Ukraine Update

Haven’t done one of these for a while… as Russia continues to make small but possibly strategically relevant gains at the front, the Russian air campaign does not appear to be paying off:

Fires still smoldered throughout Kyiv, Ukraine, after another record number of drone and missile attacks in the early hours of a recent Tuesday. But when an air-raid siren blasted out just before noon, pedestrians at a busy intersection did not scurry for cover or play chicken with traffic.

Mariam Mirakian, 25, waited patiently at the red light. So did everyone else. On the sidewalks of Ukraine’s capital, order ruled.

“Yes, there are rockets flying and all the things, but still you can get killed by a car,” Ms. Mirakian said. “You’re just trying to live normally, trying to save as many normal things as possible, even in wartime.”

Anyone new to Ukraine notices the disconnect between the front line and much of daily life farther away. Complicated espresso drinks are still sold at gas stations; pizza and sushi are still on offer; and rave parties still rave, even if they end at 11 p.m., in time for the midnight curfew. The desire for order is core to how Ukrainians cope in this fourth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Traffic lights seem to be the most obvious sign of how Ukrainians hold onto normalcy. Red means stop. Green means go. There is no yellow light here, no caution, no chancing it. Even during air-raid alarms.

This sounds like just about every strategic air campaign ever waged. Meanwhile, no meaningful progress on cease-fire talks. From elsewhere in the national security realm:

• Changing the nature of the infantry and the “air littoral.”
• The Marine Corps attempts to justify itself…
• Why did the world’s greatest industrial power fail to produce a viable aircraft industry in World War I?
• IP challenges in the space economy.
• The Professional Military Education system is not in great shape.
• The Ukrainian defense industrial base has become https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/06/26/ukraine-war-arms-investment-missiles/both productive and innovative.