Ukraine's Once Maligned 155th Mech Has Redeemed Itself Defending Pokrovsk

Ukraine's 155th Mechanized Brigade was created to add another major unit to the nation's army. Trained and largely equipped by France, it was named for Anne of Kyiv, a Ukrainian princess who became a French queen.

That was the good news. When it returned to Ukraine, it suffered a number of debilitating scandals and leadership failures, which resulted in as much of a third of its troops deserting. But rather than disbanding it, Ukraine's high command stepped in, provided new, battle-tested leaders and improved training. It was then sent to arguably the most difficult sector, Pokrovsk, where, a year later, it has won plaudits for its stalwart performance in turning back the relentless Russian assault on that city. The lesson is to never give up on your troops. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

A redemption story. The much ballyhooed Ukrainian 155th Mechanized brigade trained in France to become an emblem of best French and NATO military standards began to fall apart as soon as they got back to Ukraine, even before they got to the battlefield. Following reports of desertions, poor command, and mismanagement, steps were taken to stabilize the unit. In January 2025, it was publicly acknowledged that the brigade was facing serious challenges. (But) by March 2025, the brigade was holding positions near Pokrovsk and contributing to Ukrainian advances. By year's end it had become one of the stalwart Ukrainian units standing against the Russians at Pokrovsk

Putin Has Failed To Achieve "Every Single One Of His Strategic Aims" In Ukraine

As the war spawned by the Russian invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year, a sober assessment of gains and losses has determined that Putin has failed to achieve a single one of his strategic goals. 

Ukraine still fights, proud and free; Kyiv remains its capital; there is no international recognition of Russian 'ownership' of the 20% of Ukraine to which it has managed to hang on; NATO membership for Ukraine is still on the table - and, Russia's global standing has suffered as its army has failed repeatedly on the battlefield, its navy has been chased out of the Black Sea, its shadow tankers are pursued on the world's oceans and its air force has been a non-factor. All of this despite Russia's supposed superiority as a military force, now exposed as a corrupt and incompetent shadow. JL

Shane Croucher and John Feng report in Newsweek:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has "failed in every one of his strategic aims:  to capture the whole of Ukraine; take control of Kyiv and remove the pro-West Zelensky government from power, returning the country to Moscow's sphere of influence; the "liberation" of Russian-speaking areas of Ukraine; the demilitarization of the country; preventing Ukraine from joining NATO, and international recognition of its claims over Crimea and other Ukrainian territories it occupies. (As a result) Moscow is no longer able to project power around the world to the same degree as before. Russia "does not want to end this war because it is too expensive for Putin to end, he will not be able to pay the Russian soldiers."

Ukraine's "Autonomous Hunter" Ground Drones Destroying Frightened Russians

The innovation cycle in Ukraine is accelerating. From there emergence last winter as a useful source of logistics backup - delivering supplies, evacuating wounded, laying mines - ground drones have now become an increasingly effective offensive weapon. 

Not only do they defend trenches, bunkers and strongpoints, but they are being sent on the attack as semiautonomous hunters, able to work in any weather, night or day (due to sensors and infrared systems) and armed with machine guns, mortars or grenade launchers to terrifying effect against Russian troops who have never liked to fight at night and who fear the seeming indestructibility of these mechanical warriors. The results in several sectors have been so impressive that Ukrainian units from others are coming in for training and tactical training. JL

RFU News reports:

Ukraine's 5th Assault Brigade in Dnipropetrovsk, has emerged as a key driver of expanding the frontline combat role of ground robots from support for logistics and evacuation, into autonomous hunters that dominate contested terrain through direct combat roles. The main change is that more units now see using ground drones on the attack as an efficient tool to counter Russian manpower. Ukraine's ground robots are increasingly able to strike first; they ambush vehicles, engage infantry with mounted machine guns or grenade launchers, lay mines, or cue aerial drones for follow-up strikes. Russia continues to rely on  assaults by minimally trained troops who are exhausted and poorly equipped. Against them, Ukraine fields semi-autonomous systems unaffected by fatigue, fear, or darkness.

Anthropic's Claude December Adoption Doubled, Emerging As The AI For Business

OpenAI's ChatGPT emerged as the early 'face' of AI but the reality on the ground of actual corporate and financial use is that Anthropic's Claude AI model is widely considered the more effective and competent. It's audience more than doubled in December as word has spread, and is expected to keep growing. 

And as if that weren't worrisome enough for OpenAI, Google's AI - Gemini - which they are inserting into virtually everything they control - alot, as you may be aware - is challenging ChatGPT for the consumer. This is why articles about whether OpenAI can survive are appearing with some regularity. JL

Bradley Olsen reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Claude’s total web audience more than doubled in December from the previous year, and its daily unique visitors on desktop are up 12% globally year-to-date compared with last month (as) software engineers, executives and investors turn their work over to Anthropic’s Claude AI—and then witness a thinking machine of shocking capability, even in an age awash in powerful AI tools. Anthropic, which is expected to go public this year, has long held a strategy oriented around producing AI mastery in coding, followed by “tooling,” the capability of an AI system to use different software with limited human intervention. Most benchmarks have long recognized it as the best coding model, and it is also a leading model for tooling

42 Days In a Bunker At the Front: The Ongoing Courage of the Ukrainian Infantry

Liubomyr Mikalo is a 47 year old grandfather serving with the 103rd Territorial Brigade. He was rescued with one colleague - two others were killed - after 42 days in a bunker at the front in Sumy oblast.

His story is like many others: unheralded, undramatic, but emblematic of why Ukrainian forces have held their own against the Russians. Determination, self-sacrifice and uncomplaining devotion to duty in the face of the horror that awaits they and their families if they give in. JL 

Hromadske reports:

The food supplies they took lasted six days. After that, Ukrainian drones delivered dry packs, energy bars, and bottled water. Of the nine bottles that dropped and almost always shattered, the fighters could barely collect 1.5 to 2 liters. In 42 days on the position, they never once drank their fill. Each got no more than 500 grams a day. The team eliminated more than 30 Russians, and thanks to their spotting, drones took out another 30. No one looked for the dead Russians. On the 42nd day  the enemy decided they were dead. To reinforce that illusion, Liubomyr set fire to their mattress. At night, they moved out; a drone was waiting. The weakened fighters followed it to friendly positions for two kilometers. They wanted to collapse in the tree line and not get up.

Ukraine, Palantir Partner On "Unconquerable" War-Changing AI Air Defense

Ukraine and Palantir, the US AI company which makes the leading defense intelligence models have signed an agreement to make a 'data room' using Ukraine's four years of accumulated data and imagery. 

The result is expected to be a predictive model that accurately anticipates where and how Russia attacks - and then deploys resources to stop them. If you are a Russian commander, this is a frightening development. JL

David Ignatius reports in the Washington Post:

Ukraine will soon deploy a new generation of domestically produced air-defense interceptors, powered by AI, that allow the country to fight on indefinitely. Ukraine signed an agreement with the U.S. defense software company Palantir to build an AI “Dataroom.” It will use the millions of bits of sensor data and imagery that Ukraine has gathered over four years of war to train AI systems that can predict Russian attacks — and then guide cheap, autonomous interceptors to defeat them. "We will be trading pawns for rooks. It is about becoming unconquerable."

Ukraine Sets Goal of 50,000 Russians Losses Per Month, An Irreplaceable Level

This should worry the Kremlin, because unlike Russia's military, Ukraine has been very good about achieving the goals it sets. 

Ukraine is already killing or wounding 35,000 Russians a month, a level the Kremlin is struggling to replace. The Ukrainian assessment is that 50,000 Russians eliminated a month is impossible for Russia to overcome. Ukraine has also determined that between 70-90% of Russian casualties are the result of Ukrainian drone attacks, so, logically, it is bolstering its drone forces and the lethality of the weapons they are able to use. It is this sort of dispassionate, analytical and strategic thinking that has utterly stymied Putin's attempt to defeat Ukraine. JL

Matthew Loh reports in Business Insider:

Ukraine's new defense minister has set a new 'core strategic objective' for its forces to kill 50,000 Russian troops a month. "The objective is to impose costs on Russia that it cannot bear." Ukrainian troops are already documenting 35,000 kills every month.  Ukraine's commander in chief, Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, said in December that his forces had, for the first time, killed and wounded more Russian soldiers in one month than the Kremlin had called up for the same time period. Ukraine intends to increase combat kills by diverting more troops to drone units, responsible for 70 to 90% of casualties inflicted.