The main news this week is probably that this is the first week that we saw strong evidence of the Russian 2026 Spring Offensive, or what passes for an offensive in the Russian army these days, and wherever it showed up, it seems like it got chewed to bits. Reasons for that outcome basically boil down to Ukrainian drone density and better weather.
Also, this week, enough evidence had accumulated to stop talking about the Ukrainian kill zone being in effect along a belt about 20 kilometers (12.4 miles) wide running next to Ukrainian lines, but, for the most part – to a belt extending 100 kilometers (62 miles) or more.
This was not an overnight switch but rather the appearance of sufficient credible evidence of Ukrainian attacks in that range envelope, to stop saying “mid-range kill zone is a Ukrainian ambition” and to start saying “the mid-range kill zone is operational, but it remains to be seen how operational the Ukrainians can make it.”
Myrnohrad / Pokrovsk
According to the 7th Air Assault/Rapid Response Corps, this week, Russian forces attempted to return to the attack in this sector with the traditional small groups of men hoping to evade the drones and get forward and hide; plus, a 13-motorcycle rapid assault in the vicinity of the village of Hryshyne. Also, a similar-sized group, aboard a pair of MT-LBs (a light armored transport vehicle), that charged out into the open heading in the direction of Myrnohrad.
All cut to pieces by drones. Some pretty gruesome footage appeared, Russian troops caught out in the open in mud and standing water, individuals hunted down running, day and night, wounded hit by bomber drones, corpses and limbs. The 7th Corps credited the 155th Mechanized “Anna of Kyiv” Brigade and elements of the Skala Assault Infantry Regiment for the successful engagements, which (this was Wednesday) supposedly cost the Russians 104 personnel,79 killed, 22 units of motorized equipment, a/k/a as motorcycles or ATVs, and three armored vehicles. In 2022, this would be a day of conventional probes, but in 2026, this was a pretty sizable commitment of vehicles to attack. The video is sourced to 3rd National Brigade’s Spartan drone unit.
An observation would be that one of the downsides of waiting until the right moment to launch an expected attack is that the defenders are likely to get ready. The Hryshyne attack looks worse than the 1916 Battle of the Somme – at least in WWI, when the machine guns opened up, you could take cover in a shell hole. These days, there is no place to hide.
There was an engagement, earlier this week, a big Russian infantry push near the village of Boikivka, also in the Pokrovsk sector. They walked into first-person-view (FPV) drones, artillery, and mortars. Drones later recorded 60 Russian corpses in a 700-meter (.4-mile) stretch of road.
I’m also looking at an unconfirmed report that earlier this week, in the Pokrovsk sector, a Russian attack lost three BMP-2s, one tank, 10 ATVs and “a lot” of people. Supposedly, this attack was by an element of the 6th Tank Regiment. Probably it’s true, but I can’t confirm. In any case, it’s another data point supporting the argument that the Russian Spring Offensive is starting.
Finally, this week, a press statement from Ukraine’s 11th Corps, which is a bit north of 7th Corps, opined that Russia plans to capture Kostiantynivka by May, and Kramatorsk and Sloviansk in the summer.
Hulyaipole / Zaporizhzhia
According to Robert “Madyar” Brovdi, the Russian Spring Offensive has sprung here as well, possibly because of cold and foggy weather. However, unfortunately for the Russians, the weather cleared. He claimed that Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces (USF) units, just in this sector, in 24 hours, killed or severely wounded 900+ Russians. These are brutal losses by any measure, for any time in the war.
Reports are that on the morning of the 17th, Russians attacked using mixed men on foot, motorcycles, tanks, and even horses, and more than 500 Russians were “eliminated” in the early fighting, and the survivors were hunted down. These were attacks, or probes, or just Russian commanders sending troops out into the open to make their bosses happy, across about 100 kilometers (62 miles) of front, I read, from Rodynske to Hulyaipole, so don’t get the idea that it was a single big, concentrated attack. More a big spike in overall activity in an area that attracted the attention of Ukrainian drones covering it.
According to the rough southern analog of the 7th Corps around Pokrovsk/Myrnohrad – Joint Forces South – what is going on is that Russia is amassing marines and equipment in southern Ukraine, preparatory to a major offensive. Among them is the luckless 40th Marine Brigade, which has been burnt out in combat, it seems, about two or three times a year, every year of the war – and we are now seeing initial probes, according to comment by the press secretary of the Southern Defense Forces, Vladislav Voloshin.
Supposedly, Russia plans to transfer the 55th Marine Brigade to the Donetsk sector as well, in general, according to Voloshin, Russia’s 5th Combined Arms Army has been selected to lead that big offensive planned up there as well
Lyman
There’s a partially confirmed report that on Tuesday, March 17, the Russians attacked near Lyman. Ukrainian infantry brigades engaged with drones and supporting artillery, destroying two tanks, five armored personnel carriers (APCs) – a BTR-82ATs and a BTR-70Ms, five BMP-3s, two BMP-2s, and more than 40 ATVs. The report says many of the infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) were stopped with the help of remotely placed mines (by drones). I quote: “Massacre. We knew that they were planning to attack. Everyone was prepared.” Another report says 50 Russian dead. One source is the 60th Mech.
Kupyansk
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on March 8 that 15 (!) Ukrainian brigades are surrounded at Kupyansk and will shortly surrender. For the record, on this same day, the US president declared the war he and his administration started in Iran “a small excursion.” It’s enough to make an old reporter start distrusting politicians, it is.
A drone just shot down a Russian helicopter – And then another FPV hunted down the crew
You will have noted the constant: Wherever the Russians go, there seem to be a lot of Ukrainian drones. This item continues in that theme, but be warned, it’s gruesome. On the other hand, it’s another one of those first-time-in-history events. As I write, on March 20, during operations in the Donetsk sector, a Russian Ka-52 helicopter crew, for reasons best known to themselves, entered airspace that had a lot of Ukrainian drones in it.
After at least one pass that missed, a Ukrainian FPV hit the helicopter, set it on fire, but the crew managed a crash landing. This was all observed by Ukrainian reconnaissance drones. A second Ka-52 showed up, but it was too late, and there were still Ukrainian drones in the air, so it left.
There was also video of a Ukrainian FPV drone that flew to the trench where the pilots were hiding out (no doubt because other drones had become interested in the crashed helicopter) and killed them. This seems to have triggered a wave of spin control propaganda from the Russian side – OK, we admit the helicopter got shot down, but the crew survived, and the Ukrainian video of two dudes without rifles getting killed by an FPV drone in a trench – that’s just Ukrainian propaganda, everyone knows we Russians always tell the truth and the Ukrainians always lie!
Within hours, the full video shows up, two Russian corpses, flight suits, and the same trench. It turns out the Ukrainians had more video than they let on in the beginning, I assume, so as to give the Russians the chance to resort to a traditional lie, so the lie could be exploded.
In any case, anyone who has even a little understanding of how the Ukrainians operate drones knows that they make no claim, and I mean zero, unless they get another drone to video the kill after the strike. I saw the corpse video, but I’ll spare you. This is yet another case where Ptakhi Madyara was one of the sources, and I have yet to see those guys put out an iota of information that I later found was wrong.
Overall, this was one of the most thoroughly confirmed battlefield incidents I’ve seen in years: geo-location, multiple angles, confirmed, reliable sources. Including Russian. Credit is to the “Baltika” drone team, 1st Battalion “Hyzhaky Vystot,” 59th Brigade, Unmanned Systems Forces (USF).
ADDITION: The same day of the shoot-down, which is fast even for this war, President Volodymyr Zelensky awarded the soldiers who shot down the Ka-52 with an FPV drone the Order “For Courage,” (2nd class); recipients were: Private Soldiers Yuriy Andrusenko and David Nechipas, and Junior Sergeants Sergei Slepko and Vadim Shapovalov.
Bombarding Russia – The mid-range
The theme here is not just the regular strikes, but something more important to the direction of operations for the next several months. The Ukrainians appear to have collected enough drones, operator teams, and resources to push the “kill zone” well beyond 20-30 kilometers (12.4-18.6 miles) to as much as 150 kilometers (93.2 miles) into the Russian rear areas. The Ukrainians had been talking about this as an objective for some time, probably from late last year, as an aspiration. This week – I assume this is because of the increased Russian activity and the onset of better flying weather – we saw it in action.
OK, so two weeks ago we flagged several developments on the drone operations front that have improved the Ukrainian position as possibly not accidental coincidences, and one week ago we looked at it more closely and decided that so many useful planets have aligned in such a way that either the cosmos is pulling for Ukraine, or the Ukrainians had a hand in it.
So this week, I’m now convinced. A big piece of the Ukrainian plan for operations this spring is the establishment of drone dominance and a kill zone not just out to 20 kilometers (12.4 miles), which frankly has been the case for some time, but out to 100 (62 miles) and even 200 kilometers (124.2 miles).
If you look at what they’ve been up to, especially after this week, I really see no other way to read it. The Ukrainian strategy, right now, is to halt Russian offensive operations and inflict unacceptable losses by expanding the kill zone deeply enough into the Russian rear areas, so as to hit the trucks and automobiles bringing the Russian infantry forward to drop-off points, after which they walk, and do the same thing to artillery and other heavy supplies.
Here’s a list of some of the steps the Ukrainians have taken to make it so that their drones dominate the air, particularly in the 20–100-kilometer (12.4-62.1 mile) envelope behind Russian lines:
- The Russian use of Starlink shut down
- Ukrainian drones operating on new frequencies, the Russians aren’t ready to jam
- A return of small numbers of those spiffy German Helsing AI-equipped drones that loiter for a while and then are smart enough to hit something
- Fielding or more visible success by the Ukrainian version of that weapon, which is called a Bulava. This week, we saw documented strikes in the Zaporizhzhia sector, both times, Russian air defense
- In general, a concerted campaign to destroy Russian mid-range air defense which in the past has had some effect stopping the AI-equipped loitering drones, and also is the belt of defenses blocking penetration by longer-range drones deep into Russia for strategic strikes.
Here’s an article concentrating on the SEAD (Cold War term meaning “taking out the other guy’s air defense stuff”) activities by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) over the past month or so. This is all taking place in the mid-range zone, i.e., off the immediate fighting line, but still, the rear area for the direct support to the fighting units. The “elite” drone crews are doing this: Ukraine’s Security Service (the SBU), Defense Intelligence (HUR), Special Operations (SSO), and selected units from USF.
If you don’t feel like reading the article, the short version is the Ukrainians have been going after Russian air defense assets with great energy, and that strategy is succeeding and delivering results across the front, and the main result is it’s easier for OTHER Ukrainian drones to go other places.
As an example, here is a translation of a recent press statement published by the Special Operations Troops:
On the night of March 17, SSO fighters defeated:
- Control point for missile complexes and a mobile fire group in Verkhnekurganny, Crimea
- An element of the S-400 air defense system in Shkolny (a village near Simferopol), Crimea.
- An ammo storage site in Terpene, Zaporizhzhia region.
In addition, other units of the Defense Forces “smoked” a number of objects:
-TOR-M2U air defense system in the Klyntsev district of the Bryansk region.
- Enemy communication node in Mangush (been there a lot), Donetsk region.
- Fuel and lubricants warehouse in Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia region.
- Ammunition warehouse in the areas of Stepnoy, Zaporizhzhia region.
- Drone operator training center in the Henicheska Horka area of the Kherson region.
- Drone operation control sites in the Hulyaipole and Obratny districts of the Zaporizhzhia region.
- A troop concentration in the vicinity of Chasiv Yar, Donetsk region
I’d say I’ve seen credible confirmation of about two-thirds of that.
Bombarding Russia – Long range
The important part about this item is that it’s separate from the previous one, meaning the Ukrainians are executing both strike campaigns simultaneously. It’s been going on for so long, it’s very difficult to argue it’s on-off or just pin pricks; what is really happening is that little Ukraine is systematically blowing up things all over Russia. The Afipsky Refinery got hit, my count, for the seventh time since August. The biggest explosions seem to have been an anti-aircraft missile depot by Luhansk that looked like something nuclear when it went up, and the Labinsk oil storage site, which was hit on Wednesday and still burning fiercely three days later.
There were several Russian agitprop/war-bloggers this week who started complaining openly that this all is starting to look a lot like Russia just isn’t winning, Russia is losing.
I profiled one, but as to the evidence, here’s the list of what I spotted this week, if anything, the Ukrainians are picking up the pace, and as far as I can see, the mythical Flamingo missiles being stamped out three a day, supposedly, aren’t part of the equation yet.
- Krasnodar, Afipsky oil refinery, March 13-14
- Samara, Kuibyshevsk Azot, March 13-14
- Kerch region, Termriuk, port Kavkaz, March 14
- Krasnodar Krai, Afipsky oil refinery (may be the same as above)
- Kerch Strait, two Russian cargo ships, supposedly military cargo, big fires, March 14
- Luhansk, AA missile ammo dump, major explosions, fireworks, March 15
- Occupied Zaporizhzhia region, Primorsk, troop R and R site, March 15
- Krasnodar Krai, Tikhoretsk oil storage/pump station, big fires, March 15
- Mordovia, Saransk,? March 15
- Belgorod, various, power grid, March 15
- Krasnodar, Labinsk, oil refinery, March 16
- Ural region, Ulyankovsk, Aviastar aircraft repair factory (heavy cargo), aircraft and buildings damaged, March 16-17
- Novgorod, 123rd Aviation repair plant, apparently an A-50 AWACS plane (!) was being repaired there, March 17
- Pskov, 76th Guards Parachute Division base, March 17
- Slavyansk na Kubani, oil refinery, March 17
- Melitopol, unknown, possibly air defenses, March 17
- Moscow, 20 or so drones, harassment, March 17
- Kuban/Stavropol, Nevynomyssk, chemical factory, possibly heavy warheads, March 18
- Crimea, Sevastopol, Almaz-Antey factory, Filorent region, March 18
- Mariupol, Yalta village, some kind of shore facility, fire, March 18
- Krasnodar, Taman power station, fires, March 19
- Occupied Donetsk region, Alchevsk, factory workshops, March 19
Bombardment electronics and China – Scale not confirmed, but definitely tough to fix
One of the lessons of modern bombardment warfare is that if you are attacking a developed country, your drones can piggyback off of the existing mobile phone network and use the phone towers as navigation aids.
This is particularly useful if your incoming drones are jammed and lose their way. Once the drone gets out of jamming the SIM card aboard the drone helps the drone figure out where it is, and the drone returns to its programmed route. The trick is getting SIM cards that will work in your target country. The easy way to do that is just have your spies buy cards, which is what the Russians do in democratic Ukraine. Being an autocratic country that makes buying SIM cards complicated and possible in most cases only if the buyer comes up with a passport and an address – this isn’t so easy for the Ukrainians.
However, in the spirit of Brotherly Friendship Across the Amur, etc. Chinese tourists are allowed to buy Russian SIM cards because, in the eyes of the Russian state, China is an ally, and so Chinese citizens may be trusted not to abuse the privilege of access to the Russian mobile phone network and never to use a Russian SIM card for nefarious purposes.
You can probably guess what happened next. Chinese entrepreneurs in places like Manzhouli and Suifenhe realized that with tens of thousands of Chinese crossing into Russia visa-free every day, they created an illicit but booming market for Russian SIM cards for use by Chinese, and middlemen, ultimately financed by the Ukrainian state, became important buyers of the cards.
We know this is a problem of some scale because the news this week reported the Russian state is mandating SIM cards sold to foreign buyers must be programmed to disable themselves after roaming outside Russian territory for 24 hours (maybe upped to 72 hours), which theoretically would make a Ukrainian drone with a Russian SIM card purchased through China unable to link up with the Ukrainian mobile phone network to fly inside Russia and navigate.
Even non-specialists can see fairly straightforward work-arounds like getting an operator to drive to the Russian border with the SIM card so it stops roaming and switches onto the Russian network, and then turning the SIM card off, waiting 24 or 72 hours, and then loading it into the Ukrainian drone, which is then launched, flies into Russian air space using inertial guidance and turns on the SIM card only after it is well over Russia, and thus when the SIM card is turned on again the SIM card won’t know it spent the last one to three days in the hands of nefarious Ukrainian strike drone operators assisted by profit-maximizing Chinese SIM card traders.
The real point is: This is a real Russian vulnerability, and it looks like the Russian state can’t figure out how to shut it down. The best they can seem to do is mitigate it somewhat. Also, if you are spending that kind of state energy messing around with SIM cards, what does that say about state confidence in the national air defense network? Remember, the Ukrainian response – and at typically 85-95% of targets disabled, a highly effective one – is just to spot the Shaheds coming in and use a layered air defense network to disable them.
Bad mood in Russia
I record here that the milblogger Aleksander Khordorkovsky, whom we know as a pro-Moscow/Hate Ukraine writer since 2014, this week put out a post complaining that the spring offensive was pointless, and even mobilizing the Russian population was pointless, because the Ukrainians make drones a lot faster than Russia produces soldiers.
But the big story is that one Ilya Remeslo, another rah rah Russia blogger who became famous attacking the opposition and Aleksei Navalny before Navalny died, I guess decided he had had enough and in his Telegram channel accused Putin of being an idiot, a threat to Russian national security, and “illegitimate.” You don’t need me to tell you that saying any of that out loud in Russia is criminal activity that can put you in prison for years.
But the real bomb was that Remeslo said in public the one thing that no one dares to say in Russia – that unless something changes Russia is firmly on track to revolution, civil war, and chaos; and that since Putin and the Kremlin are no longer interested in Russian public opinion, that disaster is just a question of time. Guy has 100,000 readers on Telegram.
Of course, this week, the authorities basically shut down Telegram for phone use.
Bloomberg and others naturally picked up on Remeslo’s diatribe and trotted out a recent poll by Russia’s independent Levada Center, published in early March 2026, in which 67% of Russian respondents said it’s time for Russia to negotiate peace, which was about double what the population was willing to admit to even four months ago. Bloomberg pointed out these “serious structural problems”: severe labor shortages, persistent inflation, rocketing interest rates, a deficit budget, and contracting production. A little peculiarly, 1.2 million war dead and wounded weren’t considered in the article, a substantial reason why Russians might be more inclined to peace these days.
Be that as it may, Remeslo was a big deal, on TV a lot, and his coming out of the closet, so to speak, is a pretty big deal in a country where the thought-leaders are expected to be in step with the Great Leader. So perhaps another storm petrel.
Ukrainian drone dudes to the Gulf and best rumor of the week
This information is unconfirmed, but there are media claims that, in return for military aid, Ukraine is asking Qatar to hand over its fleet of 12 Mirage 2000-5s. As a reminder, this is a 1990s-era aircraft that was fine for its time, but now it’s old. The clever Ukrainians figured out that, with the panic in the Middle East about Shaheds and the stampede to buy Ukrainian interceptor drones, among them the Qataris, since the Qataris aren’t using the jets, Ukraine certainly can.
Technically, this is true. Qatar has a lot of money, and it recently spent a bunch of it on a brand new air force made up of top-of-the-line French Rafale fighter jets, US F-15 fighter jets, and Eurofighters. What’s more, everyone can see that even though the Qataris are worried about Shaheds and the Ukrainians use Mirage 2000s to shoot down Shaheds, the Qataris have left their Mirage 2000s on the ground in their own war, against Iran. So the question is, how many dinky Ukrainian interceptor drones are worth a single Qatari Mirage 2000-5? Worth a Mirage image for sure.
In related news, Ukraine info platforms report there are about 200 Ukrainian “drone experts” now “deployed” to Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, and they are just appalled – I say again appalled – at how primitive and unprofessional drone defense standards are in that part of the world. There is a report bouncing around the Ukrainian internet today about someone, my guess the UAE, using $6 million SM-6 missiles to fire salvos at $30,000 Iranian drones – and missing.
But I am sure in due course the White House will tell us Iran is defeated and air defense in the Gulf is in sure hands. In fact the last section of this review is devoted, in a wider sense, to that narrative.
LATE ADDITION: Defense of Ukraine is reporting NATO did a naval exercise off the shore of Portugal in 2025, called REPMUS/Dynamic Messenger, and that the “red” team led by Ukraine and comprising US, British, Spanish and other units competed against the “blue” team, representing NATO forces, in five scenarios, and the Ukrainian-led team defeated the Alliance’s forces in all five scenarios, including “sinking” a NATO frigate and scoring “hits” with Magura sea drones against other warships and simulated cargo ships.
This is apropos particularly of the Strait of Hormuz and US calls for NATO to send ships to unblock it. Anyone paying attention in NATO – or heaven forbid the White House – might actually check the record and see that as recently as March 2, Ukrainian sea drones smacked into the oil loading terminal in Novorossiysk, and in December 2025 sea drones blew up a Russian missile submarine in port there.
Too much Chacha or an SVR/Mossad special op – You decide!
On Tuesday, a news item came down the pike: a US two-star general responsible for coordinating support for Ukraine left a tube of classified maps behind on a train in Europe – this from a Department of Defense inspector general report.
It seems the general in question, one Maj. Gen. Antonio Aguto was a senior US officer involved in American military assistance to Ukraine, the team is called SAG-U, and it’s based in Wiesbaden.
He first got in trouble in April 2024 because he “left” a cardboard tube with secret maps in it in his train compartment in a Ukrainian chartered train to Poland, and only notified his chain of command about it when he got back to Wiesbaden. Ukrainian law enforcers/HUR tracked down the maps and handed them over to the US Embassy in Ukraine. It seems possible that the sergeant put the maps in his compartment, and the general had no idea they were there, which was not exactly effective supervision by the general.
Next, the Inspector General (IG) found after interviewing 33 witnesses, Aguto apparently attended “a six-hour dinner” in Kyiv on May 13, supposedly for service reasons, during which he drank a liter of Georgian brandy. Witnesses described him as intoxicated. It seems that when two flunkies checked Aguto in his hotel room, he had fallen backward and smacked the back of his head against a wall and his forehead too. The next morning, he was scheduled to meet with the Secretary of State, was running late, and en route to the US Embassy, fell, hit his jaw on the sidewalk and tore his jacket. He told eyewitnesses he wasn’t feeling too well.
The US ambassador and embassy security officer observed Aguto slurring his words and acting “cognitively diminished.” He was taken to a hospital and treated for a concussion. The IG report says he broke rules because – not making this up – in his job, there is a rule that to drink more than two alcoholic beverages while on duty, you need to get a waiver, and he didn’t.
Aguto told the IG he had verbal permission from the commander of US Army Europe to drink at the dinner for cultural reasons. The IG findings also opined that Aguto was unpleasant to staff and oversaw a toxic work environment, although in part it may have been that some of his staff in Wiesbaden weren’t as serious about treating the Russo-Ukrainian War as a war as he was. Aguto was allowed to retire without penalties.
First the obvious: from the spy novel point of view, this absolutely could have been a Russian or Mossad operation. We only have the US Army’s word on what documents were compromised or how Aguto actually was injured, or indeed how long he wasn’t under observation by someone. At absolute minimum, this was the senior officer in the US-led arms and assistance effort for Ukraine. Maybe he was roughed up for information, and now we’re supposed to believe it was an accident by a goofball officer.
Second point – he wasn’t. As it turns out, Aguto is third-generation military, West Point, Aerospace Engineering (meaning he’s smart), went into armor, commanded in combat in Desert Storm, then did Bosnia, Iraqi Freedom, Afghanistan, etc. etc. Four bronze stars. So this was a guy with a glittering career and exactly the officer you would pick to put in charge of US-led arms and military supply deliveries, which was his job from 2022 to 2024. And now suddenly a guy like this is getting so drunk he’s whacking his head on the furniture? I’m not saying John Le Carre, but something doesn’t add up.
Final point, apparently the IG found that some of his staff in Wiesbaden found him too intense and war-focused for comfortable Rhineland, which some staff said led to “a toxic work atmosphere” and “poor working conditions.” The coordinating office’s chow hall didn’t work on weekends, which some troops under Aguto’s command saw as a hardship. Army Times said it was “a brutal operational tempo” and that part of the pressure was the Ukrainians demanding immediate answers, which I certainly can believe they did.
So all in all, maybe some of his troops ratted him out to the IG. An easy, if not classic, way for a subordinate to hang a boss out to dry is to allow the boss to violate a security rule instead of covering for him. Or maybe, the Russians or the Israelis figured out Aguto was under a lot of pressure and not liked by his subordinates, and figured out a way to exploit it. Not saying it happened that way, but getting so drunk you bust your face and the back of your head in your hotel room doesn’t seem credible to me.
The deja vu all over again section – USA stepping on Russian rakes in Iran – Yes, just this week
As before, reading this will not improve your situation awareness about Ukraine; this is just historical irony being documented.
- National Leader announces military operations are going so well that world economic disruption will be minimal: “Trump Says Hormuz Strait to Be Back to Normal Soon” (Sunday)
- National government (FCC) threatens media with shut-down for not reporting war news “the right way” (e.g., WSJ called a Kuwaiti F-18 blowing up three US F-15s in the air by accident a “shoot-down,” which was the wrong word and fake news.) (Saturday)
- National Leader says his army’s weapons are the very best (Trump on anti-drone tech: “The last person we need help from is Zelensky…we lead the world in that, actually”) Fri/Sat.
- Content (video) appears of the supposedly beaten country blowing up things owned by the big country in giant orange explosions; the big country declares it fake content. (Sunday)
- Satellite images appear documenting the explosions; the big country responds by shutting down public access to the imagery. (Monday)
- Just like Putin said: “All we need for the war to end is for Ukraine to stop resisting,” on Monday, Trump says: “It’s a little unfair, you know, you win a war… and they have no right to be doing what they are doing.
- Trump says the war “is basically over” and that Iran “is defeated,” meanwhile Iran keeps launching missiles and drones daily, including blowing up about 20% of Qatar’s gas export capacity in a single strike; Putin declared Ukraine “effectively defeated” after five days of war. (Monday)
- Just like the Kremlin was angry and offended NATO and the West objected to Putin’s invasion and their calling it “illegal,” Trump (Tuesday) was furious that NATO and the West weren’t willing to send naval forces to fight Iran in the Straits of Hormuz.
- Admiral Brad Cooper declares the Iranian navy “obliterated.” About 12 hours later, Iranian robot kamikaze boats set a pair of tankers on fire; (Wednesday); one of my favorite stats is the Russian Defense Ministry count of Ukrainian military aircraft losses. According to Russia, they’ve shot down the entire Ukrainian Air Force at least three times.
- Just like Putin said, sending his army into Ukraine was righteous because Ukraine was a menace to its neighbors. Hegseth said Iran must be defeated in war for the sake of peace (Thursday).
- Hegseth says the war plan is on track and operations are going well. Later on the same day he says the Pentagon needs $200 billion in additional funding because of the war (Friday).
Reprinted from Kyiv Post’s Special Military Correspondent Stefan Korshak’s blog. You can read his blog here.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.