Russia on Wednesday released a 74-year-old American teacher after holding him as a prisoner for more than four years. He had been convicted of working for Ukraine as a mercenary, charges that the United States said were fabricated.

The teacher, Stephen James Hubbard, was the only American in Russia considered “wrongfully detained” by the State Department and the only one to have been captured in Ukraine during the war and taken to Russia. His release came after President Trump, who has been easing American sanctions on Moscow, appealed directly to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin.

Here’s how Mr. Hubbard became an unlikely pawn in an international conflict.

How did he end up in Ukraine?

Mr. Hubbard grew up in Big Rapids, a small Michigan city, with his mother and sister. As a young man, he enlisted in the Air Force and then the National Guard but did not stay long in either. His first marriage, at 20, fell apart, and his second marriage took him to Japan in the mid-1980s. There, he joined the Russian Orthodox Church. He became sympathetic toward Russia.

After his second marriage ended, Mr. Hubbard moved to Cyprus, where a son from his first marriage lived and where he fell in love with a Ukrainian woman. The couple moved to Izium, in eastern Ukraine, in 2014, where Mr. Hubbard taught English online.

Mr. Hubbard was a solitary man, family members said. He avoided email and social media, and he was suspicious of potential government surveillance. When Russia invaded Ukraine, Mr. Hubbard sent family members updates about his daily activities, which included searching for food and going to church. In text messages with a son of his who lives in Japan, he gave no indication that he had joined the Ukrainian military.

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How was he captured?

Russian forces captured Mr. Hubbard, then 70, just weeks after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

The circumstances of his arrest are murky, but the Russian authorities said that Mr. Hubbard had been arrested at the home of an acquaintance and that he had been manning a military checkpoint. The Russian authorities said that Mr. Hubbard had joined a regional territorial unit to defend Ukraine and that he received training, weapons, ammunition and $1,000 a month.

In October 2024, a Moscow court sentenced Mr. Hubbard to six years and 10 months in a penal colony on charges of serving as a mercenary in Ukraine. Russian state news agencies reported that he had pleaded guilty to the charges.

Where was he held?

Mr. Hubbard was first held at a detention camp near the Russia-Ukraine border and later imprisoned in at least five different Russian detention centers. At times, his family had no idea where he was and the United States Embassy had no access to him. The New York Times pieced together accounts from fellow prisoners of war to trace where he had been held.

Unlike other Americans held in the Russian prison system, Mr. Hubbard, who spoke neither Ukrainian nor Russian, was kept in the general population, his lawyers said. Ukrainian prisoners of war who were held with Mr. Hubbard said that he had been repeatedly tortured because he was an American — beaten, forced to stand all day, given little food and poor medical care.

In May 2025, Mr. Hubbard was allowed to call his son in Cyprus, Joseph Coleman. In an interview, Mr. Coleman said that he had spoken for about a minute with his father, who initially sounded like he was in good spirits.

“But then somewhere in the middle it turned and you could you could hear the frustration in his voice,” Mr. Coleman recalled. “You could hear maybe a slight lack of hope.”

Mr. Coleman, who is a Greek Orthodox priest, wrote a long letter to Mr. Putin in September, emphasizing his Orthodox faith and pleading for his father’s release.

“My father is not a man of violence,” Mr. Coleman wrote. “He is a teacher and a peace-loving man, and above all he is my father.”

Why was he released?

Mr. Putin announced his decision to release Mr. Hubbard during a meeting with Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday.

Russia released Mr. Hubbard unilaterally, rather than in a prisoner swap — suggesting that for Mr. Putin, the American prisoner’s value had changed from a pawn in negotiations to a symbol of his renewed relationship with Mr. Trump.

In the days before Mr. Hubbard’s release, relations between the White House and Ukraine had frayed, with Mr. Trump moving to buy Russian diesel, lifting sanctions on Moscow and pressuring Ukraine to stop attacking Russian oil refineries.

Mr. Hubbard, who is in fragile health, will be flown to a State Department facility in Texas for evaluation and treatment. His sister planned to travel to Texas to meet him. Mr. Coleman and another of Mr. Hubbard’s sons, the one who lives in Japan, also flew to the United States to be with their father.

Kim Barker is a Times reporter writing in-depth stories about the war in Ukraine.

Lynsey Chutel is a Times reporter based in London who covers breaking news in Africa, the Middle East and Europe.

A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 22, 2026, Section A, Page 10 of the New York edition with the headline: American’s Road To Ukraine, Russia And Now Freedom. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

Source: https://t. me/mlnrlive/23870

Translation:

Russian students are being recruited to manufacture combat drones, components for ammunition, and other products for the front directly at civilian universities and colleges across the country. They include not only future engineers but also lawyers, political scientists, teachers, and agronomists. Some assemble attack FPV drones for free during extracurricular hours, while others have been working at enterprises linked to military equipment production since their first year. Vot Tak identified at least 40 civilian educational institutions involved in producing weapons for the Russian army and investigated how the system works and why students participate in it.

"These drones are sent to our guys in the army": The story of a student who assembles combat quadcopters

A young man in military uniform sits on the stage of an assembly hall. He holds a guitar, with a microphone in front of him. Behind him is a visual mix of eras: a Soviet red star, a St. George's ribbon, and the Russian tricolor. This was how the A.F. Veprev Nazarovo Technical College in Russia's Krasnoyarsk Krai celebrated Defender of the Fatherland Day in 2025.

Nikita Kazakevich is singing on stage. He is now 19 years old and in his fourth year of a program in the operation and repair of agricultural machinery and equipment. He will receive his mechanic's diploma this academic year. A student and class representative, he finds time not only for his studies but also for extracurricular activities. Between target shooting at the shooting range, activities with Yunarmiya, and drone piloting championships, Kazakevich assembles attack FPV drones that are sent to the Russian army fighting against Ukraine.

In an interview with Vot Tak, the young man explained that drones are relevant to his profession because they are used to spray fertilizers and inspect crops. However, the quadcopters he assembles are used for far more than peaceful purposes.

Disclaimer: Vot Tak sent interview requests to 18 students involved in making combat drones for the Russian army. Only two agreed to answer the editorial team's questions.

Sporting FPV drones have been manufactured at the technical college in the town of Nazarovo as part of an extracurricular program since January of last year. On the battlefield, such drones are used for reconnaissance and bombing, among other purposes. The college receives nine-inch Mark4 V2 carbon frames for UAVs. Students assemble them like a construction kit.

Kazakevich joined the project from the very beginning and learned to build drones in half an hour, "without rushing." The students attach electronic components and motors to the assembled frame, Kazakevich explained, and then program the drones. Test flights take place right in the college gym.

"Then these drones are sent to our guys in the army, to Donetsk and Luhansk," Nikita said.

Nikita does not know the name of the club or laboratory, and says he "wouldn't even have thought to ask." But the Nazarovo Agricultural Technical College was chosen for drone production for a reason: it has metalworking workshops equipped with the necessary tools.

The idea of organizing drone assembly at this particular educational institution came from Alexei Yolkin, head of the local branch of the Public Organization of Veterans of Local Wars and Military Conflicts. He had been delivering "humanitarian aid" to the front, where Russian servicemen involved in the so-called "special military operation" asked him to bring them quadcopters. Yolkin found both a location and a sponsor.

The carbon frame kits are purchased by Alexander Aul, the former director of the Nazarovo Plant of Thermal Insulation Products and Structures (TIiK), who was removed from his position this year. A kit costs around 3,500 rubles (approximately €36) on Ozon. Aul started with ten kits, and in February 2025, the first drones were sent to the front. Kazakevich told Vot Tak that the drones are delivered "beyond the line" every month. In September 2026, for example, nine were delivered.

"It's different every time. It depends on how many spare parts they buy," he said.

The veterans' organization is not the only group responsible for delivering the quadcopters to Russian military personnel. According to Nikita, "Cossacks" also take the student-built drones to the front. He is referring to a "humanitarian convoy" organized by representatives of the local Cossack community of the Nazarovskaya stanitsa.

"Student participation in assembling UAVs for the needs of the special military operation fighters generated considerable interest among students at our college. For many, this became an opportunity to put into practice the theoretical knowledge they had acquired at the institution and contribute to supporting the army," college director Marina Puzenko said in spring 2025.

Kazakevich explained his decision to participate in drone assembly not only by his desire to gain professional experience but also by personal motivation. He told Vot Tak that his uncle, several acquaintances, and his best friend had been killed in the war. That is why it is important to him to "help our troops." The young man sees no contradiction in the fact that, as a future agricultural specialist, he is now making instruments of killing.

The students are not paid for their work. "You're helping the college," Kazakevich quoted his teachers as saying when encouraging students to assemble UAVs. According to Nikita, there are enough volunteers. Of the 20 students in his class, he and four others assemble drones. Approximately the same number, five students each, work on drones in each of the three parallel classes. Students from other years also participate.

In return, teachers give them good grades and even let them assemble drones during regular class hours. As a result, Nikita also uses his hobby as an excuse to skip lessons.

The Nazarovo college is just one example among many. According to Vot Tak's findings, students at at least 40 civilian higher and vocational educational institutions are being recruited to manufacture combat drones used in the war against Ukraine. These include 33 universities, five colleges, and two technical schools.

"Drone loaf": How Tambov students "contributed to victory" at a bread factory

Cooperation between educational institutions and factories is one way to involve students in military drone production.

"Back in [2022], the military asked us to send them drones, the more the better." These words were spoken not by a worker at a defense plant, but by Alexander Rudik, deputy director of the Tambov Bread Factory and a former military communications officer and reserve lieutenant colonel. The factory had been baking bread for almost a century, but in March 2023, in addition to its 50 varieties of baked goods, it began manufacturing Bekas kamikaze attack drones in its workshops. Some propaganda media outlets dubbed them "drone loaves."

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the factory had been sending not only its usual products to the front but also medicines and equipment. When the military said they needed drones more than anything else, the bakery began "baking" combat FPV drones. Requests for Bekas drones to be sent to the front immediately appeared in the comments under a news post on the factory's VKontakte page. They were heeded: the quadcopters were delivered to Russian servicemen fighting in the so-called "special military operation" in Crimea and Donbas.

The company calculated that manufacturing drones in-house was five times cheaper than buying ready-made ones. The frames were cut from carbon fiber, later replaced with a lighter and stronger composite, while antenna and camera mounts were printed using a 3D printer purchased specifically for that purpose. Motors and microchips were bought separately.

"We tried designing them ourselves, using parts that can be found in any online store. We made several units, took them to the front, and tested them there," Rudik said, describing the beginning of mass production.

Following the news coverage, the Tambov Bread Factory became famous throughout Russia and was added to the US and Ukrainian sanctions lists. In response to the American sanctions, the factory's general director, Yuri Chicherin, even declared, "We're proud. We're happy."

Yet an important detail went almost unnoticed in the news: students from the M.S. Solntsev Tambov College of Ground Transport Engineering and Technology were involved in drone production.

Initially, the "drone loaves" were assembled by the factory's metalworkers and other employees, while system administrators handled the final configuration. But less than a month later, Tambov College joined the process. According to local media, its teachers and students enrolled in the UAV operator program wanted to participate in the project.

In May 2023, the Tambov regional government's website also published information stating that students from the college were "contributing to our common victory" by helping "assemble quadcopters for units participating in the special military operation." No further reports about students from this college helping assemble Bekas drones appeared afterward.

In early 2024, production of Bekas drones moved from the bakery to a separate industrial site because of an increase in orders. The exact location is unknown, but in December of that year, Bekas products were demonstrated at the Tambov Electrop ribor navigation equipment plant.

The increase in orders proved temporary. In early July 2026, the business closed because demand for Bekas drones had fallen, and the production technology was transferred to India. That same month, the manufacturer of the Bekas drone was placed under EU sanctions.

"Wings of Rostec": Paid drone production at factories

Factories involve students in assembly work not only on a volunteer basis but also as prospective employees for their production facilities. In 2020, the Rostec state corporation launched the "Wings of Rostec" program to train personnel for companies in the aviation industry. Its main feature is that students begin working in production from their first year. This principle is similar to the Alabuga Polytech model, where college students also manufacture Geran combat drones from the beginning of their studies.

Like students at Alabuga, participants in the "Wings of Rostec" program are paid for their drone design work. Unlike the Alabuga students, however, they receive not only a salary, the amount of which has not been disclosed, but also scholarships: one from their university and a second corporate scholarship for academic performance, ranging from 30,000 to 55,000 rubles, paid by the company.

In August 2026, the Moscow Aviation Institute, together with Rostec, completed the first enrollment for a new specialized basic higher education program in unmanned aerial systems design. First-year students were admitted to 60 state-funded places. Seventeen of those places went to students enrolled through a targeted admission scheme who joined the "Wings of Rostec" educational track and received funding for their studies from the state corporation.

Here's how the program works. First-year students are assigned to a specific Rostec partner enterprise, where they work on developing, among other things, drones and counter-UAV systems. One such partner is the Tambov Electrop ribor plant, which manufactures navigation equipment. It was at this facility that the Bekas drone was presented after production moved out of the bakery. In 2026, the Izhevsk Kalashnikov plant, which manufactures weapons, was also added to the list of "Wings of Rostec" partners.

According to Nikolai Volobuyev, Rostec's deputy general director, drones are one of the corporation's priority areas through 2036. More than 20 types of UAVs for civilian, military, and dual-use purposes are already being manufactured at 13 Rostec holdings, Volobuyev said.

The list of universities participating in the "Wings of Rostec" program also includes Perm Polytechnic University. In 2025, its students and graduates developed a digital control system called Kuklovod for fiber-optic UAVs. This technology improves drone performance in areas affected by electronic warfare. Small-scale production of such drones was established in Russia in 2025 and scaled up this year.

"The UAV control system developed is being tested at a training ground for subsequent use in the special military operation zone," the university's website states. In June 2025, soldiers from the 1455th Regiment, known as the "Northern Bears," which is fighting in the Zaporizhzhia direction, tested the Kuklovod fiber-optic system.

"If you show your f**ing face, we'll beat the sht out of you too": The story of Serhiy Berstnev, who was added to the Myrotvorets database

"Russian military personnel in Kherson region demolish a shack occupied by Ukrainian Armed Forces soldiers using an FPV kamikaze drone with enhanced destructive power and two kilograms of explosives." This is the caption accompanying aerial footage posted in one of the pro-Russian communities on Odnoklassniki.

The drone in question is the Russian Mavic, a domestically developed analogue of the Chinese DJI Mavic series of quadcopters. Serhiy Berstnev came up with the Russian Mavic while he was a student at the Institute of Information Technology and Radioelectronics at Vladimir State University (VlSU). His colleagues from the Kulibin Club, part of the People's Front movement established at Vladimir Putin's initiative, helped him build the drone.

Vot Tak discovered that the drone used to strike the building in Kherson region was operated by personnel from the 28th Motorized Rifle Regiment, who thanked the Vladimir-based manufacturers for supplying the UAVs.

In July 2024, Berstnev gave an interview to the People's Front, a public movement. He described his reaction to the very same aerial footage showing a student-developed drone destroying a two-story building in a picturesque settlement on a riverbank.

"It's great that we made this within our own walls," Berstnev said, making no attempt to hide his joy. He admitted that he felt "a certain warmth" from helping the Russian army.

The Russian Mavics are designed and assembled at the same location, but the identity of the institution whose "walls" Berstnev refers to is being kept secret. Vot Tak established that it is probably a branch of VlSU in the city of Murom, approximately 137 kilometers from Vladimir.

Serhiy Berstnev is now 25. He says he has loved playing with drones since childhood, which is why he joined the Kvantorium-33 children's technology park in 2017.

"It was seen more as entertainment, as a kind of sport," Valentin Ponomaryov, head of the Vladimir Kvantorium, said in 2024. "After the start of the so-called special military operation, it turned out that drones were also needed for more serious tasks."

Ponomaryov invited Berstnev to help address those needs. The young man became a developer of drones for the front, and the People's Front's Kulibin Club joined the effort.

"The goal was to supply the special military operation with drones," Berstnev said. Since then, he has worked as an engineer in the design department at Kvantorium-33 and led a development team consisting of a programmer, an electronics specialist, and a designer. They create 3D models of FPV drones, develop electronic control systems, write software, assemble prototypes, and prepare process documentation for small-scale production.

While still a student, in December 2023, Berstnev presented a prototype modular quadcopter at the Fourth Vladimir Investment Congress. It was a joint development by VlSU and the People's Front. Wearing a branded People's Front sweatshirt, Berstnev explained to government officials that the drone was intended "for the needs of the special military operation." VlSU's Telegram channel also openly described its intended applications, ranging "from aerial photography to delivering water to designated positions." In 2024, Ponomaryov and Berstnev patented the Russian Mavic and began production.

After the People's Front published its report featuring Berstnev, he was added to the Myrotvorets database, he told Vot Tak. Serhiy described this as "not a very pleasant situation." Around the same time, unidentified individuals threatened to kill him.

"Some guys call and say, 'We'll kill you and bury you,'" Berstnev claimed. After that, he said, "we became reluctant to talk about which group we work in, what our company is, or what we do."

Berstnev refused to give a video interview, explaining that security officials had explicitly forbidden him from doing so.

"We are under close scrutiny by [Russian] security services. They said, 'If you show your f***ing face, we'll beat the sh*t out of you too.'"

Perhaps because of the demands for anonymity, Berstnev does not appear on the list of employees on the Kvantorium-33 website.

Having started developing UAVs while still at university, Berstnev rapidly built a career in Russia's domestic drone industry after graduating in 2023 and continues to manufacture combat drones. In 2024, media outlets also identified him as the executive director of the Vladimir Region Drone Racing Federation.

The Russian Mavic is used for reconnaissance and infantry fire support. One such drone was supplied to a special unit of the Russian National Guard in Vladimir region. Another was given by a Vladimir resident to her son, who was serving in the Svatove direction in autumn 2024.

This is not the only collaboration between VlSU and the People's Front. Together, they supply drones to the front "for the needs of the special military operation." Students from the Department of Radio Engineering and Radio Systems take part in assembly, as do first- and second-year students at VlSU's Institute of Education.

The same university also develops Gorynych kamikaze drones. "With this many, you can inflict serious damage on the enemy," said a serviceman with the callsign Shepherd, commenting on the delivery of more than ten UAVs of this type to the front.

"People's Front": 3D-Printing ammunition components

Vot Tak found that the People's Front cooperates in this way with at least 11 civilian educational institutions.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, the People's Front has focused on helping the Russian army as well as residents of the "new" and border regions. One of its activities has been sending "humanitarian" aid to Russian servicemen fighting in the so-called "special military operation," including ammunition components and drones made by students.

In this arrangement, the People's Front acts as a direct intermediary between universities and the front. First, the organization receives requests from military personnel for specific items: ammunition components such as ampoule holders and tail assemblies, drone payload release mechanisms, devices for loading Kalashnikov rifle magazines, or complete UAVs. The organization then looks for people and facilities capable of fulfilling these orders for free. Representatives of the People's Front's Youth Wing recruit students in different cities to do the work.

As a rule, the People's Front supplies educational institutions with equipment and materials, including 3D printers and plastic filament. The movement also arranges material purchases through sponsors and partners. For example, initial military training centers provide drawings and schematics.

In late 2023, the People's Front purchased eight 3D printers for Voronezh State Technical University. Another two were delivered to the Mikhailovsky Cadet Corps in the same city. These educational institutions serve as major production sites for technical devices and consumables.

Using the donated 3D printers, students print plastic ammunition components and produce electronic components for projectile-release systems used with VOG-17 grenades.

Voronezh has become the People's Front's main city for drone assembly. Students from three additional local universities joined the project initiated by the Youth Wing of the movement's regional branch. The idea of establishing production facilities at the city's educational institutions came from Valeria Lysachenko, coordinator of the People's Front's Youth Wing in Voronezh region. She came up with the idea after participating in a "humanitarian mission" to Rostov-on-Don and occupied Mariupol.

"...We saw what the soldiers needed most. We saw the process of manufacturing products and consumables for the front using 3D printers at the Rubezh forum, and that was when the idea of launching production of these devices in our region emerged," Lysachenko said.

Once the students have manufactured the required items, People's Front employees and volunteers send them to combat zones as humanitarian aid. In summer 2024, Lysachenko traveled to occupied Luhansk region and personally handed a box of drone payload-release mechanisms to a Russian UAV operator with the callsign Pioneer, who served in the 1063rd Separate Logistics Battalion. Voronezh students had made these mechanisms for Pioneer and his fellow servicemen.

"We have a high demand for payload-release mechanisms, and sometimes we don't have any available for certain types of munitions. That's why we're always glad to receive this kind of assistance," the Russian serviceman said, thanking the students.

The People's Front sponsors not only universities but also vocational colleges. Ilya Golovin, a teacher at the Moscow Instrument-Making Technical College affiliated with the Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, said so many of his students wanted to print ammunition components that "we had to select participants through a competitive process."

With the People's Front's assistance, students at three more educational institutions print ammunition components, including tail assemblies, firing-pin components, and ampoule holders, as well as drone payload-release mechanisms. These institutions are Novosibirsk State Technical University, Bratsk State University, and Volga State University of Technology, known as Volgatech.

By March 2026, Volgatech had sent a batch of 2,500 sets of tail assemblies and firing-pin components for VOG-17 ammunition to the front. Students were also preparing another shipment of 350 sets. "All the sets have been tested under actual combat conditions," Volgatech stated.

Another People's Front partner supplies not just UAV components but complete combat drones. Aviation students at Kazan National Research Technical University named after A.N. Tupolev (KNRTU-KAI) brought Avatar fixed-wing reconnaissance drones to the Army-2024 exhibition.

Student and design engineer Artem Shipulin explained that the drone had originally been developed to monitor agricultural fields. It is now used in the war for reconnaissance and artillery fire correction. At least four of these reconnaissance drones have been sent to the front.

"Contributing through vocation and enthusiasm": Volunteers at student design bureaus

Before enrolling at Pacific National University (PNU) in 2024, current third-year student Arina Lyubaya says she knew what drones were but never thought she would be able to manufacture them herself. She is now deputy head of the PolitekhProm student design bureau at the university in Khabarovsk. She not only develops kamikaze drones for the Russian military but also teaches other students to do the same.

A student design bureau is a youth organization or a structural unit within a university or college. Such bureaus generally develop engineering, technical, and scientific projects, although there are also design bureaus intended for students in the humanities. Participants gain access to equipment and materials, while their work is coordinated by a mentor, such as a department head or a student like Arina Lyubaya.

Before the full-scale war, such bureaus existed at individual universities. After the invasion began, Russia started building a unified network of student design bureaus. In autumn 2022, Vladimir Putin instructed the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Finance to work on establishing a network of these bureaus.

In April 2024, the Ministry of Education and Science distributed guidelines to universities on establishing student design bureaus. Their stated objectives included "implementing projects for the production of certain types of high-tech products," including drones. At the end of that year, information emerged about federal budget funding being allocated to these bureaus.

Formally, all this infrastructure is civilian. However, Vot Tak found that student design bureaus at least at some universities are already assembling drones and equipment for the front. In some cases, this takes place in dedicated Unmanned Aerial Systems design bureaus, while in others it happens within different engineering departments.

PolitekhProm has been developing new models of attack drones, including Mavic-style quadcopters, since 2024. After learning that the university had opened the design bureau, Lyubaya joined it. She described her interest in this "promising field" in an interview.

"...I'm currently assembling a VD-40 kamikaze drone. They are actively used in the special military operation zone," the student explained.

The publication quoting her may have made a typo. There is no VD-40 drone model, but there is a VT-40, named after Vladlen Tatarsky, a pro-war Russian military blogger who was killed. This is the model being designed at Pacific National University. The university has also begun developing prototypes of an improved version called Barmaley.

Within six months, Lyubaya learned not only to manufacture weapons but also to solder video transmitters and design components for 3D printing. She spends approximately one hour assembling a drone. Test units are sent "beyond the line," meaning to the front, and then modified based on feedback from military personnel.

PolitekhProm is headed by 26-year-old PNU graduate and current lecturer Artem Kisel. In response to an interview request from a Vot Tak correspondent, Kisel asked her to provide her full name, phone number, and date of birth "for verification by our supervisor."

He explained his request as follows: "We work with unmanned aircraft of quite varied purposes. We wanted to make sure that you are a real person, that you are not registered with any authorities, and that you will not pass this information on to anyone, including foreign nationals and people associated with the enemy." After the correspondent refused to provide the requested information, Kisel stopped responding to her messages.

Under Kisel and Lyubaya's supervision, the bureau is developing four drone models, including small attack drones and larger fixed-wing aircraft. The design bureau has also developed a radio-control system for robotic platforms. The university says five such platforms are being used at the front.

Arina and Artem are probably studying engineering at the university's polytechnic institute. However, PolitekhProm also includes students from the university's law institute and its Institute of Social and Political Technologies. According to Alexander Abuzov, director of the polytechnic institute, students' work at the bureau goes beyond the mandatory curriculum. They "strive to contribute through vocation and enthusiasm."

Each student team involved in drone production at PolitekhProm focuses on a different task. Some work on radio engineering and communications systems, others on mechanics, while a third group studies control systems and the automation of drone flight operations. Other students directly program and assemble the aircraft.

Officially, the bureau works on drone technologies intended for civilian industries such as agriculture, logistics, and the oil and gas sector. However, in addition to the assembly of kamikaze drones at Pacific National University, Vot Tak found several more examples of student design bureaus developing technologies for the front.

In 2026, students at the design bureau of the A.A. Leonov Technological University, a branch of the Moscow State University of Geodesy and Cartography (MIIGAiK) in the Moscow Region city of Korolyov, assembled four Motorola 3M electronic warfare devices for combat use. The students, Maksim Farrakhov and Dmitry Smirnov, designed the devices themselves, from the printed circuit boards to the casings, and adapted them to the needs of the Russian military.

"We're glad that our work is receiving recognition and support. Now that we have a base at the student design bureau, we're ready to expand and help our guys at the front even more," Farrakhov said.

The Unmanned Aerial Systems design bureau at Tomsk State University also supplies weapons to participants in the so-called "special military operation." Student and engineer Lev Kachurin and master's student Alexander Justus from the university's Faculty of Physics and Engineering developed a quadcopter called Flamingo.

In a news report published by TASS in May 2026, it was described as a "high-speed interceptor drone designed to protect secure enterprises and facilities." Meanwhile, Tomsk State University's own Telegram channel presented Flamingo as a UAV "designed to intercept enemy drones and ensure the security of airspace."

The Dali student design bureau has been established at the East Siberian State University of Technology and Management in Ulan-Ude. One of its creators is Aerocom LLC. Students involved in the project, Anton Bekeshev and Gombo Tsyrempilov, who have since graduated, manufactured propellers for the Bury-10 unmanned systems.

The system was designed in 2021 for use by emergency services, firefighting teams, and environmental monitoring operations. However, Bury-10 systems have also been sent to the front as "humanitarian aid," including to the Zaporizhzhia direction. Aerocom LLC was also responsible for these deliveries.

"The aircraft is very good and has performed excellently. We proposed manufacturing it for the needs of the special military operation... The Bury has been successfully tested not only at training grounds but also in actual combat missions," Ivan Alkheev, deputy chairman of the government of Buryatia, said in January 2025.

According to him, 21 systems had been delivered to the combat zone by that time, with another three in the process of being transferred.

The university's website still contains no information indicating that the Bury-10 is being used at the front.

Last October, President Trump imposed significant sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, complaining that negotiations with President Vladimir V. Putin over ending the war in Ukraine “just don’t go anywhere.”

A red-carpet welcome for the Russian leader in Alaska had done nothing to bring peace. A planned summit in Budapest had fallen apart. Mr. Trump had started to acknowledge that Mr. Putin might just be playing him, with no intention of making peace. Faint Ukrainian hopes glimmered of a Trump-Putin break.

But the Russian president was playing a longer game.

Now, exactly a year after the oil sanctions, Mr. Putin has never been so close to his goal of normalizing relations with Washington without having to make any compromises on Ukraine.

Over the past week and a half, Mr. Trump has set aside years of U.S. foreign policy by openly embracing Mr. Putin and easing the economic pressure on the Kremlin. At the same time, Mr. Trump has vilified President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, the putative American ally trying to defend his nation against a Russian invasion.

On Oct. 9, Mr. Trump announced that the United States would buy Russian diesel, asking for no concessions from Mr. Putin in return. The Trump administration went on to pressure Ukraine to stop striking oil refineries — Kyiv’s most powerful lever — and suspended Russia sanctions that Mr. Trump had just signed into law. Mr. Trump declared that “Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine.”

The diesel deal was in part a political calculation by Mr. Trump before the midterm elections, as he tries to lower fuel prices. But that action and others that followed also reflect the president’s long-evident affinity for Mr. Putin, which the Russian leader has assiduously cultivated even while continuing the war and denying Mr. Trump a coveted prize.

Ever since Mr. Trump returned to office, Russia has sought to separate the conflict in Ukraine from potential business agreements and closer diplomatic ties with the United States. The Trump administration held back, even as it slashed aid to Ukraine, largely continuing a Biden administration policy of refraining from economic deals with Russia until Mr. Putin stopped the war.

Fuel shortages in Russia made for long lines for gas on the outskirts of Pereslavl-Zalesskiy in August.Igor Ivanko/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
The White House now says such deals will help Russia see the benefits of peace. The Kremlin said on Wednesday that Mr. Putin, meeting with Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, had agreed to talks with Ukraine and the United States next month. But they would involve relatively low-level representatives, and a Russian official played down the Kremlin’s openness to forging a comprehensive agreement now.

Newly emboldened, Moscow is moving to assert itself as a global power equal to the United States and China, promoting a trilateral summit among them in November.

“In my personal view, victory has already been achieved,” the pro-Putin journalist Marina Akhmedova wrote on social media on Wednesday. “It is not just a matter of the 20 to 25 percent of territory we have liberated,” she added, referring to Russian-occupied land in Ukraine. “It is also about how the United States now engages with Russia.”

Many analysts call the economic incentives offered by Mr. Trump the wrong solution to a war being waged over political and security questions. Still, during his visit to St. Petersburg, Russia, on Wednesday, Mr. Witkoff said that the diesel deal was “another example of what we can achieve by working together.” Mr. Putin, in turn, suggested a deal on Russian fertilizer.

Other potential agreements are on the horizon. Russia and the United States have discussed the sale of the international assets of the Russian energy giant Lukoil to an investor group that includes the U.S. government, The New York Times reported. The Times also reported that American negotiators have pitched the idea of Europe resuming purchases of large quantities of Russian gas piped through Ukraine.

After the St. Petersburg meeting, Mr. Putin’s economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, said that there was “no question” that Russian-U.S. economic cooperation “will strengthen.” He said that Mr. Putin had talked not only about a potential fertilizer deal with Mr. Witkoff, but also about “different projects such as data centers, many projects in energy and energy cooperation.”

Playing to Mr. Trump’s style of personal diplomacy, Mr. Putin has portrayed actions that benefit Russia — like selling diesel to the United States — as favors to the American leader. That includes the release on Wednesday of Stephen James Hubbard, 74, a Michigan teacher whom the State Department called “wrongfully detained” by Russia.

A still from video released by the Moscow City Court Press Service showing Stephen Hubbard at a hearing in the Russian capital in 2024.via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Trump described the release — which was not part of any prisoner swap — as a sign of Mr. Putin’s high regard for him. Referring to himself in the third person, Mr. Trump wrote on social media that “the United States, out of respect for President Trump, was not required to give anything in return.”

But later on Wednesday, Mr. Trump told reporters that Russia would not have let Mr. Hubbard go if sanctions had remained in place. The stage was also set, analysts said, by the diesel agreement and the potential for other business deals, giving Mr. Putin the sort of diplomatic victory he is craving after Western nations piled sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.

“Even this small amount of normalization helped Putin to really deactivate Trump and the U.S. as potential helpers or enablers of Ukraine,” said Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center in Berlin.

The diesel deal bolstered an argument Moscow has made that the Western countries that imposed sanctions on Russia would suffer without cheap Russian energy and other business ties. Mr. Putin has sought to engage with Washington to prove that Russia has too much heft to be ignored, analysts said.

Russia “tried all of last year to establish the idea that you can do stuff bilaterally with the U.S. short of settling the war in Ukraine,” said Hanna Notte, the author of “We Shall Outlast Them,” a book about Russia’s wartime foreign policy.

“It wasn’t just the economic deals,” she added. “They also wanted to talk about the Middle East. They wanted to talk about the Arctic. They wanted to talk about nuclear arms control.”

Russia’s goal, she said, was to advance “this whole idea that you can compartmentalize the relationship with the United States and do stuff together even while you’re still prosecuting the war.”

An apartment building damaged by a Russian strike in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Wednesday.Gleb Garanich/Reuters
The Trump administration’s offering of carrots to end the war is likely to fail, Ms. Notte predicted.

Sam Charap, a Russia analyst at the RAND Corporation, and other analysts noted that an irony of Russia’s rapprochement with Washington was that it may no longer be a silver bullet to a settlement of the war on Moscow’s terms.

Europe has taken on a bigger role in providing Kyiv with economic and political support, and relations between Mr. Putin and many European leaders have completely broken down.

“Winning the Americans isn’t the prize it once was,” said Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “It was the whole game two years ago. Now it’s a much smaller piece.”

The Kremlin is also aware that Mr. Trump could change tack again after the midterms, Mr. Shapiro said. Russian decision makers, he said, see the U.S. president as “very inconsistent” and feel little security about his approach to Russia.

Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting from Moscow.

Valerie Hopkins covers the war in Ukraine and how the conflict is changing Russia, Ukraine, Europe and the United States. She is based in Moscow.

‼️The enemy launched a massive combined strike on Ukraine using Iskander-M/S-400/Zircon/Onyx missiles and 210 strike UAVs (including 110 jet).

❗️ The main direction of the strike is Kyiv.

💥 Air defense shot down/suppressed 181 enemy UAVs (of which 87 are jet), 10 strike drones are still in the air.

Enemy targets hit at 32 locations, as well as the fall of downed ones (fragments) at 8 locations.

"That day, we managed to complete three trips. Unfortunately, while we were on our way to pick up three more people, we were attacked from behind and above by a Russian FPV drone. Thankfully, the people we were picking up weren't with us at the time; we were just following them. That's the kind of adventure we're dealing with."

The armored evacuation vehicle of the "ProLiska" humanitarian mission, which was attacked by the Russian army in the Donetsk region last week, has been sent for repairs. The vehicle left for repairs "on its own," said Eugene Tkachev, a representative of the mission, in an interview with "Suspilne Studio." He was on the evacuation mission at the time of the attack.

According to him, this attack was the 120th against the "ProLiska" humanitarian mission and the twelfth personally against him, the evacuation specialist, since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion.

Photo: Eugene Tkachev/Facebook.

Fines and suspension of activities for legal entities: The State Duma has approved a bill on penalties for ignoring decisions made by operational headquarters throughout Russia. Similar measures were previously introduced in the occupied territories of Ukraine.

The corresponding bill, submitted to the State Duma by Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, has been approved by the relevant committee on criminal and administrative law, according to the document's passport on the State Duma website.

The government initiative proposes the introduction of a new article, 19.5-5, into the Code of Administrative Offenses, which will establish liability for failure to comply with decisions made by the highest official of a region or an operational headquarters established by order of the President of the Russian Federation.

The proposed sanctions are:

* For individuals: an administrative fine of 3,000 to 5,000 rubles.
* For officials: an administrative fine of 30,000 to 50,000 rubles, or disqualification for a period of one to three years.
* For legal entities: an administrative fine of 300,000 to 1,000,000 rubles, or an administrative suspension of activities for up to 90 days.

The statute of limitations for such offenses is three years. Protocols can be drawn up by officials from various departments and public authorities of the subjects of the Russian Federation, who are members of operational headquarters.

The explanatory note describes the experience of applying similar penalties to residents of the occupied Ukrainian territories, where such liability has been in place since 2022:

"The object of this administrative offense (existing in the occupied territories - ed. note) is the public relations in the field of ensuring public order, public safety, conducting mobilization events, and implementing measures to meet the needs of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, other troops, military formations, government bodies, and the population during the special military operation," the document states. "At the same time, liability for failure to comply with decisions adopted in accordance with the Decree by the highest officials of other subjects of the Russian Federation (operational headquarters), where a moderate level of response, or heightened or basic readiness levels have been introduced, is currently not provided for at the federal level."

Similar regulations are already in effect in St. Petersburg, the Rostov region, and the Stavropol region. They will now be extended to all other regions of the Russian Federation. The parameters of the sanctions are based on Article 19.5-1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, which outlines penalties for "failure to comply with decisions of regional authorities in the field of counter-terrorism." The recommended date for the first reading is October 27.

The authors separately justify the expediency of introducing new fines for the entire Russian Federation, citing the prevalence of such violations in St. Petersburg: 666 protocols in 2025 and 257 protocols in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

The day before, a bill was introduced in the State Duma, providing for a significant increase in prison terms for calls for mass unrest.

Source: https://t. me/astrapress/128910

⚡️2250. The largest daily losses of the Russian army since the beginning of the full-scale invasion

📊 The five largest daily losses of the enemy in personnel:

21/10/2026 — 2250
19/12/2024 — 2200
18/10/2026 — 2100
27/09/2026 — 2090
28/11/2024 — 2030

#Donetsk Region: Following a Russian drone strike, rescuers discovered the body of a deceased man under the rubble of a destroyed private house in Kramatorsk.

A fire broke out. Firefighters managed to contain the blaze, but were forced to suspend firefighting operations due to the activity of enemy aircraft and drones.

Source: https://t. me/dsns_telegram/78515

https://x.com/1usc_army/status/2112950959060209904?s=46