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Roy🇨🇦 Profile picture
Roy🇨🇦
@GrandpaRoy2
🇨🇦 Grandfather | OSINT on Ukraine/Russia drone wars. FPV, EW, munitions. Follow for daily analysis from both sides. ❤️ Family, grandkids, history & reading.
Apr 27 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
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/ Image 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/ Image
Apr 25 • 11 tweets • 3 min read
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/
Apr 22 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
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/ Image
Apr 20 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Russian milblogger “Two Majors” complains that Ukraine is trying to push Russia out of Africa.

“On April 14, 2026, as part of the Food from Ukraine initiative, the first agrohub (Food Processing and Distribution Center) was opened in 🇬🇭Ghana.
1/ Image “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/
Apr 20 • 13 tweets • 4 min read
Russian milblogger Alexander Karchenko is concerned that Ukraine will win the war.

“On the Current Situation

Yes, we are not coping. All of us together. Both me and you, the one reading this text.
For four years we have lived in a state of suspension.
1/ Image “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/
Apr 13 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
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/ Image 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/ Image
Apr 10 • 9 tweets • 5 min read
The Russians are very concerned about the emergence of the Ukrainian “Hornet” strike UAV (Russian name: “Martian-2”) from Eric Schmidt's Swift Beat company.
It reportedly has autonomy and terrain-following capabilities that were previously seen on the Russian “V2U” strike UAV.
1/ Image Here, a Hornet UAV destroys a Russian “Zoo-1M” counter-battery radar.
The medium-range UAV can automatically detect, classify, and lock onto a target, as seen here by the on-screen tag “VEH/ARM” (armored vehicle).
2/
Apr 9 • 17 tweets • 4 min read
Ukrainian blogger Maria Berlinska of “Victory Drones” had a revealing conversation with a taxi driver from Russia.

“Late evening, I’m running late for the metro, so I call a taxi.
The driver’s profile appears in the app — high rating, 17 thousand rides.
1/ Image “I get in, we go. The driver asks for the address again, in Russian. That very Russian that I wouldn’t confuse with anything else. Neither with Russified Kharkiv, nor with Dnipro or Donbas. Russian from Russia.
2/
Apr 6 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The accelerometer in the flight controller (FC) of an FPV drone measures linear acceleration, helping the FC understand the drone’s current direction and the force with which it is moving.
1/ Image The solid-state accelerometer has a tiny “proof mass”suspended by springs.
When the drone accelerates or tilts, inertia shifts the mass slightly.
This movement is measured electronically along the X, Y, and Z axes, telling the FC the FPV’s direction and which way is down.
2/ Image
Apr 4 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The Telegram messenger app was supposedly blocked in Russia on April 1, but I have seen no change whatsoever in the activities of the many Russian channels that I follow.
On his channel, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov explains why:
1/ Image “😎 Telegram was banned in Russia — yet 65M Russians still use it daily via VPNs, with 50M+ sending messages every day. The government has spent years trying to ban VPNs too.
2/
Mar 31 • 10 tweets • 4 min read
Controlled Reception Pattern Antenna (CRPA) satellite navigation systems have played a crucial role in the electronic warfare (EW) struggle between Ukraine and Russia.
These electronic systems provide powerful protection against EW systems that try to jam GPS/GLONASS signals.
1/ Image GPS signals are extremely weak when they reach earth from the satellites 20,200 km overhead (10^{-16} watts!).
This makes jamming these signals (overwhelming with a stronger signal) relatively simple, and a powerful jammer can prevent reception of GPS signals over a wide area.
2/
Mar 30 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
The official journal of the israeli Defense Forces, Maarachot, has issued a warning that the IDF must not only operate FPVs but also dramatically upgrade its FPV countermeasure systems:
1/ Image “At a time when only Russia and Ukraine have achieved full-scale production of operational FPV systems and continue to improve and expand them, it becomes clear that the Israel Defense Forces need to make a leap forward not at the experimental or pilot level, ...
2/
Mar 29 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
A downed Ukrainian FP-2 medium-range strike UAV is equipped with both a Starlink and an anti-jamming four-element CRPA satellite navigation module.
Starlink functions over occupied Ukraine, including Crimea where many strikes of critical Russian equipment have been made,
1/ Image
Image
Image Over Russian territory, the ACH-5706 commercial CRPA system from the Ukrainian company KB Center provides GPS/GLONASS navigation.
For the final strike, an LTE modem with a Russian SIM card connects with a mobile network, allowing direct control by an operator in Ukraine.
2/ Image
Mar 27 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
The cows of peasant farmers are being slaughtered by the State in Siberia (apparently for hoof and mouth disease), which has caused much outrage in Russia.
Russian blogger “Russian's People's Militia” contrasts this to the silence about the tremendous loss of life in Ukraine:
1/ Image “I wanted to write a long and complicated text, but then I realized it was unnecessary.
This photo did it for me instead.
Everything here!
2/
Mar 27 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Russian blogger Alexei Zhivov believes that the catastrophic effects of the war in Ukraine and increasing bans and restrictions will result in a “Great Russian Exodus”.

“A purely subjective feeling from communicating with different people.
1/ Image “A series of bans, restrictions, and an increase in financial burdens against the backdrop of a five-year military conflict will do much more harm to us in the medium term than the military conflict itself.
2/
Mar 26 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
Ukraine's dynamic new Minister of Defense Mikhail Fedorov continues to really impress me:

“I held a closed meeting with assault troops and infantrymen from 13 units, who daily hold the front and personally carry out extremely difficult tasks.
1/ Image “Sergeants and soldiers are working on the Donetsk, Sumy, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, and Kherson fronts.

We discussed the real situation on the front and identified problematic issues: the duration of stay in positions, the complexity of entry and exit operations, …
2/
Mar 24 • 12 tweets • 3 min read
Russian milblogger Alexander Karchenko concludes that the absolute dominance of the battlefield by drones means that even a Russian mobilization would just increase losses with no breakthrough.

“On the realities of the front.
1/ “Drones have completely taken over the battlefield. In 2024, you could still get through on a motorcycle, in 2025, you could run through the landing zone, but now only the lucky ones reach their target. Aerial control is total.
2/
Mar 23 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
A reporter from 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘴𝘵 was admitted to Unmanned Forces Commander “Madyar's” headquarters with its “darkly eccentric atmosphere.”
In his tiny cubicle, Madyar explained his conviction that to defeat Russia, Ukraine must kill more Russians than can be replaced.
1/ Image He claims his command now kills 400 Russians for every one Ukrainian, and each kill costs just $878 in materials.

“We should be swapping plastic and metal for dead Russians. It’s the best exchange rate.”
2/
Mar 19 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
Ukrainian anti-UAV expert Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov analyses the Russian “Yolka” autonomous interceptor drone.

“I guess many will find this interesting. What I managed to find out about the 'Yolka' drone interceptor.
1/ “1. It only works during the day
2. It doesn't work in the rain
3. It works at wind speeds up to 8 m/s
4. Its flight range is 3 km
5. Its speed is 200 km/h
6. It doesn't have a combat unit

2/ Image
Mar 18 • 20 tweets • 3 min read
Russian blogger and (now former!) pro-Kremlin loyalist Ilya Remeslo has completely turned against Putin and his catastrophic war in Ukraine.
Remeslo charges that Putin is a war criminal and thief.

“Five reasons why I stopped supporting Vladimir Putin.

Someone had to say it.
1/ Image “1. The war in Ukraine.
Started as a "police operation", the war has already claimed 1-2 million victims.
In 2014, I supported the annexation of Crimea precisely because it was bloodless. We all thought then that Putin was a unifier of Russian lands.
2/
Mar 14 • 10 tweets • 3 min read
Commander of Ukrainian Unmanned Systems Forces “Madyar” will increase the size of his forces to 100,000, and speaks forcefully to draft dodgers and deserters that must come forward now to serve:
1/ Image “**Attention‼️ By April 1, the enemy’s unmanned systems forces will reach 100,000 personnel, and this is not an April Fool’s joke. More than a month ago, the drone units already had 86,000+ people working in them.
2/