Donnacha Ó Beacháin

So that is one of the reasons why, yes, we live in an unstable world, one in which, you know, none of the major parties, they've made it clear, adhere to international law, even to genuflect in this direction.

Well, we have seen some positive results for Ukraine, the Ukrainian military forces in the last couple of months.

But if you take a longer view, which I tend to do and try and identify trends, what we really have is a military stalemate.

And

You know, if you look at the amount of territory, for example, that Russia has annexed or is in occupation of in Ukraine, it's more or less the same percentage of Ukraine, about 19% as it was in the late spring, early summer of 2022.

So that's four years when Russia hasn't advanced.

So it's really, you know, half full, half empty.

On the one hand, you know, Russia is still, you know, attacking Ukraine every night.

I was in Ukraine last summer, for example, in an area that wouldn't be exposed to missiles and drones as much as others.

But still, every night, you know, 500 missiles plus were coming in with drones and there were alerts to tell people where to go and what to do in those circumstances.

Now that's often more than a thousand a night.

But the Ukrainians have also adapted very well, and they are now world leaders in drone technology.

I mean, and about 80% of battlefield casualties, I'm told now, are on both sides are caused by unmanned systems.

And indeed, those recent successes that the Ukrainians have enjoyed apparently are a result of drones now.

and unmanned vehicles, essentially, moving forward.

I've even seen Russian soldiers being arrested by, again, technology, essentially unmanned technology rather than actual people.

So warfare has changed.

In fact, that's one of the reasons why

One of the many reasons why Trump didn't get that quick military victory that he was hoping for in Iran.

You know, Iran was producing those Shahi drones and supplying them to Russia for their invasion of Ukraine.