🧵1/ russia's summer offensive is underway.

Putin is more confident than ever that russia can outlast Ukraine and the West.

As 700,000 russian troops push across multiple fronts, and with Trump always "two weeks" away from a decision, Putin thinks he can win. 2/ In late June, Putin repeated his old claim: "Russians and Ukrainians are one people… All of Ukraine is ours."

His strategy?

Continue to expand the war, overwhelm Ukraine’s defenses, and bet that the West gives up first.

🧵1/ Ukraine isn’t just fighting Russian troops - it’s battling remnants of its Soviet military past.

A new generation of generals is clashing with old thinking that threatens battlefield effectiveness.

Here's why that matters now more than ever: 2/ Maj. Gen. Mykhailo Drapatyi is at the center of this shift.

After a deadly Russian strike killed over 70 trainees on June 1, Drapatyi resigned in protest, saying an army “where no one is responsible for a defeat is dying from within.”

🧵1/ Why Ukraine’s AI drones aren’t a breakthrough — yet.

Despite early excitement, autonomous targeting drones haven’t changed the battlefield.

But development continues, and the long-term potential remains significant. 2/ AI-enabled drones promise a lot:

No jamming

No need for constant operator control

Potential for swarm attacks

But as of mid-2025, the reality has lagged behind.

🧵1/ While governments debated, a team of 150 engineers and volunteers quietly helped Ukraine outpace Russia’s battlefield tech — delivering life-saving tools in weeks, not years.

Meet Defense Tech for Ukraine (DTU) — a grassroots defense innovation group.👇 2/ DTU isn't a traditional defense contractor.

It's a distributed network of engineers, veterans, and frontline soldiers who collaborate remotely to solve real battlefield problems — quickly.

🧵1/ Belarusian soldiers fighting for Ukraine are risking their lives — and being left in limbo.

They’ve taken up arms to defeat Russian imperialism and hope it will help free Belarus from dictatorship.

But Kyiv is failing them by not giving them citizenship. 2/ Pavel Shurmei, an Olympic rower and commander of the Kastus Kalinouski Regiment, flew in from the U.S. after the full-scale invasion.

“When my wife in Mykolaiv texted that they were bombing the city, I packed up and left,” he said.

🧵1/ The CIA helped rebuild Ukraine’s shattered spy services after 2014.

What they created is now one of the most feared covert forces on Earth — a modern-day Mossad that hunts Russian war criminals across 3 continents.

Now, the U.S. can’t stop what it started👇 2/ After 2014, Ukraine’s spy agencies were riddled with Russian moles and dysfunction.

The CIA stepped in.

They trained a new generation, poured millions into covert capabilities, and helped rebuild Ukraine's defense intellgience (HUR).

🧵1/ The Axis of Evil is deepening their technical cooperation.

Western lawmakers need to be more concerned.

Chinese & Iranian engineers are now working side-by-side with Russians to refine drone technologies, which could soon threaten the West. 2/ President Zelenskyy confirmed China has cut drone sales to Ukraine while still supplying Russia.

“There are Chinese representatives on production lines inside Russia,” he said.

🧵1/ Ukraine launched one of the boldest drone operations in modern history: a coordinated strike on four Russian airbases using smuggled drones hidden in cargo containers.

Putin is silent. Commentators are in shock.

Russian intel is wondering what's coming next. 2/ Codenamed Operation Spider’s Web, the plan involved moving modified shipping containers and over 100 FPV drones into Russia.

The drones were stored in trucks and remotely activated to strike strategic bombers at multiple airfields.

🧵1/ Kyiv bombed the Kerch Bridge for a third time using underwater explosives.

Expect future attacks combining underwater drones, sea drones, and missiles.

Ukraine is transforming warfare faster than anyone can keep up with. 2/ Ukraine’s navy was nearly nonexistent in 2022. Today, it has built a fleet of uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) that have forced Russia’s Black Sea fleet to retreat.

Sea drones have become the centerpiece of Ukraine’s naval strategy.

🧵1/ On June 1, Ukraine pulled off one of the most devastating drone strikes in modern military history. Kyiv destroyed $7B worth of Russian aircraft in a single day.

Behind it is a story of homegrown tech innovation and battlefield adaptation (+ the genius of UA intel). 2/ The attack, dubbed Operation Spiderweb, used AI-trained drones launched from smuggled trucks to hit four Russian airbases.

41 aircraft — including strategic bombers — were damaged or destroyed. It's the biggest one-day loss for Russia’s air force since WWII.

🧵1/ Ukraine Cites Mossad as Assassinations Multiply

Kyiv’s patiently constructed intelligence services and their assassins have more targets in their sights.

It's a clear message to russian war criminals. 2/ In late April, Ukrainian MP and ex-special forces commander Col. Roman Kostenko publicly stated:

Ukraine would follow Mossad’s example in hunting down those responsible for wartime atrocities for the next 10 to 30 years.

🧵1/ Fiber-optic drones continue to expand on the battlefield.

They're also much harder to stop.

Both Ukraine and Russia are turning to fiber-optic drones that can’t be jammed, as both sides look for an edge.

Let’s break down what’s happening. 👇 2/ Fighting in russia’s Kursk region became a test lab for fiber-optics.

One UA commander reported a surge in Russian drones - especially fiber-optic FPVs - saying “you can’t jam them” and that Ukraine has lost a lot of equipment.

This helped the Russians immensely in Kursk.

🧵1/ Russia’s war against Ukraine isn’t just about territory - it’s also a battle over memory and identity.

Vladimir Putin aims not only to conquer Ukraine but to erase its past and rewrite its history. 2/ Since 2014 and especially after the full-scale invasion in 2022 - Ukraine has worked to remove Soviet-era symbols, including hundreds of Lenin statues.

By 2021, the last Lenin on public land was gone.

In contrast, Russian-occupied areas are seeing Lenins return.

🧵1/ Viktor Orbán’s imperial dreams.

Covert ops in Ukraine to becoming a hub in the EU for China and Putin, Orbán is laying the groundwork for something much bigger - and far more dangerous - for Europe.

Let’s unpack what’s happening. 👇 2/ Ukraine recently exposed a Hungarian military intel network operating in Zakarpattia - a Ukrainian region with a sizable Hungarian minority.

The goal?

Quiet preparation for future territorial claims under the “protecting ethnic minorities” excuse (like russia does).

🧵1/ While Putin parades his power in Moscow, Ukraine is quietly hunting down Russian war criminals.

The Kremlin may act unbothered, but their propagandists are already panicking.

Here’s what Ukraine is up to. 👇 2/ In April, a car bomb in Moscow killed Yaroslav Moskalik, a top Russian general involved in war planning.

He wasn’t the first. Ukraine’s SBU and HUR have been systematically targeting Russian officers linked to war crimes.

🧵1/ Putin is acting tough, but the cracks are showing.

His offensives are costing thousands of lives for inches of land.

Meanwhile, Ukraine is growing stronger technologically as cheap drones inflict up to 80% of russian casualties. 2/ Over 3 years of war, Russia has lost nearly 1 million soldiers killed or wounded.

Putin knows time is running out - he’s in his 70s and desperate to revive a dying empire.

That’s why he's growing increasingly paranoid, even having ceremonial guards searched for weapons.

🧵1/ Moscow is brainwashing Ukrainian children into delivering bombs — without telling them they will die in attacks.

This is the next phase of Moscow’s hybrid war: weaponizing children. 2/ In March, two Ukrainian teenagers were recruited via Telegram to plant a bomb in Ivano-Frankivsk.

Russian agents detonated it remotely.
One boy died instantly. The other survived, badly injured.

🧵1/ Meet the Belarusian Cyber Partisans

The anonymous hackers who disrupted Putin’s war plans, derailed Russian logistics, and exposed the repression machine behind Europe’s last dictatorship.

A thread on a small team (@cpartisans) making a big impact. 👇 2/ When Russia launched its invasion in 2022, it expected to take Kyiv in three days.

But a group of hackers in Belarus quietly disrupted those plans, stalling Russian troop movements by targeting the very railways they depended on.

🧵1/ Ukraine is now a drone superpower.

🇺🇦 Ukrainian wartime innovation offers important lessons. Kyiv is showing us what the future of warfare looks like.

Here’s what Ukraine is teaching NATO. 👇 2/ For years, Ukraine trained under NATO guidance. But today, it’s a two-way street.

NATO instructors still teach - but now they also take notes.

Ukraine is fighting the largest European war since WWII - and doing so with unmatched tech agility.

🧵1/ “Kill a navy for the price of a car.” ⚓

Ukraine’s $250K sea drones are dismantling Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and now their air force — these drones sink warships, shoot down fighter jets and helicopters, and are transforming naval warfare.

Here's how they're doing it.👇 2/ In 2014, Russia stole Crimea and 70% of Ukraine’s navy. Ukraine had no functional navy to challenge russia.

Today? Ukraine’s sea drones have driven that fleet 435 miles back.

The Black Sea is no longer russia’s lake.

🧵1/ How well does the West really understand Ukraine?

For centuries, Ukraine has been viewed as a subcategory of Russia. That misunderstanding helped pave the way for war - and continues to shape how the West deals with both Kyiv and Moscow today.

Let’s break it down.👇 2/ When Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, many Western analysts predicted Ukraine would fall in 72 hours.

They didn’t understand the country they were watching.

Ukraine didn’t just survive. It pushed Russia back. Now it's year four of Russia's war.