Personal news; after over four years working in Ukraine as a freelance journalist and security analyst and working for many different and excellent publications I’m happy to announce I’ve now joined the Kyiv Independent as a special correspondent.

I was delighted to be able to speak @jimmyrushton.bsky.social of @kyivindependent.com about the latest events in Ukraine and its increasingly impactful strikes against Russia. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

NEW: The "gas station masquerading as a country" is running out of fuel as Ukraine systematically demolishes Russia's oil industry. My latest piece for the Kyiv Independent. kyivindependent.com/the-gas-stat...

Ukraine's 'long-range sanctions' bring war home for Russians as drone strikes cripple fuel supply

Russia's Lukoil-Nizhegorodnefteorgsintez refinery had just restarted operations when Ukrainian drones hit it again. The facility — the fourth-largest oil refinery and the second-largest producer of ga...

kyivindependent.com

Remember: a year ago pro-Russian "analysts" were claiming that Ukraine's campaign of strikes against Russian oil infrastructure was pointless and would have no economic or societal impact.

NEW: Ukraine has been setting conditions for its blockade of Crimea since 2022. And now the occupied peninsula is under siege, with Moscow having no easy options to break it. My analysis for the @kyivindependent.com. kyivindependent.com/how-ukraines...

Ukraine turns to strangling Russian logistics in Crimea — and it's working

Ukraine's siege of Crimea has been a long time coming. Crimea is under an effective siege as Ukraine has been systematically isolating the occupied peninsula with a multipronged campaign of drone str...

kyivindependent.com

NEW: Ukraine is attempting to strangle Russian logistics with a new drone campaign that might be the most significant development of the war this year. kyivindependent.com/analysis-how...

Analysis: How Ukraine's new middle strike drone campaign aims to strangle Russian logistics

A charred Russian KAMAZ armoured vehicle sits by the side of the road, the latest victim of a Ukrainian drone strike. Two Ural heavy recovery trucks can be seen parked either side, while several Russi...

kyivindependent.com

The loudest “bang” last night was a ballistic missile landing about 200 metres from my apartment. No wonder the entire building was shaking. This footage has been approved for publication by the Ukrainian government.

There is now a long line of people waiting patiently to buy coffee from Yevhen and Olena’s cafe, which opened yesterday and was heavily damaged in last night’s attack on Kyiv.

Kate from Kharkiv@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social · 2mo ago

This is Yevhen. Just yesterday, he opened his café in Kyiv. Today, he serves coffee through shuttered windows after russian attack, with his mother beside him offering sweets. This is how Ukrainian businesses survive during the war.

A reminder: "Oreshnik" was designed to carry nuclear weapons. When it doesn't, it's not a practical or cost effective weapon system (it's too inaccurate, and not destructive enough for the $30 million + price tag); it's a terror weapon designed to intimidate.

The aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes along the M14 Mariupol'-Melitopol' highway, a Russian logistics artery in occupied south eastern Ukraine. Multiple Russian logistics vehicles can be seen burnt out or on fire.

NEW: Ukraine has gained the upper hand in all sectors of the drone war, I argue in my latest piece for the Kyiv Independent. Kyiv's advances in the drone technology race presents a series of compounding problems that Russia cannot easily solve. kyivindependent.com/analysis-how...

How is Ukraine beating Russia in the drone war?

Ukrainian forces had just launched one of their largest aerial raids of the war against targets in Moscow, with drones and cruise missiles striking targets across the Russian capital, including the he...

kyivindependent.com

NEW: We reveal the Western funded "non-violent resistance" programme which encouraged Ukrainian civilians to engage in “suicidal” activities in the occupied territories of Ukraine despite multiple reports of the deaths, torture, and imprisonment of activists. kyivindependent.com/investigatio...

Investigation: A secret program, 'suicidal' missions, and death, torture in occupied Ukraine

A Western-funded classified program supported a "non-violent resistance" initiative inside Russian-occupied Ukraine for more than three years that encouraged civilians to engage in “suicidal” activiti...

kyivindependent.com

NEW: One of Ukraine's most famous soldiers, Bohdan Krotevych, tells me why Commander in Chief Syrskyi must be replaced for Ukraine to win the war, why Azov still has a waiting list to join, and why the suggestion drones can replace infantry is "so stupid". offbeatresearch.com/2025/11/i-kn...

"I Know We Can Win": Ukraine's Most Famous Soldier on the State of War - OffBeat Research

Jimmy Rushton sits down with Bohdan Krotevych, the decorated former commander of the Ukrainian National Guard’s elite Azov Brigade, for a wide-ranging interview on the current state of Ukraine’s leade...

offbeatresearch.com

"Russian attempts to exacerbate preexisting tensions in society via Telegram-incited active measures are not limited to Ukraine." @michaeldweiss.bsky.social and @jimmyrushton.bsky.social report on a grim Russian operation for @newlinesmag.bsky.social

Russia’s New Weapon: Child 'Suicide Bombers'

Moscow’s intelligence services are recruiting civilians, including the young and vulnerable, to carry remotely detonated explosives

newlinesmag.com

My latest episode of @thisisnotadrillpod.bsky.social featuring security analyst @jimmyrushton.bsky.social discussing the latest developments from Zelenskyy's trip to the United Nations is out now on the link below or wherever you listen to your podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/t...

For New Lines Magazine: I spent a week and a half with Ukraine's elite Third Assault Brigade, the largest and one of the most effective fighting forces within the Ukrainian military, and not coincidently, one of the least 'Soviet'. With @michaeldweiss.bsky.social. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/in...

Inside Ukraine’s Plan To Build a Self-Sufficient Defense Force

With Western security guarantees uncertain, Kyiv is turning to elite, battle-hardened units as the core of a remodeled military

newlinesmag.com

Systematic use of chemical weaponry by Russia in Ukraine continues. My interview/report from the front line for Times Radio. www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDWk...

Putin uses ‘lethal’ WW1 gas to attack Ukrainian troops on the Frontline

YouTube video by Times Radio

youtube.com

NEW: For the Ukrainian volunteers evacuating their fellow civilians, the sudden end of U.S. funding means more will die under Russian fire, reports @jimmyrushton.bsky.social in @newlinesmag.bsky.social. newlinesmag.com/spotlight/cu...

Cutting US Aid Jeopardizes the Lives of Ukrainian Civilians

For the volunteers evacuating their fellow citizens, the sudden end of funding means more will die under Russian fire

newlinesmag.com

Kyiv.

Latest with @jimmyrushton.bsky.social: Ukraine didn’t just humiliate Vladimir Putin with its stunning FPV drone assault on Russia’s strategic bombers—it also embarrassed Donald Trump, who repeatedly dismissed Kyiv’s ability to fight without U.S. help t.co/9SqbwxSa35

I’ve been shown unreleased footage of Sunday’s SBU drone attack. I can confirm at least two A-50 AWACS aircraft were struck by drones; the FPV drones landing directly on the radar domes before detonating. Multiple Tu-22M3s can also be seen struck in the footage.

NEW: Russia is using social media to recruit unsuspecting Ukrainian civilians - including children - and turning them into unwitting suicide bombers. A deep dive into Moscow's disturbing new tactic with @michaeldweiss.bsky.social for New Lines Magazine. newlinesmag.com/reportage/ru...

Russia’s New Weapon: Child Suicide Bombers

Moscow’s intelligence services are recruiting unsuspecting civilians, including the young and vulnerable, for suicide missions

newlinesmag.com

"Ignore the moral panic; there's nothing inherently unethical about drone warfare..." I wrote about the debate surrounding the use of small drones in Ukraine, why such drones could actually be considered more 'moral' and why violent combat footage isn't new jamesrushton.substack.com/p/ignore-the...

Ignore the moral panic; there's nothing inherently unethical about drone warfare

And in fact drones might enable combatants to more closely follow the laws of armed conflict

jamesrushton.substack.com

Americans really got bored of living in the richest and most powerful country on the planet and decided to just set everything on fire, huh?

Every week, hundreds of Ukrainians take part in noisy protests, demanding the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war held in inhumane conditions in Russian jails. I attended one such protest yesterday: jamesrushton.substack.com/p/we-will-no...

NEW: Can Europe Back Ukraine’s Fight Alone? In the wake of a possible breakdown of the transatlantic alliance me and Michael Weiss argue that it both can, and must. newlinesmag.com/argument/can...

Can Europe Back Ukraine's Fight Alone?

For the first time in decades, European leaders face a US commander-in-chief who doesn’t care for Cold War-era pieties

newlinesmag.com

Back in the U.K. for a couple of weeks off after another year in Ukraine; will be back in Kyiv just before New Year. Coming back to what used to be “normality” feels very strange!

A defeat for the Assad regime is a defeat for Russia; and Moscow will undoubtably be facing some difficult decisions in the next few hours/days over what resources to commit to shoring up it's crumbling Syrian client state.

One of the largest Russian drone attacks on Ukraine last night of the war. 188 drones were launched against Ukrainian targets. 95 were disabled by electronic warfare - 76 were shot down by air defence. 5 more "flew in the direction of Belarus" according to the airforce.

Another midnight air-raid in Kyiv. Drones incoming, explosions and flashes of anti-aircraft fire in the distance.