutinized a 19-minute Pyongyang propaganda video praising the country's involvement and reached this conclusion. Below is an analysis of the main elements of that video:
2/ One of the most noteworthy trends is that North Korea has recognized the importance of drones. This includes their utilization in both deployment and countermeasures, as well as their ultimate operation on the battlefield. The footage emphasizes the threat of drones and also shows training for countermeasures by infantry.
3/ In part of the footage, it can be confirmed from the arrangement of the wiring that North Korea is deploying a first-person view drone team consisting of a pilot and a co-pilot alongside reconnaissance units. The reconnaissance drones conduct battlefield observation, target designation, and damage assessment, while the first-person view drones attack Ukrainian vehicles, buildings, and other defensive facilities.
4/ Another noteworthy scene is the live firing demonstration using the Bill-4 anti-tank missile launcher. Through the optical channel, the operator can guide the missile to the target from a first-person perspective. This missile is typically launched from North Korea's M-2010 armored personnel carrier (a local version of the Soviet BTR-80A), but in this instance, it was mounted on and used from a pickup truck.
6/ This development suggests the possibility that North Korea could deploy more low-cost mobile anti-tank missile systems in greater numbers, rather than relying on a small number of expensive armored vehicles in theory. Another noteworthy system is the Bulsae-2 (or possibly Bulsae-3), which is North Korea's improved version of the Soviet-made 9K111 Fagot anti-tank missile.
7/ In the footage, a missile is attacking a small building, and it is believed to be part of training or a propaganda filming. While the Burse-4 has a range of approximately 10 to 25 kilometers, the Burse-2's effective range is about 2.5 kilometers.
8/In addition, it has been confirmed that North Korean forces are using Russian-made Azart tactical radios. This radio is widely used by the Russian military as well, and it is a 6th-generation portable device equipped with multiple digital modes, frequency hopping, and GPS/GLONASS synchronization functions. Since the start of the war, several updates have been made to meet the demands of modern warfare.
9/ In several short videos, our team also confirmed drone footage distribution software used in the command post. This can be used as a temporary battlefield management tool and improves situational awareness.
10/ Our team has also confirmed the appearance of more traditional North Korean weapons. For example, the Type-75 107mm multiple rocket launcher is a locally modified version of China's Type 63. This weapon is used by both North Korean and Russian forces.
11/ In assault operations, light mortars are used as support and have become a standard element of infantry tactics. In one video, Russian forces can be seen using North Korean-made mortars. Overall, the footage shows that mortars and rocket artillery are being used in their conventional fire support roles, with nothing particularly novel.
12/ This does not mean that North Korea will imitate and adopt everything, but our team anticipates that, based on the lessons North Korea has learned, it will make improvements in tactics and operations, utilizing superior communication and command-and-control tools, as well as enhanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods.
13/This is not a comprehensive list of all weapons that North Korea has acquired or tested in combat; it is merely the systems featured in the footage. A notable example is North Korea's domestically developed drone similar to the Lancet, which demonstrated high effectiveness against armored targets during Ukraine's 2023 summer counteroffensive. North Korea's drone appears to be of the tube-launched type.
14/ At present, it is impossible to determine to what extent North Korea's leadership will implement these changes across the entire regular forces, or whether large-scale reforms are expected. However, it would be overly optimistic to assume that North Korea will not apply the lessons it has learned more broadly.

https://x.com/Hromadske/status/1960239287812702278

Since early 2025, Ukraine has received over 1M large-caliber shells through Czech ammunition plan, Czech FM Jan Lipavsky reported.

16 participating countries aim to transfer 1.8M artillery shells to Ukraine this year. Last year, Ukraine received 1.5 M rounds via the initiative.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

US offers air and intelligence support to postwar force in Ukraine

The US has said it is prepared to provide intelligence assets and battlefield oversight to any western security blanket for postwar Ukraine and take part in a European-led air defence shield for the country, European and Ukrainian officials said.

Senior US officials have since told European counterparts in multiple discussions that Washington would be prepared to contribute “strategic enablers” including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), command and control and air defence assets to enable any European-led deployment on the ground, four officials briefed on the talks told the Financial Times.
A so-called coalition of the willing, led by the UK and France, has vowed to protect postwar Ukraine from any future Russian aggression.
But European officials have privately admitted that any deployment could only take place with US support to enable, oversee and protect European troops.
The US offer, voiced in a flurry of meetings between national security officials and military leaders from the US and major European countries in recent days, is contingent on commitments by European capitals to deploy tens of thousands of troops to Ukraine, the officials cautioned.

Western capitals have sketched out a rough plan that would involve a demilitarised zone, possibly patrolled by neutral peacekeeping troops from a third country agreed by Ukraine and Russia.
A far more robust border behind that would be defended by Ukrainian troops armed and trained by Nato militaries, three of the officials said.
A European-led deterrence force would then be stationed deeper in Ukraine as a third line of defence, with US assets supporting that from the rear.
But even with potential US backing, the public and politicians in many European countries remain nervous about possible troop deployments to Ukraine.

https://x.com/JohnH105/status/1960356994948231399

A HUR official said Russia in 2022 paid $200k per Shahed imported from Iran, but that's decreased to ~$70k thanks to localized production. The official noted Russia is moving toward monthly production of >6,000 Shahed-type UAVs.

https://x.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1960339659646746704

Russian investigative outlet The Insider spoke with numerous volunteers supplying troops with equipment and donations and discovered an eye-opening situation: in recent months, the volunteer movement has plunged into crisis, with rising signs of fatigue and frustration. Thread:
2/ A significant share of supplies for the Russian army, from uniforms to thermal imagers and drones, has come from volunteers since the start of the full-scale invasion. One of them, Natalia from the Bryansk region, says that people used to donate an average of 500 to 1,000 rubles
3/ Now she must seek funding from businesses and the government, but gets no response. Another volunteer from Belgorod, Ruslan, said he quit the movement, noting that more and more people have no motivation to support the army.
4/ He also adds: “I judge even by my own circle. In February 2022, everyone told their loved ones, “It will be over in a week.” Now, parents tell those same children, “If you see our soldiers, cross to the other side of the street.”
5/ Elena from the Kursk region: “Donations are scarce; people are tired. At first, we thought it would end quickly, and more people donated. Now there’s no end in sight, and few are willing to help.”
6/ Lera, Belgorod oblast: “Of course, war leaves no one unchanged. I remember what happened after the Chechen wars, how many people were scarred after Afghanistan. I was once traveling with a security officer, and he said, ‘I’ve been in many wars, but the worst is in Ukraine.’”
7/ I would like to add few remarks.

Both the Russian and Ukrainian armies depend on fundraising to supply units with drones and other equipment, and the exhaustion of volunteer forces can have tangible consequences, as neither state is capable to replace them at the moment
8/ More importantly, this is not the first sign of fatigue in Russia. Reports of social burnout are growing louder, alongside voices from Z-bloggers increasingly admitting that the war has reached a dead end and shyly suggest to look for “alternative options”.
9/ It would be premature to assume that Russian society is on the verge of collapse. But it is clear that the population is not prepared for many more years of war without a visible path to victory - a point often raised against Ukraine, but rarely applied to Russia itself.

 

[Chadstroma]

The Ukrainian Attacks That Are Forcing Russia to Ration Its Fuel

The intensifying Ukrainian drone campaign against Russian refineries has taken some 13% of Russia’s fuel production offline, according to analysts. Sanctions imposed by the West after the 2022 invasion, meanwhile, have limited Moscow’s ability to repair infrastructure and service remaining installations.

At the same time, the now frequent disruptions by Ukrainian drones to Russia’s rail networks and airports have forced more Russians to travel by road during their summer holidays, just as fuel demand spiked because of the harvest season.

As a result, several regions, including Russian-occupied Crimea and parts of Siberia, have implemented rationing at gas stations. Where gas is available, it is much more expensive—Russian wholesale prices for 95-octane gasoline have risen 45% this year so far, even as global crude oil prices have significantly declined.

Analysts agree the fuel crunch by itself won’t move the needle on Putin’s strategic war aims in Ukraine or his domestic grip on power. “It is painful but not strategically disrupting,” said Alexandra Prokopenko, a former Russian central bank official who is now a fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

Yet, any disruption matters in the kind of war that is waged in Ukraine, said Oleksiy Reznikov, Ukraine’s former defense minister. “Modern war is a war of resources, and Ukraine is a David that tries to find Goliath’s weaknesses,” he said.

Ukrainian strikes disrupt around 17% of Russia’s oil refining capacity, Reuters reports

Ukrainian strikes on 10 Russian oil refineries have disrupted at least 17% of the country's refining capacity, equivalent to 1.1 million barrels per day, Reuters reported on Aug. 25, citing its own calculations.

https://x.com/BBCSteveR/status/1960245701725622529

A gasoline shortage is headline news in today's Russian papers, which report: “Russia on the verge of a full-scale fuel crisis” and “In Primorye [Russian Far East] & Khabarovsk region drivers report kilometre-long queues at gas stations.”

Fire at Rostov Oil Refinery Extinguished Nearly a Week After Ukrainian Drone Attack

Authorities in southern Russia’s Rostov region said that a large fire at the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery was extinguished early Tuesday, almost a week after a Ukrainian drone strike set the facility ablaze.

The refinery, which produces fuel mainly for export, was attacked on Thursday night. Firefighters battled the blaze for days, using so much water that nearby communities faced shortages until supplies were restored on Monday.

“I just received a report that the fire at the Novoshakhinsk oil production plant was extinguished at 5:45 a.m.,” acting Rostov region Governor Yuri Slyusar wrote on Telegram.

Novoshakhtinsk, with a processing capacity of 110,000 barrels of oil per day (5 million metric tons), is considered one of the most important oil refineries in southern Russia. Located around 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) east of the border with Ukraine, it is regularly targeted in drone attacks.

https://x.com/frontel_asia/status/1959886860299206773

The lessons that North Korea appears to have learned from the Ukraine war include drones, new portable anti-tank missiles, and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities. The Frontier Insights team scrutinized a 19-minute Pyongyang propaganda video praising the country's involvement and reached this conclusion. Below is an analysis of the main elements of that video:
2/ One of the most noteworthy trends is that North Korea has recognized the importance of drones. This includes their utilization in both deployment and countermeasures, as well as their ultimate operation on the battlefield. The footage emphasizes the threat of drones and also shows training for countermeasures by infantry.
3/ In part of the footage, it can be confirmed from the arrangement of the wiring that North Korea is deploying a first-person view drone team consisting of a pilot and a co-pilot alongside reconnaissance units. The reconnaissance drones conduct battlefield observation, target designation, and damage assessment, while the first-person view drones attack Ukrainian vehicles, buildings, and other defensive facilities.
4/ Another noteworthy scene is the live firing demonstration using the Bill-4 anti-tank missile launcher. Through the optical channel, the operator can guide the missile to the target from a first-person perspective. This missile is typically launched from North Korea's M-2010 armored personnel carrier (a local version of the Soviet BTR-80A), but in this instance, it was mounted on and used from a pickup truck.
6/ This development suggests the possibility that North Korea could deploy more low-cost mobile anti-tank missile systems in greater numbers, rather than relying on a small number of expensive armored vehicles in theory. Another noteworthy system is the Bulsae-2 (or possibly Bulsae-3), which is North Korea's improved version of the Soviet-made 9K111 Fagot anti-tank missile.
7/ In the footage, a missile is attacking a small building, and it is believed to be part of training or a propaganda filming. While the Burse-4 has a range of approximately 10 to 25 kilometers, the Burse-2's effective range is about 2.5 kilometers.
8/In addition, it has been confirmed that North Korean forces are using Russian-made Azart tactical radios. This radio is widely used by the Russian military as well, and it is a 6th-generation portable device equipped with multiple digital modes, frequency hopping, and GPS/GLONASS synchronization functions. Since the start of the war, several updates have been made to meet the demands of modern warfare.
9/ In several short videos, our team also confirmed drone footage distribution software used in the command post. This can be used as a temporary battlefield management tool and improves situational awareness.
10/ Our team has also confirmed the appearance of more traditional North Korean weapons. For example, the Type-75 107mm multiple rocket launcher is a locally modified version of China's Type 63. This weapon is used by both North Korean and Russian forces.
11/ In assault operations, light mortars are used as support and have become a standard element of infantry tactics. In one video, Russian forces can be seen using North Korean-made mortars. Overall, the footage shows that mortars and rocket artillery are being used in their conventional fire support roles, with nothing particularly novel.
12/ This does not mean that North Korea will imitate and adopt everything, but our team anticipates that, based on the lessons North Korea has learned, it will make improvements in tactics and operations, utilizing superior communication and command-and-control tools, as well as enhanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance methods.
13/This is not a comprehensive list of all weapons that North Korea has acquired or tested in combat; it is merely the systems featured in the footage. A notable example is North Korea's domestically developed drone similar to the Lancet, which demonstrated high effectiveness against armored targets during Ukraine's 2023 summer counteroffensive. North Korea's drone appears to be of the tube-launched type.
14/ At present, it is impossible to determine to what extent North Korea's leadership will implement these changes across the entire regular forces, or whether large-scale reforms are expected. However, it would be overly optimistic to assume that North Korea will not apply the lessons it has learned more broadly.

https://x.com/Hromadske/status/1960239287812702278

Since early 2025, Ukraine has received over 1M large-caliber shells through Czech ammunition plan, Czech FM Jan Lipavsky reported.

16 participating countries aim to transfer 1.8M artillery shells to Ukraine this year. Last year, Ukraine received 1.5 M rounds via the initiative.

It is funny how finding the right sources on YouTube can get you way ahead of the curve from what media reports.

Check out enforcer in YouTube. Nightly reports that provides much better info and timely than you will get from US media.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

Russia’s new middle class can’t afford for Putin’s war to end

The Russian city of Volgograd was the location of one of the bloodiest fights in world history. The seven-month-long Battle of Stalingrad, as the city was known in 1943, claimed half a million Soviet lives.
More than 80 years later, the Russian version of Facebook is awash with government ads encouraging men in the city to join today’s war effort in Ukraine.
“Men aged 18 to 63, we consider those with diseases – HIV, hepatitis. We accept those on parole and convicts,” reads one such ad on Vkontakte, or VK, as it is known.
Having flat feet, an intellectual disability or being a foreigner also need not be a disqualifier, it adds. In return, big prizes await.
One advert offers 8m rubles (£74,000) for the first year of military service – more than 10 times the region’s average wage of 712,883 rubles (£6,592) last year.
This includes hefty sign-on bonuses, extra payments for those with children and other perks like priority nursery places, discounted mortgages and tax breaks.
The payments are one example of how Russia’s war economy has created a new middle class in the country’s industrial heartlands.

As the war approaches its fourth anniversary, the economy is under strain – but there has been no crisis. If anything, for some Russians life has improved.
The biggest benefactors are impoverished industrial areas that have suffered decades of decline, experiencing a fate similar to once-wealthy parts of the West.
Many towns and smaller cities across Russia that relied on a single industry such as defence or manufacturing never recovered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“In the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these areas went into decline, and people struggled to find jobs. But the facilities were still there,” says Tatiana Orlova, from Oxford Economics.
A safer world meant the need for ammunition, guns and other types of manufacturing had faded. That was, until Putin brought war to Europe.
“All that changed three years ago when the Russian leadership realised that it could not wrap up the war quickly. So it started moving the economy into a different mode,” says Orlova.
“Suddenly, these mothballed industrial facilities were hiring new workers, and new investment started flowing. These enterprises were competing with other sectors for workers, and they were offering good wages.”
Factories under pressure to churn out goods to support the war – munitions, uniforms and so on – started running three shifts a day.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of working-age men joined the military, and Moscow restricted immigration – creating crippling worker shortages.
The result can be seen in wage data from Russia’s statistics office, Rosstat. Pay has surged in sectors related to the war effort, while other professions typically lucrative in peacetime have suffered.
Wages for workers making “finished metal items” rose by 78pc before accounting for inflation between 2024 and 2021, the fastest of any occupation.
In contrast, healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses and employees in the oil industry have seen the slowest growth, at 40pc and 48pc respectively.

“These people live in underdeveloped regions. They work in once underperforming industries. They don’t have higher education. But now these assets and skills are in demand,” says Ekaterina Kurbangaleeva, a visiting scholar at the George Washington University in Washington DC.
“They are getting higher salaries. Their savings are growing. And they are also getting social respect.”
It is a good time to be a Russian factory worker. But the real money comes if you join the military.
“When a man in the family joins the army on a military contract, first of all he gets his bonus and he starts getting monthly wages. The wages are decent. It’s something like $2,000 a month. All that money started flowing mostly into the Russian regions because people are less keen to sign up for the contractual army in the big cities,” Orlova says.
“I call this deathonomics,” says Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev. He co-founded the Cyprus-based Centre for Analysis and Strategies in Europe in 2023 alongside Dmitry Gudkov, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition in exile.

While the soldiers receive handsome salaries and bonuses, the biggest financial rewards come in death. Families of Russian soldiers killed on the frontline are entitled to payouts of up to 11m rubles – equivalent to around £100,000.
This includes an automatic “presidential” payment of 4.9m rubles, insurance worth 3.3m rubles and a “governor” payout of up to 3m rubles, according to independent Russian economic news outlet The Bell.

The influx of cash into Russia’s poorest regions has helped fuel a spending boom, as impoverished families have suddenly come into money.
“Many soldiers came from the very poor regions. This provoked a huge increase of real disposable incomes in very remote and poor regions in Russia like the Republic of Altai, the Republic of Tuva and some others – mostly North Caucasus and Siberia regions,” says Inozemtsev.
Families in tiny villages and small towns received “enormous” sums of money by local standards, he says. Many bought apartments in big regional cities with better schools and universities for their children, he adds.
The influx of cash has also fuelled redevelopment in some of Russia’s poorest areas.
“It gave rise to development of services in the poor regions where people previously, for example, could not even think of spending money on something like a monthly gym subscription,” says Orlova.
“Suddenly, new gyms and beauty salons started springing up. More cafes and restaurants opened as well. People really started spending on services.”
Visa restrictions and high costs mean foreign holidays are out of reach for most ordinary Russians. Instead, domestic travel has flourished.
“The number of hotel rooms is increasing 15pc-20pc per year. The whole hospitality industry – hotels, restaurants, catering – is growing. So the salaries of waiters, chefs and hotel managers are increasing too,” says Kurbangaleeva.

And so, a new social class is emerging.
Experts like Kurbangaleeva point out that what we refer to as middle class usually reflects three things: income levels, education and social standing.
In other words, becoming middle class isn’t something that happens overnight.
But there are signs of a bigger shift. One of the perks military families are entitled to is that soldiers and their children get priority access to Russia’s competitive public universities.
In families where no one has gone to university, the barriers have been lowered substantially.
“The Russian government imposed a special university admission quota for soldiers and their children. They can apply without contest,” says Kurbangaleeva.
“Before this quota, they had no chance. They don’t get a good education [growing up] or a high enough level of knowledge. So they could not compete with other children who live in big cities or go to better schools. They now face an obstacle-free road to apply to the best universities in the country.”
This year’s quota is 50,000 places across the country. Actual enrolment figures will only be available in September. However, last year nearly 15,000 students made use of the offer, up from 8,000 in 2023.
Kurbangaleeva believes it is the start of a bigger trend. “The social hierarchy is changing right now,” she says.

If the war does end, Russians who have grown accustomed to much higher living standards may pay the price. Surviving soldiers returning from the frontline and their families are likely to quickly slip back into their old lives, believes Inozemtsev.
“These people are not accustomed to accumulate and to save money. They will spend it in a year or two, and return to the type of life they were accustomed to. The service in the army will not change your social behaviour,” he says.
“If 500,000 people will come back to the regions with very low wages and their savings from the service time will be exhausted in months, or in one or two years, it might be a huge social disaster.”

“It’s a big question for the government, for Putin – how to take care of those people after the war is over,” says a Russian economist based in Europe who did not want to be named.
“I wouldn’t be that optimistic about their future. The government will do everything to disseminate those people and not allow them to turn into a powerful group. Cynically, the Russian political class have experience, or at least prior knowledge of how to deal with that.”
Other workers who have benefited from the war are also likely to take a hit once the economy normalises. Blue-collar workers, business people buying up stranded Western assets and state employees working in law enforcement are all likely to lose out in a demobilised economy.
“All these people are not interested in the return to peacetime,” says Kurbangaleeva. “It seems to me that the Russian authorities feel that. These beneficiaries would be more confident if they could sustain the current situation, because when and if the war ends, a lot might change.
“For them, it’s more beneficial to continue.”

 

[Alex P Keaton]

War as a profit machine. Nice. What a great leader Putin has been.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

https://x.com/jakluge/status/1960606850082029971

In the first half of 2025, Russian military spending was close to $300 billion (purchasing power parity). Usually, there is more military spending in the second half of the year, so Russian military spending of $600 billion PPP in 2025 is realistic. Link to source below.

https://x.com/jakluge/status/1960608341106778506

In the first half of 2025, Russia spent more on its military than in all of 2022, and a little less than in all of 2023.

https://x.com/ChristopherJM/status/1960397830084026471

Andriy Yermak tells me discussions with US and Euro partners revolved around 4 to 5 European brigades “on the ground, provided by [the] coalition of the willing, plus ‘strategic enablers’ from the US”. He said that marked “a big change from the spring”.

Ukraine confirms Russia entered Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, reports advance stopped

Russian forces failed to capture the villages of Zaporizke and Novoheorhiivka in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, but active fighting is ongoing in the region, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on Aug. 26.

The statement comes after the DeepState monitoring group said that the two small settlements lying near the administrative borders between the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were occupied by Russia.

This marked the first time the battlefield monitors reported Russia taking control of settlements in the central-eastern region that Moscow's forces sought to penetrate for the past few months.

"The Ukrainian Defense Forces have stopped the advance of the Russian invaders and continue to control the village of Zaporizke, despite all the efforts of... (Russian forces), who (are) trying to capture this settlement," the General Staff said in a statement on social media.

The Ukrainian special forces unit that crushed Putin’s surprise advance

What Russian soldiers did not know was that Ukrainian forces had discovered the attack before the mission even began. In response, on Aug 12, Ukrainian forces began what Ukraine’s General Staff euphemistically referred to as “active measures”.
Within days of the offensive, Russian soldiers found themselves surrounded by the Azov Corps, one of Ukraine’s elite forces. The incursion, one of the deepest since the shift to attritional warfare, quickly became a costly and deadly failure.
By Aug 14, Ukraine’s military said the situation had been stabilised. According to the Azov Corps, Russian forces were pushed out of six of the villages they had captured.

Ukrainian soldiers in the area believe Russian troops managed to slip through despite this constant surveillance because of a lack of manpower, with Ukrainian forces in the middle of a rotation at the time.

That Azov turned up in Dobropillia at all is noteworthy. The brigade has historically operated near Kharkiv, but its deployment here to eliminate a Russian incursion suggests the new corps structure is giving it greater flexibility.
Ukraine, it appears, is ready to send its most capable soldiers to meet Russian troops head-on, if they breach the first lines of defence.

In April, the regiment was elevated to corps level and became “1st Corps of the National Guard Azov”. Ukraine’s previous structure, a Soviet legacy, left brigades operating independently even on the same front. Transitioning to a corps system allows Azov to expand its ranks, strengthen command and control, and make brigade operations more effective.
It also enables the group “to come in and sweep up the mess”, according to Mr Pinner.
One soldier stationed in the area said it was not the first time Ukraine sent in special forces for such an operation. He cited last month as another example.
“When the DRG [Russian Diversion and Reconnaissance Groups] were running around Pokrovsk, SSO [the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces] was going around at night neutralising them,” he said. “It’s good that Azov stopped them here, it would’ve been really bad if they took Dobropillia, then Pokrovsk would be lost.”
He said that more defensive pushes like this were needed. “Rodynske is the city we really need [back],” he added, referring to the city near Pokrovsk.

Despite these new offensives, Ukrainian soldiers told The Telegraph that such a push was not an immediate cause for concern. One said: “Things are actually cooling down in Pokrovsk.”

Ukraine to allow young men to leave the country

Young men will be allowed to leave Ukraine after the government changed its border crossing rules, modifying a law introduced after Russia’s full-scale invasion that forced adult males under 60 to stay in the country.
The new rules for men aged 18 to 22 will come into force soon, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media on Tuesday, adding that the changes had been “agreed with the military command”.

The ban on men leaving has been a source of tension in Ukraine, with regular cases of males being given exemptions for a temporary stay abroad refusing to re-enter, or families remaining separated for months or years at a time.
Government officials have also become increasingly concerned with the high number of males under 18 being sent abroad by their parents in a bid to circumvent the ban.
“Graduating classes were made up almost entirely of girls — universities were lacking male applicants,” Oleksandr Fedienko, an MP from the president’s ruling Servant of the People party, told the Financial Times. “This kind of decision will help keep these young people in Ukraine, so that they contribute to their own country rather than to others.”

 

[GroveDiesel]

Russia’s new middle class can’t afford for Putin’s war to end

The Russian city of Volgograd was the location of one of the bloodiest fights in world history. The seven-month-long Battle of Stalingrad, as the city was known in 1943, claimed half a million Soviet lives.
More than 80 years later, the Russian version of Facebook is awash with government ads encouraging men in the city to join today’s war effort in Ukraine.
“Men aged 18 to 63, we consider those with diseases – HIV, hepatitis. We accept those on parole and convicts,” reads one such ad on Vkontakte, or VK, as it is known.
Having flat feet, an intellectual disability or being a foreigner also need not be a disqualifier, it adds. In return, big prizes await.
One advert offers 8m rubles (£74,000) for the first year of military service – more than 10 times the region’s average wage of 712,883 rubles (£6,592) last year.
This includes hefty sign-on bonuses, extra payments for those with children and other perks like priority nursery places, discounted mortgages and tax breaks.
The payments are one example of how Russia’s war economy has created a new middle class in the country’s industrial heartlands.

As the war approaches its fourth anniversary, the economy is under strain – but there has been no crisis. If anything, for some Russians life has improved.
The biggest benefactors are impoverished industrial areas that have suffered decades of decline, experiencing a fate similar to once-wealthy parts of the West.
Many towns and smaller cities across Russia that relied on a single industry such as defence or manufacturing never recovered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
“In the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these areas went into decline, and people struggled to find jobs. But the facilities were still there,” says Tatiana Orlova, from Oxford Economics.
A safer world meant the need for ammunition, guns and other types of manufacturing had faded. That was, until Putin brought war to Europe.
“All that changed three years ago when the Russian leadership realised that it could not wrap up the war quickly. So it started moving the economy into a different mode,” says Orlova.
“Suddenly, these mothballed industrial facilities were hiring new workers, and new investment started flowing. These enterprises were competing with other sectors for workers, and they were offering good wages.”
Factories under pressure to churn out goods to support the war – munitions, uniforms and so on – started running three shifts a day.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of working-age men joined the military, and Moscow restricted immigration – creating crippling worker shortages.
The result can be seen in wage data from Russia’s statistics office, Rosstat. Pay has surged in sectors related to the war effort, while other professions typically lucrative in peacetime have suffered.
Wages for workers making “finished metal items” rose by 78pc before accounting for inflation between 2024 and 2021, the fastest of any occupation.
In contrast, healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses and employees in the oil industry have seen the slowest growth, at 40pc and 48pc respectively.

“These people live in underdeveloped regions. They work in once underperforming industries. They don’t have higher education. But now these assets and skills are in demand,” says Ekaterina Kurbangaleeva, a visiting scholar at the George Washington University in Washington DC.
“They are getting higher salaries. Their savings are growing. And they are also getting social respect.”
It is a good time to be a Russian factory worker. But the real money comes if you join the military.
“When a man in the family joins the army on a military contract, first of all he gets his bonus and he starts getting monthly wages. The wages are decent. It’s something like $2,000 a month. All that money started flowing mostly into the Russian regions because people are less keen to sign up for the contractual army in the big cities,” Orlova says.
“I call this deathonomics,” says Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev. He co-founded the Cyprus-based Centre for Analysis and Strategies in Europe in 2023 alongside Dmitry Gudkov, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition in exile.

While the soldiers receive handsome salaries and bonuses, the biggest financial rewards come in death. Families of Russian soldiers killed on the frontline are entitled to payouts of up to 11m rubles – equivalent to around £100,000.
This includes an automatic “presidential” payment of 4.9m rubles, insurance worth 3.3m rubles and a “governor” payout of up to 3m rubles, according to independent Russian economic news outlet The Bell.

The influx of cash into Russia’s poorest regions has helped fuel a spending boom, as impoverished families have suddenly come into money.
“Many soldiers came from the very poor regions. This provoked a huge increase of real disposable incomes in very remote and poor regions in Russia like the Republic of Altai, the Republic of Tuva and some others – mostly North Caucasus and Siberia regions,” says Inozemtsev.
Families in tiny villages and small towns received “enormous” sums of money by local standards, he says. Many bought apartments in big regional cities with better schools and universities for their children, he adds.
The influx of cash has also fuelled redevelopment in some of Russia’s poorest areas.
“It gave rise to development of services in the poor regions where people previously, for example, could not even think of spending money on something like a monthly gym subscription,” says Orlova.
“Suddenly, new gyms and beauty salons started springing up. More cafes and restaurants opened as well. People really started spending on services.”
Visa restrictions and high costs mean foreign holidays are out of reach for most ordinary Russians. Instead, domestic travel has flourished.
“The number of hotel rooms is increasing 15pc-20pc per year. The whole hospitality industry – hotels, restaurants, catering – is growing. So the salaries of waiters, chefs and hotel managers are increasing too,” says Kurbangaleeva.

And so, a new social class is emerging.
Experts like Kurbangaleeva point out that what we refer to as middle class usually reflects three things: income levels, education and social standing.
In other words, becoming middle class isn’t something that happens overnight.
But there are signs of a bigger shift. One of the perks military families are entitled to is that soldiers and their children get priority access to Russia’s competitive public universities.
In families where no one has gone to university, the barriers have been lowered substantially.
“The Russian government imposed a special university admission quota for soldiers and their children. They can apply without contest,” says Kurbangaleeva.
“Before this quota, they had no chance. They don’t get a good education [growing up] or a high enough level of knowledge. So they could not compete with other children who live in big cities or go to better schools. They now face an obstacle-free road to apply to the best universities in the country.”
This year’s quota is 50,000 places across the country. Actual enrolment figures will only be available in September. However, last year nearly 15,000 students made use of the offer, up from 8,000 in 2023.
Kurbangaleeva believes it is the start of a bigger trend. “The social hierarchy is changing right now,” she says.

If the war does end, Russians who have grown accustomed to much higher living standards may pay the price. Surviving soldiers returning from the frontline and their families are likely to quickly slip back into their old lives, believes Inozemtsev.
“These people are not accustomed to accumulate and to save money. They will spend it in a year or two, and return to the type of life they were accustomed to. The service in the army will not change your social behaviour,” he says.
“If 500,000 people will come back to the regions with very low wages and their savings from the service time will be exhausted in months, or in one or two years, it might be a huge social disaster.”

“It’s a big question for the government, for Putin – how to take care of those people after the war is over,” says a Russian economist based in Europe who did not want to be named.
“I wouldn’t be that optimistic about their future. The government will do everything to disseminate those people and not allow them to turn into a powerful group. Cynically, the Russian political class have experience, or at least prior knowledge of how to deal with that.”
Other workers who have benefited from the war are also likely to take a hit once the economy normalises. Blue-collar workers, business people buying up stranded Western assets and state employees working in law enforcement are all likely to lose out in a demobilised economy.
“All these people are not interested in the return to peacetime,” says Kurbangaleeva. “It seems to me that the Russian authorities feel that. These beneficiaries would be more confident if they could sustain the current situation, because when and if the war ends, a lot might change.
“For them, it’s more beneficial to continue.”

I’m sure an economy based on the government paying the families of dead soldiers is sustainable.

 

[beer 30]

War as a profit machine. Nice. What a great leader Putin has been.

That's a bit disingenuous given the amount of armaments the US produces and sells don't you think? Or are you Canadian?

 

[Alex P Keaton]

War as a profit machine. Nice. What a great leader Putin has been.

That's a bit disingenuous given the amount of armaments the US produces and sells don't you think? Or are you Canadian?

See the post immediately above yours

 

[Chadstroma]

I’m sure an economy based on the government paying the families of dead soldiers is sustainable.

Actually an economy based on producing war material, paying for soldiers and paying benefits to the dead based on energy exports. The clock on Russia is ticking. Putin, though, has very little choice. He is playing Trump to gain time hoping for a change in the war to his benefit and that is really all he can do. Any peace that isn't seen as a win for Russia threatens his ability to remain in power. You can make Russians live in poverty, make them wait in long lines for basics like food and gas, you can throw them in jail and have them walk around looking at the gound out of fear, you can kill large numbers of them either directly or as cannon fodder and they, as part of their national identity, can accept that. What they can not accept is their leadership looking weak.

 

[Dezbelief]

Russian drone attacks cause massive power cuts, Ukraine says

More than 100,000 homes are without power after the latest Russian strikes on energy sites, President Zelensky says.

www.bbc.com

More than 100,000 Ukrainian homes have been left without power by the latest Russian drone attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

The Poltava, Sumy and Chernihiv regions were affected, Zelensky stated in a post on Telegram.

Ukraine's energy ministry said it was a continuation of Moscow's policy of destroying civilian infrastructure ahead of winter. Last year, Ukraine said Russia had destroyed half of its electricity-generating capacity.

Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries have some Russian regions running on empty

Gas stations have run dry in some regions of Russia after Ukrainian drones struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks

abcnews.go.com

Gas stations have run dry in some regions of Russia after Ukrainian drones struck refineries and other oil infrastructure in recent weeks, with motorists waiting in long lines and officials resorting to rationing or cutting off sales altogether.

Wholesale prices on the St. Petersburg International Mercantile Exchange for A-95 gas — the highest octane — spiked to record highs last week, soaring to about 50% higher than in January, as demand soared from farmers seeking to bring in the harvest and Russians hitting the roads for their last big vacation of the summer.

Russian media outlets reported fuel shortages are hitting consumers in several regions in the Far East and on the Crimean Peninsula, which was illegally annexed from Ukraine by Moscow in 2014.

Media outlets in the Primorye region, which borders North Korea, reported long lines and prices of about 78 rubles per liter (approximately $3.58 per gallon) at gas stations in the area, where the average monthly wage is about $1,200. Journalists at local news outlet Primpress found other drivers trying to sell gas online for as much as 220 rubles per liter (about $10.12 per gallon).

 

[Don't Toews Me]

https://x.com/Tatarigami_UA/status/1960715102073589941

So far, Ukraine’s stabilization measures around Pokrovsk look broadly promising. While many speculated that Kyiv might strike elsewhere, Ukrainian forces have instead pushed back Russian troops in an area where Moscow’s leadership had placed its biggest bet. Thread:
2/ With only days left before the fall season, the chances of Russia taking Pokrovsk by summer’s end are virtually nil. Amid the so-called “peace talks,” the lack of progress risks undermining Russia’s resolve to fight for “years”, as they like to boast
3/ That does not mean Russia will stop advancing. But if the political goal remains the takeover of Donbas, achieving it by the end of this year appears impossible.
4/ For Ukraine, the main objective now is to avoid a catastrophic breakthrough or an operational-level collapse at Russian hands, something akin to the rout Russia itself suffered in Kharkiv in 2022.
5/ For Russia, by contrast, the challenge is to prove its tactics viable and to show that “just a little more pressure” will cause Ukrainian defenses in Donbas to crumble. For now, however, Pokrovsk and Chasiv Yar remain a difficult objective despite maximum efforts.

Putin rejects European peacekeepers in Ukraine, contradicting Trump

Russia on Wednesday rejected the idea of European peacekeeping troops serving in Ukraine, contradicting claims earlier this year by U.S. President Donald Trump that Vladimir Putin would accept such a force as part of a peace deal.

At a press conference, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow had a “negative attitude” toward discussions on sending European military personnel as peacekeepers, noting that the expansion of the NATO alliance over the past quarter century had been “one of the root causes” of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Ukraine shows off a deadly new cruise missile

The production process appears to be at least partially carried out abroad, but “over 90%”, the company says, of final assembly is in secret sites dispersed throughout Ukraine. The body is made of fibreglass, making it harder to spot than metal would be. The engine appears to be an AI-25 turbofan produced by the Motor Sich design bureau in Zaporizhia province, a frequent target of Russian attacks and so a potential bottleneck. Production, now at one missile a day, is promised to climb to seven a day by October.
Developed so fast, and meeting Ukraine’s defence needs almost exactly, the missile seems too good to be true. Some competitors wonder if it is just that. Rumours persist over alleged proximity to the presidential office, non-competitive financing, and whether the missile is even Ukrainian. The company denies all of it. The price tag of “under €1m” per missile, competitive in the world of cruise missiles, is still a big outlay for Ukraine, given the volumes that will be needed and doubts about the Flamingo’s real performance. The missile is bulky and climbs steeply at launch, making it more visible to enemy radar, so the assumption is that a large percentage of them will be spotted and intercepted. “At full range, a Russian fighter jet has enough time to be taking smoking breaks,” quips a competitor.

Yet Kostiantyn Kryvolap, an aviation expert, is confident that the missile will be able to exploit gaps in Russia’s weakening air defences. “Ukraine is renowned for its creative, combined attacks to overwhelm defences, and these will probably be exactly that. In time, Russia will suffer heavier destruction.” Already, slower Ukrainian drones, more vulnerable to jamming and defence measures, have taken at least 13% of Russia’s oil-refining capacity offline.
The ultimate test will be on the battlefield. Fire Point admits that its missile has yet to be widely deployed, but insists that the enemy will be shocked when it is. Russian military bloggers, at any rate, reined in their usual swagger when discussing the new threat. One advised creating a round-the-clock air-monitoring mission using Russia’s newest and most capable fighter jets. Others have begun to co-ordinate frantic searches to find the missiles and their makers inside Ukraine.

Why Ukraine Is Allowing More Young Men to Leave the Country

It’s unclear how the change will affect conscription.
Many parents have been sending children abroad before they turn 18 because of concerns that the war could go on for years or the government could again lower the draft age. Often, boys skip their high school prom to depart in time.
Allowing young men to leave before they turn 23 rather than 18 seems to run against American pressure on Ukraine to funnel younger men into the military. Many experts cite the Ukrainian Army’s lack of manpower as the country’s greatest challenge in the war against Russia, which has a much bigger population.
“It’s hard for me to explain this from the perspective of waging a war of attrition,” said Mykhailo Samus, the director of the independent New Geopolitics Research Network in Kyiv. “Basically, this is the reduction in the size of the mobilization reserve.”
But other Ukrainian experts and officials said they did not believe the rule change would lead to an exodus of young men and might instead deepen their ties to Ukraine. Under the new rules, they note, young men are still prohibited from leaving the country for two years before becoming eligible for the draft. They argue the change could keep some young men in the country longer as contributing members of society and could offer experiences abroad for others who will someday return to aid Ukraine.
“The goal of this step is, first and foremost, to provide young Ukrainians with broader opportunities for education, internships and legal employment abroad, so that the experience they gain can later be used for the development of Ukraine,” Ihor Klymenko, the minister of internal affairs, wrote on Telegram.

The change is politically popular in Ukraine, especially among families with boys.
Ukrainians who evacuated early in the war as refugees with sons who turned 18 while abroad have not been able to send them home for a visit unless the young men were prepared to remain permanently in Ukraine. Often that meant they have been deprived of opportunities to see their fathers in Ukraine.
Once the new regulations take effect, that will change. The move also relieves pressure on families still living in Ukraine with male children.
Oksana, 45, who has a 16-year-old son and two 18-year-old nephews, said her family did not plan to take them out of the country. Still, she said she was very happy about the rule change “for all of us mothers.”
“Psychologically, it is nice to know that our sons will still be able to have a rest abroad without war threats and at least see the sea and have a safe swim, to spend at least a few weeks without bombs,” said Oksana, who asked that her full name not be used to avoid judgment in society.

Germany: Rheinmetall opens new artillery ammunition factory

The Rheinmetall arms manufacturer opened a new factory at its existing site in Unterlüss in northern Germany on Wednesday, boasting that once it reaches capacity it could become Europe's biggest munitions production factility.

CEO Armin Papperberger said that the production of 155 mm caliber artillery shells would be progressively ramped up, to reach 350,000 units per year by 2027. These artillery shells are in particular demand and short supply in Ukraine, and Europe and NATO members have been scrambling to replenish their stockpiles and increase production capacity.

 

[Chadstroma]

France to announce the doubling of Mirage 2000-5F fighter jets to be delivered to Ukraine https://armyrecognition.com/news/ae...00-5f-fighter-jets-to-be-delivered-to-ukraine

 

[Chadstroma]

Expert: Jamming dominates, but drones adapt – Defence Blog https://share.google/dq8y6n5CU2SOYpm18

 

[Chadstroma]

Trump Raises Tariffs on India to 50% Over Russian Oil - The New York Times https://share.google/ts4TliiaxPjgqkWeJ

 

[Dezbelief]

Ukraine Hits Russia’s Baltimore Airbase: S-300 Knocked Out, Su-24 Bombers Possibly Destroyed

A Ukrainian strike on a Russian airbase reportedly disabled an S-300 division and destroyed two Su-24 bombers, according to satellite imagery analysis.

united24media.com

A recent Ukrainian strike on the Baltimore airbase in Russia’s Voronezh region appears to have knocked out an S-300 air defense division and possibly destroyed two Su-24 bombers, according to open-source intelligence group CyberBoroshno, which analyzed fresh satellite imagery released on August 27.

The attack occurred overnight on August 16-17, 2025, targeting the base of Russia’s 47th Guards Bomber Aviation Regiment and the 108th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment tasked with protecting it.

Satellite images show clear signs of damage to the positions of a 76N6 radar station and a 30N6 targeting radar. CyberBoroshno analysts note that the destruction of these two components effectively disables the entire S-300 division deployed at the site.

Two Su-24 aircraft that had been parked at the airfield for at least a month disappeared after the strike, also disappeared after the strike. In their place, burn marks consistent with a fire were visible on satellite images.

The Su-24M bomber is largely obsolete within Russia’s Aerospace Forces, having been replaced over the past decade by newer Su-34s. Today, the Su-24 is mostly operated by Russia’s naval aviation.

Analysts therefore suggest the destroyed aircraft may have been outdated airframes—or potentially specialized Su-24MR reconnaissance variants redeployed to the airbase. These aircraft are used for radar and electronic surveillance along Ukraine’s borders.

CyberBoroshno researchers also identified a 2019 Russian TV report that showcased the same S-300 unit being upgraded to the PM2 standard. Satellite imagery matched the exact radar positions featured in the broadcast.

The destroyed 76N6 radar was responsible for detecting targets at medium and high altitudes, while the 30N6 radar provided illumination and guidance for missile interceptions.

Earlier, Ukraine’s National Guard destroyed a Russian S-300V air defense launcher in the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region.

Drone Strike in Crimea Destroys Russia’s $60M Kasta-2E2 Radar System

A $60 million Russian Kasta-2E2 long-range radar system was reportedly destroyed in Crimea, marking a critical loss for Russia's air defenses.

united24media.com

A rare Russian long-range radar system worth an estimated $60 million was destroyed earlier this month in occupied Crimea, according to monitoring group Crimean Wind on August 19.

The strike, which occurred between August 6 and 11 near the village of Khutir outside Yevpatoria in the Saky district, appears to have targeted a “Kasta-2E2” radar station, sources told the outlet.

“An attack on a former air defense position in the area of Khutir near Yevpatoria took place between August 6 and 11. As a result of the strike, most likely by drones, the expensive Kasta-2E2 radar was hit. Several indicators point to this,” Crimean Wind reported.

The monitoring group noted that the radar had remained in place at the site until the strike, after which a fire was recorded nearby.

Satellite images then showed a camouflaged object of identical size and shape as the radar, but sources said the system itself stopped transmitting after the attack.

Why the Kasta-2E2 matters
The Kasta-2E2 radar is designed for use by Russian air defense divisions, typically deployed at command posts to support Tor surface-to-air missile regiments. Its primary mission is to detect aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, and drones.

The system can monitor airspace up to 150 kilometers away and as high as 6 kilometers. It can simultaneously track up to 50 targets. Depending on the antenna height, its detection range varies from 30 to 44 kilometers.

The cost of a Kasta-2E2 is reported to start at $60 million, making its destruction a significant loss for Russia’s air defense capabilities.

Russia’s use of the radar
Russia has positioned Kasta-2E2 systems close to the Ukrainian border since before the full-scale invasion. On February 15, 2022—just days before launching the war—Moscow deployed one of the radars about 11 kilometers from the Kharkiv region to monitor Ukrainian airspace.

Ukraine has successfully targeted these radars multiple times. On August 14, counterintelligence officers from Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), working with the military, located and guided artillery fire onto another system in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Earlier, Ukraine’s Armed Forces successfully targeted and disabled a Russian Kasta radar station worth $60 million with a high-precision strike.

The radar system was spotted by aerial reconnaissance teams from Ukraine’s 43rd Artillery Brigade on the front lines. After confirming its location, coordinates were relayed to senior command, which authorized the strike.

Based on the footage, the strike was likely carried out using US-supplied HIMARS with precision-guided munitions.

Ukrainian Special Forces Destroy Russian State-of-the-Art Radar Station “Kasta-2E2”

united24media.com

2024
Ukrainian Special Forces Destroy Russian State-of-the-Art Radar Station “Kasta-2E2”
Jun 03, 2024 18:30
The Special Operations Forces (SSO) of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed the Russian radar station “Kasta-2E2”, as reported by the Command of Special Operations.

The SSO operators discovered the location of the Russian mobile radar station “Kasta-2E2” during aerial reconnaissance in one of the operational directions.

This radar model is considered one of the latest weapons designed to control airspace, determine coordinates, and recognize air targets, including those flying at extremely low altitudes.

For the first time, the “Kasta” radar was detected on the territory of Ukraine in 2021 in the occupied Luhansk region. Back then the Russians brought the equipment to counter combat UAVs.

The Ukrainian operators inflicted fire damage on the Russian radar station using one of the latest developments that entered service within the SSO, but didn’t specify the weapon type.

Russia Now Burning Record $516 Million a Day on War—$94B in First Half of 2025

Russia's military spending soared to $94 billion in H1 2025, marking a 31% jump from last year and trebling since the start of the war in Ukraine.

united24media.com

What Are the New US ERAM Missiles Ukraine Just Got That Threaten Every Russian Base 400 Km Away

With thousands of American long-range ERAM missiles on the way, Ukraine may soon strike depots, supply hubs, and the vital arteries of Russi…

united24media.com

With thousands of American long-range ERAM missiles on the way, Ukraine may soon strike depots, supply hubs, and the vital arteries of Russia’s war machine.

In recent months, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have intensified strikes on railways—the Russian military’s primary transport lifeline. A large supply of missiles could paralyze this channel for moving cargo and weapons to the front.

US President Donald Trump has approved the sale of 3,350 ERAMs—Extended Range Active Missiles—to Ukraine. This new weapon, originally slated for development in 2024, was designed to rival Russia’s KAB guided aerial bombs but with greater range and significantly lower cost. The final unit price per missile is not yet known, as they are part of an $850 million aid package that also includes other weapons.

What is ERAM?
ERAM is essentially a hybrid between a cruise missile and a bomb. It has a strike range of 240 to over 400 kilometers (150-250 miles). Ukraine has only a limited number of comparable long-range strike systems, notably the Storm Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles and domestically produced drone missiles. The delivery of a large batch of additional missiles will further strengthen Ukraine’s defensive capabilities.

To reach distances of up to 400 kilometers, ERAM is equipped with an engine with a flight speed exceeding 700 km/h. Known technical specifications include:

Approximate range: 463 km (288 miles)

Flight speed: at least 763 km/h (475 mph)

Accuracy: within 10 meters (33 feet)

Weight: around 227 kg (500 pounds)

The weapon was designed as simply as possible to ensure it can be launched from Ukraine’s existing platforms—specifically, aircraft. It can also be equipped with additional systems, including the Quicksink guidance head.

The ERAM project was conceived in 2024 as a response to the war in Ukraine. US defense planners tasked manufacturers with producing a weapon capable of striking deep behind enemy lines, while keeping costs low and production timelines fast.

The US goal is to achieve a production rate of up to 1,000 units per year. The number of missiles Ukraine will receive in the first delivery remains unknown.

What are the targets?
With a range of 400 kilometers, ERAM dramatically expands the list of potential military targets for Ukrainian aviation, both inside Ukraine and on Russian territory. Within reach are all occupied territories and Crimea, allowing Ukraine to strike Russian military personnel concentrations, depots, railway infrastructure, supply routes, as well as air defenses and radar systems. Airfields and Shahed drone launch sites would also be vulnerable.

If Ukraine is granted permission to strike military targets inside Russia, those would include airfields, rail infrastructure, and large ammunition depots.

Most crucially, quantity matters. With a large supply of ERAMs, Ukrainian aircraft could launch massed strikes, overwhelming Russian air defenses. The result: slowing offensives and inflicting greater losses on Russia’s forces.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

Old-School Artillery Still Has a Place in the Drone Age

In the winter, a Ukrainian commander saw 12 Russian soldiers moving across a field, leaving him with a choice of how to respond: drones or artillery?

He chose artillery, which wiped out the soldiers within minutes, said the battery commander who took the order.

Drones are pushing tanks, armored carriers and sometimes even soldiers from the Ukrainian front line. But artillery, the historic battlefield staple, is digging in.

Howitzers continue to play a major role in Ukraine and the U.S. and its allies are turning to Kyiv for advice as they contemplate their next generation of big guns and how to use them.

“For 12 soldiers, you may have needed 12 drones, and would need time to get them over there,” said the battery commander, who goes by the call sign Bobcat. He fired five shells, which arrived in minutes and obliterated the area.

But Ukrainian artillerists say they aren’t using howitzers any less because of drones. They are telling the U.S. and other allies that big guns retain some key advantages, not least greater firepower. Simplicity also matters, because complex modern software and electronics are sometimes unreliable, they say. Still, gunners must find ways to avoid being targeted by drones, such as using concealment and decoys.

Gen. James Rainey, who heads the U.S. Army Futures Command, says the army continually studies Ukraine and while drones are a major disruption for howitzers, the big guns still have their advantages.

“If you’re trying to cross a river and you have a dug in enemy, and there’s no civilians, you don’t want to be flying UAVs and picking people off one at a time,” said Rainey, whose command looks at ways to equip and transform the Army. You want artillery “to set the far side of that river on fire,” he said.

Ukraine is using drones more than its artillery in large part because it has more of them than it does howitzers and their shells, rather than one being more effective than the other, military officials and analysts said.

On a recent visit, the battlefield in the Sumy region was almost entirely devoid of armored vehicles, while roads heading to the front line were draped in nets to stop drone attacks.

Drone pilots themselves recognize the advantages of artillery.

“Drones can be jammed, shot down, or affected by weather conditions,” said Junior Sgt. Ivan Korniyenko, a UAV operator in the 93rd Separate Mechanized Brigade.

An artillery shell tends to be cheaper. Earlier this summer, a 155mm standard shell sold for around $3,200, according to one ammunition manufacturer. A Ukrainian brigade recently said it was buying two types of domestically made drones with batteries for around $16,000 and $10,000 each. Chinese made Mavic drones can cost around $1,000, but their range and ability to carry heavy payloads are lower.

At a warehouse in the Sumy region, a mechanic attached to Bobcat’s 43rd Brigade said that at least one part or function of their Panzerhaubitzes will regularly break or fail. “Every day,” he said.

Towed pieces, such as the M777 and the smaller British L118, are simple to use and repair, artillerists said. The same applies for the aging versions of the self-propelled M109, another Ukrainian favorite.

Towed artillery is also easier to hide among trees and camouflage. Artillerists use wooden and inflatable decoys to direct fire away from the real gun. Troops often move their howitzer during twilight hours, when drone operators can’t see well and night vision isn’t as effective.

Rainey, of the U.S. Army, said that self-propelled artillery would still have an advantage in a war of rapid advances, as opposed to the mostly static front lines in Ukraine.

“Drones are really accurate and bring the shot right to the target, but artillery will cover the whole area,” said Vasyl, a drone pilot who finds and pinpoints targets for the 43rd Brigade’s artillery.

“Artillery was, is and will be the god of war,” he said.

Russian Terror In Kherson Continues, the World’s First Drone Siege

Russia’s barbarity in Ukraine continues to reach new levels, with the Southern city of Kherson now enduring what experts call the world’s first documented “drone siege.”

Russian forces are deploying swarms of FPV and AI-guided drones to terrorize civilians and strike the city’s only secure supply route — the M-14 Kherson–Mykolaiv highway. On August 26, 2025, Ukrainian authorities announced that the highway would be temporarily closed, citing relentless drone attacks that have made travel perilous and resupply increasingly difficult.

The same day, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Volodymyr Saldo, Russia’s appointed head of the Kherson occupation administration, in the Kremlin. The meeting was broadcasted over all major Russian publications.

A major part of the discussion focused on the importance of road infrastructure in the Kherson region, with a mention of the “road to Kherson.” While the drone siege was not mentioned, the conversation reflected Moscow’s plan to establish the control over transport routes to project political and military authority. TASS, Russia’s main information agency, ran a headline, Saldo: Repairs of the Road to Kherson Have Begun on the Left Bank of the Dnipro[River].

In an unprecedented move, Russian forces in Kherson are deploying drones not only for hunting civilians—a tactic known as “human safari”—but also to establish an aerial blockade, disrupting traffic, evacuation, supply deliveries, and basic urban functioning. Operating 30–80 drones daily, including fast first-person-view (FPV) models, Russian forces strike civilian vehicles, infrastructure, and supply routes with explosives, incendiary devices, and anti-personnel mines.

These low-cost, high-frequency attacks create both physical hazards and psychological pressure, setting roadside fields ablaze and degrading mobility along the highway, effectively isolating the city without relying on conventional heavy weapons.

The drone siege is designed to compromise Kherson’s supply chain. Fuel, medical supplies, and essential goods face delayed delivery or cancellation. Traffic control measures, including temporary road closures and police oversight, mitigate immediate risk but cannot fully counter persistent drone threats.

This development marks a new phase in modern warfare: small, commercially available drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles replace traditional artillery and infantry in encircling civilian areas.

EU Considers Secondary Sanctions to Hit Russia’s War Effort

The European Union is mulling introducing secondary sanctions in an effort to prevent third countries from helping Russia circumvent the bloc’s existing punitive measures against Moscow, according to people familiar with the matter.
The EU is working on a 19th package of sanctions that’s for now mainly expected to focus on Russian kidnappers of Ukrainian children, an issue that’s resonated with US President Donald Trump when he last met European leaders in the White House to discuss the war.
EU foreign ministers will meet in Copenhagen later this week and are expected to have a discussion on a range of options, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
A spokesperson for the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, declined to comment.
The ministers are expected to discuss the use of the so-called anti-circumvention tool that was adopted in 2023 but that hasn’t been used yet. This tool can prohibit the export, supply or transfer of certain goods to third countries that are considered to aid sanctions circumvention.
The ministers are also considering further sanctions that target Russia’s oil and gas and financial sectors, as well as further restrictions of import and export of Russian goods, said the people. These discussions will be held in an informal format and won’t specifically be focused on the new sanctions package.

 

[Dezbelief]

Ukraine strikes 2 Russian refineries, other targets in overnight attack, military says

Ukrainian forces hit the Kuibyshev refinery in Russia's Samara Oblast and the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai overnight on Aug. 28, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported.

kyivindependent.com

Ukrainian forces hit the Kuibyshev refinery in Russia's Samara Oblast and the Afipsky refinery in Krasnodar Krai overnight on Aug. 28, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported.

The statement comes as confirmation of a mass drone attack that struck the two oil refineries and other facilities across Russia, as previously reported by local media.

The Kuibyshev facility, lying some 800 kilometers (500 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border, has a production capacity of 7 million metric tons of oil per year, producing gasoline, diesel fuel, and other products, the General Staff said.

The Russian Telegram news channel Astra posted photos and video footage of a large-scale fire at the Kuibyshev refinery.

Samara Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Fedorishchev confirmed an attack against the region's infrastructure, saying that the strike was repelled and the subsequent fire was promptly extinguished.

Russia's Defense Ministry claimed its forces downed 102 Ukrainian drones across different regions overnight on Aug. 28, including 21 over Samara Oblast and 18 over Krasnodar Krai.

In Krasnodar Krai, residents reported six to eight powerful explosions, the Shot Telegram news channel wrote, reporting a fire at the Afipsky oil refinery. Krasnodar Krai authorities later confirmed the attack.

The facility lies in southwestern Russia in a region bordering Russian-occupied Crimea, and is located some 370 kilometers (230 miles) from the front line in Ukraine.

"This refinery, which mainly produces gasoline and diesel fuel, is used to supply the Russian army," Ukraine's General Staff said. "Its annual processing capacity is 6.25 million tons of oil. A large-scale fire was reported at the facility."

Further attacks targeted ammunition depots and several logistical facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian military.

A "massive drone attack" hit transport and logistical facilities in Volgograd Oblast, Governor Andrey Bocharov said. Fallen drone debris started a fire at a locomotive depot in the city of Petrov Val, he claimed.

The attacks were carried out jointly by the Unmanned Systems Forces, the Special Operations Forces, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), military intelligence (HUR), and other branches.

"Detailed information about the consequences of the strikes is being clarified," the General Staff said in a statement.

The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.

 

[fatness]

UK summons Russian ambassador after overnight attacks on Kyiv

UK foreign secretary David Lammy has now confirmed that the British government has summoned the Russian ambassador to the UK Foreign Office. In a brief post on X, he said:

“Putin’s strikes last night killed civilians, destroyed homes and damaged buildings, including the British Council and EU Delegation in Kyiv. We have summoned the Russian Ambassador. The killing and destruction must stop.”

 

[fatness]

18 dead, 48 injured after Kyiv strikes as Meloni criticises 'senseless' Russian attacks

The latest death toll update from the Ukrainian authorities said that at least 18 people died, and 48 were injured after last night’s strike, Associated Press reported. Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni was the latest European leader to respond to the attacks, saying that they “demonstrate who stands on the side of peace and who has no intention of believing in the negotiating path.”

“Our thoughts go to the Ukrainian people, to civilians, to the families of defenceless victims, including children, of the senseless Russian attacks,” she said.

 

[fatness]

Germany's Rheinmetall opens new ammunition factory, largest in Europe when running at capacity

With growing discussions about Europe’s defence capabilities, weapons manufacturing giant Rheinmetall has opened a new ammunition factory in the north of Germany yesterday, which will be the largest in Europe when it reaches full capacity. Inaugurating the plant in the presence of Nato’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, as well as Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius and vice-chancellor Lars Klingbeil, Rheinmetall CEO Armin Papperger said similar sites could be built at speed to create a “pan-European defence ecosystem”.

Papperger said countries like Lithuania and Britain were already developing such factories and that it was in Europe’s interest for Romania, Latvia and Ukraine to be “put in the position to produce urgently needed protective and defence equipment” at home.

 

[fatness]

‘It’s like a funeral’ — As US mimics peace talks, Russian missile strike on Kyiv kills at least 18

Living near the Kyiv Radio Plant and a railway station, 22-year-old Andrii Lyutiy knew that a Russian missile attack on his apartment building on the edge of the capital was inevitable. With Russia targeting both military and non-military facilities in the city on a regular basis, Lyutiy tries to go down to the shelter with his mother every time Russia launches ballistic missiles at Kyiv. "We know that if it's ballistic (missiles), there is a good chance that they could fly directly at us," Lyutiy told the Kyiv Independent on Aug. 28, just hours after his apartment building was struck by Russia's latest attack on Kyiv.

In the early hours of Aug. 28, Russia unleashed a large-scale missile and drone strike on Kyiv and other cities far from the front line. Local authorities reported that at least 18 people were killed in the capital, most of them in Lyutiy's five-story apartment building, in the industrial but cozy Darnytskyi district. Among the killed were three kids, aged two, 14, and 17, according to the Interior Ministry. As of 11 a.m. local time, 10 people were still missing — likely under the rubble, waiting to be excavated. Dozens were wounded.

The Russian early morning missile strike on Kyiv occurred about two weeks after Russian President Vladimir Putin met his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, who has been making an increasing number of contradictory moves in an attempt to end the war in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky met Trump a few days later at the White House, expressing readiness to hold a bilateral meeting with Putin and potentially a trilateral meeting involving the U.S. president. Russia's most recent missile attack has once again raised questions about Moscow's readiness for actual peace talks. The attack on Kyiv damaged the headquarters of the EU mission to Ukraine, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen saying that two missiles hit within 50 meters.

 

[Ministry of Pain]

Russia/Putin bombs the EU and UK Headquarters in Kyiv overnight?
Not really a question, more like disbelief and smh

 

[Don't Toews Me]

Putin and Zelenskiy Aren’t Going to Meet, German Chancellor Says

“Apparently a meeting between Zelenskiy and Putin won’t happen, unlike what has been agreed between President Trump and Putin,” Merz told reporters Thursday near Toulon, France.

'You need a lot of nerve to live here': Inside Donetsk, the final stronghold of Ukraine's defense

"Any soldier understands that the Russians are using tactical cunning. Since they couldn't take these territories by force, they are trying diplomacy. If they succeed, it will be very serious. But I strongly doubt our leaders will accept, because they know the real goal isn't the Donbas, it's much more," explained Vlad, a soldier in the 54th Mechanized Brigade, in Sloviansk. "That's why Putin wants to take back the Donbas through diplomacy," he added. "Behind us, there are only small villages, and it takes a lot of time and effort to dig fortifications there. If we lose the Donbas, the Russians will advance very quickly into the country."
These fortifications, combined with technological advances, explain why the Russian army has struggled to make progress. Advances are made in small leaps, on increasingly dangerous stretches of the front line, as the war drags on and drones crowd the skies. "Our current positions form a durable, consolidated line of defense," said Vlad. "Whatever the Russians try to deploy, there's what we call a 'kill zone' of 10 to 15 kilometers, completely monitored by reconnaissance [devices] on both sides, and therefore very difficult to penetrate."
"Every square meter of the front line is transparent, you can see absolutely everything," confirmed Oleksandr, a captain in the 36th Naval Brigade whose nom de guerre is "Easy." "You have to see how many soldiers the Russians have used to get to where they are today to understand how hard it would be for them to take the area militarily."

While Putin talks peace, his bombs still pound Ukraine

“We talk about the news, and thoughts of war’s end,” admitted Malik, 42, a newly mobilised soldier with 1st Battalion, 71st Jaeger Brigade. The former property developer was wounded in the hip by shrapnel from a Russian drone 20 days after being sent to hold a defensive position in the Oleksiivka sector with seven other soldiers.
“With so many of our comrades dead and wounded its natural for us to want an end to war,” he said. “But the words of world leaders far away mean little to our reality. We wake at dawn and concentrate on our task to hold our position.”
Far from the pageantry of leaders’ summits, the soldiers of the 71st Brigade fight and die in a world of charred, shredded trees and reeking soil.
The Russians are close at hand around Oleksiivka, only 250 metres away across no man’s land, and the bodies from their assaults go uncollected. The air is heavy with the stench and thick with flies. Unable to move from their rudimentary trench, the Ukrainian soldiers defecate in plastic bags and throw the bags over the sides. Rats abound.
“We live side by side with the rats, but they are more used to us than we are to them,” said another soldier from the 71st Brigade, codenamed Kors, who was 39 and mobilised in May. “At night they strain our nerves as we can’t always tell if the rustling around us is caused by the rats, or the Russians.”
Sometimes at night the enemies shout across no man’s land at one another. Once a soldier from the 71st Brigade described how a lost Russian radio operator had approached the Ukrainian trench thinking the men inside were his own unit. They killed him.
On another occasion a hidden Russian crawled close and asked to surrender. “So we shot at his voice,” a Ukrainian soldier said.

“We know when we move in at night that we will be in position for at least two weeks, but that we should be prepared in our minds for weeks or months,” said Musician, 53, another soldier from the 71st Brigade. Ten days earlier he had completed a 53-day stretch in a frontline outpost with Marik.
“Everyone has their own coping mechanism. I try to treat it just like a job, and tell myself that part of the job involves shooting fast and first so that I don’t lose the chance to shoot again,” he added.
“I remind myself that if I don’t do my job someone I care for may get hurt. At the end of the day everyone has to work out how to deal with life on the front themselves.”
Lieutenant Molfar, the officer in charge of psychological support for the 71st Brigade, said: “When they arrive, I remind the newest batches of mobilised men of the techniques of psychological survival in the German concentration camps in the Second World War.
“Those with too much hope, or who thought too much of the future, burnt out first and were finished. Those who concentrated only on the day ahead survived much longer. I tell my men the same. They should focus on what they can do between the rising of each sun. None know their destiny. There is no point worrying about it.”
Separated from easy resupply or evacuation by vehicles, the soldiers receive their key supplies — water, ammunition, cigarettes — by medium-range Vampire drones, which fly to their trench by night.
They described thirst and a constant shortage of water as one of the worst aspects of life on the zero point during the summer.
“You can suppress hunger but thirst is much harder to deal with,” Kors said. “Sometimes a drone drops the water from too high and the bottles all rupture except maybe one, so the men gather around it and share a single bottle.”
After three and a half years of war, the 71st Brigade has less than 15 per cent of its original soldiers from 2022 left in the field. The majority of the rest have been killed or wounded. Veteran commanders described how many of the new draft of mobilised men, lacking the fighting spirit of the original old guard of volunteers, nevertheless learnt fast through a form of brutal natural selection.
“Generally, once the new ones have been through one ****ed-up situation they learn quickly to adapt and do what their commanders tell them,” said a lieutenant with the 71st Brigade, codenamed Povar. He spoke while taking a break midway through commanding a battle to retake a wood line, and one of his men had just been killed.

https://x.com/Archer83Able/status/1961037244434616472

The Ukrainian Navy confirmed the fact of a Russian strike with an unmanned surface vessel (USV) on the Lahuna-class reconnaissance ship "Simferopol" in the Danube delta last night.

This is the first known successful Russian USV attack on a Ukrainian warship since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

https://x.com/konrad_muzyka/status/1961165128356778049

Four of the 13 refineries struck in August are among Russia’s most important diesel producers. The immediate effect on diesel output is limited, but if Ukraine sustains its campaign—particularly against refineries specialising in diesel and vacuum gasoil—the balance will shift.

Current disruptions amount to around 17% of refining capacity, which Russia can still absorb without undermining the diesel surplus. But if outages rise towards 30%, diesel availability will tighten sharply. Seasonal demand surges—from agriculture in the autumn and heating in the winter—would magnify this pressure, with the domestic market eventually outpacing production capacity and eroding the surplus.

https://x.com/konrad_muzyka/status/1961043590534005242

The big question is whether Ukraine can sustain this strike tempo into the autumn and winter. The strategic aim would be to prevent Russia from repairing damaged facilities and force cumulative degradation of its refining and storage network. In March, Ukraine carried out eight strikes against critical infrastructure inside Russia, but activity then slowed until August. This month alone, however, has already seen around 15 strikes, suggesting a renewed emphasis on deep interdiction. If sustained, this pattern could significantly complicate Moscow’s ability to stabilise domestic fuel supplies. At the same time, Russia will almost certainly respond with strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure as the weather turns colder, raising the prospect of another high-intensity campaign targeting energy and civilian resilience.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

https://x.com/RALee85/status/1961015714698903783

"Russia or its proxies are flying surveillance drones over routes that the United States and its allies use to ferry military supplies through eastern Germany, collecting intelligence that could be used to bolster the Kremlin’s sabotage campaign and assist its troops in Ukraine, according to U.S. and other Western officials.

U.S. and German officials have been discussing Russian sabotage efforts, including information that led to the arrest in May of three Ukrainian men accused in a Russia-linked plot, the officials said."

https://x.com/RALee85/status/1961337891973443713

"Dozens of soldiers in Russia’s elite 83rd Guards Air Assault Brigade arranged for colleagues to shoot them in a scheme to defraud the state of about $2.5 million in compensation for fake battlefield injuries, according to a report from the Kommersant newspaper. Investigators, who have now completed their probe, say servicemen would inflict non-lethal gunshot wounds on one another to qualify for payments of up to 3 million rubles (about $37,000) each. The alleged ringleaders, Colonel Artem Gorodilov and Lieutenant Colonel Konstantin Frolov (call sign “Palach”, or “Executioner”), have reportedly confessed and implicated others."

https://x.com/delfoo/status/1961181705706045944

I have to disagree with this. Diesel production in Russia is usually above 1,7 million tons per week. In the summer it rarely drops to below 1,6 million tons. As a whole Russian consumes domestically on average only 45% of the diesel it produces.

September's peak weekly diesel consumption is bellow 1,35 million tons last I checked. At the same time the production for September as whole last time it was released was 6,8 million tons. 30% of diesel refining down and they're still outpacing demand.
They also have millions of tons in storage when it comes to diesel. You'd have to cripple more than half of refining to see a shortage start forming, and not take out storage tanks at refineries, permanently damage refining .

Exclusive: Maker of Ukraine's new Flamingo cruise missile facing corruption probe

Ukraine's anti-corruption agency has been investigating the country's star deep-strike drone company — Fire Point — over concerns it misled the government on pricing and deliveries, five sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Kyiv Independent.

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau, or NABU, is also looking into the co-owner of President Volodymyr Zelensky's former film studio as the alleged ultimate beneficiary of the company, sources said.

Until recently, the weapons maker was virtually unknown outside of Ukraine's defense circles, despite appearing to be one of the largest — if not the largest — recipient of Defense Ministry drone budget funds, according to documents obtained by the Kyiv Independent.

But over the past weeks, Fire Point has gone on a charm offensive, promoting its FP-1 deep-strike drones and "Flamingo" cruise missile in Western media. In his first public comments about the weapon, Zelensky last week called the Flamingo Ukraine's "most successful" missile the country has in its arsenal to defend against Russia's nearly four-year full-scale invasion. Ukraine has prioritized developing long-range strike drones and cruise missiles to hit Russian targets far behind the front lines and slow Moscow's war machine.

As part of the investigation, NABU is probing concerns that Fire Point inflated either the value of its components or the number of drones it delivers to the military, or both, according to the sources, who include current and former government officials and industry representatives, all of whom agreed to speak on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation and company details.

 

[Dezbelief]

Ukraine says it hit a Russian missile ship with flying explosive-packed drones

The strikes marked the latest Ukrainian attack on Russia's embattled navy, which has suffered heavy losses in the Black Sea.

www.businessinsider.com

Ukraine's military intelligence agency, the HUR, said in a statement that it targeted a Buyan-M-class (or Project 21631) corvette operating in the Sea of Azov, a body of water that separates Russia from occupied Ukraine.

Rather than engage the Russian vessel with exploding naval drones, the HUR said that it used an aerial drone to strike and damage the ship's radar station while another drone attacked the side of the corvette. This kind of ship is a relatively small vessel that can launch powerful Kalibr cruise missiles.

Ukraine shared footage of the attack online. The video showed two separate strikes on the corvette. It wasn't immediately clear what types of drones were used. It said that the targeted enemy ship was operating in a potential missile launch zone but was forced to leave the area.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Trump administration approves sale of 3,350 extended range missiles to Ukraine

 

[fatness]

This is from a long article in The Atlantic.
archived article if you hit a paywall: https://archive.ph/XeESu

American and European officials thought they had a real opportunity to end the war in Ukraine. President Donald Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, flew to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin believing that a breakthrough was possible. Trump welcomed the Russian president to America, rolling out a literal red carpet. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rushed to Washington with European leaders, some of whom even sounded optimistic. Trump “broke the deadlock” with Putin, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the White House. “If we play this well, we could end this.” Yet after that flurry of diplomacy, Russia has barely budged from its long-held positions on Ukraine. Putin and Zelensky have not agreed to the joint meeting promised by Trump. The fighting does not seem closer to a conclusion; today, Russia struck Kyiv with a barrage of missiles and drones, killing at least 15 people, including children. Instead, European officials say they’ve grown mystified by what exactly Putin promised the Americans behind closed doors, what U.S. officials took away from their discussions with Moscow, and where that leaves the effort to achieve peace.

“There’s mostly confusion at this point,” a top European official told us. (Officials interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the deliberations remain largely private.) “It’s not clear what Putin told Witkoff or Trump or if they understood him properly. It’s a puzzle that we’re all trying to solve.”
Part of the confusion seems to trace to Witkoff’s August 6 meeting with Putin, where certain details regarding Russia’s willingness—or lack thereof—to withdraw its troops from parts of Ukraine appear to have been lost in translation. According to two U.S. and three European officials who were briefed on the conversation, Putin told Witkoff that Russia would require “de jure” recognition—official recognition under international law—of Russian control over two territories that are currently within the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine: the Crimean peninsula, which Russia has occupied since 2014, and Donbas, the region in eastern Ukraine that has been contested for more than a decade but is now largely occupied by Russia.

Putin told Witkoff that, in return, Russia would be willing to give up its legal claim to two territories in southern Ukraine, Zaporizhizha and Kherson, that Russia has partially occupied since its February 2022 invasion. Witkoff, according to the U.S. and European officials, entertained this proposal. But the question of what would become of the thousands of Russian soldiers stationed in those regions was never addressed, the officials told us. Their continued presence would be a nonstarter for Ukraine, but Putin conveniently left the matter out, and Witkoff never asked.

This became apparent to European officials in their discussions with Trump-administration officials following the meeting in Moscow. European officials were “confused about the phrasing,” as one European official put it, of what Putin and Witkoff had tentatively agreed to. They made calls to their American counterparts and warned that if Russia wasn’t required to withdraw from Ukrainian territory, it would almost certainly launch more attacks when the opportunity arises.
Asked about any confusion surrounding Witkoff’s discussions, a White House official said that Trump and his national-security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials, but that “it is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly.”
The apparent lack of detail in the discussion between Putin and Witkoff has led many officials, who had been hopeful for a breakthrough, to face the reality that Putin’s demands have changed little since the start of the war.

 

[Dezbelief]

https://www.cnn.com/2025/08/29/world/ukraine-blows-up-russian-bridges-own-mines-cheap-drones-intl

Ukraine has said it destroyed two bridges inside Russia by using a couple of cheap drones to hit stashes of mines and ammunition hidden there by Russian forces.

The Ukrainian military said the two bridges near the border with Ukraine’s Kharkiv region were being used by the Russian military to resupply their troops.

Because of their strategic importance, the bridges were mined – so that the Russian military had the option of blowing them up in case of a sudden Ukrainian advance.

It is not unusual for an army under attack to destroy bridges, roads and other key infrastructure on its own territory to prevent the enemy from advancing. Ukraine did this in the early days of the full-scale invasion in February 2022, destroying bridges on roads leading towards Kyiv. The move delayed the Russian advance and protected the Ukrainian capital.

In the case of the two bridges in Russia, the Ukrainian military found out about the stashes of mines and used it to its own advantage.

Ukraine’s 58th Separate Motorized Infantry Brigade, which conducted the operation, told CNN that they decided have a closer look at the bridge after noticing unusual activity around it.

“It became clear that something was going on there. We couldn’t fly a regular reconnaissance drone under the bridge because the signal would simply disappear, so we flew in with a first-person-view drone equipped with fiber optics,” a representative of the brigade told CNN.

A video filmed by the drone shows it approaching the bridge and discovering a large pile of anti-tank mines and other ammunition. A piece of fabric that appears to have been covering the stash is seen lying to the side.

“We saw the mines, and we struck,” they added.

The video ends abruptly when the drone hits the stash. Footage filmed by a second camera from some distance shows a large explosion. CNN has geolocated the bridge seen in the video to the Belgorod region in southern Russia, near the border with Ukraine.

“After that, we decided to check the other bridge. We found it was also mined and we struck,” the brigade representative said, adding: “(We) saw an opportunity and took it.”

The bridges’ destruction – and the daring way Ukraine achieved it – is a rare piece of good news for Kyiv.

Ukraine is facing a tough situation along the frontlines as Russian troops continue to inch forward as Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to delay any ceasefire talks.

At the same time, Moscow keeps terrorizing Ukraine’s civilian population with near daily deadly aerial attacks against cities across the country.

Russia did not comment on the attacks against the bridges.

Cheap drones prove their value
The drones used in the attack costs between 25,000 and 30,000 Ukrainian hryvnas, or between $600 to $725, the brigade representative told CNN.

That makes the two attacks extremely cost-effective. Taking down a bridge from afar is not an easy undertaking. Under normal circumstances, it would require expensive guided munitions delivered by a sophisticated system such as a missile launcher or plane.

Ukraine has previously said it used the Western-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) to blow up bridges in Russia’s Kursk region. These are pricey weapons – when Germany purchased three HIMARS launchers for Ukraine from the United States last year, it paid $30 million in total. Each missile costs tens of thousands of dollars.

But the bridge attacks were not the first time that Ukraine used small and relatively cheap first-person-view drones for maximum effect.

In June, Ukrainian forces destroyed or damaged dozens of Russian aircraft using small drones that were smuggled to the vicinity of Russian military airfields in trucks.

 

[fatness]

French President Emmanuel Macron warned Friday that Donald Trump would once again get “played” by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump gave Putin a deadline of Monday to agree to bilateral talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky over ending the war between the two nations, but the Kremlin has given no indication that things are moving in that direction. Trump has threatened “consequences” if the meeting doesn’t happen, but Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz expressed their doubts. At a joint news conference Friday, Macron said if Putin doesn’t agree by Monday, “the deadline set by President Trump, it means that once again President Putin played President Trump.”

Merz also expressed what Politico reported was “among the strongest public expressions of doubt yet from a European leader that Trump’s peace push will work.” “Unlike what had been agreed between President Trump and President Putin last week, when we were together in Washington, it is obviously not going to come to a meeting between President Zelenskyy and President Putin,” Merz told reporters before a dinner with Macron on Thursday.

Deadline coming up.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Deal completed US sending Patriot & Starlink systems to Ukraine.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

https://x.com/yarotrof/status/1961763575187529920

Andriy Parubiy, a former Ukrainian parliament speaker, a former national-security advisor and a man best known for being the commandant of the protesters encampment during the 2014 Maidan revolution, was assassinated in Lviv. No longer in government, he wasn’t known to be directly involved in the current war effort. But still, it’s the most prominent political assassination in Ukraine since 2022. Russia is suspected, the gunman is still on the loose.

Russia launches 'massive' attack on Ukraine, as Kyiv hits oil refineries

Russia launched a "massive" overnight attack on Ukraine's southern and central regions, authorities said, as Kyiv struck Russian oil refineries.

One woman was killed in Zaporizhzhia and 28 people were injured - including three children - according to local officials.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched over 500 drones and 45 missiles, hitting 14 regions across the country.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military said it hit Russia's Krasnodar and Syzran oil refineries overnight. Both refineries have been targeted before.

The Ukrainian military said there were "numerous explosions and fires were recorded at the facility," which they said produces a volume of three million tons per year.

Russian authorities in Krasnodar acknowledged the drone strikes from Kyiv hit its oil refinery. It said one of the process units was damaged and a fire occurred in the area. It said there were no casualties.

Exclusive: Russia's idle oil refining capacity record high after Ukrainian drone attacks

Damage from Ukrainian drone attacks and extensive planned maintenance have sent Russia's offline oil refining capacity to a record high in August, Reuters calculations show, though working sites are likely to spur output to help mitigate the impact.

According to Reuters calculations, Russia's total offline primary oil refining capacity has reached a record monthly high of 6.4 million tons in August, up 65% from previous estimates based on maintenance plans.
Drone strikes at various refineries on various dates have idled a cumulative 3.1 million tons this month, accounting for 48% of the total impact, the calculations show.

Industry sources said increased processing at working refineries would help mitigate the impact of drone damage and maintenance, estimating a production decline of 5% this month.

Russian forces encircled near Dobropillia – military

Russian units positioned near Dobropillia have been encircled and are being eliminated.
Viktor Trehubov, spokesperson for the Dnipro Operational and Strategic Group of Forces, said this on Ukrainian television, according to Ukrinform.

"At least for now, the Russian units that advanced directly toward Dobropillia—those 'crab claws'—have been cut off and surrounded. So, they won’t be staying there much longer," he said.

 

[fatness]

https://kyivindependent.com/russias-defense-ministry-declares-it-will-carry-on-fighting-and-bombing

After months of playing lip service to U.S. efforts to end the war in Ukraine, the head of Russia's military on Aug. 30 said Moscow will continue both fighting on the front lines, and launching mass missile and drone attacks against Ukrainian cities.

"The implementation of the tasks of the (full-scale invasion of Ukraine) by the Joint Group of Troops will continue by conducting offensive actions," the chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, Valery Gerasimov, said in comments reported by Russia's Defense Ministry. "Today we will clarify the tasks of the troop groups in the directions for the autumn period," he added.

 

[Dezbelief]

Trump in talks to deploy private army to Ukraine

Telegraph reveals peace plan taking shape behind closed doors

www.telegraph.co.uk

1. Idea stage: Demilitarised buffer zone 20km either side of frozen front line

2. Highly likely: Ukrainian soldiers first line of defence against future Russian invasion

3. Highly likely: US to provide intelligence to Ukraine and to peacekeeping mission

4. In negotiation: Nato or US to be given command of peacekeeping mission

 

[Chadstroma]

Russia adopts new infantry doctrine amid manpower strain – Defence Blog https://share.google/1SKtSKwZTfDAFNoYc

 

[Chadstroma]

Ukrainian Intelligence Obliterates Russian S-400 Air Defense and GLONASS Space Radar in Crimea — UNITED24 Media https://share.google/kbwjtJioxDe5Ysgf5

 

[Chadstroma]

Another Russian offensive fizzles out with no gains, Ukrainian military reports​

The Russian command, passing off wishful thinking as reality, summed up the “spring-summer campaign of 2025.” In fact, another Russian seasonal offensive ended with virtually nothing, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

During the offensive, the Russian army failed to gain full control over any major Ukrainian city. Instead, since the beginning of the year, the enemy has lost nearly 210,000 soldiers killed and wounded, and thousands of pieces of military equipment:

・2,174 armored fighting vehicles;

・1,201 tanks;

・7,303 artillery systems;

・157 multiple launch rocket systems.

Sumy region

“The enemy’s fake reports about security zones in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions are nothing more than an attempt to conceal the failures of operations that turned into a dead end and tens of thousands of losses for the enemy,” the General Staff stated.

Since the beginning of 2025 in the operational zone of the Kursk group of forces, Defense Forces soldiers have eliminated 19,080 troops, and more than 25,000 have been wounded. Currently, the Defense Forces are conducting active operations in the Sumy region, have liberated Kindrativka and Andriivka, and are driving the enemy out of other border settlements.

Territory seizure

The Russian command has significantly exaggerated the data about seized territories.

“At the same time, the 100% confirmed result achieved by the Russians since the beginning of 2025 is their total losses of more than 291,000 soldiers killed and wounded. The mass awarding of 120,000 Russian servicemen only confirms the scale of the losses,” the General Staff added.

Strikes on military facilities

The Russian command also reported on the “destruction of the Ukrainian missile industry” and “precision strikes on military facilities.” According to the Ukrainian General Staff, such claims are nothing more than a “propaganda illusion,” and from these “precision strikes,” Ukrainians lose their homes and loved ones every day.

“Wherever a Russian Iskander falls, that is where a ‘UAF command post’ or a ‘base of foreign mercenaries’ supposedly ‘turns up.’ The consequence of Russia’s constant violations of international humanitarian law is human lives,” the General Staff emphasized.

They added that the report of the Russian command is a “typical example of aggressive Kremlin lies and arrogance.” The Ukrainian Defense Forces are holding the front, destroying and exhausting the occupier.

“And they prove: no Kremlin propaganda will conceal the failure of Russia’s spring-summer campaign of 2025,” the General Staff summarized.

According to the Ukrainian General Staff, just over the past day, August 30,the Russian army lost more than 800 soldiers in battles with the Defense Forces.

 

[Don't Toews Me]

Ukraine's intelligence chief explains AI use and future of 'combat robots'

"We mostly use artificial intelligence in the context of processing large amounts of information. This includes working with databases, millions of gigabytes of data, where it can be impossible to find exactly what you need. Artificial intelligence manages this issue more or less," Budanov said.

As for the use of AI in weapons systems, the head of HUR noted that so far he does not see "serious progress" in this area, contrary to what many might imagine.

"I believe it will exist, but for now it does not. As for individual elements used in drones – such as target correction and similar technologies – yes, but this is far from what everyone imagines," Budanov noted.

He expressed confidence that the situation will change within the next decade.

"I believe that in the next 10 years we will see a real combat robot. But this will not happen today or tomorrow," the head of HUR added.

Ukraine War Leads to Global Shortage of TNT

For more than a century, the United States relied on TNT for military weapons and commercial mining. It was plentiful and cheap, selling for just 50 cents a pound a couple decades ago.
Produced by the millions of tons for both world wars and into the 1980s, TNT filled artillery shells and bombs while making it possible to blast apart rock to build roads and make cement for home foundations and major infrastructure projects.
But making TNT, or trinitrotoluene, creates hazardous waste, and by the mid-1980s the Defense Department had shut down the last facility in the United States that made it. Foreign suppliers — primarily in China, Russia, Poland and Ukraine — stepped in, offering the explosive at low prices while dealing with the hazardous waste themselves.
A second and important source of supply for commercial use had been TNT recovered from munitions like land mines, shells and bombs that the Pentagon regularly decommissions. While the weapons were deemed too old for use by American troops, the explosives inside of them were typically still fully viable and could be recycled.
But according to officials in the civilian blasting industry, those sources have dried up as the U.S. military has elected to keep older weapons in its arsenal since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Poland had been the Pentagon’s sole authorized supplier of TNT. But it has been sending much of what it makes across its border to Ukraine, which is using all that it produces for its own military purposes.
That comes as two of the other main sources of TNT, Russia and China, have stopped exporting to the United States, the officials said.

All of this has put pressure on U.S. weapons production as well as blasting operations at the rock quarries that produce much of the raw material for bridges, roads and buildings in America.
In response, Congress authorized the construction of a new Army-run TNT plant in Kentucky that will cost $435 million. It is expected to begin operating in late 2028, but it will produce the explosive only for military use, and there are no plans to sell any of it to private industry to help alleviate the domestic shortfall.
The shortage may soon slow the progress of domestic construction projects and make certain raw materials more expensive.
“The world as we know it does not exist without industrial explosives,” Clark Mica, the president of an explosives industry trade association, said in an interview. For nearly anything that is mined, he added, “nine times out of ten explosives are involved in some way.”

https://x.com/Hromadske/status/1962421919573012640

Ukraine reportedly used its Flamingo missiles for the first time to hit FSB facilities in occupied Crimea, according to the Militarnyi portal, citing military sources.

https://x.com/yarotrof/status/1962417687730290696

A map on the wall of the chief of the Russian General Staff Gerasimov — likely representing Russian military objectives in Ukraine (which encompass half the country, including Kharkiv and Odesa.)
Upon close inspection, this line doesn’t include Kharkiv but does include Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.

Exclusive: China seeks more Russian gas via old link as new pipeline stalled

A breakthrough on the $13.6-billion Power of Siberia 2 pipeline project to supply 50 billion cubic metres of gas to China's northwest during the visit is unlikely, however, the sources said.
Instead, they say China is considering increasing its purchases of gas via the existing Power of Siberia 1 pipeline from the current 38 bcm.

https://x.com/GuyReuters/status/1962471118964478081

Interesting report from Oxford Economics on Ukraine's financing needs for 2026 >

"We estimate that the country's total financing needs stand at around $52bn in 2026, with only $22bn in commitments. Even with maximum domestic borrowing and a buffer from 2025, Ukraine still needs to find around $21bn for next year."
"To meet these needs, Ukraine is asking the EU and the International Monetary Fund to increase their commitments via the IMF's new programme and to leverage Russia's frozen assets."

75% of Ukrainians are ready for a ceasefire only if security guarantees are provided

Seventy-five percent of Ukrainians believe their country should agree to a ceasefire — but only if strong security guarantees are provided.

A survey by the Rating Group, conducted on Aug. 21-23, 2025, found that the majority of Ukrainians polled want peace and are open to certain concessions, but only on the condition that their country receives international security guarantees.

Respondents identified three main security guarantees: continued funding and weapons supplies from partners (52%); a commitment from allies to intervene militarily in the event of a repeated Russian attack (48%); and international patrolling of Ukraine's air and sea space (44%).

When asked about Ukraine's immediate priorities, 58% said securing continued international funding and weapons supplies for the military was most important. By comparison, only 31% said that restoring Ukraine's occupied territories should be the top priority.

Moreover, 82% of respondents consider negotiations to be a realistic way to end the war, with 62% in favor of involving other countries in peace talks, and 20% in favor of direct negotiations with Russia.

The poll was based on a randomized sample of 1,600 respondents, surveyed via computer-assisted telephone interviews. People living in temporarily occupied Crimea and Donbas, as well as areas without Ukrainian mobile service during the survey period, were not included.

Von Der Leyen Flight Affected by Alleged Russian GPS Jamming

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted by jamming that authorities suspect was the result of Russian interference in Bulgaria.
Authorities in Bulgaria have determined that the GPS jamming incident, which affected the plane’s navigation system, was likely initiated by Russia, according to a commission spokesperson. The plane landed safely after the interference affected the airport in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, the spokesperson said.

 

[fatness]

Trump in talks to deploy private army to Ukraine

Telegraph reveals peace plan taking shape behind closed doors

www.telegraph.co.uk

1. Idea stage: Demilitarised buffer zone 20km either side of frozen front line

2. Highly likely: Ukrainian soldiers first line of defence against future Russian invasion

3. Highly likely: US to provide intelligence to Ukraine and to peacekeeping mission

4. In negotiation: Nato or US to be given command of peacekeeping mission

I read about this yesterday and think it's a terrible idea, sending a private army to fight a war on behalf of the US.
The US won't have as much control over a private army, which could be disastrous.
The opportunities for grifting the US government will be extremely high.

 

[Dezbelief]

Trump in talks to deploy private army to Ukraine

Telegraph reveals peace plan taking shape behind closed doors

www.telegraph.co.uk

1. Idea stage: Demilitarised buffer zone 20km either side of frozen front line

2. Highly likely: Ukrainian soldiers first line of defence against future Russian invasion

3. Highly likely: US to provide intelligence to Ukraine and to peacekeeping mission

4. In negotiation: Nato or US to be given command of peacekeeping mission

I read about this yesterday and think it's a terrible idea, sending a private army to fight a war on behalf of the US.
The US won't have as much control over a private army, which could be disastrous.
The opportunities for grifting the US government will be extremely high.

That was my first take on the situation. Reading more, the private armies would be after a negotiated peace settlement. The US private armies would be present to protect US interests in Ukraine and paid by the US companies with assets needing guarded.

 

[The Z Machine]

Trump in talks to deploy private army to Ukraine

Telegraph reveals peace plan taking shape behind closed doors

www.telegraph.co.uk

1. Idea stage: Demilitarised buffer zone 20km either side of frozen front line

2. Highly likely: Ukrainian soldiers first line of defence against future Russian invasion

3. Highly likely: US to provide intelligence to Ukraine and to peacekeeping mission

4. In negotiation: Nato or US to be given command of peacekeeping mission

I read about this yesterday and think it's a terrible idea, sending a private army to fight a war on behalf of the US.
The US won't have as much control over a private army, which could be disastrous.
The opportunities for grifting the US government will be extremely high.

That was my first take on the situation. Reading more, the private armies would be after a negotiated peace settlement. The US private armies would be present to protect US interests in Ukraine and paid by the US companies with assets needing guarded.

Sounds really stupid and dangerous.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Trump in talks to deploy private army to Ukraine

Telegraph reveals peace plan taking shape behind closed doors

www.telegraph.co.uk

1. Idea stage: Demilitarised buffer zone 20km either side of frozen front line

2. Highly likely: Ukrainian soldiers first line of defence against future Russian invasion

3. Highly likely: US to provide intelligence to Ukraine and to peacekeeping mission

4. In negotiation: Nato or US to be given command of peacekeeping mission

I read about this yesterday and think it's a terrible idea, sending a private army to fight a war on behalf of the US.
The US won't have as much control over a private army, which could be disastrous.
The opportunities for grifting the US government will be extremely high.

That was my first take on the situation. Reading more, the private armies would be after a negotiated peace settlement. The US private armies would be present to protect US interests in Ukraine and paid by the US companies with assets needing guarded.

Sounds really stupid and dangerous.

This whole thing sounds like Erik Prince’s idea. He proposed this exact concept for Afghanistan in Trump1.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Von Der Leyen Flight Affected by Alleged Russian GPS Jamming

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was disrupted by jamming that authorities suspect was the result of Russian interference in Bulgaria.
Authorities in Bulgaria have determined that the GPS jamming incident, which affected the plane’s navigation system, was likely initiated by Russia, according to a commission spokesperson. The plane landed safely after the interference affected the airport in the Bulgarian city of Plovdiv, the spokesperson said.

This is an aggressive, hostile act, not that of a country negotiating a peace deal.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

Putin says he and Trump came to ‘understanding’ about how to end Ukraine war at Alaska summit

>>"We highly appreciate the efforts and proposals from China and India aimed at facilitating the resolution of the Ukrainian crisis," Mr Putin told the forum. "The understandings reached at the recent Russia-US meeting in Alaska, I hope, also contribute toward this goal," he added.<<