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\n That\u2019s not to say that Ukraine\u2019s success with its strategic use of drones has been anything less than remarkable. Kyiv has of late been targeting Russia\u2019s energy infrastructure including oil refineries and oil storage depots. And in recent weeks it claims to have struck 218 Russian shadow fleet vessels, including 134 in the Sea of Azov and 84 in the Black Sea. <\/p>\n Now Ukraine\u2019s campaign of drone strikes targeting warehouses run by e-commerce giant Wildberries, Russia\u2019s version of Amazon is bringing the war home to consumers<\/a>, writes economist Yerzhan Tokbolat, of Queens University Belfast. And not just consumers \u2013 as Tokbolat notes, Wildberries also allows small businesses to use its online marketplaces to sell their products. So the loss of their inventory, with little or no compensation, is hitting them hard too.<\/p>\n \n Ukraine\u2019s nimble and innovative use of drones has been a feature of its stubborn defence against the Russian onslaught. More recently, the development of more powerful unmanned aerial vehicles with much longer ranges has enabled it to strike at targets deep inside Russia. <\/p>\n Ukrainian military drones use modified Xbox controllers and \u201cplay\u201d for a system of bonuses where operators can score points for hitting a range of targets. Under the Army of Drones Bonus (ADB) programme, a Russian (or quite often a foreign fighter recruited by the Russians) is worth 12 points, while you get 20 for damaging a tank and up to 50 for destroying a mobile rocket system. <\/p>\n Points can be exchanged for money and so far, military equipment worth over US$5 million (\u00a33.7 million) has been \u201cwon\u201d for the war effort. It\u2019s part of the \u201cgamification\u201d of war, write Azmeary Ferdoush and Sarah Mills<\/a>, of Loughborough University. <\/p>\n It\u2019s tempting, in light of the misery imposed on the people of Ukraine by Russia\u2019s four-and-a-half year war of aggression, to applaud the lateral thinking behind programmes like this. But, our the authors remind us, \u201cwhether gamified or not, the lives that are lost are very much real\u201d.<\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, if you want do something personally to support Ukraine, you should try buying its books, writes Lauren Warner-Treloar<\/a> of Kingston University. Ukrainian writers are helping to keep their country\u2019s distinct cultural identity alive against Putin\u2019s insistence that Ukrainians are really the same as Russians.<\/p>\n \n To Riyadh, where a recent defence and security pact concluded without huge fanfare \u2013 in the west at least \u2013 was signed between Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Not unexpectedly, it was greeted \u2013 particularly by Israel\u2019s media \u2013 as an \u201cIslamic Nato\u201d, which would be likely to pose a threat to their country\u2019s security.<\/p>\n Waqas Haider, however, believes that designation misses the mark<\/a>. Haider, a doctoral researcher in international relations at Lancaster University, thinks this agreement is far more likely to reflect their growing concerns over Washington\u2019s reliability when it comes to their security. <\/p>\n One thing the Iran war has shown up has been that, despite all the US bases throughout the Gulf, the American security umbrella hasn\u2019t protected Gulf states from Iranian missile attacks. But it\u2019s not so much of a divorce as a diversification, writes Haider. The pact will not supplant the need for US security in the Gulf. What it does mean is that normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia is unlikely any time soon, given the antipathy towards Israel in Ankara and Islamabad.<\/p>\n \n Rather predictably, Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the Board of Peace roadmap for Gaza sponsored by the US president, Donald Trump. As always seemed likely, the Israeli prime minister is refusing to pull his troops out of the Palestinian enclave before Hamas completely disarms. And while Hamas has agreed on a staged decommissioning process, it stipulates as a condition that Israel withdraws.<\/p>\n So the long-suffering people of Gaza remain trapped in a deadly Catch-22 situation.<\/p>\n The word \u201clong-suffering\u201d is used advisedly here. As Anne Irfan writes, Israel has had designs on Gaza for pretty much its entire existence. Founding prime minister, David Ben-Gurion proposed annexing the Strip as long ago as 1949 at a conference in Lausanne to discuss the Palestine question. <\/p>\n Irfan, a historian of the modern Middle East at University College London, has recently published a book: A Short History of the Gaza Strip<\/a>. She walks us through repeated Israeli occupations of Gaza<\/a>, beginning in 1956 and continuing through decades of settlement until then prime minister Ariel Sharon pulled Israel out in 2005. <\/p>\n Now Israel\u2019s electorate has moved much farther to the right on Palestinian issues. And, with defence minister Israel Katz planning to build three military outposts in the 65% of Gaza occupied by Israeli troops \u2013 of the sort that often precede the building of settlements \u2013 you could be forgiven for thinking that Israel may be planning to stay for the long haul.<\/p>\n
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\n Russia bets on ballistic missiles to combat the success of Ukraine\u2019s drone warfare<\/a>
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\n Ukraine assault on Russian retail giant Wildberries brings war home to consumers and retailers<\/a>
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\n How warfare has been \u2018gamified\u2019 in Ukraine<\/a>
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\n Want to support Ukraine? Read its books<\/a>
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\nAn \u2018Islamic Nato\u2019?<\/h2>\n
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\n Saudi defence pact with Turkey and Pakistan is a verdict on the reliability of US security guarantees<\/a>
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\nGaza: why history give little cause for optimism<\/h2>\n
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