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The Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) continues to greatly exaggerate the extent of Russian advances across the frontline to construct a false narrative of Russian battlefield progress for domestic and international audiences... The Russian MoD claimed on September 19 that Russian forces have seized over 5,300 square kilometers and more than 220 settlements in Ukraine since the start of 2026, including over 670 square kilometers and 27 settlements so far in September 2026. ISW has observed evidence to assess that Russian forces have seized only 147.7 square kilometers and 40 settlements, but have lost a net of 20 settlements in...

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that some European leaders are openly preparing for war with Russia, accusing them of escalating tensions while ignoring their own citizens. Speaking during a meeting of Russia’s Military-Industrial Commission, Putin claimed that NATO continues to expand and that European governments are using the alleged Russian threat to justify increased military spending and cover up failures in economic and social policy. “Some European leaders openly say they are preparing for war with Russia,” Putin said, according to Interfax. Putin also insisted that Moscow has “no aggressive intentions” toward European countries and said Russia remains prepared...

North Korea has been found to be dispatching workers to a drone factory in Russia to produce military drones for the country. The Multilateral Sanctions Monitoring Team (MSMT), comprising 11 countries including South Korea, the United States, and Japan, released a report today (September 16) titled "DPRK Sanctions Evasion and Violations of UN Security Council Resolutions: Overseas Labor." The MSMT was launched to fill the gap in monitoring sanctions against North Korea following the dissolution of the UN Security Council Sanctions Committee on North Korea Panel of Experts in 2024, and this marks its third report. According to the report,...

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes Ukraine may not endure the upcoming winter, and is therefore unlikely to return to the negotiating table before at least mid-March, according to the First Deputy Head of the Presidential Office, Serhii Kyslytsya. Kyslytsya made the remarks in an interview with Ukrinform on Thursday, Aug. 20, telling the news outlet that Moscow currently lacks motivation to enter negotiations and could see winter as an opportunity to weaken Ukrainian society. His comments came as Ukraine increasingly continues preparations across all sectors, particularly its air defenses, critical energy and water infrastructure, as well as residents for the...

Every August, the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Georgia is accompanied by familiar reflections about missed warning signs, intelligence failures, and a supposedly unexpected turning point in European security. The language has become so standardized that it obscures a far more uncomfortable reality. Georgia did not reveal a new Russia. It exposed a Russia that had been behaving consistently for nearly two decades while much of the West continued searching for evidence that Moscow had fundamentally changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Describing the failure to recognize this trajectory as a collection of mistakes understates what actually occurred....

President Donald Trump's envoys have given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only days to respond to a proposed peace deal that would require Ukraine to accept territorial losses in exchange for unspecified U.S. security guarantees, with one person familiar with the timeline saying Trump wants an agreement "by Christmas." Zelenskyy told European leaders that he was pushed during a two-hour phone call with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, to make a quick decision, reports the Financial Times on Tuesday. Officials familiar with the talks said that the Ukrainian leader told Witkoff and Kushner that he...

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that Ukraine could restore its borders from before Russia’s invasion and that he believes NATO member countries should shoot down Russian aircraft if they enter their airspace, escalating his rhetoric against the Kremlin as its war in Ukraine drags on. Taken together, Trump’s remarks on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly about shooting down Russian aircraft and his later post on Truth Social about Ukraine’s borders seemed to reflect a significant shift in his attitude toward Moscow and what the end of the intractable conflict might look like. His comments on Ukraine’s borders...

The text of the agreement, made public by Ukraine’s government, made no mention of the security guarantees that Kyiv had long sought. The minerals deal signed between the United States and Ukraine on Wednesday could bring untold money into a joint investment fund between the two countries that would help rebuild Ukraine whenever the war with Russia ends. But Ukraine’s untapped resources that are the subject of the deal will take years to extract and yield profits. And those could fail to deliver the kind of wealth that President Trump has long said they would. It is not yet clear...

Here are a couple of big picture maps showing the current position of Russian and Ukrainian forces in Bakhmut and the surrounding area. As you can see the Russians (i.e., the Wagner Group) are making rapid advances after months of slow progress and appear to be on the verge of a tactical encirclement of the Ukrainian units. It is important to understand the terrain of the Bakhmut area. The photos below show a landscape that reminds me of the state I grew up in — Missouri. Rolling hills, farmland and light forest that surround small cities. The first photo is...

In a statement, the SVR said U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers, air defence systems and artillery ammunition had been delivered to the Rivne nuclear power station in the northwest of Ukraine."The Ukrainian armed forces are storing weapons and ammunition provided by the West on the territory of nuclear power plants," it said, adding that an arms shipment to the Rivne power station had taken place in the last week of December.

Russia’s “nuclear war” rhetoric appears every few months, on a kind of cycle. Whenever the West and Ukraine appear to be winning and Ukraine is being strengthened, then Russia will roll out this talk. It will also mobilize other voices to make it seem that Ukraine isn’t interested in “peace” and that Ukraine is “escalating.” This terminology is misplaced because it is Russia that escalated and invaded Ukraine. However, Moscow wants to shift focus to what the West is doing...

The bill bans hate speech and incitement based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Link with details at https://flipboard.com/article/ukraine-passes-bill-banning-lgbtq-hate-speech-in-media/f-7732075dcf%2Flgbtqnation.com

Belarusian troops are highly likely to join the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2023, the chief editor of the Belarusian independent news media Charter-97 Natalya Radina said in her interview with UNIAN, referring to the insider information within the Armed Forces of Belarus. There are several scenarios under which Belarusian troops may be deployed to Ukraine, Radina claimed, referring to an anonymous source in the Belarusian army. First of all, the army of Belarus may take part in the Russian invasion of Ukraine to distract Ukrainian forces from other areas, where Russia plans to launch offensive operations. Secondly, Belarusian...

Belarusia's army stepped up its military exercises amid growing fears that a new invasion of Ukraine from the north is imminent. Belarusian and Russian troops have been taking part in joint military exercises for a number of weeks. Last Sunday the Belarusian Defence Ministry announced it was extending its training drills with Putin's army.

ussia has appointed Colonel-General Alexander Lapin as chief of staff of the country's ground forces, state-owned news agency TASS reported on Tuesday, despite fierce criticism from leading hawks over his performance in Ukraine. Lapin, previously commander of Russia's central military district, was blasted last October by hawkish allies of President Vladimir Putin after Russian forces were driven out of the city of Lyman in eastern Ukraine, a key logistics hub. His promotion - widely reported across Russian media but neither confirmed nor denied by the Kremlin - drew mixed reactions from the influential Russian war bloggers who provide often critical...

Russia continues to humiliate itself. After a deadly rocket attack by Ukraine carried out in the first moments of New Year’s Day killed as many as 400 Russian troops, Russia claimed only 63 had been killed. Russia soon updated that tally to 89 killed but also publicly blamed the troops for their own deaths by claiming the Ukrainian strike was the result of the recently mobilized troops using cell phones. Even some pro-Russian military bloggers said Russia was downplaying the number of deaths and also suggested that leadership was to blame for putting a bunch of inexperienced recruits together in...

Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vadym Skibitskyi said that around January 15 conscription would begin and that it would take Russian forces around two months to organize its formations. The Kremlin will mobilize up to 500,000 Russians for a spring offensive, Ukrainian Defense Ministry representatives predicted on Friday. Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Vadym Skibitskyi told The Guardian that it was expected that around January 15 conscription would begin and that it would take Russian forces around two months to organize its formations. While Skibitskyi said the mobilization could include 300,000 on the lower end, both he and Ukrainian intelligence representative Andriy...

Zelensky is just an actor and he has been playing the entire world into handing him money without any accountability. He claims he is fighting for freedom and democracy when he refuses to comply with the Minsk Agreement which falsely was to allow those in the Donbas to vote on their own future. Now he has empowered his government to shut down all dissent. Upon his return from meeting the Biden Administration, he took back some needed advice – restrict ALL media, block ALL websites that expose the truth, and order Big Tech to censor all negative comments about him...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Russia that “no one will ever forgive you” for spreading terror following a series of missile attacks on New Year’s Eve. Zelensky said in an address on Saturday that the missile attacks will not mark the end of the year but the outcome of Russia’s fate in that it will not be forgiven. He mentioned that Russia launched missile attacks during the war at other holidays such as Easter and Christmas. “They call themselves Christians. They are very proud of their orthodoxy. But they are following the devil. They support him and are together with...

BREAKING: Explosions reported in Kursk, Belgorod, Voronezh and Rostov moments ago. The picture is from Rostov. Happy New Year’s Eve to Russia from Ukraine.