I’m “John Frankiv,” a Ukrainian. I want to make sure that no one can attack my country and commit atrocities***** to our people. Getting to that point requires some work—for example, it takes becoming Europe’s most technologically powerful nation. But all projects have to start somewhere, so we started Kara Dag, an antidrone company, to prevent people dying from drones here and now.
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*Since the 18th century, due to our inability to fight Russia:
—more than 150,000 intellectuals were shot
—more than 4 million died because of the artificial famine
—more than 3 million killed in mobilizations by imperial Russia and the USSR
—about 2 million were forcefully deported
—since 2022, over 1 million Ukrainians passed through Russian concentration camps
—the numbers keep adding up
We started
Kara Dag, an antidrone company, to prevent people dying from drones here and now.
My team and I went to Kherson to test our new drone detector. It was right on Christmas Eve. We lived in a house with local soldiers, all Kherson citizens. In their past lives—bakers, doctors, delivery guys, scientists. They put on a big table—drinks, salads, and, of course, * kutya *[a sweet, ceremonial grain porridge] for the Christmas supper. Brought wives and friends.
And we kept singing.During the night, I heard artillery hits.
On the other side of the table we lined up ten or twelve drone detectors, as if the sheer quantity of them would protect us. I had almost forgotten that Russians were just one and a half miles away from us. We started singing * kolyadky*, the Christmas songs that remind us of childhood and peace. Our detectors would pick up a video signal, every 10 or 20 minutes. And after a routine check, Anna [name changed!], a soldier’s wife, or someone else, would say—“all okay, it’s far from us.”
And we kept singing. During the night, I heard artillery hits. I thought it was us hitting Russians. Wrong. In the morning, Anna casually told me it was “far” from us: “Russian strike, 700m away” [just under half a mile]. The Telegram channel reported four casualties, all women.*
So the holiday was over, and a normal day began.
*** I never separate civilian from military casualties**, as 1) it devalues the lives of soldiers; 2) creates the wrong impression that soldiers are expected to die; and 3) creates the wrong impression that the military is separate from civilians, while the military is really just civilians who took up arms to defend against massacre.
I imagine myself as a judge who has to make a decision upon whatever case he’s presented with. Life presents us with cases, we make verdicts. This way, there are no “difficult situations” or “pressure.” What’s most important is making decisions and taking action, one decision at a time. Freezing equals death.
People can come to Ukraine and volunteer to fight, that’s the most important part.
I do not have any pages that can be “followed,” but my co-founders and the company have:Kara Dag company co-founder Andrew P.Kara Dag company LinkedInKara Dag company Instagram
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Belgian General Warns: Ukraine Is Still Buying Europe Time With Bloodtop military officer,
Belgium’sGeneral Frederik Vansina,delivereda message many European politicians still seem reluctant to say plainly:Russia remains the primary threat.
Ukraine’s resistance to Russia must not be overshadowed by the Middle East, General Vansina added, andby 2030 Europe must be strongenough to tell Vladimir Putin that even without the Americans he still cannot win a war against Europe.
Vansina warned that Moscow’swar economy, battle-hardened forces, and openly revisionist rhetoric leave no room for complacency, while also admitting that Europe’s defense industry is ramping up far too slowly and that even 2 percent spending will not be enough.**Just as striking was his institutional verdict:**any real European strategic autonomy must happen inside NATO. Brussels’fantasies about a separate EU army must be suspended, he said.
Ukrainian Drones Fly Cats and Dogs to SafetyIn a war increasingly defined by machines, Ukraine just offered a reminder that technology reflects the character of the people using it. Soldiers from the14th Separate Mechanized Brigadereportedlyused a drone returning from a food delivery mission to evacuate first a cat and then a dog from frontline positions, flying them roughly 12 kilometers to safety. The cat had been cared for by a wounded soldier who was later hospitalized, and his comrades decided not to leave the animal behind; the dog was rescued as well. Both animals are said to be safe.
Europe Wants Security? Then Build It With Ukraineand
GermanyUkrainesignedsix new defense partnerships on 14 April under the “Build with Ukraine” model, pairing Ukrainian battlefield know-how with German industrial capacity. Among the deals: 🇩🇪Helsingand 🇺🇦Culver Aerospaceplan a joint production site in Germany for drone systems, with Berlin expected to finance deep-strike drone production; 🇺🇦Fire Pointentered cooperation with 🇩🇪Diehlon air-defence technology; 🇺🇦Thyraand🇩🇪TAF Industriessigned on interceptor drones; and 🇺🇦Ukraviasystemreached an agreement with 🇩🇪POINToXon missile and aviation systems. After years of Europe talking grandly about defence sovereignty, it is Ukraine, under fire and under pressure, that is now teaching Germany how serious military production actually works.
Germany Imports Urgency From UkraineGermany’sQuantum Systems, which already works with Ukraine’s Frontline Robotics, islaunchingmore German-Ukrainian joint ventures under the “Build with Ukraine” model.
One venture withWIY Droneswill focus on scaling interceptor drones for air defence after Ukraine’s security forces tasked Quantum Systems with delivering 15,000 Strila interceptors.
The other venture, withTencore, will expand production of unmanned ground vehicles, bringing combat-tested Ukrainian robotics deeper into Europe’s industrial base. Tencore says it already has more than 3,000 platforms deployed and a monthly production capacity above 300 units, used by over 50 brigades.When survival is on the line, innovation does not come from glossy strategy papers but from Ukrainians building what works, while richer capitals slowly rediscover that factories, scale, and battlefield realism still matter.
While Others Preach Values, Ukraine Bleeds for ThemVolodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian peoplereceivedtheInternational Four Freedoms Award, a legacy of FDR, inMiddelburg, Netherlands, on 16 April, with the Roosevelt Foundation explicitly honoring Ukraine’s courage, perseverance, and resilience in resisting Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Dutch Prime MinisterRob Jettennoted that Zelensky agreed to accept it only on behalf of all Ukrainians, which gives the ceremony its real weight: This was less a tribute to one man than a recognition that, in today’s Europe,the clearest defenders of freedom of speech, worship, and freedom from fearare not the states issuing polished declarations, but the nation still burying its dead while holding the line. In an age of exhausted rhetoric and fashionable moral confusion, the award carried an uncomfortable message for the rest of the continent:Ukraine is not merely asking Europe to defend its values, it is already doing so for them.
Ukraine’s Next Strike Package Is Heavier, Faster, and Already for SaleThe Ukrainian-SlovakventureWings&Quadrohas put a new heavy medium-strike UAV on theBrave1defense marketplace, and the numbers show how quickly Ukraine’s drone industry is maturing. TheSwan-X 20is presented as a long-range strike platform for contested environments, with a claimed tactical radius of 250 kilometers, potential extension to 300, a top speed of 160 km/h, endurance of up to 95 minutes, and a 20-kilogram payload.
The company also says agasoline-engine variantcan carry as much as 50 kilograms over more than 300 kilometers, though the system is still being prepared for codification.
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