Ukraine

War didn’t greet me with a banner or a cause—it handed me a shovel, a borrowed rifle, and a promise that if I didn’t dig fast enough, I’d meet God before breakfast.

While the world argued over tanks and F-16s, the CIA quietly built a deniable war machine in the Ukrainian shadows—armed to the teeth, fluent in covert chaos, and operating under a silence so deep Congress could barely hear its own heartbeat.

Trump didn’t start sending missiles because he had a change of heart—he did it because getting outmaneuvered by Putin and boxed in by Europe made doing nothing look worse than pulling the trigger.

While Kyiv burned under a record-breaking Russian drone assault and Hamas eyed a ceasefire deal with fingers crossed behind their back, President Trump saluted B-2 pilots at the White House—just not by name, because in 2025, even heroes have to hide. Welcome to Saturday, July 5th, 2025. This is your SOFREP Morning Brief.

When the shell crates are empty and NATO’s still circling the bureaucracy drain, you improvise with whatever’s sticky, stinks, and might make a Russian grunt rethink his life choices.

As Ukraine mourns a fallen F-16 pilot, Trump burns the midnight oil pushing for peace in Gaza, and 140,000 Serbs flood Belgrade demanding change—one thing’s clear: the world isn’t sleeping, and neither are its people. Welcome to Sunday, June 29, 2025. Here is your SOFREP Morning Brief.

Stay on top of the news with the SOFREP Evening Brief: Top updates on defense and global affairs for Friday, June 27, 2025.

While the world’s eyes are fixed on the Middle East, Ukraine is slugging it out in a no-holds-barred brawl with Russia, trading drones, artillery, and defiance in a fight that’s shaping the future far beyond its borders.

When Ukraine launched Operation Spiderweb, it didn’t just cross into Russian airspace—it rewrote the whole playbook and sent Moscow scrambling to find the pages.

As Russia plays hardball in the Baltic, Zelensky pushes for diplomacy in Rome, and Israel walks a tightrope between security and starvation in Gaza, the global chessboard is starting to feel more like a minefield.

Russia showed up to peace talks in Istanbul with demands so unrealistic they read more like a blueprint for Ukraine’s surrender than a genuine path to peace.

Clause VI of the Ukraine minerals deal quietly transforms blown-up Patriot launchers into phantom investments, setting taxpayers up for a billion-dollar fleecing that won’t show up until the ink is dry and the cash is long gone.