“Forget neat schemes. In reality, everything is simpler and tougher: you go, do the task, and at some point someone shouts ‘air!’, or you hear the sound yourself. Then you have no options, only seconds.
2/
“And it's not the one who knows the theory who survives, but the one who already has a reflex reaction.
The first thing that breaks people is the delay. Half a second to understand, another second to look and that's it. FPV is already on the way out.
3/
“The right reaction: heard it, moved immediately, no discussion. You're not looking for the perfect shelter, you're already moving towards the nearest one, breaking the line of sight. The most common death-standing, watching, trying to determine. While determining-it arrives.
4/
“Moving under FPV is not about running somewhere. It's a sharp, jerky shift away from the line of sight. Running straight means leading the drone to yourself.
5/
“You need to break its picture: a step to the left, a dash forward, moving behind a corner, under a tree, into a trench with a turn. Any geometry that blocks the direct approach is your chance. But it's important: don't get yourself into a dead end.
6/
“People often dive into the first room or hide without a way out and then they get caught up.
A shelter should give you a maneuver further, not be the last point.
In the trenches, survival depends not on being deeper, but on having curves and overlaps.
7/
“A straight trench is a corridor where the drone goes like on rails. There's a turn - there's a chance. There's a canopy, a net, any overlap - a higher chance. There's nothing above - so you're just in a ditch, which is visible as on the palm of your hand.
8/
In the city, everything is about angles and entrances. A doorframe, an arch, a stairwell, a gap in the wall - these are what break the drone's line of attack. But even here, a mistake: people rush into the room and stay at the entrance. The drone then enters.
9/
“Having moved further, change the level, get out of the direct line. The one who didn't hide, but disappeared from the geometry, works.
Now about the moment when the drone is already on a short leash. If there's an opportunity - counterfire.
10/
“Yes, 12 caliber is a working topic at close ranges, but only if your hands can do it. Without practice, it's a lottery. Therefore, in a normal group, it's clear in advance who can meet the drone and who leaves at this moment and doesn't interfere.
11/
“Chaotic shooting by everyone at once is noise and zero result. You need one or two who can really hit, the rest - break the line.
A very important point that many ignore: the drone is rarely alone. The first is on reconnaissance or is pressing, the second is on finishing.
12/
“You've fought off one, relaxed and got hit by the second, third or fourth. Therefore, after any contact with FPV - change your position immediately, even if you don't have the strength anymore.
And another about observation. Often a hit is the final.
13/
“Before it, you're being watched: where you walk, where you smoke, where you stand. If you live by the template, you're already in the crosshairs. Therefore, if ‘air is quiet’ - it's not a reason to relax.
14/
“It's a reason to assume that you've already been noted and are waiting for a convenient moment.
There are no ideal shelters, there are those that break the line of attack.
15/
“Remember the simple chain:
heard it, broke off, broke the trajectory, went under an overhang, changed position.
Hesitated at any stage -
you become a point into which they enter.”
16/16
The Russians have failed to develop an equivalent of Ukraine’s successful Sky Fortress acoustic system that detects and tracks Shahed UAVs
Russian bloggers are angry that a recent 1,800 km Ukrainian UAV strike past the Ural Mountains went undetected by Russian air defenses. 1/
Sky Fortress is a system of microphones mounted on cellular towers connected to central processing nodes.
AI algorithms detect the distinctive sound of Geran-2 (Shahed) engines, enabling mobile ground fire teams to be dispatched and stationed ahead of the UAV's flight path. 2/
“We have been proposing this [acoustic] option constantly since 2023. But the Aerospace Forces command has also ignored this option. As a result - the current situation.
3/
Russian blogger “Military Manager” has described the tactics of Russian “Molniya” strike UAVs used to minimize the heavy losses occurring to Ukrainian interceptor FPVs.
“1. Your target is in a forest belt in the enemy's notional rear area. 10-15km from the front line. 1/
“Several villages behind the LBS [Line of Contact] are directly on the route. How will you fly? The answer is obvious. Of course, we will bypass all NP [settlements] and the forest strips that are part of it.
2/
“Air-defense positions are always placed next to the enemy’s key assets.
For reference: the target is only 17 km away from us in a straight line, but we are taking a detour route 27 km long.
3/
I just reread Adam Tooze's magisterial The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy, and the parallels with Russia's deteriorating wartime economy are striking.
By the late 1930s, Hitler's massive rearmament program consumed 20% of national income.
1/
The result was a civilian sector starved of labor, materials, and capital.
Consumer goods production was squeezed, infrastructure lagged, and bottlenecks spread across the country.
Despite headline armaments growth, overall productivity was undermined. 2/
This imbalance drove hidden deficits, liquidity strain, and chronic shortages.
With domestic consumption suppressed and foreign exchange limited, the German system became increasingly unstable.
This perversely supported the Nazi ideology of the necessity of conquest.
3/
“The population is being lured with free food – a mixture of flour and rice (4,000 kits were distributed at the opening), and the authorities with bribes.
✨As a result, Ukraine plans to obtain a logistics and production center for all of West Africa.
2/
“Under the guise of a humanitarian program, the hub will become a distribution center for Ukrainian agricultural products, reducing logistics costs for other countries in the region, which is aimed at long-term consolidation in the African market.
3/
“The army fights, while the rest could pretend it didn’t concern them. The regrouping on the Kharkiv direction gave an impulse for change, but that impulse quickly faded.
2/
“After repelling the 2023 counteroffensive, we convinced ourselves that victory would simply fall into our hands. We just needed to wait.
It didn’t.
3/
Ukrainian “Vampire” heavy bomber drones are switching to Starlink communications, allowing operators to stay hundreds of kilometers from the deadly grey zone.
Previously, Vampires relied on radio and GPS for control and navigation—both highly vulnerable to jamming. 1/
GPS jamming or spoofing from Ukrainian electronic warfare (EW) systems, targeting incoming Russian “Geran-2” drones, can also down nearby Vampires.
Starlink provides immunity to EW, and its expanding use magnifies Russia’s loss of Starlink since its disconnection by Elon Musk. 2/