Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
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Ukraine Is Not Losing. Russia Is Not Winning.
A momentum shift that changes everything
By Anne Applebaum | June 7, 2026, 8 AM ET
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/06/ukraine-war-momentum-shift/6
87444/
In a field outside of Kyiv last weekend, a van was parked discreetly behind some trees. Inside the van there were no passenger seats, just a long desk, two office chairs, two laptops, extra screens. Outside appearances to the contrary, this was a mobile drone-interceptor base, one of hundreds of similar vehicles now scattered around Ukraine. It’s also part of something much bigger: a set of technological advances that have changed the war with Russia, and maybe all wars, forever.
On one of the laptops, a soldier showed me a bird’s-eye view of a part of the Ukrainian countryside more than 100 miles away. His job is to identify the objects flying above it, to distinguish birds and bats from lethal Russian drones. When he sees the latter, the soldier on the laptop beside him can then direct an interceptor—a small drone that looks like a miniature rocket ship—to track and destroy the incoming Russian aerial vehicles before they hit their targets.
At first glance, the images on the screens look simple, like a video game. But this is not a low-tech operation. The AI-powered drone interceptors are made possible by a complicated network of radar systems, acoustic sensors, and other tools that hundreds of large and small Ukrainian tech companies are creating and updating every day, using data they get directly from soldiers like the ones I met. Almost none of these companies existed four years ago. They have emerged from a tech-literate civil society whose members changed their professions or their focus to help defend their country. I have met Ukrainian defense-company CEOs who come from financial services, architecture, politics. I met another one last weekend who had returned just that day from the front line. He told me he finds it useful to learn how soldiers are using his products, and how they might be improved.
Other kinds of teams across the country are connected to this constantly improving information system too, and not just in vans. Last year I was in an underground room in Ukraine where dozens of people were monitoring hundreds of miles of the front line on a series of screens. The Ukrainian defense analyst Andriy Zagorodnyuk calls this system of drones, monitors, AI-powered navigation, battle-tested robots, and interconnected soldiers “networked situational awareness,” and it explains why perceptions of this war have suddenly changed.
Ukrainian military technology has been evolving rapidly since the first years of the war. But only now are outsiders—in Europe, the United States, the Persian Gulf, and of course Russia—beginning to understand what that evolution means. Since 2022, many public arguments about the war, even in Europe and the U.S., have adopted the narrative put out by Russian propaganda, tacitly assuming that Ukraine, outmanned and outgunned, would eventually lose. Helping Ukraine was a way to stave off disaster, nothing more. When the Trump administration stopped sending military and financial aid to Kyiv in 2025, some in Washington expected (and maybe wanted) the end to come quickly.
Instead, Europeans have provided money. Ukrainian society produced networked situational awareness. And when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toured the Gulf states in late March and signed a series of security agreements, something changed in the international narrative. The leaders of Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia were talking to Ukraine, not because they felt sorry for a war victim, but because they wanted to acquire drone interceptors like the ones I saw in action last weekend. Iranians use the same drone technology as the Russians, and the Ukrainians know better than anyone how to fight it.
The Gulf leaders are not alone: Suddenly, many people have understood that the Russian narrative is wrong: The Ukrainians are not losing. The Russians are not winning, an
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ANALYSIS: Russia’s Air Defense Problems Are Growing
Moscow did not expect such a war at the start of the full-scale invasion. Now many Russians have gone into panic mode as they watch Ukrainian drones hit targets in Russia almost at will. It seems the tables have turned and Moscow is now on the back foot, forced to adapt to how Ukrainians have managed to scale up quantities of relatively cheap drones to inflict heavy damage on Russia’s air defense capabilities.
By David Kirichenko
June 8, 2026, 1:38 pm
https://www.kyivpost.com/analysis/77743
The roads to Crimea are beginning to tell the story of Russia’s defensive dilemma. Burned trucks, stranded convoys and air defense systems hit while being transported suggest that Ukraine’s drone war is reaching deeper into the logistical arteries that sustain Russia’s occupation.
. . . while Moscow focused on offense, Ukraine was forced into defensive adaptation, building layered drone defenses that gradually evolved into an offensive drone campaign of its own. Russia, by contrast, invested far less in cheap drone interception, continuing to rely heavily on expensive surface-to-air missiles that Russian milbloggers increasingly warn are in short supply.
“With its dwindling stocks of these expensive assets, Russia has little choice but to develop and rush new interceptors into service,” said open-source analyst Roy Gardiner . . .
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The long-time leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, has rejected the idea of sending his soldiers into Ukraine. “Should we go fight in Ukraine according to [Putin's] someone else’s will? Do we want to be cannon fodder there? No, we do not want that,” Lukashenko said.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/77671
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes
There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.
Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.
Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
What's going on in Ukraine comrade? Check out the video around the last 6 minutes. Before that it's about Iran.
T
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Have you noticed, SECOND, that you've resorted to posting "Kiev says" and notorious neocons like ISW/Kagan- Neuland and Anne Applebaum?
You're digging the bottom of the barrel.
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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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Quote:Open Letters, from Anne Applebaum
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Have you noticed, SECOND, that you've resorted to posting "Kiev says" and notorious neocons like ISW/Kagan- Neuland and Anne Applebaum?
You're digging the bottom of the barrel.
Putin's War Comes Home
Even Muscovites feel it
May 11, 2026
Four years ago, President Vladimir Putin offered Moscow and its business elite a de facto deal: support my war in Ukraine, and in exchange you won’t have to think about it. In the past week, that deal was broken.
https://anneapplebaum.substack.com/p/putins-war-comes-home
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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More muck from the bottom of the barrel.
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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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Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:Quote:
Originally posted by THG:
The Future of Drone Tech: Long-Range Strikes
There's a name for long- range drones. They're called missiles.
Here's the problem: the longer the range, the greater the fuel requirement, and the smaller the expolsive payload.
Really long range, loitering drones are useful for reconnaissance. Armed long range drones might be useful for small targets or assassinations,
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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger
Long-range drone: An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) that can operate at extended distances from its launch point. It may be remotely piloted or semi-autonomous, carrying sensors for surveillance, reconnaissance, or weapons for strikes united24media.com+1.
Missile: A guided or unguided projectile designed to travel a long distance at high speed to deliver a payload (explosive, kinetic, or other) to a specific target thisvsthat.io. Missiles are typically launched from fixed platforms, aircraft, or ships.
2. Size, Speed, and Maneuverability
Drones: Generally smaller, more maneuverable, and slower than missiles. Long-range drones can still be agile for evading threats or adjusting course mid-flight thisvsthat.io.
Missiles: Larger, faster, and often supersonic or hypersonic. They are less maneuverable once launched, relying on pre-programmed or mid-course guidance thisvsthat.io.
3. Guidance and Control
Drones: Can be remote-controlled or autonomous, with real-time operator input for complex missions Wikipedia.
Missiles: Usually pre-programmed or mid-course guided, with final guidance often from terminal seekers or command updates.
4. Payload and Role
Drones: May carry surveillance sensors, electronic warfare gear, or weapons like bombs or missiles. Long-range drones can loiter over targets for extended periods Wikipedia.
Missiles: Primarily designed for precision strike delivery of explosives or other payloads over long distances thisvsthat.io.
5. Range and Cost
Drones: Long-range UAVs can cover thousands of kilometers, but they are generally more cost-effective and reusable thisvsthat.io.
Missiles: Designed for one-time use and often more expensive per unit thisvsthat.io.
6. Strategic Use
Drones: Versatile for reconnaissance, surveillance, and precision strikes; can be reused for multiple missions.
Missiles: Specialized for high-speed, long-range attacks, often in strategic or tactical strike roles.
In summary: A long-range drone is an unmanned aircraft optimized for extended surveillance or strike missions with flexibility in control and reuse, while a missile is a guided projectile focused on delivering a payload quickly and precisely over long distances thisvsthat.io+2.
There are a lot of differences comrade. Another name for a long range drone is not a missile.
T
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First of all THGR, your article is about long- range STRIKES.
Not surveillance.
So, what is the best vehicle for a long-range STRIKE, given the trade-off between payload and distance?
I'm not arguing for the sake of arguing. The advantage of drones is that they're relatively CHEAP. Once you start configuring them for longer distances and higher payloads, they start approaching cruise missiles and getting $$. In fact, the Flamingo "missile" looks more like a long distance drone. Or maybe drones look like the Flamingo.
Or you wind up with something like the Reaper drone. The Reaper is $$, it fires missiles, so it's more like an unmanned turboprop.
Anyway, in the end, they're both airborne modes of munitions delivery.
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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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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't care about your numbers dude. Whether or not they're fake, they don't even begin to tell the whole picture.
They sold a bunch of shitty, underperforming cars that cost twice as much to insure as a regular car does. Nobody ever bothered building any new charging stations across the nation even though billions were spent on it. When the battery goes, that'll be $25,000 or more to replace.
And there's soon to be ZERO secondhand market. Zero.
Once the people who are left holding the bag when the car dies and is barely a decade old realize how badly they fucked themselves over, they will tell everyone they know about that. And nobody is going to be buying used EVs again once that starts to happen.
People are stupid. People are trendy. Buying EVs for most of these people wasn't any different than women buying ridiculously large Stanley cups because some dipshit influencers on the internet told them to buy it.
For everybody else NOT getting paid to shill all this shit, there's nothing but a lot of regrets over their vehicle purchase.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
I guess I won this one, huh Second?
What a rarity for you not to either post easily debunked stats and/or quote me and reply with something completely unrelated and/or remind me that I dropped out of college 4 times and/or call me a redneck Nazi who you want to see dead.
I guess we'll consider the topic of EVs forever closed in this forum now.
You were wrong. You were wrong from the beginning.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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