1/11 Baseless doom and gloom: war is not just a matter of quantity, but also of quality. Analysis by @joni_askola
2/11 There is a great deal of doom and gloom surrounding russia's purported army regeneration and increased resources. These assessments focus solely on quantity rather than quality. Furthermore, they place trust in russian figures, which are almost always deceitful.
3/11 The individuals discussing russia's military resurgence overlook the fact that Ukraine has substantially bolstered its armed forces during the same timeframe. As a result, Ukraine's army is now considerably more capable than it was at the beginning of the full-scale war.
4/11 russia is presently depleting its resources at a rate far exceeding its production capacity. To compensate, it is utilizing older Soviet-era resources from its stockpiles. However, this equipment is outdated and of inferior quality compared to the machinery it is replacing.
5/11 Within 18 to 24 months, russia will deplete its supply of Soviet-era resources, leading to a highly challenging predicament. It is unfeasible for russian production to ramp up sufficiently within this timeframe.
6/11 Prior to this depletion, the quality of russia's equipment will continue to decline, while Ukraine's equipment quality will improve through Western assistance. Most Western weapon systems are significantly superior to those of russia.
7/11 If wars were solely determined by quantity, Russia would have already invaded Ukraine, and the USSR would have conquered Finland in a matter of days. However, quality also plays a significant role. In the case of Ukraine, its Western weapons are of superior quality.
8/11 russia's invasion of Ukraine has been a dismal failure, as it has not succeeded in capturing any of the 23 regional capitals and special status cities that Ukraine controlled at the onset of the war.
9/11 The upcoming months will pose significant challenges as Ukraine mobilizes and trains troops, simultaneously defending the front lines, constructing defensive barriers, and awaiting the arrival of military aid.
10/11 Should Ukraine endure the next few months without substantial territorial or human losses, its situation is poised to improve by the year's end. russia's window of opportunity is gradually narrowing, and the disparity in quantity between russia and Ukraine will diminish.
Vladimir Putin has stopped appearing at public events in the Kremlin after details emerged about a US and Israeli operation to eliminate Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. As previously reported by Financial Times, before the strike Israeli intelligence tracked
Khamenei’s movements using hacked surveillance cameras. According to calculations by the outlet “Agentstvo,” the last time Putin held a public event in the Kremlin was on March 9 - a meeting on the situation in the global oil and gas market. After that, according to the
presidential press service, he met several times with regional governors, the Minister of Education, and the head of Sberbank, and also participated in Security Council meetings via video link. However, as “Agentstvo” notes, such meetings are often recorded in advance,
The Estonian initiative currently being discussed in the EU to ban former Russian army combatants from entering the Schengen area should become a model for others. And here is why. The issue is not only that they pose a threat to society through the risk of committing crimes -
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these individuals also pose a threat to state integrity. At present, citizens from more than 120 countries and unrecognized territories are fighting on Russia’s side. The largest numbers of mercenaries come from countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Nepal
Armenia, Moldova, Georgia, China, India, Egypt, as well as numerous African countries. These individuals are trained fighters who have undergone military preparation in an army where nearly 200,000 personnel are criminals recruited from penal colonies, pre-trial detention centers
Russia’s war around Iran may provide only a temporary reprieve through higher oil prices but it cannot fix its deep economic problems - for higher oil revenues to meaningfully support the budget, prices would have to remain extremely high almost all year, which is unlikely
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given global pressures to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. On this backdrop the Russian budget has already entered a crisis phase - the deficit for the first two months was about 3.5 trillion rubles against an annual plan of 3.8 trillion rubles, meaning almost the entire planned
deficit accumulated in January–February, and much of the current spending now goes to servicing past obligations and debt rather than development. Additional confirmation of systemic crisis came unexpectedly from Vladimir Solovyov - in a broadcast seen in the Russian Far East
The Baltic states and Finland are increasingly considering the use of natural landscapes as an element of defense on NATO’s eastern flank. The idea is not only to build traditional fortifications, but also to make the terrain itself less passable for a potential advancing
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force. Among the measures being discussed is the restoration of bogs, peatlands and other wetlands that could serve as natural barriers for heavy vehicles and slow the movement of troops. The idea is being actively discussed in Lithuania, Latvia and Finland. For example,
Latvia is considering restoring former peat extraction sites along its eastern border. After drainage canals are closed, such areas quickly fill with water and turn into bogs and water bodies. This approach would both repair environmental damage caused by past extraction and
Investigative journalists, together with European security services, have established that Russian leader Vladimir Putin instructed a group of political technologists and Russia’s military intelligence to interfere in Hungary’s parliamentary elections in April in order to
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secure the victory of incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Putin assigned responsibility for "handling" Hungary to Sergei Kiriyenko, the first deputy head of the presidential administration, who is considered the architect of Russia’s entire infrastructure of political
influence, both domestically and abroad. Kiriyenko was also behind the Russian interference campaign during Moldova’s 2024 presidential election. At that time, Russia used vote-buying networks, troll farms, and local activists to shape public opinion against the pro-Western
Another large anti-corruption operation is underway in Ukraine. Law enforcement officers exposed the Commander of Logistics of the Ukrainian Air Force, Andrii Ukrainets, and the head of the Security Service department in Zhytomyr region, Volodymyr Kompanichenko, over
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corruption during the construction of aircraft shelters. This was announced by Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Ruslan Kravchenko. "This was the largest special operation in recent years. Documentation of the criminal activity lasted about two months. The most difficult task was
ensuring full confidentiality of the process. One of the suspects - a high-ranking SBU official - had a deep understanding of the tactics and algorithms of investigative and covert investigative actions. Given this, it was necessary to act with maximum caution, using methods