FPV (First-Person View) drone technology has become a significant factor in modern warfare, emerging prominently in the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine. The Russian army is increasingly using FPV drones to target both military and civilian sites.

In this recent piece by New Eastern Europe magazine, the Kurakhove police rescue team—long supported by Assist Ukraine—shares its experience working under the constant threat of FPV drone attacks. The article also explores protective measures against FPVs, including radio-jamming devices and drone detectors.

It was a whale of an evacuation. Actually, two.

In what experts said was among the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken, the pair of beluga whales were extricated from an aquarium in the battered city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and transported to Europe’s largest aquarium in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday morning.

As Russian aerial bombardments of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, have intensified, the evacuation of Plombir, a 15-year-old male, and Miranda, a 14-year-old female, came just in time, marine mammal experts said.

“If they had continued in Kharkiv, their chances of survival would have been very slim,” said Daniel Garcia-Párraga, director of zoological operations at Oceanogràfic de Valencia, who helped lead the rescue.

Belugas, whose natural habitat is the Arctic, need cold water to survive. The devastation of the power grid in Kharkiv meant that the aquarium there had to rely on generator power, making it challenging to keep the waters cooled.  Read full story here.