Ukraine's 'Blood Experience' Parlaying Drone Expertise for Military Technology

 

"One night in March, a two-person Ukrainian crew established a record  for the Ukrainian Armed Forces by shooting down, in one engagement, 23 Russian Shahed drones with Sting interceptor drones designed by the Ukrainian military technology company Wild Hornets. The story is noteworthy not only for the number of intercepted drones, but also for the operation’s cost efficiency and Ukraine’s interceptor-production capacity behind it."

"A Sting interceptor costs about $2,500. In comparison, a single U.S.-made Patriot interceptor missile that does the same job costs more than $3 million and requires significantly more time and resources to build and operate than a drone. Lockheed Martin produced approximately 600 of the most advanced PAC-3 type of Patriot missiles last year; meanwhile, the Ukrainian Armed Forces used about 700 of these interceptors in the span of only four winter months in 2025-2026."

"The conflict in the Middle East has further exposed the shortcomings of a high-end, slow-production approach to defense systems. In March 2026, when Iran launched hundreds of Shaheds at Persian Gulf states, countries with the most advanced U.S.-supplied air defense systems outside NATO watched their defense capabilities erode as their interceptor stockpiles drained quickly. The air defense systems worked as intended, yet they were not designed to protect against the intensity and scale of Iran’s attacks."

"Kyiv is building drones in massive quantities out of wartime necessity against Russia’s ongoing full-scale assault, now in its fifth year. A key part of that necessity is Russia’s large-scale use of Iranian-made Shahed drones against Ukrainian cities and infrastructure. That Russian campaign has raised serious questions about Iran’s responsibility under international law. In response, Ukraine is rewriting the global rules of air power and air defense, replacing sheer mass and large stockpiles of weapons as key factors in warfare with the benefits of quantity, speed, and the ability to learn faster than the enemy. It is a novel and adaptive, low-cost military-industrial model that is already catching the interest of other countries."

Lesia Bidochko, Just Security

 

Ukrainians train with handheld drones. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

 

"Together we can work on joint production, on making all of the components of the systems work, and provide both defense industrial bases with the impetus needed to step up investments and production [following The European Union and Ukraine's drone deal to merge Ukrainian expertise in unmanned warfare with the continent’s industrial capacity, with the goal of ramping up production of drone and counter-drone systems]."

"In Europe, we already have huge technological and industrial capacity that can be deployed. And we have safe and secure production sites that can help to scale up. But we do not have that battle-tested knowledge and expertise that Ukraine has forged. So the point I am making is that we need to combine our strengths. Together, we can work on joint production."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen 

EU launches Ukraine defence industrial partnership, Drone Deal and disburses €1 billion for drones  EU Neighbours East

 

Kyiv can be credited with many outstanding features in this uneven war imposed upon Ukraine by Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore Greater Russia; among them the courage and intestinal fortitude to counter the full-scale invasion in its fifth year and add to that the determination to win this war, whatever it takes to repel the Russian beast. And nor can its ingenuity in designing new technological weapons of its own manufacture to match anything Russia obtains from the Islamic Republic in this new era of drone warfare, much less its entrepreneurial enterprise in marketing its products and its experience be overlooked.

 

So while Russian drones -- the Iranian Shaheds -- have wrought their weight in deadly measure as a means to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians in Ukraine, countermeasures to Russia's innovative first-person-view vehicles, jet power, fibre-optic tethers and similar innovations have led to Ukraine developing its own versions in countering the Russian military's. EU member-states such as Croatia, Spain, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, France, Denmark and Germany now see their own firms aligning with Ukrainian companies that specialize in first-person-view combat drones.

 

Ukrainian President Volodymyer Zelenskyy, pushing the drone deals whenever and wherever he can now realizes a ready market. Where Hezbollah deploys unmanned aerial vehicles to attack Israel, and Iran uses them against several regional countries, a case in point. Kyiv has signed ten-year security agreements with Gulf allies Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates since the joint U.S.-Israel aerial attacks on the Islamic Republic which led to its missiles and drones hitting its neighbours' U.S. military bases. A proposal, Zelenskyy stated is "also on the table for our American partners".

 

Ukrainian soldiers of the 127th Heavy Mechanized Brigade carry a Heavy Shot UAV across a field on May 8, 2026, in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. Yevhen Titov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Image

 

"Latvia will adopt Ukraine's unique combat experience in airspace defence against drone attacks." 

"[The deal includes] immediate access to technologies, but most importantly, the immediate arrival of Ukrainian anti-drone combat unit experts in Latvia."

"Our skies can only be protected if we follow Ukraine's example, know-how and experience." 

Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kilbergs  

A joint drone production facility is to be built near Latvia's border with Russia. Russia's Eastern Europe neighbours are fully cognizant of the potential danger they are in, following Ukraine's invasion, led by the Russian President's roving eye and territorial acquisitiveness. Kyiv anticipates more military and economic support, in particular American-produced Patriot missiles in short supply, given U.S. forces fighting Iran. Its breakthrough arrived when President Trump stated Kyiv would be allowed to make Patriot missiles itself in Ukraine.

 

"The terms must be beneficial for Ukraine, and the proceeds from exports must strengthen Ukraine's defence", stated President Zelenskyy of plans to release exports of Ukrainian drones. Reliance on early warning systems, radar, electronic warfare, mobile fire groups, helicopters, jet fighters and interceptors encompass Ukraine's anti-drone defences. Interceptors are increasingly being realized as the main line of defence for intercepting drones.

 

Over 100 Ukrainian companies produce interceptors. "We have approximately 15 to 20 very effective interceptors, which are also extensively used at the front", revealed Andrii Hrytseniuk, chief executive of Ukrainian government organization Bravel, providing a platform for the country's defence tech sphere. 

 

A Sting interceptor drone flies during drills at the Yatagan School for Unmanned Aerial Systems in the Kyiv region, Ukraine, Efrem Lukatsky/AP

 

"There is no one single bullet. There is sort of this funny magical thinking that a lot of people are doing in terms of 'hey, just send us all your drones or your interceptors'. "

"And what people are sort of missing is that is, even though there's tech and that's what everybody sees, it's only one piece of everything." 

Deborah Fairlamb, American investor in military technology 

Natural Disasters Equal to Wars Compelling Government Responses

"FINAL WARNING TO CANADA: Manage your forests to prevent these fires. American lungs are paying the price for Canadian inaction, year after year."

"Sovereignty comes with responsibility, and the responsibility to prevent a foreseeable disaster from crossing into another country's airspace has not been met [we offered you status as the 51st state, after all]."

Michigan Rep. John James

Hazardous air quality is creating another day of inconvenience across Metro Detroit, forcing families, visitors, and event organizers to rethink plans as smoke lingers in the region. (WDIV ClickOnDetroit)

 

"If there's some politician out there chirping away, maybe what you should do instead of complaining is send help, because we have done the exact same thing for our American friends." 

"I find it a shame the administration in the U.S. and Congress people [are] writing these letters and blaming us."

"We had the water bombers and everyone going over to California. It was last year.... That's what neighbours do." 

"You don’t get on and start threatening and criticizing, because guess what, one day it's going to be your turn and we're going to be down there without hesitation to support our neighbours, which we should be."

"It's unfortunate they want to politicize this." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford 

A new evacuation centre has opened in Thunder Bay for people displaced by northern Ontario wildfires. Premier Doug Ford warned that people refusing evacuation orders are hindering firefighting efforts.  Still from video/CBC

 

Thankfully, some of Canada's friends in the United States have chosen a different approach to the matter of conquering the wildfires. In comparison, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey, offered  state personnel to assist with wildfire prevention. There are 191 active wildfires across northern Ontario as of Saturday afternoon, 73 of which while being fought, are not yet under control, according to the provincial Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES) agency. 

 

The U.S. Republican myth -- which saw a number of U.S. Republican politicians writing a joint letter of warning to Ontario's premier -- that Canada is failing through "inaction" to meet the challenge of the wildfires is simply inaccurate. Ontario, pointed out Premier Ford, is twice the geographic size of the State of Texas. And in Texas authorities there have been battling catastrophic flooding following heavy rains. Were they negligent?

 

In Ontario last year $125 million was budgeted for emergency forest firefighting, but by year's end that budget expenditured to over double, reaching $271 million. Complaints aimed at the Conservative government in Ontario have also arrived from NDP and Liberal MPPs criticizing base budgeting numbers as too low.

 

More communities are under evacuation orders as wildfires rage across Ontario, with smoke affecting air quality across much of the province. Ontario Premier Doug Ford says the province is throwing all resources at the response. Still from video/CBC

 

"In times of crisis, all levels of government, including the opposition, need to come together." The criticism was "absolutely disgusting", responded Mr. Ford. "What I find despicable and disgusting is that opposition (members) would politicize the amount of being being spend and go out there and put false information out." 

 

Some northern communities in Ontario have complained that the response to wildfires by the provincial government was not sufficiently swift to react to rapidly changing conditions. As well, union members representing workers in forest fire response also commented that funding allocations have not kept pace with increasingly severe wildfire seasons in Ontario. 

 

Members of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation are seen in Thunder Bay, Ont., following an evacuation of the entire community on Monday due to a wildfire. (Sarah Law/CBC)

 

According to Mike Harris, Ontario minister of natural resources, the sheer scale of the wildfires leaves provincial authorities in the position of not being able to be everywhere at once. North of Thunder Bay, in Collins, a large fire broke out close to the community, moving so swiftly it reached the town even before a provincial response could be co-ordinated. Residents were evacuated to Thunder Bay, one of several places hosting those displaced by the fires ranging from Sioux Lookout to Niagara Falls, to Toronto.

 

In battling 191 separate fires in Ontario fire crews are performing at their utmost professionalism. Ten communities have been either evacuated or are under evacuation notice, with another four on standby pending the status of nearby fires. Last year's fire season saw some 600,000 hectares of forest burned. This year's total has already reached 650,000 hectares. Over 150 crews are currently engaged with forest fires in the north, with over 80 firefighting aircraft at work in the region, pointed out provincial minister of emergency preparedness and response, Jill Dunlop.  

Canada has refused to engage in basic Forest Management and Debris Removal, knowing that such refusal will lead to exactly this result. "

"This is Willful Negligence, and becoming a yearly occurrence, costing the United States Billions of Dollars, which cost of this pollution must of necessity be added to the TARIFFS Canada is currently paying."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump 

U.S. President Donald Trump is threatening to increase import tariffs on Canada over the 'unnecessary invasion' of smoke from the hundreds of wildfires that have destroyed communities and forced people from their homes. CBC News

 

 

The One-Time 'Toronto The Good' has Disappeared into a Maisma of Criminality

"These individuals trafficked, and conspired to traffic, more than 100 firearms from Florida to Canada in 2023 and 2024."

"Of those firearms, 29 were recovered from Canadian crime scenes, including homicides."

U.S. Department of Justice press release 

 

"[The victim was] beaten and tortured by his assailants for several hours."

"After succeeding in obtaining from the victim the details required to enable a cryptocurrency transfer, the suspects fled."

Montreal law enforcement

Police investigating after early morning shooting near Polson Street and Cherry Street in Toronto on Sunday July 12, 2026 (CP24 photo)

 

Toronto Police on Sunday announced that 25-year-old Omar Abdul Singateh was charged with reckless discharge of a firearm in connection with a 3:30 a.m. shooting outside the Rebel nightclub where he opened fire on the nightclub crowd, then ran over pedestrians in a stolen ride-share vehicle. This is the same man who had been arrested in a torture investigation last year and had been freed on bail. 

 

The police report described a man opening fire on patrons leaving the nightclub, then hijacking a ride-share vehicle "that had customers on board". 

 

In his getaway attempt Singateh "struck pedestrians and vehicles" with the four passengers trapped in the car with him. This at a time when he was awaiting sentencing for a home invasion and extortion case of singular brutality. Singateh and two other men broke into the home of a Montreal-area cryptocurrency entrepreneur in 2024. They beat and tortured their victim, forcing him finally to surrender to them $15,000 in cryptocurrency. 

 

A remarkably violent weekend in Toronto has left communities on edge and anti-gun violence advocates calling for action. Still from video/CBC

 

Seven months ago Singateh was named in a U.S. indictment respecting a smuggling ring specializing in transferring over 100 illegal guns into Canada. Some of those guns are known to have been used in various incident of criminal activity. This, at a time when gun crimes in Toronto have been on a rapid increase; law enforcement crediting a surge of smuggled weapons entering Canada through the United States.

 

During a gang war outside a recording studio, 100 shots were fired. Of 16 distinct firearms used in the shootout, all had originally come from the U.S. Another charge against Singateh is that of "causing bodily harm" through dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, in addition to four counts of forcible confinement in reference to the ride-share passengers who were trapped in the vehicle that Singateh had hijacked in his escape bid following the chaotic gunfire at the Toronto Rebel nightclub. 

 

"Non-life-threatening" injuries were sustained by those whom Singateh shot, or hit with the escape vehicle, while Singateh himself sustained "gunshot injuries" during the shooting spree. Simultaneous to the Rebel nightclub event other high-profile public shootings occurred in Toronto over the weekend. One being a "targeted" shooting during the city's Salsa event at the St.Clair street festival. There, two people were shot dead and four injured after two gunmen fired at one another, forcing crowds to flee the festival. 

 

A fatal shooting at Salsa on St. Clair in midtown Toronto has raised questions about how to keep street festivals safe in the city. (CBC)

 

"The point is, the location is not the cause of the violence. Period. A simple venue change for public mass festivals is not going to address the gun violence problem."

"[Street festivals, with an open-air environment, are known as] soft targets [for criminal activity]." 

"Basically, we try the best we can to make things as safe as we can [there was lots of visible security at Saturday's festival]."

"The [amount] of adaptations to make a perfectly safe environment would change the entire street."

Jack Rozdilsky, associate professor of disaster and emergency management, York University

WHO Guidelines on Dementia

"While there is no cure for dementia, up to 45 percent of the risks can be attributed to modifiable risk factors such as tobacco, alcohol use, social isolation, physical inactivity, air pollution and noncommunicable diseases [NCSs], including high blood pressure and diabetes."

"Dementia can be caused by several diseases which over time damage the brain, typically leading to deterioration in cognitive function beyond what might be expected from the usual consequences of biological ageing. The impairment in cognitive function is commonly accompanied, and occasionally preceded, by changes in mood, emotional control, behaviour or motivation."

World Health Organization 

Dementia   World Health Organization

 

"Behind these numbers are individuals, families, and communities navigating profound challenges that affect not only health, but dignity, independence, and well-being."

"This is not a distant issue; it touches all of us."

Devora Kestel, director, WHO, NCDs and mental health department  

According to the World Health Organization, citing modifiable risk factors such as tobacco and air pollution, up to 45 percent of dementia risk could be prevented or delayed. As the seventh global leading cause of death, a major cause of disability and dependency among older people within the international community, this is no small thing, the caution that dementia can be caused by circumstances that can be altered in deliberate change of lifestyle geared to avoidance. 

 

Surrendering to physical lassitude, succumbing to a general disinterest in events around us, failing to remain cognitively engaged, to exercise brain and body, are all critical elements in wasting what we have. Worldwide over 57 million people live with dementia, while some ten million people are diagnosed with it annually. Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia is estimated to make up 70 percent of diagnoses.   

Early signs and symptoms are:

• forgetting things or recent events
• losing or misplacing things
• getting lost when walking or driving
• being confused, even in familiar places
• losing track of time
• difficulties solving problems or making decisions
• problems following conversations or trouble finding words
• difficulties performing familiar tasks
• misjudging distances to objects visually.

Changes in mood and behaviour sometimes happen even before memory problems occur. Common changes include:

• feeling anxious, sad, or angry about memory loss
• personality changes
• inappropriate behaviour
• withdrawal from work or social activities
• being less interested in other people’s emotions.

An updated WHO guide was published recently focusing on how health workers and policy-makers can organize themselves to help in the prevention or delay of dementia onset. The first such dementia recommendations by the UN health agency was issued in 2019; since that time new evidence and understanding of dementia has grown significantly. 

 

Early awareness and intervention are addressed as critical issues on the guidelines, for the purpose of reducing he burden of dementia in years to come. The WHO is convinced that the condition is not an inevitable outcome of aging, although its onset is more common after age 65. "We know more today than ever before about what drives dementia risk, and these guidelines translate that knowledge into action", stated WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.  

"Dementia is caused by many different diseases or injuries that damage the brain. Alzheimer disease is the most common form and contributes to 60–70% of cases. Other forms include vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies [abnormal deposits of protein inside nerve cells], and a group of diseases that contribute to frontotemporal dementia  [degeneration of the frontal lobe of the brain]."

"Dementia may also develop after a stroke, in the context of certain infections such as HIV, as a result of harmful use of alcohol, after repeated injuries to the brain, or because of nutritional deficiencies. The boundaries between different forms of dementia are not always clear and mixed forms often co-exist."

World Health Organization 

 Although age is the strongest known risk factor for dementia, dementia can also affect younger people, and young-onset dementia – in which symptoms begin before the age of 65 – accounts for up to 9% of cases.

Evidence suggests that people can reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia by adopting healthy behaviours and lifestyles, managing health conditions that are known to increase the risk for dementia, and reducing environmental risk factors.

Important actions include:

• being physically active
• not smoking
• avoiding harmful alcohol use
• eating a healthy, balanced diet
• staying socially and cognitively active
• maintaining a healthy weight
• managing blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels
• using hearing aids where needed
• reducing exposure to air pollution.

 

The Thrill of Murder at Age 14 Absent Parental Responsibility

"This was a completely unprovoked, random, extremely violent attack on an innocent woman cleaning up her yard on a spring day."

"This brutal attack occurred in Ms. Doney's yard in the middle of the afternoon, a place where she was entitled to feel safe and likely did feel safe."

Justice Lisa Wannamaker

 

"I used to enjoy working in the garden with my wife, with the flowers stretched over a couple of ponds and the songs of birds which returned to the birdhouse."

"Now it's like a little bird has flown into a closed window and was killed. I can only put it now in a place where it rests, is buried and marked."

"I'll never forget that little bird that I spent 63 years with."

Bruce Doney

 

"The loving relationship I enjoyed with my Mom was abruptly torn from me. I was violently robbed. Robbed of the chance to be with her at the end to say goodbye ..."

"I am crushed and recoil in horror that Mom was left alone to die and found in front of her home by a neighbour."

"She was robbed of her dignity as a greatly loved human being."

Judy Kirwin, Eleanor Doney's daughter 

Eleanor Doney is pictured with her husband, Bruce, in this undated Facebook photo. Photo by FACEBOOK

 

 

The murderer's identity/name has been withheld. For it was a 14-year-old boy obsessed with violent acts of killing who deliberately stabbed 83-year-old Eleanor Doney to death in Pickering, east of Toronto on May 29, 2025. The boy had costumed himself after a fictional character whom he admired, a serial killer out of a Japanese comic book. Ted Bundy, serial killer, was another admired figure for this 14-year-old who spent innumerable hours in his bedroom on his computer peering avidly into the dark corners of the Internet.

 

Psychopathy was his admired niche, acts of murder, and above all serial killings held him enthralled and he yearned to pattern himself after those he so avidly admired, to feel for himself just how emotionally elevating it felt to take another's life. He had garbed himself in copy of the Japanese character, in a shiny black trench coat, a black COVID-type mask, black gloves, too-large black dress shoes, and he carried a briefcase. That briefcase held a knife.

 

A neighbour's doorbell camera was able to capture what had occurred that fateful day; the boy stopping to talk with Mrs. Doney, then withdrawing his knife from the briefcase and repeatedly stabbing her, even as she attempted to escape the violent menace threatening her life by withdrawing into her home. When she collapsed, the boy continued down the street. When police arrived they issued a community warning. The boy was identified by school administrators and that night was arrested at  his home. 

 

Eleanor Doney was killed outside her Pickering, Ont., home by a teen attacker on May 29, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia/File

 

"The emotional impact of losing my mother has been profound and life-altering. Her death was sudden, violent, and hard to understand. She was attacked in front of her own home -- a place where she should have felt safe and protected."

"The fact that her life was taken by a young offender is something I still struggle to make sense of."

"My mother was a sweet, gentle person whom everyone loved. She had a strong Christian faith that guided the way she lived her life."

"Helping others wasn't just something she did -- it was who she was."

Jeff Doney  

Crown prosecutor Tammi D'Eri spoke of the appropriate sentencing for this child killer, that it was "highly concerning" he displayed little insight into his violent tendencies and his explanation for his attraction to lethal violence was incoherent in its reasoning. His continued preoccupation with violence and serial killers persists. There were behavioural incident reports from the penal facility where he is incarcerated. Among them a report of an altercation with another resident, following which he remarked that he "hasn't felt this alive" since he murdered Mrs. Doney.

 

The boy's lawyer, on the other hand -- Erin Dann -- while agreeing a horrific premeditated murder had been committed by her client, wanted him to be given a year's credit from time spent in custody to increase the likelihood he would remain in a youth facility until conditional release to aid his rehabilitation. Should he serve the additional year the Crown requested, he would turn 21 before release and transfer to an adult prison would be a likely outcome. 

 

She cited psychological assessments that his serial killer obsession and lack of remorse and empathy in all likelihood represented mental health problems, not fixed attitudes. "Because these risk factors relate to mental health concerns, there's real potential here for rehabilitation and reintegration if properly addressed"; the youth facility where treatment programming is available represents the best place to meet that need, she urged.  

 

Unusual images of the 14-year-old killer were captured on a neighbour's security video before and after the stabbing of Eleanor Doney and provided to National Post. Photo by Courtesy of John Meloche

 

At the court hearing it was revealed that police had seized two cellphones and a computer from the boy's home that revealed his wide online activity and intense fascination with murder, serial killers, psychopathy and obsession with the fictional Yoshikage Kira. On the day before the fatal stabbing, school officials caught the boy with a knife and suspended him for five days. Two medical assessments prepared for the court appearance prior to his guilty plea, revealed that, as he informed psychologists, he had a fluctuating "urge to kill" in the weeks leading up to his attack.  

"By the heinous act committed it not only shattered Eleanor's life but so many Eleanor had deeply impacted."

"This was all taken away in an instant for the  utter senselessness of murder. The fear/worry/terror that was caused lasted, and still lasts, to this day."

"Safety and peace were stolen, not just from us who knew Eleanor but to all of our community and beyond."

"What is left is anxiety, stress, pain, hurt and fear."

Brian Kirwin, Eleanor Doney's son-in-law 

Ukraine Unsettling Russia in Crimea

"There's no place to hide in Crimea."

"The Ukrainians have the ability to touch every single place where there's an air defense weapon or a logistics hub or an airfield."

Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, retired commanding general of U.S. Army Europe 

 

"To achieve the final objective, this blockade must be intensified."

"This situation must be maintained for a sufficiently long period of time."

Kostiantyn Mashovetz, Ukrainian military analyst

 

"According to announcements by Ukraine’s drone forces, the USF (Unmanned Systems Forces), dozens of electrical substations or other power infrastructure have been hit by Ukrainian robot aircraft across Crimea in recent weeks, with 38+ strikes claimed in the first week of July and 45+ in the second week of July. Besides power transmission and generation infrastructure, attacks have hit gas distribution stations and compressor stations."

"Most of the strikes have been carried out by Ukraine’s workhorse FP-2 push propeller drone, a slow-flying plane roughly the size of a large sofa. USF commanders have said attacks against the Russia-run power grid in Crimea are succeeding because of months of preliminary attacks that hit and destroyed Russian air defenses. The top Ukrainian target in those preparatory drone attacks has been Russia’s Pantsir gun/missile system, an air defense weapon designed to shoot down drones."

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent 

Temporarily occupied Crimea (Photo: Reuters)

 

Crimea, annexed by Vladimir Putin in 2014 is being given very special attention at this point in time, a dozen  years later by the Ukraine military, where attacks in recent weeks have been increased substantially for the dual purpose of returning the critical geography to its rightful owner, as well as depriving the Russian military of its supply lines. The Kerch Strait Bridge is in Ukraine's crosshairs, the sole direct link to Russia. Ukraine has targeted bridges and roads in its bid to transform the peninsula from its current status as a Russian-occupied fortress into a military nightmare for the Kremlin.

 

This most recent wave of attacks saw Ukraine targeting air defense and radar systems across the peninsula. The energy grid and fuel reserves have also received attention from the Ukrainian military, battered to the extent that blackouts occur, shaking life in Crimea. Causing Russian forces along the southern front to shift into defensive mode. 

 

In the last week alone, Russia bombarded Kyiv, killing 30 people, in its own show of retaliatory force; its usual tactics, targeting civilian enclaves claiming they were aiming at military targets. A stark contrast in military priorities, where Kyiv focuses on military installations or fuel depots to deprive Russia of its critical fuel lines, and Moscow's response is to hit civilian areas.

 

Moscow's special attention toward its prize restoration of Crimea as part of Russia saw to it that years were spent fortifying the geography with advanced air defenses and coastal batteries, fighter jets and bomber-packed airfields -- while on land, missile launch systems abounded. Russia gave itself direct access to Crimea when it built the $3.7 billion Kerch Strait Bridge. 

 

Even in the conflict's first years, Ukraine had targeted Russia's naval headquarters in Sevastopol, driving Russian warships from Crimean ports. They were limited however, by the weapons in Ukraine's possession at that time. According to Ukrainian officials now, their arsenal is capable of inflicting more pain, in essence sufficiently so, to convince Moscow it needed to return to the negotiating table. 

The view from a Ukrainian drone during what the military says was a strike against Russian tankers in the Sea of Azov. (Commander of Unmanned Aerial Systems Force/Reuters)

 

Videos were posted by Ukrainian military units in June of their Crimean strikes. The clips are a vital part of Ukraine's wartime propaganda, illustrating battlefield successes against Russia. Russian forces were increasingly attempting to counteract Ukrainian drone strikes by patrolling critical southern routes with drones and interceptor units, according to Kateryna Stepanenko, analyst at the Institute for the Study of War. "But they need more mobile air defense to blunt the impact of Ukrainian strikes" she noted. 

 

Ukrainian commanders anticipate that Russian troops would adapt, to shift their tactics in turn: "Adaptation can take days, weeks or months, but we consistently find new ways to strike in any direction, at any depth, with whatever assets we have", stated Artem Bielienkov, chief of staff of Ukraine's 412th Unmanned Systems Brigade. 

 

Widespread blackouts in Crimea have resulted from strikes on fuel facilities. Local authorities have declared a state of emergency, gas stations have run out of fuel, and thousands fled the peninsula since the latest strikes began by Ukraine. There were Ukrainian strikes on oil and gas storage facilities, compression stations and power plants.  

 

"The occupiers' attempts to fix the  damage to key facilities -- like the Tavria and Balaklava thermal power plants, major substations and fuel terminals -- are running into complex technical and logistical problems."

Hennadii Riabtsev, Ukrainian energy analyst 

China's Love for 'Harmony' and Dread of 'Splitism

"It [Beijing's new 'ethnic unity' law] risks deepening restrictions on freedoms of language, education, practice of religion, culture, expression and assembly [of minorities in China]."

"[Eight human rights experts stated that the law could have] serious implications for Tibetans, Uyghurs and Mongolians]."

Volker Turk,  United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

A delegate in ethnic minority costume holds a document following the closing session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China March 12, 2026. REUTERS/Tingshu Wang

 

"This new law is the culmination of a policy trajectory that has been building for over a decade, dating back to the 2014 Central Ethnic Work Conference. Under Xi, Beijing is steering away from the post-1949 legal framework of nominal ethnic autonomy (albeit under tight Party control) imported from the Soviet Union. In its place, officials have steadily been pivoting towards what scholars have termed “second-generation ethnic policies”—an aggressive assimilationist approach that emphasizes a common Chinese national identity over accommodation of ethnic differences. Provincial and municipal authorities across China have enacted a wave of local “ethnic unity and progress” regulations in recent years, such as those in Xinjiang (2015) or Inner Mongolia (2021). The new national legislation elevates this approach to the level of a national statute governing all of China."

"The new law’s core concept is captured in the term zhulao (铸牢) – to “forge” or “cast” metal – and its instruction that “forging the communal consciousness of the Chinese nation” is core to the Party’s ethnic policies.  As James Leibold has pointed out, this phrasing reflects a hardening of Beijing’s political line under Xi Jinping – explicitly written into the Party’s Charter at the 19th Party Congress in 2017 – aimed at “melting” subnational and ethnic identities into a shared collective one."

Council on Foreign Relations  

China is in the throes of a wide-ranging propaganda campaign in the promotion and defence of its new "ethnic unity" law, a prime target of critics who contend that this law will continue to add to undermining the rights of Tibetans, Uyghurs and other minorities in the vast country where Han Chinese predominate. With this new law Beijing has granted itself sweeping powers in pursuit of groups and individuals living overseas viewed by the Chinese Communist Party as undermining national unity. It is these groups, claims Beijing that incite ethnic division, and not China's strict totalitarian laws.

 

Beijing watchers have been alerted to the potential of Chinese authorities seeking to accuse activists living abroad of crimes that would merit Beijing authorities' intimidation of those it suspects, to force them to repatriate to China with the knowledge that their family members back in China will become vulnerable to 'special notice' that could degenerate into arrest. Alternatively those who are suspect would become subject to extradition requests back to China, of the host country.

 

China's vice minister of justice, Hu Weilie, blames criticism of its new unity law legislation on "distorted interpretations" by Western media. The law, he emphasized, effective from July 1 is "legitimate, legal, necessary", fully in line with international norms. Guo Jiakun, a spokesmen for China's Foreign Ministry, singled out the United States and European Union for "maliciously slandering" China's policies. 

 

Free Tibet protest against China’s Ethnic Unity law and in honour of activist Pawo Lobga Rangzen, Chinese Consulate General, Camperdown, Australia, 8 July 2026. Credit: Alexandra Buxbaum/Sipa USA

 

The Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of President Xi Jinping has become increasingly sensitive to any criticism regarding treatment of ethnic minorities. The imposition of heavy crackdowns on such groups, targeting Tibetans in particular, to erode the influence of the Dalai Lama in Tibet and the Uyghurs, a Muslim Turkic minority in Xinjiang province, should be immune, according to Beijing from foreign interference.

 

According to Chinese government authorities, the new legislation will protect the traditions of all of the 56 officially recognized ethnic groups in China. While in point of fact, assimilation is the goal the new law is meant to achieve, for the minority groups to be swallowed whole into the culture of the majority Han Chinese. The state-operated Global Times published an editorial accusing "some Western countries and media outlets" of maligning China's ethnic policies. These reactions from outside sources "amount to nothing more than one-sided rhetoric". 

 

Restrictions on the use of Mongolian in local schools in Inner Mongolia prompted widespread protests in 2020. With this new legislation, any acts that "undermine ethnic unity or create ethnic divisions" among Chinese people inside or outside of China and requires all of Chinese society to participate in the mission of ethnic integration are banned. Mandarin Chinese is mandated as the sole language of school instructions as well as in official communication. Parents are ordered by the legislation to "educate and guide children to love the Chinese Communist Party". 

 

Protesters in London's Piccadilly Circus gather in support of Tibet   Getty Images