Important Takeaways:
- NATO fighter jets have been scrambled in Poland and along the Alliance’s eastern flank
- Russia staged a brutal attack on Ukraine this morning, targeting energy and military facilities to plunge civilians into darkness and misery ahead of the festive season.
- A massive Russian onslaught had been expected, but there were no immediate reports of fearsome medium range ballistic missile Oreshnik being deployed, as had been predicted, although it may yet come.
- Instead, Ukraine was hit with Iskander, Kalibr, Kinzhal [or Dagger] missiles and Iranian-designed Shahed kamikaze drones, launched from Tu-95MS strategic bombers and MiG-31Ks.
- The capital Kyiv was hit by major power cuts – and underground trains stopped running, while people huddled in metro stations to escape the bombardment.
- There were reports of an airbase being hit, along with warehouses and a plant producing drones and repairing helicopters.
- Ukraine’s national power operator Ukrenergo warned that today half the country would be without power – with temperatures of minus 5C – due to the latest Putin onslaught, ahead the Christmas festivities.
- Explosions ranged across Ukraine from Ivano-Frankivsk in the west to Kharkiv in the east.
- Among the other regions hit were Kyiv, Odesa, Poltava, Vinnytsia, Cherkasy, Khmelnitsk, Lviv, and Ternopil.
- Russia had warned of a powerful response to a Ukrainian strike this week with US-supplied ATACMS missiles on a military airbase in Taganrog.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland needs to prepare its soldiers for all-out conflict, its armed forces chief of staff said on Wednesday, as the country boosts the number of troops on its border with Russia and Belarus.
- Poland’s relations with Russia and its ally Belarus have deteriorated sharply since Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, starting a war that is still being fought.
- “Today, we need to prepare our forces for full-scale conflict, not an asymmetric-type conflict,” army chief of staff General Wieslaw Kukula told a press conference.
- “This forces us to find a good balance between the border mission and maintaining the intensity of training in the army,” he said.
- Speaking at the same event, deputy defense minister Pawel Bejda said that as of August, the number of troops guarding Poland’s eastern border would be increased to 8,000 from the current 6,000, with an additional rearguard of 9,000 able to step up within 48 hours notice.
- The size of the armed forces stood at about 190,000 personnel at the end of last year, including ground, air, naval, special forces and territorial defense forces. Poland plans to increase this to 300,000 troops within a few years.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland has handed an official request to Washington to have U.S. nuclear weapons hosted in Poland.
- No word yet on any need or desire in the US to put such weapons there.
- Russia earlier cautioned Poland that nuclear weapons in their country would **not** make Poland any safer. In fact, they said, it would merely make Poland a target for Russian nuclear weapons.
- Hal Turner Snap Analysis
- Nuclear weapons “hosted” in Poland; Sounds like an exchange student or something innocent, like it’s a cultural program.
- My bet . . . and this is pure conjecture on my part — Poland didn’t actually “request” anything.
- They were just told that the US is going to deploy nukes on their territory.
- The nukes will be controlled by US of course, not Poland; Poland would have no interest in this affair whatsoever. . . except when they get blown up by Russia for having them so close to Russia.
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia has warned that Poland will make itself a ‘priority target’ if it hosts NATO nuclear weapons on its territory. In a Thursday statement Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said “Moves in this direction will not provide greater security (for Poland or other nations that host such weapons).” He was further quoted in Russian media as saying:
- Moscow considers any expansion of NATO’s nuclear-sharing arrangement as “deeply destabilizing” in nature, “and in fact threatening” Russia, Ryabkov was quoted as saying by TASS on Thursday. This applies to joint missions, where non-nuclear members of the US-led bloc are trained to use American hardware, and even more so to the permanent stationing of such weapons “which hotheads in Warsaw are talking about,” he said.
- In follow-up, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stipulated that “any nuclear weapons deployed to Poland would be legitimate targets in the event of war with the alliance.” Russian media translations said Moscow would see this as a “priority target”.
- While three NATO members are officially nuclear weapons states – the United States, France and the United Kingdom – others are authorized to host nukes (typically ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons). They are Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey.
- Apparently, Poland is now throwing its name in the hat for NATO’s nuclear-sharing program, which would expand Western nuke placement right up to Russia’s backyard.
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Important Takeaways:
- Polish President Andrzej Duda said Poland is “ready” to host nuclear weapons on its territory if NATO decides to reinforce its eastern flank.
- “Russia is increasingly militarizing the Königsberg oblast (Kaliningrad). Recently, it has been relocating its nuclear weapons to Belarus,” Duda said in an interview published Monday by Polish outlet Fakt.
- “If our allies decide to deploy nuclear weapons as part of nuclear sharing on our territory as well, in order to strengthen the security of NATO’s eastern flank, we are ready for it,” he added.
- Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, President Vladimir Putin has made veiled nuclear threats toward the West, even stashing atomic weapons in Belarus, which borders NATO members Poland, Lithuania and Latvia.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland issues shocking warning of upcoming Russian attack on NATO countries
- Poland has warned of a shocking impending Russian attack on the West that could come within the next three years.
- In an interview with Nasz Dziennik, the head of Poland’s national security agency, Jacek Siewiera, said that Russia could attack NATO countries within 36 months.
- Siewiera argued Russia could attack Poland, Estonia, Romania, and Lithuania as they are on NATO’s eastern flank.
- He said: “If we want to avoid war, NATO countries on the eastern flank should adopt a shorter, three-year time horizon to prepare for confrontation. This is the time when a potential must be created on the eastern flank that would be a clear signal deterring aggression. Therefore, it is necessary to further increase the number of Polish troops.”
- This comes after German think tank German Council on Foreign Relations issued a warning that Europe needs to be on high alert to Russian escalation that could result in a direct attack. But their time frame was a little more optimistic.
- They said in a statement: “With its imperial ambitions, Russia represents the greatest and most urgent threat to Nato countries.
- “Once intensive fighting will have ended in Ukraine, the regime in Moscow may need as little as six to ten years to reconstitute its armed forces.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland embraces neighborly role in war against Russia; small airport grows into logistics hub
- Rows of U.S. surface-to-air missiles line the damp earth along the road leading to the regional airport — a stark reminder of how sensitive and strategic this once-quiet corner of NATO’s eastern flank has become to the multinational scramble to help Ukraine turn back Russian invaders.
- The Polish backwater, about 60 miles from the Ukraine border, has been transformed into a buzzing international logistics hub for all kinds of aid flowing into Ukraine. The once-modest Rzeszow-Jasionka Airport became the center of a major international crisis overnight.
- “No one expected that this place would play such a vital role in the whole situation of the war,” Michal Tabisz, the airport’s vice president, said on a drizzly afternoon shortly after the Russian war against its neighbor passed the 18-month mark.
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Important Takeaways:
- Poland is planning to move around 10,000 troops to its eastern border with Belarus amid mounting concerns over Wagner forces in the region
- Wagner troops have been stationed within Belarus – a close ally of Russia – in the wake of a short-lived rebellion carried out by the group.
- “The violation of Polish space by Belarusian helicopters cannot be underestimated because of the Belarusian approach,” Blaszczak said, calling it another provocation.
- “Everything that is happening in Belarus is coordinated with the actions of Russian,” he said.
- Poland has been sounding the alarm about Wagner forces in Belarus in recent weeks.
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Luke 21:11 There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.
Important Takeaways:
- Nine cats have been confirmed to be infected with the H5N1 subtype of avian influenza in Poland, the country’s Chief Veterinary Officer announced on Monday, as reports of mammals being infected with the virus continue to increase.
- The infected cats were found in Poznań, the tri-city metropolitan area, and Lublin, locations separated by distances of hundreds of kilometers.
- According to the Chief Veterinary Officer, initial investigations found that the virus the cats were infected with is not the same strain as the virus that has been infecting gulls in the country in recent weeks.
- The source of infection for the cats had not been identified as of Monday.
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Exodus 20:13 “You shall not murder.”
Important Takeaways:
- Sweden’s ‘Conservative’ Govt to Make Abortion a Constitutional Right
- Sweden’s allegedly “conservative” center-right coalition government, led by Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, has expressed a desire to change the country’s constitution to enshrine the right to abort babies.
- “Establishing something in the Constitution – the foundation of our entire legal system – has several functions. It shows the values that characterize our society and it sets up robust protective walls around rights,” they said.
- The move comes as fellow European Union member-state France has also vowed to make abortion a constitutional right
- However, some national conservative-led countries in Central Europe, such as Poland and Hungary, have moved in the opposite direction, enacting more pro-life policies.
- Poland has largely outlawed abortion
- Hungarians have so far taken a more modest approach to strengthening the rights of the unborn, putting in place a policy that requires mothers to listen to the heartbeats of their children before confirming they wish to proceed with a termination.
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