Zelenskyy: I warned Trump about World War III. Russia already supports Iran with drones, missiles, and air defense.

The question is when troops appear — like the 10,000 North Korean soldiers now in Russia. The same could happen with Iran if Russia sends forces.

1/ Zelenskyy: Air raid sirens have become part of daily life in Ukraine.

Like defending against missiles and Shaheds, stopping Putin also requires quick steps — without them, you risk being destroyed.

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Fukuyama: Trump likely hoped for a quick victory with Israel.

But within days Iran was launching missiles and drones across the region, making clear the conflict could last weeks. Instead of setting limited goals, Trump did the opposite and raised expectations.

1/ Fukuyama: Strategic bombing alone has rarely achieved political goals.

Two main exceptions were Japan’s surrender after Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and Kosovo, where NATO air strikes helped trigger a revolt against Milošević.

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Aug. 2025: Ukraine offered the U.S. cheap drones to shoot down Iran’s Shahed drones. The U.S. didn’t move forward.

March 2026: Those same drones are hitting U.S. troops in the Middle East and the U.S. is asking Ukraine how to stop them. — Axios 1/ Ukraine is the most experienced country in fighting Shahed drones, which Russia has used by the thousands.

Kyiv developed cheap interceptor drones designed specifically to shoot them down. 2/

Two winners have emerged from Trump’s Iran war. Neither one is America.

Russia cashes in on $100 oil. China watches the U.S. burn missiles it needs for Taiwan. Max Boot writes in Washington Post. 1/ Oil jumped from $73 to over $100 a barrel in days. Russia sells oil. Russia wins. Trump simultaneously relaxed sanctions on India for buying Russian oil.

Moscow’s war machine got a direct cash injection from Washington’s war in Tehran. 2/

Macron: Nothing indicates war with Iran will cease in the coming days. The intense phase could last several days, perhaps several weeks.

Deep regime change cannot be achieved through bombardment, but neutralizing ballistic capabilities or a navy could be possible within weeks.1/ Macron: France is not part of the offensive against Iran.

Our objective is to protect our nationals, stand by allies if they come under fire, and stabilize the eastern Mediterranean — including helping Lebanon, which is under strong pressure.

2X

6 Ukrainian veterans. Severe combat head trauma.

They need 2 months of rehabilitation to regain basic functions.

A full day of therapy costs $170.

Our KSE students launched a campaign to help raise $70,000 and cover the full course for all six.


1/ foundation.kse.ua/en/projects/st… Their names and what they want back:

Anton, 33 years old — to hold a guitar and sing for his wife.

Oleh, 31 — to dance a waltz with his daughter.

Leonid, 59 — to return to work and live independently.

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The US quietly waived sanctions on a key Rosneft refinery in Germany.

The exemption allows transactions with Rosneft’s German subsidiaries, including the PCK refinery in Schwedt — a plant supplying about 90% of fuel to Berlin and its airport, FT. 1/ Without it, the Schwedt refinery faced insolvency after earlier sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil threatened operations once a temporary exemption expired. 2/

Mearsheimer: From 1971 to 2021, U.S. murdered 38 million people. The amount of havoc we have wrought on the Middle East in recent years is just stunning. What we do in places like Venezuela, Cuba, Iran, we use economic leverage to basically starve people, to make them suffer. 1/ Mearsheimer: Why do you want to be a regional hegemon? There is no better way to maximize your security than to be a regional hegemon. We have a Monroe Doctrine. Why shouldn't China have a Monroe Doctrine? What's good for the goose is good for the gander. 2/

Ukraine launched Flamingo missiles and destroyed one of the biggest Russian ammunition depots.

United24: It’s a combined effort. Air Forces shoot down every drone that comes close. FP engineers working with military, AF launching the missiles.

1/ Iryna Terekh, CEO of Fire Point: Many technologically amazing missiles exist, but they can never be produced at the right scale.

Flamingo was designed not just to be effective, but to be scaled.

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A small logistics firm is quietly breaking Europe’s sanctions on Russia.

Berlin-based shipping network moves banned goods to Moscow disguised as postal parcels — exploiting loopholes in EU law. Reporters tracked packages with GPS from a German supermarket to Russia, Politico. 1/ The network revolves around LS Logistics Solution GmbH, a Cologne-based firm founded by former staff of RusPost — the German subsidiary of Russia’s state postal service.

Packages move through a warehouse near Berlin airport, then by truck through Poland and Belarus to Russia. 2/

A convicted accomplice in a political murder returned to Europe.

Sulejman Dadaev helped kill Chechen dissident Umar Israilov in Vienna in 2009. Sentenced to 19 years, he was released early, flew to Moscow in 2022 — and later reappeared in Germany, Correctiv reports. 1/ Israilov was a former bodyguard of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

He was shot dead in Vienna after accusing Kadyrov of torture and planning to testify at the European Court of Human Rights. Prosecutors said Kadyrov may have ordered the killing. 2/

Bolton: Best counter drone technology in the world is from Ukraine.

If you want to know the virtue of alliances, this is now. We need to turn to the Ukrainians and say "Excuse me, could we lease your technology so we could build cheaper drones?" 1/ Bolton: I'd call the Revolutionary Guard a deep state. I don't see anybody that could be acceptable to regime change that we would find acceptable.

What we need to do is pull the Revolutionary Guard apart, pull the Ayatollahs apart, pull the regime apart at the top. 2/

Petraeus: Ukraine will make 7M drones this year. They're already throwing 10,000 a day at the Russians in various forms, suicide drones, surveillance.

We produce probably 400,000. Ukrainians produce them at a much lower cost and generally are more effective. 1/ Petraeus: The most sophisticated air ballistic missile defense system that Iran had was taken out in the early hours of the 12-day air campaign by the Israelis flying F-35s. This is a Russian system [S-400], and Russia has none to spare at this point in time. 2/

People were hanging themselves from hunger. Hunger was the hardest thing to endure — Resident of Izyum, a Ukrainian city in Donbas.

No one was allowed to leave.

Those who had something in their cellars survived. Others starved — Hromadske.

1/ Izyum resident: At first we called them Germans — by analogy with WWII. Then "ruscism" came naturally.

You came with St. George ribbons? Put on angel wings if you want.

When you drop bombs on us, you're not the descendants of those who liberated Izyum in WWII.

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Fico is following Orban's playbook.

He’s blocking EU sanctions on Russia, banning emergency electricity sales to Ukraine, and threatening to oppose Ukraine's EU membership. Slovakia's elections aren't until fall 2027. So why now? — European Pravda. 1/ Myroslav Lajcak just resigned as Fico's national security adviser after his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein was exposed in DOJ files.

Lajcak was one of the last voices pushing Fico to maintain dialogue with Kyiv. Now he's gone. 2/

Europe is waking up.

Finland to allow import of nuclear weapons on its territory.

Helsinki will lift a 1980 ban and permit the import, transport, and storage of nuclear arms as it adapts to NATO membership after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Politico. 1/ The US stores nuclear warheads in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey, while France and the UK maintain their own arsenals.

Paris is exploring deployments of French nuclear-capable aircraft across Europe. 2/

“I had a $700,000 salary in Seattle. I still went to fight in Ukraine.”

Andrew Webber, a U.S. Army captain and Iraq–Afghanistan veteran, left his corporate law career and joined Ukraine’s International Legion in 2023. He died in combat on July 27, 2023, reports hromadske. 1/ Webber graduated from West Point in 2005. The U.S. Army deployed him to Iraq in 2006, then to Afghanistan in 2008 and 2012.

During his second Afghan tour he commanded the 1191 Cavalry reconnaissance and sniper unit. His callsign was “Palwar” — “fighter” in Dari. 2/

Here is how interceptor drones shoot down Russian Shaheds and Orlans.

These are the drones Zelenskyy proposed exchanging for Patriot missiles at Gulf States, writes Ukrainska Pravda. 1/ Ukraine cannot fire missiles at every target. Russia launches hundreds of drones per week. Patriot missiles cost millions of dollars. Interceptor drones cost 50,000–100,000 UAH ($1.3k–$2.6k). 2/

Mykola Liubarets flew a helicopter into the besieged Azovstal steel plant to see his wife. He carried out several near-suicidal missions delivering ammunition and evacuating wounded soldiers.

For these flights he received the title Hero of Ukraine, writes Ukrainska Pravda. 1/ When his commander asked him: “Will you fly to Mariupol?”, he did not hesitate.

Liubarets: “If I’m allowed to take my wife out of there, consider me already on board.” 2/

Kellogg: The Russians and the Chinese are kind of saying we can't match up. You're on your own with Iran.

The real country that's hurt by this is China, because 20% of their oil has been coming from Iran. 1/ Kellogg: You're going to have a hard time finding anybody that wants to take charge in Iran now because they know it's their demise if they do so.

We've systematically taken their leadership apart. 3/

Former U.S. Secretary of State Blinken: One possible off-ramp from the war with Iran is simply declaring victory.

Saying the ayatollah is gone and Iran’s nuclear and missile programs have been degraded — and leaving the future of the regime to the Iranian people.

1/ Blinken: Looking at the war with Iran, two factors will determine where this goes and how it ends — markets and munitions.

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