rulepanic

Daily Ukraine map thread for Friday 20th March 2026 Compilation day again, and what a day! The Russian spring offensive definitely seems to have begun with stops and starts. We'll lead with the news story of the Ka-52 taken out by 59th Assault Brigade drones near Kotlyarivka, which is barely a few kilometers away from where they downed an Mi-8 last September with an FPV drone too. The crew escaped, but were then descended upon by FPV drones and... err... gibbed. (Img 1) Next, we focus on the Hulyaipole axis where more details come out of the hedgetrimming done there over the past couple of months, further pulling the red away from Rybne and nearby settlements. We've left them grey for now as that most accurately represents what we think the area is. We also finally got a geolocation of Ukrainian forces in Myrne, confirmation that as blue Onto the Pokrovsk area, where the world of drones showed a horrific site for Russians, with over 60 Russian corpses along a small stretch of road at Boikivka. It's a scene repeated many times over this war, but putting it all together into a compilation like this is something else. Finally, onto the main event near Lyman, where Russia undertook a large assault. Reports are that 2 tanks, 5 APCs (BTR-82AT and BTR-70M), 5 BMP-3, 2 BMP-2, and more than 40 ATVs were destroyed.

🇸🇪🇺🇦 Allegedly the first known video of a Swedish-supplied Saab 340 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) plane over Ukraine. The delivery of an unspecified number of Saab 340 AEW&C platforms to Ukraine was announced by the Swedish government back in May 2024.

Military aid to Ukraine updated with: Delivered: - 🇸🇪 "Unknown number of" Saab 340 Airborne Early Warning and Control Aircraft docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d…

NPR: the pilot of the American F-35 hit by an Iranian missile yesterday suffered shrapnel wounds but is in stable condition. F-35 made a “hard landing” and won’t be returning to service anytime soon.

Remarkable footage of an American CRAM downing an incoming Iranian attack drone at close range over Baghdad this week

This is wild. People in *every single one* of the top US allies now think it's better to depend on China than the US. The global balance of power is clearly tilting away from the US and toward China.

"America could no doubt capture [Kharg] island. The idea would be to use it as leverage: if Gulf states cannot export their oil, neither can Iran. If the regime proves stubborn, however, American marines would have to withstand a potential barrage..." economist.com/briefing/2026/…

The drop in global perceptions of the US is 100% because of Donald Trump. Clear as day.

It's all this now.

NASA is revising its moon-landing plans, reducing Boeing’s role while elevating SpaceX’s Starship rocket to do the job of propelling astronauts to lunar orbit, people familiar with the matter said bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Israeli Defense Forces released footage from yesterday's strikes on Iranian warships in the area of the port of Bandar Anzali located on the Caspian Sea coast. Among the targets appears to be the Moudge-class frigate IRIS Deylaman (1st clip), an unofficial flagship of Iran's Northern Fleet. The second warship of the same class, IRIS Dena, was sunk by the U.S. Navy Los Angeles-class submarine USS Charlotte near the southern coast of Sri Lanka two weeks ago.

Important note. @secwar accused "our press" of credulously reposting and writing off of AI videos. The president called it treason. But when queried, the White House could only name foreign outlets who had reported on them. x.com/ddale8/status/…

Чи поніс хтось покарання за наказ розмістити батальйон людей у казармі? Чи отримав генерала і чергову «зірочку»? У цій будівлі загинули хлопці з якими служив у 137-му батальйоні.

Former Croatian Air Force Mil Mi-8 donated to Ukraine. 🇭🇷🤝🇺🇦 Croatia donated total of 14 Mi-8 (2 Mi-8T, 1 Mi-8PS, 1 Mi-17-1VA and 10 Mi-8MTV-1) x.com/D1V3RZ4NT/stat…

The IAI Lahav plant in the summer of 2000 with IDF/AF F-16Ds undergoing D-Level maintenance, Turkish F-4Es being upgraded, Sri Lankan Kfirs being prepared for delivery and their MiG-21 upgrade demonstrator.

Three protesters were executed in Iran on Thursday after being accused of killing two police officers during nationwide protests earlier this year, the judiciary-linked Mizan news agency reported. Identified as Mehdi Ghasemi, Saleh Mohammadi and Saeed Davoudi, the three were accused of attacking two police officers with knives and swords during protests on January 8 in the holy city of Qom. The authorities also accused them of acting on behalf of Israel and the United States, a frequent claim used by the Islamic Republic against protesters and dissidents. The hangings were carried out after the case was approved by the Supreme Court, according to Mizan. iranintl.com/en/202603198407

My latest essay for @ForeignAffairs examines how Kyiv and Moscow are approaching veteran reintegration. This thread focuses on Ukraine’s policies to care for and reintegrate its veterans. /1 foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/lastin…

Unidentified drones were detected above a US Army base in Washington where Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reside, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing people briefed on the situation.

Qatar Energy says that "several of its Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facilities were the subject of [Iranian] missile attacks, causing sizeable fires and extensive further damage."

@LostWeapons I think this is the kind of thing that changes when a country is in the war themselves. More direct access to people experienced in the threat and more demanding customers to provide the solution. Direct feedback accelerates development. That's not unique to Ukraine.

@rulepanic Yet US drones sent to UA continue to fail. They aren’t built against an EW environment because they can’t test against one

It’s not to late for the US to learn a couple lessons from Ukraine and start welding cages onto their vehicles and mounting M2s on every used truck they can find