Institute for the Study of War

Last Friday, Hertog War Studies students met ISW board member General David H. Petraeus (US Army, Ret.) for a Q&A session on contemporary security issues, military affairs, and his influential career.



Photos by Anderson Wong

In June, the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based policy group, blamed Russia’s invasion for the water crisis, adding that it had been exacerbated by “mismanagement and resource misallocation.” www.washingtonpost.c...

Medvedev's aggressive statements serve a specific purpose for Putin as they push the West to see Putin's statements as more moderate and rational by comparison and create space for Putin to make greater demands or larger threats. isw.pub/UkrWar080425

NEW: Kremlin officials are slowly organizing a coordinated response to US President Donald Trump's August 1 statement that the United States would redeploy two nuclear submarines closer to Russia.🧵(1/4)

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 4, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar080425

4/ Iran Update, August 4, 2025: isw.pub/IranUpdate08...

3/ Unprecedented and growing discontent among Hezbollah’s Shia support base could weaken Hezbollah’s political leverage to resist disarmament. The population's frustration comes amid six weeks of negotiations between the United States and Lebanon about disarming Hezbollah.

2/ Other Key Takeaways:

A brief breakdown in the ceasefire in Suwayda Province, Syria, on August 3 underscores the lack of trust between the Syrian transitional government and the Druze community. This distrust extends to other Syrian minority groups as well.

NEW: Iran’s highest national security and foreign policy decision-making body, the Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), approved the establishment of a Defense Council on August 3 to streamline decision-making during wartime. 🧵(1/4)

Read more: isw.pub/IranUpdate08...

4/ Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Pokrovsk. Russian forces recently advanced near Kupyansk, Siversk, Toretsk, and Velykomykhailivka.

Read more: isw.pub/UkrWar080425

3/ Russian authorities continue to intensify the use of bribery charges, including to scapegoat regional government officials responsible for Russia's border defense and target defense industry officials and critical information space actors.

2/ Other Key Takeaways:

The Kremlin also responded to Trump's August 1 announcement by trying to downplay Medvedev's role in Russian decision-making in order to obfuscate the role Medvedev plays in Putin's information efforts targeting the West.

NEW: Kremlin officials are slowly organizing a coordinated response to US President Donald Trump's August 1 statement that the United States would redeploy two nuclear submarines closer to Russia.🧵(1/4)

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 4, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar080425

4/ Russia continues to passportize occupied Ukraine using administrative levers and coercive tools.

Russia’s majority state-owned Sberbank is spreading its influence in occupied Ukraine as a means of integrating occupied areas into the Russian financial system.

Read more: isw.pub/OccupationUp...

3/ Russia is preparing to broadly impose the Kremlin-controlled MAX messaging platform on occupied Ukraine in order to gain greater control over the information space.

2/ The water crisis seems to be worsening despite mounting appeals to Russian leadership and Russian efforts to claim officials are effectively and efficiently responding.

NEW: Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Donetsk People’s Republic (DNR) Head Denis Pushilin on August 4 to discuss the ongoing Russian-created and Russian-propagated water crisis that is severely impacting parts of occupied Donetsk Oblast. (1/4)

Read more: isw.pub/OccupationUp...

NEW: Ukrainian forces struck an oil depot in Krasnodar Krai on August 3. Geolocated imagery shows a fire at the Rosneft Kubannefteprodukt Oil Depot in Adler, Krasnodar Krai.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 3, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar080325 (1/4)

4/ Ukrainian forces recently advanced in western Zaporizhia Oblast. Russian forces recently advanced in the Lyman, Pokrovsk, and Novopavlivka directions.

Read the full update here: isw.pub/UkrWar080325

3/ Russian intelligence services appear to be reassessing and possibly innovating their sabotage operations in Europe.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Lieutenant General Anatoliy Kryvonozhko as the Commander of the Ukrainian Air Force on August 3.

2/ Other Key Takeaways:
Russia is reportedly preparing to expand its use of occupied Ukraine to launch Shahed-type drone strikes against Ukraine.

Russia appears to be trying to better protect its air bases after multiple years of Ukrainian strikes against the Russian rear.

NEW: Ukrainian forces struck an oil depot in Krasnodar Krai on August 3. Geolocated imagery shows a fire at the Rosneft Kubannefteprodukt Oil Depot in Adler, Krasnodar Krai.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, August 3, 2025: isw.pub/UkrWar080325 (1/4)

Russia’s War Is Also Cognitive To achieve more, Putin needs others to do less.

The Kremlin uses cognitive warfare to close the gaps between its goals and its means.

5/ This places the blame on Ukraine for the lack of progress in negotiations and signals Russia's unyielding commitment to its longstanding demands.

Read the full update: isw.pub/UkrWar080225

4/ Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov parroted many of the same talking points that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko made during a press event on August 1.

3/ The Kremlin has yet to employ a coordinated response to US President Donald Trump’s August 1 announcement that he ordered the deployment of two US nuclear submarines closer to Russia.

2/ Ukraine also conducted a series of long-range drone strikes against Russia's defense industrial base (DIB), drone launch sites, and air defense systems on the night of August 1 to 2.

NEW: Ukraine conducted a series of long-range drone strikes against energy infrastructure in Russia on the night of August 1 to 2. (1/5)

Read the full update: isw.pub/UkrWar080225

8/ RU continues to field long-range drone innovations to facilitate its long-range strike campaign w/ greater civilian casualties.

UA forces advanced in northern Sumy Oblast & near Borova and Lyman. RU forces advanced near Kupyansk, Siversk, Toretsk, & Pokrovsk.

Read more: isw.pub/UkrWar080125

7/ Putin appears to be transforming Russia into a Soviet-style police state, likely in preparation for expected anti-war sentiment in the Russian population as the Kremlin prolongs the war in Ukraine and prepares for a future war with NATO.

6/ Putin & Lukashenko also projected military strength & economic stability as part of Putin's ongoing effort to convince Trump that sanctions & military support to UA will not alter the outcome of the war & that Trump should abandon his efforts to resolve the war.