4 Russian Troops Captured By Ukraine 47th Mech Brigade Drones

Four Russian soldiers attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian lines in Sumy oblast were spotted by drone operators of Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade, driven into hiding and then forced to surrender to the brigade's bomber drones. 

Such incidents are happening with increasing regularity, suggesting that Russian troops are well aware of the drone threat and see surrendering as a smarter alternative to being blown to bits. Also, please note with regard to Russian logistics, that one of the Russian soldiers is wearing a GAP hoodie, revealing that many of Russian soldiers' supply needs have to be filled by themselves. JL

Hromadske reports:

Soldiers of  Ukraine’s 47th Mechanized Brigade took four Russian infantrymen prisoner using a drone on the North-Slobozhanskyi axis in Sumy Oblast. The Russian soldiers had traveled 26 kilometers along a gas pipeline, then moved across fields and tree lines. The Ukrainians used heavy bomber drones, to pin down the Russians. Drone operators then deployed smoke to force the Russian soldiers out of their shelter. The four Russians eventually emerged with their hands raised. One of the captured soldiers said he had gone to war to pay 800,000 rubles ($9.712) in alimony to his wife. The others had been convicted of crimes and signed military contracts to leave prison.

Just When Kremlin Thought It Was Winning From Iran War, 40% of Russia's Oil Export Capacity Lost to Drone Attacks

Just when the Kremlin was laughing at how US and Israeli attacks on Iran had driven up oil prices to Russia's benefit, Ukrainian drone attacks wiped out that advantage. 

40% of Russian oil export capacity has been taken off line by the attacks, disrupting its ability to generate revenues and reducing its oil industry to the lowest level in modern Russian history. The result is that Russia's economic crisis is back, even as oil remains at over $100 a barrel. JL

Andrii Muravskyi reports in Ukraine Pravda:

40% of Russia's oil export capacity is at a halt as a result of Ukrainian drone attacks, the seizure of tankers and damage to the Druzhba pipeline. The disruption amounts to two million barrels per day. It includes the ports of Primorsk and Ust-Luga as well as the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. All three of Russia's main western oil export ports have been damaged – Novorossiysk on the Black Sea and Primorsk and Ust-Luga on the Baltic Sea. "The shutdown is the most severe oil supply disruption in the modern history of Russia, the world's second largest oil exporter, and has hit Moscow just as oil prices exceeded $100 a barrel due to the Iran war,"

Confused - Possibly Drunk - Russian Spring Offensive Units Attack Each Other

In addition to the Russian spring offensive having failed pretty much everywhere along its 100 kilometer length, there are now reports that Russian assault troops, some of whom were drunk in anticipation of the slaughter they knew awaited them, fired on other Russian units by mistake, inflicting casualties. 

The harsh reality for Russian units is that they are under intense pressure from the Kremlin to keep attacking so Putin can claim his forces are engaged, if not advancing. But the failures are becoming more public and the world no longer appears to be buying the Russian public relations narrative any longer. JL

RFU News reports:

Russia's  spring offensive was launched along a 100-km front from Huliaipole to Pokrovsk. But the assaults didn’t start as planned, and chaos led to Russians units mistakenly attacking each other. With vehicles already lost in earlier attacks, Russian forces attempted to advance using infantry, but anti-tank ditches slowed and exposed them, making them an easy target for Ukrainian FPV drones. Amid the failing Russian counterattacks, Ukrainian intelligence intercepted radio chatter indicating drunk Russian assault troops mistook other units for Ukrainian soldiers and opened fire, killing them. The lack of discipline and communication between Russian units was exacerbated by drone strikes, inadequate preparation, and pressure from the high command to push forward, contributed to confusion, disorganization, and mounting losses without meaningful gains.

The Smart Home - Now With AI - Still Doesn't Work

The early returns on the AI-enhanced Smart Home are - and there's no nice way to say this - that it is as complicated and frustrating as the old Smart Home but with the added feature of being annoying.

The reason the old smart home never caught on was that it turned out - big surprise! - that it was more trouble than the dumb home which had served humanity pretty well for several millennia. The new, ostensibly improved AI smart home was supposed to make the experience more trouble free. But - and isn't there always one - setting up, downloading, testing etc is time consuming and the stuff still doesn't always work, because what in technology is ever trouble free? Especially now with AI, which is not yet past its teething traumas. So for those still yearning for a Jetsons-like home (look it up if you're too young to get the reference), maybe watch some reruns on your AI-enhanced tv (if you have one), or laptop. JL 

Brian Chen reports in the New York Times:

Considering it has been over a decade since I started testing home products, I’m not convinced that we’ll see a hassle-free smart home anytime soon. Though smart dishwashers, coffee makers and smoke detectors flooded the market, the automated house never took off. The smart home was complex. The devices created frustrations, like privacy concerns and thermostats that didn’t work once they stopped receiving software updates. Adding internet connections and apps to an appliance creates an extra layer of complication, and more things can go wrong. But the most nagging problems with the smart home remain unsolved: downloading different apps for each accessory was still time-consuming and frustrating and A.I. didn’t help with that.

Cold War Era M113 Armored Personnel Carrier Meets Ukraine's Drone Era Needs

If ever an armored vehicle earned the sobriquet 'war horse,' it is the M113 armored personnel carrier. Designed in the 1950s, it has seen heavy use in a variety of wars, including Vietnam, Israel's Six Day and Yom Kippur conflicts, and now in Ukraine. 

It's continued use in the drone era stems from its mobility, survivability and the vast inventory, so other countries can give it to Ukraine as they transition to newer models. Among its benefits are its ability to move off road, key to Ukraine fighting and, interestingly, as a means of safely transporting drones, their teams and infantry closer to the front for deployment. JL

Vikram Mittal reports in Forbes:

On a battlefield where drone technology evolves so rapidly that systems become obsolete within weeks, a platform designed in the 1950s continues to see widespread use. This reflects how the M113’s mobility, simplicity, adaptability, and ease of mass production align with the current high-intensity, attritional fight. NATO country deliveries combined with those provided by the U.S. to Ukraine (add up to) 1,900 M113s. In Ukraine’s threat environment, the M113 balances survivability, mobility, and lethality against Russian artillery and FPV drones. Its armor is sufficient to protect against shrapnel, grenades, and smaller drone-mounted munitions. Its powertrain can support the weight of counter-drone add-ons. (And) the M113 is a difficult target due to its speed and mobility off-road where it can transport FPV and bomber drones to forward areas to be deployed. 

With Russian Wounded Evacuation "Unlikely," 62% of 100,000 Recent Casualties Dead

Russian losses have become so severe - 100,000 casualties over the past three months, 62% of whom are dead - that morale among frontline troops is declining, according to Russia's own assessment. 

Russian troops are aware that if they are wounded, evacuation is unlikely. An unofficial soldiers' guide, obtained by Ukrainian intelligence, advises troops to 'finish off your wounded comrade, then yourself.'

The ratio of wounded to killed in battle is historically about 2 wounded for every one killed - the opposite of the current Russian experience in Ukraine. That the battlefield has become so lethal for Russian soldiers at this point in the war and that the bleak forecast is known to Russian troops, suggests a degraded military capability. JL

The New Voice of Ukraine reports:

As of mid-March, Russia lost nearly 100,000 troops on the front line over the previous three months. Constant pressure from fiber-optic drones, precision bomb drops, and artillery has created conditions in which Russian troops increasingly understand that evacuation is unlikely. A new unofficial “instruction manual” circulating within Russia’s army advises: finish off your wounded comrade, then take your own life. Russia's own battlefield loss ratio has shifted so that of 100% of Russia’s total battlefield losses, 62% are killed and 38% are wounded. 90% of Russian losses on the battlefield were caused by Ukrainian drones.

Russia's Cascading Failures On 2 Fronts Spell Disaster For Kremlin's 2026 Plan

It was bad enough that the Ukrainians anticipated, held off and then counterattacked against Russian efforts in the Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk region, even trapping a significant Russian force inside Huliaipole whose breach the Kremlin had touted as a major territorial gain. 

But to make matters worse, the Russians then attempted an armored assault on the Lyman sector in the east - and were literally slaughtered. These twin failures not only disrupt the Kremlin's war plan for this year, but call into question Russia's ability to ever prevail against Ukraine. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Moscow's plan for a quick march on Zaporizhzhia city, 80 km west of the current front line in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, are in disarray. Ukrainian forces  forces counterattacked. The 95th Air Assault Brigade cleared the gray zone of hundreds of Russian infiltrators —and then turned east. A month later, the 95th was within mortar range of Russia's base in Uspenivka, 14 km north of Huliaipole. The Russians not only lost their momentum, they fell back. Similarly, exhausted after (fighting in) the ruins of Pokrovsk, the Russians attempted to restore their flagging offensive by massing armored forces for a fresh push at Lyman. The Russian's mustered 500 troops, 28 armored vehicles, 100 motorcycles and ATVs. (But) the Ukrainians were prepared: when the smoke cleared, they counted 405 Russian casualties including at least 288 killed in action. “Zero advance.”