Important Takeaways:
- World on the brink as North Korea sends ‘cannon fodder’ troops to Ukraine
- The North Korean unit is expected to arrive in Ukraine as soon as next month, raising fears that Pyongyang is becoming an active combatant in the war.
- Last week, Putin made an official state visit to North Korea, the first time in 24 years that he had travelled to the country.
- The Russian leader and his host Kim Jong Un signed a defense pact on June 19 in Pyongyang, promising military assistance to one another.
- Within days of signing the agreement, North Korea has announced it will be sending a unit of military engineers to join Russia’s army on the ground in the Donetsk region.
- The country is already supplying Russia with ammunition and missiles and is reported to have shipped as many as 1.6 million artillery shells to Putin’s army.
- A spokesman for the Pentagon said North Korean troops would be sent to their slaughter and questioned the wisdom of the deployment.
- The military alliance between Putin and Kim states: “In case any one of the two sides is put in a state of war by an armed invasion from an individual state or several states, the other side shall provide military and other assistance with all means in its possession without delay.”
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Important Takeaways:
- Russia said on Sunday that the United States was responsible for a Ukrainian attack on the Russian-annexed Crimean Peninsula with five U.S.-supplied missiles that killed four people, including two children, and injured 151 more.
- The Russian Defense Ministry said four of the U.S.-delivered Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles, equipped with cluster warheads, were shot down by air defense systems and the ammunition of a fifth had detonated in mid-air.
- Footage on Russian state television showed people running from a beach and some people being carried off on sun loungers.
- The Defense ministry said U.S. specialists had set the missiles’ flight coordinates on the basis of information from U.S. spy satellites, meaning Washington was directly responsible.
- Reuters was unable to immediately verify battlefield reports from either side.
- Russia will respond to Sunday’s attack, the Defense Ministry said, without elaborating. The Kremlin said Putin had been “in constant contact with the military” since the attack.
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Important Takeaways:
- His comments come after Seoul said it was considering such a possibility, in response to Russia and North Korea’s new pact to help each other in the event of “aggression” against either country.
- Moscow “will… [make] decisions which are unlikely to please the current leadership of South Korea” if Seoul decides to supply arms to Kyiv
- Mr. Putin also warned that Moscow is willing to arm Pyongyang if the US and its allies continue supplying Ukraine with weapons.
- Following Mr. Putin’s remarks, South Korea’s presidential office said on Friday it would consider “various options” in supplying arms to Ukraine and its stance will “depend on how Russia approaches this issue.”
- The two Koreas are still technically at war and maintain a heavily guarded border, where tensions have worsened in recent weeks.
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Important Takeaways:
- Putin offered to supply fossil fuels including natural gas to Vietnam for the long term during a state visit that comes as Moscow is seeking to bolster ties in Asia to offset its growing international isolation over its military actions in Ukraine.
- The two countries also agreed to work on a roadmap for a nuclear science and technology center in Vietnam.
- Of the 12 publicly announced agreements, none overtly pertained to defense. But Lam said there were other deals that were not made public.
- Putin’s recent visits to China and now North Korea and Vietnam are attempts to “break the international isolation,”
- Russia is the biggest supplier of military equipment to the Southeast Asian nation, and Russian oil exploration technologies help maintain Vietnam’s sovereignty claims in the contested South China Sea.
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Important Takeaways:
- The statement by Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and Vladimir Putin’s predecessor as president, came as the West sharply escalated sanctions on Moscow in efforts to degrade its ability to wage war in Ukraine.
- “We need to (respond). Not only the authorities, the state, but all our people in general. After all, they – the U.S. and its crappy allies – have declared a war on us without rules!” Medvedev wrote on his official Telegram channel, which has over 1.3 million followers.
- “Every day we should try to do maximum harm to those countries that have imposed these restrictions. Harm their economies, their institutions and their rulers. Harm the well-being of their citizens, their confidence in the future.”
- Diplomats say Medvedev gives a flavor of hardline and high level thinking in the Kremlin, though Kyiv and Kremlin critics play down his influence, casting him as a scaremonger whose job is to deter Western action over Ukraine.
- In his latest comments he spoke of the need to find critical vulnerabilities in Western economies, to target energy, industry, transport, banking and social services, and to stir up social tensions.
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Important Takeaways:
- Joe Biden and Volodymyr Zelenskiy will sign a 10-year bilateral security agreement at the G7 summit in Italy, as arguments continued on the sidelines about how the west can provide a Donald Trump-proof $50bn loan to Ukraine.
- As with the other bilateral pacts, the agreement with the US will not require America to come to Ukraine’s defense if attacked. But it could make it easier for Ukraine to enter into peace negotiations with Russia, as Kyiv would have some assurance about the help it would receive in the event of a further Russian attack.
- The US-Ukraine agreement does not require the authorization of Congress and could be undone by a future Trump administration.
- Biden has said previously that guarantees for Ukraine would be equivalent to those to Israel, covering financial and military assistance as well as the possibility of the joint weapons production.
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Important Takeaways:
- In a statement to RIA Novosti published on Monday, Kartapolov clarified that if the F-16s “are not used for their intended purpose” or are simply held in storage at foreign airbases with the intent to transfer them to Ukraine, where they will be equipped, maintained, and flown from Ukrainian airfields, then Russia would have no claims against its “former partners” and would not target them.
- However, if the jets take off from foreign bases and carry out sorties and strikes against Russian forces, both the fighter planes and the airfields they are stationed at will be “legitimate targets,” according to Kartapolov.
- As for [our ability] to shoot [them] down, we can shoot down anyone, anywhere,” the MP insisted. Kartapolov’s statement comes after the chief of aviation of Ukraine’s Air Force Command, Sergey Golubtsov, stated in an interview with Radio Liberty on Sunday that some of the F-16 fighter jets donated to Kiev by the West would be stationed at foreign airbases.
- Golubtsov stated that so far four countries have agreed to transfer F-16s to Ukraine, namely Belgium, Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. While he did not specify exactly how many aircraft would be donated, he claimed it was between 30 and 40 planes, with potentially more to come in the future.
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Important Takeaways:
- Havana says fleet does not have nuclear weapons, but arrival comes amid rising tensions between Russia and the United States over Ukraine
- “This visit corresponds to the historical friendly relations between Cuba and the Russian Federation and strictly adheres to the international regulations,” said the ministry in a statement.
- But the unusual deployment of the powerful nuclear submarine Kazan and three other naval vessels so close to the United States comes amid major tensions over the war in Ukraine
- Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested this week that Moscow could take “asymmetrical” steps if Western countries like Germany and the US were to supply Ukraine with weapons that were then used on Russian soil
- During the Cold War, Cuba was an important client state for the Soviet Union. The deployment of Soviet nuclear missile sites on the island triggered the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, when Washington and Moscow came close to war. The incident led to the US imposing a trade embargo on Cuba, which remains in force.
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Important Takeaways:
- Biden meets with Zelenskyy in Paris, apologizes for delay in U.S. weapons that let Russia make gains
- The meeting in the French capital comes as the United States clashes with Kyiv and the Kremlin over the decision to let Ukraine strike inside Russia using American weapons.
- He also announced a new package of $225 million in weapons, including air defense interceptors, artillery ammunition and other critical capabilities.
- It follows the D-Day 80th anniversary events in Normandy, where Biden drew parallels between that pivotal battle to free Europe from Nazi domination and Ukraine’s current fight against Russia.
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Important Takeaways:
- Dwindling number of D-Day veterans mark anniversary with plea to recall WWII lessons in today’s wars
- The war in Ukraine shadowed the ceremonies, a grim modern-day example of lives and cities that are again suffering through war in Europe.
- “There are things worth fighting for,” said Walter Stitt, who fought in tanks and turns 100 in July, as he visited Omaha Beach this week. “Although I wish there was another way to do it than to try to kill each other. We’ll learn one of these days, but I won’t be around for that.”
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence at the D-Day commemorations with world leaders who are supporting Ukraine fused World War II’s awful past with the fraught present.
- Feted everywhere they go in wheelchairs and walking with canes, veterans are using their voices to repeat their message they hope will live eternal: Never forget.
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