Shahed drones

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Why Rheinmetall and the West still don't understand Ukraine's defense tech revolution

When evaluating military technology, it helps to distinguish between two domains: the industrial and the battlefield. Rheinmetall is unquestionably a large company that produces effective weapons systems that actually work on the battlefield. This is a fact that does not require emotional amplification or denial. But those two domains carry different kinds of authority, and conflating them leads to poor analysis. The statement by Rheinmetall's CEO, Armin Papperger, about Ukrainian drones goes

A soldier of the 127th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade launches a drone in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine, on March 14, 2026.

Ukraine's parliamentary dysfunction, explained

Ukraine's parliament is in gridlock as relations have broken down between the legislative and executive branches of government. The parliamentary crisis, as some have rushed to describe it, has been ignited by the President's Office's weakening influence over the legislature and a lack of communication between parliament and the Cabinet of Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, lawmakers and analysts have told the Kyiv Independent. "(Svyrydenko) works only with the President's Office and does not wo

President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses parliamentarians at the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 16, 2024.

About Shahed drones

Shahed drones are Iranian-designed unmanned combat aerial vehicles and loitering munitions developed by Shahed Aviation Industries. Manufactured both in Iran and at Russian production facilities, the drones have become one of Russia’s primary weapons in its full-scale war against Ukraine. Russia first deployed Shahed drones against Ukraine in the fall of 2022, and their use has since escalated, with Moscow launching more than 54,500 Shahed-type UAVs against Ukrainian targets in 2025 alone.

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