New Chagos shambles as government forced to deny deal paused

Sir Keir Starmer’s deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius has been plunged into fresh chaos after a minister suggested his plan to cede sovereignty of the British territory had been paused after Donald Trump urged him to scrap it.

In what appeared to be another humiliating U-turn for Labour, Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) minister Hamish Falconer said on Wednesday that the government was “pausing” for discussions with the US before bringing the bill to ratify the deal back to parliament.

The Foreign Office later claimed that Mr Falconer “misspoke” and rapidly issued a clarification saying that “there is no pause”.

However, the FCDO finally conceded that the plan to give the islands to Mauritius, along with £35bn to lease back the crucial UK/US military base on the island of Diego Garcia, is now dependent on Donald Trump’s administration agreeing to it.

Last week, the US president dramatically withdrew his support for the deal, telling Sir Keir he would be making “a big mistake”.

It comes as a group of Chagossians, led by their first minister in exile, Misley Mandarin, told The Independent in an exclusive interview that their return to one of the islands last week is “not a publicity stunt”, adding: “We are here for the long term. We are resettling the islands.”

The islanders spoke to The Independent via satellite link from one of the islands, which was a coconut plantation until a previous Labour government forced the Chagossians to leave in the 1960s.

As events heat up over the fate of the crucial Indian Ocean islands, the government is set to go to court on Thursday to overturn an injunction barring it from evicting the islanders who oppose the Mauritius deal and want to return, creating a British protectorate and guaranteeing the future of the base.

The latest confusion over whether the deal will go ahead comes after Mr Falconer said the UK was pausing the deal for further talks with the US after Mr Trump’s “very significant” intervention.

He told MPs: “We have a process going through parliament in relation to the treaty. We will bring that back to parliament at the appropriate time. We are pausing for discussions with our American counterparts.”

The admission by the minister follows a long campaign and lobbying of the White House to kill off the deal involving the Tories, Reform, Chagossians and their supporters.

A Foreign Office spokesperson later insisted “there is no pause”. It added that the government had never set a deadline for the proposed legislation to be brought back to parliament.

“We are continuing discussions with the US, and we have been clear we will not proceed without their support,” they said.

Last year, Sir Keir agreed a controversial deal to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, while retaining control of the UK-US military base on Diego Garcia.

The UK has agreed to pay Mauritius at least £120m annually during the 99-year agreement to lease back the site, a total cost in cash terms of £35bn.

Earlier this month, Mr Trump hit out at Sir Keir in his second U-turn on support for the deal. In a post on Truth Social, the US president branded the move a “big mistake” because of concerns over the joint military base.

His withdrawal of support came after he appeared to indicate his support for the deal last year, before criticising it in January and again in February.

Meanwhile, former MP and army officer Adam Holloway and Mr Mandarin spoke to The Independent from the settlement they have erected on one of the islands.

They are being backed by wealthy donors, including Singapore-based crypto investor Christopher Harborne, who recently handed £9m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.

Mr Holloway described how their biggest issue is “finding water supplies” after he had discovered four of the old wells on the island. A boatload of supplies is due to arrive with them on Thursday; they are in the process of erecting makeshift accommodation and using solar-powered units.

Mr Mandarin, whose father has returned with him to the island after being evicted as a teenager, defiantly said: “I have given up my job in London and my flat. We are here to resettle the islands; this is not a publicity stunt. We are here to stay long term.”

He pointed out that their arrival “changes the facts” and discredits claims by the UK government that “nobody lives on the islands”.

Mr Holloway added: “The only way they are leaving here is if they are made to leave by force.”

The government has an unofficial deadline for having the deal ratified by May, or it will have to restart the entire process, so a potential pause could be the end of a contentious policy and another U-turn for Sir Keir’s government in its first 20 months.

Mr Falconer suggested the pause might take place when answering questions on Wednesday from MPs, including Mr Farage, who attempted to visit the Chagossian settlement over the weekend.

The Reform UK leader claimed the Maldives is poised to lodge a counterclaim regarding the Chagos Islands with the International Court of Justice “in just a few days”.

Mr Farage said: “I wish to inform the government that we are just a few days away, in my opinion, from the Maldives issuing a counterclaim to the International Court of Justice to say, if anybody has the right to the sovereignty of those islands, it is the Maldives and not Mauritius.

“And I would urge you to pause all of this.”

Mr Falconer branded this a “flagrant incident of ignoring travel advice”, while former defence secretary Ben Wallace hit out, saying that no MP can visit the archipelago without pre-clearance and accusing him of performing Trump-style stunts.

US drinks giant to close beloved UK brewery and axe 200 jobs

Molson Coors is set to close Sharp’s Brewery in Cornwall and its UK national contact centre in Cardiff by the end of the year, a move that places approximately 200 jobs at risk.

The Carling brewer stated that the decision to shut the Cornish brewery was made “only after exploring every alternative option to make the site financially sustainable.”

The US-Canadian-owned group, which acquired Sharp’s 15 years ago, affirmed its “remains committed” to the brand and is exploring potential production partnerships.

Additionally, the company plans to close its UK contact centre in Wales by the end of 2026.

This move is attributed to a significant shift in customer behaviour, with almost 90 per cent of orders from establishments such as bars and pubs now being placed through its website.

These proposed changes, currently subject to consultation, are part of a broader strategy by Molson Coors to “unlock efficiencies and cost-savings” across its operations.

Simon Kerry, UK and Ireland managing director at Molson Coors, said: “The proposed closure of Sharp’s Brewery has not been an easy decision for us to make.

“It has been a significant part of our UK business for 15 years, with an exceptional and committed team who take such huge pride in their craft.

“We have invested significantly in the site and the Sharp’s brands over that time and have taken every step we can to try and avoid this outcome.

“However, the site is no longer financially sustainable as part of our national production network.”

The closure of the contact centre will see the group instead handle customer service online and from its UK and Ireland headquarters in Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire.

Mr Kerry said: “As our customers’ purchasing habits have become more digitally led over the past few years, we have evolved our business as part of our digitisation journey.

“The proposed closure of our national contact centre is no reflection on the brilliant work of our teams, but is in response to these changes.”

“This is clearly a very difficult time for our colleagues, and we will be doing everything we can to support our teams through this process,” Mr Kerry added.

Molson Coors said it had invested more than £20 million into the Sharp’s Brewery since it bought the business in 2011.

Sharp’s Brewery was founded by Bill Sharp in Rock, Cornwall, in 1994.

Brands include its flagship Doom Bar beer, as well as Atlantic, Offshore, Sea Fury, Solar Wave and Chalky’s Bite.

The brewery employs 80 staff, according to the Molson Coors website.

Stephen Hawking pictured in Epstein files with bikini-clad women

A photograph of the late scientist Stephen Hawking relaxing on a sun lounger beside bikini-clad women has been revealed in the Epstein files.

The world-renowned British theoretical physicist is seen reclining in the undated picture, with a cocktail placed in his hand.

The drink is steadied by one of the two women. It is understood they were his long-term carers, since he needed round-the-clock care.

Hawking, whose pioneering work on black holes and general relativity in the universe revolutionised modern cosmology, died in 2018, aged 76, after living with motor neurone disease for more than 55 years.

The photograph, included in documents released by the US Department of Justice as it investigates sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was taken in 2006 during a science symposium at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, St Thomas, in the US Virgin Islands, where Hawking gave a speech on quantum cosmology.

Hawking’s name appears hundreds times in the Epstein files, although simply being identified in the documents does not indicate any wrongdoing.

Hawking has previously been seen in photographs taken on Epstein’s Caribbean island, although no pictures of him and the convicted paedophile together are known to exist.

He was among 21 scientists who visited St Thomas and Epstein’s 75-acre private island, Little Saint James, for a science event.

According to the Jeffrey Epstein VI Foundation, in 2012 guests met to “discuss, relax on the beach, and take a trip to the nearby private island retreat” during the event “to determine what the consensus is, if any, for defining gravity”.

Two years ago, court documents revealed that Epstein told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell she could offer a financial reward to friends of his accuser Virginia Giuffre if they could “help prove” an apparent allegation Hawking had engaged in an “underage orgy” was false.

A photograph released in 2015 showed Hawking in his wheelchair at an outdoor dinner on Little Saint James with several other people.

Another picture shows the cosmologist in a submarine, having a tour of the island’s seabed.

Epstein had reportedly modified the underwater vessel to allow Hawking to get into it.

A spokesperson for the Hawking family said: “Professor Hawking made some of the greatest contributions to physics in the 20th century, while at the same time being the longest-known survivor of motor neurone disease, a debilitating condition which left him reliant on a ventilator, voice synthesiser, wheelchair and round-the-clock medical care. Any insinuation of inappropriate conduct on his part is wrong and far-fetched in the extreme.”

This article was amended on 25 February 2026 to include the statement from the spokesperson for the Hawking family.

Putin could blame Kyiv for ‘nuclear incident’ to distract from battlefield failure

Russia may stage a “false flag” nuclear incident in Ukraine to distract from its failures on the battlefield, a think tank has warned.

The US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Moscow could use a “Russian-generated radiological incident in Ukraine” to break Kyiv’s will to resist.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure in the past year, with attacks on nuclear power plants and other key infrastructure.

“Russia may intentionally or unintentionally cause an incident and then accuse Ukraine of using a nuclear or radiological weapon,” the ISW said in a report.

Earlier this week, Moscow claimed – without evidence – that the UK and France were conspiring to supply Ukraine with a nuclear weapon. Kyiv dismissed the claim as “absurd”, with both Paris and London also denying the allegation.

The ISW said the claim was a “coordinated information effort designed to elevate nuclear escalation rhetoric and divert attention away from the war anniversary”.

Kemi Badenoch refuses to apologise after ‘paedo defenders’ jibe

Kemi Badenoch has said she would “absolutely not apologise” for claiming Labour was being branded a “paedo defenders party” during Prime Minister’s Questions.

During their weekly exchange on Wednesday, the Conservative leader challenged Sir Keir Starmer directly, stating he should “ask why his backbenchers are saying that they’re being called the ‘paedo defenders party’”.

Her controversial jibe followed a report in The Times, which detailed how female Labour MPs had informed Sir Keir earlier this month that voters had “screamed” the phrase at them in the street, linking it to the Peter Mandelson scandal.

Mrs Badenoch’s remarks have since drawn significant criticism from Labour MP Natalie Fleet, who was groomed as a teenager, and Katie Amess, daughter of the murdered Tory MP Sir David Amess.

Ms Fleet told LBC her use of the term was “just really disgusting” and suggested it had put Labour activists in danger.

She said: “There are hundreds of thousands of political activists, Labour and otherwise, that want to make the country a better place and to just throw language like that around because it might get you some extra votes is just really disgusting.”

Ms Amess said it had been “very inflammatory” and called for Mrs Badenoch to apologise, adding: “It’s not the way that our politicians should be talking, unfortunately.”

But appearing on a phone-in on LBC on Wednesday evening, Mrs Badenoch stood by her comments.

She said: “I will absolutely not apologise.

“I remember when Keir Starmer and the Labour Party were putting out posters saying Rishi Sunak was supporting paedophiles so that they wouldn’t go to prison.

“These people know how to dish it but they don’t want to take it.”

Mrs Badenoch declined to say whether she thought Labour was a party of “paedo defenders”, saying: “It wasn’t my words, a female Labour MP used that language.”

She added: “Nobody would be calling them that if they held themselves to higher standards.”

‘I swapped supplements for LaVita – here’s what I learned’

If you’ve ever experienced “pill fatigue”, you’re not alone. Every day we’re bombarded with ads for capsules, gummies and vitamin pills. But once we’ve bought them, it’s often unclear whether they’re safe to take alongside other supplements – or whether they even work effectively without being paired with something else.

The wellness industry frequently glorifies having a personalised supplement “stack”, or borrowing a fitness expert’s recommended routine. In reality, bottles of pills tend to clutter up our cabinets, and most of us don’t stick with influencer-approved protocols for long.

Experts consistently tell us that a whole-food diet is the best way to get vital nutrients into the body, rather than relying on pills. But no matter how well-intentioned you are, there are days when you simply can’t hit your nutrition goals. Many people struggle to eat 30 plants a week, and on a daily basis we’re often busy or eating on the go.

When our nutrient intake is inconsistent, it can affect how effectively we absorb essential vitamins and minerals. Certain minerals help enzymes function properly, while vitamins often work in tandem to regulate metabolic pathways – meaning we need balance, not excess, to feel our best.

According to the most recent national dietary data in the UK, only a third of adults eat the recommended five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day. The figures are even lower for children, who can be notoriously fussy eaters.

I decided to try a liquid concentrate that promises to eliminate the all-too-familiar problem of too many pills and not enough time – or willpower – to eat perfectly. LaVita is a product that aims to replace multiple supplements with a single, science-backed daily drink derived from whole foods. It sounds almost too good to be true – but could it really replace my carefully planned “stack”?

LaVita’s founder, former athlete Gerd Truntschka, explained that he stopped believing more pills equalled better health once he began considering how nutrients work in combination, and how staying close to the original food source can improve absorption. He set out to create an all-in-one liquid that mimics the natural matrix of whole foods.

The liquid contains more than 70 plant-based ingredients. It’s a living concentrate that includes enzymes, omega-3s and trace elements, designed for optimal bioavailability – something many pills struggle to offer.

The first thing I noticed about LaVita was the glass bottle. I try to avoid plastic packaging where possible, and in an increasingly toxic world – where everything seems to be served in plastic or bulked out with preservatives and fillers – it was refreshing. The ingredients list also looked promising.

I popped it in the fridge before my first taste test. Once chilled, I poured a tablespoon of the liquid into a glass of filtered water and stirred. It blended well, but even better with the small electric whisk I usually use for greens powders and electrolytes.

The taste was surprisingly pleasant. With so many ingredients, I expected something far more challenging, but there was nothing offensive about it – likely because it’s 70 per cent fruit juice, alongside 18 per cent vegetable juice and five per cent herbal extracts. The rest is made up of oils and trace minerals. Compared to swallowing 10 or more pills a day, it felt like a win.

Ingredients that don’t usually feature in everyday diets – such as rosehips, milk thistle, fennel and sea buckthorn – bring some of the more unusual, bitter flavours. While these can be an acquired taste, modern diets are severely lacking in bitter foods, so it was encouraging to see them included, especially given their benefits for digestion and gut health.

After a few days, the mental relief of simplifying a complex health routine into one daily drink was surprisingly rewarding. For the purposes of the trial, I stopped taking supplements containing iron, vitamins C, A, D, B6 and B12, folic acid, copper, selenium and zinc, as LaVita contains all of these in recommended doses. I normally take them in various combinations to support energy, immunity, brain health, and hair, skin and nails, alongside a healthy diet.

I also appreciated that LaVita is free from preservatives and additives. I’m selective about supplements because many contain bulking agents and preservatives that aren’t great for gut health over time.

Liquid supplements are often praised for better bioavailability, and there’s truth to this. Because they’re already dissolved, the body doesn’t need to break them down in the same way, meaning nutrients can enter the system more efficiently. They can also be gentler on the stomach. LaVita is also vegan, lactose-free and gluten-free.

I was curious about the inclusion of cold-pressed oils and learned that they help the body absorb fat-soluble vitamins such as D, E and K more effectively. I also found that taking the drink with breakfast worked best for me. While you can have it on an empty stomach, I prefer not to take anything containing green tea or B vitamins without food.

Throughout the testing period, the drink was easy to incorporate and enjoyable to consume. I didn’t experience any dip in energy and, reassuringly, noticed no negative changes to my skin – something I’d been quietly concerned about after ditching my usual supplements.

Each bottle contains 50 servings, meaning it lasts almost two months when taken daily. While I still made an effort to eat plenty of fruit and vegetables, it was comforting to know that on days when a healthy breakfast was replaced by pastries, or dinner turned into pizza, I was still getting a broad spectrum of plant-based nutrients.

I’ll admit, I initially thought this liquid superdrink might be too good to be true. But the pros far outweighed the cons, and I was impressed by the overall experience. Anyone accustomed to regular juice or squash might find the taste slightly bitter at first – largely due to the lack of added sugar – but the ingredient quality more than makes up for it.

I was pleased with my skin, my energy levels, and the fact that I managed to avoid the cold that was circulating the office while testing LaVita, which hopefully suggests my immune system approved too.

While it’s not a replacement for a healthy diet, as a supplement swap LaVita ticks a lot of boxes: thoughtful packaging, strong ingredient sourcing, and a genuinely easier way to support nutrition. I can see it being a particularly helpful option for busy parents, fussy teens, older adults, and anyone who struggles to eat 30 plants a week – or swallow tablets at all.

Ready to simplify your supplements? Make the switch to LaVita today

Bill Gates ‘apologises to staff’ over Epstein ties and admits affairs

Bill Gates has apologized to staff at his charitable foundation over his past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein, also admitting to two extramarital affairs, according to a report.

“I did nothing illicit. I saw nothing illicit,” the Microsoft founder told his employees in response to the Department of Justice’s release of the Epstein files, according to The Wall Street Journal, citing an audio recording of the latest biannual Gates Foundation town hall.

“To be clear, I never spent any time with victims, the women around him,” Gates said while apologizing to foundation executives for introducing them into Epstein’s orbit.

“It was a huge mistake to spend time with Epstein. I apologize to other people who are drawn into this because of the mistake that I made,” he said.

The tech entrepreneur turned philanthropist explained that he first met the pedophile in 2011, three years after Epstein had pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in Florida, but that he had not looked into the financier’s background and was only dimly aware of an “18-month thing” that limited his travel.

He acknowledged that his then-wife, Melinda Gates, had expressed concern about Epstein in 2013, but that he had ignored her caution and continued to see him socially.

“Knowing what I know now makes it, you know, a hundred times worse in terms of not only his crimes in the past, but now it’s clear there was ongoing bad behavior,” Gates said, according to the WSJ.

Alluding to his ex-wife, he added: “To give her credit, she was always kind of skeptical about the Epstein thing.”

Gates continued to map out the course of their relationship, saying he had met with Epstein in 2011, taken trips on his private jet and spent time with him in Germany, France, New York, and Washington, but “never stayed overnight” at his properties or visited Little St James, his now-notorious private Caribbean island.

He said he did not see Epstein again after 2014, although there were “ancillary issues” that Epstein continued to email him about, but Gates said he chose not to respond to them.

Gates also said the women pictured with him in the files were Epstein’s assistants, whom the billionaire had asked to pose with him.

He said he had been drawn to Epstein initially because he “talked about the kind of intimate relationship he had with a lot of billionaires, particularly Wall Street billionaires,” whom, he said, could help Gates with his fundraising goals, which “made it easier for me to feel like this was a normalized situation.”

“It definitely is the opposite of the values of the foundation and the goals of the foundation,” Gates admitted. “And our work is very reputation-sensitive. I mean, people can choose to work with us or not work with us.”

A Gates Foundation spokesperson told The Independent: “This was a scheduled town hall with employees, which Bill does twice a year. In the conversation, Bill answered questions submitted by foundation staff on a range of issues, including the release of the Epstein files, the foundation’s work in AI, and the future of global health. 

“In the town hall, Bill spoke candidly, addressing several questions in detail, and took responsibility for his actions.”

During the town hall, the billionaire also admitted to two affairs.

“I did have affairs, one with a Russian bridge player who met me at bridge events, and one with a Russian nuclear physicist who I met through business activities,” he said.

Melinda Gates spoke to NPR’s Wild Card podcast earlier this month about the release of the Epstein files and told host Rachel Martin that the scandal “brings back memories of some very, very painful times” in her marriage.

The couple, who have three children, divorced in 2021 after 27 years together.

Martin asked her guest about one of the emails released by the DOJ that suggested her former husband had sought treatment for a sexually transmitted infection and planned to supply it to his ex-wife too without her knowledge, asking what her “dominant emotion” was when she first heard about it, to which she answered: “Just unbelievable sadness.”

A spokesperson for Bill Gates has vehemently denied the allegations in question and previously told The Independent: “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false.

“The only thing these documents demonstrate is Epstein’s frustration that he did not have an ongoing relationship with Gates and the lengths he would go to entrap and defame.”

Unlike other powerful men linked to Epstein, Gates has shown a commendable willingness to speak frankly about his past mistakes.

“Every minute I spent with him, I regret, and I apologise that I did that,” he recently told Australia’s 9News, adding that he was “foolish to spend time with him” and is “one of many people who regret ever knowing him.”

“The more that comes out, the more clear it will be that, although the time was a mistake, it has nothing to do with that kind of behavior,” he added.

Musk cutting Starlink to Russia has delivered ‘enormous’ boost to Ukraine

Russia’s drone campaign in Ukraine has been cut by up to 40 per cent, allowing Ukraine to regain territory, after Elon Musk blocked Russia’s access to his Starlink satellite network, according to one of Ukraine’s frontline generals.

Brigadier General Andrii Biletski, commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps, says the impact of SpaceX switching off Starlink in areas of Ukraine now held by Russia’s invading forces has been “enormous”.

“After the blocking of Starlink for the Russians, the level of their efficiency compared to ours has sharply decreased, because Starlink is practically irreplaceable as a combat communication system,” he tells The Independent.

“Starlink can only be replaced with another Starlink. Therefore, the impact of Starlink on the current course of the war is enormous. In the last two weeks, there has been a significant deterioration in the effectiveness of Russian strikes, by about 20 to 40 per cent.”

Biletski, the founder of the Azov Brigade and later of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, is a former historian, a right-wing agitator, and a veteran of fighting in Ukraine since Russia’s 2014 invasion. He is now in command of about 12 per cent of the 1,300km front line.

His forces are concentrated in several brigades in some of the most violent parts of the front, where drone warfare has changed the nature of conflict into a 15km-wide “kill zone” dominated by drones, where soldiers hide and flit about in a blasted landscape.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has recaptured territory around Pokrovsk, north of Lyman, in his area of operations, and south, near Huliaipole, since Russia was denied Starlink access.

The small, laptop-sized Starlink units are the backbone of communications on both sides. They are also fitted to larger drones, and to Russian Shahed missiles, and are used for all battle communications on the ground.

In Ukraine, SpaceX provided free terminals in the early stages of the defence operation against invading Russians. But although Russia was a quick private adopter of the technology, Ukraine’s ministry of defence now believes Moscow has lost almost every terminal it was using in its operations here.

Biletski believes the damage to Russia’s capability may be long-term: “It’s a great opportunity for Ukraine, and I think – this is a subjective opinion – that within a month or two, [Russian forces] will partially regain their efficiency with the help of other means; Russian satellite communications and so on.

“But they will never be able to fully restore the level of efficiency they had with Starlink in the foreseeable future. I don’t think we’re even talking about three or five years.”

So that’s been a significant strategic blow to the Russians – just that one flick of a switch?

“Indeed,” Biletski continues. “Americans have an absolute advantage over any army in the world right now – and that’s Starlink.”

He says that if Ukraine also lost its Starlink connection, then “we will be on the same level as the Russians again, as it was three weeks ago”.

But the saga of the satellite terminals shows how vulnerable modern armies are to individual systems, and, in a fast-evolving technological war, daily mutations of cheap, relatively lo-tech drones can overwhelm the most expensive conventional equipment used by armed forces.

Ukrainian drone pilots, who destroyed Nato forces in a battle exercise last year involving thousands of troops, warn that Russia’s unmanned weapons pose a formidable danger to the West.

A small unit of 10 Ukrainian drone operators were able to destroy 17 armoured vehicles, damage another 30, cripple the capacity of an attacking division, and even deliver humanitarian assistance.

They were fresh from the real front line. For them, routing Nato forces was a breeze.

One of the pilots, Mykola (call sign “Nick”), from 412th Nemesis Brigade, says he was “surprised” that Nato forces did not appear to have studied the war in Ukraine, which has evolved into a drone conflict in which large assaults by armoured groups have ended.

“Massive armoured vehicle assaults do not work any more,” he says. “Because now there is a kill zone that is growing. And the quantity of the different kinds of UAVs in the sky – half of them just working to find the target, half of them going after the target – means there is a very fast reaction time between being seen and being destroyed.”

The 2025 exercise, Operation Hedgehog, was intended to reveal the extent to which Nato would need to change its tactics, senior officers said.

“This was a Nato-led and organised exercise, set up to allow us to experience lessons from a drone- experienced army to enable us to learn fast and adapt,” one general, a former Nato commander, explains. “So a success – not some disaster for Nato that shocked us. Nato knows it needs to develop fast on drones.”

Russia is also learning in real time on the battlefield. This puts pressure on Nato defence doctrine, as the rapid expansion of arms-buying has been hindered by the breakneck evolution of modern weapons.

Some of the roles of helicopters and fighter-bomber aircraft are now being carried out by drones, which cost far less.

“It changes every month. Every month we find something new, and start using it effectively. After a month, they find something to defend against this technology. And all the time, the kill zone is growing, and the quantity of different UAVs is going up,” warns Mykola.

He is currently fighting near Pokrovsk, the scene of Russia’s hardest push. Here, the “kill zone” is up to 20km deep – a place where human beings cower for survival under a drone-filled sky.

Medical evacuations have been almost impossible, and force the use of remote-controlled ground drones. Infantry, hiding in bunkers, are resupplied from the air by “heavy” bomber drones dropping around 10kg of water, food, batteries and ammunition – the barest essentials for life.

Sudden shifts in technology can have an immediate effect. The key is how fast one system can be replaced with another. Ukraine is already backing up its own communications in case Starlink is cut.

Alongside European allies, Ukraine is also setting up alternative satellite intelligence feeds, amid fears that the US may cut them off if the so-called peace talks with Russia break down. And close to the battlefield on the eastern front, drone operators hunker down in workshops where they modify, repair, and update their equipment daily.

Many are sent by European arms manufacturers for testing. None, they say, are as useful as Ukraine’s products, which are cheaper and more plentiful – mostly, they explain, because the motive for arms manufacturing in Europe is money, not national defence.

“Here we could be struck with Russian missiles any minute. Or with deep strike drones, or even middle-range drones, or with aviation bombs. We’re pretty close to the front line,” says a man called Eugene.

He was “bought” from another Ukrainian unit for a pickup truck – traded like a football player – because he’s a premier division UAV engineer.

Is being close to the front important?

“Yeah, because we don’t have a lot of drones, so we have to quickly repair them, adopt, modify, and we have to stay in constant communication with units that do all the fighting,” he says.

“We go to them ourselves. We are constantly trying to understand how we’re using our drones, what do we need. Now it’s going to be a change in season that will bring a whole lot of new difficulties.”