McFaul: The old Cold War was autocrats versus Democrats, communists versus the free world. Now we have great power competition and battles within states — Hungary, Italy, France, UK, United States. Putin has invested in these relationships for decades. 1/ McFaul: I didn’t like how Trump talked about Putin early on — he was naive. I see autocrats versus Democrats; he sees strong versus weak leaders. When a strong leader clashes with him, he’s annoyed — that’s a good thing. 2/

Russian drones hunt Ukrainian repair crews fixing power lines and rails

In Chernihiv, a Lancet drone hit a truck mid-repair. Anatoliy Savchenko, 47, crawled out with a broken leg. His partner, Ruslan Deynega, 46, ran to help. A second drone struck and killed them both - Times 1/ Moscow uses “double-tap” tactics. Drones strike once, then again when rescuers arrive.

Ukraine’s energy ministry says Russia uses the same method as in Syria. It killed over 100 Ukrainian rescuers and 7 energy workers and wounded more than 350. 2/

Singaporean Minister, Lee Hsien Loong: Europe knows its challenge - Russia, successor to USSR - and relies on NATO for defense.

Asia’s picture is different: China as a big power, but most don’t see it as a threat. We do business with them, and prosper because they prosper. 1/ Lee Hsien Loong: Between America and China there are deep contradictions that will not disappear. The U.S. sees China as a “pacing challenge,” catching up in tech, military, and nuclear power.

China says development is its right - a red line. Neither side can afford a fight. 2/

Donetsk surgeon Ihor Nazarenko, spent 8 years in “DNR” torture chambers: Two men stopped me at the hospital, put a bag over my head, handcuffed me and took me to isolation.

There I was interrogated all day, tortured with electric shocks, forced to answer questions, Suspilne. 1/ Ihor Nazarenko: After torture, they forced me to sign papers — resistance meant more pain.

In the “DNR” prison cellar there were no windows, heat, or toilets, just insects and mold. We froze through winter, six months in hell. “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” 2/

Zelenskyy: In Pokrovsk, the enemy has not had any success in recent days. 26-30% of all combat operations on the front take place in Pokrovsk.

50% of all Russian glide bombs are dropped at Pokrovsk. So you understand how difficult it is for us. 1/ Zelenskyy: We don't communicate much about strikes on our production lines. Sometimes it happens, it is postponed, it is restored.

All our factories are restored. We have not lost a single type of long-range weapon to date. Sometimes mass production slows. 2/

The UK has resupplied Ukraine with more Storm Shadow missiles [has hit Bryansk Chemical Plant, one of Russia's biggest] for long-range strikes inside Russia — Bloomberg.

The move ensures Kyiv is stocked for winter.

1/ Britain’s deliveries come as Trump again ruled out sending Tomahawk missiles.

Storm Shadows — range 250 km — have helped Ukraine strike deep targets, including a Russian chemical plant hit in October.

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McFaul: If Russia stayed quasi-democratic and integrated with Europe, it could be one of the most important countries now.

Instead, Putin overreached in Ukraine. He wrecked Russia's economy and slaughtered young people. His autocracy and imperialism set Russia back decades. 1/ McFaul: One of Putin’s top officials told me in 2014: ‘We care more about Ukraine than you Americans do.

And we have longer attention spans than you.’ I think about that every day. I hope he’s wrong, but some days, I fear he’s right. 2/

Serhii Plokhy: What Putin is doing now to Ukraine would be like Trump claiming not Canada but Britain.

Because that’s where the origins of the political system, language, and ideas Americans see as their own were born. A state on the periphery reclaiming its former metropole. 1/ Plokhy: Ukrainian nation is led by a president with Jewish background, a Crimean Tatar as defense minister, and an ethnic Russian general from Russia.

Ukraine’s political nation has become immune to the language-and-religion card — united across ethnic and linguistic lines. 2/

Keane: Ukraine wants Tomahawk missiles to take down major factories and bombers delivering cruise and ballistic missiles.

We call that "escalation", but it’s defensive — to stop Putin’s military killing civilians and destroying energy infrastructure with winter coming. 1/ Keane: We’re far from this war ending. Russia hasn’t changed its goals — topple Ukraine’s government, control it, and use it to expand into Europe.

Putin’s false narratives blame NATO’s expansion for the war, and many — even well-known figures — believe it. 2/

Timothy Snyder: Putin’s idea is that in 862 Russia came into being and there was no Ukraine then. So there’s no Ukraine now.

Zelenskyy represents a people who don’t want to give up themselves, their land, or sovereignty. Trump treats it like a real-estate deal. But it’s not. 1/ Snyder: I don’t think it [the outcome of war] is up to Trump. When he talks about Tomahawks, he’s just asking the Russians to bribe him. My eye is on the battlefield.

Ukraine is doing okay. As long as we don’t let them down, eventually, the Russians will break. 2/

NYT: Ukraine gamifies drone warfare. Units score points for strikes and captures.

Kill a soldier: 12 points. Wound one: 8 points. Capture alive: 120 points. Destroy a tank: 40 points. Demolish MLRS: 70 points. 400+ teams compete.

1/ Units redeem points in Brave1 Market for gear. A basic kamikaze drone costs 1.3 points. A thermal camera drone costs 4.5 points.

A “vampire” drone costs 43 points. Units ordered over 80,000 drones and EW systems. Total value about $96 million.

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Singaporean PM Lawrence Wong: We are in a messy transition to a post-American multipolar world.

China is a risen power that will not converge with Western norms. Europe must step up as a major power in its own right — or risk being sidelined in the new global order. 0/ Wong: China will find its own path to modernity. It’s no longer just a rising power. It’s a risen one.

But it cannot yet replace America’s global role. There’s no new leader. We’re in a messy, unpredictable transition that may last for years. 1/

He was 19 when he went to defend Ukraine and spent the next three years in Russian captivity. His name is Danylo

Guards beat his leg with a steel pipe until it turned black, burned his back with stun gun and gave him food with worms and rat shit.

(Interview for SlidstvoInfo) 1/ Danylo: Russians took us to a prison in Taganrog. That place was a test — you had to survive it to live on.

I weighed 90 kilos before captivity. When I came out, I was 60. All the weight disappeared there. 2/

With U.S. aid shrinking, Europe must pay to stop Putin.

The Economist: Ukraine needs $389bn in 2026–29 — doubling current support and raising NATO-Europe spending from 0.2% to 0.4% of GDP.

Without it, deterrence fails and the war drags on. 1/ Ukraine spends $138bn a year on defense and public services, but raises only $90bn. Donated weapons add $40bn, just enough to hold the line. 2/

“When we see Russians move, we mostly kill them all,” says Skhid, deputy commander of Ukraine’s 15th Brigade — The Times.

His drone crews guard the Oskil River, spot movements, and strike within minutes. Around 300 Russians die each month trying to break toward Kharkiv. 1/ The drone unit runs Kupiansk’s left flank from a cottage packed with laptops, maps, and live feeds.

Pilots scan the fields, mark targets, and send coordinates to duty officers who decide how to strike — drones or artillery. 2/

Russia gave him a choice — betray Ukraine or die in prison.

Volodymyr Mykolayenko, the ex-mayor of Kherson, refused to serve the occupiers and spent over three years in Russian captivity, where he was beaten with batons, fists, and electroshock from the first day — The Times. 1/ When Russia invaded in 2022, he joined Kherson’s territorial defense.

Weeks later, he was abducted, shoved into a car trunk, and moved through prisons in Crimea, Voronezh, and Vladimir region.

The torture never stopped.

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Thank you, women of Ukraine — for your daily work, courage, and sacrifice.

Behind the lines, women in their 30s–40s keep Ukraine running: they lead NGOs, fundraise for the army, build tech, and advocate abroad — not for titles, but because the country needs it, The Guardian.
1/ Mariia Shuvalova, 32, academic publisher, raised $40,000 for vests while her husband serves. She volunteers weekly at a unit and keeps her day job. She says 1990s hardship trained her generation to multitask and take risks. 2/

Putin’s war language has turned upside down. In 2022, he vowed to “take Kyiv in three days” and “liberate Donetsk.”

In 2025, he says Russia “wants peace — but only on our terms.” The man who once spoke of conquest now calls himself a peacemaker. — United24

1/ At the Vladivostok forum on Sep 6, Putin said, “Yes, we want peace, but only on our terms.”

Earlier that month, he told reporters it was “possible to agree on a solution” thanks to “the mood of the Trump administration.”

The tone softened — the shelling didn’t.

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Putin knows: if he uses nukes or strikes NATO, we will wipe Moscow off the map - Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken told DeMorgen.

Putin warned of a tipping point if the West gave Ukraine long-range missiles. But what did he do? Nothing

The lesson: don’t be intimidated. 1/ Francken: Putin made the same threats when Finland and Sweden joined NATO and when the West sent tanks and F-16s.

At first we only dared to fight back inside Ukraine, afraid of his reaction. That only prolonged the war. We must strike Russia’s supply lines. 2/

China and Russia now use sex ops to steal tech from drone, chip and AI firms in Silicon Valley.

Female agents target US engineers on LinkedIn and dating apps, posing as researchers or investors. Some marry their marks, access labs and extract classified defence tech - Times. 1/ Intelligence veteran James Mulvenon says he’s received waves of fake LinkedIn requests from “young Chinese founders.”

He calls it “sex warfare” — organised recruitment of engineers through romantic and business contact to reach U.S. tech under Pentagon contracts. 2/

Ukrainian scientists kept growing crystals for the Large Hadron Collider under Russian fire.

In March 2022, as shells hit Kharkiv, a furnace in the basement of the Institute for Scintillation Materials ran nonstop at 2000 °C to grow crystals for CERN detectors — ZN

1/ The project, called TWISMA, is led by Prof. Oleh Sidletskiy — the first Horizon Europe grant ever coordinated by a Ukrainian institution.

When Russian troops stood on Kharkiv’s outskirts, scientists stayed, turning the basement into both a lab and a shelter for their families.

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