Notes and Essays -- John Brown

They began as modified motorboats. Now, Ukrainian sea drones act as miniature aircraft carriers, and other countries want in. Listen · 8:31 min Share full article170 Maria VarenikovaNicholas Kulish By Maria Varenikova and Nicholas Kulish Maria Varenikova reported from Ukraine’s Poltava region. Nicholas Kulish writes about war and technology. Sept. 30, 2026 Ukrainian naval drones ply the Black Sea with surface-to-air missiles, ready to shoot down enemy warplanes. They ferry aerial attack drones closer to targets. And this month, a Ukrainian drone was filmed in a drone-on-drone water battle with a Russian counterpart. When Russia began its full-scale war against Ukraine, Moscow dominated the waterways. Kyiv scaled up its drone operations, eventually sinking about a third of Russia’s vaunted Black Sea fleet with what amounted to remote-controlled, exploding speedboats. Now Ukraine is taking it a step further by establishing offshore layers of drone defense and offense, transforming...

Kyiv wakes up in fog of war as strikes set off unusual meteorological effect Smoke and soot from Russian airstrikes left particles in the air that combined with moisture to create a dense blanket of gray over Ukraine's war-ravaged capital. September 30, 2026 at 5:40 a.m. EDTToday at 5:40 a.m. EDT 4 min Summary 0 Make us preferred on Google A dense fog over the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on Wednesday morning, which emergency services linked to Russian strikes. (Heidi Levine/For The Washington Post) By Steve Hendrix KYIV — At least the residents of this battered capital city had a gorgeous autumn day to look forward to Wednesday. The forecasts promised clear skies and cool air as a respite from another night of sirens, booms and ballistic missile strikes. Get concise answers to your questions. Try Ask The Post AI. Instead, Kyiv woke up smothered in the fog of war. Actual fog. An unexpected dense blanket of gray filled the city shortly after 7 a.m., blocking out the sun and c...

What Life Looks Like in the ‘Fortress Cities’ Russia Is Trying to Break Tyler Hicks Marc Santora Photographs by Tyler Hicks Text by Marc Santora Tyler Hicks spent 10 days in Kramatorsk and Sloviansk reporting this story. Sept. 29, 2026 When explosions ring out across Kramatorsk, Oleksandr Chyvenkov and the police paramedic unit under his command do not rush immediately to the scene. Instead, they listen. In this compact industrial city, where every detonation reverberates off concrete high-rises, the first blast is often bait. The team monitors military communications channels for reports of any incoming secondary strikes before racing in heavy protective body armor to save lives. “Most people in our unit have faced double-tap strikes in some way,” said Mr. Chyvenkov, using a common term for such attacks. He has led rescue teams for more than four years, including in the ruins of the nearby cities of Pokrovsk, Toretsk and Avdiivka, witnessing their methodical destruction before th...

Maintenance delays in Belgium are grounding its best defense against Russia’s jet drones.  By The Editorial Board The Wall Street Journal    Sept. 29, 2026 5:33 pm ET Original article contains links.      A Ukrainian fighter pilot after shooting down a Russian drone. @jeff1830/instagram Ukraine’s air-defense vulnerabilities are becoming critical, and a shortage of Patriot interceptors isn’t the only problem. F-16 fighter jets are the best way to counter Russia’s new jet-powered drones that are now pounding Ukrainian civilians night and often day. But Ukraine relies on Western help to maintain its fighter-jet fleet, and delays have left most of its F-16 fleet out of commission. So far this month Russia has launched about 2,000 jet-powered drones at Ukraine, compared to some 350 in June. These new drones fly up to 375 miles an hour—too fast for the interceptor drones Ukraine has used to counter earlier Shahed models. Ukraine intercepts 55% of Russia’s jet dr...

Over 90 percent of Ukraine’s scientific discoveries have been attributed to Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, including advancements in astronomy and military technology.  A Russian drone strike on the National Academy of Sciences in Kyiv, Ukraine,  killed at least two people on Monday. Credit... Finbarr O'Reilly for The New York Times By Robin George Andrews and Nataliia Novosolova The New Work Times Sept. 29, 2026 Updated 3:55 p.m. ET original article contains links The Russian attack on Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences on Monday dealt a serious blow to the country’s pre-eminent research institution, a recent center of wartime innovation that is also responsible for almost every major Ukrainian civilian discovery of the past century. Scientists affiliated with the academy have contributed to recent discoveries in the fields of astronomy and medicine and have been instrumental in developing new military technologies, including drones and enhanced armor for vehic...