5. In March, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights also recorded a total of 12 medical facilities and 32 educational facilities destroyed or damaged. 7/
6. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was attacked for the first time since November 2022. Russia accuses Ukraine, Ukraine accuses Russia of the attacks 8/ bbc.co.uk/news/world-eur…
Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the top U.S. military commander in Europe, warned that Ukraine could lose the war with Russia if the U.S. does not send more ammunition to Ukrainian forces quickly. 9/
7. Frontline Ukrainian forces are rationing artillery shells due to lack of a reliable Western supplier, allowing Russian troops to outfire them 5-to-1, a ratio that could soon increase to 10-to-1 without additional U.S. aid. 10/
8. Russia has reconstituted its army faster than initial U.S. estimates, increasing frontline troop strength by 15% to 470,000 and expanding the conscription age limit. Russia plans to expand its military to 1.5 million troops. 11/
9. Russian missile attacks on Ukraine's energy system, bombardment of Kharkiv, and advances along the front are stoking fears that Ukraine's military is nearing a breaking point. 12/
Western officials say Ukraine is at its most fragile moment in over two years of war.
Ukrainian officials don’t comment on the “breaking point” but increasingly voice alarming pleas for weapons and air defense 13/
There is a risk of Ukrainian defense collapse which could enable Russia to make a major advance for the first time since the early stages of the war. The next few months will be Ukraine's toughest test. 14/
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy urged his country's allies to make good on their promises of military aid on Thursday, particularly in the form of desperately needed air defence systems as Russia scales up its air strikes 15/
So, in short, Ukraine is running out of air defense and weapons, and Russia is taking advantage of it.
Russia can break through unless the West overcomes its political infighting and dysfunctionality to provide support to Ukraine
16/
Democracies are messy, I often hear, but it is the best system. True, but this mess currently makes democracies unable to effectively address Russian threat. It looks more and more like a lack of leadership rather than the usual weakness of democracies. 17X
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Keane: You do not need 10,000 troops to seize Iran’s uranium. The US controls the airspace.
The real threat is rockets and missiles. Another option is to threaten Kharg Island: give up enrichment, or lose more than 90% of your export lifeline. 1/
Keane: Trump’s blockade already shuts down Iran’s oil exports. Zero export oil leaves Iran under this order.
Kharg Island handles more than 90% of that flow, so cutting that artery hits Tehran hard and fast and strips away Tehran’s leverage. 2/
Keane: Iran misread the ceasefire. Tehran thought the shutdown gave it leverage and would push US negotiators into concessions.
Instead, talks collapsed, Trump wanted everything, and Washington’s answer was simple: absolutely not. 3/
Russian soldiers go to war for money, then pay it back to survive.
“I gave $650 to be moved to guard duty in Crimea. Others paid more. One guy said he pays more than he’ll ever earn. Someone turned this war into a business.” — Meduza. 1/
Commanders run it like a system.
Skip a mission: $2,600. Stay in the rear: up to $6,500. Soldiers pay again and again — every rotation, every order. 2/
They pay for everything.
Armor, radios, fuel, food. Units collect $400 monthly per soldier. Some give away $25k+ over time. 3/
Magyar: I will not actively seek ties with Russia, but if Putin calls me, I will pick up the phone and ask him to end the war.
Hungary is a free, independent European country, part of the EU and NATO, and that is how we will act in the world. 1/
Magyar: We cannot change geography. Russia will still be there and Hungary will still be here.
So we must diversify our energy supply for security and lower prices. That does not mean cutting ourselves off, it means buying oil and gas as safely and cheaply as possible. 2X
Peter Magyar just toppled Orban after 16 years in power.
He spent 20 years inside the very system he just brought down. Here is who he is. 1/
He grew up in a conservative family with deep roots in Hungarian politics.
His grandfather Pal Eross was a well-known TV personality and lawyer. His godfather Ferenc Madl served as President of Hungary from 2000 to 2005. 2/
In 2004 he graduated from the law faculty of Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest. After Fidesz took power in 2010 he was appointed to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 3/
Ground robotic systems went from an outsider idea to the backbone of Ukrainian army logistics. Viktor Pavlov, founder of the UGV School, writes for UP on how it happened and what still blocks Ukraine from winning the robot war. 1/
In 2022 Pavlov was in reconnaissance when his unit carried a wounded soldier 800 meters through a tree line under fire — left flank under enemy control, right flank the same. No way out.
“If we had a ground drone, we would have just put the guy on it and driven him out.” . 2/
The first UGV his unit tested: a 12 kg tracked drone ordered with private funds, arrived late 2022. They rebuilt the comms themselves, mounted cameras, printed parts on a 3D printer.
First combat test — Bakhmut direction in January 2023. 3/