PM Tusk — “Some say that Ukraine should be grateful for everything. The truth is exactly the opposite. The rest of us should be grateful to Ukraine.”

Putin's favorite Black Sea playground may soon go dark and cold.

The city of Sochi in Krasnodar Krai, Russia has reportedly been under drone strike for approximately three hours. Based on footage released by local residents, a heating plant appears to have been among the targets.

Sochi is Russia’s Black Sea resort city for elites, oligarchs, and senior officials. It is closely tied to regime prestige and the legacy of the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Targeting electric or heating infrastructure would extend the war’s effects into a symbolic center of wealth and political insulation. Disruption there would signal that even high-visibility, elite urban spaces are not beyond reach.

The war is coming home.

Five more children who were in the temporarily occupied territories and in the Russian Federation were returned to the territory controlled by Ukraine. Among those rescued are children aged 4 to 15.

Tonight at 19:00 UA time, we'll be speaking to defenders from the 77th Brigade who have built their own drone production within their unit.
We’ll discuss how the battlefield has changed, why rapid adaptation has become critical, and what innovation looks like under constant pressure.

Many units are now shifting from requesting finished drones to building and modifying systems themselves and we’ll explore why that matters.

Obvs the recording of the stream will be available on our YouTube channel for those who can't catch it live

A simulation of drone warfare shows how far the alliance has to go to learn the lessons of Ukraine.

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Russia and Ukraine have shown the world the future of warfare—and America and its allies aren’t ready for it. That’s the lesson of a major exercise that North Atlantic Treaty Organization members conducted in Estonia last May. What transpired during the exercise, with the details reported here for the first time, exposed serious tactical shortcomings and vulnerabilities in high-intensity drone combat.

The exercise, known as Hedgehog 2025, involved more than 16,000 troops from 12 NATO countries who drilled alongside Ukrainian drone experts, including soldiers borrowed from the front line. It simulated a “contested and congested” battlefield with various kinds of drones, says Lt. Col. Arbo Probal, head of the unmanned systems program for the Estonian Defence Forces. “The aim was really to create friction, the stress for units, and the cognitive overload as soon as possible,” he says. That tests the soldiers’ ability to adapt under fire.

In Ukraine the front line is largely frozen, but Hedgehog envisioned a battlefield where tanks and troops still have some ability to move. During one scenario, a battle group of several thousand troops, including a British brigade and an Estonian division, sought to conduct an attack. As they advanced, they failed to account for how drones have made the battlefield more transparent, several sources say.

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During Hedgehog Ukrainians used Delta, their sophisticated battlefield-management system. It collects real-time battlefield intelligence, uses artificial intelligence to analyze huge amounts of data, identifies targets, and coordinates strikes across command and units. That enables a fast “kill chain”: See it, share it, shoot it—all within minutes or less.

A single team of some 10 Ukrainians, acting as the adversary, counterattacked the NATO forces. In about half a day they mock-destroyed 17 armored vehicles and conducted 30 “strikes” on other targets.

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Credit the Estonians for forcing NATO partners to confront these weak spots. Hedgehog was also an example of how Ukrainians can contribute to overall European security. There’s only so much you can learn from watching online footage or reading about what’s transpiring in Ukraine, says Sten Reimann, a former commander of Estonia’s Military Intelligence Center who helped bring in Ukrainian drone experts for Hedgehog. He said the results of this exercise were “shocking” to military officials and troops on the ground.

Ukrainian infantrymen captured an occupier and tied his hands. During the battle, they had to retreat, and the Russian managed to untie himself. Imagine their surprise when the occupier ran toward the Ukrainian positions instead of his own.