Two Russian Planes Downed In Crimea. 29 Passengers Included Air Force General

Russia lost two planes over Crimea in one day this week. One, a bomber, was shot down by Ukraine with the loss of at least one of its two pilots. 

The other, a transport, crashed with the loss of 29 passengers, including a senior Russian general who commanded the Aviation Corps of Russia's Northern Fleet. It is interesting to note that news of the losses was published on Russia's Telegram channel rather than from Ukrainian or other sources, which may confirm growing discontent within the Russian military over the conduct of the war. JL

Patryk Jagnieza reports in Defense 24 and Oleksandr Shumilin reports in Ukraine Pravda:

Reports of the incidents emerged on the evening of March 31 via Russian Telegram channels. The first aircraft to crash was a Su-34 bomber. One of the pilots was killed, while the fate of the second remains unknown. The aircraft had been shot down by Ukrainian forces. The second lost aircraft was an An-26 transport plane. The aircraft crashed in Russian-occupied Crimea, killing 23 passengers and 6 crew members. This was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defence. Russian General Aleksandr Otroshchenko was onboard the military An-26 aircraft. In 2024, he became commander of the Mixed Aviation Corps of the Northern Fleet. He became the 14th Russian general to be killed since the start of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Luhansk's Ukrainian Defenders Contradict New Russian Capture Claims

In Luhansk, the Kremlin again tries to claim through propaganda that which its military is incapable of achieving on the battlefield. JL

Taras Safronov reports in Militarnyi:

This is not the first time Russia has claimed to have established control over Luhansk. The first report of this was delivered to Russian President Putin in July 2022. (But), two months later, Ukraine cleared Bilohorivka of the Russian forces. In July 2025, the Kremlin-appointed “head” of the Luhansk People’s Republic claimed the region was fully under control, though on August 30 of the same year, the Chief of the Russian General Staff acknowledged not all of Luhansk was under Russian control. Ukraine's 3rd Corps continues to hold positions in the region. Russia has launched 144 assault attempts in the areas of Nadiia and Novoyehorivka, including the use of 19 units of motorized equipment and 360 soldiers. “Russia’s losses amount to 260 infantry killed, and more than 80 wounded.”

Mass Russian Assault On Sloviansk "Massacred" By Ukrainians

Two days ago, Russian forces launched the largest motorcycle assault of 2026 in the Sloviansk, attempting to break through Ukrainian lines by dividing the attacking cyclists into small groups of three or four. 

The Russians were spotted and massacred before they could reach Ukrainian lines. JL

New Voice of Ukraine reports:

Ukrainian forces from the 81st Airmobile Brigade on April 1 crushed the year's largest Russian motorcycle assault near Slovyansk, thwarting a breakthrough and destroying enemy infantry. Russian troops deployed 16 motorcycles, operating in small groups of three to four vehicles. Thanks to timely detection and coordinated actions, the assault was thwarted, and part of the infantry that decided to dismount was destroyed.  

As Ukraine Counterattacks, Russia's 2026 Plans Are Slipping Away

Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke famously intoned that, in war, 'no plan survives first contact with the enemy.' World Heavyweight Boxing Champion "Iron Mike" Tyson more colorfully averred that 'everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.'

In 2026, the Kremlin is being confronted by the wisdom of both von Moltke and Tyson. The first contact with the enemy in 2026 was Ukraine's surprise counteroffensive. The punch in the face came with the ongoing success of those assaults, which not only derailed Russia's winter offensive, but has disrupted the Russian spring-summer offensive plan to the extent that troops intended for that effort have now been forced to redeploy to defend against the Ukrainian attacks. Welcome to reality, comrade. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Plans are just that: plans. The Russians suffered tens of thousands of casualties marching toward Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad; their exhaustion is evident in the sharp slowdown in assaults since late last year. The aims of the 700,000-strong Russian force in Ukraine are to advance toward the left bank of the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine while also pushing toward the twin free cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in eastern Ukraine. Both are much easier planned than done. Ukrainian forces' stiff defense is impeding the planned march on Sloviansk and Kramatorsk in the east. (And) Ukraine's southeastern counteroffensive has stalled any Russian advance towards the Dnipro. "Russia’s plans in Zaporizhzhia are being blocked. It needed to capture Orikhiv within a month. That’s not going to happen."

Anthropic's Claude AI Popularity Surges As Paid Subscriptions Double

Popularity is great - but it helps to be competent. Anthropic's paid subscriptions have more than doubled so far in the first quarter of 2026 which just ended. 

Much of the impetus for that is the emerging consensus that, for business purposes, Anthropic's Claude tools are superior to competitors for many of the most common commercial uses. But Anthropic has also benefitted from its clever marketing, first with its Super Bowl ads which employed humor to tweak arch-competitor OpenAI, and then from its principled stand against the Secretary of Defense's bullying threats which have lost both in the court of law and in the court of public opinion, including many otherwise conservative opinion leaders. All of which have added to Anthropic's momentum. JL

Julie Bort reports in Tech Crunch:

Claude's paid subscriptions have more than doubled this year. Anthropic's feud with the Department of Defense - coupled with the company’s Super Bowl ads taking aim at OpenAI and the surging popularity of Claude Code - has made Anthropic more popular. Billions of anonymized credit card transactions from 28 million U.S. consumers, show Claude gaining paid subscribers in record numbers. Consumers (signed up) in record numbers for Claude between January and February as previous users returned to Claude in record numbers as well. Claude Code and Claude Cowork - developer and productivity tools released in January - have been drivers of subscriptions. The Computer Use feature that allows Claude to navigate a computer independently - actions on its own - has also sparked a surge.

NATO Trainers Say Ukraine Troops "Think Outside Box, Brilliant Tactical Flexibility"

NATO soldiers charged with training Ukrainians are somewhat intimidated by their students' battlefield experience. 

They recognize that while they can teach how to use certain weapons with which the Ukrainians are unfamiliar, the Ukrainians can teach them about optimal tactics on the modern battlefield. But increasingly, NATO has more to learn from Ukraine than vice versa. JL

Sinead Baker reports in Business Insider:

Ukrainian soldiers often showed far greater tactical imagination than their Western trainers, a former British trainer said. Ukrainian soldiers, out of necessity, are willing to take more risks and think out of the box. They were "far more flexible and comfortable coming off doctrine. That's driven by necessity. They just get it. They have their objective." Ukraine's seasoned soldiers have experience the Western soldiers training them do not. The UK and its allies have not fought a large-scale industrial war in decades, so are studying Ukraine. Ukrainians move (differently) in ways then recognized as tactically sound for a battlefield rigged with traps. "They have a greater understanding of what it takes to win and sheer determination." Training Ukrainians who had experience was intimidating for Western trainers, but there was a knowledge exchange that proved valuable for both sides.

Iran War Turns Ukraine's Russian Success Into Billion-Dollar Defense Business

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, all political and financial supporters of Donald Trump, just signed 10 year deals, potentially worth billions with Ukraine to assist them in fending off Iranian attacks. This despite the US President's evident favoring of Iran's closest ally, Vladimir Putin. 

And the reason is simply practical: they are threatened but finding that the billions they have spent on US military hardware over the decades is of less utility against Iranian drones than are the Ukrainian countermeasures - and experts who can train them on how to make the most of their new acquisitions. So for all those crowing about Putin's big win in the Iranian-Israeli-US war, it may be time for a reassessment. JL 

Peter Caddick-Adams reports in The Telegraph:

For decades the Middle East's Gulf states have been investing hundreds of billions of dollars in conventional military assets bought from Russia and the West, only to find themselves at the mercy of cheap weaponry that can threaten a refinery, desalination plant, or airbase, and destroy a multi-million-dollar radar facility or a warship. Money no longer equals power, for Kyiv’s technology demonstrated that tens of thousands of dollars can wipe out billions in a trice. Ukraine’s military dexterity will define how war is waged for the next 30 years. A broader partnership across the Gulf was unveiled during Zelensky’s visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE last week, when he signed 10-year agreements on defense cooperation with all three states.