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Russian UAV operators were based at a sugar factory in Belgorod Oblast; Ukrainian aviation hit the site. The strike targeted a Russian base in Nova Tavolzhanka. At least eight UAV specialists from Russia’s 128th Brigade were killed, five were wounded, and a warehouse containing drones and ammunition was destroyed. Additional Russian personnel may still be under the rubble. This was a strike on the infrastructure behind Russian drone operations: trained crews, UAVs and ammunition concentrated at one base.

Ukraine’s interceptor drones are no longer a lab project: prototypes are already shooting down Russian UAVs in combat. Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov says Ukraine is now scaling production and preparing for mass combat use of the interceptors, which could begin within several months. It is another step in the race between increasingly fast Russian attack drones and the Ukrainian systems being built to stop them. Budanov also said another large Ukraine-Russia prisoner exchange could take place as early as next week.

Bearded soldiers 💙💛

“One day longer than they do.” That is how Kyrylo Budanov framed Ukraine’s answer to Russia’s drone campaign. The Head of the Office of the President said Ukraine will find a counter to Russian drones and prepare its own response. “We will find a counter to Russian drones, and we will definitely prepare our response. And we will endure.” For Ukraine, endurance is increasingly becoming a technological task: detect faster, adapt faster, respond faster.

Ukraine wants robots to enter the danger zone before its soldiers do. Former Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has announced the “Army of Robots,” an ecosystem meant to push battlefield robotics from individual projects to mass use. He says drones now account for more than 95% of battlefield strikes in Ukraine and that the country has more than 700 UAV manufacturers. The next step is robotic systems for casualty evacuation, ammunition delivery, mine-laying and clearance, reconnaissance, defending positions and engaging targets. The project plans to invest in defense-tech companies, develop its own technologies, test them with the military and scale what works. The breakthrough that matters is not a more futuristic battlefield. It is sending machines into the most dangerous tasks before people.

Tank crews

Russia’s Ilsky refinery is on fire after an overnight drone attack in Krasnodar Krai. Monitoring reports say the attack began around midnight. Residents reported explosions and air-defense activity around Krasnodar, while eyewitnesses said an explosion occurred at the Ilsky refinery in Seversky district, about 50 km from the city. There is no official confirmation yet. The refinery processes about 6.6 million tonnes of oil a year and is one of southern Russia’s major refining facilities. Its products are used, among other purposes, to supply Russian forces. That makes the refinery more than an industrial site: its output has direct military relevance to Russia’s war.