Exclusives
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Killer robots don't exist yet but Ukraine and Russia are getting closer. "We are already deep into practical battlefield autonomy." |
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Iran is doing to the US what Ukraine did to Russia — Washington didn't learn. "The lesson is brutal — layered, cheap, scalable, beats exquisite, expensive and finite." |
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Ukraine's half-month air defense blitz: 27 Russian anti-air assets destroyed, including S-400s, Pantsirs, radars, and EW stations. Ukraine's MoD detailed 20-plus confirmed strikes on Russian air defense infrastructure between 1 and 15 March — from front-line oblasts to occupied Crimea and a radar node at Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai. |
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Why Ukraine may lose a fifth of its harvest — and what two wars have to do with it?. Two wars have halved Ukraine's fertilizer output and spiked import costs 54%. The farm lobby says a 20% harvest loss is likely. |
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I defended NATO's values. I no longer recognize what NATO defends.. The Alliance's founding documents haven't changed. Its founding nation has. |
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Sanctions finally squeezed Russia's oil revenues in half. Then Iran sent prices back up — three weeks too late.. The Iran windfall arrived three weeks after Q1 closed. Now Moscow is eyeing the war budget. |
Military
Entire Russian supply shipment derailed before it even moves in Crimea — sabotage lands on symbolic date. One hit, major impact.
Ukraine struck Aviastar plant building Russia's military aircraft from scratch, including Il‑76MD‑90A and An‑124 "Ruslan". Russia's Il-76 carries troops, fuel, and weapons to the front.
Ukrainian drones tear through Donetsk base of classified Russian UAV lab Rubicon — coordination center supporting UAV units also taken out. Rubicon aims to cripple Ukrainian logistics and neutralize drone command squads.
Russia sends the general famous for "meat assault" tactics to Sumy Oblast — Ukrainian forces say that's good news. Ukraine's 14th Army Corps argues Nigmatzyanov's appointment is "not a reinforcement but another death sentence" for Russian soldiers, since his specialty is frontal attacks without combined arms support.
Intelligence and technology
Baltic Shipyard builds Russia's nuclear icebreakers. Its CNC machines are foreign-made, and Ukraine names them all. Ukraine exposed 50 pieces of foreign equipment inside Russia's nuclear submarine and warship factories. The sanctions list writes itself.
Russia switched to plastic mines to beat metal detectors. Ukraine receives advanced MDS-20 to find them anyway. Over 1 million mines are staying in Ukrainian soil.
Latvia convicted one member of a Starlink supply network to Russia — three others in the same network await trial. Latvia's State Security Service investigation found the group ordered the equipment online and shipped it illegally into Russia, where it was sold to people connected to the Russian armed forces.
Texty: Russia launched 150 satellites since invading Ukraine. Two-thirds have unknown purpose.. Ukrainian forces can move equipment during cloud cover or between satellite passes. What they cannot do is prevent 253 Russian low-orbit spacecraft — and China's additional 1,094 — from eventually flying overhead.
International
Czech Republic steps in — Prague offers to send oil to Slovakia via reverse Druzhba flow, but not Russian. Emergency plan ready, and $47 million investment could supply tens of thousands of tons monthly.
Ukraine calls on Brussels to stop Russian war propaganda film that hides its screening location until last minute. Portugal already did. The film hides its location to avoid cancellation.
Norway drops $200 million lifeline into Ukraine's budget — 10 million pensioners, teachers and emergency workers rely on it. Since 2022, $52 billion mobilized, as massive global effort sustains Ukraine's resilience.
Spain injects €1 billion into Ukraine's war effort, while Escribano and Skyeton launch joint laser-guided UAV projects. Spain's total support hits €4 billion, as aid pipeline keeps expanding.
Zelenskyy to Rutte: More countries must join US missile procurement program for Ukraine.
India arrests six Ukrainians on charges of smuggling drones to Myanmar rebels. India charged six Ukrainians and one American under its anti-terror law last week, alleging they used valid tourist visas to ferry drone shipments from Europe through a restricted border state into Myanmar — where NIA says those drones reached groups hostile to India.
Zelenskyy says Iran war is delaying Ukraine peace talks and depleting missile stocks. Vladimir Putin benefits from the Iran war in at least three ways — rising energy revenues, depleted US weapons reserves, and stalled Ukraine peace talks — according to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Humanitarian and social impact
Ukrainian Azov soldier Belinov defended Mariupol for 86 days under encirclement. Russia called it terrorism and sentenced him to 27 years. Russia has now sentenced Bohdan Belinov twice for the same act — defending Mariupol during 86 days of siege. The second verdict absorbed the first and added four years. He is 28.
Russia bombed Ukraine's dam, poisoned Moldova's river — and now claims Ukraine did it with a fuel truck. Pro-Russian Moldovan media are actively circulating three fake explanations for the Dniester contamination — a fuel truck accident, rocket propellant from Ukrainian air defense, and an allegedly struck Flamingo missile assembly plant.
Russia fires 147 drones at Ukraine in one night, injuring nine across four oblasts. A 63-year-old woman in Sumy Oblast, two railway workers in Chernihiv, and five residents of a Kharkiv-area village are among at least nine people injured after Russia launched 147 drones at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force and regional authorities reported.
Read our earlier daily review here.
