#ukraine-conflict

#ukraine-conflict

For months, Moscow has insisted that Western technology is not changing the war in Ukraine in any decisive way. Which is precisely why it is so interesting that Russia's own Ministry of Defence now feels the need to talk about it at all. When a system "isn't having an effect," you usually don't bother announcing that it isn't having an effect.

A massive international outcry following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a war that will enter its fifth year two days after the closing ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games, forced most major international sports bodies to ban all Russian athletes from competition. The IOC has allowed athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete in Italy as individual neutral athletes, which means they cannot compete on teams nor wear their national team colors or flag.

A Ukrainian skeleton racer has accused the International Olympic Committee of betrayal after it banned his racing helmet, which showed images of athletes and his friends that were killed following Russia's invasion, from the Winter Olympics. On Tuesday morning, Ukraine launched an appeal against the decision, arguing that Vladyslav Heraskevych should be allowed to use his helmet of memory, showing the weightlifter Alina Peregudova, boxer Pavlo Ishchenko, ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov at the Winter Olympics.

And yes, it is true, the Russians have lost in December 1,000 people dead-not seriously wounded, dead-a day. That's over 30,000 in the month of December. In the 1980s in Afghanistan, the Soviets lost 20,000 in 10 years. Now they (Russia - ed.) lose 30,000 in one month.

The parents, joined by Shane Thomson, a security contractor tasked with advising the journalists, allege that Fox did not take precautions to protect its reporting team, tried to cover up Kuvshynov's death and subsequently shifted blame for the disaster on Thomson. In addition to Fox News, the suit names Fox Corporation Chairman Emeritus Rupert Murdoch, Fox News Chief Executive Suzanne Scott, and correspondent Benjamin Hall, who survived after sustaining an acute injury in the attack, as defendants.

Ukraine's top general said that for the first time in the war, its drones are killing or seriously wounding Russia's soldiers as fast as it can get new troops into the field. Drones are the top battlefield threat, responsible for the most casualties in this war. Ukraine relies heavily on them, especially the cheap first-person-view drones, as solutions to its manpower and equipment shortages.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will host security talks in Kyiv on January 3 with Western partners as Moscow kept up its aerial barrage of Ukraine, including 95 overnight drone strikes. Ukraine's Air Force said it intercepted 80 of the drones and reported no casualties, but an earlier strike on January 2 that hit a residential area of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv injured more than 31 people and killed two, including a 3-year-old child.

Belousov said that Russia's war spending is on track to reach about 5.1% of the country's GDP in 2025, out of an overall defense budget that reaches 7.3% of its annual GDP. The country's nominal GDP in 2024 was about 201.2 trillion rubles, and is expected to grow 1% this year to about 203 trillion rubles, or $2.52 trillion. Russian independent media, however, reported that the economic ministry has forecast a GDP of about $2.7 trillion for the year. A war budget of 5.1% would therefore be somewhere between $128 billion and $137.7 billion.

Security specialists in Europe, the United States, and Mexico have detected that cartels have infiltrated their members into the Ukrainian frontlines, where they have received training to pilot remotely controlled drones, readily available in any store and capable of being adapted as kamikaze projectiles. In this way, drug cartels are incorporating low-cost combat strategies which have proven to be a turning point in Kyiv's resistance against Moscow into their arsenal.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Friday, once again shunning efforts by his European Union partners to isolate Moscow over its invasion of neighboring Ukraine nearly four years ago. The trip to Moscow is the second since last year for Orban, who is widely considered Putin's closest partner among all EU leaders.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said late Monday that "the list of necessary steps to end the war can become doable" after progress was made in Sunday's talks between U.S. and Ukrainian delegates in Geneva. He said he planned to discuss "sensitive" outstanding issues with President Donald Trump. Rustem Umerov, a senior adviser to Zelensky, wrote on social platform X on Tuesday that the Ukrainian leader hoped to finalize a deal with Trump "at the earliest suitable date in November."

In Ukraine, sound carries a different weight: the cautionary blurt of sirens, Shahed drones humming overhead, the concussive thwack of air defence interception and the subsequent explosion. But as well as the sounds of war, which continue three and a half years into Russia's full-scale invasion, music still plays, clubs remain open during the day (closing well before the midnight curfew), and electronic dance music remains an intrinsic part of many Ukrainian lives.

Reports in recent days said the Pentagon had told the White House that the US stockpile of Tomahawks was sufficient to be able to supply them to Ukraine. Ukraine has been seeking the Tomahawk missiles to carry out long-range strikes against Russia, but without them has still been able to wage a successful campaign using its own drones and missiles against Russian military and strategic targets such as oil depots and refineries.

FN Browning's global demand and production this year formachine guns is expected to double that of 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine, a senior representative for the Belgian armsmaker told Business Insider. "Most countries were simply not interested 10 years ago. Now, we have contracts," said Henry de Harenne, FN Browning's head of communications and a member of its executive committee.

When he ended his remarks without announcing a complete disengagement or the permanent elimination of already depleted funding, a certain relief spread through the room, according to two officials at the organization who spoke on condition of anonymity. Then, seeing him parade from one bilateral meeting to another, displaying a meekness unthinkable just minutes earlier, the stupor turned to surprise.

Please note that due to the threat of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) strikes in regions of Ukraine bordering Poland, military aircraft have begun operating in our airspace.

With the death toll rising among North Korean troops sent to fight for Russia against Ukraine, the regime in Pyongyang is resorting to a tried-and-trusted technique of ensuring the loyalty of the people: propaganda. Late last month, North Korean state media broadcast a documentary detailing the actions of troops serving in Ukraine, which did not shy away from the deaths of its military personnel.

He has just left cell 403, in block 13 of the prison where he is being held, somewhere in Kyiv province that will remain anonymous for security reasons. The light is dim in the corridor, but it gains intensity along the labyrinth that leads to the room where he is being held. The smell is strong. A soldier, stripped of his weapon, safely stored at the entrance to the facility, tells him yes, he can shake hands. He smiles.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron have called for secondary sanctions aimed at disrupting Russia's war in Ukraine after holding the 25th Franco-German Council of Ministers, with US President Donald Trump's diplomatic push yet to bring the three-and-a-half-year war to an end. The leaders of Europe's two biggest economies on Friday agreed to accelerate measures targeting Russia's war machine, including companies from third countries that support Russia's war, according to a joint statement after the meeting in the southern French port city of Toulon.

Photos posted by the Michigan National Guard, which were first spotted and reported on by The War Zone, show what looks like a fiber-optic drone sitting on a rocky beach. The small, black quadcopter drone is equipped with a spool for a fiber-optic cable. Another photo shows another drone with a spool sitting on a table at the exercise, as well as an Xbox-like controller next to it.

In his recent burst of diplomacy, Trump has repeatedly stressed that Ukraine will not join NATO and that no U.S. troops will be on the ground in Ukraine.

Military technology has significantly progressed from sword-fighting to AI-assisted drones and missiles, exemplifying the dramatic evolution of warfare over time.