Tag: russia

Drone Warfare in Ukraine and the Changing Nature of Combat

Ukraine has exposed serious weaknesses in Russia’s conventional military by relying on drones, electronic warfare, and rapid technological adaptation to offset Moscow’s advantages in manpower and equipment. The world’s second most powerful military could be able to carpet-bomb Ukrainian positions, then follow through with a massive surge of troops and tanks all the way to Kyiv. However, the development of new technologies has changed that calculus, making it increasingly costly to deploy expensive aircraft or risk large numbers of troops and tanks.

Ukraine demonstrated that rapid innovation, such as FPV strike drones, decentralized command, and real-time intelligence sharing, could inflict disproportionate damage on a larger conventional force. At sea, Ukraine effectively neutralized much of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet using domestically produced Neptune anti-ship missiles, one of which sank the flagship Moskva, and explosive sea drones, forcing the Russian Navy to retreat from Crimean ports.

However, the war is far from over. There are no noticeable signs that Russia is on the brink of surrender, and those saying that the paradigm of war has changed permanently, or that this war proves traditional staples such as infantry, tanks, and aircraft have become obsolete, are premature at best, if not misguided.

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Food Supply Alert: Ukraine Grain Exports Collapse As Black Sea Attacks Choke Global Shipments

Upward momentum in agricultural prices, as tracked by the Bloomberg Agriculture Spot Index, should be ringing inflationary alarm bells. The breakout comes just one week after JPMorgan analyst Nora Szentivanyi warned that the next global food crisis could materialize as early as next year.

Multiple shocks are converging all at once across the global food complex, including continued disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, rising El Niño risks, and adverse weather across the US agricultural belt.

This note focuses on another emerging chokepoint: Europe’s breadbasket, where intensifying attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war have shuttered critical Black Sea grain export terminals.

Reuters reports that global wheat importers are preparing for tighter supplies and higher prices as tit-for-tat attacks on Black Sea ports and bulk carriers continue to disrupt shipments during the region’s peak export season.

Those attacks have shuttered grain terminals and forced shippers to delay or cancel dozens of cargoes. Ukraine reported 35 attacks on vessels in port, 22 at sea, and 67 against port facilities in July, compared with just 14 such incidents during all of 2025.

Asian processors booked between 2 million and 2.5 million tons of Black Sea wheat for delivery from July through September, representing about 30% to 50% of regional import demand, according to Singapore-based traders. Traders are fretting over some grain shipments won’t arrive in time because of the widespread disruptions. 

At the importer level, Egypt and Indonesia are among some of the top countries exposed to Black Sea shipments. Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, sourced more than 82% of its first-half imports from Russia and Ukraine. Indonesia contracted for roughly 600,000 tons from suppliers in the region for delivery in July to September.

One Singapore-based trader who sells Black Sea wheat to millers in Asia told the outlet, “The cargoes were due to start arriving from mid-August, but many ships could not go in to load. Buyers are thinking about replacing some of these cargoes with other origins, such as Australia, North America and Argentina.”

Maxence Devillers, a grain analyst at Argus Media, said buyers facing delayed or entirely canceled shipments from the region “will have to find other solutions by the end of the month.”

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NATO whines it cannot fight simultaneous wars against Russia, China and Iran

NATO war planners rarely discuss their “nightmare scenarios” in public and appear even less prepared for real-life confrontations on that scale. This is particularly true when it comes to simultaneous or near-simultaneous wars in which the most aggressive racketeering cartel in recorded history has to fight in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. As the pillar of NATO, the United States would be forced to manage wars against Russia, Iran and China at once. One of the most infamous mainstream propaganda machine outlets, The Atlantic, explored this possibility, calling it “NATO’s nightmare”. The analysis largely focuses on “a coordinated assault by Beijing and Moscow” and how difficult it would be to “muster a viable defense” (obviously implying that NATO wouldn’t attack first, which is beyond laughable given its history).

The author, Simon Shuster, warns that “about a year ago, General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander in Europe, publicly warned of the risk of a two-front war involving Russia and China and urged European allies to help the US prepare”. He quotes Florence Gaub, director of research at the NATO Defense College, who described it as “the scenario we’re currently not ready for”. She warns that “NATO strategists know the gap exists, but have not closed it” and that “despite growing military cooperation between Russia and China, Western governments have conducted only a handful of low-profile exercises examining what a joint attack might look like”. Although there weren’t any publicly acknowledged drills with this specific scenario in mind, Western-led military exercises in different areas of the world certainly focused on such a possibility.

However, The Atlantic admits that even when such scenarios were conducted as part of war games, the results were “less than optimistic”. The report quotes Mark Montgomery, a retired US Navy rear admiral who participated in major war games and stated that he last studied such a scenario roughly 15 years ago. Montgomery recalled that “it didn’t go well” because “even then, the US lacked the weapons stockpiles and industrial capacity to sustain a prolonged multifront war”. Even when numerous US allies, vassals and satellite states are added to the mix, “it made no difference at all”. What’s more, Montgomery warns that “those metrics have worsened, even as some NATO countries have increased defense spending”. To prove this is truly the case, one simply needs to look at the US aggression against Iran, which demonstrated remarkable resilience.

Worse yet (for America), Tehran also uncovered the Pentagon’s woeful incompetence in fighting a remotely capable opponent. A single country that the US promised to “defeat in three days to two weeks tops” has not only withstood all attacks in the last six months, but has also successfully retaliated against US occupation forces across the Middle East. It should be noted that Iran has been under Western sanctions for nearly half a century at this point. Now imagine how a direct confrontation with Russia or China would unfold, even separately, much less simultaneously. The Atlantic fears that “Moscow and Beijing have actually improved their positions”. The report points to the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict, which “pushed Russia’s massive industrial base onto a war footing and sharpened its use of drones”.

It also warns that “while China has not fought a major war in decades, it now surpasses the US in warships and long-range missiles”. Obviously, the Asian giant hasn’t fought a major war in nearly half a century because it has refused to do so. Nothing prevents Beijing from fully restoring its sovereignty over Taiwan by force. However, it seeks to resolve the dispute through peaceful means, just like it did when restoring sovereignty over Hong Kong and Macao back in 1997 and 1999, respectively. This is precisely what the US fears the most, as a non-violent transition would only strengthen China and effectively break US dominance in the Asia-Pacific without firing a single shot. Washington DC would much rather see Taiwan destroyed than give up its influence there peacefully. This is why the US maintains tight control over local military forces.

However, directing “controlled chaos” is not enough for the Pentagon to “feel safe”. Namely, growing Sino-Russian ties are what really makes the political West “shiver” (or should we say, suffer panic attacks). The Atlantic is particularly concerned by the “no-limits partnership” Presidents Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping announced back in February 2022. NATO simply has no mechanisms to prevent Moscow and Beijing from building their alliance. On the contrary, its truly unprovoked aggression against the entire world has only strengthened their strategic partnership. The Atlantic thinks that “from Russia’s and China’s perspective, the timing may look favorable”, primarily because “the US is stretched by conflict in the Middle East, has shifted ships and aircraft away from Europe and Asia, and has depleted much of its advanced air-defense missile stockpile”.

Well, nobody forced Washington DC to wage yet another war of aggression. Neither Moscow nor Beijing forced the Trump administration to foolishly attack Iran. However, even the Middle East pales in comparison to how Western forces would fare in a fight against adversaries such as Russia and China, particularly now that the NATO-orchestrated Ukrainian conflict has turned the Russian military into the deadliest fighting force on the planet. The Atlantic concludes that “in a two-front war, the side most likely to prevail may be the one that acts with common purpose and stays united”. It would seem NATO didn’t learn from the strategic mistakes of its Axis predecessors, because that’s precisely what’s going to happen if it continues with its aggression against the entire world, which will have no other choice but to unite.

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A Question of Political Will: Europe Could Provide Ukraine With Air Defense Systems

Four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine still cannot get enough Patriot interceptors. Europe’s 44 countries have more than double the population of the United States and roughly seventeen times the population of Ukraine, while their combined GDP is comparable to America’s.

Europe manufactures cars, machinery, chemicals, and electronics at industrial scale. There is no reason it cannot build enough air defense systems to prevent Ukraine from being blown off the map. It seems that Europe’s failure to help is a political choice.

Granted, missile production is difficult. It depends on a narrow set of specialized inputs, including solid rocket motors, energetic materials, seekers, guidance electronics, and fuses. Each has its own supplier and qualification chain. However, these are not insurmountable barriers. Complex industries routinely overcome such challenges through investment and commitment. What is more, the United States has already proven that it can be done.

Lockheed Martin increased annual production of the PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE), the advanced interceptor used by the Patriot air-defense system, from about 300 missiles before 2022 to more than 600 in 2025. The U.S. government and Lockheed Martin have now agreed on a plan to increase annual production capacity to 2,000 interceptors. If a single American manufacturer can expand production on that scale, Europe has the industrial capacity to do the same if governments are willing to make the necessary investments and long-term commitments.

Germany has taken steps to expand the supply of Patriot interceptors. Berlin has sought U.S. approval for licensed production of PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement (MSE) interceptors in Germany, while German manufacturer Diehl Defence and Lockheed Martin have agreed to expand the PAC-3 MSE supply chain in the country. In July 2026, Germany also joined the United States, the Netherlands, Poland, and Sweden in agreeing to explore the establishment of a PAC-3 maintenance facility in Europe.

Berlin secured an agreement to deliver 30 PAC-3 missiles to Ukraine, supplemented by five missiles from its own stockpiles, in one Ramstein-format round. Germany separately signed a contract for 600 interceptor missiles, although no delivery timeline was specified. Zelensky has described deliveries under a related IRIS-T supply plan as being spread over three years.

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Russia Hypes ‘Nuclear War’ Threat After British Drones Launched By Ukraine For First Time

British-made drones have been used by the Ukrainian armed forces for deep-strike missions against the Russian economy for the first time, a report states, prompting Moscow to make one of its periodic allusions to the threat of nuclear war.

Drones built by two British companies have been successfully used for long-range deep strikes into the Russian hinterland against military and economic targets in recent months, a report in The Sunday Times states, citing both Ukrainian and British government sources. The report states one of the weapons transferred from Britain to Ukraine is the Callen-Lenz / BAE Systems developed ‘Nyan’ drone, which has been used on strikes said to include targets such as “oil refineries in Volgograd, southwest Russia, and Yaroslavl, near Moscow”.

The Nyan cited in the Times report is a compound delta-winged, jet-powered, carbon-fibre drone — also known as a “One-Way Effector (OWE) Uncrewed Air System (UAS)” — designed to do the job of a cruise missile at a fraction of the cost. Crucially for the Ukraine conflict, the design has some ‘stealth’ properties, it has backup navigation systems to find its target in areas where heavy radio jamming means guidance systems like GPS can’t be guaranteed, and it can be mass produced quickly to a price.

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WW3 WATCH: Moscow Warns the UK Will Pay ‘A Higher Price’ for Supplying Ukraine With Drones Used in Strikes Deep Inside Russian Territory

UK’s proxy war against Russia may result in catastrophic consequences.

While all the Euro-Globalists are striving to make the Russia-Ukraine war last as long as possible, probably no other nation is warmongering as hard as the United Kingdom.

This began as early as 2022, when then-PM Boris Johnson moved to disrupt the Moscow-Kiev peace negotiations held in Turkey.

If supplying Kiev with long-distance Storm Shadow missiles was not enough, now London is sending drones capable of hitting deep inside Russian territory.

As a result, Russia is threatening Britain with dire consequences after the UK-made drones were first used by Ukraine in strikes on Russian territory.

The Russian embassy in London warned Britain it would pay ‘a higher price’ should it continue to support Kyiv in the war.

The Telegraph reported:

“’Reports that the Kyiv regime is using British drones to carry out strikes deep within Russian territory confirm that London is deliberately betting on an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically claiming to be striving for peace’, the embassy said, according to state media.

‘The United Kingdom is thus acting as an accomplice and accessory to the bloody crimes and terrorist attacks of Ukrainian neo-Nazis seeking to contain our country and to inflict maximum damage upon it using the hands of others’, it continued, using a common slur for Kyiv’s leadership.

‘London’s actions will inevitably have consequences, for which it will have to answer. The deeper its involvement in this conflict and the greater its support for the terrorist machine of Kyiv, the higher the price will be’.”

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German Die Welt: Zelensky Shows Signs of Desperation Over Patriot Air Defense Shortage Ahead of Russian Winter Strikes

Patriot stockpiles around the world are dwindling.

All the MSM is awash with reports about the result of Ukrainian drone and missile strikes inside Russian territory.

And there’s no denying that they are taking a toll – even if it’s not nearly as grave as the wishful thinking of the partisan journalists would suggest.

But what is not nearly as well reported is the toll of the massive, unrelenting Russian strikes: the Ukrainian Black Sea ports have ceased operations; the military sites have been pounded non-stop; and, most importantly, the power generation and energy transmission infrastructure is hanging by a thread.

The terrible Ukraine blackouts of last winter may become even worse, and Ukraine now has no Patriot air defense missiles to try to shoot down the overwhelming Russian missiles and drones.

So, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky is out begging for the – by now – rare Patriot missiles; something that German press calls ‘a sign of desperation’.

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Ukrainian Drone Swarm Attack Obliterates Wildberries’ Largest Warehouse Near Moscow

Ukraine launched one of its largest kamikaze drone attacks of the war against Russia on Sunday, with Russia’s Defense Ministry saying air defenses intercepted 822 Ukrainian drones overnight, including roughly 600 headed toward Moscow.

Ukrainian long-range missiles and drone swarms have targeted high-value military assets and oil and gas infrastructure deep inside Russia this year, with Ukraine stepping up its latest attacks on logistical networks, such as Russia’s version of Amazon, called Wildberries.

Another Wildberries logistics warehouse was struck on Sunday, this time near Moscow. That brings the total to 20 of the e-commerce giant’s warehouses across Russia that have been targeted by Ukraine since mid-July.

For context, Wildberries is Russia’s largest online retailer and a critical national distribution network, with roughly 98,000 pickup points supporting tens of thousands of merchants.

The latest figures suggest that, as of Aug. 7, excluding the warehouse in Podolsk, Wildberries had 20 facilities and more than 1.18 million square meters of warehouse space, equivalent to over one-fifth of its capacity, taken offline by drone attacks. 

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Russia Threatens to Board British and French Ships in Revenge For ‘Shadow Fleet’ Seizures

President Vladimir Putin threatened retaliation against British and French ‘pirates’ over the seizure of Russian ‘shadow fleet’ oil tankers, saying his navy was ready to start capturing European ships in return.

European states are engaged in “nothing less than piracy and robbery” when they seize Russian shadow fleet tankers moving sanctions-busting oil, President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday. Speaking from the navy cruiser Varyag on a visit to observe the culmination of a major series of exercises off Russia’s east coast, Putin said his forces were ready to “respond in kind”. Several other Kremlin figures quickly followed their leaders’ remarks to add their own threats.

Russian state media reported that President Putin said: “I would like to draw attention to the EU’s recent decisions. We see that the authorities of some countries are attempting to restrict the movement of our economic operators’ ships in violation of international maritime law. I want to emphasise that these ships are peaceful. Recently, they’ve even considered seizing our ships and selling property stolen from us.”

President Putin called these acts “nothing less than piracy and robbery” and warned, “If this begins to happen in practice, we will be forced to respond in kind”, stating he’d already given such instructions to his Defence Ministry and that seizures could happen “wherever we deem it appropriate”, including the Pacific Ocean.

Admiral Viktor Liina, who commands the Russian Pacific Fleet and was hosting President Putin, specifically cited British and French ships as potential targets and said his forces were ready to commence operations.

Western powers, including the European Union, placed sanctions on Russian oil quickly after the commencement of its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but the Russian Federation quickly found ways around those attempts to hamper its trade, including by shifting its oil exports into a large network of so-called “shadow” tankers. European critics say these ships, typically older vessels that would likely have otherwise been taken out of fleets permitted to transit around European coasts, attempt to defy sanctions by obscuring the origin of the oil cargoes they carry and the ownership of the vessels themselves through convoluted layers of ownership and obscure flagging.

Western states retaliated to this by sanctioning individual ships known to be carrying Russian oil as part of this shadow fleet, with over 630 vessels now listed. Still, much of this trade passes right under the nose of European navies, with hundreds of Russian shadow ships passing through the English Channel every year.

One of these ships was the oil tanker Smyrtos, a Chinese-owned, Indian-crewed vessel sailing under the flag of Cameroon. The Cameroon government came under pressure from European states to strike the Smyrtos off its national register, and when it finally did, the British government took this as a pretext to board and seize the ship for sailing under false or no colours under Article 110 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Royal Marines fast-roped onto the deck to capture the vessel and cargo, and then guided the tanker into the English harbour of Weymouth, where it remains, months later.

The Indian citizen captain Ajay Pant has been arrested and charged, and is due to appear in a British court in December for defying Western sanctions on Russian oil, the first such case in the world. The remainder of the non-officer crew has been repatriated.

Several other Russian ships have been seized by other Western nations, including France, Germany, Italy, and the United States. While the U.S. has recently gone so far as to sell off former shadow fleet ships for scrap value, Russia appears more wary of lashing out at Washington and has confided its criticism of European powers.

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High-End Russian Escort Plants Trash Bin Bomb That Kills Ukrainian Submarine Commander Defector on Orders of Kiev

Not a word of condemnation of Kiev’s bombing spree by the Western media.

While all the MSM trumpets that Ukraine is ‘turning the tables in the war’ and highlights every single missile and drone strike on Russian territory, there’s one aspect of this war that is literally booming.

The Kiev bombing campaign abroad: be it a Ukrainian oligarch in Monaco, a Russian General in Moscow or a Submarine commander defector in Crimea, the ‘defenders of democracy’ are blasting away, as the West applauds.

This last Thursday, a Ukrainian submarine commander who defected to Russia was killed when a Russian high-end escort, acting on Kiev’s orders, blew him up with a bomb hidden inside a trash bin.

The 32-year-old Russian woman, later identified as Margarita Reut, was following orders from Ukraine’s intelligence network to kill Robert Shageev, now an officer in the Kremlin’s Black Sea Fleet, according to Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).

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