Futura Doctrina

As the stalemate in the Iran War drags on, Russia’s president maintained his maximalist goals for his war on Ukraine in a speech given to the United Russia Party Congress. At the same time, Ukraine this week saw some of the heaviest bombardments against Ukrainian cities of the war so far.

Flamingo launch. Image: Covert Shores It is now 170 days since the start of US and Israeli combat operations against Iran in February this year. And despite the many air strikes and destruction of Iranian command and control and military systems, a resolution appears further away than ever.

While China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea individually pose a significant threat to U.S. interests, their growing cooperation collectively magnifies the challenge. Each is emboldened to undertake actions it could not sustain on its own, and their cooperative efforts make it far more difficult to secure U.S. national security, economic prosperity, and peace and stability around the world.

Image: Wu Dongsheng, Military News Agency & @TaiwanMonitor We have been living in a constant search for protection against ballistic missiles since the first days of the war, when Ukraine had nothing to intercept them with. This is extremely difficult work. How can this problem be solved? Who has anti-ballistic missiles and systems? The manufacturer does. That is the United States, first and foremost. Can they help? We are working on it. Every month. Will they provide us with missiles? Yes.

On 10 July 2026, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy signed a decree establishing a Long-Range Strike Command within Ukraine’s Armed Forces. In his address that evening, he described it as a command for long-range, effectively global, impact on Russia to concentrate 100 percent of available resources on degrading Russia’s warfighting potential. The reform brings together drone strike formations, missile forces, intelligence support from different agencies (and nations) as well as naval unmanned systems.

Australian soldiers pass the Japanese light tanks knocked during the Battle of Milne Bay. Image: Australian War Memorial. “If the Australians in conditions very like ours had done it, so could we.” — Field Marshal Sir William Slim, on the news from Milne Bay Recently, I published an article here that explored failure in military operations.

Upon our shoulders—the shoulders of the Ukrainian people—has fallen a historic role: to complete the liberation struggle with our Victory. We are doomed to Victory. It cannot be otherwise, and there can be no talk of any compromises or concessions. General @Drapatyi_M, 25 July 2026. Hopes for an enduring settlement between Washington and Tehran have receded further since my last update.

Image: @DefenceU and 147th Artillery Brigade Overnight, Ukraine and Russia traded large scale strategic drone and missile strikes. At least seven were injured in Kyivas ballistic missiles and drones hit the Ukrainian capital. More Ukrainians were killed and injured in Russian drone and missile attacks in southern Ukraine in the preceding 24 hours.

Over the weekend of 12 July, three American sea drones crept toward a pier at Iran’s Bandar Abbas naval base and blew up a Ghadir class midget submarine sitting in a maintenance cradle. It was the first time the United States had used an armed uncrewed surface vessel in combat. The vessels involved were Saronic Corsairs, a 24 foot, 35 knot one way attack boat with a 1,000-pound warhead and a thousand nautical mile range, built by a company that did not exist five years ago.

Trump: "Would you go to Moscow (to meet Putin)?" Zelenskyy: "It's difficult. There are a lot of Ukrainian drones there. It's dangerous." From Trump-Zelenskyy meeting this week. As I write this, the fragile memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran has collapsed and the US is undertaking another round of strikes against Iranian targets. Iran has said it is closing the Strait of Hormuz.