This is a recurring tragedy, but this year the forest fires in continental Europe seem to be record-breaking in size.
Just like previous years, it emerges in late summer that many have been arrested.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg34128nvpo
Even in Portugal, arrests of arsonists have skyrocketed, almost like a folk festival over the whole thing.
It’s probably not the easiest to find the culprits for a forest fire if one handles it neatly, so the number of arrests should be significantly lower than the number of people who start fires. How does one best start a fire – I imagine a cigarette butt in dry undergrowth is part of the instructions?
In previous years, information has come out in autumn that some of those arrested received a sum of money, 20,000 SEK or similar, and in some cases there were “connections to Russia.”
Then it dies down during autumn and starts again next summer.
This year, the unit in Russia responsible for the operation seems to have studied Dresden 1945 because they have managed, through the number of small fires, to ignite a firestorm that then draws in its own oxygen and becomes self-sustaining. Larger cities are starting to fall into the danger zone in both France and Spain where the word evacuation has been mentioned.
What do we know?
Russia is searching for private individuals on social media who, for payment, carry out sabotage or terrorist acts. A few years ago, a Romanian couple traveled around France drawing swastikas on synagogues – when they were arrested, the link to their Russian handler was immediately found.
https://www.france24.com/en/france/20231129-france-charges-two-over-nazi-swastika-graffiti-in-paris
During the Cold War, neo-Nazi graffiti was a Soviet operation where their operatives ran around with markers and scribbled.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika_epidemic_of_1959%E2%80%931960
If you google arson-Russia-2025 or any other chosen year, quite a few countries have had arson attacks on various targets in recent years where the perpetrators have been linked to Russian money and instructions.
During the Cold War, the Soviet Union needed to bring in spy rings with Swedish-speaking (trained) operatives to us who over many years built up their identity beyond those who were ideologically or financially bought over.
Today it is more pure business, gangs and criminal clans just charge for everything up to murder and it’s cheap. A thirteen-year-old murders someone for ten thousand SEK in Sweden, and the queue for eternal glory and fame is apparently long.
Iran has been caught using gangs against Jewish or opposition targets in Sweden and the Nordics, so this is established.
This has been going on for several years already, today Russia is under extreme pressure and wants to remove Europe’s support for Ukraine – it’s a reasonable assumption that they have increased the effort?
Besides that, we know for certain that Rasmus Paludan’s Quran burnings were commissioned. When Sweden was about to join NATO, there were many actions aimed at Turkish interests in Sweden that made Turkey very angry and they felt forced to refuse after all the insults.
Russia is well positioned for that action.
Attacks by people from the Middle East who behead a mother and her child are another type of operation that directly has impact – besides bacon in Qurans and beheadings, it’s hard to find anything that stirs more emotions in the respective target groups.
If you look at our sad election debate in Sweden this summer, you quickly see that everyone tries to make an impact with a direct lie and the truth becomes what we hear most about from the most sources.
Before Trump 1, Cambridge Analytica was used to influence enough voters to vote for him, I don’t know how it looked during Trump 2.
You can absolutely influence enough voters through the right information in the right channel and today bot farms are more common than a physical person when people argue on social media.
For Russia, Sweden is one of the biggest threats to them in Europe so they naturally try to get us to vote for the fringe parties on the right and left for maximum chaos.
Right now, exactly all 8 parties are biting on all the lies that flash by on Twitter, so we are not making it any harder for the other Russian unit at GRU responsible for that operation.
What we can at least establish is that the fires in continental Europe are record-breaking in size, which means Russia has increased the effort this year – a sharp escalation.
That in itself suggests that Russia intends to escalate where the fires came first in time.
The next easy target is our LNG tanks, those of you who read me like the Bible know that an oil pipeline in Italy towards Germany was recently sabotaged.
You also know that LNG reserves are 20%-25% below what they should be at this time of year, and that Europe buys 60% of our LNG from the USA.
A pretty easy shot in the stomach for us would be if some larger LNG tanks happen to have accidents now during autumn, right?
We are already today in the red zone where there could be interruptions in winter, so if they manage to burn away a few more percent, it’s over.
At the very least, it makes us serfs to the USA and Trump who can basically dictate the terms for us regarding LNG deliveries.
Germany has already started to falter, summer 2025 Merz promised that Ukraine would regain all its land but now since April 2026 it is being said that Ukraine might have to give up a little land in Donbass for peace, very little land, so insignificant really.
It doesn’t take a genius to understand that Germany is getting seriously nervous about its energy supply – the car industry is in free fall and heating is with LNG that is not in the reserves.
If we, God forbid, get a cold winter this El Nino year, or worse finances here at the first step in our 2008-style financial crisis, then the German fall will be bottomless.
What would a little farmland in Ukraine be then compared to avoiding that abyss as punishment for the exciting world order they tried to impose on the rest of us sometime in the 40s.
You can keep extrapolating as far as you want, which I won’t do, but you should definitely take to heart that when the media writes column meters about all possible causes of fires, it is a Russian influence operation that created Dresden 2026 in France and Spain – a hybrid war.
Johan No.1 has previously reasoned about Europe’s willingness to defend the Baltics if Russian aggression starts – it’s not entirely unreasonable that if a country starts having internal problems to the point that the government wavers, the ability to make necessary difficult decisions is lower.
The whole world except Europe remembers Europe’s ravages on them a few generations ago. We forced China to become addicts in the 1800s for example, the USA was our raw material colony and constant wars with Russia which was always their fault but they don’t think so.
You can be sure that the rest of the world does not want an ultra-strong Europe that is rearming, so I am also wondering if they are pulling in the same direction in an upcoming financial crisis that preferably should hit Europe the hardest – we shall see.
A black swan can usually work wonders to get finance to start running away with bundles of cash sticking out of pockets, and there are several possible such events – not least runaway electricity prices this autumn, a conflict with the Baltics, or governments toppled due to social unrest.
Anyway, you have now seen the start of a Russian escalation that we do not yet know where it will end, but in the Baltics they have been trying to protect high-value infrastructure for about a month now.
The quick-witted immediately realizes that it is pulling personnel who would have been needed in eastern Baltics instead.
The world has a unique ability to see everything in silos and to think every event is isolated, unfortunate, and spontaneous – only to then immediately try to draw political advantages from it.
What happens this summer and later this autumn is connected and is at least a Russian hybrid war, but there is a risk that the USA/Trump and China are also involved in the bigger strokes.
For example, China has recently increased its export ban to us, and a car that is 99% finished will not roll if you remember previous posts.
Trump has just fired off a huge battery of new tariffs against us.
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/07/27/donald-trump-tariffs-trade-war-iran.html
At the same time, he downplays that Russia is helping Iran, with whom the USA is at war. The audacity 😡
Something you should have taken to heart long ago – where are the demonstrations at universities or in our city centers against the Ukraine war?
That is a whole post in itself that I have covered before, but it can never be said too many times. Governments in Europe and broad layers of the population have stood up for Ukraine, but that direct civil disobedience against Russia and for Ukraine has been conspicuously absent.
Everyone who chains themselves up, threatens to set themselves on fire, or only eats a Big Mac smuggled in at night as a protest because Russia is allowed to ravage an entire country undisturbed and torture-murder tens of thousands of children – where are all of them?
Where are Amnesty’s, the Red Cross’s, and the UN’s condemnations of the ongoing genocide in Ukraine?
Those of you who have read me know that Russia castrates prisoners of war, female and male prisoners are gang-raped daily for years. Children as young as five who, in front of their parents, are first tortured, raped, and then murdered, after which the parents are released and laughed at loudly. Prisoners who have had feet and hands amputated before being sent back.
During the first year of the war, the Russians opened a torture center in every small community, and mass graves are everywhere in occupied areas that have been ethnically cleansed through prolonged torture murders.
The Ukraine war has, in active opinion-shaping, become a forgotten war but has had broad silent support among citizens and many governments who support it.
Those of you who have read here know that the Red Cross recently stepped in with support in Crimea for starving Russians.
At the same time, the criticism against them from Ukraine has been deafening throughout the war.
If you want to try to relativize, they now write that this support is not needed because we are already doing so much, but if you have read Johan No.1 you know that the war could have ended long ago if we had done more, so the world is still doing far too little today, 4.5 years after full-scale war broke out.
The media were slow on the uptake for a long time, it had to be nuanced and “Russia says/Ukraine says” was for a long time the norm.
There is a whole infrastructure in the West for political and popular influence that never got started in the Ukraine war.
However, Russia is now starting to try to push out the image that they are the victim and Ukraine the perpetrator. Johan No.1 has written about this for a long time – “Russia is crying loudly at the UN” is probably the phrase you all remember as a famous quote, or do you have several framed on your wall?
If you want, it is allowed to wallpaper entire walls with my famous quotes that you print out in Arial 12 bold.
Early in the war, when Russia attacked Ukraine and especially after the raped-torture-murdered five-year-old in Bucha, Amnesty thought the most important thing was to highlight Ukrainian war crimes.
There is a point here, hold on a few seconds longer before you explode over all the attacks on the good guys.
You can quickly bring up counterarguments to the above, for example, Amnesty has also written about Russian war crimes. If you want to be generous, you can absolutely claim that they have tried to treat both sides equally, but Johan No.1 is of the strong opinion that the only perpetrator in this war is Russia, so all nuance is morally wrong.
The more Russia intends to escalate and the worse it goes for them in Ukraine, the broader they will activate their influence operations against us in Europe.
One of these will be that Russia is a misunderstood victim, that Ukraine also commits many abuses, but that Russia is now offering a self-sacrificing ceasefire to save the children in Ukraine.
If Europe’s leaders then, soot-blackened in the face from all the forest fires, in their ice-cold offices in the middle of the electricity shortage in late autumn, start to think about how many protesters can actually fit in the square just outside, only to then, utterly exhausted, think that many problems would be solved if only Ukraine agrees to such a generous offer from Putin – then the war has only just begun.
Especially since the USA, with Trump at the forefront, promises all the LNG we can eat if we just pressure Ukraine a little extra with threats of paused EU membership so they come to their senses – Trump wants that Nobel Prize but above all he wants to save the children in Ukraine.
Since you read Johan No.1 daily, you also know that since last winter Putin has significantly reinforced the North Korean army corps in Kursk. Zelensky confirmed this again, and they are in standby behind the northern front. For those of you who do not believe Russia has reserves, these are two Russian army corps that can be released from the northern front if the North Korean 11th AC takes care of border surveillance instead.
30,000 in two fully equipped mechanized army corps with practical work experience who have been in relative rest for almost two years and with a drone weapon from Rubicon attached.
Again, the quick-witted had a revelation: why is Putin clawing to get a lot of North Koreans and preparing mobilization if, according to Trump, a ceasefire and eternal peace are near?
Should Trump read Johan No.1 instead?
Now don’t forget a paid subscription because then you will have warmth indoors this autumn and the forest fires will decrease, one hectare less per paid subscription Putin has promised me.
Don't forget to donate, Ukraine's cause is ours! Support Ukraine!
Russian losses in Ukraine
Losses continue to be high although the numbers are slightly lower than yesterday.
Ukrainian General Staff report (summary)
Ukraine shot down 65 of 80 Russian drones
Oil refinery and Wildberries warehouse attacked by Ukraine during the night
Ukraine carried out a massive attack during the night on the Ryazan region in Russia. Among the targets were a warehouse belonging to Wildberries and the Ryazan oil refinery (which is one of the larger ones in Russia).
The governor has admitted that a fire broke out in an industrial area without saying much more, while according to eyewitnesses and footage from surveillance cameras, both the warehouse and the refinery have been hit. Read more at Kyiv Independent also see the post here.
Video showing that there is a fire at the refinery:
https://bsky.app/profile/noelreports.com/post/3mrr6tjqtus2c
Personally, I think the video rather shows so-called flaring, where excess gases are burned off for safety reasons instead of just releasing them into the air, than a fire after an attack; we will see if more images and videos come later.
Images from the fire at Wildberries:
Ukraine continues to deliver!
There is about exactly one week left of their 40-day operation that is supposed to make the Russian bastards willing to negotiate?
One week sounds good, I think they can extend it by 40 more days after that and continue as long as Russia refuses to give up.
Agree.
After the forty days, perhaps the long-awaited offensive will come 💥
USA – Lindsey Graham’s sanctions package
The US Senate voted through the sanctions law against Russia in memory of Lindsey Graham, but that does not mean it is finalized; several steps still remain before the sanctions are activated. Even if it goes all the way through, there is a high risk that Trump will still stop it, as he has managed to block the 400 million USD in aid to Ukraine that has long been approved.
We will see; at least we have come one step closer, and the proposal was passed with 86 in favor and 12 against, which shows that support is still strong, so it is very positive regardless of whether the sanctions are implemented or not.
Read more at… that’s right! Kyiv Independent.
VERY GOOD NEWS
After all
Johan, you requested statistics.
The image shows the last 30 days, the dotted line represents the previous 30 days. So it has decreased somewhat since then but not by much after all.
The green line is an incomprehensible attempt by Google to present some kind of reference to other news, and in comparison, it obviously looks like we are outperforming it significantly, but exactly how it should be interpreted is something someone else will have to Google.
If you try to compare a longer period, in this case 90 days, unfortunately Google has not thought it through.
Then suddenly the chart switches to showing the graph weekly, and since today we are not exactly at the end of a week, the curve naturally dips at the end because the week is not over yet, which means the same problem occurs at the beginning of the chart as well. You simply have to disregard the start and the end.
We are admittedly not increasing the number of visitors, which is unfortunate of course, but the number of visitors is quite stable.
EU plans to sanction a record 1,600 companies for involvement in Russia’s war in Ukraine, representing the largest package in terms of the number of entities since the invasion began. The focus is on individual companies rather than sectors, and the decision is expected to be made in October 2026. Read the full story on Bloomberg, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-07-28/eu-plans-to-sanction-record-1-600-firms-for-helping-russia
Just do it!
Sources: Iran was close to launching a ballistic missile at Ukraine
Tensions arose when Ukraine attacked an Iranian ship in the Caspian Sea over the weekend. Ukraine claimed that the Iranian ship was transporting military equipment to Russia.
Since the first year of the war, Russia has used Iranian drones in its attacks against Ukraine.
According to new information from American and Iranian sources, Iran was close to launching a ballistic missile at Ukraine as retaliation, reports The New York Times. According to the sources, the attack would have been symbolic and caused relatively little damage.
Diplomatic efforts between the countries then reportedly de-escalated the situation. On Tuesday, the foreign ministers Andrij Sybiha and Abbas Araghchi are said to have spoken on the phone.
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/direktrapport-forsamrat-sakerhetslage?inlagg=695fd648ebd463d21da7d0809d7cd46b
Is it practically possible to launch a ballistic missile towards Ukraine? They are only powered at the beginning and have relatively little guidance after that. The only route should be over Ryzh, I assume Turkey would not allow an overflight.
Looking at a map, it would require significant guidance to take the detour over Ryzh. I don’t think it would be practically possible.
Empty threats in my opinion.
Relevant question.
My knowledge on the subject is too rudimentary.
But I checked with Google AI:
Yes, it is fully practical and technically possible for Iran to reach Ukraine with ballistic missiles without having to steer around Turkey in a curve. You are absolutely right in your basic physics: ballistic missiles are only powered during the initial phase (the boost phase) and then follow a fixed, parabolic trajectory through space. They cannot turn around countries in the air. However, your assumption about the geography is based on a common misconception that arises when looking at a flat map of Europe instead of a globe.
Here is a review of why it is fully possible:
1. The straight line goes over the Caspian Sea and Russia
If you draw a straight line (a so-called great circle on a globe) from the western or northern parts of Iran to eastern or central Ukraine, the missile does not pass over Turkey.
The path: The missile is launched northwest over the Caspian Sea, flies over Russia (which is Iran’s ally and the recipient of the weapons), and then reaches Ukraine from the north or east.
No curve is needed: Since Russia and Iran share the Caspian Sea as a border area, no advanced guidance systems are needed to “round” any country. The path is completely straight.
2. The missile range is sufficient
The distance from northern Iran (for example around Tabriz or Tehran) to eastern and central Ukraine is about 1,300 to 2,000 kilometers. Iran has one of the Middle East’s largest missile programs with several ballistic missiles covering this distance:
Shahab-3 & Ghadr: Range around 1,600–2,000 km.
Kheibar Shekan / Fattah: More modern missiles with a range of 1,450 km or more.
Short-range missiles (CRBM): Iran has reportedly supplied Fath-360 missiles to Russia. These have a short range (120 km) and cannot fly from Iran to Ukraine. Instead, they are transported by ship across the Caspian Sea to Russia, where Russian forces move them to the border and fire them directly into Ukraine.
3. International airspace and space
Medium-range ballistic missiles fly extremely high. At their highest point (apogee), they reach well over 100 kilometers in altitude, which means they technically travel in space.
Turkey’s airspace does not extend into space, but since the straight flight path still goes over the Caspian Sea and Russia, Turkey’s approval never becomes a political or military issue. Russia welcomes the flight path because it is they who buy and fire (or ask Iran to fire) the missiles.
Summary
No “significant steering” or detour is required. By shooting in a straight line over the Caspian Sea, the missile flies directly over Russian territory before hitting Ukraine. Additionally, transport of shorter missiles occurs by ship across the Caspian Sea to be fired directly from Russian soil.
Good counterarguments. Unfortunately, as a “flat-earther,” the argument with the globe doesn’t hold up. 🙂
Firing it from Ryzk territory, I think, would be going too far; that would make Iran a part of the war in a much more obvious way, wouldn’t it?
😂Flat earther 👍
I am also a flat earther, the arguments are overwhelming 👍👍
We have members all around the globe!
I knew it! 😂😂😂
😶
Off topic Kremlin’s Alternative for Sweden.
Gustav Kasselstrand, party leader for Alternative for Sweden (AfS), has visited the Iranian embassy in Stockholm, which he himself announced on X on Tuesday.
According to Kasselstrand, he was invited by Iran’s ambassador Hojatollah Faghani, following Kasselstrand’s expression of support for Iran during the spring in connection with the US’s and Israel’s warfare against the country.
In a video clip he shared from his summer speech, which was also published on Swebbtv, he describes the meeting as follows:
“I had a good meeting with the ambassador. We discussed both the Zionist threat, the offensive war that the US and Israel have conducted against the country.”
No to the “Zionist offensive war”
Kasselstrand emphasizes in the clip the importance of diplomacy and points out that AfS has been the only Swedish party to consistently say no to what he calls “the Zionist offensive war” against Iran.
He also stressed the importance of holding talks even with states that many others avoid.
The Iranian embassy has commented on the meeting by stating that they want to gain a better understanding of AfS’s views.
Dissatisfied with ETC’s coverage
Dagens ETC also wrote about the visit earlier on Tuesday, under the headline “Leader of the far-right AfS visited Iran’s embassy.”
The newspaper noted, among other things, that Kasselstrand in his X post used the old Iranian flag (the one from the Shah era) as an emoji, a flag that has become a symbol of the fight against the current theocratic regime, whose embassy Kasselstrand had just visited.
This apparently did not please Kasselstrand, and he quickly responded on X:
“Left-globalist Dagens ETC wrote an article precisely about how ‘far-right’ me was invited to the embassy. In that ridiculous and biased article, they try to make fun of the fact that Iran’s flag, which is among the emojis here on X and which I used in the post, is not Iran’s current flag but the old flag used by the US-loyal Shah Pahlavi. Virtually no one can see it, since the symbol on the flag is microscopically small. But the fool at Dagens ETC thought it was a big deal. So to avoid any misunderstandings, I have therefore uploaded the post again without the old flag. And with an attached picture of the current flag, which is banned on X.”
The visit and Kasselstrand’s statements have attracted some attention because AfS has positioned itself as strongly critical of both the US’s and Israel’s actions in the region, while the party advocates a more isolationist Swedish foreign policy focused on national interests.
Ofer Maimon
Reporter
https://bulletin.nu/kasselstrand-besokte-irans-ambassad-diskuterade-det-sionistiska-hotet
AFS – Alternatives for Business Owners.
What works against the swarms of drones terrorizing Ukraine’s frontline cities? In Kherson, two brothers have found a solution. SvD joins a patrol into the eye of the storm – where Russian soldiers lurk on the other side of the river.
Text: Fredrik Fahlman. Photo: Paul Wennerholm.
Published 05:44
KHERSON’S RED ZONE The radio crackles: “Glide bombs have been released. Seek shelter now.” The Ukrainian group runs into the first abandoned residential building they see. The only thing that matters is to get out of the zone as quickly as possible.
Serhij stops at the half-functioning door of the entrance. Hopes for a few minutes of calm. But long before the rest of us catch the sound, he hears it: The distinct, ominous buzzing. Without hesitation, he sprints out onto the sidewalk, scans the sky through the red dot sight on his Kalashnikov, and fires. One of the bullets has to hit – otherwise this could be the last thing he does in life.
Serhij has lost count of how many drones he and his brother Jevhenij have shot down – but says it is at least a thousand.
Serhij has lost count of how many drones he and his brother Jevhenij have shot down – but says it is at least a thousand.
SvD’s correspondent is in the frontline city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. A few kilometers away, on the other side of the Dnipro River, lies Russian-occupied territory. From there, drones are sent daily towards the city.
The attacks often target civilians, and the UN has established that Russia systematically commits war crimes in the city. When SvD previously visited one of Kherson’s civilian hospitals, it was bombed after just fifteen minutes.
Before the war, nearly 300,000 people lived here. Now about 66,000 remain, according to Ukrainian estimates. To protect against the drone attacks, a large part of the city center has been covered with Swedish fishing nets. Deaths occur daily, but despite this, life continues here with a certain routine. People go to work, buy food, and some cafés and bars remain open.
The big exception is the red zone.
The area lies right next to the river, a couple of hundred meters from land controlled by Russia. This is the city’s absolute most dangerous place – every minute here is considered to involve direct life-threatening danger.
SvD has, as the first Swedish media, been allowed to accompany the Ukrainian Marine Corps as it patrols the zone.
Getting in here is a challenge. It is done via bumpy city streets with the gas pedal to the floor – a car on an open road is an easy target for the Russian drones above.
Almost no civilians remain here – but there are exceptions.
Almost no civilians remain here – but there are exceptions.
The driver must constantly watch out for them while zigzagging between burnt-out car wrecks that have previously fallen victim to the drones’ bombs. To try to get an early warning of incoming danger, we have brought a drone detector. It picks up video signals from the drones and warns if you risk becoming a target.
After ten minutes at full speed, we arrive. Press officer Serhij parks the car in an abandoned garage but barely has time to engage the handbrake before his radio crackles:
– Drone here!
He grabs his automatic rifle and rushes out. The drone hovering above is fiber-optic – it is controlled using a thin fiber-optic cable instead of radio communication. This makes it impossible to jam and it does not show up on our detector.
Out on the street, the Ukrainian drone hunters are already on high alert. The Kalashnikov rifles are aimed upwards. All they have to rely on now are their senses: Trying to hear which general direction the buzzing sound comes from, then find the small black dot in the sky.
Then it breaks loose.
Favorable weather for the Russians
A Ukrainian spots the Russian drone and fires shot after shot. The other two follow suit until all have emptied their magazines.
There is silent cursing. This time they did not manage to hit the drone – the distance was too great – and it continued towards the center, where the risk of being killed is now much higher.
This is the core of their mission: To minimize the number of drones as much as possible, so that the situation for Kherson’s residents can become a little more bearable.
Only now do the brothers Serhij and Jevhenij introduce themselves. They say they grew up in Kropyvnytskyi, three hours north of Kherson. Serhij joined the Marine Corps in 2022 and the younger brother Jevhenij joined in 2024. Since then, they have worked on shooting down drones.
The patrol starts around 10 a.m. A morning rain had prevented the Russian drones from flying but when we set off it had eased. The drones that had been waiting to take off can now lift. It is also windless – exactly the weather forecast Russian drone pilots hope for.
The brothers say there is another threat to watch out for, almost as dangerous as the one from the air: Mines. Russia has greatly increased its use of remotely detonated mines in the war. They can be fired from grenade launchers, rocket artillery, or dropped from drones. They blend well into grassy environments and the advice here is to stick to asphalt.
One model is particularly feared by Kherson’s residents.
Looks like a toy
“The butterfly mine.” It is a small, green, Soviet-made mine designed to be fired out and quickly spread over a large area. It has two distinct wings that make it spin slowly towards the ground when dropped from the air.
The small amount of explosives means the explosion rarely kills the victim. Instead, it leads to amputation of feet or legs for anyone who steps on the mine. It is especially dangerous for children, because the small butterfly-like plastic object resembles a toy. If children pick it up, it leads to amputations of hands and arms. They also risk blindness if shrapnel hits their eyes.
Jevhenij at “Park Slavy” (Park of Glory). The fields in the background, behind the monument and the river, are occupied by Russia.
Jevhenij at “Park Slavy” (Park of Glory). The fields in the background, behind the monument and the river, are occupied by Russia.
But when the next drone enters the red zone, the threat from the air is assessed as greater. Despite the risk of stepping on a butterfly mine, the whole group runs across a lawn to take cover under a bushy tree. But the drone above rushes past at high altitude at top speed – faster than 100 kilometers per hour – and is therefore impossible to shoot down.
We arrive at Park Slavy – Park of Glory. It is a green area near the beach, with monuments and memorials dedicated to those who died in World War II. Before the war, it was a popular excursion spot for families having picnics by the water.
Today the park is overgrown with tall grass, with only a few bomb craters breaking the landscape.
Here you can see straight across to Russian-occupied territory, just half a kilometer away. In a war characterized by a thirty-kilometer-wide “death zone,” dominated by drones, it is rare for the media to get this close to the Russian positions.
We ask the press officer if we should not be more careful considering Russian snipers.
– Snipers? No, they don’t get there. And if they try, they don’t live long.
He adds:
– It’s not 2023 anymore.
That is considered the last year before drones completely took over, when Ukrainian and Russian soldiers could still get close to each other. The war changes that fast.
1/3
At St. Catherine’s Cathedral it is quiet and peaceful – but that will soon change.
At St. Catherine’s Cathedral it is quiet and peaceful – but that will soon change.
2/3
An older man is working in the garden here.
An older man is working in the garden here.
3/3
A drone starts hovering over the church, and the man jogs away to shelter.
We cross the street and go through the gate of St. Catherine’s Cathedral. This is Kherson’s oldest preserved church. Here lay Grigory Potemkin – a Russian prince and advisor to Empress Catherine the Great. He played a central role in the Russian Empire’s expansion southwards during the 18th century and is important to Russian nationalists. When Russia retreated from Kherson, his remains were dug up and taken to Russia.
Brothers Serhij and Jevhenij survey the devastation around the church. They have made this walk hundreds, maybe thousands of times. But they never fully get used to it, they say. Hardly a single house stands intact. Along every facade, the effects of drones, aerial bombs, and artillery shells are evident. Encountering another person is rare.
But St. Catherine’s Cathedral is an exception. Like an oasis in the middle of the apocalypse, it remains almost untouched – it has only been attacked twice during the war. The church also offers some of the area’s few jobs. Two older people work here maintaining the church and garden.
Serhij approaches an older man digging in the flowerbed. They greet each other warmly, but Serhij stops the man mid-sentence.
– Quiet!
The calm is interrupted again by a sharp buzzing sound. Serhij squints, quickly searches all directions, and presses his Kalashnikov to his chest. It sounds like a cross between a chainsaw and a wasp and it is approaching fast.
Serhij knows every shot counts – otherwise he himself could be killed.
Serhij knows every shot counts – otherwise he himself could be killed.
Jevhenij runs to the nearby wooded area to get a better view. It pays off: He finds the drone. It is barely bigger than a clay pigeon and has stopped, now hovering over a tree 20 meters away. Much indicates the drone has spotted them and is preparing for a diving attack.
He calls to his brother. They raise their automatic rifles and fire shot after shot. Deafening blasts follow one another, closely followed by the snapping sound of bullets passing. But they don’t hit it.
Now every second is vital – if the Ukrainians don’t manage to put a bullet in the engine, one of them will soon have half a kilo of explosives coming at them.
Just then one of them lands a perfect shot. The bullet goes straight through the explosive charge or battery. In the explosion that follows, the drone is reduced to a black cloud of smoke and the parts fall down over the church garden. A sharp smell of gunpowder lingers, but otherwise it is quiet again.
It is time for the patrol’s first smoke break – a mandatory feature in all military circles in Ukraine – in the park behind the church.
1/3
“There is no one I trust more than my brother,” says Serhij, on the right.
“There is no one I trust more than my brother,” says Serhij, on the right.
2/3
The park is split in two by the remains of Kherson’s large TV tower: The 200-meter-high structure was blown up by Russian soldiers when they retreated.
The park is split in two by the remains of Kherson’s large TV tower: The 200-meter-high structure was blown up by Russian soldiers when they retreated.
3/3
Serhij fires a burst at the drone. The last shot blows it up in the air.
At the metal bars, Jevhenij lights a cigarette. He brushes away hanging threads from his face, which in a way resemble having gotten caught in a spider web – they are remnants from the fiber-optic drones. Large parts of the front are covered by these.
The conversation turns to how the war constantly changes. For someone away from the front for a month and then returning, a completely different situation awaits. This especially applies to the technology around drones.
– But what remains the same is that the Russians attack anything. Civilians, motorists, grocery stores. No one is safe here, says Jevhenij.
At the same time, they notice the enemy is starting to have problems supplying drones.
Some weeks the attacks have been much less than usual – something that may be due to Ukraine recently focusing on striking Russian logistics behind the front line.
1/2
It is common to see fiber-optic cable hanging from trees and buildings.
It is common to see fiber-optic cable hanging from trees and buildings.
2/2
The brigade’s press officer, closest, is also highly involved in shooting down drones.
The brigade’s press officer, closest, is also highly involved in shooting down drones.
The patrol’s last stage is usually calmer, a bit away from the river. Now the radio crackles. The commander warns of a more acute threat: Russian bomber aircraft are active, which means glide bombs can be dropped at any time.
Besides drones, it is one of the war’s most feared weapons.
Taking out Russian batteries
They are Soviet bombs equipped with deployable wings and a navigation system. They can have warheads with over a ton of explosives. 44,000 such bombs were dropped over Ukraine in 2025, according to Ukrainian sources.
Glide bombs have devastating explosive power and are practically impossible to shoot down. Since they lack engines, they have no heat signature for air defense to lock onto.
The pace quickens. We hurry between blocks hoping to reach the car before the first glide bomb is dropped. We don’t make it – and therefore rush into an abandoned residential building, where Serhij shoots down yet another drone. At the same time, deep, rumbling explosions are heard in the distance – the glide bombs have hit.
A shot-down fiber-optic drone. “Jackpot,” says Serhij – and the battery is removed, even though the explosive charge is still active.
A shot-down fiber-optic drone. “Jackpot,” says Serhij – and the battery is removed, even though the explosive charge is still active.
Another drone is shot down but does not detonate. It is jackpot for the Ukrainian army – they carefully remove the battery and take it with them.
– We will send this back to the Russians in our own drone, says Serhij.
Back at the garage, it is noted that our drone detector has not given a single alert, despite more than a dozen drones flying nearby. This gives an indication of how quickly the war is changing – a detector was previously considered mandatory equipment for anyone in frontline environments. But today in Kherson, the vast majority of drones are either fiber-optic or fly on encrypted channels.
Now sounds come on the radio and the commander says the afternoon is expected to be more drone-intensive than usual. Serhij and Jevhenij gather their strength and light cigarettes before preparing for the next patrol into the red zone.
How does it feel to work together with your brother in such an environment? They have made this risky walk almost every day for two years. Every time they risk being killed – or witnessing their brother being killed.
Serhij cannot imagine a better comrade-in-arms.
– There is no one I trust more than my brother. If something were to happen, I know he would never ever abandon me. That’s why we do it together.
SvD’s correspondents in Ukraine, Paul Wennerholm and Fredrik Fahlman.
SvD’s correspondents in Ukraine, Paul Wennerholm and Fredrik Fahlman. Photo: Dmytro Horyevoy
Fredrik Fahlman
Fredrik Fahlman
Correspondent based in Kiev, SvD
Paul Wennerholm
Paul Wennerholm
Photographer.
https://www.svd.se/a/d4k8LA/broderna-skjuter-ner-ryska-dronare-i-chersons-roda-zon
Great report! 👍
Regarding today’s post from Johan.
Isn’t it called “Hate chance”?
https://www.blt.se/nyheter/nazistisk-brandattack-mot-socialdemokraternas-lokaler-i-natt/
Maybe someone is running a Trump to gain sympathy?
Now probably eight parties will be threatened, hated, and firebombed before the election 😀
“False flag”?
Don’t forget… If the Social Democrats don’t win the election….. Well, you know the rest by now.
Wrote a bit more below, so I don’t think S has pulled a Trump on themselves, that was a bit of joking 😀
Interesting post! Nitpicker comment: “absolutely constant wars with Russia which were of course always their fault but they don’t think so.” You can’t really blame them for this, can you? https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_III:s_ryska_krig
Definitely the Russian bastards’ fault.
No, you are of course right about that 👍
The prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist is satisfied that the Stockholm District Court today convicted a 34-year-old man for attempted espionage on behalf of Russia. In a press release, he says that espionage is a very difficult crime to investigate, but that the district court has “fully” understood the evidence he has presented.
– This once again demonstrates Sweden’s and the Security Service’s ability to handle this type of case, says Ljungqvist.
The man is convicted despite his denial. Because he suffers from a serious mental disorder, the sentence is care.
Did the person work anywhere?
thinking about the mental disorder
AFS party office.
IT consultant in IT security within the armed forces.
Serious mental disorder?
That was strange
Iran is probably too divided now, some are talking with the USA while others are sending missiles and drones.
MXT, was it a good number checking out the page?
The weather has just been too good for you this summer, hoping for hail and tsunamis going forward 👍
Sitting and reading about the arson attack in Sölvesborg 😀
Will follow this because all such things right before an election are interesting.
What happened and how it is reported.
In the USA, don’t they have some rule that you can’t report election-influencing information in the media a month before the election? I don’t know exactly how it is formulated, and we all know that Trump won’t follow anything like that this year anyway 😀
If any party in parliament hadn’t made the same statement as the Social Democrats did today – of course everyone would have done it, and now it was the Social Democrats’ party office that was targeted. You can’t exactly accuse them of commenting on the issue, can you?
The other seven parliamentary parties have condemned the act as far as I can see?
The incident itself is interesting; according to the media, two perpetrators, one arrested and one suspected, where the arrested one is 35 years old. They were said to be wearing bomber jackets, and the arrested man shouted Nazi slogans for an hour while held down by police in the square in Sölvesborg.
They drenched the entrance in gasoline but never managed to ignite it – lucky, because it seems there are residences above… (do you think they had diesel with them because gasoline is almost impossible not to ignite).
They also seem to have stolen some moped/scooter/motorcycle but never got further than the main square; the party office is 30 meters away. One of the crimes according to the media is theft of some two-wheeler.
A bag full of stones and a gasoline can suggests preparation, so nothing spontaneous after a hard night out.
The execution could hardly have gone worse; the police are three miles away (or even further), so they had plenty of time, someone probably called in when windows started breaking, so they have been fumbling around for over half an hour with a gasoline can before being arrested.
The media, however, gets a failing grade in my opinion, as we are already reading about a Nazi attack that is a threat to democracy – and it is this debate that is important to follow, who were the perpetrators, will fingers start pointing at political parties, does this end here after threats to democracy have now been proclaimed?
Reading this in all media a month before a parliamentary election is not insignificant, and Aftonbladet has already made its connection on the editorial page.
https://www.aftonbladet.se/ledare/a/lnQe0k/attentatet-i-solvesborg-en-attack-pa-demokratin
This is what the police write.
https://polisen.se/aktuellt/handelser/2026/juli/29/29-juli-02.15-mordbrand-solvesborg/
We have an election in just over a month, and then the media should be restrained in my opinion because there is always a pool of voters who are susceptible before an election, especially to big black doomsday headlines.
Now various politically active people, even from parliament, and many others on social media are writing, and there the filter is even more nonexistent than in established media. There the connection has already been made and layers of new information added that at least I don’t find in the police link above 😀
Quite disappointed with the election campaign so far but it seems it could get even worse.
Yes ok, I now see that it says on the AB link above that “is independent social democratic” so I may have confused them with independent media 😐
MSM writes about the successful Ukrainian kinetic sanctions.
https://omni.se/a/lnQlv3
Yes, it also appeared that Kasselstrand visited Iran’s ambassador in Sweden 😀
The horseshoe is not made up.
MXT, found another article about the mentally ill (former) FRA employee.
He was mentally ill 👍
https://www.tv4.se/artikel/jRcenmI6Il74CJ2lE90Ym/doems-foer-foersoek-till-spioneri
Now we are probably heading towards a rather dangerous period when the whole of Europe shuts down in August.
A good time for Russia to come up with some mischief.
When will the toxicology report for Lindsey Graham be ready?
Isn’t it about time now, and it is needed to formally determine the cause of death.
Or will it be like with the Epstein documents 😀
Or our Stasi archive…
Off topic, but maybe not after all…
“All of Europe could be in flames” in August. This is the warning from the EU’s Emergency Response Coordination Centre (ERCC), reports Sky News.
The agency’s head Maria Zuber says that the risk of large wildfires is expected to increase in Greece, Italy, and large parts of Central Europe in the coming days.
– If the ongoing fires in Portugal and Spain have not been extinguished by then, all of Europe could be in flames, she says.
According to Zuber, 2026 also risks becoming the worst wildfire season in Europe’s history, thereby surpassing last year’s record.
https://omni.se/a/V6de34
Looked yesterday and Serbia, Slovakia, and Bulgaria do not have that many forest fires.
Since we have now reached the point where we can accept that the fires do not start by themselves, I find it interesting.
https://currentwildfires.com/en/
Further north, there is probably some rain.
Yes, we have given hundreds of thousands of Schengen visas to Russians this year, but the big part is that their intelligence services advertise on social media platforms and offer cash directly into the account if you send in a picture showing that you started a fire.
We in Europe then do not do the same against pro-Russian countries or Russia, which then becomes clear when there are no fires at all in Bulgaria, Serbia, or Slovakia.
This year, Iran is probably also angry at us, and forest fires are a very good ROI, almost risk-free except that if someone is caught, it is no ability they lose anyway.
It could be that the Baltics and Poles are a bit more on the ball, they all have active operations ongoing against the Russian hybrid war already?
There are no fires in Belarus either.
—
The only thing I see this year is the same as always, Europe is not ready for anything at all.
Your simple Google search asks a relevant question. Why don’t they burn in countries positive towards ryz?
Can’t an average journalist make that connection in the msm? Strange.
It took days before they were forced to admit that the fires did not start by themselves 😀
Somewhere our low-arousal response turns into self-harming behavior, but with a bit of luck it will start raining soon.
Unfortunately, the timing has been carefully chosen for the period when it normally does not rain at all.
Try to avoid new elections if half of Madrid or Paris burns down, Le Pen is probably praying to her idols every evening that it won’t start raining.
It would be unfortunate if a larger number of smaller hot air balloons, fully fueled, happened to break loose and drift eastward with the wind towards the Russian bastards.
Especially now when they are short on fuel and both fire trucks and water pumps are at a standstill.
There, it doesn’t seem to help to resell piss Russian oil
https://www.svt.se/nyheter/utrikes/134-svenskar-evakueras-fran-grekland
Here they have calculated the CO2 emissions so FINALLY maybe everyone’s fingers will start pointing towards Russia 😍
https://joint-research-centre.ec.europa.eu/projects-and-activities/natural-and-man-made-hazards/forest-fires/current-wildfire-situation-europe_en
Oh well, it’s not fossil emissions, so they don’t count according to today’s prevailing narrative…
Damn, there are so many Russian trolls on BlueSky nowadays.
The Russian bastards are desperate, which in itself is a positive sign.
I gave up on Bluesky,
At a time when EVERYONE said to give up on Twitter, I decided to be the best in class and made Bluesky my main account. It’s like shouting down a big black cave.
All UA information comes on Twitter anyway.