• A South Korean F-35A that crash-landed in 2022 has been revived thanks to an intriguing new procedure.
• Engineers removed and reattached its wings so it could be moved to a maintenance site.
• This operation is now part of the F-35 program's standard maintenance protocols.

An F-35A stealth fighter jet that crash-landed on its belly in 2022 has been given a new lease of life thanks to a dramatic operation to remove and then reattach its wings.

The South Korean air force aircraft made headlines three years ago after a catastrophic mid-flight bird strike caused an F-35 pilot to make a "belly landing," or gear-up landing, at Seosan Air Base, near the country's eastern coast.

The South Korean pilot walked away from the high-risk maneuver unharmed, but the damage left the Lockheed Martin fifth-generation fighter unfit for service.

Local media reported a year after the bird-strike incident that South Korea was considering dumping the fighter after estimated repair costs to get the jet flying again following its unfortunate run-in with an eagle could be almost the price of a new F-35.

According to the F-35 Joint Program Office, a new plan was then devised with South Korea's air force to repurpose the jet as a training platform at the country's dedicated F-35 maintenance facility.

However, transporting it there would be prohibitively costly and difficult, the JPO said.

The air base and the maintenance facility are roughly 60 miles apart, making it a tough overland journey for the aircraft and its 35-foot wingspan.

The JPO, with South Korea's approval, opted for a novel approach to this problem, and US Air Force, US Navy, and Lockheed Martin personnel gathered in South Korea to work with the local military to remove the jet's wings before transfer and then reattach them on-site at the new location.

"This was a significant challenge, as it was the first attempt at removing F-35 wings as part of a concept demonstration," said Matt Trodden, the F-35 Lightning Support Team Aircraft Crash Recovery Lead Engineer, in a statement.

The process — never conducted before on an F-35A — has now been adopted as part of the F-35 program's standard heavy maintenance, repair, and reuse protocols.

The project took inspiration from an earlier repair project dubbed "Frankenbird" or "Frankenjet" which saw two damaged F-35s fused together into a fully operational aircraft.

Initiated in 2023, the project — led by engineers from manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the US Air Force — resulted in a successful test flight with the jet earlier this year.

Salvage operations of this kind could help mitigate the cost of losing an F-35, which has an estimated price tag of over $80 million for the A variant that South Korea flies. The jet comes in three different variants: the internal gun-equipped As, the Bs with a lift van for short takeoff and vertical landing, and Cs for carrier operations.

The "Frankenbird," by contrast, cost around $6 million to cobble together, and it is due back into operational service this year.

South Korea took delivery of its first F-35A Lighting II in 2019. It now operates roughly 40 of them, with a plan to have a fleet of 60 by 2028, according to the manufacturer.

• Putin has appointed Andrei Mordvichev as the new commander in chief of Russia's ground forces, multiple outlets reported.
• Experts reacted, saying Mordvichev was a proponent of Russia's brutal "meat grinder" assaults.
• The attacks involve wave after wave of infantry assaults to grind down defenders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a new commander in chief of Russia's ground forces who has been involved in some of the war's most brutal fighting, according to multiple reports.

Colonel General Andrei Mordvichev replaced General Oleg Salyukov in the role on Thursday, state-controlled Russian outlet Izvestia reported.

Deutsche Welle and several Russian outlets, including the government-published Rossiyskaya Gazeta, also reported the move. A list of official presidential decrees announced Salyukov's departure, but has not yet confirmed that Mordvichev is the replacement.

The Institute for the Study of War said Friday that Mordvichev's reported appointment represented an endorsement of his preference for "grinding, highly attritional, infantry-led assaults," and said this suggested the Kremlin "aims to institutionalize these tactics."

Military analyst Yan Matveyev credited him as one of the main initiators of the approach, in a post to Telegram after the appointment was reported.

Mordvichev has previously said that Russia's invasion of Ukraine is "only the beginning." In an interview with Russian state media in 2023, Mordvichev said that the war "will not stop here," Newsweek reported at the time.

As deputy commander of the Central Military District, Mordvichev also presided over Russia's capture of the coastal city of Mariupol in 2022, one of the war's most brutal sieges.

That battle, which is estimated to have killed more than 8,000 people, ended with Russian forces taking the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian forces had held out for two months.

Mordvichev is also credited with the capture of the strategically important city of Avdiivka in February 2024.

Ukrainian officials said that Russia lost more than 30,000 troops killed or wounded taking the city, using its infamous "meat grinder" approach of grinding down resistance with wave after wave of infantry attacks.

Mordvichev's reputation has grown steadily, and he was embraced by Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic, as "the best commander" during his promotion to head up the Central Military District last year, The Times of London reported.

In 2022, Ukraine claimed to have killed Mordvichev in an airstrike near Kherson, but he was later seen meeting with Kadyrov.

He is under multiple European sanctions, according to the sanctions database OpenSanctions.

Salyukov, who became the ground forces commander in 2014, is a few days away from his 70th birthday, when he will age out of military service.

He's being moved to a senior post on the Russian Security Council, per a presidential decree.

A provocative appointment during peace talks

The reported appointment came as the two sides met in Istanbul for peace talks.

The talks, which began Friday, were left to lower-level officials after Putin declined to attend in person. The Russian officials included many of those who carried out fruitless negotiations in Istanbul in 2022, according to ISW.

Some of Ukraine's European allies criticized Putin for his no-show, with Estonia's Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna describing it as a "slap in the face."

• Ukrainian defense intelligence says it's stripped down a new, drone-launched Russian cruise missile.
• The 'Banderol' missile contains parts from allied countries including the US, Japan, and South Korea, it said.
• The new missile is reported to have been used in attacks on Odesa last month.

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine has published a breakdown of parts inside a new Russian cruise missile, and claims that many originate from countries including the US, Japan, South Korea, and potentially Australia.

This raises questions about Russia's ongoing ability to get around sanctions imposed on it over its invasion of Ukraine.

Little is known in the West about Russia's S8000 "Banderol" cruise missile, which Ukraine says is made by sanctioned company Kronstadt. Reports emerged in Ukrainian media in late April about its use in a bombardment of the region of Odesa, home to a key Ukrainian port.

Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov, an influential Ukrainian radiocommunications observer, was among the first to report its use, and speculated that it may be a new type of drone.

It now appears that Ukraine has obtained a version intact enough to be closely examined.

A nimble new missile

Banderol, reportedly meaning "parcel" or "package," has a range of 310 miles and can cruise at speeds of almost 350 mph, according to Ukraine's defense intelligence agency, also known as the GUR.

GUR said it's launched from an Orion drone, and is also being prepped for deployment from a Mi-28N helicopter.

One unique feature, the GUR said, is "its ability to execute tighter turns than other standard Russian cruise missiles" such as the KH-101 or the 3M-14 Kalibr, while still maintaining an effective cruise missile flight trajectory.

It carries a warhead of up to 150kg, per GUR.

Batteries, microchips, and telemetry

Much of its capabilities can be traced back to parts sourced from countries allied with Ukraine, Ukrainian intelligence said.

In a detailed breakdown of components, GUR said it identified batteries from a Japanese company just weeks after Japan expanded export controls to stop the country's lithium-ion batteries from reaching Russia.

It also said it found a servo — an electronic device that controls a motor — from a South Korean company in the missile.

Seoul added dozens of items to its export controls list, including dual-use items, in December, although it is unclear if this covers servo motors.

It's also unclear if these parts were already in Russian possession before the expanded export controls were put in place.

In addition, GUR said that up to 20 microchips originating from the US, Switzerland, Japan, and South Korea were found inside.

A telemetry module — or sensor and transmission device — resembling one made in Australia was also found, although the GUR said it could be a Chinese copy.

The companies named did not immediately respond to Business Insider requests for comment, sent outside working hours.

Countries like the US and Australia have sent Ukraine significant amounts of humanitarian or military aid, and have implemented extensive sanctions and export controls against Russia.

However, reports have found that sanctioned items have made their way into the Russian military ecosystem via third parties.

According to Ukrainian intelligence, some parts of the missile, including chips and a jet engine, also appeared to have come from Chinese sources.

Beijing is ostensibly neutral, but has been accused by the US of covertly supplying Russia with extensive dual-use parts and even weaponry.

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine called on governments and manufacturers in countries allied to Ukraine to tighten their diligence.

• Ukraine's former top military commander warned that NATO's warfare model is outdated.
• NATO's tactics need a major overhaul to match Ukraine's battlefield innovations, Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.
• He also called into question the effectiveness of NATO's principle of collective defense.

NATO's current model of warfare is far removed from what is happening on the battlefield today, according to the former commander in chief of Ukraine's armed forces.

Valerii Zaluzhnyi, now Ukraine's ambassador to the UK, delivered a warning to the country's Western allies about the rapidly changing nature of modern warfare — amid what he described as the disintegration of the rules-based world order.

This isn't just about updating defense industries or "some rearmament," he told the London Defence Conference at King's College London on Friday. "You need a new state policy."

This means a root-and-branch refresh of tactics, organization, doctrines, training, and budgeting, Zaluzhnyi said, per a transcript of his comments published by Ukrainska Pravda.

"All this requires not only additional resources, but also, most importantly, additional time," he added.

A fast-changing battlefield

Ukraine's Western allies have increasingly seen the war in Ukraine as a laboratory for modern warfare, one that provides a host of lessons.

Military experts have told Business Insider that Russia's performance in Ukraine shows that NATO's air dominance could well be tested in a future conflict.

NATO and Western defense officials have also said that alongside large-scale, expensive systems central to their capabilities, the alliance needs masses of cheap, expendable weapons like drones.

But Zaluzhnyi said that lessons like these aren't being adopted fast enough in the West.

Despite drones playing a transformative role in the defense of Ukraine, Zaluzhnyi said that he wasn't just referring to "drones taking over the battlefield."

He said that if NATO stopped using tanks in favor of more high-tech means of warfare, it would still take about five years to catch up with Ukraine's abilities.

"But technology will move on during this time. And so will the enemies," Zaluzhnyi added.

Like space exploration

Zaluzhnyi likened what is needed to "the days of nuclear energy mastery or space exploration," and said that the next step is to "build a completely new security architecture for Europe."

He also said that Europe needs Ukraine as a shield, since it has the biggest army on the continent, and is the "only one with an army that knows how to wage modern, high-tech warfare."

While some countries may have a technological advantage in certain areas, he said, "none of them will be able to secure their own independence in the full range of modern defence technologies."

This is also playing out against the backdrop of "destructive trends in the global security system" that have weakened the power of NATO's Article 5, Zaluzhnyi said.

His remarks, made in London, came as the UK gears up for a planned overhaul of its defense policy. The UK has pledged to raise its defense spending to 3% of GDP, if economic conditions allow.

NATO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• Ramzan Kadyrov said he's asked Putin to be allowed to step aside as Chechen leader.
• Kadyrov has previously hinted at the move, citing his long rule.
• Possible successors include Muslim Khuchiev and Apti Alaudinov, a general active in Ukraine.

Chechen warlord Ramzan Kadyrov said he has appealed to Russian President Vladimir Putin to be allowed to step down from his position as leader of the Chechen Republic.

"I am asking to be dismissed from my post," Kadyrov told state-controlled Chechnya Today on Monday, per The Kyiv Independent's translation.

"I hope that my request will be supported," he added.

Kadyrov followed up his remarks on Tuesday with a post on Telegram saying that the decision on whether he would step down is Putin's, not his, and framing himself as a loyalist who responds only to the president's command.

Kadyrov has nurtured a reputation as a strongman since taking power in 2007, heading up a militia known as the Kadyrovites, who have been deployed to Ukraine and in the defence of the Russian region of Kursk.

He secured a fourth term as Chechnya's president in 2021, taking 99.73% of the vote in a bid that was all but guaranteed by Putin's endorsement, Human Rights Watch said at the time.

Kadyrov took over the presidency from his father, who was assassinated in 2004, and last month named his 17-year-old son Adam as state head of internal affairs, overseeing the republic's police and internal security.

Kadyrov has floated the idea of stepping down in the past. In 2022, he posted on Telegram saying he had been in office too long and deserved a vacation. He made similar remarks as his second term approached its end in 2016, Russian media reported.

The latest move comes amid reports of ongoing ill-health that Kadyrov has denied several times, and that stand in contrast to his image as a strongman and fighter.

According to independent investigative outlet Novaya Gazeta Europa, Kadyrov was diagnosed with pancreatic necrosis in 2019, which was then complicated by a bout of COVID-19.

Should Putin give Kadyrov the nod to step down, possible successors include Muslim Khuchiev, the republic's former prime minister, and high-ranking general Apti Alaudinov, who has been on active duty in Ukraine.

Kadyrov maintains an iron grip on power in Chechnya in an arrangement widely understood to have been secured by promising Putin to keep it within the Russian Federation and to suppress a separatist movement.

The Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

• An international volunteer who fought in Ukraine said his unit vowed never to be taken alive by Russia.
• Macer Gifford told BI that Putin sees this as a "war of annihilation," with tactics taken from ISIS.
• Gifford gave a stark warning to onlookers who view it as just a "war on the edge of Europe."

An international volunteer who fought in Ukraine told Business Insider that Russia's armed forces have such a reputation for brutality that his unit agreed never to be captured alive.

Russian forces are "incredibly dangerous, oftentimes fanatical or desperate people that would torture you and kill you if they caught you," said Macer Gifford, the nom de guerre of British former trader Harry Rowe.

A veteran of the Ukrainian army, who previously volunteered to fight in Syria, Gifford fought in key locations in Ukraine, including in Kherson and Lyman.

He spoke to BI's Authorized Account about the realities of fighting Russia, and the tough decisions his unit had to take.

'Every depth of depravity'

While some Russians have reported torture and ill-treatment at the hands of Ukrainian captors, it has largely happened at the point of capture and "stopped when prisoners arrived at official places of internment," a UN investigation found last year.

Not so Russia. The investigation said that there is "widespread and systematic torture and ill-treatment" of prisoners of war throughout Russia's entire system of internment. This includes beatings, electric shocks, sexual violence, suffocation, sleep deprivation, and mock executions, it said.

There have also been killings: Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievsky became a cause célèbre after he was forced to dig his own grave before being shot in captivity, the BBC reported.

"Russia has gone to every depth of depravity you could possibly imagine," Gifford said.

That's why his unit entered into a pact — even expelling one member who tried to surrender during a firefight, he said. There was an agreement that "no one in the unit was allowed to be taken alive."

Acknowledging that all wars are violent, Gifford said he was nonetheless "genuinely shocked" by what he saw fighting against Russia.

Learning from ISIS

Gifford believes that Russian forces learned many of their more brutal tactics in Syria.

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave military support to Syria's then-president, Bashar Assad, starting in 2015, supplying military equipment and air strikes to push back rebel groups, including the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

But it's the jihadist group that appears to have provided a model for Russian troops in Ukraine, Gifford said.

The "level and scope" of Russia's barbarity on civilians, he said, reminded him "of the same tactics that the Islamic State used."

Gifford recalled how, during his time fighting in Syria, he would find cages, torture instruments, and mattresses with chains next to them for holding female captives in Islamic State-controlled areas.

"I thought that the Islamic State was a fringe, that it was a unique thing," he said, but in his view, "many of their brutal practices have been adopted by Russia — mainly, I suppose, because they were so effective in Syria," he added.

Russia's war machine

Gifford described Russia's war machine as "incredibly big and incredibly dangerous."

But while Russia leads in scale — its army is on track to grow to 1.5 million active troops — its forces have been "decimated" in Ukraine, he said.

Russia's approach to war is about scale and "meat wave" attacks in which astonishing numbers of casualties are tolerated, Gifford said.

The "real differences" between the countries come down to "the way they value life," he added. "The Ukrainians are fighting for their lives. Russia is just fighting for more territory, and that's the difference."

But Gifford stressed that Ukraine's allies need to stop seeing the war as "a conflict on the edge of Europe," and that for Putin it means much more.

For him, it's "a war of annihilation," Gifford said. It's "the war to end all wars in the eyes of Vladimir Putin."

Russia has routinely denied allegations of war crimes. The Russian Ministry of Defence didn't respond to a request for comment.

• North Korea plans to open its Wonsan Kalma tourist site in June 2025.
• Pyongyang could see the gigantic beachfront resort as a way to rake in foreign cash.
• But North Korea experts told BI it's unlikely to tap into mass tourism markets.

Last October, a video of tanned, blond Russians relaxing on a North Korean beach went viral.

That beach is in Wonsan, on the Kalma peninsula — a stretch of North Korea's eastern coast now home to dozens of hotels and apartments — and is the latest puzzling artifact of Kim Jong Un's grandiose ambitions.

Reports of the exact scale vary from about 7,000 to 20,000 rooms, which could make the resort — called Wonsan Kalma — one of the largest single-entity-owned beach resorts on the planet.

"This is by far larger than anything else Kim has done" in tourism, Bruce W. Bennett, an expert in North Korean affairs at RAND, told Business Insider.

The dream for Kim: a world-class megatourism project displaying his totalitarian power to the world and at home, and a way to make money.

The question is who, exactly, will flock there.

The North Korean Embassy in London didn't respond to a detailed request for comment.

A modest tourist trade

The project, first announced in 2014, has been delayed several times. When the first delay was announced in 2019, Kim said that he didn't want to compromise on quality. Analysts speculated at the time that the delay could be due to import restraints caused by international sanctions.

The project also stalled during the COVID-19 pandemic, but it's now scheduled to open in June. This means North Korea, which largely sealed off its borders at the start of the pandemic, could soon reopen to international tourism.

The country welcomed a group of tourists in February, before again resealing its borders. Tour operators are watching closely.

Rowan Beard, the cofounder of Young Pioneer Tours, the company that led the recent visit, has not yet seen Wonsan Kalma. He told BI he's impressed with what he's heard about it.

"There's a lot of really cool facilities there, not just built for tourists," he said. "It's also built for delegations. So there's special delegation rooms and presidential suites."

"It is huge. It's a city," he added. "It's like building the Gold Coast from scratch."

North Korean state media said in 2014 that the 3,460-acre site would feature an "underwater hotel, flower park, international meeting hall, exhibition and exposition hall," among hotels, condos, and apartments catering to every budget.

The region is already a popular destination for domestic tourists. Nearby Songdowon has an international children's camp, and in winter, tourists can visit the Masikryong Ski Resort, about 12 miles away.

State media reports that Kim has praised the region's beauty, having spent some of his childhood there, and owning a lavish private compound nearby.

"Wonsan is Kim Jong Un's Mar-a-Lago," Michael Madden, now founder of the North Korea-watching site NK Leadership Watch, told Reuters in 2015.

Mass tourism, niche interest

Facilities at Wonsan Kalma have appeared and disappeared over the years. South Korea-based SI Analytics has suggested that a mysterious turtle-shaped edifice will become an aquarium. A theater that popped up in 2021 has since been demolished.

In recent weeks, SI Analytics has observed increased flows of oil tankers to the nearby port, suggesting a rush to finish construction.

Beard told BI that his North Korean contacts had been expecting him to bring business there when it opens.

They're "expecting a high turnout," he said.

He plans to offer visits, but told his contacts that the level of interest may disappoint: He thinks he can bring about 100 people a year.

The problem is fundamental — Young Pioneer customers tend to be adventure tourists attracted by the company's edgy tagline: "Destinations your mother would rather you stay away from."

Experts BI spoke to expressed doubts that the site would have mass appeal for international tourists. It's a beautiful spot — but as RAND's Bennett put it: "This isn't Florida. This is North Korea."

"It's not even clear it will make money, given how much they've invested," said Marcus Noland, a North Korea expert and executive vice president of the Peterson Institute for International Economics.

Pyongyang does not make its spending public, but as early as 2019, Kim said that "enormous funds and labor" had gone into the project.

While North Korea's use of forced labor may have cut costs, projects of similar scale worldwide run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

The site may segregate North Koreans from international tourists, to keep locals from learning too much about the outside world, experts said.

"Kim has a deathly fear that outside information is going to reach his people," Bennett said.

That — and North Korea's lack of experience with hospitality — may make for something of a stilted vacation, Bennett said.

"You'll be in a bit of a bubble," Beard added.

The ruble to the rescue?

International tourism is attractive because it brings in cash that largely circumvents international sanctions.

But South Koreans — ostensibly the ideal customers for Wonsan Kalma due to their proximity and spending power — are unlikely to visit due to political tensions.

"The commercial logic is South Korea is your customer base, and the political logic is we have to keep South Korea at arms' length," Noland said.

Other likely international visitors could be from Japan, China, and, thanks to their ongoing military cooperation, Russia.

Vostok Intur, a travel agency in Russia's Vladivostok, began advertising tours to the resort in January. The all-inclusive trips, which start in July, cost about $420 — plus a further payment of $1,400 per person, which is likely Pyongyang's cut.

Last fall, Russia's ambassador to North Korea, Alexander Matsegora, praised North Korea's hospitality after the Wonsan region hosted injured Russian soldiers.

Despite the diplomatic overtures, there's "a real question" of whether there will be enough Russian interest for a place that big to thrive, Bennett said.

"I don't see the Russians flocking to Kalma," Beard said, adding that Russians — like the rest of the world — "want to go to Pattaya in Thailand. They want to go to Goa, in India or they want to go to Dubai."

There's also likely a sizeable domestic audience for the site.

The state could offer workers trips there as a reward for exceptional performance, experts said.

Beard believes locals will be excited, thinking: "'Hey, we're getting our own Disneyland,'" he said.

The Trump factor

There's another possible audience for Kim's tourism drive — President Donald Trump.

Wonsan Kalma is being built against a backdrop of North Korea's desire to be recognized as a nuclear state.

In 2018, Trump encouraged Pyongyang to develop its "great beaches," and while North Korea is unlikely to welcome US tourists anytime soon, Trump and Kim speaking the language of real estate to each other could provide some sort of diplomatic stepping stone, Ellen Kim said.

But what if this site fails to impress, like Pyongyang's Ryugyong Hotel?

The unfinished hotel — dubbed "the hotel of doom" by the outside world for its imposing structure and failure as a project — has never become fully operational. It's the country's tallest building, begun under Kim Il Sung, Kim's grandfather.

"Kim Jong Un has always wanted to show that he was more modern and kind of more 'with it' than his father or grandfather," Noland said.

He may see Wonsan Kalma as his best way to prove that.

"I think he wants to really make it look like North Korea is a big deal," Bennett said.

• The US wants to equip all Army divisions with drones by the end of 2026.
• The move appears to be heavily influenced by the war in Ukraine.
• Meanwhile, crewed aircraft and ground vehicles like Humvees are set to be scaled back.

Every division of the US Army should be equipped with drones by the end of 2026, according to an official memo released by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday.

The move is part of a raft of measures that aim to "restore the warrior ethos" and "reestablish deterrence," Hegseth wrote.

Crewed attack helicopter formations are also to be restructured and augmented with "inexpensive drone swarms capable of overwhelming adversaries," he said.

The memo signals a shift from yearslong procurement cycles for large-scale, multimillion-dollar equipment, to what appears to be a more nimble and responsive approach, wrapping in much cheaper and more adaptable systems.

While the announcement referred only to the goal of deterring China in the Indo-Pacific, it appears to be heavily influenced by the war in Ukraine.

As BI's Jake Epstein reported, Ukraine's use of drones against Russia has become a blueprint for modern warfare on a budget.

Ukraine says it's the world's leading producer of drones, which it fields in their thousands. These range from large attack drones to commercial off-the-shelf drones used by soldiers for surveillance and target acquisition.

Russia is also heavily deploying drones. One Ukrainian drone pilot told BI that there are so many drones in the skies that soldiers can easily find themselves confused about who they belong to.

Drones for all divisions

Each combat division of the US Army is set to receive about 1,000 drones, the Pentagon confirmed to Business Insider.

These are for use in attacks, moving supplies, and surveillance, The Wall Street Journal reported.

"Land warfare has transitioned to drone warfare," Jack Keane, a retired general, told the Journal. "If you can be seen, you can be killed."

Hegseth's announcement also directed the Army to ramp up the use of counter-drone capabilities, as well as AI and 3D printing across units.

In March, Breaking Defense reported that the US was already 3D printing small drones for training purposes.

Along with the high-tech push, Hegseth's memo also laid out plans to "cancel or scale back ineffective or redundant programs," including in areas like crewed aircraft, outdated drones, and ground vehicles such as Humvees.

Other "wasteful" projects earmarked for scaling back include sustainment of legacy items and what the memo described as "unnecessary climate-related initiatives."

• The UK ran a simulation of its air defenses as if Russia's invasion of Ukraine had been an attack on the UK.
• Air Commodore Blythe Crawford said the result "was not a pretty picture."
• He also said the concept of air superiority has significantly changed over the last three years.

The UK ran a simulation of a Russian attack to see the strain on its air defenses if the invasion of Ukraine had been aimed at the UK instead, a senior air force official said.

The result "was not a pretty picture," Air Commodore Blythe Crawford said at a Royal United Services Institute conference in London on Thursday.

Using Gladiator, a £24-million ($32 million) simulation system, the UK's Air Battlespace Training Centre loaded up "Night 1 of Ukraine" — February 24, 2022 — and watched it play out against the UK, according to Crawford, the center's former commandant.

He did not detail the exact outcomes of the simulation, which took place in 2022, but it's understood that the UK's air defenses were breached.

The simulation was a stark lesson, Crawford said.

"We've stood for years at the western edge of Europe feeling as though the rest of the continent has stood between us and the enemy," he told those in attendance.

But "Ukraine has made us all sit up and that drove some of the work we were doing in the warfare center to get after how we would solve a problem like that if a similar scenario was pitted against the UK."

Russia pummeled Ukraine with missiles during the opening salvo of its full-scale invasion.

The UK has improved its air defenses since 2022 and uses an approach that integrates aircraft, ships, and land-based systems — a network critical to defeating any attempt to land invasion forces in the UK.

There are also notable differences between how Russia attacked Ukraine and how it might challenge the UK's air defenses, and — given that ground-launched missiles would need to pass through European airspace — if Russia were to attack the UK it might opt to mobilize its Northern fleet and launch an attack from the Atlantic.

Crawford also said that "over the last three years, the scenario has become much more complex, in terms of the types of systems that we need to be able to counter, but then also the mass as well."

"When you see swarms of hundreds of drones now operating in Ukraine, some of them decoys, some of them with munitions on board, the challenge is how do you tackle them all or do you tackle them all?" he added. "That is a challenge we have right across the West."

Crawford described Ukraine as a wake-up call, "where you have two countries with very capable integrated air defence systems going head to head, with neither side really achieving any form of air superiority, which has been a cornerstone of air operations for decades."

He added that this had been made more complex by the rise of drones and autonomy, where you can have "swarms of several hundred munitions — not just drones but combined with rockets and ICBMs, at all levels and in all spheres."

The concept of air superiority has significantly changed, he said. "We tended to think of it as theater-wide and something you achieved over time. Now we see air superiority being from trench to trench and from zero to 50 feet, rather than necessarily being something that's done right across the theater."

While the attack on the UK that Crawford described was just a simulation, he said that Western countries need to learn from what is happening in Ukraine, and can't assume their home bases are safe.

"We in the UK over the last few decades have become focused on being garrison safe and making assumptions that we are safe to operate from the home base because most of the wars we've been fighting have been overseas. We need to reverse that thinking and assume that from here on, we're under threat in the home base now as well."

"The UK stands fully prepared to defend itself against any threat alongside our NATO allies," a spokesperson for the UK's Ministry of Defense said.

"Our military is equipped with a range of advanced capabilities to provide a layered approach to air and missile defence. This includes the world-class Sea Viper missile system, which has successfully shot down a Houthi rebel ballistic missile and attack drones in the Red Sea."

• Russia "is a lot weaker than many people realize," Michael Carpenter, a former Biden official, said.
• Russia has burned through much of its Soviet-era stockpiles and is increasingly reliant on new munitions.
• Russian weapons are going straight to the front to be used within weeks, Carpenter said.

Russia "is a lot weaker than many people realize," Michael Carpenter, who served as the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia and Ukraine at the Pentagon between 2015 and 2017, told the Power Vertical podcast earlier this month.

As an example, Carpenter said that much of Russia's amped-up military production is going straight to the front lines of its war in Ukraine.

"Although it has dramatically ramped up its military production, it is essentially using all of that production within weeks of it rolling out on the factory floor," he said.

Russia has gone through its vast Soviet-era stockpiles of equipment at a staggering rate since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In February, the International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated that Russia had lost 14,000 main battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, and armored personnel carriers since the start of the full-scale invasion.

Pavel Luzin, a senior fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis, predicted in January that "2025 will be the last year Russia can rely on its massive stockpiles of Soviet-era conventional arms, including artillery, main battle tanks and armored vehicles."

If Russia's losses continue as they have done, he estimated that by mid-year, Russia will be reliant on newly manufactured arms.

Reliance on others

Russia is increasingly leaning on its allies like Iran and North Korea to cover any ammunition shortfalls.

Recently-released analysis by Reuters and the Open Source Centre research group found that up to 100% of munitions used by Russia in some engagements came from North Korea.

"There is no excess stockpile that the Russians have that they could use if somehow they were cut off from their Chinese sponsors, or also their Iranian and North Korean supporters," Carpenter said.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's own supply issues are well documented, and could get worse as the Trump White House cools on its support.

Ukraine says its homegrown production of military drones — vital on the front lines of this conflict — is now the biggest in the world.

There's also been a historic boost to European defense funding through the ReArm Europe initiative, announced in early March, which aims to unlock about $840 billion in defense funding for both the continent and Ukraine.

However, there is no sign that Russia's military production — or fighting — efforts are grinding down.

In April, US Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO's supreme allied commander in Europe, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Russia is on track to build a 155mm shell stockpile "three times greater than the United States and Europe combined."

Moscow is also on track to replace most of its vital equipment lost in 2024, he added.

In a following Power Vertical episode, military analyst Michael Kofman said that after a winter lull, Russia "has renewed offensive intensity," with combined mechanized assaults that he described as a "Mad Max approach."

• UK defense giant BAE Systems says it's about to massively boost its 155mm shell production.
• It's aiming to use new methods to amp up production and reduce the reliance on imports.
• This comes amid worries over the UK's stockpiles, with half a million rounds sent to Ukraine.

BAE Systems says it's about to radically increase its production of 155mm shells, leaning on advances in how it produces munitions.

The UK defense contractor said its new production methods are a "major breakthrough" that will allow it to reach a sixteenfold increase in 155mm shell manufacturing by the summer.

As a result, it says it will not only be able to meet the UK's demand, but will also begin to supply for export by the end of 2026.

The announcement comes amid ongoing anxiety about the UK's stockpiles of key ammunition, having sent Ukraine half a million artillery rounds as of February this year.

It also appears to address a wider global scramble toward reducing dependence on imports and having homegrown access to critical resources and manufacturing capabilities.

BAE Systems' new approach is twofold, affecting the production of both explosives and propellants for shells.

A new formulation for propellants has been developed, it said, reducing the need for nitrocellulose and nitroglycerin, compounds that are in high demand across multiple industries worldwide.

Meanwhile, RDX explosives — the key explosive in 155mm shells — are to be produced through continuous flow processing, a method that's common in manufacturing but has not yet been applied in defense.

It essentially means that shells are made in an uninterrupted process at smaller scale, rather than in large batches, an approach that, in other industries, has resulted in much greater efficiency.

BAE Systems has until now been reliant on the US and France for its supply of RDX.

Trevor Taylor, director of the Defence, Industries & Society Programme at the Royal United Services Institute, outlined the advantages of the new process.

A small-scale process avoids safety risks associated with a single large production plant, Taylor told BI.

He added that the company's ambition is likely to be "to control costs at lower production rates, and to be able to surge production levels by operating more hours when needed without a large labor force that would be idle in less pressing times."

A senior BAE Systems executive with knowledge of the developments told BI that the company plans to sell the technology abroad, promoting other countries' ability to develop sovereign ammunition production.

BAE Systems, like other British defense companies, works in line with the UK Ministry of Defence's priorities and does not sell to the UK's adversaries — meaning that the new system is not likely to end up in Russian hands anytime soon.

The company is the UK's largest defense manufacturer. It won a £2.4 billion ($3.2 billion) government munitions contract in 2020, which was ramped up in 2023 in recognition of the ongoing war in Ukraine.

The company says it's invested £163.5 million, or about $220 million, in new manufacturing sites and tech over the last five years.

• Ukraine says its air force struck a drone hub in Kursk, killing up to 20 drone operators.
• Russia used the site "to launch reconnaissance, strike, and FPV drones," Ukraine's army said.
• The reported attack occurred before a 30-hour Easter truce between Russia and Ukraine.

Ukraine says its air force struck a drone complex in the Russian region of Kursk, killing up to 20 drone operators.

The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine shared an image on Telegram on Monday of a large plume of smoke and debris rising from an industrial site, saying it was "used by the enemy to launch reconnaissance, strike, and FPV drones."

It said the drone hub was near Tetkino, a village close to the border with Ukraine and roughly 40 miles west of Sudhza.

Business Insider could not independently verify the claim, but was able to geolocate the image to the outskirts of Tetkino.

The general staff said the attack took place on Saturday, before President Vladimir Putin proposed a 30-hour truce with Ukraine. It did not give details of how the attack was carried out.

"The Armed Forces of Ukraine will continue to destroy elements of enemies military infrastructure until a just peace will be achieved," it said.

Drones have been a major part of the fighting in Ukraine, with both sides deploying them to surveil and attack. There are so many drones in the skies over Ukraine that one drone operator told BI this month that soldiers jam everything when they can't tell friendly and enemy drones apart.

Russia retook the Kursk town of Sudzha in March, reducing to a sliver Ukraine's grip on the region that Kyiv's forces initially attacked last August, in a cross-border offensive that caught Russian forces off guard.

Ukrainian soldiers, talking to the BBC, reported their retreat as being like a "horror movie" and described a near-constant barrage of drone attacks on departing columns.

As of Monday, Ukraine still claimed to hold territory up to five miles into Russia, according to analysis by the Washington DC-based think tank the Institute for the Study of War.

Much of Russia's success in retaking Kursk has been attributed to advanced drone techniques, including the use of fiber-optic drones that are immune to jamming, and the aerial targeting of Ukrainian supply lines.

• Carlyle Group CEO Harvey Schwartz warned that a recession is a possibility.
• But he told Bloomberg Television it was too early to make a judgment, and there could be a rebound.
• The biggest worry for the global economy is a sustained trade war with China, Schwartz said.

Carlyle Group CEO Harvey Schwartz said that a recession "is certainly on the table," but that it's too soon to know for sure.

"I think it's very early to make a judgment about whether or not we have a recession or we actually have a huge rebound," the former Goldman Sachs COO told Bloomberg Television in an interview released Sunday.

Schwartz's remarks came after a roller-coaster of tariff announcements by President Donald Trump this month.

Stock markets tumbled in the wake of the announcements, only to recover some value after Trump paused the higher tariff rates on most countries.

Still, the White House said Chinese exports face a levy of up to 245%, and there is a blanket 10% import tariff for the rest of the world.

Schwartz said a recession can be avoided if the markets settle on a "new equilibrium" in the coming days and months. The worry is the effect of uncertainty in the meantime, he said.

The signs of market disruption already appear to be manifesting in certain sectors. A newly dispatched Boeing 737 Max was spotted returning from China, and DHL has suspended some US-bound shipments under new customs rules.

The uncertainty is "troubling because it stalls decision-making and chills activity," Schwartz said, adding that CEOs are likely switching from growth planning to contingency planning.

For Schwartz, the most worrying part is the prospect of a sustained US trade war with China.

"I wouldn't say it keeps me up at night," he told Bloomberg TV. "But I think if you think about the information we're all seeing in the marketplace, it's really critical for the global economy and for trade that we and China find a place of cooperation and equilibrium."

Last week, Trump said he was reluctant to push China tariffs higher because it could hurt US consumption.

The ripple effects of the stand-off between the two major global powers are already threatening to bleed into other economies. On Monday, China's Commerce Ministry said it would retaliate against any country seeking "appeasement" by targeting trade deals with the US that harm Chinese interests.

Last month, Schwartz said business leaders should "buckle up" for market volatility in the wake of tariff announcements.

Asked about this in his latest remarks, Schwartz said: "I think they should still stay buckled. It's just a question of whether or not the airbags come out now."

• The UK's MOD said it used a radiowave-based weapon to shoot down a drone swarm.
• This would be a first for the cutting-edge weaponry in the UK.
• The RF-DEW disrupts drones with high-frequency radio waves and costs 13 cents a shot.

The British Army says it shot down a drone swarm using a radiowave-based directed energy weapon, in a first for the technology in the UK.

At an undisclosed weapons range in Wales, the Radiofrequency Directed Energy Weapon, or RF-DEW, tracked and took down the swarm during the trial, and worked with "near-instant effect," the Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

RF-DEW has been shown in previous trials to be effective from over 1,000 yards.

But — as the largest such trial in the UK to date — this was the first time it took down a whole swarm of drones.

RF-DEW is being developed by a consortium led by French manufacturer Thales, which dubbed the tech "RapidDestroyer" during trials.

Thales also collaborated with both the French and British defense ministries on the MMCM naval mine countermeasures system that is being rolled out this year.

RF-DEW uses high-frequency radio waves to disrupt or damage electronic components inside drones, in what Thales described as a "hard-kill" mechanism. This is in contrast to existing systems that jam, or confuse drones, Thales said.

The technology is considered to be a low-cost partner to larger-scale, missile-based air defense systems, and costs just 13 cents a shot, according to the MOD.

The British Army conducted the trials against 100 small quadcopter drones, of two types: The Boresight Raider, a drone with swarming capabilities designed specifically for use in counter-drone tech trials, and the Parrot Anafi, a commercial off-the-shelf drone camera.

Sgt Mayers, the British officer who brought down the drones, said that the system was "quick to learn and easy to use."

"With improvements on range and power, which could come with further development, this would be a great asset to Layered Air Defence," Mayers added.

This comes against a backdrop of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has seen major advancements in the use of drones in combat.

Drone swarms — where groups of drones act autonomously or semi-autonomously and in concert with each other — are still in their infancy, with Ukrainian companies trialing swarms designed to resist Russian electronic warfare.

The RF-DEW trial is part of a push to increase new technologies in British defense capabilities. There are currently no plans to deploy the system in Ukraine, the MOD said.

In early April, the UK government announced a £400 million, or $530 million, fund for defense innovation, with 10% of the MOD's equipment budget to be ringfenced for new tech.

• A British man who fought in Ukraine shared insights on essential gear for his reconnaissance work.
• Macer Gifford, a former trader, fought with Ukraine's 131st reconnaissance battalion.
• Equipment shortages in Ukraine make retrieving lost gear crucial for soldiers, he said.

A British man who volunteered to fight with a Ukrainian army unit against Russia's invasion told Business Insider about the standard — and unexpected — items he carried while he was fighting there.

Macer Gifford is the nom de guerre of former currency trader Harry Rowe, who has fought in both Syria and Ukraine as an international volunteer.

He spoke to BI's Authorized Account series about what it's really like to defend Ukraine.

He described the kit he found essential when carrying out missions in a reconnaissance unit and the simple rules he followed to keep it and himself safe.

Guns, grenades, and candy

Gifford fought with Ukraine's 131st reconnaissance battalion in 2022, fighting in places like Lyman and the islands of the freezing Dnipro river before later forming a specialized drone unit.

He told BI that he had different kit for different roles, but there were some constants, like his uniform.

"Broadly speaking, I would prefer to use a British military uniform, primarily for quality reasons," he told BI.

Gifford said that, during reconnaissance missions, he needed slim body armor to navigate tight spaces such as thorny wooded thickets or to squeeze through gaps in buildings. He'd carry magazines and grenades on a plate carrier vest, with additional magazines on a battle belt.

"There was a knife constantly on my plate carrier," he said.

He also had an assault pack for combat operations, though during hotter weather, he would don a Camelbak — a pack with an inbuilt water reservoir and tube, which also had space for more ammo and grenades.

Gifford said most of his time was spent in cold conditions.

As for his guns, he started out with the 131st's standard-issue AK-74. Later, he was given the Grot — a Polish rifle, which he said he customized with a full grip and a red dot sight with a magnifier. He also replaced the steel magazines with plastic, he said.

Gifford has previously said that he's "actually a big fan of the Grot," which has faced some complaints of jamming in older models.

In a video to social media followers, he said that his 2017 model Grot had its problems and had jammed once when he carried it into Kherson, but the 2019 model had never jammed despite his putting a lot of rounds through it.

"So a big fan of the Grot rifle and that's something that I've carried for well over a year and had no problems with whatsoever," he said.

For a secondary weapon, he used a US-made 40mm single-shot grenade launcher, and he carried 12 grenades slung around his neck.

While US and UK-made grenades were "prized" among Ukrainians, he generally used Soviet-made ones, he said.

He described how, for longer missions, his crew might carry an RPG, a shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon.

"But in regards to actually anti-tank, it was always NATO that would provide the best kits," he said, pointing to NLAWs, Javelins, and the Spanish-made Matador.

Gifford didn't bring any personal effects with him as he's "not a very superstitious person." But he did take two small luxuries that made all the difference.

One key item? Wet wipes.

Far away from hot showers, Gifford would wash with a quick "bird bath" using the wipes to bring "some level of civility" to missions that could last up to a week, he said.

On top of basic food and drink, there was one other essential: candy.

Looking forward to eating one piece of candy each day "helps you regimen your days, which are so incredibly long," he said.

An equipment shortage makes losing expensive kit even more serious — and some soldiers risk their lives to recover it

Ukraine's ongoing equipment shortages mean that every piece of kit is precious. Gifford said that he had to fundraise for much of his equipment, and losing it was a serious matter.

"You can lose something that's incredibly valuable, very fast," he said. "It could be some night vision goggles that cost like two grand, three grand — gone, like that."

Soldiers have reported risking their lives to retrieve lost gear.

Oleksandr Pleskov, a soldier in Ukraine's 125th Brigade, previously told BI of a perilous attempt to retrieve a drone that had malfunctioned and landed in no-mans-land near Bakhmut. The $6,000 drone was recovered — but the risk involved was "stupidity and audacity," Pleskov said.

Similarly determined, Gifford recalled running into a burning house the Russians had just shelled to retrieve precious kit.

"I was just running through this burning building, just collecting gear, even stuff that other guys had dropped, and bringing it out," he said.

There's a strong incentive to retrieve even ruined kit, he said. Soldiers are heavily scrutinized if they report losing a weapon, something that Gifford attributes to Ukraine's efforts to counter procurement corruption in the military.

He recalled returning to the burned-down house later to retrieve a PKM machine gun that had been "burned to a crisp" just so they could account for it to their higher-ups, he said.

"You have to prove that the weapon is lost in combat," he said. "And if you can prove that, there's obviously no punishment, and you'll be reissued a weapon."

An unexpected killer

One of Gifford's passions has been to fundraise for thousands of IFAKs, or Individual First Aid Kits, and for soldiers to be trained in using them on the front lines.

He said IFAKs were essential to his own missions, ensuring that soldiers could provide each other with tactical combat casualty care, or "TCCC," even if they didn't have a combat medic.

"There's nothing worse than having a casualty and not being able to treat them effectively," he said. "Not just for the person who's suffering, but also for the people who are having to work around them and to watch them suffer."

In Syria, where he was from 2015 to 2017, he saw deaths from what he said were "very survivable" injuries due to a lack of TCCC knowledge, he said. Some people died of hypothermia even before they bled out — making temperature regulation an overlooked issue for TCCC, he said.

The kit and training allow for basic medical treatment while under fire, giving soldiers "the treatment they need to extend their life just as long for them to get to the hospital," Gifford told BI.

• Macer Gifford is a former trader who fought in Ukraine's army as an international volunteer.
• He described the best — and the worst — of his fellow volunteers.
• He said they were a "band of brothers" who strongly aided Ukraine — with some "crazy ones mixed in."

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, thousands around the world responded to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's impassioned call to come and defend his country.

Ukraine quickly found itself welcoming a grab bag of volunteers, from those with no combat experience to committed, steady fighters.

Macer Gifford, the nom de guerre of Harry Rowe, a former currency trader who joined the Ukrainian army in 2022, became one of the most recognizable figures supporting the country's defense.

The Brit, who fought there for two years, told Business Insider about the chaotic first influx of volunteers, and the best — and worst — attitudes they brought with them.

Thousands of volunteers, nowhere to put them

Early estimates for the number of international volunteers who signed up to fight for Ukraine range from 4,000 to 20,000.

"This was a burst of energy, human energy, goodwill, passion from the international community," said Gifford, who originally went out to help with aid and training but after the violence committed by Russian forces at Bucha felt compelled to fight.

He said Ukraine's military infrastructure wasn't ready for such an influx, and, at first, training and organization was poor.

Initially, the influx looked as if it would sap Ukraine's organization at a time when it was scrambling to train its own troops, he said.

But ultimately, he added, Ukraine was able to absorb them effectively.

The 'true gems' who showed up — and stayed

Volunteers came from all walks of life — and with a wide range of experiences and motivations.

"You saw very capable people with fantastic skills wanting to go out to share that knowledge," Gifford said.

He added that many brought skills in battlefield medicine and familiarity with the Western weapons systems that were starting to arrive.

The "true gems" were those who stayed, showed humility, and became trusted by the Ukrainians, respecting the language and the culture, he said.

Those people quickly became extremely useful in the fight.

The 'passionate ones'

Others showed up with no experience at all.

These were "the passionate ones," he said — those who heard Zelenskyy's desperate appeal at the start of the conflict and were moved by it, motivated by politics and ideology.

Gifford isn't critical of the inexperienced people who showed up full of zeal.

That's how he started out, having fought alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces against ISIS in 2015 — initially with zero experience.

What matters is how people adapt and handle themselves. "You're not a hero just for turning up," he said. "You're a hero for what you do."

The worst kind of volunteer

Gifford said there were some "horror stories" with international volunteers.

Ukraine's International Legion, set up early on to accommodate the fighters Zelenskyy called for, developed a reputation for dysfunction.

Gifford said he preferred to work with Ukrainians.

"Frankly, some very dangerous people have turned up as well," he said. "But they are far and few between."

Some troubled people came "primarily for a sense of completion," he said, adding: "Many, quite frankly, shouldn't have been there at all."

"They might've been fleeing something in their home country, whether that's drink or drug abuse," he added. "They might see Ukraine as a place to prove themselves."

Early on, volunteers also appeared to have accidentally given away the location of a training site that was then struck by Russian forces.

Gifford said the worst kind of volunteer was the one who showed up thinking they knew it all.

This kind of person "thinks that a tour or two in Afghanistan or Iraq means that he can boss around people in Ukraine," he said, adding that the conflict in Ukraine was vastly different from anything that even most experienced fighters had seen.

The 'screamers'

There's another type of foreigner who shows up in Ukraine, he said.

"They call 'em 'screamers,'" Gifford said. "A screamer, by definition, is someone who wears full Ukrainian uniform, often without a unit, who's not even in the Ukrainian army."

He said they wander through town, "sitting in coffee shops in places like Lviv and Odesa, which are perfectly safe, and don't go within a thousand miles of the Ukrainian frontline."

Gratitude to foreigners

Gifford said he didn't like to talk too much about the negative side of international volunteering, for fear of tarring all the volunteers with the same brush.

He said that many who'd trodden this path had worked to prove themselves and that the gratitude of ordinary Ukrainians was undeniable.

People have offered to buy drinks or pay for his meal because they "love international volunteers," he said. "Ordinary Ukrainians just love the fact that they're not alone and there are people willing to risk their life."

He also saw firsthand the gratitude of Ukrainians as his unit helped villages in Kherson Oblast, in the south of the country.

Ultimately, Gifford said of the volunteers, "I see them as a band of brothers who went out to support Ukraine in its hour of need, with a few crazy ones mixed in."

• The European Union advised citizens to stockpile 72 hours of supplies for potential crises.
• It's part of a wider strategy to enhance Europe's response to emerging threats.
• Experts advise stockpiling supplies to last much longer than 72 hours.

The European Union issued a stark new advisory on Wednesday, advising people to stockpile 72 hours' worth of supplies in case of "threats and crises."

It's part of a wide-ranging strategy designed to "enhance Europe's capability to prevent and respond to emerging threats," the statement said.

While the EU did not specifically mention the war in Ukraine, it comes amid growing concerns over Russian aggression.

"We face an increasing number of external security challenges and a growing number of hybrid attacks in our common European space," said Kaja Kallas, the EU's representative for foreign affairs and security.

The EU's strategy involves disaster preparation at the level of international and military cooperation, and for essential services such as hospitals, schools, and telecommunications.

Its most eye-catching advice — at least for the EU's 450 million people — is for everyone to have an emergency stockpile of supplies.

Stockpile what?

Unlike well-prepared American families in the path of hurricanes, Europeans have not typically made it a priority to draw up plans for emergencies, said Lucy Easthope, a leading advisor in emergency planning and disaster recovery.

Seventy-two hours of supplies has long been the standard advice issued by authorities in many countries, she told Business Insider. "The problem with the messaging today is it's not really fit for anything other than probably a short weather or power-based outage."

The EU's preparedness and crisis management commissioner, Hadja Lahbib, said it's up to each member state to define what to stockpile "according to their geographical and geostrategic positions."

Ilan Kelman, a professor of disaster and health at University College London, outlined some basic advice to BI — like keeping plenty of bottled water on hand.

"That's for drinking, it's also for hand washing, for toilets and other hygiene needs," he said.

About a gallon of water per person a day is needed just for drinking, according to Swrajit Sarkar, a specialist in emergency nutrition at City St George's, University of London.

He said that ideally, all five main food groups should be covered across non-perishable items including nuts, lentils, dried fruits, and canned beans.

For dairy alternatives, Sarkar recommended powdered or ultra-heat-treated milk — and for cheese lovers, he said that waxed cheeses, like Babybel or Gouda, have a very long shelf life.

Granola or protein bars keep well, make good snacks and deliver energy, too, Sarkar said. He also suggests dark chocolate, as studies prove it's a mood booster.

Kelman said basic grain staples such as rice or pasta store well, but aren't easy to cook if there's no electricity.

Meats or fish should be smoked or otherwise preserved — and he advised keeping plenty of starches such as bread and crackers.

Non-food items

Kelman said people should try to ensure they have a radio — either battery-powered or wind-up.

Outgoing communication is "a lot more challenging" unless people want to invest in walkie-talkies or shortwave outgoing radios, he said.

Hygiene items such as sanitary pads, soap, and nappies, as well as first aid kits and essential medicine, are also a must, Kelman added.

And light — and power — are important. "I have a power bank for my phone," Easthope said. "I have a solar-powered light, solar-powered torches, chargeable torches."

For safety reasons, she recommended avoiding candles or indoor portable cookers if at all possible.

Easthope also recommended having essential documents, like passports and insurance papers, on hand.

What's often forgotten is morale. "It's very, very important to keep the mind busy," she said. Coloring books, knitting, and board games — any entertainment that doesn't use electricity — are a godsend for people in a heightened state of anxiety.

72 hours as the bare minimum

Kelman advised stocking up for at least two weeks: "If we do end up in a regional or even full-scale military conflict, then there is not a chance that 72 hours of supplies is going to last anyone."

Anything that takes out the power grid — such as a missile strike, or a solar flare — could take weeks to fix, he added.

Yet even asking people to have three days of extra food in reserve may be beyond the continent's least well-off, Kelman said.

He added: "The tragedy is that many people cannot afford to put enough food on the table every day, so making demands that they should have 72 hours — or two weeks — of supplies is untenable in today's economic environment."

• Ukraine said a recent attack on Russia's Engels-2 air base destroyed 96 cruise missiles.
• Satellite images show blackened craters.
• Russia has used the air base to launch regular bomber attacks on Ukraine.

Ukraine's armed forces said that a recent attack on one of Russia's key military air bases caused a stockpile of 96 air-launched cruise missiles to explode.

Ukraine's General Staff of the Armed Forces said Thursday that the missiles were destroyed as the result of a secondary explosion. It's unclear if any aircraft were hit.

Images of a massive plume of flame and smoke went viral last week after the attack on Russia's Engels-2 military air base, in the Saratov region, which is used by Russia to launch Tu-95 and Tu-160 bomber attacks on Ukraine.

The missiles had been intended for use in three upcoming operations, Ukraine said.

It added that further strikes took out large fuel reserves intended for the aircraft.

Business Insider was unable to independently confirm the statement.

Taking out 96 cruise missiles would be an impressive achievement. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that Russia's air-launched cruise missiles, depending on their type, cost between $500,000 and $1 million each.

Before-and-after satellite images of Engels-2 showed large, blackened craters and damaged bunkers as of March 21.

The region's governor, Roman Busargin, said the strike was the largest to date in the region.

While Russian authorities typically do not give out numbers of strikes, Busargin said that 54 Ukrainian drones had been shot down in the attack.

The March 20 strike, around 450 miles away from unoccupied Ukrainian territory, comes as part of Kyiv's campaign to degrade the Russian military and energy infrastructure that fuels the war effort.

It was the latest in a string of attacks that targeted the base.

In January, Ukraine said it had conducted its "largest ever" attack on Russian military facilities, hitting an oil storage facility for refueling the planes at Engels-2 in the process. That was its second attack on Engels in a week.

More recently, a likely drone attack set ablaze the Kavkazskaya oil pumping station in Russia's Krasnodar Krai for a full week, putting it out of action for the foreseeable future.

Ukraine said that the strike on Engels-2 took out a chunk of Russian firepower, but military analysts have long warned that, despite sanctions, Russia has few barriers when it comes to resupplying itself with missiles.

Analysis of Russian cruise missile strikes show that Moscow has launched up to 223 missiles a month against Ukrainian targets since late 2022.

• A Russian oil pumping station was ablaze a week after a drone strike.
• The Caspian Pipeline Consortium accused Ukraine of a "terrorist" attack on it.
• It said oil transfer is halted and its shareholders are being impacted.

An oil pumping station in Russia that was targeted by a suspected Ukrainian drone strike was still on fire a week later, with its parent company saying that the losses were hitting its shareholders.

The Kavkazskaya pump station, in Russia's Krasnodar Krai, was struck in an overnight attack that began on March 18.

The station is part of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which lists multiple oil producers among its partners, including Chevron-led Tengizchevroil.

CPC said the site pumped about 1.5 million tons of crude oil in 2024.

Authorities initially said that drone debris hit a pipeline, starting a 215-square-ft blaze that quickly spread. According to Russian reports, the fire expanded dramatically within a matter of days.

The fire was finally extinguished on Tuesday after spreading up to 100,000 square feet, the region's governor, Veniamin Kondratiev, said.

CPC accused Ukraine of a "terrorist" attack and said that, combined with an earlier strike on another pumping station, it's had a "destructive impact on the CPC financials," which will "impact all of its shareholders."

The pipeline is a major oil export route for Kazakhstan, with state-owned KazMunaiGaz holding a 19% share. The Russian government, which holds 24%, is the consortium's largest shareholder.

The station will not be transporting oil "in the foreseeable future," the company said.

However, Sally Jones, a spokesperson for Chevron, told Business Insider in a statement that Tengizchevroil's production and export of crude oil via the CPC "remain uninterrupted."

Ukraine has used strikes on Russian oil and gas infrastructure as part of its response to Russia's full-scale invasion.

The latest energy infrastructure damage came amid President Donald Trump's attempts to mediate a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

Russian reports said that the initial fire started a chain reaction involving an explosion and an oil spill that ignited, with more than 450 firefighters deployed to tackle it.

NASA's satellite-powered FIRMS fire-tracking tool appeared to show that what had been a single hot spot at the site on March 19 had expanded out to three large areas as of early Tuesday.

The fire was the latest in a series of attacks on CPC facilities. The consortium said that Russian air defenses repelled an overnight drone attack on the same site on Monday.

Meanwhile, on February 17, CPC said a nearby pumping station, Kropotkinskaya, was attacked "by seven UAVs loaded with explosives and shrapnel," which reduced its output.

• Trump has said his minerals deal with Ukraine could net the US $500 billion from rare earths alone.
• The deal appears to be moving ahead, but readily exploitable deposits of rare earths may be a mirage.
• "Ukraine has a solid mining industry. But it's not based on rare earths," one geologist told BI.

Critical minerals experts have been watching President Donald Trump's minerals deal with Ukraine unfold with more than a little puzzlement.

On Monday, Trump said a revenue-sharing agreement on Ukrainian critical minerals would be signed soon. Rare earth elements have been a key focus of the proposed deal, with Trump repeatedly referencing them.

Yet "I cannot find credible evidence of rare earth deposits in Ukraine. At all," Laura Lewis, a professor in chemical, mechanical and industrial engineering at Northeastern University's College of Engineering, told Business Insider.

Erik Jonsson, a senior geologist at the Geological Survey of Sweden, said that "Ukraine has a solid mining industry, but it's not based on rare earths."

Seeking $500 billion

Initially cast as a stepping stone toward Russia-Ukraine peace talks, the status of the proposed deal has been in limbo for some time.

At the end of February, a tense Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy looked like it might blow up the deal.

But days later, Zelenskyy said he was ready to sign it, and Trump, speaking to reporters on March 3, said it's "a great deal for us" offering "the finest rare earths."

The proposed deal made public in late February agreed on the joint exploitation of government-owned Ukrainian "natural resource assets." It's unclear what the US would provide other than vague security assurances.

Trump has framed the deal's potential profits as a means of recouping the cost of military aid to Ukraine.

The deal covered a sprawling amount of materials including critical mineral deposits and fossil fuels. Some of these, like titanium and graphite, are already being successfully mined as major industries in Ukraine.

But it's rare earth elements that generated real excitement in the White House.

These are a subset of critical minerals — materials in high demand in industries like military and consumer tech that governments consider essential to national security.

Trump has attached particularly large figures to the value of Ukrainian rare earth elements, telling Fox News last month that he wants "like $500 billion worth of rare earth" from the partnership.

"It could be a trillion dollar deal, it could be whatever, but it's rare earths and other things," he said a few weeks later.

The problem is that the public evidence base for a significant presence of readily exploitable rare earths in Ukraine is remarkably thin.

Experts ask for the data

"I was surprised when I first saw" the emphasis on rare earth elements, Lewis told BI.

She's not alone. Specialist outlets such as the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute have also been highly skeptical.

Jonsson told BI he was especially surprised by the kind of figures being discussed around Ukraine's rare earth elements, and its mineral resources in general.

Ukraine's publicly available mapping of critical metals and minerals appears to be based on Soviet-era surveys, and Jonsson and Lewis say these fall far short of what an investor would need to move ahead confidently.

A 938-hectare deposit in Novopoltavske, in Zaporizhzhia, said to have rare earth elements, for example, was last properly examined in 1991, according to the State Geologic and Subsoil Survey of Ukraine.

While the Ukrainian Geological Survey has published a brochure of investment opportunities around sites like this, the data in these documents simply aren't enough to make a real judgment, Jonsson said.

"The main point is we don't know what kind of investigations there have been," he added. To be able to say what's there, Jonsson said he'd need a far more detailed report outlining "every drill hole."

This doesn't mean Ukraine doesn't have any usable rare earth elements.

"They probably have it," he said, but in publicly available reports, some are only mentioned alongside other elements as a "sort of second or third commodity," he said.

A tough, long-term prospect

Rare earth elements don't just sit there waiting to be hacked out of the ground — some occur as oxides, which involve intensive chemical processes and, increasingly, emerging technology to extract and process.

"Just because you have something in the ground does not mean that you're going to be able to get a metal form of it that will go into technology," Lewis said.

It would probably take "multiple billions" of dollars and around 15 years to get production really under way, she said.

Ukrainian authorities didn't respond to requests for comment.

There's also a war on

Some analysts have previously told BI they are concerned about the US' supply of rare earths, citing a lack of transparency around the size of national stockpiles.

The US State Department didn't respond to a request for comment.

Trying to get access to natural resources into the process of making a peace deal is a "novel arrangement," Rebecca Seidl-Inglesby, the lead expert in critical minerals and metals at Baker-Botts law firm, told BI.

"With this amount of uncertainty, I cannot think of another example even comparable to this," she said.

But investors want certainty over things like land rights and the quality of infrastructure — which have huge question marks in war-torn, partially-occupied Ukraine, she said.

In fact, several of the prospective rare earth sites highlighted by the Ukrainian Geological Survey are under Russian occupation.

(One aspect of the deal that appeals to some Ukrainian commentators is that it gives the US a stronger stake in the country's long-term security.)

"I think the private sector will certainly be interested in continuing to watch this, but it would be difficult, especially given how capital-intensive these projects are," Seidl-Inglesby said.

There's another source of long-term uncertainty that could also be offputting to investors, said Gavin Harper, a research fellow in critical materials at the UK's University of Birmingham.

The Budapest Memorandum — signed in 1994 by Ukraine, the US, the UK, and Russia after Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal — ruled out "economic coercion" or any attempt to "secure advantages of any kind" as part of security assurances given in the interests of Ukraine's sovereignty.

Harper said Trump's attempt to leverage Ukraine's vulnerability for economic gain in the middle of a war "contravenes both the spirit and the letter" of the agreement.

Speaking to CNN last month, Ben Wallace, the UK's former defense minister, blasted the mineral deal, describing it as "extortion" against Ukraine.

Russia has, of course, ignored the Budapest Memorandum many times in attacking Ukraine. But for US investors, reliability in the eyes of international law is a "foundational thing," Harper said.

For Lewis, out of all the possible critical minerals in Ukraine that the US could potentially invest in, "rare earths are not it."