Russo-Ukrainian War
fromwww.aljazeera.com
7 hours agoUkraine, Russia kill three civilians each in tit-for-tat drone attacks
Drone attacks in Russia and Ukraine resulted in civilian casualties amid ongoing conflict and ceasefire proposals.
German media reported that transistors made by the German company Infineon Technologies were found in a Geran-5, along with other foreign-made components. The information had been published on a web portal called War and Sanctions, which is run by Ukraine's military intelligence service HUR. It includes a detailed list of all foreign components found to date in Russian military equipment.
Sweden's navy vessel jammed the drone 13km from France's flagship, the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, while it was in the Oresund stretch of water, between Denmark and Sweden. French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot told journalists that if Russian involvement was confirmed, the only conclusion would be that it would be a ridiculous provocation.
Swedish defense prime Saab is exploring the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System as a cheaper armament option for its JAS 39 Gripen fighters, firm executives told Business Insider this week. "The APKWS is in interest because other platforms are now integrating 70mm guided rockets. So we are, of course, eyeing that capability now," Jussi Halmetoja, operations advisor for Saab's air domain, said at the Singapore Airshow. Halmetoja said the company was looking at ways to integrate the weapons system, which uses a guided version of the Hydra 70mm rocket, onto its older Gripen C and latest Gripen E models.
According to the cybersecurity group InformNapalm, hackers from the Fenix analytical cyber centre monitored Russian military personnel around the clock from mid-2025 to February 2026, accessing drone monitoring systems and intercepting operational chats. The intelligence was passed directly to Ukraine's Defence Forces, helping counter waves of drone attacks and contributing to strikes on Russian command posts and launch sites. Read more related news:
The United States has dispatched fighter jets after multiple Russian military aircraft were observed operating in international airspace near Alaska, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Two Russian Tu-95s, two Su-35s and one A-50 were detected and tracked operating in Alaska's Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), NORAD said in a statement on Friday, adding that it responded by sending two F-16s, two F-35s, one E-3 and four KC-135s.
Facing an existential crisis, the Ukrainians had to develop a way to counter hostile forces cheaply yet with mass. That meant figuring out how to turn inexpensive drones into weaponry, a step that quickly and fundamentally changed how the war was being fought. Now, drones carry out 80% of all battlefield hits and are responsible for most combat casualties.
Ukrainian long-range drones struck an oil refinery nearly 1,100 miles into Russia, marking one of Kyiv's deepest strikes of the war, a security official told Business Insider on Thursday. The drones struck the Ukhta refinery in Russia's Komi Republic, a source in the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said. They were only authorized to speak on the condition of anonymity to discuss military developments.
On Thursday, Ukraine's energy minister, Denys Shmyal, warned Ukrainians to prepare for more power blackouts in the coming days as Russian air attacks continued. Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia had struck energy infrastructure 217 times this year. Shmyal said 200 emergency crews were working to restore power to 1,100 buildings in Kyiv alone. Russia has been targeting Ukrainian power stations, gas pipelines and power cables since mid-January, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without heat or electricity at various points.
The leader of Ukraine's special drone branch said his operators are striking advancing Russian infantry at extreme close range, providing rare insight into how some of the country's best pilots are fighting. Maj. Robert "Madyar" Brovdi, the commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces, wrote in a statement on Sunday that his pilots have, over the last month, been engaging enemy troops at an average strike depth of 1.44 km, or 0.89 miles, from the line of contact.
Russia often mixes up how it attacks Ukraine with ballistic and cruise missiles - from firing decoys to tweaking trajectories midflight - and Kyiv says it's funneling that battlefield intel to US Patriot interceptor makers to inform upgrades for better performance. "They are trying to use different tactics and make some adjustments for their ballistic missiles," Yehor Cherniev, the deputy chairman of the Ukrainian parliamentary committee on national security, defense, and intelligence, said of the Russian strikes.
ŠIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania - A Spanish fighter wing deployed to the Baltics for air patrol missions alongside anti-drone defenses for the first time, a reaction to growing uncrewed threats to European infrastructure. Spain's 15th Wing arrived at Šiauliai Air Base in December to begin a four-month rotation contributing to NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, designed to protect the airspace around Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The Crow counter-drone system came with it.
There was a certain amount of awareness, there was kind of a frustration with the missions that we were being called on to carry out, the people flying the missions, they knew that we were kind of wasting drones. For militaries that have the luxury of time and maybe the luxury of money, I think moving into sort of something a little bit more sophisticated makes more sense.