Elena Gold · What is going on with the war with Russia?
What is going on with the war in Russia is decided in Zelenskyy’s office—and the developments are happening at staggering pace. Not only Moscow is now in reach for the Ukrainian cruise missiles and drones, they also have missile-carrying drones at the front (with cluster munitions, to inflict maximum damage to the Russian personnel.)
Zelenskyy just announced that he approved more “special operations” on the territory of Russia: the operations will likely target Russia’s military targets, weapon depots and factories, oil storage and refining facilities, military logistics, and the infrastructure that enables the Russian government to continue the war.
The Ukrainian defence ministry announced that they have tested new Ukraine-designed glide bombs that can be dropped from aircraft tens of miles away from the front line, carrying 250 kg payload.
This will enable the Ukrainian air force to target all the occupied territories of Ukraine, destroy military logistics in Donbas, and control the routes towards Crimea.
Meanwhile, Russia is seriously struggling because of Ukraine’s “long range sanctions”: strikes on oil refineries, fuel depots, and logistics, which now affect all the European territory of Russia and reach as far as Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, and Perm—the cities that sit on the (imaginary) boundary between Europe and Asia.
Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy stated today that according to the Ukrainian intelligence, Russia’s economy has taken a significant hit because of the war—internal Russian documents confirm it.
Russia is trying to hide it.
- Because of the damages to oil processing plants, Russia’s storage and refining capacity is full. As the result, they have to shut down oil producing wells—this shut down is hard to reverse (because the oil is very deep and getting it out is complex). “Just a single Russian oil company – and not even the largest one – has already been forced to shut down around 400 wells,” noted Zelenskyy.
- Drop in Russia’s oil refining capacity by at least 10% in 2026.
- Banking crisis: 11 Russian banks are about to be liquidated; 8 more banks are on the brink of collapse (due to bad debts—the government forced them to finance military production and to refinance company debts, now these banks can’t be saved).
- Russia’s federal budget deficit stands at $80 billion after just 4 months of the year.
Russia’s military recruiters are also facing crisis. The one-time bonus to a third party for bringing a willing conscript that signs the contract to go to the war in Ukraine has reached RUB 600,000 (USD $8,200) — that’s the size of a yearly salary of a police officer in a region (and more than a school teacher earns in a whole year). That’s just a bonus for bringing someone who’d sign the military contract.
The person who agrees to join the army also gets a bonus on signup, but this money is immediately extracted by their commanders, who force the new recruits to buy their own uniform and equipment (the ones provided are wrong sizes and quality, on purpose). The recruits are also made to pay for repairs to equipment out of their own pocket. Then they are made to pay bribes to not be sent to the “zero” line (to a certain death).
The Russian army is a quick conveyor of death for untrained conscripts. Many conscripts tempted by recruiter’s stories of high wages have to beg their families to borrow money by re-mortgaging their homes, to pay bribes to commanders to avoid “meat attack” missions and stay alive.
The commanders confiscate bank cards of the soldiers they send into “meat attacks” and continue to withdraw their wages after they are gone. (Soldiers say a unit that’s supposed to have 100 soldiers on paper only has 30 people in reality.)
Among the Russian troops in the occupied Ukrainian territory, everyone drinks, uses, and steals. The soldiers who refuse to go on a “meat attack” are “nullified” (shot) by commanders themselves, in front of other terrified recruits. So that the others do not refuse to follow orders.
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian army intensified its use of drones (including ground drones for logistics and attacks, as well as aerial reconnaissance and attack drones) and set up new targets for liquidating enemy personnel: 10 per drone unit per month. There are around 5,000 drone units in the Ukrainian army; reaching “10-per-unit-per-month” target would result in personnel losses of 50,000 per month to the Russian army.
Russian army recruits about 30,000 men per month.
Equipping kamikaze drones carrying 50–100 kg of load with up to 8 non-guided missiles allows the drones that enter enemy territory not only fulfill their mission of destroying a certain hard target, but also destroy any air defence troops trying to shoot down the drone with manpads or guns.
These drones (FP-1 and FP-2) are equipped with AI to recognize targets, and can’t be jammed by electronic devices.
This is basically “Skynet” from “Terminator”—that’s the stage of the war we are in.
If you watch videos by Magyar Birds—Ukrainian drone brigade—you’ll see how it’s happening, to the horror of the Russian soldiers who know there is no escape.
It’s brutal.
Each liquidation must be confirmed by a video, to count for the rewards program. (Yes, there is a rewards program.)
Ukraine already performed limited attacks with the use of only ground and aerial drones, taking over a certain territory, while liquidating and even taking captive Russian personnel on the ground.
This was the stuff from the movies just 4 years ago. Now, that’s the reality of the modern warfare.
The longer this war is ongoing, the more devastating hardware and tactics will emerge. That’s the nature of the existential conflict that Ukraine is in—they are fighting against a brutal and merciless invader, and have to find ways to withstand and resist.
This war has implications way beyond a “local territorial conflict.”
Time to put an end to Russia’s territorial ambitions. Putin has demonstrated he’s not going to stop. He must be stopped.
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