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Today, there is important news from the Russian Federation.

Here, Ukraine’s campaign against Russia’s oil industry intensified, with explosions and fires reported at Lukoil’s massive Volgograd refinery. Processing roughly fifteen million tons annually, the facility produces gasoline, diesel and aviation kerosene essential to Russia’s economy and military. During the same attack wave, Ukraine also struck the Samara oil-distribution station, an important node involved in producing Russia’s oil export blend. These attacks followed an extraordinary week in which Ukraine reported strikes against six Russian refineries, demonstrating that individual raids can easily be turned into a systematic campaign with dangerous results for Russia.

As a result, the scale is becoming economically significant, as Ukraine’s Defense Ministry stated that more than fifty-one percent of Russia’s refining capacity has now been put out of operation, describing the objective as bleeding Russia’s military-economic system. Despite Putin acknowledging that attacks on energy infrastructure are affecting economic performance, his tactic is to translate this into a percentage change in gross domestic product only to hide the real economic effect and mislead the Russian public. Putin openly admitted a decrease of only about one percent of a roughly two-point-seven-trillion US dollar economy, which is approximately twenty-seven billion dollars. The broader cumulative consequences of the Ukrainian strikes, however, extend far beyond direct refinery damage through disrupted production, transportation, exports, repairs, and military fuel supplies, making опенUkrainian strikes deal even more harm due to their repetitive nature.

At Ilsky, Ukrainian drones damaged all three primary processing units, destroying almost the whole refining capacity. With the tank farm also damaged, production reportedly stopped at the key refinery supplying southern Russia and military logistics.

Novoshakhtinsk, capable of processing approximately five-point-six million tons annually, was also attacked by Ukrainian drones. Its connections to major rail and oil terminals make disruption there particularly damaging to fuel transportation across southern Russia.

Then Ukraine reached Perm, approximately one-thousand-and-five-hundred kilometers away. Fires were reported around several sections of the thirteen-million-ton Lukoil refinery, including the Avt-Five unit, responsible for roughly one-third of primary processing.

The next Ukrainian strike in Ufa also demonstrated that even distance no longer guarantees protection. Ukrainian drones attacked Bashneft’s enormous refining cluster more than one-thousand-three-hundred kilometers from Ukraine on consecutive days, damaging facilities producing diesel, gasoline, and aviation fuel.

At Kuibyshev in Samara, large fires were reported around the primary distillation infrastructure after incoming drone strikes. The refinery can process approximately seven million tons annually and produces substantial quantities of diesel, gasoline, and fuel oil, with the process now halted.

The Saratov refinery was hit again as well after previous strikes earlier this year. The Rosneft refinery processes up to seven million tons annually and produces fuels used by both civilian consumers and Russia’s military-industrial system.

The Ryazan refinery represents an even larger target, as it can process approximately seventeen million tons annually, and Ukrainian strikes ignited its primary-processing units, threatening an important source of motor fuel around Moscow.

Repeated strikes matter because repaired units can be damaged again, forcing Russia into an expensive cycle of restoration while simultaneously protecting an enormous network of refineries, pipelines and pumping stations. The consequences therefore extend far beyond destroyed equipment, as Russia requires petroleum products to move tanks, trucks and aircraft, while energy exports and taxation remain crucial sources of state revenue. Refinery disruption creates repair expenses, logistical bottlenecks, and pressure on domestic fuel availability while forcing additional resources into air defense.

Overall, Ukraine’s strategy is methodical, repeatedly attacking the infrastructure that converts Russian crude oil into economically and militarily valuable products. If Ukrainian estimates of more than half of refining capacity being disabled even temporarily are sustained, the pressure will increasingly reach Russia’s war machine itself. Putin must simultaneously finance the war, replace military losses, repair energy infrastructure, and protect facilities scattered across an enormous territory, while Ukrainian drones are demonstrating that increasingly little of that territory remains safely beyond their reach.

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The Russians have now started to panic over the rapidly increasing threat to their enclave of Kaliningrad. This panic was caused by severely ramped up reconnaissance missions against Kaliningrad. Over the past year, Nato has intensified surveillance over Kaliningrad so much that it has trumped Nato satellite and aerial reconnaissance over Crimea, which is actively used to guide Ukrainian strikes. Nato Awacs aircraft fly along Kaliningrad practically every day, while satellite reconnaissance is conducted continuously. An entire US military satellite constellation now monitors Russian military facilities here on a daily basis, including the base in Baltisk, airfields, air defense positions, and other Russian Armed Forces facilities. Given how unprecedented the change of focus from Crimea to Kaliningrad is, these are preparations for the worst-case scenario to map out Russian military positions for targeting in the event of war.

This intensified reconnaissance has led Russian military analysts to believe Nato and Ukraine are preparing for a strike against Kaliningrad already in the near future. They quoted a German Air Force Commander Holger Neumann, who claimed that in the event of a Russian attack, Germany is ready to fight as early as tonight, and that Nato’s first targets would be strikes on Kaliningrad, the Kola Peninsula, Saint Petersburg, and the Black Sea. Kaliningrad is especially difficult for the Russians to defend as the semi-exclave is surrounded by Nato states that are actively reinforcing their borders with both troops and forward bases. This would make it convenient for Nato to blockade the region from the Baltic Sea, which is also completely surrounded by Nato countries, as since the addition of Sweden and Finland to the alliance it has effectively been nicknamed the Nato Sea.

What makes it even worse for Russia, Europe has already imposed an aerial blockade above Kaliningrad, and Russia can only resupply it by flying from Saint Petersburg through international waters. Because of how geographically exposed Kaliningrad is, in the event of a conflict, every land, sea and air corridor would be completely shut by Nato forces. This would force Russia to try to seize the Suwalki Corridor, which is the only land route connecting the region with Russian-allied Belarus. However, this corridor is located between two Nato countries, Poland and Lithuania, which is why such an operation would result in the outbreak of full-scale war.

Knowing the vulnerabilities of Kaliningrad, Putin resorted to threats and announced that attempts to cut off access to Kaliningrad from Russia’s mainland will lead to an unprecedented escalation, stating that any threat to the semi-exclave would be neutralized. To prove his point, he stressed the importance of the deployment of Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missiles in Belarus. The missile carries multiple warheads, including nuclear ones, and the flight to Lithuania and Poland would be covered in only two to four minutes, giving Nato a very short time window to intercept them. With this, Russia intends to dissuade Nato from blockading Kaliningrad.

However, Russia’s reaction to ramped-up Nato reconnaissance is ungrounded, suffering from logical fallacies and skewering of the truth. Russia has been building up its forces in Kaliningrad for years. Approximately ten thousand Russian troops are stationed there, along with nuclear-capable short-range Iskander ballistic missiles, able to hit multiple European capitals at a range of five hundred kilometers, including Berlin and Warsaw. Moreover, Russia has been using Kaliningrad for years to jam aerial and maritime GPS signals and force civilian aircraft to rely on on-board navigation systems, endangering them during their flight, as has even happened to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen’s aircraft. Given these Russian hybrid escalations, Nato has only begun more active surveillance of the Russian threats that cause this, while repeatedly and openly refraining itself from more direct action. Despite the by all measures constrained reaction of Nato, Russians are choosing to play the victim, despite triggering mass surveillance through their own actions, panicking and complaining that they will soon be attacked by Nato, even before Nato can begin lifting an actual finger.

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After recent offensive action in the Dnipropetrovsk sector, Ukraine's Skala special assault Regiment achieved a massive breakthrough and cleared seventy-five square kilometers of the grey zone, while pushing Russia's area of control back significantly further. The regiment reports that this is one of the most significant offensive operations by Ukrainian forces this summer. They report that Russian defenders in the sector have suffered a critical number of casualties, as well as losing several key deployment points and access routes necessary for their continued operations in the area.

This massive operation began shortly after Ukrainians already advanced over four-hundred square kilometers in the area earlier this year. After Russian lines broke, their high command urgently redeployed a significant number of forces to halt the Ukrainian advances; one of which was the one-hundred-twentieth Marine Infantry Brigade, along with even the full ninetieth Russian tank division, numbering an estimated total of over thirty-thousand enemy soldiers. Because of these reinforcements, Ukraine's advance was forced to halt, as any attack against such an overwhelming force would have been disastrous; So, the Skala special assault regiment had to find a way to remove the Russian equipment and marines from the equation, and allow Ukrainians to continue retaking the initiative.

This is why Ukrainian drone operators started the three-day-long Ashan operation, which was a larger concentrated drone campaign aiming to destroy Russian heavy equipment, as you may remember from a previous report. Among the targets were artillery pieces, such as the North Korean Koksan self-propelled artillery system, which deprived the arriving Russian soldiers of fire support that could have been used against advancing Ukrainian soldiers. After that, Ukrainian drones started targeting armored personnel carriers, which reduced their mobility. Then, Ukraine struck Russian soldiers to reduce the Russians’ manpower before they could be sent to the frontline to stop the Ukrainian advance. To disrupt the logistics of the already present enemy soldiers along the front, Ukrainian operators struck multiple Russian military trucks as well, simultaneously denying supplies and reinforcements for the Russians. As a result of the Ashan operation in this sector, Ukrainian drones destroyed one hundred and seven pieces of equipment in just three days and removed a substantial part of Russia’s firepower, transport, and logistics supporting the marine reinforcements.

To defend their land-based logistical routes before advancing, Ukraine has installed forty-two kilometers of anti-drone protection along roads in the Dnipropetrovsk region. These anti-drone nets allowed ammunition, reinforcements, and assault groups to move through the rear without every convoy being exposed to Russian FPV drones, while Russian equipment and supply traffic had been devastated. After these preparations, dozens of assault groups launched a simultaneous offensive from the Velykomykhailivka area with round-the-clock drone support. The Skala regiment first pushed through Ternovate and, after clearing it, moved towards the south, supporting the southern vector. Along this route, Ukrainian assault troops pushed towards Zaporizke and secured the right flank of the attack towards Ternove. At the same time, Ukraine expanded the breach north of these villages and captured Sichneve. This allowed the Ukrainians to use it as a springboard and advance even further eastward and attack Maliivka.

During the operation, Ukrainian reconnaissance drones identified Russian positions and targeted them with artillery, suppressing known firing positions before Ukrainian assault groups entered the settlements. This attack was further supported by FPV drones, which struck Russian soldiers who tried to hide after the artillery barrage. Additionally, heavy bomber drones attacked the scattered Russian soldiers by dropping ordnance on them. Russia tried to send reinforcements, but their armored vehicles were destroyed on the move by drones, eliminating them before they could help the defending Russians.

As a result of the attacks, Ukraine erased the Russian line as they advanced up to ten kilometers into Russian-held territory, liberating seventy-five square kilometers. This enabled Ukrainian forces to extend the reach of their drone operations and establish fire control over key Russian logistics routes in this sector.

This is what happened to Russia’s one hundred and twentieth Marine Infantry Brigade, which served as a reinforcement and suffered critical losses, rendering it combat ineffective. This forced the surviving elements to withdraw from the Dnipropetrovsk region, which is exactly what Ukraine needs to continue offensive operations

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Today, the biggest news comes from the Kostiantynivka direction. 

Here, on the western flank of the city, Russian forces just launched a massive offensive trying to break through Ukrainian lines and envelop the defenders from the west. Doing so would place Ukrainian ground lines of communication into the city under complete Russian fire control, and starting the battle for the city of Druzhkivka to the north. Unfortunately for the Russians however, the  Ukrainian ninety-third mechanized brigade defending this crucial sector just released brand new footage that shattered any Russian hope of their offensive succeeding. 

Geolocated footage shows how their drones are detecting Russian infiltrators moving toward their lines in massive numbers. Immediately struck by FPV kamikaze drones, these Russian soldiers stand very little chance in the wide open fields. Russians next tried armored assaults in the sector, moving large numbers of infantry rapidly inside of massive cages mounted onto the tanks. Ukrainians showed how they made quick work of these assaults, burning the vehicles and stopping Russians in their tracks. Russian infantry that managed to dismount found themselves in the middle of a massive kill zone, and heavy bomber drones carpet-bombed the tree lines with mortar rounds to ensure that no one remained to attack Ukrainian positions. Additionally, these heavy bomber drones were also equipped with singular but much more heavy explosive devices, able to penetrate through the roofs of buildings where Russians were sheltering in and turning them into ruins. Russians quickly shifted to a lower-visibility approach, filling pickup trucks with infantry and bags of supplies to allow Russian infiltrators to stay on position for as long as possible. Striking them in the open fields, Russian infantry once again had nowhere to run to as they were left stranded without any cover. Russian motorbike assaults soon followed, but intense Russian shelling of the fields here meant that the motorbikes had to stay on the asphalt to maintain any speed during their attack. This made them even more easy to strike, as FPV drones and artillery worked together to shell the unprotected assaults with shrapnel and blast waves. Even at night Russians tried to break through, but made a critical mistake by leaving their headlights on to evade obstacles on the road. 

However, no defense remained impregnable, and a few Russian soldiers inevitably managed to evade detection and slip past the Ukrainian kill zone. Fortunately for Ukrainians, the ninety-third brigade houses skilled assault troops that conducted regular clearing operations of the settlements in the grey zone where Russian infiltrators could accumulate. Through this, Ukrainians were even able to push deeper into no-man's land, and repeatedly clear Russian underground positions and dugouts, preventing Russians from advancing through gradual consolidation. This critical component in modern warfare also resulted in a steady supply of surrendering Russian soldiers and important intel that Ukrainians were able to act on. This intelligence exposed unknown Russian infiltration routes, and allowed gaps in the line to be closed as soon as Russians found one. Russian electronic warfare also became increasingly countered, as the brigade is fielding a large number of fiber-optic-controlled FPV drones that do not need a wireless signal to the pilot, as can be seen from the coils of fiber optic wire exploding away from impacts. . This allowed Ukrainians to even strike in areas where signal strength had been exceptionally low due to terrain factors or damaged antennas. In the end, Russians have been completely unable for months to advance in the brigade’s sector of responsibility, and the western flank of Kostiantynivka continues to hold because of them. 

Overall, the Ukrainian ninety-third brigade has shown itself exceptionally capable in the defense of Kostiantynivka. Preventing the encirclement of the city’s defenders, they have countered each and every one of the different tactics and assaults that Russians have thrown at them. Through their active defense and clearing operations, they have worked with their Azov brigade neighbors to fully clear over one hundred kilometers of Russian infiltrators. As the Russians cannot seem to break through their lines, their plans to reach and capture Druzhkivka by the end of the year is falling apart at the seams.

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Today, the biggest news comes from the Lyman direction.

Although the frontline around Lyman has barely moved, the intensity of the fighting has reached extraordinary levels. Russian forces are committing thousands of soldiers to repeated counterattacks in an effort to halt Ukrainian advances and restore their positions, but these assaults are coming at a tremendous cost. In Zarichne, Russian troops are attempting to push back Ukrainian infiltrators who are trying to cross the Zherebets River and advance into the centre of Torske. Meanwhile, in the forests east of Lyman, Ukrainian forces are clearing the remaining Russian positions north of Yampil. Russian troops are still present in the area, but their positions have become increasingly scattered, leaving them struggling to maintain a coherent bridgehead. Russia is also counterattacking inside Yampil itself, attempting to regain control of positions in the grey zone. Their objective is to reopen access to the vast forested areas beyond these positions, where Ukrainian forces could otherwise exploit gaps in Russian defences. These repeated attacks and counterattacks have gradually pushed the frontline towards a more stable position along the river, but that stability has come at a staggering human cost for the Russians.

At the end of September and the beginning of October, Russian forces suffered daily personnel losses exceeding two thousand on three separate occasions. On one of those days, reported losses reached two thousand and ninety, the highest daily figure since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion. These losses reflect the intensity of Russia’s efforts to contain the Ukrainian counterattacks, as commanders continue sending troops into contested areas to prevent further advances and recover lost positions. 

This is largely because Ukrainian forces eliminated Russia’s drone operators and specialist personnel during Operation Vivaldi. A notable part of the operation involved Ukrainian drone operators using unmanned ground vehicles to reach Russian positions in the rear. These ground drones were used to strike concealed Russian shelters, command posts, and locations where Russian forces were concentrating and launching drones. The third Assault Brigade said these strikes destroyed a large number of such positions, along with the personnel operating from them. With fewer experienced drone operators and other specialized personnel available to support the frontline, Russia has increasingly had to compensate by committing large numbers of conventional troops to plug gaps, reinforce threatened positions, and launch repeated counterattacks. As a result, Russia is committing a significant portion of its available reserves simply to slow the Ukrainian advance and temporarily stabilize the frontline. This may prevent a total collapse of the Russian line, but it also means that large numbers of troops are being consumed just to maintain the current defensive line rather than being preserved for future operations.

This could be exactly what Ukraine was planning from the beginning, as proven by the commander of the Third Army Corps. Andriy Biletsky said that the Russian prisoners of war were lucky to have surrendered early, because the next stage of the operation will make the situation a lot worse for Russians. Based on his remarks, it is highly likely that the Ukrainian commanders anticipated that the Russians would launch massive meat wave attacks once the scope of Ukraine's counterattack became clear. As a result of these preparation, the Russians were walking straight into a trap, leading to their massive losses. 

Overall, the key issue is that Russia may be stabilizing the frontline while simultaneously exhausting the forces needed to hold it. By forcing Russia to commit more troops just to contain a limited area, Ukraine can turn every counterattack into a drain on Russia’s remaining combat power rather than simply fighting for territory. If Ukrainian commanders anticipated this response, the objective may have been not only to advance, but to provoke Russia into spending its reserves under increasingly unfavorable conditions. In that case, the real significance of the operation will be measured not by how far the frontline moves today, but by how much weaker Russia becomes when Ukraine launches its next phase.

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Today, there are dangerous updates from the Russian Federation.

Here, Russia’s technology sector has suffered another major blow, as Ukrainian drones struck a second Yandex data center in just two days. This turns the initial attack into a broader campaign against Russian digital infrastructure, with President Volodymyr Zelensky confirming that Ukraine is responding to Moscow’s strikes against Ukrainian data centers.

In the morning hours today, drones struck Yandex’s facility in Kaluga, southwest of Moscow. Russian air defenses reportedly operated throughout the night, with regional authorities claiming twenty-six Ukrainian drones were intercepted. However, the facility suffered damage, as seen in footage published by locals, and later Yandex confirmed that several data-center modules were completely disabled, halting the operation of the data center.

The complex accommodates more than three-thousand-eight-hundred server racks, making it another significant component of Russia’s digital economy, as Yandex warned its customers that some services will experience interruptions while company engineers started assessing the damage.

And this was the second successful attack in just forty-eight hours, as Ukrainian drones struck Yandex’s largest data center in Sasovo yesterday, triggering a major fire and forcing operations to stop. The consequences are particularly serious because the facility houses two of the three supercomputers used to develop Yandex’s artificial-intelligence models, and Yandex subsequently acknowledged that the destruction was so extensive that it could not determine whether the damaged equipment could even be restored. Together, the attacks have affected two of Yandex’s five major data centers, representing forty percent of its principal facilities, eliminating this computing capacity and crippling critical infrastructure.

Yandex itself described data centers as the technological heart of its operations, as millions of Russians depend upon its services for navigation, transportation, entertainment, cloud storage, and everyday information. Hundreds of thousands of businesses also rely on its infrastructure for commercial operations. Normally, Yandex could compensate for damaged equipment by transferring workloads to unaffected facilities. However, that solution becomes increasingly difficult when multiple centers experience simultaneous outages, and with forty percent of the capacity gone, while the Ukrainian campaign is just starting, it may soon become impossible rather than just difficult.

Russian analysts warned that continued attacks could eventually exhaust the company’s ability to redistribute computing loads, creating substantially more serious consequences. This resembles the pressure Ukraine previously applied against Russian e-commerce infrastructure, including Wildberries and Ozon warehouses. Repeated attacks against different facilities imposed mounting repair costs and complicated efforts to maintain uninterrupted operations.

The difference is that digital infrastructure supports numerous economic activities simultaneously. Russia’s telecommunications providers, banking institutions, government agencies, and technology companies depend upon extensive data-center networks. The main Russian data centers are located in Samara, Yaroslavl, Krasnodar, Yekaterinburg, and Moscow, and are obviously lacking any protection, as confirmed by Yandex’s panicked decision in the aftermath of the first strike to censor the buildings on its own satellite map service.

For ordinary Russians, the consequences would probably appear gradually rather than through one nationwide internet blackout, as navigation applications would slowly become unreliable, online purchases would start failing, payment processing would slow down before stopping completely, and businesses would lose access to essential software and customer databases.

For Yandex and other data center operators, the financial consequences extend beyond immediate repairs, as repeated service interruptions threaten customer confidence, business contracts, and revenue while forcing additional investment into redundancy and physical protection against Ukrainian drones that have proven themselves highly effective.

Overall, the two Ukrainian strikes within forty-eight hours that damaged two key Yandex facilities are significant, as they exposed another major weakness in Russia’s protection of key infrastructure, this time essential to its digital economy. As the Ukrainian leadership announced the start of the campaign, the speed of this escalation also suggests that Moscow must now prepare for another sustained Ukrainian campaign.

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Today, the biggest news comes from Ukraine.

Here, for the first time in twelve years, Ukraine has established a consistent drone presence over Crimea, creating a situation that would have been almost unthinkable only one year ago. According to Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, the four hundred and fourteenth Brigade Birds of Magyar carried out more than seven thousand missions over the summer as part of the Crimean Operation, with its drones repeatedly flying dozens of kilometers across the peninsula toward Russian targets. The scale of these operations is what makes the development so important, because Ukrainian drones are returning often enough to maintain constant pressure across Crimea. Russian forces now have to prepare for repeated attacks, turning Ukrainian drone activity over the peninsula into a regular occurrence of the battlefield.

Ukraine achieved this by first attacking the systems Russia uses to detect and shoot down incoming drones. In late August, Ukrainian forces struck a Nebo-SV radar, elements of a P-eighteen radar, and communications equipment near Olenivka, while a relay station near Frunze and a Russian military training center in Sevastopol were also hit. These systems help Russia detect incoming drones, track their route, and guide nearby air-defense units toward them before they can reach their targets. Just days later, Ukrainian strikes destroyed a Russian Pantsir-S-one air-defense system near Kerch, removing one of the weapons meant to intercept drones and missiles at shorter ranges. Losing these systems creates a much bigger problem than the loss of the equipment itself, because strikes on radars, communications equipment, and air-defense launchers open gaps throughout Russia’s defensive network. Each new gap gives later waves of Ukrainian drones a better chance of reaching more valuable targets deeper inside Crimea.

Once Ukrainian drones get through those defenses, the next targets are the airfields and aircrafts Russia keeps behind them. On August twentieth, Ukraine struck Saky airfield near Novofedorivka, destroying a Russian Su-twenty-four-M and four pieces of airfield support equipment. The strike showed that Ukrainian drones could reach Saky itself and destroy an aircraft on the ground together with equipment needed to keep the airfield operating. More importantly, overnight into September seventh, Ukrainian intelligence reported another successful strike on a Russian Su-twenty-four frontline bomber at Saky airfield, showing that even weeks after the previous attack, Russia had still not managed to keep Ukrainian drones away from its aviation. Russian airbases remained exposed to repeated Ukrainian attacks, even after commanders had already seen what Ukrainian drones were capable of reaching.

The real problem for Russia is that Ukraine keeps coming back before the damage from earlier strikes can be fully repaired. Replacing lost systems, relocating surviving aircraft, and reinforcing exposed bases all take time, giving Ukraine another window to strike before Russia can restore the same level of protection. Another Ukrainian attack can then force commanders to move resources again and restart parts of the recovery process. The October seventh strike near Dzhankoi showed that even these attempts to strengthen local defenses can be targeted, as Ukrainian forces hit a Russian mobile fire group, killing one serviceman and wounding another. Russia deploys these groups to hunt low-flying drones that slip past larger air-defense systems, while Ukraine can now target those smaller defensive units as well, making it harder for Russia to close the gaps left by earlier strikes. One weakness is repaired, another area needs more protection, and the pressure keeps moving across the peninsula.

Overall, the biggest change is that Crimea can no longer be treated as a secure rear area where Russia can base aircraft and other high-value assets with the same confidence as before. Protecting the most important airfields and bases means moving more systems toward them and potentially leaving other targets with less protection, while spreading those defenses across the peninsula makes it harder to protect any one location properly. Ukraine does not need to destroy every Russian air-defense system to benefit from this situation, because keeping enough drones in the air already forces Moscow to move defenses in response. If that pressure continues, Crimea will become increasingly expensive for Russia to use as a military rear area, even on days when Ukrainian drones do not destroy anything.

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Today, there is interesting news from the Pokrovsk direction. 

Here, the Ukrainian counteroffensive is expanding, with Ukrainian forces opening a second axis between Dobropillia and Druzhkivka to clear the remnants of the Russian troops trying to entrench themselves in the area. The Skala Assault Regiment, operating alongside the Twelfth Azov Brigade, launched clearing operations around Hruzke and Novomykolaivka, establishing a blocking line designed to stop Russian infiltration toward Druzhkivka.

The operation relied heavily on infantry because Russian troops had dispersed through interconnected forest belts. Ukrainian commanders divided the assault force across three routes, carefully bypassing mines before moving toward the predetermined Russian positions. Every Ukrainian group received specific objectives, including where to attack and approximately how many Russian soldiers were expected there.

Crossing open ground was particularly dangerous because Russian FPV drones were constantly searching for Ukrainian troops in an attempt to help Russians on the ground dig in the forest. However, due to their own drone reconnaissance, Ukrainian soldiers were informed that everyone ahead of them could be treated as hostile, while a commander monitored their movement through a drone’s live feed, warning assault groups whenever threats appeared.

After reaching their designated positions, Ukrainian soldiers concentrated inside the forest belts before beginning successive assaults. Close-range fighting followed, with some Ukrainian soldiers wounded, but the advance continued while other troops remained behind on the flanks. This became crucial when some Russian forces attempted to move behind the advancing Ukrainians and cut them off, but the Ukrainian soldiers waiting in ambush intercepted them instead.

The Ukrainians then captured Russian radios, creating an immediate advantage because they could hear Russian movements and learned that enemy soldiers intended to deploy anti-personnel mines ahead of the Ukrainian advance. Instead, the Russian groups were located and eliminated before completing their task.

Russian drone operators eventually identified the previous Ukrainian ambush position and attacked it with six drones, but the Ukrainians had already relocated and advanced another one hundred meters, discovering another Russian position and eliminating it through coordinated action. After each position was cleared, Ukrainian soldiers consolidated while fresh groups moved through them to continue the attack.

Where Russian resistance became stronger, Skala requested support from Azov drone operators, who struck Russian positions before infantry advanced. This created a repeating cycle: locate, strike, assault, consolidate, and introduce another group to build on the success so far. Eventually, Skala cleared the new Russian attempt to resurrect the pincer, allowing the Azov Brigade to introduce consolidation forces.

The broader context makes this operation particularly important, as Ukrainian forces were already attacking from the Dobropillia direction after clearing Russian infiltrators south of Hruzke, so Russia subsequently attempted to shift infiltration farther east toward Novomykolaivka. Capturing positions there could have reopened a vector toward Druzhkivka and ultimately increased pressure against the wider Kramatorsk defensive area. Instead, the First Azov Corps, reinforced by Skala, continued systematically searching the forests and eliminating Russian infiltration groups, which effectively creates a second Ukrainian counteroffensive axis alongside the continuing operations around Dobropillia. Rather than merely reacting to individual Russian infiltrations, Ukrainian forces are attempting to construct a continuous protective belt south of Druzhkivka, denying Russia the ability to transform scattered infiltration groups into a sustainable breakthrough.

Overall, the Ukrainian Pokrovsk counteroffensive is therefore becoming more than simply eliminating the original Russian penetration. Ukraine is expanding sideways, securing the approaches toward Druzhkivka and constructing another defensive barrier. If this continues, Russia’s attempt to exploit the area toward Druzhkivka and threaten Kramatorsk risks being dismantled before it can develop into something significant.

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Today, the biggest development is coming from inside Russia itself. 

Here, Russian partisans fighting on the side of Ukraine conducted a large-scale operation deep into enemy-held territory that paralyzed the Russian railway logistics.  

The main Ukrainian intelligence Directorate or GUR, recently released footage of this truly historic covert operation. Russian citizens fighting for Ukraine in the Freedom of Russia Legion were sent to infiltrate all across Russian-controlled Ukraine in one unified operation. Speaking Russian and pretending to be citizens of the Russian proxy states in Donbas, they remained undetected as they moved toward their target, the most critical component of the Russian army’s entire logistics network: their railway lines. 

Simultaneously setting explosive charges onto the fuel carts in the middle of the night, all the major Russian railway hubs were targeted. Ukrainians blew up trains in the major cities of Donbas and Luhansk, which form the capitals of Russia’s LPR and DPR puppet states. They set fire to locomotives and rail relay stations in Mariupol and Melitopol, where all of Russia’s logistics in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions flow through. The undercover operatives even penetrated as deep as Rostov-on-Don, where the main headquarters of Russian high command overseeing the war in Ukraine is operating from. Nowhere was safe, as the footage shows scores of trains and crucial railway infrastructure exploding and going up in flames. 

Russians themselves responded with outrage. They complain that too many Russians inside of the country are increasingly showing support and favoritism toward Ukraine. They say that these people are responsible for regular partisan attacks inside of Russia and the Russian-controlled territories in Ukraine. This is not surprising however, as the Ukrainian intelligence directorate is actively advertising to people in these territories and opponents of Putin’s regime to get in contact with them to become a part of the resistance movement, including training, intelligence gathering, and even direct sabotage attacks. 

Because of this, recent partisan attacks have spread to railway logistics in cities as far as Kemerovo, Tyumen, and Yekaterinburg. Here, three locomotives in dual-use by the Russian armed forces were burned down, paralyzing Russian transport capacity across the most important transport lines connecting Siberia with Russia-proper across the Ural mountains. Most often however, sabotage occurs much closer to the frontlines in Ukraine, where all disruptions are felt immediately on the front. Partizans set fire to railway cabinets in Luhansk, which ground transport to a temporary halt long enough for follow-up strike drones to take full advantage of the stationary trains. Vehicles used by Russian soldiers in the rear are also common targets for lower-level sabotage by resistance members, preventing transport of supplies, ammunition, and reinforcements to the front. While the impact of a single vehicle may seem small, this results in one less vehicle that Ukrainians have to deal with on the front, one Russian sector that starts running low on supplies, and fewer potential infiltrators causing a headache for Ukrainian forces in the rear. 

Overall, if every minor action adds up to a consequential effect, Ukrainians just unleashed a tidal wave of frontline impact. The coordinated operation executed by volunteers of the Freedom of Russia Legion not only destroyed over ten thousand tons of fuel supplies, but the carriers and locomotives that cart supplies around as well. As the railway continues to form the backbone of the Russian army’s logistics, the disruptions and delays that this destruction has caused are significant. With Russian officials seemingly unable to stem the wave of resistance fighters operating not only within the Ukrainian territories they control, but throughout mainland Russia as well, the pressure is building up, and continued resistance becomes a more accessible option with every operation that passes.

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Today, the biggest news is coming from the Russian net. 

Here, the Russian bot farms have just gone completely silent, as Russia’s massive disinformation and manipulation network online was reduced to zero. Zelensky recently stated that following Ukrainian strikes on three of Russia’s nine largest data centers, a noticeable drop in bot activity was recorded across social media. These claims are confirmed by Cloudflare, one of the largest companies providing internet services. They have released statistics showing that known Russian bot traffic coming from the Russian side of the internet dropped to zero point four percent after the Ukrainian strikes, from a staggering eighty-four and a half percent before. This means that essentially, Russia’s information warfare in the online space has ground to a halt. 

The impact of this is visibly noticeable. Online activity relating to political parties in the West has experienced a notable drop. Statistics from independent factcheckers in Germany for example, show an across-the-board drop in mentions of all political parties online by between twenty and thirty-seven percent. Countries across the West are experiencing similar trends, while wider claims on certain extremist parties’ online activity experiencing extreme drops of up to eighty-six percent remain unconfirmed. 

The main thing that the confirmed and fact-checked statistics show is that Russia has an intense and ongoing campaign across the world to influence political debate. How this frequently works is that certain bots make extremist posts and false claims online in order to invoke a response and spread misinformation on important subjects. Other bots pretending to be voters from both sides of the political spectrum then pretend to argue with each other, hoping to bait real people into interacting with the false premise, which in turn boosts its visibility to other real people. This is how Russia creates extreme political and social divide in the countries that oppose it fundamentally. It is no wonder, therefore that when Zelensky stated that there was less hate, less division, and fewer provocations in the online space following the Ukrainian strikes, he spoke the truth. 

Importantly, Russia does not only use its disinformation bot network against the West, but Ukraine has become a massive target as well. Ukraine’s new commander in chief Mykhailo Drapatyi recently stated that coordinated information attacks against him began from his first days in office, as has been the case against the Ukrainian army and government since the start of the war. Through this, Russia attempts to sow social distrust and unrest in Ukraine, as the determination of Ukrainians against the Russian invasion is what allowed the country to hold on against Russia for so long. 

Overall, Russia actively seeks to break the will of Ukrainians and their Western allies at a massive scale. That scale however, has been reduced by an equally massive scale after Ukraine hit and destroyed three of Russia’s nine largest data centers that allow the bot networks to run day and night. With the information space having been much cleared up in recent days, it is important to remember how Russia’s game of dividing and conquering must not be allowed to succeed, as Russia’s crimes against humanity in Ukraine are something that all people truly oppose.

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Finland is in danger as Russia rebuilds old garrisons and expands nineteen military locations across its northwestern region, creating facilities capable of receiving tens of thousands of soldiers once the war in Ukraine ends. The most significant developments near Finland include Pechenga on the Kola Peninsula, Kandalaksha in the Murmansk region, and Petrozavodsk in Karelia, giving Russia more space to house and support forces close to Finland. Finnish Army Commander Pasi Valimaki estimates that facilities in the immediate area facing Finland could eventually accommodate around eighty thousand troops, up from approximately twenty thousand previously. Across Russia’s wider northwestern military region facing Nato’s Nordic and Baltic frontier, that potential force could rise to as many as one hundred fifteen thousand soldiers. Pechenga is expected to gain capacity for as many as seventeen thousand troops, while the reactivated Petrozavodsk garrison is being developed to support units of the Forty Fourth Army Corps operating near Finland. The country therefore faces the emergence of a large and permanent Russian military force along its eastern frontier.

Alongside this expanding military belt, Moscow is increasingly portraying Finland as an active participant in Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory. In April, Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu claimed that Ukrainian drones were approaching Russia through Finland and the Baltic states, warning that Moscow could invoke self defense if those countries deliberately allowed their airspace to be used. Russian military commentators have also alleged that drones attacking the Leningrad region used less protected coastal routes through the Baltic area, although these flight paths have not been independently established and regional governments reject claims of deliberate assistance. These accusations intensified after Finland temporarily restricted aviation and maritime traffic over the eastern Gulf of Finland to protect its territory from stray drones, although Finnish authorities reported that no drones entered its airspace. Moscow nevertheless portrays these precautions as evidence of a Ukrainian air corridor, framing its military expansion as a response to supposed Finnish aggression.

These accusations could give Moscow a justification for redirecting its forces from Ukraine toward Finland once the current war ends. Russian units returning from Ukraine would already have years of recent battlefield experience, allowing Moscow to shift a combat tested force toward Finland without having to build and train a new army from scratch. By transferring these formations northwest, the Kremlin could preserve their combat readiness and accumulated battlefield experience for another confrontation.

The danger grows if Moscow believes this experienced force could exploit a weakness exposed during the Iran war, where sustained drone and missile attacks placed severe pressure on Western air defenses. Cheap drones forced defenders to expend scarce and expensive interceptors, exposing how quickly Europe could struggle to replace its missile stocks during a prolonged conflict. A Baltic Defense Initiative assessment examines a hypothetical Nato conflict in which Russian drone saturation and long range strikes rapidly weaken regional air defenses before larger allied forces arrive. This is a stress test rather than evidence of an approved Russian invasion plan, yet it shows why Moscow may view Nato’s northern defenses as vulnerable to an intense opening attack. Moscow may also believe Nato’s ground forces could be exploited during the same period, because the alliance is still assembling some of the permanent forces intended to defend its eastern members. One supporting example is Germany’s permanent Forty Fifth Armoured Brigade in Lithuania, which is intended to strengthen the country’s defense against a potential Russian attack but will not reach full operational capability until the end of twenty twenty seven. Combined with limited interceptor stocks, that delay could encourage Russian commanders to gamble on overwhelming local defenses before Nato can reinforce the region and respond effectively.

Overall, Russia’s preparations could turn the Finnish border into a permanently militarized frontier even without an immediate invasion. Finland shares Nato’s longest direct border with Russia, so defending it would require permanently deploying air defenses, surveillance systems, ground forces, and logistics across the northern frontier. Over time, this could lock Nato into an expensive buildup and allow Moscow to drain alliance resources simply by keeping the threat alive. Meanwhile, Russia is preparing the forces needed to raise the pressure while developing the argument it could later use to justify escalation.

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Today, there is important news from the Russian Federation.

Here, Russia’s technology sector has suffered a major blow after drones struck Yandex’s biggest data center in Sasovo, in the Ryazan Region, triggering a fire and forcing the facility to shut down completely. Located on the former premises of the Sasta machine-tool plant, which supplies Russia’s engineering industry and was also targeted in the attack, the complex hosts tens of thousands of servers and represents Yandex’s most important computing facilities.

The Ukrainian attack immediately disrupted cloud infrastructure, as Yandex acknowledged electricity problems affecting one availability zone and advised customers to switch to alternatives. Although the company maintained that its principal consumer services remained operational, the complete shutdown demonstrated how quickly a physical strike can interrupt digital infrastructure supporting thousands of businesses, as problems were reported throughout various internet services in Russia within minutes after the attack.

Financial markets reacted immediately in panic as well, with Yandex shares falling approximately four percent during early Moscow trading, as investors were suddenly confronting a new risk: Russia’s most important technology companies could become increasingly vulnerable to the same type of disruption already affecting its energy and logistics sectors.

The timing is particularly significant because Russian strikes have recently targeted Ukrainian data centers, and now Russia is experiencing the consequences of attacks against its own digital infrastructure, while the economic implications could extend far beyond Yandex. Earlier attacks on Wildberries and Ozon facilities demonstrated how physical destruction can disrupt online commerce. Data centers represent an even more complicated challenge because they support the software systems that allow businesses to function.

What makes it even more dangerous, warehouses can often be replaced through smaller storage facilities, alternative distribution routes, and dispersed inventories. Large data centers are harder to replicate quickly, as they require enormous electrical capacity, cooling equipment, specialized servers, high-speed connections, and carefully coordinated software environments. Although workloads can be transferred between facilities, relocating massive datasets and computing capacity requires substantial investment and technical preparation. Consequently, repeated disruptions could create mounting costs even when companies successfully restore their services.

Russia’s digital economy depends upon these systems for cloud storage, financial transactions, corporate databases, telecommunications and government administration. Yandex itself operates search, navigation, transportation, storage and artificial-intelligence services, including YandexGPT. Disruption across several independent providers could therefore produce cascading problems: slower applications, interrupted online payments, unavailable business records, delayed administrative services and increasingly unreliable commercial platforms.

The next potential biggest target could be the Udomlya data center in Tver Oblast, processing nuclear-reactor simulations and storing state video archives from across Russia, the destruction of which could disrupt the work of the Russian government. The second major target could become Moscow’s M-Nine data center, which is a hub that, if taken offline, could cause a large part of the Russian internet to suffer immediate disruption, potentially affecting banking transactions, mobile connectivity, and government portals. Despite Russia possessing a geographically distributed data-center industry, most of the operational facilities are located inside or near Moscow.

After such a campaign, Russian companies will have to restore data access, redirect workloads, investigate interrupted transactions, and reassure customers. Some may need additional backup capacity, while others could reconsider relying exclusively on domestic infrastructure. For the Russian government, repeated incidents would create another expensive challenge alongside protecting refineries, transportation networks and industrial facilities.

Overall, the scale of the risk for Russia makes the Sasovo attack fundamentally different from previous attacks on warehouses. The immediate damage concerns physical equipment, but the secondary consequences can spread through businesses that never experienced the attack directly, demonstrating a vulnerability that Moscow can no longer ignore but can’t fix quickly enough as well. After years of Russian attacks against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, the consequences are increasingly reaching Russia’s own digital economy.

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Ukraine has massively eroded the political and economic influence Russia built across Central Asia by disrupting the supply networks that made Moscow an indispensable regional partner. Russian analysts are warning that Ukrainian long-range strikes have damaged the refineries and transport infrastructure supporting exports, leaving Russia less capable of guaranteeing the fuel deliveries neighboring economies once treated as secure. Those deliveries kept regional economies dependent on Russian supplies and infrastructure, allowing the Kremlin to turn economic reliability into political leverage. After the ban on gasoline, kerosene, and diesel exports, Russia is rapidly losing control over one of its main sources of regional pressure, while every disrupted delivery gives neighboring governments another reason to reduce their exposure to Russia.

In the most extreme cases, Kyrgyzstan imports more than ninety percent of its gasoline from Russia, while Tajikistan obtains virtually all of its petroleum products and remains heavily dependent on Russian supplies. In June, Russian rail shipments of aviation fuel to Central Asia fell by more than ninety-two percent from the previous month, while gasoline deliveries declined by thirty-four percent. Some exports continued under pre-existing agreements, but those exceptions did not make Russian supply reliable again, as these countries have begun sharing in the Russian fuel crisis. Countries facing shortages are now buying fuel from Kazakhstan and other regional producers that are self-sufficient in their fuel production, creating contracts and transport networks that will remain in place even after Russian production recovers.

As a result, the damage will be difficult for Russia to reverse because Central Asian governments cannot base their economies on a supplier whose refineries remain vulnerable and whose own shortages come before deliveries abroad. Once another supplier has proven that it can keep vehicles moving and businesses operating, governments have little reason to return to the same level of dependence on Russia. The shift became clear when Russia began seeking roughly fifty thousand tons of gasoline from Kazakhstan. As such, it has become incredibly clear that a country that once supplied all of Central Asia and used this to its advantage was now asking to help cover shortages at home, weakening Moscow’s standing as the main energy provider.

Russia will lose far more than fuel sales as competing countries take over the commercial relationships and transport links that once carried Russian influence deeper into Asia. The oil-rich countries of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan gain leverage when their fuel keeps neighboring markets supplied, while more regional trade crosses the Caspian Sea instead of moving north through Russia. The trade impact is already visible on the route between the Kazakh port of Aktau and the Azerbaijani port of Alat near Baku, where container traffic reached seven thousand four hundred fifty-one units in May, more than double the volume recorded during the same month one year earlier. Every shipment and every new purchase of oil gives Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan more income, attracts investment, and increases the capacity of a trade system that Moscow does not control. These connections also make regional governments harder for Russia to pressure because they no longer depend on a single route or supplier. Moscow must now compete for markets that once had few alternatives while spending more resources protecting the refineries and transport infrastructure required to keep its remaining exports moving.

Overall, Central Asia is moving toward a regional order in which Russia can no longer rely on fuel dependence and geographic isolation to preserve its dominance. Fuel contracts and Caspian trade routes are shifting steadily toward Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, giving both countries a larger role in regional commerce. Even if Russia repairs its refineries, it will return to markets where trade, investment, and supply networks increasingly operate without it. Ukraine’s strikes are therefore turning Russia from Central Asia’s dominant economic partner into one competitor among several.

Original here: https://www.youtube.com/live/p....pq9toSNWDQ?si=F0eBCK
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