Russia

Kick off your Friday with SOFREP’s Morning Brief, featuring key defense and global affairs stories for May 9, 2025.

The world just spent $2.7 trillion gearing up for war—are we prepping for peace, or just getting better at breaking things?

They tried to pass off Viktoriia’s mutilated corpse as an “unidentified male,” but no amount of Soviet-style paperwork can bury the fact that she was tortured, murdered, and returned like a mangled warning label on the cost of telling the truth.

When the lights go out and the cell towers die, it’s not just bad luck anymore—it could be a warning shot from a cyber war most people won’t even see coming.

Michael Gloss’s descent from idealistic activist to Russian soldier is a brutal illustration of how disillusionment, mental health struggles, and online radicalization can twist even the brightest young lives into something almost unrecognizable.

In the grand theater of geopolitical absurdity, nothing says “welcome to the peace table” quite like scraping a Russian general off the pavement.

In wartime Russia, where grief is currency and loyalty is leveraged, even a soldier’s last breath can be turned into someone else’s business plan.

Kickstart your day with the SOFREP Morning Brief: Your intel on defense and global affairs for Tuesday, April 8, 2025.

While most of the world scrolls past headlines and sips overpriced coffee, Ukraine and Russia are still bleeding in the mud — and the outcome of that grind will shape the next decade of global security.

The agreements forged in Riyadh mark a fragile but meaningful step toward de-escalation in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, though early signs of strain reveal just how uncertain the road to lasting peace remains.

Here’s your SOFREP Daily News Brief: Key defense and global affairs insights to keep you in the know on Friday, March 14.

China, Russia, and Iran’s joint naval drills in the Gulf of Oman signal rising tensions, challenging US influence in the Middle East.