REAL WORLD EVENT DISCUSSIONS

Russia Invades Ukraine. Again

POSTED BY: CAPTAINCRUNCH
UPDATED: Tuesday, March 10, 2026 12:55
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PAGE 198 of 198

Sunday, March 1, 2026 5:24 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
America is bombing the shit out of Iran and Russia is helpless to intervein.


"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be Russia's friend is fatal."

THG


T


Intervene.

Loser.

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Monday, March 2, 2026 6:51 AM

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March 1, 2026

Russia launched more than 14,670 guided aerial bombs, 738 missiles, and nearly 19,000 attack drones over the three winter months. https://t.me/V_Zelenskiy_official/18142#

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/01/the-numbers-behind-ukraines-wor
st-winter-since-the-full-scale-invasion/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 2, 2026 7:34 AM

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Monday, March 2, 2026 10:26 AM

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Although Russia and Iran are allies and partners, Moscow is not helping the Iranian regime defend itself from US and Israeli attacks.

"Now that Iran's regime is in trouble, the lack of support from its allies is especially noticeable, with Russia particularly absent. Right now, Moscow is not rushing to rescue its 'ally'."

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/03/02/8023468/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 2, 2026 10:37 AM

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 5:08 AM

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“We shouldn’t have started with Ukraine”: Russia’s elite openly regret Ukraine war

By Kathrine Frich • March 2, 2026

https://www.dagens.com/war/we-shouldnt-have-started-with-ukraine-russi
as-elite-openly-regret-ukraine-war

Russia’s upper ranks now acknowledge that launching the invasion was a major strategic error.

“The Kremlin made a grave mistake in choosing Ukraine as the target of the attack. If the target had been different, Putin could have achieved much greater results.”

There is recognition that the war has brought heavy political and economic costs without delivering the expected strategic gains.


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 3, 2026 6:03 AM

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Putin’s $2.5 trillion gambit

By David R. Henderson and Ryan Sullivan | Mar 2, 2026, 06:00 PM

https://www.defensenews.com/opinion/2026/03/03/putins-25-trillion-gamb
it/

As Russia’s war in Ukraine enters its fifth year, debates over sanctions, negotiations and military aid increasingly hinge on a central question: How costly has the war been for Russia itself? Our analysis, using standard economic tools, finds the cost so far to be about $2.5 trillion.

Combining casualty figures, equipment and operational costs, and GDP losses indicates a total cost of approximately $2.5 trillion for the Russian Federation. To put that number in perspective, we note that it exceeds Russia’s $2.2 trillion GDP.

How do these costs compare to the benefits? Russia has gained approximately 28,000 square miles since the start of the war. Conquering a territory of this size has come at a cost of approximately $90 million per square mile in blood and treasure.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, March 4, 2026 5:23 AM

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Ukraine's electricity deficit has fallen to 1 GW, energy minister says

By Alyona Kyrychenko — 3 March, 17:12

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/03/03/8023699/

Ukraine's power system recorded a 5 – 6 GW electricity deficit in winter, but it has now fallen to 1 GW.

Source: Ukraine's Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal, as reported by Liga.net, an independent Ukrainian online news outlet

Quote: "As of today, the deficit is 1 GW, which is five to six times less than it was in winter. This naturally means a reduction in the number of queues for domestic consumers and slightly less burdensome [power outage] schedules for businesses."

For reference: Ukraine's state-owned electricity transmission operator Ukrenergo defines a "queue" as a group of consumers and businesses using a specific amount of megawatts. The Dispatch Centre sets the number of queues needed across oblasts to address energy deficits. Critical infrastructure and eligible industrial companies that import at least 60% of their energy cannot be disconnected, according to a Ukrainian Cabinet resolution.

Details: Shmyhal also noted that businesses are adapting by developing their own distributed generation. He added that solar power plants are the fastest and most cost-effective way to produce electricity in Ukraine.

Quote: "Ukraine gets plenty of sunlight, and with the arrival of sunnier days and the summer, there will be a surplus of solar energy. This will need to be balanced through the installation of suitable batteries."

Background: In February 2026, Ukraine again imported a record amount of electricity – 1.26 million MWh, a 41% increase compared with January 2026.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, March 4, 2026 5:24 AM

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Not enough Patriot missiles to stop 60 Russian Iskanders a month. The Iran war is draining what’s left.
Ukraine’s only defense against ballistic attacks became a whole lot harder to obtain

By Igor Kossov | 03/03/2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/03/not-enough-patriot-missiles-to-
stop-60-russian-iskanders-a-month-the-iran-war-is-draining-whats-left/

Patriot missile systems are Ukraine's only defense against ballistic missiles, of which Russia makes 70 to 85 per month.

But Patriot ammo, already in global short supply, is quickly draining as the US and Gulf states fend off Iranian missiles.

Ukraine has survived the winter but Russia’s airstrike campaign is not slowing down. Every month, hundreds of drones and missiles attack cities, killing people and damaging vital infrastructure.

While Ukraine has multiple options to deal with drones and cruise missiles, the country has just one answer to ballistic missiles, which plummet from the sky at steep angles.

With Iran firing hundreds of missiles at multiple targets in the opening days of the latest war, Taiwan preparing for an invasion from China, Europe trying to build up its capabilities, and Ukraine dealing with Russia’s terror strikes, everyone wants to get their hands on as many Patriot munitions as possible. But the US only produces limited amounts each year.

“Patriot missile production has been a bottleneck in US capabilities,” DeVore told Euromaidan Press. “The disconnect between supply and demand does mean that the US government has quite a bit of power in deciding whom to prioritize.”

High demand, limited supply

The Patriot system has gone through several generations of missile interceptors. The ones in use today include the older PAC-2 and the more widely-fielded PAC-3 MSE.

US defense contractors can produce 550 PAC-3 MSE interceptors per year, according to the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 2026 Budget Estimates. The US Army is buying 224 of them, while the remaining amount is slated for foreign sales. Each missile costs about $3.8 million.

The US also produces the cheaper PAC-2 interceptors for foreign buyers, but in much smaller quantities, according to US open source analyst John Ridge.

The DoD recently signed a framework with defense giant Lockheed Martin to raise PAC-3 MSE production to 2,000 units per year over the next 6-7 years. The agreement has yet to be funded, but should slowly alleviate these issues over the next half-decade.

That does nothing for the short-term bottleneck. Current rates of production are not enough to feed both US and global demand, stoked by active wars and simmering tensions around the world, from Ukraine to Taiwan.

More about alternatives to the Patriot at https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/03/not-enough-patriot-missiles-to-
stop-60-russian-iskanders-a-month-the-iran-war-is-draining-whats-left/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, March 4, 2026 5:26 AM

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Russian forces “deliberately and brutally” executed 337 Ukrainian prisoners of war as of the end of 2025, Ukraine’s human rights commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, said on March 3.

Lubinets made the statement during a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting.

https://english.nv.ua/nation/russia-executed-at-least-337-ukrainian-po
ws-50588722.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, March 5, 2026 7:38 AM

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Russia–Ukraine War: escalation, not stalemate

The apparent stasis of Russia’s war in Ukraine rests on an unstable equilibrium that is driving escalation, not compromise. Russia’s recruitment dilemmas, Europe’s finances and China’s choices will shape its future.

Nigel Gould-Davies
Senior Fellow for Russia and Eurasia

25th February 2026

https://www.iiss.org/online-analysis/online-analysis/2026/02/russiaukr
aine-war-escalation-not-stalemate/

The fifth year of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine has begun. It is Russia’s longest continuous major war since the 18th century (the 1979–89 Soviet war in Afghanistan was a sideshow in tempo and casualties by comparison). It is also one of the longest wars between neighbours globally since 1945. In 2025, Russia gained less than 1% of Ukrainian territory and lost over 416,000 troops. Given the length, cost and stasis of the war, how likely is it to end soon?

The driver of the war has not changed over the past four years. Russia seeks to subordinate Ukraine, and Ukraine is determined to resist this. These positions remain incompatible. Both states are materially capable of continuing to fight and judge the costs politically tolerable. The war will end only if Russia wins it or accepts that it cannot win. It cannot currently do the first and refuses to do the second. Since it will not scale back its goals, it must scale up the resources it commits to them. This is a strategy of attrition: generating sustained, superior mass and firepower to grind down an enemy. It is the opposite strategy to the initial invasion plan to seize Kyiv in days. Mass has replaced speed.

Russia’s recruitment strains

In an attritional war, the side with more blood and treasure usually wins, where commitment remains equal. But though Russia’s population is over three times larger than Ukraine’s, and its economy over ten times larger, its attrition has so far failed. Ukraine’s remarkable ingenuity and resilience cannot alone explain this, for Russia has the resources to convert into superior mass. Yet so far Moscow has mobilised only a small, though growing, proportion of its total potential strength. This reflects an under-appreciated tension in its strategy. While the Kremlin sees the war as a core interest, it implicitly understands that most of Russian society does not. Few Russians are genuine enthusiasts of the war, though more are willing to profit from it. This has forced the Kremlin to carefully calibrate the pace and means of converting resources into useable force.

This is true above all of manpower. Rather than compel its citizens to fight, Russia pays them lavishly to do so. For the first time in modern history, it is waging a major war with a contract, not a mass conscript army – topped up with criminals, foreign recruits and up to 15,000 North Korean troops. By trading the rate of battlefield progress for stability at home, it has tried to flatten the curve of social strain. The result is not merely attrition but prolonged, constrained attrition.

Russia is approaching an inflection point in recruitment. Battlefield losses have begun to exceed the number of recruits. Quality is also falling: recruiting officers now complain of alcoholics, drug addicts and the destitute. Moscow may sooner or later face the choice of ordering a compulsory mobilisation or accepting decisive failure. In anticipation, it is building a system for issuing mass call-ups. Activating this would be a moment of truth for the regime. The brief ‘partial mobilisation’ it reluctantly imposed in September 2022 provoked widespread anxiety and a large outflow of draft avoiders. The Kremlin wants to avoid repeating, let alone expanding, this precedent.

A second reason for Russia’s failure is Western financial and material support for Ukraine. This now comes overwhelmingly from Europe. By a curious symmetry, Europe’s margin of superiority over Russia – over ten times economically and over three times by population – is almost identical to Russia’s over Ukraine. It provides a much smaller proportion of its resources than Russia or Ukraine is devoting to the war. It is capable of contributing far more.

The war’s unstable equilibrium

The present battlefield stasis thus rests on a rough equilibrium of power, defined by an inverse relationship between resources and resolve across the major actors. Ukraine has the fewest resources but the deepest commitment. Its mobilisation of military technology and manpower has been strong enough to offset, but not overwhelm, Russia’s resource advantage. Russia has mobilised enough force to pressure Ukraine, but not to defeat it. Europe is devoting a tiny part of its huge economy to support Ukraine – enough to prevent Kyiv’s defeat, but not to defeat Russia.

A costly war that no side can win should be ripe for ending through mutual compromise that is preferred by none but acceptable to all. But the Kremlin – driven by President Vladimir Putin’s historical psychological obsession with Ukraine – does not accept this logic and remains committed to victory. For this reason, the apparent equilibrium of power is unstable. Rather than inducing moderation, it is driving escalation.

Since Russia cannot break the front line, it is intensifying efforts to break its adversaries’ will by conducting air attacks of unprecedented severity on Ukrainian infrastructure and by widening its campaign of sabotage and threats in Europe. Its now-deep ties of trade and joint production with China and North Korea help it to manage the domestic strains of war production.

Ukraine, as the weaker combatant, is also incentivised to escalate to escape the attritional clash of mass. It has intensified attacks against Russia’s energy and military-industrial sectors. Its maritime campaign now targets not only Russia’s Black Sea navy but its sanctions-violating shadow fleet vessels beyond. Europe has begun to move more assertively against these, too, while preparing further sanctions. NATO member states are committed to raising defence spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

Strategic choices

In sum, the war is not a stalemate. On land, sea and air, in sanctions’ design and enforcement, and in the geography of resourcing, the war is escalating and will continue to do so. It is also driving a revolution in military affairs, based on uninhabited vehicles and artificial intelligence, whose implications are still poorly understood. Negotiations cannot succeed while Russia still believes in victory. A year of turbulent diplomacy has, in essence, amounted to rival efforts by Russia and Ukraine to persuade United States President Donald Trump that the other side is responsible for the war.

Three strategic choices will shape the war’s evolution. Russia must, sooner or later, decide whether to mobilise manpower forcibly. NATO’s European members must decide how far and fast to push defence spending commitments through tight fiscal budgets. China must decide how deep its commitment to Russia will become. The grand strategic future depends on Russia’s home front, Europe’s finances and China’s calculations.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, March 5, 2026 12:27 PM

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Thursday, March 5, 2026 2:45 PM

THG

Keep it real please, and use a VPN


T

THE PURGE: Shoigu’s "Gray Cardinal" Arrested! Ex-First Deputy Defense Minister Tsalikov in Custody







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Thursday, March 5, 2026 3:32 PM

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Thursday, March 5, 2026 5:01 PM

THG

Keep it real please, and use a VPN


Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

THGR, SECOND... I'm not arguing with hopium and bullshit bc it's impossible to argue with stupid. Either Russia will win, or it won't. I don't expect it to be soon, but I'm certain it will happen, and if it does all your outbursts and psyops will have been for nothing.

And to reiterate what I posted a long time ago: If anyone reaches for nukes first, it'll be the west.

erous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger



You're beginning to change your tone a bit comrade. At one time you were all in that Russia was winning and going to win it all. You were all in that Russia controlled the Black Sea and always would. Now they don't dare go there.

This whole thread and several others were/are, about explaining to you how you were/are, wrong. Shit, I think you still post that Ukraine started the war. Some bullshit about Ukraine wanting to join NATO. The thing is, is that before Russia invaded Ukraine the first time 70% of Ukrainians didn't want to join NATO. Would you care to correct why Russia invaded?

Without you posting propaganda religiously about how Russia was/is winning, these threads wouldn't exist. SECOND and I respond to your posts by posting facts showing we are right and you were/are, always wrong.

tick tock and don't forget to hit subscribe.

T


HUGE BLACK SEA KA-27 STRIKE: RUSSIA LOST CONTROL Vlog 1339: War in Ukraine



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Thursday, March 5, 2026 5:07 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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Friday, March 6, 2026 6:40 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Why was Ukraine defending Ukraine so cheap? And why is attacking Iran so expensive?

More kaboom per buck in Ukraine. ONE BILLION DOLLARS goes seven times farther in Ukraine than in Iran

Attacking Iran versus defending Ukraine

Paul Krugman | Mar 5, 2026



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 6, 2026 9:43 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


(News reporting concentrates on soldiers, but maintenance and factory workers are MORE important to winning a war. Millions and millions of Ukrainians showing up at work 5 days per week and being competent at their job is even more vital than 700,000 Ukrainian soldiers maiming/killing a few hundred Russians per day.)

How Ukraine is trying to fix a critical shortage

By Luca Léry Moffat, Dominic Culverwell

March 6, 2026 1:00 PM (Updated: March 6, 2026 3:56 pm)

https://kyivindependent.com/tinder-for-the-labor-market-ukraine-eyes-i
ts-next-generation-of-blue-collar-workers/

Since Dmytro Volynets studied mechanical engineering at university over a decade ago, he's worked in retail, call centers, and on a warehouse floor.

Unable to join the army due to a spine injury, the 35-year-old has struggled to find a coherent career path related to his studies — even as several industries offering high paying jobs face labour shortages.

In large part because of Russia's full-scale invasion, Volynets' story is typical right now in Ukraine — despite possessing some of the highest rates of tertiary education in Europe, the country faces low productivity and a persistent shortage of skilled workers.

Construction, transport, energy, and industry reported critical labor shortages in 2024 and 2025, according to Swiss development organization Helvetas — driven in part by a war now in its fifth year that has disproportionately absorbed the blue-collar workers that Ukraine needs.

Hoping to play a small role in plugging that gap, Volynets is now back in school, taking a six-week vocational training course in which he's learning to operate CNC machines — high-precision metal cutting equipment, used across industries including in Ukraine's burgeoning military sector.

"I can't protect my country as a soldier, but I can make rockets," he says.

Ukraine's skill gap

Labour shortages are not new in Ukraine, the population of which shrank year-on-year since the mid-1990s, according to the World Bank. But Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 caused a precipitous acceleration of this trend — with mobilization and emigration reducing the country's workforce by a whopping quarter, according to one recent study.

Yet paradoxically, the issue faced by businesses today is not always the lack of workers available — but a lack of relevant skills.

"The biggest gap is in blue-collar professions, like plumbers, welders, machine operators, drivers," Michael Shneider, CEO at Kyiv School of Economics, says.

According to the country's economy ministry, over 12 million Ukrainians are economically inactive, and another 1.5 million are stuck in low-productivity jobs. Simultaneously, they estimate that Ukraine will face a shortage of over half a million blue-collar workers in 2027.

That skill shortage could deteriorate further as Kyiv lifts travel restrictions for men. Already, companies like steel plant ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih have reported an exodus of young factory workers after the government revised travel rules for 18-22-year-old men last August.


The talent pool is also drained by military recruiters targeting male-dominated workplaces, like factories, making it harder for companies to find and train new employees. Now, those jobs are in high demand — with repair work necessitated by Russian air strikes and a burgeoning military industry compounding the need for that skillset.

With the country facing a $586 billion reconstruction bill, according to the World Bank, and with the military sector set to play a central role in Ukraine's future economic competitiveness, a lack of builders, laborers, tradesmen, and factory workers could be a fatal bottleneck.

What's being done?

While mobilization and emigration are hard to fix while Russia continues its full-scale invasion, the skills gap still can be.

To get a more granular picture of that gap, Ukraine’s Economy Ministry is taking a leaf out of the dating world, having developed "Tinder for the labor market," according to Darina Marchak, deputy economy minister.

The Obriy system, which is due this spring, will be "an online one-stop shop for individuals, businesses, and local councils," Marchak told the Kyiv Independent.

"Just as Tinder connects people based on compatibility signals and location, Obriy will match job seekers, businesses, and local government councils within specific Ukrainian regions — pairing the right skills with the right vacancies at a hyper-local level," Oleksandr Tsybort, Deputy Economy Minister, told the Kyiv Independent.

For example, a welder in Lviv will be matched with manufacturers in Lviv rather than postings across the country, Tsybort added.

The system will not only support jobseekers but also help the Economy Ministry spot critical gaps in the depleted labor market, according to Marchak.

"It should become a comprehensive database showing how many people hold which qualifications, what professions currently exist, and where the gaps are. It should also forecast future labor market demand based on economic development trends and emerging shifts in the workforce," she added.

While the government is developing new immigration policies to plug some shortages with migrant labor, it’s also necessary to retrain Ukrainians, she said.

But with a culture of university education and white-collar professions as the goal, encouraging retraining is not always easy.

"There is some stigma around occupational training in Ukraine," says Shneider.

"We need to change this culture."

Having repeatedly encountered the issue of skills shortages in conversations with the private sector, KSE decided to set up its own vocational center, KSEProfTech, in 2024.

Alongside training the country's future economists, they now also train machine operators, welders, and electricians in short 6-week programs designed to fill the critical skills gaps that businesses are concerned about — so much so that the businesses themselves cover up to 100% of the costs.

Of the 400 people who have already completed the reskilling program, 90% are employed, with an average increase in personal income of 43%, according to KSE ProfTech.

Aside from students like Dmytro Volynets, the program has also helped fast-track older adults, internally displaced people, veterans, and women back to employment.

Graduates go on to work in the state rail service, defense industry, and making electronics for Ukrainian cybersecurity giant Ajax.

But attracting students is not always the easiest thing, says Shneider, who tried to raise awareness of the program by putting flyers up in apartment blocks, elevators, and at bus stops.

"One to six weeks, with guaranteed employment and increasing your salary by 40% — people think there is something wrong."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 6, 2026 11:12 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Why was Ukraine defending Ukraine so cheap? And why is attacking Iran so expensive?

More kaboom per buck in Ukraine. ONE BILLION DOLLARS goes seven times farther in Ukraine than in Iran

Attacking Iran versus defending Ukraine

Paul Krugman | Mar 5, 2026



The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two



Oh yeah? How long has Ukraine been "fighting" now?

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Friday, March 6, 2026 3:01 PM

SIGNYM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.



Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

THGR, SECOND... I'm not arguing with hopium and bullshit bc it's impossible to argue with stupid. Either Russia will win, or it won't. I don't expect it to be soon, but I'm certain it will happen, and if it does all your outbursts and psyops will have been for nothing.

And to reiterate what I posted a long time ago: If anyone reaches for nukes first, it'll be the west.

THGR:
You're beginning to change your tone a bit comrade. At one time you were all in that Russia was winning and going to win it all. You were all in that Russia controlled the Black Sea and always would. Now they don't dare go there.


You make shit up to "prove" me wrong? Quotes and links, please. You'll be looking a long time bc I never said that.


Quote:
This whole thread and several others were/are, about explaining to you how you were/are, wrong. Shit, I think you still post that Ukraine started the war. Some bullshit about Ukraine wanting to join NATO. The thing is, is that before Russia invaded Ukraine the first time 70% of Ukrainians didn't want to join NATO. Would you care to correct why Russia invaded?
Like I said, it's hard to argue with stupid. Since when did "the people" count in Ukraine? "The people" voted for Yanukovich. He was ousted in a CIA/ State Dept coup. "The people" voted for Zelensky, they voted for his peace platform. "The people" might not want to join NATO, but the west was angling to make Ukraine part if NATO, Zelensky was hinting about getting nukes at the Munich Security Conference literally 5 days before the SMO.
https://x.com/DietHeartNews/status/2028837897374253108

Quote:
Without you posting propaganda religiously about how Russia was/is winning, these threads wouldn't exist. SECOND and I respond to your posts by posting facts showing we are right and you were/are, always wrong.
Liar. You and SECOND post religiously whether I post or not.

Russia is winning.

Stupid.


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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, March 6, 2026 5:30 PM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Ukraine unveils new interceptor drone capable of speeds over 320 km/h

By Andrii Konyk — 6 March, 18:37

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2026/03/06/8024259/

Ukrainian defence company The Fourth Law (TFL) has unveiled the Zerov-8, an autonomous interceptor drone equipped with an AI-powered automatic target detection system.

Source: press service for The Fourth Law https://thefourthlaw.ai/blog/the-fourth-law-launches-zerov

Details: The new interceptor was developed using a tailsitter design which allows the UAV to take off and land vertically. The company says the Zerov-8 has a maximum speed of 326 km/h and an interception speed of up to 270 km/h. The drone can operate within a radius of up to 20 km. The interceptor carries a warhead weighing up to half a kilogram and is equipped with either a daytime or thermal camera.

A key feature of the new interceptor, the company says, is TFL's Anti-Shahed detection module, based on artificial intelligence.

Quote: "The system autonomously detects a drone by analysing the object's movement, its thermal signature and other parameters using AI. After detection, the system 'highlights' the target and continues stable tracking while operating in parallel without interfering with the flight. The operator chooses the direction of interception independently. The module is installed on board together with a thermal camera (typically a Kurbas-640 Beta), a flight controller or a video transmitter."

Details: The detection system on the Zerov-8 can detect targets up to 1 km away in ideal contrast conditions, while in difficult weather conditions it can identify an enemy drone at distances of up to 300 metres. The development is currently undergoing the final tests in a full cycle of autonomous interception, the company said.

There are plans for the drone to be integrated with external radars to automatically guide the Zerov-8 onto an interception trajectory and minimise the human factor. In particular, the UAV will receive coordinates from Skyguard systems or ground control stations. The developers also plan to add safeguards against loss of communication and a function ensuring guaranteed target capture within a 500-metre radius.

The Fourth Law explained that the interceptor was named after Mykola Zerov, a Ukrainian poet and translator who belonged to the generation known as the Executed Renaissance. Zerov was arrested by the Soviet authorities and shot in the Sandarmokh Forest on 3 November 1937. In doing so, the company is continuing its line of products named after Ukrainian cultural figures who were persecuted in the USSR.

Background: Earlier, the Ukrainian company Odd Systems presented an updated line of the Kurbas cameras that will be used on Zerov-8 interceptors. In addition, Yaroslav Azhniuk, founder of The Fourth Law, has announced that several of the manufacturer's products were codified in September last year.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 6, 2026 5:45 PM

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Money Matters

By Peeter Helme | March 06, 2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/06/ukraine-energy-economy-march-20
26/

According to the OECD, Ukrainian defense spending consumes 25% of GDP, with the budget deficit running near 20% of GDP — putting public debt on a trajectory toward 120% of GDP during 2026, up from 50% in 2021. All civilian expenditures remain entirely dependent on Western aid. The current account deficit ballooned from 8.4% of GDP in 2024 to 16.2% in 2025, as imports grew 21% while exports fell 4%.

The Kyiv School of Economics Institute assessed in February that Ukraine’s total war losses reached $1.7 trillion — three times its prewar GDP.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 6, 2026 5:56 PM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Russia’s failure to secure quick victory in Ukraine seen as major setback for Kremlin, analyst says

Experts say the extended fighting has damaged the image Russia once projected as a dominant military power.

March 5, 2026

https://www.dagens.com/news/russias-failure-to-secure-quick-victory-in
-ukraine-seen-as-major-setback-for-kremlin-analyst-says


The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, March 6, 2026 7:52 PM

6IXSTRINGJACK


_____ Enter who gives a fuck emoji here.


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Saturday, March 7, 2026 5:39 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Russia is reportedly sharing intelligence with Iran to support Iranian attacks against US forces in the Middle East in contrast to the Kremlin’s recent attempts to frame Russia as a potential US ally and US-Russia relations as increasingly friendly. Three officials told the Washington Post on March 6 that Russia has given Iran the locations of US military assets, including warships and aircraft, since the US-Israeli February 28 strikes against Iran.[1] One of the officials characterized Russia’s provision of targeting information to strike US forces in the Middle East as a “pretty comprehensive effort.” The Washington Post noted that analysts indicated that Russia’s reported intelligence sharing fits the pattern of Iran’s strikes against US command and control infrastructure, radars, and temporary structures. The Center for Naval Analyses (CNA) Principal Research Scientist Mike Peterson stated that Russia could be giving Iran high-quality satellite imagery with which Iran could identify what bases the United States and its allies are currently using and other information, such as the location of aircraft, intelligence stations, and logistics flows.[2] Iran may not have regular access to high-quality satellite imagery, even from commercially available sources, and may be relying on Russia to get such imagery. Prominent commercial publisher of satellite imagery Planet Labs enacted a policy on March 6 subjecting all new imagery collected over the Gulf States and adjacent conflict zones, excluding Iran, to a mandatory 96-hour delay before making it publicly available, and other companies have held policies to never release images of US or allied bases.[3] Russian intelligence sharing, thus, may be supporting Iranian strikes on US military assets.

ISW has long assessed that the Kremlin has self-defined the United States as one of Russia’s primary geopolitical adversaries and has been conducting several strategic efforts to challenge US interests globally.[4] ISW has previously observed reports that Russia provided targeting data to the Iranian-backed Houthis in 2024, with which the Houthis used to strike western shipping vessels.[5] Russian intelligence sharing with a state against which the United States is conducting a military campaign belies recent official Russian statements that Russia is interested in warming its relations with the United States.[6] Russia is likely only maintaining a friendly facade toward the United States as a means of persuading the United States to abandon Ukraine in ongoing peace negotiations and secure an unwarranted reset of US-Russia relations, allowing Russia to more easily accomplish its longstanding goal of destroying the Ukrainian state.

https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive
-campaign-assessment-march-6-2026/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, March 7, 2026 6:02 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


What a load of horseshit.

No more stories with nameless so-called people.

If you want to be taken seriously, have real people with real names that can be verified, and that can also be held accountable if they're lying.

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Sunday, March 8, 2026 6:50 AM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Kyiv reports zero deaths from cold during energy crisis — but there's a catch

By Polina Moroziuk

March 8, 2026 9:22 AM

https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-reports-zero-deaths-from-winter-outag
es-but-doubts-remain/

During the winter, rumors circulated online suggesting that cold indoor conditions may have contributed to several deaths in the capital. Among the cases that drew attention were the deaths of an 82-year-old Pavlo Loiko and another 88-year-old woman in Kyiv's Podil district. In both instances, city and regional authorities said forensic examinations determined the cause of death to be chronic cardiovascular disease rather than hypothermia.

But an employee with a Kyiv-based volunteer organization, who chose to remain anonymous, said they were "skeptical" that official data captured the full impact of the winter outages.

The volunteer described regularly encountering elderly residents struggling to endure prolonged cold at home during blackout periods. "We often arrived at apartments that were simply freezing," the volunteer said. "Older people were wearing multiple layers indoors, wrapped in scarves and hats, trying to keep warm however they could."

"I think some people could have died from cold conditions," the volunteer said. "But hypothermia usually is not what gets written as the diagnosis. The cold triggers something else, a stroke, respiratory failure, another condition, and that becomes the official cause of death."

Asked whether cold exposure can still play a role in mortality even if it is not listed as the official cause of death, Heisler said it can.

"Oh, absolutely," she said. "Cold can increase cardiovascular mortality and respiratory mortality. It doesn't have to be recorded as hypothermia."

The health effects of cold exposure can also emerge days after the initial event.

"Mortality risk peaks about five to six days after severe cold exposure, and it can last for up to around twenty-three days," Heisler said.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, March 8, 2026 6:58 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Russia spent three years trying to break Western support for Ukraine—then Iran did it in a week

The Iran war’s first casualty may be the world’s attention to Ukraine.

By Matthew Parish | March 07, 2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/07/iran-war-russia-ukraine-western
-support/

The windfall Moscow didn’t plan for

Financial markets reacted instantly. Within days of the first strikes on Iranian infrastructure, Brent crude rose above $93 per barrel for the first time since 2023. Maritime insurers increased risk premiums for vessels passing through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz, while energy analysts warned that even limited disruption could remove several million barrels per day from global markets.

For Russia, whose war economy remains heavily dependent on hydrocarbon revenues, rising oil prices are not merely an economic development but a strategic windfall.

As several analysts have already noted, higher energy prices directly strengthen Moscow’s fiscal position. Russia’s federal budget still depends heavily on oil and gas receipts; every sustained increase in global prices expands the Kremlin’s capacity to finance its war effort. In that sense the Middle Eastern crisis arrives at a convenient moment for Moscow, offsetting some of the pressure imposed by Western sanctions.

But the implications run deeper than energy markets.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, March 8, 2026 7:22 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Weekend Update #175: The Week In Which Ukraine Stood Up To Help The USA And The USA Stood Up To Help Russia

Also, Ukrainian Territorial Gains And Russian Personnel Losses in February

Phillips P. OBrien | Mar 08, 2026

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-175-the-week-in-
which

We have two powers in action this week. One, Ukraine, has adjusted to the realities of modern war. It was not easy, but the Ukrainians have been flexible, determined and resourceful. The other, the USA, was smug, domineering and did not understand what it was doing. The result, not surprisingly, was that the USA was left unprepared for its war and has had to ask for Ukrainian help for itself and its allies.

This kind of miscalculation happens in war, btw. The thing that does not is that while the USA was begging for aid from Ukraine, it was providing protection and a windfall of support for the power trying to destroy Ukraine—Russia. So we have a situation that the Ukrainians are helping the USA and the USA is helping/protecting Russia. This must be the lead story for the week.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 9, 2026 6:30 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Russia’s allies keep dying. Russia keeps doing nothing. Defense analyst explains the Axis of Evil’s fatal flaw.

The whole system runs on one thing. Take it away, and there’s no axis at all.

By Alya Shandra | 09/03/2026

https://euromaidanpress.com/2026/03/09/russias-allies-keep-dying-russi
a-keeps-doing-nothing-defense-analyst-explains-the-axis-of-evils-fatal-flaw/

Iran's Supreme Leader Khamenei is dead. He is the third Russian ally to fall in three months, following Assad and Maduro.

In a 2024 Euromaidan Press interview, defense analyst Mykhailo Samus mapped the China-Russia-Iran-North Korea alliance as an interconnected system and argued that Ukraine's war is the key to dismantling it.

We asked him whether that system is now falling apart—and what the Iran war actually changes for Ukraine's fight.

The "Axis of Evil" sounds formidable. But Samus argues it has always had one structural weakness: without China, it wouldn't exist at all.

"This system works because China provides all the resources, money, technology, and components," Samus says. "They created the flow of military-technical cooperation between all these countries. A bright example is the Shahed kamikaze drone—designed by Iran with components from China, the US, and other countries. These technologies were transferred to Russia, and the thousands of drones attacking Ukraine are the result."

The same pipeline feeds North Korea, which is getting technology for submarines and missiles—a problem the Pacific region will feel sooner or later, Samus warns.

But China uses proxies rather than acting directly. Russia destroys the European order. Iran destabilized the Middle East through Hezbollah, Hamas, and other proxies while keeping Syria in chaos. Venezuela worked in South America. North Korea handles the Pacific.

Step by step, though, Iran has been losing its zone of influence. And China isn't stepping up to defend it.

"China is not ready to say openly that they are prepared to compete directly with the United States," Samus says. "They prefer to sit by the river and watch the bodies of their enemies float past."

Even Iran's own leadership sees it. "They said, of course, China is supporting us," Samus notes. "But they supported with components and machinery—for money, not for free. And this is not how allies do serious business."

China still lacks the nuclear, economic, and military power for a direct confrontation with the US. "They are not even decisive regarding Taiwan," Samus says.

If the US-led coalition succeeds in stabilizing Iran, the implications for China go far beyond the Middle East. "China loses another very strong proxy," Samus says. "This could mean China loses the capability and even the intention to dominate the world."

If China is the silent backbone, Russia is the helpless bystander. Three allies gone in three months, and Moscow didn't lift a finger.

Why not? Because it can't.

"Russia doesn't have any resources," Samus says flatly. "What can they do now? They openly said they are nothing here. They cannot even say something against Trump or the military forces collected by the United States and Israel around Iran."

Russia just sits and keeps silent, he says—can't even tell Washington, "This is our friend, you shouldn't kill our friend." A lot of Putin's declared friends are already dead. Nothing from the Kremlin.

Samus reserves particular scorn for Moscow's offer to mediate.

"They said they could be a moderator. What the hell, a moderator? Your friends are killed by the United States, and you say you could be a moderator? You should just get out if you cannot propose something strong and effective."

Russia and Iran: intelligence sharing, friction, and a ballistic missile pause

The partnership wasn't just drones. Russia and Iran were exchanging intelligence and military technologies right up until the strikes. Russian components were found in the Shaheds that hit the British base in Cyprus. And the latest reports suggest Russia provided intelligence for Iran to target US forces—a detail that could blow up in Moscow's face.

"It's very interesting how Trump will react to this information on intelligence transferring from Russia to Iran to kill American soldiers," Samus says. "This reaction will define how Russia acts."

His prediction: Russia will back off. "To stop military cooperation with Iran is a lesser price than getting problems with Trump now, for Putin and for Russia."

But the cooperation had deeper friction than the public image suggested. Samus says that when Iran asked Russia for nuclear technologies and aviation, Russia stalled. "Russia said, 'No, we should think,' and tried to buy time." Iran may have responded by withholding ballistic missiles and technology transfers. No confirmed evidence of Iranian ballistic missile use in Ukraine has ever emerged—suggesting the exchange stalled before it got that far.

"It looks like Putin and Khamenei didn't have good contact and understanding of each other," Samus says. "Something happened between the two countries. Compared to 2023 and 2024, the cooperation slowed."

So what actually keeps Russia's war machine running? Samus is categorical.

"The main resource for Russia is money."

With money, they buy technology components from China. They order production in North Korea. They route purchases through intermediary countries to dodge sanctions. "Having American, European, Japanese, or Taiwanese components in missiles and drones is not a problem for Russians," he says. "As long as they have money."

And China's role is strictly commercial. "China is not 'supporting' Russia. They are interested in a strong Russia as a proxy to destroy the European order, but they avoid any kind of military support. They just say, 'If you'd like to buy some microchips, okay, buy them. If you'd like to buy millions of motors for drones, okay, buy them.' This is how the Axis of Evil works."

The flip side: "If they don't have money, China will stop immediately. If they don't have money, they don't have support."

That makes oil prices the single most important variable. In the short term, the Iran war is handing Russia a windfall. "Russia is getting more money from higher oil prices, which is bad," Samus says. "It means for the next couple of months, they can recruit more soldiers and produce more Shaheds and ballistic missiles."

But if the operation is short and successful? "Oil prices will immediately fall to a very low level, even lower than before. And Russia will have huge problems."

The most concrete threat to Ukraine right now: the competition for Patriot PAC-3 interceptors, the only system that can stop Russian ballistic missiles.

"The US, Israel, and others in the region are using a lot of Patriots," Samus says. "Production lines are working at their limits, but it's absolutely not enough—not enough for Ukraine, not enough for the United States, not enough for Europe or the Middle East. Japan produces these missiles but cannot export them because of internal limitations."

The numbers back him up. Lockheed Martin produced 620 PAC-3 MSE interceptors in 2025—its record. But President Zelenskyy said that in just three days of fighting in the Middle East, more than 800 Patriot missiles were used—more than Ukraine received throughout the entire full-scale invasion. A deal to triple production to 2,000/year won't reach full capacity until 2030.

"Russia will have more ballistic missiles than we have PAC-3 interceptors," Samus warns. "They will be able to punch through our air defense."

His proposed solution goes on the offensive. "Only one way: destroy Russian defense industry facilities with our massive missile attacks. We should create capability to attack with hundreds and hundreds of missiles every day. This is the only way, because Russia will have more missiles and we will have fewer Patriots. That reality is impossible to change."

Does the Iran war mean the world's attention will shift away from Ukraine? Samus pushes back hard.

"I cannot support the narrative that there will be a focus shift away from Ukraine," he says. "We don't need this focus. We have a pretty strong understanding of what it means to fight Russia. We need strong armed forces, resilience, and financial support. Focusing is something from 2014, maybe 2022. Now we need concrete things."

And one of those concrete things is an unexpected opportunity.
Ukraine has something nobody else does—and the US knows it

The United States discovered, the hard way, that it has no working defense against Shahed drones. Ukraine does. And nobody else comes close.

"Very high-tech developed countries like the United States found they don't have proper air defense against Shaheds. They don't have it. Ukraine has it," Samus says.

Ukraine built a layered system from scratch: light aviation, mobile groups, drone interceptors, radars, F-16 fighters—all integrated. "Last year, about 50,000 Shaheds attacked Ukraine, sometimes 150 a day, and 85.5% were destroyed."

The cost gap is staggering. Ukrainian interceptor drones cost approximately $5,000 each. European prototypes run $50,000 to $100,000—and they're unproven.

"Everybody has a model at an exhibition," Samus says. "We are talking about weapons proven in battle. If they have a model, go to the Chernihiv region and hit a Shahed. If you can't, it's just a prototype. We could produce prototypes every day, including children. Only a weapon that works on the battlefield is a weapon."

The Americans? "They don't have any interceptors. And they won't have them next year. They cannot produce them."

The Pentagon and at least one Gulf state are already in discussions to purchase Ukrainian-made interceptors, the Financial Times reported this week. Zelenskyy confirmed on 6 March that Ukraine received a request from the US "for specific support in protection against Shaheds in the Middle East region."

Samus insists Ukraine must protect its advantage. "We should sell the ready-to-use product, not the technology. I cannot imagine the United States giving us the technology to produce their missiles or even their rifles—they protect their technology absolutely. Ukraine should act the same way. If you want our drones, get the drones with black boxes. No technology transfer."

He says Ukraine could organize production lines in the United States—but without transferring the core technology. And training should happen on Ukrainian terms.

"Ukrainian instructors shouldn't leave the country. American soldiers should come to Ukraine—for example to the Chernihiv Oblast—for practical lessons on how to fight Shaheds. We cannot send our soldiers away from our war to teach Americans somewhere else. That is against Ukrainian interests."

Fox News already showed a Ukrainian drone interceptor and called it American, Samus notes. "The IP for this technology should be Ukrainian. The technology should be Ukrainian."

Best case, worst case

Samus sees the Iran war as a fork with radically different outcomes for Ukraine.

"Best case: a short, several-week campaign where the US finds leaders inside the regime, military operations stop, and there's an immediate impact on oil prices. Russia won't have resources to continue the war—problems recruiting soldiers, problems getting components from China."

"Worst case: a Vietnam or Afghanistan for the United States for the next 10 years, making America weaker and giving Russia more money from oil prices—maybe $200 or more per barrel. If the US starts a land operation with 100,000 to 300,000 troops and gets stuck, that's a disaster."

The determining factor, in his view, is whether the Iranian population supports the change. "The main idea of this operation should be that the majority of the Iranian population is against the regime and will support the change. If the United States fights the Iranian people, it will be a disaster."

Samus believes the Trump administration's approach—removing authoritarian leaders and finding what he calls "adequate communicators" within existing regimes, rather than imposing democracy from outside—could eventually be applied to Russia as well. He points to the Venezuela pattern, where the US removed the leader but negotiated with figures inside the same regime to secure American business interests.

"Trump has proposed this to the Russians for a year: stop the war and make a business deal," Samus says. "The obstacle is Putin. I am sure that sooner or later, the Russian oligarchs will solve this problem."

That scenario remains speculative—and depends on variables far beyond Ukraine's control. What Ukraine can control is how it plays the hand it's been dealt: a PAC-3 crisis that demands offensive solutions, a drone defense capability the world suddenly needs, and a window in which one more leg of the authoritarian axis has been kicked out.

It can't control whether Iran's regime will fall. And so far, that is far from certain.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 9, 2026 6:41 AM

6IXSTRINGJACK


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Monday, March 9, 2026 1:51 PM

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The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


The controversial death toll in Ukraine

New technologies help calculate the number of casualties, estimated at up to nearly two million, despite attempts by Kyiv and Moscow to conceal them

Luis de Vega | Kyiv - MAR 07, 2026 - 23:00 EST

https://english.elpais.com/international/2026-03-08/the-controversial-
death-toll-in-ukraine-the-deadliest-european-war-in-eight-decades.html

General or partial assessments of the number of victims in the war in Ukraine reveal the high human cost of an armed conflict unprecedented in Europe in the last eight decades. With estimates of nearly two million military casualties, it is reminiscent of the worst conflicts experienced in the 20th century on the Old Continent. The most conservative figures — around half a million deaths on the Ukrainian side — are five times higher than those of the Balkan War (1992-1995), which totaled 100,000, of whom 13,500 were civilians.

The Ukrainian Commissioner for Missing Persons in Special Circumstances has just raised the number of missing persons to 90,000, including military personnel and civilians of all ages, sources from that agency confirmed to EL PAÍS. “The majority, of course, are military personnel, and we assume, unfortunately, that many of them have been killed,” the commissioner added, declining to provide a detailed breakdown to avoid giving the enemy any clues. The Ministry of the Interior, for its part, puts the number of missing adults at just over 99,300, of whom 3,400 are women.

In the latest available overall estimate, the number of military casualties — killed, missing, wounded, and prisoners of war — during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which marked its fourth anniversary on February 24, is the highest in Europe since World War II. Although both governments try to conceal their losses in the armed conflict that has ravaged Ukraine and barely report on them, these figures are approaching two million (1.2 million for Moscow and between 500,000 and 600,000 for Kyiv), according to a report released a month ago by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington. Civilian deaths in Ukraine exceed 15,100, according to the U.N. tally.

The last time Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy addressed this sensitive issue was on February 4. He reported 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed, a figure far lower than estimates by independent sources. Meanwhile, authorities in Kyiv have even shut down websites dedicated to reporting on casualty figures, despite Ukraine not considering these a state secret. Ukrainian media outlets are also attempting to shed light on this thorny issue.

Access to all kinds of open sources of information about the most documented and widely publicized war in history allows us to uncover a wealth of data, despite the wall of silence imposed by each side when it comes to reporting their own casualties. Cell phones, social media, drones, satellites, geolocation, cameras installed in public and private places… everything makes it much easier for anyone to extract information than in previous conflicts.

Dmytro Dzhulai, a reporter for Radio Free Europe, has amassed a vast amount of information on his computer thanks to the four years he has spent investigating the massacre of 500 civilians by Russian soldiers in 2022 in Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv. Less data is available on another notorious massacre, and one with far larger numbers: the killing of 8,000 Bosniak Muslims by Bosnian Serb forces over three days after UN troops withdrew from Srebrenica in the summer of 1995.

Dzhulai knows every corner of Bucha where a body has been found. He knows which Russian military unit was deployed on each street, who was responsible, their photos, their contacts… In his office in the Ukrainian capital, he shows videos of soldiers executing residents in cold blood and, moments later, robbing them of their belongings. In many cases, the priority was getting hold of their cell phones. “The Russian soldiers used the phones of the Ukrainians they murdered to call their own families or partners, and everything was recorded,” the reporter points out. Posts on social media platforms like Telegram and VKontakte (VK), both from individuals and from the army brigades themselves, have also provided information that will be used to denounce possible war crimes.

As an example, he chooses the photo of a Russian soldier named Vladislav Ulianich, who participated in the occupation of Bucha in March 2022 and whose death was reported shortly afterward, occurring in the Luhansk region in eastern Ukraine on May 22 of that same year. Dzhulai uses a photo comparison tool with the Russian soldier’s face along with his first and last name to obtain more images of him. He then manages to pinpoint the exact location where the soldier was photographed smiling and holding his weapon outside a building in eastern Bucha at 10:36 a.m. on March 7, 2022.

Information about him abounds, including a bank account number where donations were requested to support the soldier’s mother, Oksana, after his death; condolences from the Federation due to his time as a weightlifter; and his participation in the Syrian war. All this information is being compiled and organized so that it can help identify those responsible and bring them to justice. For now, the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague only has one general case open regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Unofficial calculations

In both Ukraine and Russia, unofficial estimates of military casualties in the conflict are being compiled to fill the gap left by the lack of data provided by the authorities. The Russian media outlet Mediazona and the British broadcaster BBC have gathered the identities of more than 200,000 Russian soldiers killed in combat using family members’ social media accounts, news reports in various local media outlets, and official announcements from Russian regional authorities. The number rises to 219,000 according to estimates based on statistics showing an increase in male deaths in inheritance records. However, those responsible for the monitoring themselves acknowledge that this figure represents only a portion of the total.

The same situation exists on the Ukrainian side, where a similar study puts the number of casualties — including soldiers killed, missing, and prisoners of war — at 186,000. The website Ukrainian Losses was temporarily shut down by the authorities. All indications suggest that its figures, much higher than those provided by Zelenskiy, were the reason for its closure, according to the Center for Human Rights in Armed Conflict (CHRAC), which cites a recent Mediazona report validating the website’s figures with a 5% margin of error.

The problem lies in the fact that the Ukrainian president is not taking into account those soldiers who have not died in combat — other causes include traffic accidents, suicides, illnesses, friendly fire, alcohol or drug poisoning — nor those who remain missing. The last time Zelenskiy addressed this issue he reported 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers killed, a figure far lower than the estimates from independent sources or the Missing Persons Commissioner. As for those who have died in non-combat situations, the estimate between 2022 and 2025 is 28,000, according to CHRAC.

This same center puts the number of Ukrainian bodies returned at 22,800 following dozens of agreements signed between the parties, not counting the 1,000 bodies that Russia handed over last Thursday, according to the count being made by the prisoner of war authority in Kyiv. Until they are identified, they are not officially added to the death toll.

Connecting the dots in identifications sometimes takes several years, even for those who didn’t die on the front lines, which explains the difficulties in obtaining accurate data. In April 2022, EL PAÍS photographed the body of a man lying in a street in front of a supermarket in Bucha. Until a year ago, when the city commemorated the third anniversary of the Russian occupation, it wasn’t known that the man was Leontiy Dokiychuk, born on April 21, 1939, and who died on March 31, 2022. Municipal authorities managed to contact relatives and acquaintances, who were unaware that he was buried in one of the unmarked graves. According to forensic experts, his death was not due to Russian gunfire. Everything points to a heart attack.

Victoria Mayor

As for Victoria Mayor, interviewed by this special correspondent on February 20, she continues searching for her brother, Sasha, a soldier who disappeared in 2024 when contact was lost with him on the front lines. According to Mayor, DNA evidence suggests that one of the bodies that arrived in Dnipro, in eastern Ukraine, may be that of her brother.

In terms of prisoners of war, Russia is holding approximately 7,000 Ukrainians and Ukraine is holding approximately 4,000 Russians, according to figures provided by President Zelenskiy in the middle of last month. To date, through some 70 prisoner exchanges, approximately 7,450 Ukrainians have returned home, of whom more than 7,000 are soldiers.

In this discrepancy of figures there are significant gaps, such as the number of victims in areas occupied by Russian troops. In the battle for control of Mariupol alone, which has remained entirely in Moscow’s hands since May 2022, the civilian death toll ranges from the 8,000 cited in a Human Rights Watch report to the 22,000 estimated in 2023 by Vadym Boychenko, then mayor of the city, during an interview with EL PAÍS. The continued presence of Kremlin authorities and troops makes it impossible to clarify much of what is happening, or has happened, in the 20% of Ukrainian territory occupied by Moscow.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Monday, March 9, 2026 2:08 PM

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Tuesday, March 10, 2026 4:49 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Ukrainian forces have been increasingly striking Russian military infrastructure in occupied Crimea in the past weeks, with Ukrainian officials reporting strikes at least 14 times since February 11.[33] Ukrainian forces have largely targeted Russian air defense systems, radar systems, drone infrastructure, and ammunition facilities. Ukrainian strikes have likely degraded Russian air defense in the area, allowing subsequent strikes to reach their intended targets.

https://understandingwar.org/research/russia-ukraine/russian-offensive
-campaign-assessment-march-9-2026/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 10, 2026 4:51 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Ukraine's Flamingo missile maker promises FP-9 ballistics will reach Moscow

By Kollen Post | March 9, 2026 8:07 pm

https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-flamingo-missile-maker-promises-f
p-9-ballistics-will-reach-moscow/

Ukraine's most famous missile maker start-up is trialing a new ballistic weapon that the firm claims will reach Moscow by the end of the summer.

In a March 9 interview with Army TV, Denys Shtilierman, the principle owner and chief engineer of Fire Point, touted the future stats of the FP-7 and FP-9, in turn short and long-range ballistic missiles that the company initially announced in September.

Fire Point is the maker of the FP-1, likely the most popular deep-strike drone in Ukraine's arsenal, as well as the FP-5 Flamingo cruise missile.

A sticking point for all of Ukraine's deep-strike weaponry has been that Russia has effectively ringed Moscow and St. Petersburg with air defense systems. Drones and even cruise missiles almost never get through, a problem that Shtilierman acknowledged even as the maker of both.

"The FP-9 will be able to strike targets in Moscow easily because it has a very high speed of impact," Shtilierman said. "For example, the Iskander has a speed of about 800 meters per second. At that speed it hits.

"Ours will hit at over 1,200, so we'll overcome anti-air defenses noticeably easier. Yes, something will get in the way, but 25% or something like that will get through and hit the target."

Shtilierman recently published videos of the launch of the FP-7. In the more recent interview, when asked as to the current stage of their development of ballistics he said "we'll be testing them on the neighbors shortly."

Of the longer-range and heavier-hitting FP-9, Shtilierman had previously indicated hopes to have functional models ready by June 2026.

One of the biggest winners of Ukraine's wartime defense spending, Fire Point's history is not without controversy. The firm began a press tour across Europe last summer touting its Flamingo missile, with claimed range, payload, accuracy and production figures that far exceeded any demonstrable impact on the battlefield.

The Kyiv Independent reported in August that the firm was facing an anti-corruption probe, the first public mention of Shtilierman in association with Fire Point. Shtilierman publicly came out as the majority owner of Fire Point in November, explaining financial ties to a network surrounding Timur Mindich as personal rather than via his deep-strike company.

More recently, however, an increasing number of Flamingo missiles are popping up throughout Russia, in welcome news both for the firm and for Ukraine's overall defense.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, March 10, 2026 7:45 AM

SECOND

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two


Keeping Kyiv Warm Under Fire

As Russian strikes batter the grid, a corruption scandal deepens Ukraine’s winter crisis.

By Anna Conkling | March 9, 2026, 5:00 AM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/03/09/russia-ukraine-war-energy-corrupt
ion-scandal/

KYIV—The roar of a generator bellows through a snow-covered courtyard in the city’s Troieshchyna neighborhood, drowning out conversation inside the six military-green tents pitched in a courtyard outside of residential buildings.

It had been running for three days straight, far longer than it was designed to, powering emergency heating stations for residents whose homes have gone cold during Ukraine’s harshest winter in more than a decade. When the machine stalls, even briefly, the lights flicker and the heat falters.

Inside the tents, run by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services (DSNS), there are cots, children’s books, and a Starlink connection. Anatoly, a DSNS commander, serves cheese sandwiches and tea, encouraging civilians to eat. By evening, more residents trickle in. Though they had braced for another wartime winter, few expected temperatures to plunge to minus 9 degrees Fahrenheit, or that strikes would continue to decimate the energy grid with peace talks ongoing. Many say their apartments hover around 46 degrees Fahrenheit, and it’s simply impossible to stay there anymore. “More people begin to show when they learn that they can eat food here,” Anatoly said. “Many don’t have the electricity to cook at home.”

As Russia’s war in Ukraine passes the four-year mark, many Ukrainians believe Moscow’s strategy of attrition now centers on freezing cities into submission. Part of the battle has shifted decisively toward the country’s energy grid—and toward Kyiv itself. January and February’s waves of drone and missile strikes marked some of the most sustained assaults on the capital’s heating and electricity systems since the beginning of the war, leaving hundreds of thousands without power and heat in subzero temperatures.

The attacks are a test of Ukraine’s resilience on two fronts. First is the physical struggle to keep the energy grid from collapsing under a new wave of Russian strikes. But behind this there is also a mounting political struggle to maintain public trust amid widening energy-sector corruption allegations. The scandal, which involved government officials receiving kickbacks from energy suppliers, adds to a political divide in Ukraine at a time when unity is needed most.

Throughout the war, Russia has launched hundreds of strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Kyiv had largely been spared from the worst of it, going days or even weeks without major attacks. However, over the last year, Russia’s attacks on Kyiv have intensified, with record-breaking drone and missile attacks occurring in the capital city and the country writ large.

2026 has proved no different. On Jan. 9, Russia carried out a massive overnight attack on multiple Ukrainian cities. This included a strike on the Lviv region using the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile for only the second time—something EU foreign-policy chief Kaja Kallas said was “meant as a warning” to Europe and the United States. Kyiv was also hit especially hard, with four people killed and 25 injured. Mayor Vitalii Klitschko said 6,000 residential buildings—nearly half of the capital’s total—lost heat. As of March 2, 1,100 residential apartments in Kyiv still lack heating and are expected to remain without it for the remainder of the heating season, according to Klitschko’s office.

The race to repair the grid is ongoing. Ukraine’s largest private investor in the energy sector, DTEK, told Foreign Policy that more than 1,000 workers are trying to restore heat across the city, assisted by crews from other regions and from Ukrainian Railways. But each new strike sets back their work, driving a relentless cycle of destruction and restoration. “There’s a huge amount of work,” said Ihor, a DTEK maintenance worker. Crews are already stretched thin, working extended shifts in freezing conditions. “It’s very hard to work in the cold, both for the machinery and for people.”

But the problem isn’t just Russian strikes; repair efforts have been hampered by something closer to home. As crews race to repair substations and keep generators running, the institutions responsible for funding and safeguarding Ukraine’s energy sector are facing a self-made crisis of confidence. Last November, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) accused senior officials of embezzling $100 million from the energy sector.

According to NABU, a 15-month probe involving 1,000 hours of wiretapping uncovered an extensive scheme of individuals taking kickbacks and seeking to influence state-owned energy companies, including state nuclear energy firm Energoatom, Ukraine’s biggest electricity producer. NABU said that this illicit cash was then laundered through the group’s back office. The mastermind of the scheme was allegedly Timur Mindich, a businessman and former close Zelensky ally.

While the scandal implicated some in Zelensky’s inner circle, Zelensky himself was not directly implicated, and he has said he welcomes the probe. In the wake of the scandal, senior officials, including Justice Minister German Galushchenko and Energy Minister Svetlana Grinchuk, resigned. Mindich reportedly fled to Israel prior to being charged.

The resignations, however, have not allayed public concern. These accusations emerged just months after Zelensky’s office and parliament attempted to strip NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) of their independence and place them under the supervision of Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, a political appointee. Moreover, the allegations landed at a particularly combustible moment. Ukraine’s government had already spent tens of millions of dollars to protect energy infrastructure from drones and missiles. With blackouts spreading and heat systems faltering, Ukrainians were enraged over allegations that funds meant to repair the country’s vulnerable energy sector at the start of the heating season had been siphoned off.

The corruption scandal also comes at a time of declining public trust more broadly. According to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, around 42 percent of Ukrainians believe that all current politicians and public officials are so tainted by the war and corruption that none of them should stay in power after peace. “Ukrainians are very tired of war and energy blackouts caused by the Russian attacks, and the energy scandal only worsens this,” said Anastasiia Bezpalko, a youth activist with a local anticorruption organization.

The scandal, activists say, is not an isolated episode but evidence of a systemic problem—one Ukraine must confront if it hopes to join the European Union, a goal it is pursuing even as the war grinds on. A central condition of accession, Bezpalko said, is preserving the independence of institutions like NABU and SAPO and ensuring that officials accused of corruption are held accountable.

In an email, NABU Director Semen Kryvonos said the demand to fight corruption in Ukraine has become “more specific and pressing” since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. For all countries, he explained, “war creates increased corruption risks: quick decisions, large amounts of money, simplified procedures.” Though he declined to comment on ongoing cases, Kryvonos emphasized that he believes NABU is “the main instrument of Ukrainian society’s demand for justice. And it is very important for us that this ecosystem maintains its effectiveness.”

Now, the fallout from the scheme threatens to complicate relations with Western allies at a time when Ukraine badly needs air defense systems and reconstruction funds. The scandal could lead to a lack of trust in Ukrainian officials on an international level, said Georg Zachmann, a senior fellow at Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank. Zachmann added that the scandal could, at its worst, “hinder international partners from investing in the structural measures needed to stabilize the country, making support increasingly short-termist.”

Amid these political and diplomatic developments, the work of providing for civilians on the ground continues to fall to DSNS and workers like Anatoly.

DSNS workers have throughout the war been seen as “heroes,” a term that Klitschko had stressed in his meeting with Foreign Policy. In addition to operating the heating stations, DSNS is already responsible for so many aspects of life in Kyiv. Its staff responds to fires, car crashes, medical emergencies, evacuation orders, and blackouts. They are the first ones on the scene of Russian attacks and begin the work to rescue civilians often when drones and missiles are still flying overhead. That is “probably the saddest part,” Anatoly said. “The hardest job is saving people after the bombardments.”

Yet even simply keeping the heating stations running is also a precarious task. Each time air raid sirens sound, Anatoly and his team evacuate the tents and move residents to the basement of a nearby apartment building, often without electricity or heating. When the all-clear comes, they reopen the heating station and begin again.

Whatever happens, Anatoly remains resolute: “So many responsibilities fall on you, and you still have to carry them out.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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