Important Takeaways:
- Putin’s escalations in Ukraine show that any fear of NATO is diminishing
- Putin has continued to escalate his attacks against Ukraine and the West.
- He has sent Russian nuclear weapons to Belarus, the first time Russia has sent nuclear weapons to a foreign country since 1962. The Wagner forces too are relocating to Belarus. These moves have led Poland to take precautionary defense moves and, as a result, Putin launched threats against Poland that resemble those made against Ukraine before 2022. He said that Poland covets former territories in Ukraine and Belarus, owes its current statehood to the Soviet Union and any attack on Belarus equates to an attack on Russia.
- Beyond that, Putin withdrew from the grain accord with Ukraine supervised by the United Nations and Turkey. Russia has also launched massive bombardments of Ukraine’s ports, infrastructure and grain infrastructure.
- Russia’s defense minister declared that not only Ukrainian ships, but any ship in the Black Sea delivering or taking cargo to and from Ukraine, is liable to be attacked as a ship working on behalf of Ukraine. Thus “any attempt to bypass the blockade might be seen as an act of war.”
- By escalating, Putin is demonstrating that he believes NATO will not respond forcefully. Furthermore, these concerted actions go beyond efforts to strangle Ukraine’s economy to threaten global hunger, particularly in poor countries. They also claim an unlawful, exclusive Russian dominance over the Black Sea, violate the principle of freedom of navigation and implicitly brandish the threat of nuclear strikes.
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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:
- US, NATO weapons stockpile ‘dangerously low’: USAF General
- “So we don’t have nearly what we had at the heart of the Cold War. Now you add that we’re giving a lot of munitions away to the Ukrainians — which I think is exactly what we need to do — but now we’re getting dangerously low and sometimes, in some cases even too low that we don’t have enough,” said Gen. James Hecker.
- According to a July 7 factsheet, the US has provided Ukraine over $41.3 billion in security assistance since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, much of it in the form of transfers of current stockpiles rather than new production. As just one example, more than 2,000 RTX-made Stinger anti-aircraft systems have been sent to the country, leading the Pentagon to struggle to replenish the current inventory as it searches for a next-generation replacement.
- The recent controversial decision by the Biden administration to send cluster munitions to Ukraine — banned in over 100 countries due to human rights concerns — was in part influenced by a constrained munitions stockpile. Over 2 million 155 mm artillery rounds among other munitions have already been shipped to the war-torn country, and US officials have framed the cluster bomb shipments as a temporary measure to provide more time to spin up artillery production and sustain Ukraine’s ongoing counteroffensive.
- A surging demand for weapons in the wake of Russia’s invasion has stressed the Western industrial base, which had actively eschewed a wartime footing. Moves like multi-year procurement authorities have been deployed by the Pentagon to provide industry a more predictable timetable for production, but Hecker joined other top officers in calling for more action.
- Heidi Grant, Boeing’s director of business development and the former top official for the Pentagon’s weapons sales, said on the panel that industry needs more than just statements from military officials for production levels to meet their desires.
- “As far as the demand signal, we’re all talking about it. But what it really takes, what industry needs is the request. A written, on-paper request so we can start those production lines that you need,” she said. “It’s hard for us to make the investment unless we know that it’s really there.”
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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:
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- Watching Asia-Pacific leaders mingle with their European counterparts at the annual NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week, U.S. strategists might well have lit up celebratory cigars.
- While the media attention in Vilnius inevitably focused on the war in Ukraine, the fate of Sweden’s bid to join and other matters closer to home, the representation of major East Asian democracies at the Western military alliance gathering heralds a major shift, a sign of the rising unity of the U.S.-allied democracies on both flanks of the Eurasian landmass.
- For the second straight year, leaders of the Asia-Pacific 4 (“AP4”) — Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea — turned up at NATO’s annual summit. The Japanese and South Korean militaries both rank in the world’s top 10 in the latest Global Firepower’s 2023 survey.
- NATO leaders, in their final summit communique, wrote: “The Indo-Pacific is important for NATO, given that developments in that region can directly affect Euro-Atlantic security. … We welcome the contribution of our partners in … the region. We will further strengthen our dialogue and cooperation to tackle our shared security challenges.”
- In a bit of diplomatic irony, it was the warming ties between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that helped accelerate the East-West coalition building against them.
- “With China and Russia announcing a ‘no-limits partnership’ shortly before the invasion [of Ukraine]…the balancing coalitions at either end of Eurasia became strongly linked together,” said Joel Atkinson, an international politics professor at Seoul’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.
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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:
- David Cattler, NATO’s assistant secretary general for intelligence and security, told reporters Russia was “actively mapping” the infrastructure of Ukraine’s allies both on land and on the seabed.
- The threat posed to undersea gas pipelines that supply Europe was starkly exposed by the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic last September. Cattler said that undersea cables that carry 95 percent of internet traffic were also potentially at risk.
- “We see a significant risk that critical infrastructure in Europe and potentially North America could be targeted by Russia as part of its war on Ukraine,” Cattler said.
- “The Russians are more active than we’ve seen them in years in this domain,” Cattler said. “Their patrols in the Atlantic and throughout the Atlantic are most of the time at a higher level than we’ve seen in recent years.” Russian vessels were also “taking more risk” in the Baltic and North Seas, he added.
- In the wake of the Nord Stream blasts, which are the subject of investigations in three different countries, NATO established a new “cell” at its Brussels headquarters to coordinate efforts to protect undersea infrastructure. None of the investigations have yet concluded who was responsible for the attack, but initial suspicion in Western governments fell on Russia. Danish authorities last week confirmed a sighting of a submarine-carrying Russian Navy vessel near the pipelines four days before the blasts last September.
- Norway, which replaced Russia as Europe’s single biggest gas supplier last year, has said it is “closely” tracking Russian activity in its waters, which are home to dozens of gas and oil platforms and pipelines vital to Europe’s energy supply. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre told POLITICO last week that Russia was “showing readiness to take more risks” with its naval activities in the region.
- Internet cables are seen as a key infrastructure vulnerability. “Few people are aware of just how dependent we are collectively on a limited number of fiberoptic cables that form the internet spine and electronically link our continents,”
- Altogether they carry an estimated $10 trillion worth of financial transactions every day,” he said. “These cables really are an economic lynchpin.”
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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:
- U.S.: Russian Subs in Atlantic ‘More Active Than We’ve Seen Them in Years’
- Russia has increased its submarine presence in the Atlantic at a higher level than ever in recent years, the top U.S. officer overseeing operations in Europe said Wednesday, citing one of several examples contradicting conclusions that the military loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been severely degraded by his war in Ukraine.
- “The Russians have been more active than we’ve seen them in years,” Army Gen. Chris Cavoli, the top commander for NATO and U.S. military operations in Europe, told Congress on Wednesday of Moscow’s undersea capabilities.
- “Their patrols into the Atlantic and throughout the Atlantic are at a high level most of the time, at a higher level than we’ve seen in years,” Cavoli testified before the House Armed Services Committee. “And this, despite all the efforts they’re undertaking in Ukraine.”
- The grave warnings also come as a growing number of Republican lawmakers – and several leading GOP presidential candidates – question the value of U.S. support for Ukraine, saying those resources should instead focus on deterring China.
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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:
- Turkey’s Parliament Ratifies Finland’s Membership in NATO
- Turkey’s parliament on Thursday ratified Finland’s application to join NATO, lifting the last hurdle in the way of the Nordic country’s long-delayed accession into the Western military alliance.
- All 276 lawmakers present voted in favor of Finland’s bid, days after Hungary’s parliament also endorsed Helsinki’s accession.
- “This will make the whole NATO family stronger & safer,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg wrote on Twitter in welcoming Turkey’s action.
- Sweden’s bid to join the alliance, meanwhile, has been left hanging, with both Turkey and Hungary holding out on giving it the green light despite expressing support for NATO’s expansion.
- Turkey’s government accuses Sweden of being too lenient toward groups it deems to be terrorist organizations
- Sweden, which made constitutional changes to pass tougher anti-terrorism laws, has expressed hope that it will be able to join before NATO’s July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania.
- “Turkey is unlikely to approve its acceptance into the alliance before the election in May.
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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:
- VLAD’S APOCALYPSE Putin’s 3,000 die-hard troops launch nuke drills testing Yars missile as Kremlin threatens ‘legitimate’ Western target
- Vladimir Putin is flexing his military muscle with his “invincible weapons” in three regions, showcasing his nuclear-capable Yars rockets – one of Moscow’s deadliest weapons.
- Russia’s defense ministry said: “In total, more than 3,000 military personnel and about 300 pieces of equipment are involved in the exercises.
- It comes as Russia today threatened Sweden and Finland over joining Nato, saying it would make the Nordic countries a “legitimate target for Russian retaliatory measures, including those of a military nature”.
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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:
- Russia Warns NATO, U.S. to Back Off or Risk ‘Catastrophic Consequences’
- “Their growing involvement in an armed confrontation is fraught with a direct military clash of nuclear powers with catastrophic consequences.”
- “NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that is a long-term perspective,” Stoltenberg told reporters during a visit to Finland’s capital Helsinki.
- Stoltenberg’s statement reaffirmed the belief already held in Kiev that membership is only a step away.
- U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a video address Thursday morning stressing the need to extend a high-level war crimes investigation over Moscow’s actions against its neighbor, a so-called Commission of Inquiry, into Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
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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:
- Putin is ‘preparing new aerial attack on Ukraine’ with fighter jets and helicopters prepped for battle – as NATO chief warns Europe is at risk of running out of ammunition to help Kyiv fight back
- NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said, ‘This has become a grinding war of attrition and therefore it’s also a battle of logistics. This is a huge effort by allies to actually be able to get in the ammunition, the fuel, the spare parts, which are needed.’
- ‘We see no signs that President Putin is preparing for peace. What we see is the opposite, he is preparing for more war, for new offensives and new attacks.’
- Ukraine’s armed forces are firing some 6,000 artillery shells a day, far faster than their Western allies can resupply them.
- Russia is using as much as 20,000 rounds a day, equivalent to what European factories can produce in a month. But there is yet no decision on supplying Western fighter jets to the Ukrainian military.
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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:
- Fuming Putin sends chilling threat to West as more NATO allies to send tanks to Ukraine
- Vladimir Putin sent a stern warning to the West after NATO allies agreed to aid Ukraine with armored tanks
- He said: “Those who involve Germany in a new war with Russia, and even more, irresponsibly declare it as an accomplished fact, those who expect to win over Russia on the battlefield, probably do not understand that the modern war with Russia will be completely different for them.
- “We do not send our tanks to their borders. But we have something to respond with, and the matter will not end with the use of armored vehicles. Everyone should understand that.”
- He also added: “We have many friends. Moreover, all over the world, in particular on the American continent, in North America, in Europe.”
- Ukraine’s defense minister expressed confidence Sunday that Western allies would agree to the country’s latest weapons request — warplanes to fight off Russian forces that invaded nearly a year ago.
- So far, Ukraine has won support from Baltic nations and Poland in its quest to obtain Western fighter jets.
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