Author: Michael

Summary and Key Points: Battered by a country smaller in every metric — GDP, population, land, and army — Russia is in no shape to take on NATO, even as Europe worries Putin might test the alliance.

-Ukraine inflicted more than 35,000 casualties in April alone, roughly erasing Russia’s fresh recruits for the month, and Putin can’t order a broader mobilization without risking dangerous unrest at home.

MiG-29 Fighter U.S. Air Force Museum July 2025. Image Credit: National Security Journal.

-As one Baltic spy chief put it, problems inside Russia “are starting to pile up.

A growing set of problems with Russia’s war in Ukraine may be pushing the Kremlin to launch a serious escalation of its military effort. This deteriorating situation in the Ukraine war is causing an increasing unraveling of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s long-vaunted image of wise and unparalleled effective leadership.

No small measure of that unraveling is due to the Ukraine military’s apparent ability to hit any target, any arms factory, any oil refinery – even the city of Moscow itself. It is a poisonous combination for the former KGB Lt. Col.

Evan A. Laksmana, et al.

Blake Hunnewell, Military Strategy Magazine
Lessons for Strategic Leadership, Strategy, and Statesmanship Today

Journal of Strategic Studies
During the 2025 Victory Day Parade in September, China unveiled a ballistic missile defence system capable of intercepting missiles in the midcourse phase for…

Defense Post
The U.S.

CDR Salamander
…if this is all you have…

Battle of the ration packs🍴🆚
Following Na

Operations by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s aircraft Liaoning and its carrier task force are currently playing a significant role in expanding group training toward far-sea combat application, providing experience in forming system-of-systems combat capabilities at very distant locations in ways that have significant implications for the future balance of power in the Pacific. The carrier group was announced to be beginning training in the region on May 19, with a series of comprehensive exercises currently being carried out.

This video describes the military situation in