Posts

The Middle East quagmire has given Kyiv an unexpected lifeline—and a new hand to play

How the War in Iran Helped Ukraine Go From Problem to Solution The Middle East quagmire has given Kyiv an unexpected lifeline—and a new hand to play A soldier in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The country is offering its hard-won expertise and counterdrone technology to other countries. A soldier in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. The country is offering its hard-won expertise and counterdrone technology to other countries. Nikoletta Stoyanova/Getty Images By Yaroslav Trofimov Following May 22, 2026 8:00 pm ET Turns out, Ukraine has got cards. Just last fall, Russia was inexorably advancing on the battlefield, money was running out and President Trump was pressing a peace deal on terms that favored Moscow. Then, Trump’s war against Iran reshuffled the world. Drone warfare—the kind in which Ukraine has garnered four years of unmatched experience—went global with Iranian attacks throughout the Middle East. Instead of being seen as a problem to be solved, Ukraine became a sought-a...
Post a Comment
Read more

Field report: Training at Russia's doorstep, NATO readies for a drone-ruled battlefield

Image
Reporter Martin Fornusek Friday May 22 7 minutes read Field report: Training at Russia's doorstep, NATO readies for a drone-ruled battlefield VORU COUNTY, Estonia — In southeast Estonia lies a lake-studded, woodland region locals call Missomaa, which makes up the country's three-way borderland with Latvia and Russia. Its innocuous-looking woods are overlaid by cameras and sensors feeding data to a British unit stationed nearby, informing their first-person-view (FPV) drone operators about an "enemy" vehicle closing in. Corey, an operator of the British 2nd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland (2 Scots), simulates a strike by doing a low fly-by and landing his drone next to the vehicle. The exercise takes place just a short drive from the Luhamaa checkpoint at the Estonian-Russian border. This is only a small part of Spring Storm 2026, Estonia's flagship military drills meant to prepare the country's forces and its allies for a possible Russian invasion — a pr...
Post a Comment
Read more

I’m the Foreign Minister of Sweden. Don’t Overestimate Russia.

Image
Credit... Sergiy Maidukov May 20, 2026 An illustration shows a person walking in front of a colorful false front of the skyline. In the background, the skyline is grey. Credit...Sergiy Maidukov By Maria Malmer Stenergard Ministry for Foreign Affairs Ms. Stenergard is Sweden’s minister for foreign affairs. She wrote from Stockholm.   Original article contains links . *** The war in the Middle East may be consuming much of the world’s attention, but Russia’s war against Ukraine has not abated. It will not end until we make it cost President Vladimir Putin more than he believes it is worth.   Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago, the Kremlin has tried to make the world believe that the Russian economy is strong and that sanctions don’t work. The Swedish government disagrees, and has commissioned several studies by leading economists and intelligence services to uncover the truth behind Russia’s official statistics: The economy is more fragile t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Kazakhstan USSR's legal successor? (via Quora)

Image
B Y: Elena  Gold  USSR was a state made of 15 so called “Republics” with the capital in Moscow—when the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, it was Russia that announced herself “the legal successor” of the USSR, keeping the privileged Soviet Union’s seat on the United Nations Security Council . Moscow was the capital of both the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic and the USSR (Union of the Soviet Socialistic Republics). RSFSR was also the largest republic of the USSR. Kazakstan was the 2nd largest republic, with a total area of 2,724,900 square kilometers (1,052,000 square miles). After the USSR was voluntarily dissolved by presidents of the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic, Ukrainian and Belarus SSR (Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus) in December 1991, the president of the USSR Gorbachev found himself a chief of state without a state. The Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic became “the Russian Federation,” in the same borders, with the same capital...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is Ukraine able militarily to retake Crimea? (via Quora)

Image
Jim Grupé  ·  Follow Former Technical Consultant and Strategic Planner at various US government departments and some global companies (1990–2015) 11h Is Ukraine able militarily to retake Crimea? Is Ukraine able militarily to retake Crimea? I recently saw an interesting analysis of this, and it mentioned a couple things that I was unaware of which make a military assault highly inadvisable. For a start, get out your Google and look a the satellite view in maps. See that wide connection of Crimea to the mainland?  It’s mostly swamp . The only reasonable path for an armed force is a narrow strip on the West side. ….DUH…. I think we all know what happens to a narrow column of soldiers heading into enemy territory. (Everyone except Putin in 2022.) To the East, the whole coast is swamp, and the only dry route is over the Kerch bridge. That means that any assault force would have to come by air and sea. That is NOT very practical for a country with very limit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ukraine has made itself indispensable to the West

A country that used to plead for aid is now one of the West’s most valuable security assets.  Today at 7:30 a.m. EDT Original article contains numerous link s An FP-5 "Flamingo" cruise missile at an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Nov. 16, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky/AP) By Oleksii Reznikov [ see also] and Dalibor Rohac [ see also ]; see also Oleksii Reznikov, who served as Ukraine’s deputy prime minister from 2020-21 and minister of defense from 2021-23, is a distinguished fellow at GLOBSEC. Dalibor Rohac is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Four years into the full-scale war, the world’s most capable militaries are coming to Ukraine to buy weapons. Ukraine and the Pentagon are moving to finalize a deal that would send Ukrainian-made drones to the United States for testing on American soil. M eanwhile, last week in Kyiv, Germany’s defense minister signed an agreement to launch “Brave Germany,” a joint program to codevelop innovative armaments with Ukraini...
Post a Comment
Read more

From Quora: Can you tell which part of Ukraine a soldier is from just by listening to them speak?

Image
One answer: MosaicPalate  ·  Follow Sun Paradoxically, the soldier speaking the cleanest, textbook Ukrainian in a trench is often from the historically Russian-speaking east. Historically, Ukraine has possessed a rich tapestry of dialects and languages. A native speaker can frequently pinpoint a person's home region by listening for specific vocabulary, phonetic habits, and the degree of blending between languages. Here are a few ways these differences manifest: Western Dialects:  Soldiers from regions like Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, or Zakarpattia often speak with distinct regional accents heavily influenced by historical ties to Poland, Slovakia, and Hungary. A soldier from Galicia might use regional vocabulary like  faino  (good or nice) or  filiyanka  (cup), and they often have a distinct, slightly softer pronunciation of certain consonants. Eastern and Southern Surzhyk:  In the east and south, historically areas with higher rates of Russian langu...
Post a Comment
Read more