Jonny L - DTU & UAO

@defensetech4Ukr (DTU) & @UkraineAidOps (UAO)

[Jonny L - DTU & UAO @J_Leap]

Traded patches with this hero of the 23rd Brigade in Donetsk after having the honor of helping deliver them some gear and supplies from @UkraineAidOps, thanks to our amazing donor family.

#UkraineWillWin

[Rob Lee @RALee85]

Last month, I interviewed Lieutenant Colonel Vladyslav "Shram" Tovstyi, the commander of the 38th Marine Brigade's (@38obrmp) Corsair UAS Battalion for the Ukraine Military Podcast.

(00:00) Introduction
(03:35) The background of the Corsair Battalion
(04:40) What is the current situation and the effect of weather on the battlefield
(06:50) Russian tactics
(08:25) Assessment of Russia's Rubicon Center
(09:35) Effect of Russia scaling its unmanned systems forces
(10:45) What was the effect when Russia lost access to Starlink?
(11:20) What effect is Ukraine's Middle Strike campaign having on the front line?
(13:43) Urban warfare in Myrnohrad vs fighting for tree lines
(16:20) Role of fiber optic cable FPVs and what is the ratio of fiber optic to radio signal FPVs from both sides?
(19:35) Use of Starlink on FPVs and heavy bomber drones
(20:55) Accuracy of fiber optic cable and radio signal FPVs and how many FPVs are used per day
(25:15) The role of tall buildings in drone warfare
(26:45) UGV and UAS logistics
(29:10) How many heavy bomber drones do you lose per week and what are the typical missions?
(30:30) How many UGV missions are conducted per day and how many UGVs do you lose?
(32:09) Assessment of the E-points system
(34:15) What is the structure of your UAS Battalion?
(35:00) What lessons should other militaries draw from this war about drone warfare?
(37:15) What effect would another Russian mobilization have on the war?
(39:40) How many Molniya and FPV do you face per day?
https://t.co/pkDc3g37QQ

[Peter Girnus 🦅 @gothburz]

I have two stacks on my desk. The left stack is financial disclosure forms from members of Congress. The right stack is waivers for members who filed their financial disclosures late.

The right stack is always taller.

On Wednesday morning, I watched a soldier get arrested on CNN.

I am a Disclosure Analyst for the House Ethics Committee. I have held this position for eleven years. My job is to receive the forms, verify their completeness, and file them. I do not investigate. I do not flag. I do not refer. I file. I have a lanyard. The lanyard says ETHICS.

The soldier's name is Gannon Ken Van Dyke. He is thirty-eight years old. He was stationed at Fort Bragg. He was Special Forces. In December, he created an account on a prediction market called Polymarket. On January 2nd, he bet $32,500 that the president of Venezuela would be removed from power. On January 3rd, he helped remove the president of Venezuela from power. He collected $409,881.

He has been charged with five federal crimes. Commodities fraud. Wire fraud. Unlawful use of confidential government information. Theft of nonpublic government information. Unlawful monetary transaction. The Department of Justice called it "the first-ever insider trading prosecution on event contracts."

I watched this on the television in our break room. Then I walked back to my desk and processed a late financial disclosure from a member of the House Financial Services Committee who purchased $250,000 in bank stocks eleven days before his subcommittee held a closed-door hearing on proposed capital reserve changes.

The filing was forty-seven days late. The STOCK Act requires disclosure within forty-five days. The penalty for late filing is $200.

I waived it.

I waive most of them. In 2021, fifty-four members of Congress and senior staff violated the reporting rules. The fines were minimal. Most were waived. I have a form for the waiver. The form has a box that says "Reason." I write "administrative delay." In ethics, "administrative delay" means the member's office forgot and then remembered when a reporter called. My approval rate is one hundred percent. In any other field, that number would trigger an audit. In mine, it is called thoroughness.

Let me show you what I processed this year.

January. A senator on the Armed Services Committee sold defense contractor shares worth $1.2 million. Three days later, his committee received a classified briefing that the Iran campaign had exceeded its projected cost by 340%. The stock dropped 8%. He filed the disclosure sixty-one days late. I calculated the fine. $200. His chief of staff asked if it could be waived. He did not ask what the senator traded on. Nobody asks that. The form does not have a field for it. I waived the fine. The senator's portfolio returned 23.4% in 2025. The S&P 500 returned 16.8%.

February. A representative on the Energy and Commerce Committee bought pharmaceutical stocks worth $400,000. Two weeks later, her committee advanced a bill that would extend patent exclusivity for the exact drug class she purchased. The stocks rose 14%. She filed on time. There was no fine. There was no investigation. There was nothing to investigate because buying stocks in companies regulated by your own committee is not illegal. It is legal. The STOCK Act made it legal by making it disclosed. In Congress, disclosed means legal. In my office, legal means filed.

March. A member whose spouse manages a portfolio worth $9.2 million reported forty-three separate transactions in a single quarter. Twelve of them were in sectors directly affected by legislation the member co-sponsored. The timing on eight of those twelve was within a two-week window of committee action. I logged all forty-three. None were flagged. We do not flag. We file.

I asked my supervisor once what would happen if I flagged a filing. She said we do not have a form for that. I never asked again.

In 2020, I processed 847 disclosures. In 2023, 1,211. In 2025, 1,614. The number of enforcement actions in each of those years was zero. The numerator changes. The denominator does not.

I want to tell you about the soldier again.

He made $409,881. He tried to delete his Polymarket account by calling customer service and saying he lost access to his email. He moved his profits into a foreign cryptocurrency vault and then into a new brokerage account. He used his real identity. He placed thirteen bets. Every single one was connected to an operation he personally participated in.

In my eleven years, I have processed disclosures from members of Congress who traded on:

Pending FDA approvals they learned about in committee.
Defense appropriations they voted on.
Trade policy they negotiated.
Pandemic response measures they drafted.
Interest rate decisions they were briefed on before the public.

None of them have been charged. None of them have been investigated by the Department of Justice. None of them have been referred to the SEC. The STOCK Act has produced zero prosecutions since it was signed on April 4th, 2012.

Fourteen years. Five hundred and thirty-five members. $635 million in trades last year alone. Zero cases.

My daughter asked me once what happens when someone breaks the rules. I told her we write it down. She asked what happens after that. I said it depends. She was nine. She is twenty now. It does not depend. Nothing happens after that.

The soldier made $409,881 and faces decades in prison. Nancy Pelosi entered Congress in 1987 with a portfolio worth approximately $785,000. It is now worth $133.7 million. That is a return of 16,930%. The Dow Jones returned 2,300% over the same period. Professional fund managers who beat the market for three consecutive years are considered exceptional. She has beaten it for thirty-seven. If a hedge fund produced those returns, the SEC would subpoena the records on a Thursday. She produced them from a building with a chapel and a gift shop.

She announced her retirement last year. No investigation was opened. No disclosure was flagged. Her filings were on time. In my office, on time means compliant. Compliant means closed.

I want to tell you about the fine.

$200. That is the maximum penalty for violating the STOCK Act's disclosure requirements. $200 for a member of Congress whose portfolio gained $4.7 million in a single quarter. I calculated what $200 represents as a percentage of $4.7 million. It is 0.004%. I could not find a comparison that made it meaningful. It is less than the price of the parking pass in the Rayburn garage. It is less than lunch at the members' dining room if you order the crab cakes, which I am told are excellent though I eat at my desk.

Since 2012, thirty-one bills have been introduced to restrict congressional trading. I keep a list. The list is longer than the STOCK Act itself.

On March 5th, 2026, a representative from Michigan introduced the thirty-second. He called it the "No Getting Rich in Congress Act." The bill would prohibit the President, Vice President, members of Congress, and their spouses from trading individual stocks, cryptocurrency, futures, and commodities while in office.

The bill was referred to committee. The committee has not scheduled a hearing. The committee is chaired by a member whose spouse executed $2.1 million in trades last year.

The bill will be reviewed. In my office, reviewed means read. Read means acknowledged. Acknowledged means a status has been assigned. A status is the absence of an action that has been given a name so it looks like one.

The soldier used classified information to make $409,881 on a prediction market. He has been charged with five federal crimes. The Department of Justice announced the case on the same day I processed three disclosures from members who traded on committee knowledge worth a combined $3.8 million.

The difference between the soldier and the members is not what they did. It is the building they did it in. He did it from Fort Bragg. They did it from the Capitol. He used a prediction market. They used the New York Stock Exchange. He bet on a military operation. They bet on the legislation they write.

He did not write the law. They did. They wrote the STOCK Act. Then they funded its enforcement at zero dollars. Then they set its maximum penalty at $200. Then they gave my office the authority to waive it. Then they traded $635 million.

The soldier flew to Caracas. He breached a compound. He put his body between a mission and a bullet. The people who ordered the operation were in a building with a credenza and sparkling water. They did not go to Caracas. They went to their brokerage accounts. The soldier made $409,881 and is now in federal custody. The people who knew what he was going to do before he did it made more and filed less. His prosecution is not a failure of the system. It is the system. One conviction per decade, at the lowest level, so the briefing slides can say enforcement exists. The $409,881 is not the crime. It is the cost of making $635 million look supervised.

In my field, we call this self-regulation.

The soldier's Polymarket account has been frozen. His military career is over. He will spend years in federal prison. My office will process every congressional disclosure filed this year. Every trade logged. Every $200 fine calculated and waived. The system is immaculate.

Fourteen years. Zero prosecutions. $635 million a year. A 16,930% return.

I have not leaked a document. I have not filed a complaint. I have not deviated from the process one single time. The process was written by the people whose forms I process.

As long as the disclosures go up and the cases don't, my performance review says I am meeting expectations.

My lanyard still says ETHICS. In eleven years, nobody has asked me to define the word.

[Defense Tech for Ukraine @defensetech4Ukr]

We are proud to announce the Defense Tech for Ukraine Newsletter! This newsletter, available on our Substack, will highlight what we've done, battlefield analysis, and opportunities for volunteers.

We are excited to use this newsletter to better support Ukraine and its defense ecosystem going forward. We highly encourage you to read this and learn more about what DTU has been doing.

https://t.co/RcNlnP3ALR

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Few weeks ago, we fundraised for a van for the 23rd Brigade - a unit who has members of the Ukrainian Paralympic sitting volleyball team❤️‍🔥

Thanks to the support of many involved volunteers, we delivered the van, which serves now near the frontline💪

[Jonny L - DTU & UAO @J_Leap]

@BrianNolangg2d @mdubowitz @nypost @grok List all the Jews who have won at least the Bronze Star for Valor and other U.S. military awards of similarl level or better, and also estimate the total number of Jewish soldiers in U.S. military today.

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Big news from January 🚨
The Arey Battalion has officially transformed into a regiment 💪🇺🇦
That means 3x more personnel and many new teams that need to be equipped with essential supplies ⚡
Proud that we, together with Stichting Diel 🤝, could support this major expansion with an extraordinary delivery of generators and power stations
Ready for what’s ahead. 🇺🇦🔥

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

The Cossacks from the 428th Unmanned Systems Battalion “Shadow” send their regards to all donors, who donated this winter for the generators and powerstations⚡️

Thanks to you, they are ENERGIZED im their position❤️‍🔥

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

The 505th Marine Battalion with their newly UAO-provided Power Stations🔋 and Generators⚡️

Thanks to St. Diel and your winter donations, the boys are ENERGIZED on the frontline❤️‍🔥

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Our GROUND DRONE deliveries are running🫡

The “Combat Hawks” 🦅 from the 25th Brigade (same unit which we support with the current CVN campaign) received one of the ground drones AND a big equipment package (jammer, generators, tablets, etc.)❤️‍🔥

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Merry Christmas from @_victorygallery and Ukraine Aid Ops!

[Joe Bauserman Burner Account @Bausers_Burner]

@JuckOnBucks I hope we beat them by 50 for that heresy.

[Defense Tech for Ukraine @defensetech4Ukr]

This is the first of the shorts from our interview with Estonian drone maker Krattworks. This one explains how they help the Estonian soldiers train to shoot down smaller Mavic-style drones with small arms.
We'll have more interviews coming soon. Follow us to stay updated and see the ways that we support Ukraine!

Visit our channel @DefenseTechforUkraine to see the full video

[🇺🇦 Unmanned Systems Forces @usf_army]

Unmanned Systems Forces struck three air defense systems in three days

Operators from the Asgard battalion, part of the 412th Nemesis Brigade of the Unmanned Systems Forces (USF), in coordination with the 12th Special Purpose Center and the special unit of @DI_Ukraine , successfully hit three high-value enemy surface-to-air missile systems. The systems damaged were the Buk-M1, Buk-M2, and Tor-M2, with an estimated combined value of $60 million.

These systems are key components of the enemy’s air defense at the operational-tactical and operational depths. Their destruction significantly weakens the protection of critical areas and strategic assets.

Operators of the 412th Nemesis Brigade are consistently inflicting multi-million dollar losses on the enemy and providing a tactical and deep-rear advantage to Ukraine’s Defense Forces.

☠️ USF: One step ahead!

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

While the focus is on political schemes, we are continuing to deliver to the frontline💪

Our Marines from the 426th received Power Stations to Energize their position🔋

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Proud to explain UAO's part in this project❤️‍🔥

Not only were the holosuns (reddots) covered by "Total Defense against drones" campaign which we ran with https://t.co/rx0xzCS3CY, but also: "Our" Yuri from our Ukrainian partner charity "Collective Aid and Logistics" coordinated the project and created a legal route for the purchase and delivery of these anti-drone guns 🛩️

They have saved 100s of lives already. All love & credits to our amazing private (Dutch) donors (yes, there are several!) who together enabled the supply 3000+ of these essential anti-drone devices since January 2025🫂

https://t.co/X68LeYiwoE

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

https://t.co/AIH3m6EaRc

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

https://t.co/iVZBT5lZyS

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

https://t.co/JRaaDfbDh8

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

The 63rd defends the roads leading to Kramatorsk🛣️

Thanks to your donations to the Kramatorsk fundraiser, we were able to deliver a Thermal drone and generators during our trip to the city ❤️‍🔥

[Ukraine Aid Operations 🇺🇦 @UkraineAidOps]

Generators, starlinks and range extenders❤️‍🔥

This equipment was provided to our paratroopers from the 82nd Brigade🦅

Thanks to your support to our previous findraisers, they are better equipped now for their frontline actions🫡