Illia Kabachynskyi

For Russian soldiers sent to the front in Ukraine, becoming a casualty increasingly means death. Ukrainian commanders say as many as 70% of Russian troops lost on the battlefield are now killed rather than wounded.

Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s borders are expanding. On September 13, a Russian drone struck a Kyiv-Warsaw passenger train just two kilometers from Poland, days after deadly strikes near the border with Moldova. What began as isolated attacks on border infrastructure is becoming a recurring threat along Ukraine’s borders with Europe.

Russia is deploying its own satellite network, RASSVET—an analog of Starlink that the Kremlin portrays as a system for civilian use but that could give its military a powerful new tool for controlling drones across Ukraine. The same technology could also pose a direct security threat to Europe, facilitating Russia’s hybrid war.

A supply run across an exposed stretch of the front can end in seconds, especially when a soldier is spotted by an enemy drone. Increasingly, Ukraine sends ground robots to take that risk for them. In August alone, these machines carried out more than 25,000 missions.

World War II ended 81 years ago today. But rewind to the same point in days where Ukraine finds itself—victory was still far from sight. It was March 1944: much of Europe remained under Nazi occupation, D-Day was still months away, and Japan would not surrender for another 17 months. What the Allies did have, however, was a plan to act together. That would prove decisive.

“This war is existential.” For Yevhenii Khmara, Ukraine’s new defense minister and a special operations veteran, that conviction shapes how he plans to fight Russia.