Photo: Vesa Laitinen | Forum Virium Helsinki A pilot study has confirmed significant concerns regarding Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) interference at low altitudes within the city, a critical finding for the future of urban drone operations. The GNSS interference pilot was launched in…

POLITICS SOCIETY ECONOMY CULTURE REGIONS RUSSIA & GLOBAL SOUTH DIGEST ABOUT POLITICS SOCIETY ECONOMY CULTURE REGIONS RUSSIA & GLOBAL SOUTH DIGEST ABOUT ECONOMY How the War and Latest Western Sanctions Are Impacting Russia’s Oil Sector February 17, 2026 Sergey Vakulenko Senior fellow at the Carnegie…

War Ukraine World North America Europe Eastern Europe Middle East Asia Economy Business Technology Finance Agriculture Videos Podcasts Analysis Corruption Watch Opinions Culture History Sports Classifieds Spotlight Cartoons North America Europe Eastern Europe Middle East Asia Business Technology…

Taras Levkovych, a 29-year-old veteran of the Russo-Ukrainian war who lost both legs on the front line, has married his girlfriend Viktoriia Opryshko in Lviv. He proposed to her a year to the day after they first met. Source: the Nezlamni (Unbroken) Rehabilitation Centre, a Ukrainian specialised…

#Aviation #Fighter jet #MiG-29 #MiG-31 #Russia #Russian Aerospace Forces #Su-34 #War with Russia A photo of the Lipetsk air base storage area as of 2025. Source: The Military Watch Russia has positioned about 100 fighter jets and attack aircraft, including newer models, at the storage area of the…

17 February, 07:35 AM The unit was created under strict secrecy to operate the new F-16 fighter jets (Photo: REUTERS/Ann Wang) Ukraine has secretly formed an F-16 squadron in recent weeks, reportedly comprising Ukrainian, U.S., and Dutch pilots, Intelligence Online reported on Feb. 16. The outlet…

From 3d ago 07.20 EST France releases suspected Russia 'shadow fleet' tanker after fine of 'several million euros' France released a tanker suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” called “Grinch” after its owner paid a fine of several million euros, a minister said in…

DISPATCH BY ANTHONY LOYD In the no man’s land of the Donbas, there was only one way comrades of ‘Blackbird’ could try to bring him home Inside a control room of the 93rd Brigade drone unit Anthony Loyd, Kramatorsk Monday February 16 2026, 6.15pm, The Times When the soldier codenamed Blackbird was…

Speaking to reporters from a basement in Kherson, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) representative in Ukraine Munir Mammadzade said that the frontline city remains “under constant fire,” with daily attacks destroying homes and critical infrastructure, as well as the services that children and families…

Chinese tourists are continuing to shun Japan in large numbers, with the country falling out of the top 10 destinations for those celebrating the lunar new year with a trip abroad. Japan has had a dramatic drop in the number of Chinese visitors since the end of last year as a diplomatic row between…

News State Department: No 'Gentleman's Agreement' Between US, Russia On Expired Nuclear Treaty Share Share Footage from the Russian Defense Ministry shows the launch, in October 2025, of a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile in northern Russia during drills of the country's nuclear forces.…

Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch, who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 2016 to 2019, spoke to community members at the Fluno Center Wednesday in an event with the Madison Committee on Foreign Relations, featuring a moderated Q&A panel with University of Wisconsin-Madison political science…

17 February, 11:14 PM U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) in Kyiv, Feb. 17 (Photo: Ukraine’s Energy Ministry) U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) visited a combined heat-and-power (CHP) plant in Kyiv that was severely damaged by…

Russia's forces are searching for alternatives to Starlink after SpaceX's whitelist cut off their unauthorized access along the entire front line, Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on 17 February. HUR shared what it described as intercepted Russian radio communications in which…

According to the outlet, the record ice cover and an acute shortage of ice-class tankers have led to a significant drop in oil shipment volumes. Specifically, in the first half of February, oil exports from the port of Primorsk fell by one-third compared to last year, and by 50% compared to the same…

The Ukrainian Air Force released a compilation video showing aerial interceptions during the repulsion of a russian air attack on the night of February 16–17. In total, the enemy employed 425 aerial attack assets, of which 392 were shot down or suppressed. Specifically, Ukrainian forces intercepted…

In August 2022, Olena Yurchenko stumbled across a heated discussion on a Russian-language online forum – and made a discovery that would ultimately affect US and European sanctions policy on the Ukraine war. The war had begun six months earlier. Yurchenko, 22, had been forced to leave Ukraine for…

Secretary General concludes Ukraine country visit Supporting Ukraine in the peace process, advancing the Council of Europe’s accountability and compensation mechanisms, as well as the democratic and rule of law reforms, which are also necessary for Ukraine’s EU integration, as an investment in…

Iran launched naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday in preparation for potential security and military threats in the strategic waterway. A statement by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said the “Smart Control of the Strait of Hormuz” exercise aims to assess the operational…

Olga Tokariuk Journalist & senior analyst Wednesday, 18 February, 2026 The link has been copied Share via email The war began for me, obviously, on February 24, 2022 at 4am, when I woke up in Chernivits in the west of Ukraine, where my family live. Just before the full-scale invasion began, I was…

Ukraine has imposed a new package of sanctions against Belarus’s leader, Alexander Lukashenko, for helping Russia to sustain its war against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 18. "We will significantly step up efforts to counter all forms of his facilitation of the killing of…

Magazine Radio Shop Monocle Logo Subscribe British Pound (GBP) Euro (EUR) US Dollar (USD) Australian Dollar (AUD) Swiss Franc (CHF) Daily inbox intelligence from Monocle Currently being edited in London Monocle Logo Daily inbox intelligence from Monocle Radio home Shows Schedule About ON THE ROAD…

Senior Russian and Ukrainian officials have ended the latest round of peace negotiations brokered by the Trump administration, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky saying the two sides once again failed to reach an agreement on fundamental issues. “We can see that some groundwork has been…

Issued on: 18/02/2026 - 13:31Modified: 18/02/2026 - 20:18 2 min Reading time Share Moscow "always" stands by Cuba, Putin tells Cuban Foreign Minister Rodriguez © Pavel Bednyakov / POOL/AFP Rodriguez travelled to traditional ally Russia seeking help as his country reels from a severe fuel crisis,…

It starts with a literal scream, a cry of pain from every player in the orchestra. The Ukrainian composer Anna Korsun’s piece Terricone is one of the most shattering creative acts of the war that began four years ago this month. Korsun was born in Donbas, where terricones, the slag heaps of the…

Russia abandoned the Kourou launchpad in response to European sanctions over Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine - Copyright AFP Ronan LIETAR Olga Nedbaeva “Stop. Danger of death. Work in progress.” This sign, written in Russian, is still hanging inside an office at the site where Russia once launched…

The blocking of “unregistered” Starlink terminals revealed a significant vulnerability and technological lag of the Russian army, emphasizes expert Oleksandr Kovalenko. The Ukrainian General Staff used this situational advantage to launch a series of counterattacks, improving positions ahead of the…

With the final GPS III satellite scheduled to launch in March, the United States is completing the most significant upgrade to its positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) infrastructure in more than a decade. GPS III delivers improved accuracy, stronger signals and enhanced anti-jam capabilities…

Key points The US cut off oil supplies to force Havana into radical political and economic reforms. Cuba, for the first time in decades, has been left without energy subsidies following the halt of Venezuelan aid. Due to fuel shortages, international flights have been canceled, the industry has…

The Russian disinformation network Matryoshka is using AI-generated videos to discredit Ukrainian athletes at the Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina. Source: fact-checkers from BBC Verify, as reported by BBC News Russian Details: Matryoshka's use of AI-generated voices impersonating "trusted…

In just weeks, Ukrainian forces reclaimed territory in the southern Zaporizhzhia region that Russia spent months capturing, erasing nearly half of Moscow’s recent gains, and exposing critical weaknesses in Russian communications and logistics. Feb 18, 2026 18:27 Updated Feb 18, 2026 20:23 4 min read…

Investigators examine a rail line damaged in an explosion in Mika, next to Garwolin, central Poland, on Nov. 17, 2025. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the explosion that damaged a railway line to its close ally Ukraine was an "act of sabotage." Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images MIKA and…

Slovakia has no legal grounds to unilaterally halt electricity supplies to Ukraine. Any one-sided suspension of cross-border electricity flows is prohibited by the rules of ENTSO-E, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity, says Volodymyr Omelchenko, Director of Energy…

German sculptor Jacques Tilly has placed Russia's war against Ukraine and tensions in Europe over Russian aggression at the centre of his satire at this year's Düsseldorf Carnival in Germany. Source: German international broadcaster and media outlet Deutsche Welle Details: Tilly created several big…

Russian Su-35 and Su-30SM2 fighter jets are being equipped more frequently with R-37M long-range air-to-air missiles, significantly extending their engagement range compared with earlier R-77-1 weapons, defense analyst Justin Bronk of the Royal United Services Institute said, according to reporting…

Russian government officials have decided not to restrict the operation of the Telegram messenger for Russian soldiers in the combat zone of the war in Ukraine, where they may use it to coordinate actions, transmit coordinates and track drones. Source: Russian propaganda outlet RIA Novosti, citing…