September 29, 2026
Russia Targeting Data Centers
Timothy Birdnow
Russia has begun targeting the internet, hitting data centers and other cyber control facilities in the Ukraine, something that can rob the Ukrainians of their most useful weapon in the war.
Without this technology the Ukrainians won't be able to control their fleet of drones, which have been very effective in making attacks inside Russia.
The article points out that the Ukrainians are using AI to make the critical kill decisions:
Kyiv still insists a human makes the kill decision. The procurement paperwork is already arguing otherwise.
On Sept. 8, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence and the Brave1 cluster put seven AI guidance makers through a single scenario: fly two kilometers, lock a moving armored target from at least 500 meters, then finish the strike with the pilot’s hands off the controls. Six passed and were recommended for procurement. The ministry’s own release says successful AI-guided strikes have risen tenfold since the start of the year, and that more than 70 AI and computer-vision systems are already in the force. In the same breath, it repeats the ethics line: artificial intelligence helps; a human still decides.
So now the Russians are going after the machine that guides the weapons. And that is a logical tactic since the Ukrainians no doubt have lost many of their drone pilots in attacks and more will come. Taking out the machine takes out the military. Modern warfare has become dependent on the machine.
The article continues:
That formula thins out fast once electronic warfare or distance cuts the FPV link. Ukrainian operators already use last-mile autonomy for exactly that failure mode — the onboard module takes over, locks the target, and completes the run. A Ukrainian Ministry of Defence adviser on loitering munitions put the destination in plain language in July: navigation, search, and attack will be fully autonomous. Yaroslav Azhnyuk, whose firm builds autonomy software for unmanned vehicles, told Al Jazeera the race is not to demo one clever drone; it is to make autonomy cheap and deployable across tens or hundreds of thousands of systems within months.
Russia is already there
So we are rapidly building a war machine that will not require human beings at all, and the ethics of that are problematic. The danger of that even more so; build a complex enough system and it may never shut down, and may start going after people it was never intended to target (like it's creators). Science fiction is littered with stories about AI going mad and destroying it's creator, starting with Frankenstein and going through HAL of 2001: A Space Odyssey, to Skynet in The Terminator and Samaritan in Person of Interest. It's not like everyone hasn't know it could happen.
This is how it starts.
But war is the great motivator, and technology explodes in times of war. By the end of this Russo-Ukrainian war AI is going to be extremely capable at doing this.
God help us all.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at
08:25 AM
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Russia is getting their butts kicked by Ukraines drones. In a recent battle using only drones and motorized drone gun platforms they reportedly eliminated 3,000 Russian troops. The war of attrition has backfired on Putin and its his troops that are being thinned.
Posted by: Mike at September 29, 2026 06:03 PM (r7WVt)
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Totally agree Mike; Ukraine has innovated drone warfare to the point they have negated Russia's superiority in manpower and in equipment. Of course it helps the rest of the world has been helping the Ukrainians with money and equipment. But certainly you are right about the fact the Russians are getting stretched thinner and thinner.
I was quite confident Russia would win this but now I'm not so sure. Problem is there is no exit strategy for either side at this point. This is going to completely exhaust both nations (which is what the European internationalists wanted of course.)
Putin can't afford to be seen as losing; he'll be deposed and probably killed. Zelensky won't back down either. And the bad blood guarantees no negotiated settlement. This thing will have a bloody and painful end.
And then what? Both sides will be overflowing with embittered, hardened people who will undoubtedly turn to mercenary work and organized crime. There is a reason the Albanians rule organized crime now; the war in Bosnia made them hard as nails. Also, the depopulation of men will lead to a desperate need for labor and I fear these countries will begin importing Muslim men (or Chinese) and they will be very, very different places after that and not for the better. Most likely they will both appeal to the West for aid, and that will come with strings which will demand they allow Muslims in. The suicide of the West will engulf the Slavic world.
This war stinks no matter how it comes out. I see nothing good coming from a victory either way. If it had been negotiated early on it would be different and in fact there were tentative peace agreements but the Europeans encouraged Zelensky to keep fighting, and now they want to go into this war directly - a mad act. Putin will use nukes if he feels cornered; he's not a man to worry about a couple of dozen million dead.
This failure to settle this is going to haunt us in the years to come.
I was quite confident Russia would win this but now I'm not so sure. Problem is there is no exit strategy for either side at this point. This is going to completely exhaust both nations (which is what the European internationalists wanted of course.)
Putin can't afford to be seen as losing; he'll be deposed and probably killed. Zelensky won't back down either. And the bad blood guarantees no negotiated settlement. This thing will have a bloody and painful end.
And then what? Both sides will be overflowing with embittered, hardened people who will undoubtedly turn to mercenary work and organized crime. There is a reason the Albanians rule organized crime now; the war in Bosnia made them hard as nails. Also, the depopulation of men will lead to a desperate need for labor and I fear these countries will begin importing Muslim men (or Chinese) and they will be very, very different places after that and not for the better. Most likely they will both appeal to the West for aid, and that will come with strings which will demand they allow Muslims in. The suicide of the West will engulf the Slavic world.
This war stinks no matter how it comes out. I see nothing good coming from a victory either way. If it had been negotiated early on it would be different and in fact there were tentative peace agreements but the Europeans encouraged Zelensky to keep fighting, and now they want to go into this war directly - a mad act. Putin will use nukes if he feels cornered; he's not a man to worry about a couple of dozen million dead.
This failure to settle this is going to haunt us in the years to come.
Posted by: Timothy Birdnow at September 30, 2026 11:36 AM (oflqW)
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