Kellogg: The Ukrainians have fought brilliantly. Since 2014, they have lost only about 1% of their land.

If Russia were really winning, it would be across the Dnipro, in Kharkiv, in Kyiv. It is not. My message to Moscow is simple: you are not winning, you are losing. 1/ Kellogg: Putin has a problem of his own making. Russia has taken roughly 1.2 to 1.4 million dead and wounded.

The Soviets left Afghanistan after losing only 18,000. And yet Moscow still cannot take the rest of Donbas from fortified Ukrainian positions. 2/

Kellogg: The [Hormuz] blockade was a brilliant move, but I think it has to go further.

We need to put the regime itself at risk, put the people running it one step from death, and make clear this is no longer just about Hormuz. Iran’s national survival is now at stake. 1/ Kellogg: I would go to Kharg Island or the Gulf islands and open the waterway. Then you have real leverage.

It stops being a negotiation over shipping lanes and becomes a negotiation over regime survival, with pressure placed directly on the Guards and the leadership. 2/

Pompeo: There is no such thing as a moderate Iranian leader. They are all radicals.

If they appear to surrender, do not fall for it. For us it will look like surrender. For them it will look like continuation. 1/ Pompeo: We are already taking military action.

The US Navy, Space Command, and others are enforcing a blockade to stop Iran from rearming and resupplying not only its nuclear capabilities, but its conventional forces too. The blockade has proven effective. 2/

Russia stopped feeding human waves into FPV drones — Telegraph.

Putin’s units now send 2-4 man teams, often at night with minimal radio, to slip through gaps in Ukraine’s line, dig in behind it, and build pressure from the flank or rear. 1/ Russia has taken about 1.3M killed or wounded since the invasion began, including an estimated 325,000 dead.

Drones spot large formations within minutes. Electronic warfare disrupts comms, and interception risk makes radio contact dangerous. Russia shrinks the footprint. 2/

"There will be no amnesty for Russian criminals," says Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's MFA.

The Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression is the first since Nuremberg. 24 states have signed on, EU committed €10M — United24. 1/ Q: How does the Tribunal differ from the ICC?

Tykhyi: "The ICC is about 'you are waging war incorrectly.' The Special Tribunal is about 'you started an unjust war in the first place.'" 2/

More Colombians fight on Ukraine's front than any other foreign nationality — about 7,000 men, the largest single contingent by a wide margin.

Decades hunting guerrillas, paramilitaries, and cartels at home prepared them for the trenches of Donbas. — United24. 1/ They serve in the International Legion, in mechanized brigades, recon units, and drone teams of Ukraine's regular forces.

Alongside them stands the Bolívar Battalion — established August 2023, named after Simón Bolívar. 2/

A 25-year-old Ukrainian drone commander watches 4 Russian soldiers ride into her crosshairs — then erases them with a machine the size of a crow.

“I’m fighting two wars. One against the Russians. And one inside myself,” — FT. 1/
Call sign “Multik.” Real name Yana Zalevska.

From a bunker near Huliaipole, she pilots fibre-optic drones with ~30 km range, carrying explosives strong enough to destroy armored vehicles or dugouts in a single strike. 2/

Blumenthal: In Ukraine, I've gone to drone manufacturing facilities. They're producing 1,000 drones a day. They get real time information from the battlefield and make adjustments as they are manufacturing. I don't know anything in our industrial base that is as agile. 1/ Blumenthal: Ukraine is holding the line against Vladimir Putin, who will keep going against Moldova and NATO allies. We have an obligation under Article 5 to come to their defense, just as they did after 9/11. China is watching what we're doing in Ukraine. 2X

Russia’s GDP grew on paper, yet the trains went empty.

By end 2025, Russia Railways [RZD] freight volume was 13% below 2021, a 16 year low.

Four years into the war Russia still cannot build enough rail capacity to replace European markets, — UNITED24. 1/ Rail freight is Russia’s material base: coal, oil, metals, construction inputs.

If those volumes fall for years, the civilian economy is shrinking even if the Kremlin prints nicer numbers. 2/

The first private Anti-air company in the world works in Ukraine.

Operators in Carmin Sky use joysticks to control automatic turrets. Sky Sentinel turrets, equipped with Browning machine guns are used. They locate target automatically and wait for permission to fire — DW.
1/ Ruslan, communications specialist at Carmine Sky: Our main target is Shaheds. Yesterday we intercepted a jet-powered Shahed.

Everything that enters the turret's range will not fly. The company has provided sky protection services since January 2026.

2/

Zelenskyy approved new drone strikes on Russia.

Zelenskyy: Ukrainian drones — our long-range sanctions.

1,500 km range is no longer news. Russia’s oil sector, military logistics, production are legitimate targets.

If Russia doesn't want diplomacy, it must be imposed on it. 1/ Zelenskyy: We have Russian documents showing that Russia considers our arms exports a specific threat to itself.

Political leadership of Russia is set to disrupt Ukraine’s access to such new investments.

We will counter this. 2/

Russia now calls Leningrad Oblast a “front-line region” after Ukrainian strikes reached ~1,000 km from the border.

Governor Drozdenko says oil terminals and ports became primary targets, hitting core infrastructure behind the front, The Kyiv Independent. 1/ Ust-Luga and Primorsk — Russia’s main Baltic oil ports — handle 60M tons annually and generate major budget revenues, now struck since March 22. 2/

AI will soon decide who dies on the battlefield. In 2002 the US MQ-1 Predator drone carried out one of the first targeted strikes in Afghanistan. In 2026 Ukrainian ground robots capture Russian soldiers without a single human soldier present — Al Jazeera. 1/ In January Ukrainian defense company DevDroid released footage of three Russian soldiers surrendering to a ground robot armed with a machinegun. In April Zelenskyy confirmed: for the first time in the war, a position was captured exclusively by unmanned platforms. 2/

"Ukraine's lack of Western weapons forced it to invent a different kind of warfare — civilian technology and business practices brought directly into combat.

NATO is now studying this." — Gen. Kaspars Pudāns, commander of the Latvian Armed Forces for Kyiv Post. 1/ Pudāns: "What has been surprising is the ability of Ukrainian soldiers and leaders at all levels to innovate and develop new approaches so quickly.

This was partly driven by a lack of support from the West, which forced Ukraine to adapt by using civilian technologies. 2/

Budanov: “You have one chance to stay alive — come out into the open and surrender. If you don’t decide in five minutes, I will order an assault.”

That’s how he spoke to Russian border guards during a raid inside Russia in summer 2023. 5 minutes later, they surrendered, Babel.1/ Artan unit commander Viktor Torkotiuk: the operation was planned two months in advance.

They gathered human intel, ran drone reconnaissance, sent teams deep inside to map routes. Budanov personally adjusted the final plan. Goal: disrupt Russia’s planned offensive on Kharkiv. 2/

NATO Admiral Dragone: The next war won’t look like today’s in Ukraine. We must balance traditional weapons with new systems — drones, cyber, and cognitive warfare.

Russia alone spends about $2B a year on disinformation.

1/ Dragone: The outcome of Russia-Ukraine war is unlikely to be decided only on the battlefield. Russia’s economy will play a key role.

Sanctions and economic pressure should be restored and strengthened once the Gulf conflict ends.

2/

Russians tortured Ihor Maksymenko for two weeks — stabbed his leg with a bayonet, cut his ear, ruptured his spleen and after surgery forced him to "confess" he had fallen himself. They punished him for passing SBU coordinates of enemy equipment — Hromadske. 1/ He stayed in the village of Novomykolaivka, when his family fled and refused to take a Russian passport. In 2022 Chechens drove himinto a field, stripped them and prepared to shoot them. The Chechen ordered to fire shot into the ground instead. They left naked in the field. 2/

Ukraine's 413th Raid Regiment hit BARS-Sarmat, a brigade sized unit inside Russia's Unmanned Systems Forces, in occupied Zaporizhzhia on the Azov coast.

It builds and combat tests drones, ground robots, and electronic warfare systems close to the front — Babel. 1/ The strike destroyed a deployment point and workshops where Russia assembled and equipped drones, ground robots, and EW systems.

The target was the people and hardware Russia uses to shorten its weapons cycle on the front. 2/

“Without AI, democracies cannot effectively protect peace. This is not only about Ukraine — it is about global security.” Danylo Tsvok, 35, head of the Defense Artificial Intelligence Center of Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense to AP. 1/ The Center was established one month ago. Its mission: make AI the foundation of Ukraine’s battlefield.

Tsvok: “AI is not only a competitive advantage. It is about our survival. We need to be faster than the enemy in decision-making.” 2/

Russia is seeing growing internal unrest, and Putin is responding with repression, arrests and the rehabilitation of Soviet symbols of terror — CNN.

In early March the FSB cut off mobile internet access in Moscow and other large cities. 1/ Putin: "The outages are related to operational work to prevent terrorist attacks. Widespread public information in advance can be detrimental to operational work, because criminals hear and see everything too." 2/

War is the best spur to military innovation.

Ukraine produces 7 million drones this year, builds new ground robots in 6 months, and is now killing Russian soldiers faster than Russia can replace them, writes The Economist. 1/ Ratel Robotics made street lighting before 2022. Today it produces unmanned ground vehicles that deliver supplies, lay mines, evacuate wounded and shoot down enemy drones with nets.

A new model sketched on paper today reaches the front in six months. 2/