Important Takeaways:
- Russia launched a massive combined missile and drone attack on the Kyiv region Wednesday, the third on the country in three days, but Ukrainian air defenses intercepted most of the airborne ordnance with only one injury reported.
- President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a social media post that Russian missiles — including ballistic and cruise missiles targeting Kyiv — were shot down, along with about a dozen of about 90 drones involved in the attacks.
- Kyiv authorities said Wednesday’s two-hour-long attack, the first in more than two months, began with air-raid sirens sounding at around 6:30 a.m. local time as drones bore down on Kyiv Oblast and then cruise missiles, followed by a ballistic missile strike on Kyiv itself timed to coincide with the arrival of the cruise missiles.
- Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the attack drones destroyed a house and seriously damaged a four-story apartment building with blazes breaking out on the upper levels.
- That came the day after Russia unleashed a record 145 drones Sunday — the largest attack of the war — against targets all across Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian Air Force, which claimed to have shot most of them down.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday warned the United States that if Washington deployed long-range missiles in Germany, then Russia would station similar missiles in striking distance of the West.
- The United States said on July 10 that it would start deploying long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 in preparation for a longer-term deployment that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons.
- In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian navy day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg, Putin warned the United States that it risked triggering a Cold War-style missile crisis with the move.
- “The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said.
- “We will take mirror measures to deploy, taking into account the actions of the United States, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world.”
- Russian and U.S. diplomats say their diplomatic relations are worse even that during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and both Moscow and Washington have urged de-escalation while both have made steps towards escalation.
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Important Takeaways:
- “The enemy knows very well that no place will be safe from our missiles and drones,” Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said on June 19.
- Keeping those weapons from hitting Israeli territory is the job of a sophisticated air defense system called Iron Dome.
- But some experts warn that Hezbollah’s arsenal could push the system past its limits.
- The Iranian-backed group has been conducting increasingly brazen attacks using exploding drones and low-flying missiles that Iron Dome has struggled to intercept.
- And last week, Hezbollah published a 10-minute-long surveillance video from an unmanned aerial vehicle that had slipped past multiple Iron Dome launchers.
- The implication was clear: Hezbollah has Iron Dome in its sights.
- Unlike the Palestinian group Hamas, Hezbollah is believed to have a large arsenal of precision-guided weapons that it could fire in a war with Israel.
- “Look, there’s not enough Iron Domes in the world to contend with the reported 100,000 or so rockets that Hezbollah may have”
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Important Takeaways:
- After his “sobering visit” to Kyiv, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken wants the White House to allow Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with American-supplied arms, The New York Times (NYT) reported on May 22, citing undisclosed official sources.
- The ban has prevented Kyiv from attacking Russian forces, which were amassing near Kharkiv Oblast for their offensive launched earlier in May, with advanced U.S. weaponry like ATACMS missiles.
- The news outlet noted that the proposal is still “in the formative stages” and that it is unclear how many other high-ranking officials in Biden’s team will support it.
- The plan would include permitting strikes against Russian military facilities but perhaps not oil refineries and other infrastructure that Ukraine has been hitting with homemade drones, according to the outlet.
- The Pentagon has also reiterated this position, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin recently hinted that the rules might be different in regards to aerial targets.
- “The aerial dynamic’s a little bit different,” Austin said during a press conference on May 20 but avoided saying explicitly whether attacks against Russian aircraft with U.S. arms are off-limit or not.
- Unlike Washington, the U.K. said it does not oppose Ukraine using British-supplied arms – which include Storm Shadow missiles – to strike Russian soil, provoking threats from Moscow.
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Important Takeaways:
- The Lebanese militant group Hezbollah this week struck a military post in northern Israel using a drone that fired two missiles. The attack wounded three soldiers, one of them seriously, according to the Israeli military.
- Hezbollah has regularly fired missiles across the border with Israel over the past seven months, but the one on Thursday appears to have been the first successful missile airstrike it has launched from within Israeli airspace.
- “Hezbollah has been escalating the situation in the north,” said military spokesman Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. “They’ve been firing more and more.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran attacks Israel: No drones, cruise missiles breached Israeli airspace
- Sirens blared across Israel on Saturday night as hundreds of drones and missiles launched from Iran reached Israel. Drones and missiles were also reportedly launched from Yemen and other countries around the region.
- The IDF has updated that the full Iranian attack consisted of over 300 threats, of which 100 were ballistic missiles launched from Iran. Another 30 cruise missiles were launched from the Islamic Republic, along with drones. There were also two rounds of rockets, around 40 total, fired on Israel from Lebanon, with Israel responding with counterattacks in close to real-time.
- None of the drones or cruise missiles entered Israeli airspace. IDF spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari noted that only a small number of ballistic missiles penetrated the Jewish state’s airspace.
- Almost all interceptions have been by aircraft, David’s Sling, or the Arrow missile systems. The Iron Dome, which defends well against Hamas and Hezbollah’s simple rockets, is less relevant for drones and fancier long-range missiles.
- Iran confirmed that its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had launched a missile and drone attack against Israel.
- Israel, the US, the UK, and Jordan worked to intercept the drones and missiles over Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Israel, according to foreign reports. France also assisted in shooting down the aerial threats.
- The Islamic Republic’s attack comes after it accused Israel of killing top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Mohammad Reza Zahedi on April 1, who had directed its proxy attacks on Israel in Lebanon and Syria, including being a top coordinator with Hezbollah.
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Important Takeaways:
- Iran test fired advanced ballistic missiles on Tuesday in a series of war drills meant to prepare the Islamic Republic for a strike on Israeli military sites that house American-made F-35 fighter jets, according to the country’s state-controlled media.
- Iran claims its missiles are capable of striking deep into Israel and are capable of traveling more than 1,000 miles.
- A massive explosion Tuesday at an Iranian gas line also heightened the possibility of an Israeli confrontation with Tehran, as the hardline regime claimed the incident was a “terrorist act of sabotage.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia launched 122 missiles and dozens of drones against Ukrainian targets, officials said Friday, killing at least 24 civilians across the country in what an air force official said was the biggest aerial barrage of the war.
- The Ukrainian air force intercepted most of the ballistic and cruise missiles and the Shahed-type drones overnight, said Ukraine’s military chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
- Western officials and analysts recently warned that Russia had limited its cruise missile strikes in recent months in an apparent effort to build up stockpiles for massive strikes during the winter, hoping to break the Ukrainians’ spirit.
- British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the huge attack should stir the world to further action in support of Ukraine.
- At least 130 people were injured and an unknown number were buried under rubble during the roughly 18-hour onslaught, Ukrainian officials said. Among the buildings reported to be damaged across Ukraine were a maternity hospital, apartment blocks and schools.
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Important Takeaways:
- WWIII Watch: Europe Defense Spending Soars with Tanks, Missiles, Fighter Jets, Attack Helicopters, All on Order
- Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, and since then only one thing has been certain: the rest of Europe is desperate to build military muscle as soon as possible to help counter any further predatory moves by Moscow.
- Europe must race to ensure it can better defend itself as new military threats could emerge by the end of the decade even as the focus of security ally the U.S. shifts towards the Indo-Pacific, Germany’s defense minister has already warned.
- Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová… announced Thursday her country is advancing negotiations with Germany to carry out a joint acquisition of up to 77 new Leopard 2A8 main battlefield tanks.
- The NATO member is also nearing the completion of talks to buy C-390 Millennium transport aircraft and F-35 Lightning II fighter jets.
- Spain has ordered 16 Airbus C295 aircraft in maritime patrol and surveillance configurations for €1.7 billion (U.S. $1.9 billion), Airbus announced Wednesday.
- Figures released in April showed $2.24 trillion was outlaid globally in 2022 with Europe leading the way due to Ukraine’s demands for continued supplies of battlefield hardware.
- Some of the sharpest increases were seen in Finland (+36 percent), Lithuania (+27 percent), Sweden (+12 percent) and Poland (+11 percent).
- “The continuous rise in global military expenditure in recent years is a sign that we are living in an increasingly insecure world,”
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Revelations 6:3-4 “when he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, “Come!” 4 And out came another horse, bright red. Its rider was permitted to take peace from the earth, so that people should slay one another, and he was given a great sword.
Important Takeaways:
- North Korea fires suspected intercontinental ballistic missile
- North Korea has fired multiple missiles, including a failed suspected intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) that forced the Japanese government to issue evacuation alerts in the northern and central parts of the country.
- The launches on Thursday are the latest in a series of North Korean weapons tests in recent months that have raised tensions in the region. They come a day after Pyongyang fired more than 20 missiles, the most in a single day, including one that landed off South Korea’s coast for the first time and prompted Seoul to fire air-to ground missiles in response.
- The United States said the launch was a clear breach of UN resolutions.
- “This action underscores the need for all countries to fully implement (North Korea) related UN Security Council resolutions, which are intended to prohibit (North Korea) from acquiring the technologies and materials needed to carry out these destabilizing tests,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement.
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