Philip Hedeng

Arable farmer in Southwest of Sweden, working with Conservation Agriculture. Father and husband. Star Wars fan since childhood.

[Tansu Yegen @TansuYegen]

World War II is simpler when you see it as a timeline.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

@OOOfarmer Hi David, we had plenty of similar symptoms in Scandinavia 2024 and some, but less in 2025. No one fully understood what it was. There was no heat spell those years, on the contrary it was a wet spring. Black, upright heads with no or small grains in them.

[Tatarigami_UA @Tatarigami_UA]

TLDR on the Ukrainian "biolabs":

- Biological research laboratories exist in Ukraine, just as they do in virtually every developed country. They are used for medical research, disease surveillance, veterinary, public health
monitoring, and vaccine development.

- A biological research lab is not the same thing as a biological weapons program. It is also not necessarily the same thing as a biodefense facility. These terms are often incorrectly used interchangeably.

- The existence of these facilities was not a secret. Many were publicly known and listed on the official websites by both Ukrainian and U.S. government agencies

- After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States and other partners funded programs to help secure dangerous pathogens, improve laboratory safety, and reduce the risk of accidental releases. It wasn’t about charity or weapons development - preventing outbreaks is far cheaper than dealing with the consequences of a leak.

- The key claim made by Russians and some internet commentators is not that labs existed, but that they were evidence of a secret U.S.-run biological weapons program. The document released by the DNI has no evidence supporting that claim.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

@DNIGabbard What on earth is this crap? You're trying to twist it to sound like some vile secret has been exposed here. A bio lab does research on dangerous organisms so they can learn to stop them from harming people. And outing Ukraine shows how much of a Russian asset you are. Disgrace.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

@bravo10_4 I damaged my OSR with small amounts of SU-herbicides still in the tank during fungicid spray. It made the crop look like this. Now the purple parts are turning green again. But the pods are close together like yours.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

@IuliiaMendel Russia attacks your home and you blame your own people?

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

Tack till alla inblandade som möjliggör mer svenskt försvar till Ukraina!

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Tack Sverige! Tack @SwedishPM! Ära åt Ukraina!

🇺🇦🇸🇪

Дякую, Швеціє! Дякую, Ульфе! Слава Україні!

🇺🇦 🇸🇪

Thank you, Sweden! Thank you, Ulf! Glory to Ukraine!

[George Barros @georgewbarros]

We’re calling it: The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase.

@KatStepanenko and I have authored a new special report studying how Ukraine is actively challenging the positional character of the war that has dominated the battlefield since 2023.

Data on Russia’s battlefield performance indicates that the character of the war is shifting in favor of Ukrainian forces – at least for now. Russian forces rates of advances are stagnating while Ukrainian forces are employing novel tactics and operational concepts in efforts to break out of positional warfare. Neither Russia nor Ukraine can conduct operational maneuvers yet, however.

The bottom line is that the war in Ukraine is competitive and far from stalemated. Ukrainian forces are out-innovating Russian forces in both military technologies and in applying these new technologies in effective operational concepts that can help Ukrainian forces break out of positional warfare. Ukraine is employing mechanized equipment in tactical maneuvers in ways that were impossible 12 months ago. Russia’s ability to conduct infiltration missions will likely continue to degrade as Ukraine’s intermediate-range strike campaign pushes Russia’s logistics and forward operating bases further away from the frontlines, reducing resourcing to sustain infantry tasked with infiltration missions. Ukraine may be able to scale these effects if they resourced properly by international partners.

Ukraine’s advantage in intermediate range strikes is notably not permanent, and Russia will very likely eventually develop countermeasures to mitigate Ukraine’s advantages. Ukraine’s international partners thus have a rare and temporary opportunity to help Ukraine exploit favorable battlefield dynamics while Ukraine has the upper hand.

Key Points of the report:

• Russia’s rate of advance is plummeting during the Russian Spring-Summer 2026 offensive.

• Russia is losing more soldiers to make fewer gains, with monthly Russian casualty rates reportedly outpacing monthly recruitment since December 2025.

• Ukraine is starting to regain more ground than it is losing for the first time since 2023.

• Ukraine’ recent counterattacks feature unique characteristics and deviate from key trends that defined the positional character of the war since 2023.

• Ukraine is conducting a pattern of more frequent mechanized counterattacks at the tactical level for the first time since 2023.

• The Ukrainian command’s operational planning is maturing.

• Ukraine’s early 2026 counterattacks in the south were successful likely due to better planning and preparation of the battlefield.

• Ukraine has been conducting a coherent campaign to suppress and destroy Russian air defenses since late 2025, in order to shape the battlefield as part of more sophisticated campaign planning.

• Ukraine significantly intensified its intermediate-range strike campaign against dynamic targets in Spring 2026 in order to degrade Russian logistics at operational depths ahead of planned Ukrainian maneuver.

• Ukrainian forces started actively disrupting Russian railway logistics in occupied Ukraine and Russian western regions in Spring 2026.

• Ukrainian intermediate-range strikes are already achieving notable operational effects, including degrading Russia's ability to use the key Russian highway connecting Russia to occupied Crimea and GLOCs around Donetsk City.

• Ukrainian forces decisively seized the initiative in intermediate-range strikes by fielding new technologies such as the US-made Hornet strike UAV, among other systems.

• Ukrainian forces are achieving temporary tactical drone overmatch in some frontline sectors, which is slowing Russian offensive operations by degrading the effectiveness of Russian shaping operations.

• Ukrainian forces likely achieved tactical drone overmatch in certain frontline sectors after degrading Russia’s drone capabilities in late 2025 to early 2026 - primarily by suppressing drone launch positions and increasingly intercepting Russian tactical UAVs.

• Ukraine’s degradation of Russian forces at operational depth combined with tactical-level drone overmatch likely is creating vulnerabilities in the Russian lines.

• Ukraine’s intermediate-range strike campaign is likely far from its zenith, assuming continued support from Ukraine’s partners, and will likely intensify over 2026 as Ukraine fields new weapons capable of striking Russian’s operational rear.

Link to full report: https://t.co/rCeWbYJNiB

[Clément Molin @clement_molin]

Interestingly, Rybar is saying some things worth reading about the overall situation, especially with what is happening in Stepnohirsk :

📝Logistics Problems📝
Deeper Than They Seem

The situation in Russia's southern regions is becoming increasingly threatening. Since early May, Ukrainian forces have significantly increased the number of drone strikes against vehicles transporting various goods to the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions and Crimea. There is a risk of shortages of certain goods on the peninsula, and fuel sales are restricted.

The threat is not only the disruption of the Crimean holiday season or the shortage of certain products on the peninsula. Strikes against cargo carriers on the peninsula directly impact the combat capabilities of the Russian Armed Forces on the southern fronts, where the situation is already precarious.

🔻What's happening on the front?

➡️The enemy has been attacking the Kamenskoye area for a long time and has managed to advance in several areas, pushing back Russian forces: Stepnogorsk and Plavni have been nearly lost, along with virtually all territorial gains made by the Russian Armed Forces during the offensive that began in early 2025.

➡️There is a risk that the enemy will not only restore the status quo but also launch an offensive along the Kamenskoye-Shcherbaki line. Indirect signs indicate that the problems in this area have been addressed, but the situation remains difficult.

➡️Ukrainian drone operators have significantly increased their activity in strikes against Kamenka-Dniprovska, Vodyane, and Enerhodar. Every 20-30 minutes, local public groups report dozens of drone attacks on the city. There have been casualties among the local population. Employees of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant are also becoming targets, as officially reported by the company's resources.

➡️This may indicate that the enemy is preparing, if not a full-scale landing, then a diversionary strike through the reeds at the bottom of the former Kakhovka Reservoir.

The loss of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant cannot be allowed: dislodging even small enemy forces from there will be an extremely difficult task. Moreover, the Russian Armed Forces will be severely limited in their means of destruction, as the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant is not a target worth targeting with airstrikes.

❗️Considering that Ukrainian forces have already partially paralyzed the logistics of southern Russia in the land corridor to Crimea, it is not difficult to imagine what will happen if the Ukrainian Armed Forces manage to breach the Russian Armed Forces' defenses along the Kamenskoye-Shcherbaki line.

📌The Russian Armed Forces will have to deploy reinforcements along the route to Vasilyevka, the roads to which are already under frequent enemy attack. In the worst-case scenario, stabilizing the situation will require the deployment of additional forces via routes such as Tokmak and the more distant Berdyansk and Mariupol. Even the delivery of civilian cargo along these routes is already severely disrupted.

❓What can be done about this? The issue of organizing a "small sky" air defense system is clear and has been studied. It has also been discussed at the highest levels. The exponential increase in attacks after the May holidays is obvious, even though the roads were unsafe even before. Just in time for the beginning of May, the Ukrainian Armed Forces tested Hornets, and after the ceasefire, they began massive use, giving no respite to develop countermeasures.

https://t.co/3gNvac1Xjs

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

@makesoilgreat Nice! Were they drilled with a strip-till system?

[Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський @ZelenskyyUa]

Our long-range capabilities are significantly changing the situation – and, more broadly, the world’s perception of Russia’s war. Many partners are now signaling that they see what is happening and how everything has changed – both in attitudes toward this war and in the reachability of Russian targets on Russian territory.

The war is quite predictably returning to its “native harbor,” and this is a clear signal that one should not pick a fight with Ukraine or wage an unjust war of conquest against another people.

[Gandalv @Microinteracti1]

Zelensky Has Finally Stopped Pretending Trump Is Helping. Good.

For fourteen months, Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to sit quietly while the United States demanded he surrender territory, shrink his army, and be grateful for the privilege. He smiled. He negotiated. He flew to Mar-a-Lago. He stood next to Donald Trump and said encouraging things about peace frameworks while Trump’s team privately sketched out a deal that looked, to any honest observer, like Ukraine losing the war on paper instead of on the battlefield.

That is now over.

Since the bombs started  falling on Tehran in late February, Washington has had no time for Ukraine. Peace talks are dead. US negotiators have simply moved on. And Zelensky, freed at last from the exhausting performance of American-dependent diplomacy, has started saying what he actually thinks.

He has said that Trump’s team puts more pressure on Ukraine than on Russia. He has said that the American decision to suspend sanctions on Russian oil hands the Kremlin a sense of impunity. He has pointed out, with the calm fury of a man who has been extremely polite for an extremely long time, that the United States still chooses to pressure the victim rather than the aggressor.

None of this is new. All of it is true. And twelve months ago, saying any of it out loud would have been unthinkable.

Ukraine now produces most of its own drones. Over sixty percent of Russian drones are knocked down by domestically produced interceptors. 

Ukraine has signed deals to export its drone expertise, is building new security relationships across Europe and the Middle East, and is courting allies with the focused energy of a country that has quietly concluded it cannot count on Washington anymore.

The peace talks are dead, says Harry Nedelcu of Rasmussen Global. There is no real negotiation. Russia has no incentive. Which is the entirely predictable outcome of a peace process run by a man who has spent the last year trying to acquire Greenland, bombing Iran, and repeatedly insisting that Ukraine, not Russia, started the war. 

Zelensky has stopped pretending that is helpful. It isn’t. It never was.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

If you like what you read, premium content on Substack: https://t.co/M6CNAnz656

[Defense of Ukraine @DefenceU]

What’s going down?

[Ulf Kristersson @SwedishPM]

Earlier today, Swedish Coast Guard boarded another vessel in our territorial waters – the fifth intervention in a short period of time.

The vessel is suspected of being part of the Russian shadow fleet and for sailing under false flag. There are also concerns regarding insufficient seaworthiness and insurance.

The vessel is included on the sanctions lists of the EU, the UK and Ukraine. We protect our waters.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

Ukrainians are exceptional !

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

If there was ever any doubt, now it's becoming clear that Ukraine will not lose the war Russia started. Land lost is being retaken and the Russian war machine buckles. Ukrainians do not give in to tyrants!

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

That is enough! The goal of the Trump pack of gangsters is clearly not even USA First; it is to destroy the old West and any form of rule based order. It is to demolish any resistance to their own rule and the only thing standing in their way is the EU and old allies. Sick!

[Anders Åslund @anders_aslund]

Vance's speech in Budapest is truly outrageous:
1. The US vice president campaigns for an enemy of the EU & NATO, but a friend of Putin & China.
2. Vance attacks the EU for pressuring Hungary, but Hungary has received net about 3% of GDP a year from the EU, but it has squandered much on corruption.
3. In effect, Vance argues that the EU should promote corruption just as the Trump administration does.
Trump and Vance fight freedom and the rule of law in favor of autocracy, kleptocracy and Russia.
US foreign policy has hit the bottom.

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

Europe must stop giving Trump all this attention. It is not healthy and it won't do any good.

[Illia Ponomarenko 🇺🇦 @IAPonomarenko]

The most absurd part is this: when Europeans refuse to get involved in a war with Iran, Trump throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats. When Europeans agree to cooperate with him, Trump still throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats, and declares he doesn’t need anyone.

When Ukraine -- despite all the shovelfuls of dirt that Trump throws at it daily -- chooses not to be a dick about the situation and immediately offers help, along with its specific technologies and frontline experience, Trump still throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats.

And his exhalted fans online shout that Ukraine is “ungrateful” (to whom?? to Trump??) and isn’t eagerly licking his boots hard enough. He’s now publicly smearing even Mohammed bin Salman with crude insults.

In this sea of erratic behavior, there are simply no rules for navigating it correctly. No matter what you do, the outcome is the same.

Apparently, the only winning strategy is to behave like Putin and directly and openly support the Iranian regime. Then Donald Trump will be the one tiptoeing around you, brushing off dust, and kissing your hands.

[Sweden in Ukraine @SwedeninUA]

Hello from Kyiv and the Swedish Embassy. ❄️❄️ It is cold in Ukraine and many of our Ukrainian friends are struggling with the day to day life. We are here to support, to work together for energy, for peace, for humanitarian needs. 🇺🇦💙💛🇸🇪#МиТут #WeAreHere

[Philip Hedeng @PHedeng]

He's a complete lunatic. This is a mob boss high on power.

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Q: The premier of Greenland said today, 'We prefer to stay with Denmark.'

Trump: Well, that's their problem. I disagree with him. I don't know who he is. But that's gonna be a big problem for him.