1/ Russian soldiers are crawling up to Ukrainian minefields at night and disassembling them by hand.

A former "smart home" security engineer in Kyiv just figured out how to stop them. 🧵⤵️ 2/ Victor Shapovalov runs ZMIYAR, making electronic triggers for drone warheads.

Profitable business, thousands sold monthly.

But watching how minefields actually work at the front, he saw a massive problem, as reported in @DefenderMedia ... ⤵️

1/ EUROPE FACES MAKE-OR-BREAK WINTER WAR

Drones pound Ukrainian power plants. Russian pincers advance at Pokrovsk.

The free world's fate hinges on the next 3 months.

Here's an urgent, COLD-SHOWER frontline dispatch from MAGA Americans—including 2 close to Trump officials🧵⤵️ 2/ This eye-opening analysis comes from Dr. Douglas J. Davis, neuroradiologist volunteer for Ukraine, along with Florida-based MAGA political advisors Bert Watson & Mike Hightower, via @thecipherbrief.

Now back in the US, they recently came under fire in Ukraine ⤵️

1/ Ukrainian fighter pilot Vadym Voroshylov says Sweden's Gripen is "the only fighter jet in the world I'd sell my soul for."

Stockholm and Kyiv have struck a deal on this workhorse Swedish fighter.

Here's why the Gripen is so vital to Ukraine 🇺🇦🇸🇪 🧵⤵️ 2/ Sweden and Ukraine have agreed in theory on Gripens—with a plan that could scale to 100–150 jets, with manufacturer Saab even open to final-assembly work in Ukraine if the deal lands.

While American fighter jets are seen as the gold standard, ace pilot Vadym prefers Gripen ⤵️

1/ Trump's rhetoric on Ukraine has fundamentally shifted.

Before: "We need to stop the killing" (making Russia & Ukraine sound equal)

Now: "Stop the Russian war machine" (calling out the aggressor)

But Ukraine is STILL blowing their chance to close the deal.

Here's why 🧵⤵️ 2/ On Thursday Trump's Treasury secretary sanctioned Russia's two largest oil companies, calling them fuel for "the Kremlin's war machine."

This is huge. The White House finally acknowledges Russia must be stopped.

But they STILL don't believe in or even understand Ukraine. ⤵️

1/ A Ukrainian father built toy tanks for children's parks. Then Russia invaded.

Now his combat robots are hunting real Russian tanks on the battlefield.

This is the wild story of how one inventor went from amusement rides to building Ukraine's robot army 🧵⤵️ 2/ As @DefenderMediaUA reports, the transformation of Tank Bureau perfectly captures Ukraine's wartime innovation spirit.

In 2017, Dmytro Mamonov was building mini T-34 replicas for kids to ride in Kyiv parks ... ⤵️

1/ "In Donbas, Ukrainians are killing waves of Russians on motorbikes—

—but when the Russians stall at the front, they bomb Ukrainian cities.”

A trusted frontline Ukrainian officer told me how Ukraine is holding the line—and the ONE plot-changing thing Trump can do 🧵⤵️ 2/ The hinge is Pokrovsk, a Ukrainian town meaning "protection of the Virgin Mary."

For 13 months, self-serving, lazy Western media & think-tank “experts” predicted it would fall to Russia:

Sept ’24, Dec ’24, June ’25, July, last week…

It hasn’t. Ukraine keeps holding.⤵️

🧵 1/ Yesterday, Russia bombed Ukraine's most Catholic city.

Despite the air raid, people walked to Mass. Priests chanted in Latin as walls shook.

Every virtue @JDVance says Europe has lost is alive in Lviv.

And Putin wants it erased before MAGA learns the truth. 🧵⤵️ 2/ At dawn on October 5, Russia sent Kinzhal hypersonic missiles and scores of killer drones in the biggest attack on Lviv since World War II.

Journalist David Kirichenko (@DVKirichenko) reports in @Forbes: This was targeted—at Ukraine's Catholic and cultural heart. ⤵️

1/ See the fire here? That's a Russian oil refinery.

The Russian War Machine, though insanely violent, is proving to be a paper tiger when you strike its heart.

It's drones, rather than diplomats, who are making this possible.

Here's what Trump is starting to see. 🧵⤵️ 2/ Ukraine has knocked offline 38% of Russia’s oil refineries, forced its Black Sea navy into retreat, and built a drone wall accounting for 80% of Russian equipment losses.

As David Kirichenko (@DVKirichenko) reports via the @LowyInstitute, Russia is facing chaos. ⤵️

1/ Today is the Feast of the Protective Veil of the Virgin Mary—"Pokrovsk" in Ukrainian.

Pokrovsk is ALSO a besieged city that's held on as THE protective veil of the eastern front.

Experts said it would fall a year ago.

The media is missing this amazing story.🧵⤵️ 2/ The headlines in 2024:

“Pokrovsk might fall to Russia”—Euronews, Aug 30

“Pokrovsk…packing up fast, Russians 7 miles away”—Guardian, Aug 27

“Pokrovsk on cusp of falling”—Al Jazeera, Sept 4

“Just 1.5 km outside Pokrovsk”—Reuters, Dec 13

👋 It's 2025. Pokrovsk holds. ⤵️

1/ Russia’s Iranian-designed Shahed drones have terrorized Ukraine’s cities for 3 years.

These flocks of cheap flying bombs drain air defences and murder people in their sleep.

Now a startup in Lviv has unveiled Ukraine’s homemade answer: the KROOK-1. 🧵⤵️ 2/ According to @DefenderMediaUA, Lviv mil-tech firm First Parsec revealed KROOK-1 at the IT Arena tech conference last week (@itarenaua).

The company says it’s Ukraine’s first 'pulsejet kamikaze drone' ⤵️

1/ “My former unit would not last 48 hours out there.”

That’s what a US Special Forces veteran said after seeing Ukraine’s front lines.

Eighteen months later, dozens more ex-soldiers echo the same DIRE warning: The West is NOT ready. 🧵⤵️ 2/ Western militaries—trained for Iraq, Afghanistan, & “traditional” wars—are unprepared for the drone swarm battlefields of Ukraine.

In their arrogance, they think Ukraine's situation is something they will never have to face.

🎥imagine if these 🇨🇳drones were armed 😱⤵️

1/ Ukraine just dropped SIX new battlefield robots at once.

From drone motherships to med-evac robots, Ukrainian garage-tech innovation is putting Big Defense in shock.

@SecWar, bring this briefing to the next Cabinet meeting. 🧵⤵️ 2/ @DefenderMediaUA got an inside look at the new releases from Ukrainian startup @devdroid_tech at Lviv's annual buzzing IT Arena conference, @itarenaua, which I just attended.

Here’s the brilliant new kit that can help stop the Sino-Russian War Machine👇⤵️

🚨 Six extraordinary takeaways from Trump's transformative post about Ukraine!

🧵⤵️ 1. For the first time an American president says Ukraine can WIN:

"I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form."

No more "as long as it takes" ... ⤵️

1/ The ways Ukrainians and Russians define the words "victory," "crime," and "hospital" explain the VAST difference between the two nations—

—and it shows that Ukraine and Russia are polar extremes of how to live on this planet.

Thread 🧵⤵️ 2/ WORD ONE—VICTORY.

In Russian, victory is "pobeda," literally meaning "after the misery."

In Ukrainian, victory is "peremoha" = "over or beyond limits/ability."

Spot the difference?

1/ Ukraine's soldiers hack robots in the trenches.

Weapons that lasted 6 months in 2022 are now obsolete in DAYS.

One reporter went alone to the frontlines. What he found shows that the Pentagon is catastrophically unprepared.🧵⤵️ 2/ These insights come from David Kirichenko (@DVKirichenko), speaking on Jonathan Fink's @CurtainSilicon podcast.

Kirichenko isn't a hotel-rooftop reporter. American son of Ukrainian refugees, he drives alone to the front with no team or extraction plan. ⤵️

🚨 RUSSO-IRANIAN KILLER DRONES ARE OVER POLAND/NATO RIGHT NOW.

We have reports of Polish/Nato air defense working against this Russian incursion.

Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, & the Netherlands have fighters up.

Meanwhile, scores of Russian drones are over Ukraine. Rzeszów Airport in eastern Poland is shutdown due to the Russian killer drone threat.

1/ On Sunday mornings, Russia sends bombs.
Ukraine sends prayers.

Russia is not a Christian nation.
In fact, by practice, it's Islamic.

And here’s the kicker: Ukraine has more churchgoers than Russia—even though Russia is 4x bigger.

Putin lies. Numbers don't 🧵⤵️ 2/ In Russia, at least 1 in 3 active worshipers are Muslim, who make up about 10% of the population.

Meanwhile, not even 6% of Russian Orthodox worship weekly.

The churches have been empty since the Bolsheviks’ 1917 war on Christianity. ⤵️

1/ Nixon warned in 1992:

Russia without communism would become MORE dangerous. And he was right.

He also gave another prediction: a way to stop it 🧵⤵️ 2/ In March 1992—just months after the USSR's collapse—former President Richard Nixon issued a chilling memo to President George H.W. Bush:

“A new Russian despotism, unburdened by the dying faith in communism… will be even more dangerous than Soviet totalitarianism." ⤵️

1/ When China invades Taiwan, will they be unprepared like Russia was in Ukraine?

No. Every month brings new proof that Chinese–Russian military cooperation is more than smiles at Beijing parades.

Hacked documents show China is studying, planning, and learning fast. 🧵⤵️ 2/ The hacktivists @blackmoon_group are leaking Russian defense files.

Latest drop: June 2024—Moscow sent Beijing the 7th package of Sword-208 Taiwan invasion plans.

We know from prior leaks that Sword 208 is a digital playbook + control software for an amphibious landing ⤵️

1/ Putin’s sneakiest weapon in Ukraine isn’t a missile.

It's an Islamist-style terror network masquerading as Orthodox churches.

Fact: 85% of Ukrainians are Christian. Only 4% follow Moscow’s clergy, who work for Putin.

Ukraine's Christians (📸) lead the resistance🧵⤵️ 2/ This explosive report comes from Steven Moore (@MooreUSA), a Republican former congressional chief of staff now based in Kyiv, helping America understand Ukraine.

His org, Ukraine Freedom Project, just dropped A Faith Under Siege—a film exposing Putin’s war on Christians. ⤵️

1/ Are NATO forces in Ukraine? That's what Russians want to believe.

Which is why they force Ukrainian prisoners of war to march chanting nursery rhymes in German, English, and Polish.

A look at school-shooter level of twisted degeneracy ... 🧵⤵️ 2/ Friends who work with recently exchanged Prisoners of War are sending me testimonies from Ukrainians who survived these bizarre Russian camps.

Let's descend into a twisted world, as narrated by one of the Snake Island heroes, now back in Ukraine ⤵️