Ukrainian Military Hacks, Disrupts Russian University Recruiting Event

Taking psychological warfare to a new

direction, the Ukrainians hacked a zoom call between what was supposed to have been a Russian soldier trying to convince university students to enlist. 

Instead, a Ukrainian soldier appeared on-screen and warned them that if they made the mistake of volunteering, his comrades and he would have to kill them, as they have over 1.5 million other Russians. One can only imagine what the Russian students were saying to each other after that event. JL

MSN reports:

During a closed recruitment session at Kuban State Agrarian University, a man in camouflage, a balaclava, and dark glasses was introduced as a Russian serviceman but revealed himself as Ukrainian. He warned students that anyone signing a contract to fight in Ukraine would be killed, claimed all their faces had been recorded, and described Russian military failures, heavy losses, and corruption. Russian authorities have ordered universities to recruit 2% of their student body into military service, with a target of 78,800 for drone warfare units by the end of 2026. Some institutions have used coercive measures, such as removing exam retake options, to push students toward signing contracts. Hacking ops blend intelligence-gathering with public psychological impact, aiming to erode morale

Ukrainians Fly Drones Inside Buildings To Blow Up Hiding Russian Tanks

Ukraine's drone operators have become so adept at maneuvering their increasingly sophisticated aerial weapons that they are now able to fly them in between gaps in walls and roofs to find and then destroy the Russian military's shrinking inventory of armored vehicles. 

Due to its catastrophic losses over the past four years, the Kremlin is now reconditioning and sending to the front T-55 tanks which were first introduced in the 1950s. These relics are haphazardly up-armored - sometimes with old ammunition crates - because everything else they have has been destroyed. The Ukrainians' objective is to eliminate what is left in depots near the front so that even these inadequate substitutes cannot be used. JL

David Axe reports in Trench Art:

Dialing up the pressure on Russian forces in southeastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian 225th Assault Regiment is flying tiny explosive drones into buildings in search of Russian armored vehicles. FPV pilots maneuver through narrow gaps between the walls and roofs of sheds, garages and warehouses  The vehicles the Ukrainian drones operators are destroying in their shelters are some of the oldest and weirdest in Russia's war on Ukraine. Blasting awkwardly up-armored T-55 tanks from the 1950s, the Ukrainians are discovering just how poorly equipped the Russian brigades are. At least one of the T-55s the 225th blew up sported discarded ammunition canisters that offer very little protection from a drone. Ukrainian units aren't just sitting around waiting for the coming Russian offensive. They're hunting down that Russian armor before it can roll into action.

X-Twitter At Age 20: Or How To Burn $38 Billion Without Really Trying

The fact that Twitter-X turned 20 last month is probably making some people feel pretty old. Though probably not TikTok users, who may not even be aware of its existence. Which illustrates the story of X-Twitter's rise and fall. 

To be fair, Twitter-X has not collapsed or disappeared - it has a monthly user base of @388 million globally. But its most active are young men 16-24 and the countries with the highest level of engagement are...Nigeria, Saudi Arabia and Kenya. It is generally considered a site for news, especially of the toxic right wing/manosphere variety favored by its current owner, Elon Musk, who is its most followed tweeter (though this has raised questions about algorithmic manipulation). It's usership palls by comparison with the Meta sites, Telegram, TikTok and others. Which is not terrible compared to traditional media, but suggests what could have been had it embraced a less hostile positioning. JL

Christophe Asselin reports in Onclusive and Barry Ritholtz reports in The Big Picture:

The X Twitter statistics 2026 tell a story of structural decline and partial stabilisation. The platform has lost casual users, shed advertisers, watched competitors gain ground, and navigated a crisis of information quality, but retains a core audience. The geographic portrait of X is unequal. Nigeria leads the world at 80.7%, meaning 4 in 5 Nigerian internet users say they used X in the past month. Saudi Arabia (66.7%), Kenya (60.0%) and Turkey (58.7%) complete the top four. X is significantly male-skewed at every age group, and across all demographics. The 16-24 male cohort is the most active, The platform fails to generate habitual engagement among women. TikTok’s dominance of daily time (1h 37m) outpaces YouTube (1h 25m). Instagram (1h 13m) and Facebook (1h 07m) complete a top four that all clear the one-hour mark. X’s 28 minutes/day places it 8th.  

Putin's Approval Falls For 7th Straight Week To Lowest Level In 4 Years

Putin's approval rating by the state sponsored polling agency has fallen for seven weeks in a row, hitting its lowest level since before the Ukraine invasion. 

A number of causes have been cited, including inflation, war fatigue and restrictions on the internet to which all Russians are as addicted as westerners. The combination of financial strain and inconvenience is telling, but the fact that Russia is clearly not winning, nor demonstrating any ability to do so, combined with the realization that Trump is not riding to their rescue is evidently disconcerting to a growing number of Russians. That the data have been released must be assumed to have been approved by the Kremlin as a signal, perhaps that a less than satisfactory end to the war may be necessary. Or it may be a leak intended to send a message to the Kremlin that whatever his aides are telling him, things are not going well. JL

Ben Aris reports in BNE Intellinews:

Vladimir Putin's approval rating has fallen for a seventh consecutive week to its lowest level since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, according to the state-owned polling agency. The proximate cause of the decline is not (just) the war, inflation or the banking sector strains - it is something more mundane and more viscerally felt by the urban middle class that has historically sustained Putin's support: the internet is broken. "The Kremlin's approval ratings are falling due to public frustration over the blocking of Telegram and restrictions on mobile internet access." (But) other factors were also at play. "Too much [negative] is happening at once, from rising prices to growing war fatigue." 

Mid-Range Ukraine Drone Attack Surge Is Depleting Russian Supplies, Combat Ability

The drone war has become sufficiently sophisticated that there are now three aspects to it, each with its own drone types. Ukraine initially focused on the first, then the third and now the second. 

In the first short range, frontline sector, the targets are troops, weapons and trenches. The next, or third, is the long range, which is now targeting economic and strategic objectives like oil refineries and defense industry manufacturing deep inside Russia, the attacks on which have played a significant role in disrupting the Russian economy. The final, and most recent, is the mid-range sector, which targets Russian supply, logistics and sector command and control. Ukrainian strikes on trucks, supply deport and local headquarters and now disrupting the spring offensive by making it harder for the Russians to amass sufficient equipment and intelligence to plan and execute attacks. JL

Euromaidan Press reports:

Ukraine is surging more explosive drones into Russia's logistical zone, weaken Russian units before they can attack. Ukraine's 12th Azov Brigade and the 20th Unmanned Systems Brigade are deploying the new SETH mid-range drone for raids in the logistical zone, which stretches from 10 km to 200 km behind the gray zone where most ground combat takes place. ""The drone war is not about the number of killed today. Ownership of depth means control of movement, logistics, [surveillance], communication and decisions in the sector, not just in the trench. We cut off the enemy's logistics, we destroy them before they reach the front line. Russia's air defense is not intact. Ukrainian drone strikes on radars, surface-to-air missile launchers and mobile guns—492 of them between June 2025 and early March—are "facilitating strikes on critical targets deep within Russian territory," 

12 Kremlin FSB Officers Killed In Ukraine Drone Strike On Donetsk HQ

A Ukrainian drone strike targeting the Kremlin's Donetsk command center for the FSB (formerly KGB) in occupied Donetsk city killed 12 FSB officers and wounded another 15.

This was a particularly noxious FSB unit, charged with "detention and physical elimination of disloyal citizens" as well as sabotage and other operations. Another systematic and strategic strike on a source of Russian oppression. JL

Cyril Barabaltchouk reports in United 24:

Ukrainian Ukrainian drones destroyed a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) special forces command post in occupied Donetsk. The operation took place at 8:01 a.m. when the Ukrainian military launched eight high-precision strikes using FP-2 drones carrying 60 to 100-kilogram warheads. The attack resulted in 27 casualties among the Russian special forces unit. The strike killed 12 Russian FSB officers and wounded another 15. The FSB’s Mobile Action Directorate is a counterintelligence unit tasked with operations in occupied territories across Ukraine, “performing counterintelligence, sabotage, military operations, agent networks, detention of disloyal citizens, physical elimination of opponents, and coordination of pro-Russian militants” 

Russia's Spring Offensive: "Zero Tactically Significant Gains," Has Now Lost Ground

Russia's Spring Summer offensive, which began March 17, has, according to geolocated analysis, not only made 'zero tactically significant gains, but has actually lost ground. 

This is counter to the claims of the Russian high command which claims to have gained 1700 square kilometers and several cities, all of which have been contradicted by independent observers. Fortunately, western media are no longer as gullible as they once were, nor are they as intimidated by the Trump administration, so are less willing to accept and publish the Russian accounts and more likely to give deserved credence to the Ukrainians. JL

Yuri Zoria reports:

Russia's Russia's spring-summer 2026 offensive has produced zero tactically significant gains since it launched no later than 17 March, and that Russian forces have lost ground since 1 March. Russia's Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov has claimed Russian forces had taken over 1,700 km² and 80 settlements across Ukraine since early 2026 — Luhansk Oblast among them — with a further 700 km² and 34 settlements falling in March and April alone. Heavy casualties have forced Russia to reduce its operational tempo in several sectors.  Russia's troop generation is being squeezed from both ends — recruitment falling while casualties climb — eroding the viability of its mass-assault approach