@textiz Onze boodschappen zaten in de bus 🙃 lievingsbier kapot en overal glas en kapotte spullen bij levering. Gelukkig bestuurder redelijk veilig weggekomen. Goed dat je een voorgevoel had.
A very insightful article in the Washington Post — “Ukraine has made itself indispensable to the West.” What is particularly important is that it was written by Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s former Minister of Defense, and Dalibor Roháč, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
The article’s main argument is that Ukraine has gone from being a “beggar” to an indispensable asset for Western security.
“Four years into the full-scale war, the world’s most capable militaries are coming to Ukraine to buy weapons. Ukraine and the Pentagon are moving to finalize a deal that would send Ukrainian-made drones to the United States for testing on American soil.”
“Until recently, Kyiv was seen as the supplicant in Western capitals. Today, Ukraine is more sovereign, more capable and more independent than at any point since it declared statehood in 1991. It has made itself both unconquerable by Moscow and indispensable to Washington, Berlin and others.”
“It has made itself both unconquerable by Moscow and indispensable to Washington.” This is exactly how our negotiating position should sound in all international forums.
Ukraine has buried the principle upon which military science has been built for centuries. This is a fact based on figures:
“Russia’s military budget has grown several times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, reaching 10 percent of gross domestic product in 2025, or half of Russia’s public expenditure. And it will likely expand further as Russia’s public finances receive a boost from high oil prices. The size of its active-duty personnel has also increased, from around 1 million to 1.5 million.”
“Since the beginning of this year, Russia has been losing around 35,000 troops per month, outpacing its declining capacity for recruitment.”
In other words, Russia is pouring half its national budget into the war, expanding its army to 1.5 million — and is still losing territory. This is the very death of the old military doctrine.
“Ukraine’s regular armed forces numbered around 260,000 in 2022, at the start of the full-scale invasion. Today, approximately 1 million Ukrainians are at arms. But the 750,000-plus civilians who put on the uniform aren’t conscripts in a Russian sense. They are engineers, coders and entrepreneurs running drone workshops out of garages and writing targeting software between artillery shifts.”
This is a fundamental difference from Russia. They have a mobilized resource — cannon fodder bought with money and debt forgiveness. We have a nation that has turned its own creativity into a weapon. And that is precisely why we are winning the technological race.
The authors cite the very same mathematics of war that I constantly talk about:
“A $500 first-person-view drone can destroy a multimillion-dollar Russian tank. A $1,000 3D-printed interceptor can knock down a $35,000 Shahed. Whoever can manufacture cheaper, faster and at scale wins. Currently, Ukraine is winning that race.”
The text also notes the failure of American weapons in modern warfare — the “expensive Patriots versus cheap drones” model failed in its very first real-world test. But the Ukrainian model works.
“Ukraine is no longer merely a recipient of Western aid but a co-creator of Western defense capability. So the West needs to ask itself whether it’s better off with a sovereign, technologically advanced Ukraine, or with a defeated and occupied one. Investing in Ukraine is an investment in European security. It turns out that Ukraine is not the West’s problem. It is, in fact, a solution.”
This article was written for an American audience by a former Ukrainian defense minister in collaboration with an American analyst. This is the correct model for conveying our narrative. Not complaints, not pleas, but cold calculation: Ukraine is beneficial to the West. Ukraine is a solution, not a problem.
The thesis of being a “co-creator of Western defense capabilities” must become the foundation of our entire foreign policy. We are not asking for help. We are offering a partnership in which the West gains access to the world’s only army with real experience in modern warfare and to the fastest defense R&D on the planet.
Ukraine has become indispensable. Now our task is to cement this status forever.
While the UN tries to avoid to point at the obvious culprit of the strike against their convoy in Kherson, Ukraine, Russians released FPV footage of that particular strike, making absolutely clear this wasn’t some kind of accident, but a deliberate terrorist strike, which civilians in Kherson have to endure on a daily base.
Gisteren was de eerste aflevering van 'Op zee gebleven' te zien op NPO 2 en we zijn overweldigd door alle mooie en positieve reacties. Dank jullie wel daarvoor!
Heb je de aflevering gemist of wil je ‘m nog eens terugkijken? Dat kan hier 👇
https://t.co/qYMWmVlvSB
Wat zijn we als Stichting OMV ontzettend trots! In het AD is een prachtige special verschenen van maar liefst drie pagina’s, volledig gewijd aan ons werk.
Ook gaat het over onze nieuwe EO serie “Op Zee Gebleven”.
📺 Te zien op zaterdag 11 & 18 april om 20:30 uur op NPO 2. ⚓️
❗️US, Iran, and Israel agreed to an immediate ceasefire following mediation by Pakistan, with Trump confirming a two-week suspension of strikes. Iran signals conditional de-escalation, while both sides move toward finalizing a broader agreement based on a proposed framework. #Iran
President Trump @POTUS:
"FROM PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP
WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND! This brave Warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour, but was never truly alone because his Commander in Chief, Secretary of War, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and fellow Warfighters were monitoring his location 24 hours a day, and diligently planning for his rescue. At my direction, the U.S. Military sent dozens of aircraft, armed with the most lethal weapons in the World, to retrieve him. He sustained injuries, but he will be just fine. This miraculous Search and Rescue Operation comes in addition to a successful rescue of another brave Pilot, yesterday, which we did not confirm, because we did not want to jeopardize our second rescue operation. This is the first time in military memory that two U.S. Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in Enemy Territory. WE WILL NEVER LEAVE AN AMERICAN WARFIGHTER BEHIND! The fact that we were able to pull off both of these operations, without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded, just proves once again, that we have achieved overwhelming Air Dominance and Superiority over the Iranian skies. This is a moment that ALL Americans, Republican, Democrat, and everyone else, should be proud of and united around. We truly have the best, most professional, and lethal Military in the History of the World. GOD BLESS AMERICA, GOD BLESS OUR TROOPS, AND HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!"
Pussy Riot occupies headquarters of American tech company Ubiquiti which powers Russian war crimes
Since the disabling of Starlink, Russian soldiers been panicking: “All we’ve got left now are radios, cables and pigeons.” But Ubiquiti’s hardware has emerged as the favorite replacement.
We demand that Ubiquiti:
- Obey U.S. sanctions
- Acknowledge Russian military use
- Work with Ukraine to stop it
Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, said Ukrainian crews operated Patriot air defense systems “even better than Americans,” calling it a major success. He added that US forces were now learning from Ukraine’s combat experience. #Ukraine
BREAKING: The Pentagon just ordered a ship from Japan because three aircraft carriers are not enough.
USS Tripoli, an America-class amphibious assault ship displacing 45,000 tons, is steaming from its forward base in Sasebo carrying the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit: 2,500 Marines, up to 20 F-35B stealth fighters capable of vertical landing on its deck, MV-22 Ospreys, CH-53K heavy-lift helicopters, AH-1Z attack helicopters, and the ground combat element that makes an MEU the most versatile rapid-response force on Earth. Arrival in the Middle East: one to two weeks. Fox News confirmed from a defence official. The Wall Street Journal reported the deployment was requested by CENTCOM and approved by Hegseth.
Three carrier strike groups are already deployed. Ford in the Red Sea, catching fire in its laundry. Lincoln in the Arabian Sea, subject to fabricated engagement reports. Truman supporting from the eastern Mediterranean. Combined: over 200 aircraft, 20,000 sailors, and the most concentrated naval firepower since the Gulf War. And it is not enough. Because carriers do three things: launch aircraft, defend themselves, and project power from the sea. They do not clear mines. They do not escort tankers through a 33-kilometre gauntlet. They do not insert special forces into granite mountains. They do not seize uranium.
The Tripoli does something the carriers cannot. It carries Marines.
The F-35B is the only fifth-generation stealth fighter that can take off from a short deck and land vertically. It does not need a catapult or an arresting wire. It needs 600 feet of flat deck, which the Tripoli provides. In a surge configuration, Tripoli becomes a “Lightning Carrier,” launching stealth sorties over Hormuz for air superiority, SEAD against IRGC coastal missile batteries, and anti-ship strikes using the LRASM, a long-range anti-ship missile with a 200-nautical-mile standoff range tested on the F-35B in March 2025. The aircraft that Iran cannot see on radar can destroy the coastal batteries that Iran uses to threaten tankers without entering the range of the shore-based missiles defending them.
But the F-35Bs are not why the Tripoli was sent. The Marines are.
An MEU carries a ground combat element: infantry, reconnaissance, engineers, explosive ordnance disposal, and the organic helicopter lift to insert them anywhere within range. The 31st MEU has trained for subterranean operations, amphibious assault, and hostage rescue. It is the outer ring of the mission architecture whose inner ring is a JSOC team walking into Pickaxe Mountain. It is the Quick Reaction Force for the nuclear extraction that airpower alone cannot achieve. It is the mine-clearance escort that three carriers cannot provide because carriers do not carry mine countermeasure teams.
The deployment reveals what the briefings conceal. Hegseth stood at the podium this morning and said the war is being won. Missile volume down 90%. Drone volume down 95%. Navy at the bottom of the gulf. Defence industrial base destroyed. Then he approved 2,500 Marines sailing from the Pacific because winning from the air has not opened the Strait, has not cleared the mines, has not reached the uranium, and has not produced a single tanker escort.
The Tripoli is the answer to the question the carriers cannot solve: what happens when the enemy is underground, the waterway is mined, the insurance is cancelled, and the President told the tankers to show some guts? You send Marines. Because Marines do not fly over the problem. They walk into it.
Full analysis here.
https://t.co/eMrt5qYYst