Tymofiy Mylovanov Profile picture
President, Kyiv School of Economics; Minister of economy, Ukraine, 2019-2020; Associate professor, University of Pitt...
Jul 28 7 tweets 2 min read
Wildberries, Russia's largest online retailer, hid military goods from war-related searches after Ukrainian drones hit seven warehouses since July 18.

Search for "everything for the SVO," Russia's war euphemism, returned 200k products. Now it shows none — Kyiv Independent. 1/ Image Wildberries sells dual-use gear that Russian troops use against Ukraine, including bulletproof vests and fiber-optic cable for drones.

Kyiv said it struck the warehouses to disrupt Russian army logistics. Wildberries is often compared to Amazon for its reach across Russia. 2/
Jul 27 8 tweets 3 min read
Former British Army Colonel Ingram: Russia wants Ukraine to capitulate, pause the war, restore foreign ties, rebuild its army and strike again.

It will come back for another slice of Ukraine, Georgia or elsewhere. Moscow plays for generations; the West plays by elections.

1/ Ingram: It is too early to say Putin’s inner circle is turning on him. Putin controls them.

If one speaks against him, he tends to have an “accident,” usually a ninth-floor window. Putin is oligarch-in-chief: he lets them keep money and corruption, or he takes them out.

2/
Jul 27 6 tweets 3 min read
Kapustin, commander of Ukraine's Russian Volunteer Corps: What breaks a captured Russian soldier isn't our gear. It's that after four days drinking from puddles, we hand him water from our own hands.

That's when something cracks. 1/ Kapustin: Russian POWs from Vovchansk arrive with frostbitten feet, some missing toes.

Sent out for weeks without winter gear, they wrap their feet in foil thermal blankets, thinking it's waterproof. One captured 18-year-old lost several toes after being sent to fetch snow. 2/
Jul 27 9 tweets 2 min read
Who else but Ukraine can shut the Black Sea to Russia with naval and aerial drones? In 18 days in July, Ukraine hit 196 vessels

Russia’s Azov oil-product exports stopped. In Black Sea ports, exports fell nearly in half to 1 million tons. Tanker calls dropped from 55 to 27, EP.1/ Image Together with strikes on Russian refineries, these attacks stopped exports of key oil products.

Russia no longer exports gasoline. Jet fuel exports stopped. Diesel shipments fell to 4% of the level before Ukrainian drone strikes on refineries, oil sites, and logistics.

2/
Jul 27 6 tweets 3 min read
Fire Point co-founder Shtilierman: Our mega-plan is to reach three ballistic missiles a day by the end of the year.

Roughly 90 missiles a month, like Russia.

1/ Shtilierman: A Ukrainian drone flies to Moscow, and Russia fires three Pantsirs at it. None hit. Three Pantsirs against one drone.

Then they tried to shoot down Morok and missed, making that famous “roof” over Moscow. Do not underestimate Russia, but do not overestimate it either.

2/
Jul 27 5 tweets 2 min read
Michael Clarke: Syrskyi was trained in the Soviet military and tends to think in a Soviet way.

But he saved Kyiv in 2022, planned the successful Kharkiv counteroffensive and later designed Ukraine’s operation in Kursk. 1/ Clarke: At the front, Syrskyi sometimes is called a butcher. People accuse him of throwing troops into assaults like Soviet and Russian generals.

That criticism can be unfair. Sometimes commanders must hold ground despite knowing an operation will cost many lives. 2/
Jul 27 7 tweets 3 min read
Hodges: Ukraine has a real chance to recover all of Crimea. Its long-range strikes on Russian oil and gas damage Russia’s ability to sustain the war and wreck its economy.

Russia controls ships under the Kerch Bridge because it fears Ukraine could ram or blow it up.

1/ Hodges: To liberate Crimea, Ukraine has to isolate it. Ukraine is destroying bridges, fuel ships, ferries and mainland logistics from Azov to northern Crimea.

Then Ukraine makes Crimea untenable by hitting airfields, naval sites, air defenses, radar and logistics.

2/
Jul 27 12 tweets 3 min read
Kasparov: Ukrainians live in a true democracy because they trust it depends on them. When Zelenskyy fired Fedorov, public protests forced him to backtrack.

Trump is undermining Americans' faith in their own elections. To see where that leads, look at Russia - The WP. 1/ Image Kasparov: Ukraine and Russia work as a natural experiment. They share a language, media, and a tangled history, so governance is what pulls them apart.

After the Soviet collapse in 1991, the Donbas border barely existed, and the region lived in the same Russian-speaking world as Russia. 2/
Jul 27 4 tweets 2 min read
Loomer: Ukraine’s government did not pay me to come here. I’d sign an affidavit.

I put my business on hold for two weeks and came to a war zone to see it myself. I used to be a keyboard warrior too. Then I came to Ukraine.

1/ Loomer: I was anti-Ukraine for years. I followed RT on Telegram. Then I saw “woke right” podcasters turn on Trump and push antisemitic rhetoric.

Where do they get this? RT was clipping and pushing many of their videos.

2X
Jul 27 5 tweets 2 min read
Zelenskyy: I respect Fedorov and Syrskyi. But deep-strike success was never about one person.

Credit goes to our army, our secret service, and our special forces, especially sea-drone operations. Soldiers carry out operations, not somebody else.

1/ Zelenskyy: I had a big problem, not for days or weeks, for months, in the dialogue between the chief of the army and the chief of the ministry of defense.

The challenge was mobilization: Russia could have 500,000-plus people by October, and I needed unanimity between them. 2/
Jul 27 4 tweets 2 min read
Zelenskyy: If you think you can use only drones and don't need soldiers, no, you will fail.

If you don't have a soldier on the front, the enemy infiltrates, and you lose the village, then the next village, then the city. 1/ Zelenskyy: Ukraine's war effort runs on soldiers, civilians, and the partners who fund it.

500 companies inside Ukraine now produce the drones behind our deep-strike and mid-strike operations. 2X
Jul 26 9 tweets 2 min read
Tokayev to Putin: Russia-Ukraine conflict should be frozen.

Kazakhstan does not understand the nature of Russia’s war against Ukraine, — FT. 1/ Image Kazakhstan is one of Russia’s few close partners and shares a 7,600 km border with it. Tokayev has avoided direct condemnation of Putin, but repeatedly refused to recognize Russian-backed separatists and recognized Ukraine as sovereign. 2/
Jul 26 6 tweets 3 min read
Interceptor drones allow Ukraine to destroy up to 90–95% of aerial targets at a very low cost. They are a genuine game changer. Every interceptor can save lives, making it vital for Ukraine’s future.

WSJ with Lasar’s Group, a Ukrainian drone unit. 1/ «AI works in two stages. First, it identifies a likely target and alerts the crew. After the pilot confirms it, autonomous mode takes over. The drone’s computer controls the motors, accelerates and closes in on the target». 2/
Jul 26 8 tweets 3 min read
Anton Rozhdestvenskyi, a russian soldier, lived in his dugout next to a dead comrade for weeks. He slept beside the body, ate beside it, and doused himself in perfume to hide the smell.

It didn't work. He reeked of the corpse the whole time. 1/ That comrade had lain near him one night, said he felt ill, and asked to borrow Anton's phone. Anton handed it over, and they both fell asleep. By morning the man hadn't woken up. Anton and the others wrapped the body and propped it against the dugout wall. 2/
Jul 26 7 tweets 2 min read
Boris Johnson spent 90 minutes inside Ukraine’s “kill zone” for a new documentary.

He stayed in a town under Russian drone attacks, met troops making explosives from plastic toilet pipe, and said Britain should send Ukraine more advanced weapons. 1/ Image Johnson’s first night near the front: drone strikes hit a nearby apartment block similar to the one where he was staying.

At a shop still open in the “kill zone,” an elderly woman shouted: “What would you do if they started bombing? Look around!” 2/
Jul 26 7 tweets 2 min read
Sweden is launching its own MI6 after one of Europe’s biggest intelligence mistakes before Russia’s full-scale invasion.

In 2022, Sweden’s military intelligence, like spy chiefs in France and Germany, judged that Putin would not risk a full-scale war, The Economist. 1/ Image Sweden’s new agency will be called UND, the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Unlike MUST, Sweden’s military-intelligence service, UND will be civilian and report mainly to the government. It will also oversee covert agent operations abroad. 2/
Jul 26 7 tweets 3 min read
Krotevych, former Azov officer: Syrskyi would never admit a mistake. He would probably say his only mistake was being too soft. That is dangerous. In my view, he has repeatedly lied to Zelenskyy. 1/ Krotevych: Drapatyi will face an extremely difficult job. If allowed to build a strong team, he can succeed. Syrskyi placed loyalists throughout the army and pressured principled commanders. One man cannot change everything; reform requires honest reporting. 2/
Jul 25 8 tweets 2 min read
Russia will fund children conceived from the very soldiers it already sent to die in Ukraine.

The State Duma passed a bill giving their widows fully state-funded IVF and artificial insemination, drawn from the biomaterial these men banked before they deployed — United24. 1/ Image A widow can claim the state benefit for five years after her husband dies, and she keeps it only if she does not remarry.

She also needs a notarized consent form for the storage and use of his biomaterial, one the soldier had to sign in person while he was still alive. 2/
Jul 25 8 tweets 2 min read
CNN: Russian hackers spent a year targeting nuclear scientists, defense firms, governments, police, schools and energy.

They tested tools on Ukrainians first, then used them against NATO to seek Western military, logistics and policy intelligence. 1/ Image The campaign focused on email servers used by nuclear installations and the U.S. defense industrial base. Researchers say the hackers appeared interested in nuclear fusion and intelligence useful to Russia’s war against Ukraine. 2/
Jul 25 7 tweets 3 min read
Laura Loomer: I said I didn’t care if Putin conquered Ukraine, had no problem with Putin, and mocked Zelenskyy for not wearing a suit.

People urged me to delete those posts, but I left them online so people could see what I said before and how I feel now. 1/ Loomer: We joked that after receiving billions, Zelenskyy could buy the most expensive Italian suit. I later realized it was much more serious than joking around.

I had been consuming a lot of Russian media and was influenced by Russian propaganda. 2/
Jul 25 5 tweets 2 min read
Laura Loomer: I apologize to Ukrainians for what I said about their country. People here were kind to me.

I doubt Putin would sit down with me or Moscow would welcome me if I criticized its government. Zelenskyy answered every question I asked. 1/ Loomer: I expected Kyiv to have far more destruction and rubble.

Instead, people were living their lives. Nobody was hiding. They were smiling, walking their dogs, and the city looked far more put together than I expected. 2/