Brezhnev's Adopted Russian Soldier Great-Grandson Captured By Ukraine Troops

Awkward, but also interesting that a middle-aged descendent of a former Soviet Supreme Leader would volunteer in the fall of 2025 to serve in the Russian army in Ukraine. 

That was a period when it was already apparent that the Russian invasion was failing and the military service in Ukraine was a bloodbath for Russian men. Did he need the money? Was his family under political pressure? It is odd that a member of the elite would agree to serve given that the entire Russian system is designed to protect such people from such obligations. JL

Vladislav V reports in Militarnyi:

Anton Milaev, the 45-year-old adopted great-grandson of Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev, was captured by Ukrainian forces while fighting for the Russian army in the war against Ukraine. In the fall of 2025, he signed a contract with the Russian army and went to war as a combat engineer (sapper). By November, he had stopped communicating with his family. The family later received information that Milaev was being held as a prisoner of war in the Ukrainian-controlled part of the Kherson region.

Ukraine's Drones Are Destroying Russian Jammers Designed To Stop Them

Among the Russian military's many problems is that when it comes to jamming Ukrainian drones, they are not just fighting the last war, they are fighting last year's technology.

The Russians have deployed massive, six trailer, eight dish jamming complexes costing millions. But the Ukrainians are now using advanced, AI-driven drones that don't depend on the signals the Russians are trying to jam and, in fact, can target the vast amount of heat those Russian systems give off. The result is that the jammers have become a prized and easily identifiable target for Ukrainian drone operators. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

The Russians are trying to even the aerial balance of power by jamming Ukraine's Starlink terminals. There are just two problems. The jammers aren't foolproof defenses. And they're also big, expensive targets for the same drones they're trying to defeat. A single Volna Kupol Garant complex includes six trailers, each with eight dishes, each tuned to one Starlink channel in the 14–14.5 GHz band, costs $1.5 million. Each could jam Starlink signals over 20 square kilometers. But There's no hiding when you're beaming 62.5 MHz jamming signals  into the air from a cluster of six dishes. (And as if that weren't bad enough) a growing share of Ukrainian strike drones carry onboard AI that locks onto targets without a live connection to a pilot—so a $1.5 million jammer built to break that connection has nothing left to break.

Hating AI Data Centers Has Become A Winning Political Issue

In a politically fractured society, opposition to data centers may now be the only issue on which those diametrically opposed to each other agree. The tech and AI industry just don't get it. They appear to believe that Americans can be overawed by their wealth and power. That AI and the data centers that power them are inevitable and everyone will have to buckle under. But just as 'the experts' believed Putin's takeover of Ukraine was inevitable and that Donald Trump's ability to get anything he wants is inevitable, people are stepping up to oppose the inevitability cabal.

Graduating university students walking out or demonstrating against graduation speakers have become the headline this spring but their motives are being inaccurately ascribed to fear about jobs. It is clearly far larger than that. It is about frustration with corruption, greed, unbridled corporate power and returns from a potentially society-altering technology being delivered to a miniscule few. Those in tech and finance may believe that their lobbying dollars will win the day, but they are not changing the underlying socio-economic resentment and frustration which will - inevitably - boil over. JL

Tressie Cottom comments in the New York Times:

Americans hate data centers. 71% of Americans oppose a data center being built in their area. More than half of all Americans support a national ban on them. In our virulently partisan country, this constitutes a rare show of consensus. The imminent risk of living next to a data center may be why they show up for a meeting, but they’re committing to the issue for bigger, deeper reasons (like) political corruption and corporate malfeasance. CEOs, financiers and developers present AI as an inevitability Americans must adopt, lest they be left behind, that data centers are necessary and public dissent is naïve or, un-American in contempt for the people who dare to do it. (But) people experience data centers locally, in dirty water and overtaxed electrical grids. The voters showing up to fight data centers demonstrate that a lot want something different.

Ukraine's Siege of Russian-Occupied Crimea Has Begun

By air and sea, Ukraine's increasing volume of attacks on Russian military targets in occupied Crimea have isolated the peninsula. This has made the occupation more difficult and less beneficial economically, militarily - and diplomatically. 

The one asset most of the world -including the Russian people - thought would be forever under Putin's control is now threatened. JL

Ilya Timtchenko reports in the Center for European Policy Analysis:

This is very much a siege in the modern sense, with serious effects resulting from militarily enforced isolation. Russia has reduced Crimean train services, vacationers are canceling their bookings, and drivers are forced to line up for fuel. Ukraine has repeatedly targeted military logistics routes, including the bridge linking Kherson Oblast with Crimea, causing a sharp fall-off in traffic. It has also hit oil refineries, Russian vessels, and air defenses. Kyiv is increasingly confident that it can build a kill zone over occupied territories to push the Russians out. As reunification of Crimea with Ukraine becomes a realistic possibility in the eyes of Western skeptics, Ukraine can expect more diplomatic and military support for de-occupation. The prospect of losing Crimea increases Putin’s troubles, since the one victory Russians were certain his regime could guarantee is now being questioned.

"If Ukraine Burns, So Will Moscow:" Russian Capitol Chaos From Huge Drone Strike

The massive Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow, following by a few days Russia's intentional strike on a World Heritage site cathedral in Kyiv has, by now, received extensive coverage. Which was, arguably, the primary point. 

The Kremlin's unwritten social contract with the Russian people was that Putin be allowed to pursue his increasingly ineffective invasion of Ukraine so long as the elites in Moscow and St Petersburg were not affected. That is clearly no longer the case. In addition to the economic dislocations, Muscovites and St Petersburgers must now face the reality that their lives could be in danger in their homes, on the way to work, shopping at malls or in otherwise random situations due to Ukraine's drone attacks. This despite the Kremlin bolstering air defenses around the Russian capitol. These attacks not only reduce gasoline availability (plus raising prices) and reduced air quality as well as creating a physical hazard, but they serve to undermine a key tenet of Putin's rule, which was that he was a master strategist and manager. That reputation is in doubt. along with its implication of weakness, which, in Russia, does not usually bode well for longevity of rule or life. JL - 

Abbey Fenbert and Tania Myronyshena report in the Kyiv Independent:

Ukrainian forces struck the Moscow Oil Refinery in the Russian capitol on June 18, the second attack on the facility in a week. (It) is one of the largest in Russia, supplying 40% of Moscow's fuel and the majority of the region's gasoline. It provides aviation fuel to all four of Moscow's major airports. The attack caused major disruptions to air travel, with Aeroflot canceling 170 flights. Footage from residents show fires at the oil refinery, the top floors of a high-rise building, and damage to a building at the Sadovod shopping center. Drone debris also damaged a fitness center, a shopping center and an industrial site in Lyubertsy, while fires and damage were reported on houses in Chekhov and Pavlovsky Posad. Russia bolstered air defenses in the capital, deploying new Pantsir-SMD-E s on  rooftops but these have not stopped Ukrainian drones from striking the city twice in the past week.

Ukraine's Lyman Pincer Attacks Trap Russians With Zherebets Under Fire Control

As they have done in other sectors at other times, the Ukrainians lured the Russians into a trap, allowing the Lyman salient to grow before launching pincer attacks from north and south while also establishing fire control over the Zherebets River crossings the Russians use to attempt resupply and reinforcement. 

The result has created the makings of a cauldron in which Russian forces are trapped, increasing casualties and limiting their ability to defend against the Ukrainian breakthroughs. JL

RFU News reports:

North of Lyman, Ukraine launched a deep breakthrough into the northern part of the Russian salient, placing Russian soldiers inside in an operational encirclement. To the south, Ukraine conducted a similar pincer maneuver on Russian forces in Shandriholove. While Russian forces in these pockets are not fully encircled, Ukrainian pressure on their rear means Russian reinforcements are immediately tied down between the Ukrainian pincers. As Ukrainian forces expanded their breakthrough, attempts to rush reinforcements across the Zherebets River turned into another series of disasters. The Ukrainians have established firm FPV fire control over the crossings with even single Russian soldiers being targeted trying to cross the river, while the vehicles used to transport them to the crossing points further in the rear are hunted down by Ukrainian drone operators.

Why AI Chip Demand May Push iPhone Prices Above $1,299

Apple's iPhone and other mobile manufacturers are about to raise their prices on the newest models as increasing demand versus limited supplies for DRAM memory chips from AI manufacturers drive up costs. 

This is another example in a growing list of reasons why AI is likely to be inflationary. In this case, chip makers garner greater profit margins from enterprise chips relative to those made for consumer products. The interesting question is to what degree this may depress demand for mobile devices, which is already sparking a search for new sources, such as those in China. JL

Nicole Nguyen and Rolf Winkler report in the Wall Street Journal:

The global memory chip shortage is coming for the iPhone. Based on the current markup of memory and storage chips, projections show the price of the base model could rise by $200 or more. AI demand has created an unprecedented run on two types of memory chips, DRAM and NAND flash storage. Only a few companies, including Samsung and Micron, supply the market. Data centers training and running large language models are willing to pay a premium for these chips, so manufacturers are shifting production toward enterprise-scale components and away from the consumer business. The iPhone 17 Pro contains 12 gigabytes of DRAM and flash storage starting at 256 gigabytes. Prices for these components are projected to quadruple. The gross profit margin on the $1,099 iPhone 17 Pro was 47%. To maintain that margin for the iPhone 18 Pro, Apple would have to charge $1,371. The starting price tag would more likely be $1,299, yielding a 44% gross profit.