Russia makes breakthroughs in eastern Ukraine

Moscow has made significant gains in Ukraine’s Donetsk region in recent months, and has developed new tactics to break through defensive lines. Kyiv is suffering from a manpower problem — an issue Moscow is exploiting. “Russians probe the lines to see if a battalion holds or retreats,” an analyst at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies , told The New York Times. When they located “weakened battalions and brigades,” he said, “they press them no matter the losses.” Analysts say they are worried about the pace Russia is pressing into the east: “the situation is critical,” one expert told the Times.

Wartime has given defense startups in Ukraine reason to innovate, and the country has sought to develop a strategy to ward off Russian attacks. The result is a “stunningly effective” audio radar network. The new technology allows Kyiv to quickly identify and stop aerial attacks from Russia, The Economist reported. The tech relies on a smartphone app and artificial intelligence that identifies flying objects from user reports. In the meantime, a microphone network that operates similarly to radar sends sounds it picks up back to Ukrainian air defense, allowing the nation to prepare for an incoming barrage.