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Russia is ramping up Shahed drone production using European-made components.
Investigations

Investigation: How Russian drones exploit European technologies to strike Ukraine, and beyond

by Alisa Yurchenko

Editor's note: This story is part of a cross-border investigative project that involved eight newsrooms, initiated by De Tijd (Belgium) and coordinated by the Kyiv Independent and OCCRP. Other stories published within the project are linked at the bottom of this investigation. A tiny Austrian sensor designed for precise motion control made an impressive journey across the globe. Some time after being sold to a company in Hong Kong, it turned up in Ukraine inside a long-range military drone laun

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Ukraine war latest: Ukraine destroys Russian Buk air defenses in flurry of strikes, military says

Key developments on March 21-22: * Ukraine destroys Russian Buk air defenses in flurry of strikes, military says, shows footage * Ukraine launches nearly 300 drones against Russia overnight, hits oil depot, command post of elite Rubikon drone unit * Ukrainian delegation meets Witkoff, Kushner in Miami, plan to continue talks on March 22 * Russian attacks kill 6, injure 29 in Ukraine over past day, first responders targeted in double-tap strike Ukrainian drones struck two Buk air defense sy

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In Ukraine’s drone-dominated battlefield, critically wounded face slim chance to survive

“Panda,” a medic with Ukraine’s 60th Mechanized Brigade, sits inside the ambulance in Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 24, 2026.

For Ukrainian medics, one of the hardest parts of the drone war is accepting that critically wounded soldiers often cannot be saved. "If it's a critical injury, it's usually lethal," Ukrainian medic Dmytro, who goes by his callsign Winnie, told the Kyiv Independent in his evac vehicle not far from the front. Wounds in areas where tourniquets can't be used are often the deadliest, such as the head, chest, torso, or groin injuries, he explained. "We would like to do something, but there is just

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