Silicon Curtain

Silicon Bites Ep422 | 2026-10-15 | Ukraine Hits Russia's Digital Fuel. Trump Said Leave the Fuel Alone. So, Ukraine Hit the Data. Refineries are a slow burn, but Data centres are a spark that could ignite the whole Russian economy and collapse Putin’s regime. Certainly, the implications for his war economy are huge and devastating. Trump told Ukraine to leave Russia's fuel alone. Ten days ago, he said Zelensky had "better damn well stop" hitting Russian refineries. So overnight on the fourteenth of October, Ukraine went after a different kind of fuel. Not diesel. Data. Perhaps a far more combustible accelerant of chaos? ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Sber confirmation, Vedyakhin statement, complaint surge, 100m+ customers, gov e-services: Yahoo/AFP, 14 Oct 202682 MW, 120,000 servers, 650 km, supercomputer due 2027, Yandex strike dates: Ukrainska Pravda, 14 Oct 2026122.2bn roubles, construction ongoing: Militarnyi; entrance damage, causation not established: Odessa JournalGigaChat / Samokat outages: Militarnyi. Mail.ru, VK, Ozon, Tochka, Rosselkhozbank: social-media reports only, unverified900+ drones: AFP citing Russian MoDSasovo, two of three supercomputers, Kaluga: DCD / Reuters; Ukrainian data centres hit: DCDEnergy ceasefire = refineries only, Ukraine one refinery: Axios via Ukrainska Pravda. 'Better damn well stop', diesel deal: Reuters/AFP. 'We will burn refineries', ~60% capacity: FT via Liga.netOther Sber sites (Yuzhny port, Skolkovo): DCD----------

Silicon Bites Ep422 | 2026-10-14 | Trump is leaning on the scales, in favour of Putin and Russia. It’s overt. It’s in plain sight. It’s disgusting and reprehensible. Despite having many American friends, and know many fine Americans who are fighting tooth and nail for Ukraine’s survival, I have to declare that the U.S. which is implementing Trump’s policies is now the enemy of Ukraine, or Europe and freedom. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:France 24 — Kyiv power plant hit without warning from alliesUkrainska Pravda — CHPP-4 strike, Zelenskyy statementEuronews — Ukraine received no intelligence from partnersCNN — Overnight energy strikes, 600,000 without powerReuters via AOL — SpaceX limits Starlink operationsKyiv Independent — 'This cannot be a coincidence'CNN via Yahoo — US threatens intel/weapons suspensionKyiv Post — Explainer on the threat; PURL 95% Patriot figureKyiv Independent via Yahoo — calls to top military officialsMilitarnyi — Axios report, Zelenskyy's refinery-for-grid offerWashington Examiner — Trump denies stopping intelFree Malaysia Today (AFP) — Zelensky accuses Putin of disrespecting TrumpTAG24 (AFP) — silent sirens, alternative explanationsNV — Zelenskyy: no ballistic detection without US intel (2025)----------

David DeBatto is host of the ‘No Delusion Zone’ podcast @NoDelusionZone is a retired U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agent, a geopolitical analyst, writer, and podcaster. David is an Iraq war veteran who served as Team Leader of a Tactical Human Intelligence Team (THT) in operations within Iraq and is also a former police officer. David is considered too conservative for the progressive left and too independent minded for the radical right and seeks to challenge political dogma and the naked self-interest of politicians. ----------LINKS:@NoDelusionZone https://www.protectingtherepublic.com/podcasthttps://www.protectingtherepublic.com/https://x.com/ddebattohttps://www.kyivpost.com/authors/743----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtain----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.orgNGO “Herojam Slava”https://heroiamslava.org/kharpp - Reconstruction project supporting communities in Kharkiv and Przemyślhttps://kharpp.com/NOR DOG Animal Rescuehttps://www.nor-dog.org/home/----------

Silicon Bites Ep421 | 2026-10-13 | Russia was one of the most developed digital countries in the world - an early large-scale adopter of mobile communications and online shopping - and with extensive range of government services moved online. Ukraine could end not only the digital economy in a few weeks (that's happening) but could crash the entire economy with just a few targeted strikes.----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Reuters / Daily Sabah — Drone hits data center of Russia's 'Google' in 1st for Ukraine war Reuters / The Star — Drones hit Yandex site in first major attack on Russian data hub Reuters / The Star — Russia's Yandex says second data centre hit by drone attackMeduza — Ukraine strikes Yandex data center housing two of the company's supercomputers Meduza — How vulnerable is Russia's internet to further drone attacks? (Sarkis Darbinyan / RKS.global) Kyiv Post — Several modules at Yandex Kaluga data center disabled Newsweek — Ukraine strikes second data center of Russia's Google in two days (military-blogger reaction)Charter97 / Meduza — Yandex unable to give timeline for restoring the "iron heart" The Moscow Times / NV — Payments fail, cash dries up as outage cripples Russia's biggest banks (April 2026 Sber/VTB/Alfa/T-Bank outage)Bank of Russia via Finance.Mail — Household bank deposits reach record 67 trillion rubles NAND Research — Memory & NAND Flash Crisis: 2026 Update (server DRAM +90% QoQ; Goldman Sachs) Al Jazeera — Ukraine takes aim at Russia's AI data infrastructure Cybernews — Ukrainian attacks force Russia to deploy counter-drone tech at data centersComNews / sk.ru — Sberbank data centres: Yuzhny Port, Skolkovo (background on Sber's mirrored sites) ----------

Silicon Bites SW26-229 | 2026-10-12 | Seoul recalls its ambassador from the only country killing Kim Jong Un's soldiers, South Korea’s main adversary, that it’s still technically at war with, and calls it diplomacy. It’s not – it’s strategic lunacy, utterly myopic, and borderline abusive. What the ‘F’ is S. Korea thinking? Two soldiers of the Korean People's Army were captured in the snow of Russia's Kursk region in January 2025. Kim Jong Un had sent them to kill Ukrainians for Vladimir Putin. Ukraine kept them alive. Ukraine fed them. And after months of talks, Ukraine handed them to Seoul, because they had asked to go south – defect from the prison camp that is North Korea. ----------SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.patreon.com/siliconcurtainhttps://www.gofundme.com/f/scaling-up-campaign-to-fight-authoritarian-disinformation----------TRUSTED CHARITIES ON THE GROUND:Save Ukrainehttps://www.saveukraineua.org/Superhumans - Hospital for war traumashttps://superhumans.com/en/UNBROKEN - Treatment. Prosthesis. Rehabilitation for Ukrainians in Ukrainehttps://unbroken.org.ua/Come Back Alivehttps://savelife.in.ua/en/Chefs For Ukraine - World Central Kitchenhttps://wck.org/relief/activation-chefs-for-ukraineUNITED24 - An initiative of President Zelenskyyhttps://u24.gov.ua/Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundationhttps://prytulafoundation.org----------SOURCES:Al Jazeera — "Zelenskyy says Ukraine sent two North Korean POWs to South Korea" (24 Sep 2026)Al Jazeera — "South Korea, Ukraine relations sour over North Korean POW transfer" (27 Sep 2026)Reuters via The Star — "South Korea summons Ukraine envoy in protest over North Korean POW transfer" (28 Sep 2026)The Korea Times — "Seoul eyes ambassador recall as Ukraine's POW apology fails to meet expectations" (7 Oct 2026)The Korea Times — "Korea decides to recall ambassador to Ukraine over NK POW dispute" (8 Oct 2026)The Korea Herald — "South Korea recalls envoy to Ukraine amid growing friction" (8 Oct 2026)Herald Business — "South Korea recalls ambassador to Ukraine, says talks to continue despite apology gap" (8 Oct 2026)Meduza — "Ukraine apologizes for revealing North Korean POWs' transfer…" (6 Oct 2026)Kyiv Post — South Korea weighs ambassador recall (Oct 2026)Ukrainska Pravda — "Ukrainian Foreign Ministry on recall of South Korean ambassador" (8 Oct 2026)Korea JoongAng Daily — "'Diplomacy over emotions': Kyiv seeks to mend ties with Seoul" (Oct 2026)Militarnyi — "More than 176,000 tonnes of fuel shipped from South Korea to Russia, including on sanctioned tankers – The Guardian" (Oct 2026)----------