Jason Jay Smart is a political adviser who has lived and worked in Ukraine, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Latin America. Due to his work with the democratic opposition to Vladimir Putin, Smart was made persona non grata for life by Russia in 2010. Jason is a Special Correspondent at the Kyiv Post. It’s the state of US support for Ukraine that we will discuss today.----------LINKS:https://jasonjaysmart.com/ https://www.kyivpost.com/authors/5 https://americanpoliticalservices.com/https://www.facebook.com/jasonjaysmarthttps://twitter.com/officejjsmart ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Car4Ukrainehttps://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaignsDzyga's Pawhttps://dzygaspaw.com/projectsSuperhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/----------PLATFORMS:Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtainTwitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSiliconLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm----------

Silicon Bites SW26-218 | 2026-06-25 | We Haven't Started Yet. The empty-threat doctrine: Putin reaches for Istanbul 2022, and his ministers promise the "real" war – claiming once more that Russia “has only just started’ fighting – a claim that is getting hollower and more absurd by the day — while Moscow's own refinery burns and there is no hidden gear left to find.On the morning of 18 June, the largest drone raid of the entire war hit Moscow. Black smoke over the southern skyline. Soot raining onto the streets. The Kapotnya refinery — the plant that supplies roughly a third of the capital's fuel — on fire for the second time in a week. Vladimir Putin was 700 kilometres away in Kazan, smiling for the cameras at a summit with Southeast Asian leaders. He said nothing about the smoke.----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:----------

Dr. Joshua E. "Bugsy" Segal is Co-Founder and Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at Deft9 Solutions, a Washington-DC-based national security consultancy. He carries a PhD in Russian Studies from George Washington University. His career has run for more than thirty years across military, civilian, and intelligence positions in US national security. He served as a naval officer and retired in 2020 after a closing tour as a lead planner at US Special Operations Command, working on counter-WMD and great-power-competition requirements. Since retirement, Segal has worked as a senior national security consultant focused on information warfare, arms control, and hybrid warfare strategies. ----------LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshua-e-segal-phd-%E2%80%9Cbugsy%E2%80%9D-394752a7/https://www.fpri.org/contributor/joshua-segal/----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Car4Ukrainehttps://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaignsDzyga's Pawhttps://dzygaspaw.com/projectsSuperhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/----------PLATFORMS:Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtainTwitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSiliconLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm----------

H. Perry Boyle Jr. is the CEO and co-founder of MITS Capital LLC — Military Innovation Technology Solutions — and chairman of MITS Industries, the Danish-Ukrainian defence-tech joint venture announced in September 2025. He divides his time between Kyiv and Ketchum, Idaho. Boyle came to Ukrainian defence technology from three decades on Wall Street. He held senior positions at SAC Capital and Point72 — where he served as head of equities and capital development, managing multi-billion-dollar portfolios across global markets. His co-founders are Denys Gurak (COO and CIO, former venture partner at FF Venture Capital) and Anton Melnyk (Founding Partner, Ukraine-based). The MITS Industries board co-chairs are a former NATO Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Defense Investment and a retired US Army Colonel with 26 years in defence and transatlantic security — that combination signals the political-strategic positioning Boyle has built around the firm.----------LINKS:https://www.linkedin.com/in/perryboyle/https://www.cnas.org/people/h-perry-boylehttps://mits.capital/team/----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Car4Ukrainehttps://car4ukraine.com/en-US/campaignsDzyga's Pawhttps://dzygaspaw.com/projectsSuperhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/----------PLATFORMS:Substack: https://substack.com/@siliconcurtainTwitter: https://twitter.com/CurtainSiliconLinkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/finkjonathan/Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/4thRZj6NO7y93zG11JMtqm----------

Silicon Bites SW26-217 | 2026-06-24 | Zelensky stops asking Lukashenko to stay out of the war — and starts counting down to the moment Ukraine removes the equipment Russia has placed on their territory to harm Ukraine, for him. He has been warned, but this warning also demonstrates a more muscular and confident approach from Ukraine. They are they only one globally who have shown the will and capacity to constrain and contain Russia and deliver consequences for its aggression.There is a clock counting down in Minsk now. It started on Friday. For four years and four months, the West has treated Alexander Lukashenko as a bystander to this war. A nervous neighbour. A man who lent Putin his territory once, in February 2022, watched the missiles fly out of his own country into Ukrainian apartment blocks, and then phoned Kyiv to apologise and explain it wasn't really his fault. The bystander narrative has been very convenient — for Lukashenko, for Moscow, and for every Western capital that would rather not think about NATO's longest land border with a hostile state, a willing puppet of the Kremlin’s ambitions. ----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Kyiv Independent — "'A week will be enough' — Zelensky issues ultimatum to Lukashenko over drone-guidance equipment" (19 June 2026)UNITED24 Media — "'If He Does Not Do This, We Will': Zelenskyy Issues 7-Day Ultimatum to Lukashenko Over Border Military Tech" (19 June 2026)EUalive (via European Pravda) — "Zelenskyy issues ultimatum to Lukashenko: dismantle Russian drone retranslators or Ukraine will act" (20 June 2026)Yahoo News / Euronews wire — "Zelenskyy issues one-week ultimatum to Lukashenka over drone-guidance equipment" (20 June 2026): Censor.NET — "Zelenskyy issued an ultimatum to Lukashenko regarding relay stations" (19 June 2026)Charter97 — "Zelenskyy Issued An Ultimatum To Lukashenko" (19 June 2026)Kyiv Independent — "Ukraine denies Russian claim that Ukrainian drone struck bus carrying Belarusian children's football team" (17–18 June 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — "Kyiv posts Russian document refuting claim that Ukrainian drone hit bus carrying Belarusian children" (18 June 2026)Euronews — "Bus with Belarus children's football team hit by a drone in Russia, Moscow claims" (17 June 2026)RFE/RL — "Ukraine Denies Russian Claims Of Strike On Bus Carrying Belarusian Children" (17 June 2026)Kyiv Post — "Ukraine Has 500 Targets Ready in Belarus if Lukashenko Joins War" (26 May 2026)----------

Silicon Bites Ep358 | 2026-06-24 | They stole it. They sunbathed on it. They shipped their children to it. Now the petrol's gone — and that, finally, is the thing that is forcing Russians to flee Crimea. Today: ISLAND CRIMEA. Sunday morning, the twenty-first of June. Nine o'clock local time. And across the entire occupied Crimean Peninsula, the petrol pumps stop. Not rationed. Not coupon-only. Stopped. Sergey Aksyonov, the Kremlin's man in Simferopol, posts the order to Telegram: from this hour, fuel goes only to the state. Petrol will be sold solely to the government agencies that keep the peninsula running and secure — and to nobody else. Not to you. Not to your car. Not to the tourist stranded sixty kilometres from a working tank.This is the prize Vladimir Putin seized in 2014 and called forever Russian. The sunlit trophy. The symbol of resurgent empire. And on a summer Sunday it cannot fill a single civilian fuel tank. Tonight: how Ukraine turned a trophy into an island, an asset into a liability — and why people who holidayed on stolen land will be stopped not by conscience, but by queue.----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:AFP / The Moscow Times — Ukrainian Strikes on Russian-Annexed Crimea Kill 4, Pause Fuel Sales (21 Jun 2026)Associated Press / NPR — Ukrainian attacks prompt Russian-held Crimea to halt civilian gasoline sales (21 Jun 2026)Associated Press / CBC News — Russian-held Crimea halts civilian gasoline sales following Ukrainian attacks (21 Jun 2026)Bloomberg — Russia-Occupied Crimea Halts Fuel Sales After Ukrainian Attacks (21 Jun 2026)Euronews — Russian-occupied Crimea suspends petrol sales amid fuel crisis (21 Jun 2026)Reuters / U.S. News — Crimea Suspends Children's Summer Camps as Ukraine Strikes Squeeze Fuel Supplies (22 Jun 2026)Kyiv Independent — Children's camps in Crimea suspend arrivals as security concerns rose after Ukrainian drone strikes (22 Jun 2026)Kyiv Independent — Ukraine destroys key logistics bridge in Crimea, hits over 60 Russian military targets overnight (23 Jun 2026)Kyiv Independent — 'Hell is beginning' — Ukraine could isolate occupied Crimea as drone strikes disrupt logistics, Fedorov says (17 Jun 2026)Ukrainska Pravda (English) — Crimea will become isolated due to Ukrainian drone strikes, Ukraine's defence minister says (17 Jun 2026)----------

David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone is a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, a geopolitical analyst, writer, and podcaster. David is an Iraq war veteran who served as Team Leader of a Tactical Human Intelligence Team (THT) in operations within Iraq and is also a former police officer. David is considered too conservative for the progressive left and too independent minded for the radical right and seeks to challenge political dogma and the naked self-interest of politicians.----------LINKS:@NoDelusionZone https://www.protectingtherepublic.com/podcasthttps://www.protectingtherepublic.com/https://substack.com/@protectingtherepublichttps://x.com/ddebattohttps://www.kyivpost.com/authors/743----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyslhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------

Silicon Bites Ep357 | 2026-06-22 | When the island runs dry: how Ukraine turned Putin's crown jewel into his most exposed nerve — an Achilles heel rather than a strategic asset – and why the pumps going dry on Russia Day's weekend is the moment the myth of Putin’s invincibility died. At nine o'clock this morning, in occupied Crimea, the petrol stopped. Not only rationed. Not accepting coupon-only. Not capped at twenty litres. Stopped entirely. The panic has truly set in. The Kremlin's man on the peninsula, Sergey Aksyonov, posted to Telegram that from 09:00 on Sunday 21 June, fuel would be sold to nobody — not for cash, not by card, not on a voucher, not to a private citizen, not to a business. Only the state gets to refuel now. This of course puts the military requirements above the population. Absolutely standard for Russia. ----------ACTIVE CAMPAIGN:We are raising funds for 5 of 15 Vampire DronesSilicon Curtain for Kupiansk Vampires. Dzyga’s Paw, together with Jonathan Fink, is joining forces to raise $40,000 to provide the Khartiia Brigade with Vampire Drones.https://dzygaspaw.com/silicon-curtain-for-kupiansk-vampiresThese heavy bombers are designed to destroy manpower and equipment, as well as for remote mining. The Vampire UAV, manufactured by Skyfall, has proven itself to be one of the most effective weapons in the Kupiansk direction. Skyfall is one of Ukraine’s largest defense tech companies, producing Vampire bomber drones, various modifications of Shrike FPV drones, P1-SUN, Shahed drone interceptors, communication systems, and components.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Euronews — Russian-occupied Crimea suspends petrol sales amid fuel crisis (21 June 2026)The Moscow Times — Ukrainian Strikes on Russian-Annexed Crimea Kill 4, Pause Fuel Sales (21 June 2026)Bloomberg — Russia-Occupied Crimea Halts Fuel Sales After Ukrainian Attacks (21 June 2026)WRAL / AP — Ukrainian attacks prompt Russian-held Crimea to halt civilian gasoline sales (21 June 2026)The New Voice of Ukraine — Fuel sales halted in occupied Crimea as fire burns at Kerch fuel terminal (21 June 2026)The New Voice of Ukraine — Explosions reported across occupied Crimea amid large drone attack (21 June 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — Explosions reported in occupied Crimea, fires break out in Kerch (21 June 2026)LIGA.net — Video of the attacks on the Port of Kerch on June 21, 2026 (21 June 2026)Kyiv Independent — Oil terminal, port infrastructure reportedly set ablaze on both sides of Kerch Strait (21 June 2026)Kyiv Independent — Ukrainian drones strike Russian oil, gas sites in Crimea and Siberia (20 June 2026)Kyiv Independent — 'Hell is beginning' — Ukraine could isolate occupied Crimea, Fedorov says (17 June 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — Crimea will become isolated due to Ukrainian drone strikes, Ukraine's defence minister says (17 June 2026)----------