Hungary’s Parliament finally approves Sweden’s membership in NATO.
That’s one less thing for Orban to use to blackmail the EU and NATO with.
Russia is still pushing west from Avdiivka and has taken the village of Lastochkyne.
Close Encounters of the Armored Kind.
“Lads didn’t make it.”
Should have stayed home.
Kherson continues to be shelled by Russia.
The Two Wall strategy is a sound one. It is similar to strategies of protecting oneself from tornadoes.
An oligarch, Yuri Antipov, has his assets seized. He might have seemed an easy mark for Putin cronies looking to pad their bank accounts the easy way.
Antipov was as non-public as possible. Politically, he was loyal to Putin. He was included in the sanctions lists. However, far-fetched and partly absurd charges were brought against him.
* In essence, Putin started the process of reprivatization and redistribution of property — contrary to his own promises not to do so. Thus, as early as September 12, 2023, he stated that "there will be no deprivatization in Russia, no one is going to make life a nightmare for anyone".
* This means that the "feeding trough" is getting smaller, and the assets of businessmen whose "success story" is not connected with the Putin era are not guaranteed. They will have to be ceded and they will be taken over by Putin's entourage.
* ntipov has been chosen as a "demonstrative victim". They are trying to hang both "high treason" and sabotage of Russians on him at the same time.
* This "confiscation" may become an important precedent, which will be followed by a number of subsequent ones. All of this will open Pandora's Box and allow for a completely chaotic seizure of property, down to small properties (like a gas station or beauty salon) privatized in the 1990s.
Good riddance.
A Ukrainian drone chases down a Russian soldier and is remotely detonated.
Is this like holding up your cell phone hoping to get better reception?
His buddy gets blasted. The Russia soldier turns around to glance at him then keeps on walking at a leisurely pace, as if he is resigned to being the next one to be blasted.
This is just BS. In his statement, Scholz says Germany will not become a “warring party” and thus will not supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. How exactly does providing Taurus make Germany a warring party but supplying tanks doesn’t?
Germany is Ukraine's largest military supporter in Europe. It stays that way. But one thing is clear: we will not become a warring party - neither directly nor indirectly. These two principles guide all my decisions. #Taurus
Fourteen thousand artillery shells sounds like a lot. It isn’t. Ukraine can use that up in a few days.
Does anyone else remember when Macron was traveling to Russia two years ago thinking he could talk some sense into Putin?
From a security standpoint this doesn’t sound like a great idea to me.
Assuming this is true, tanks, including the Abrams, are going to get blown up. We just need to be sending a steady supply of new ones.
This is a really strange story. Swapping Navalny for the Russian hitman?
I doubt it’s true, but if such a swap was being arranged, somebody screwed up royally.
She says that back in 1941 residents of Leningrad still managed to produce war materials for the army despite starvation conditions brought on by the siege of the German army.
She forgets one major thing — in 1941 Russians were fighting to save their homeland from invaders.
There might be some ethical lapses here, but Republicans are trying to make a mountain out of this.
A senior Capitol Hill staff member who is a longtime voice on Russia policy is under congressional investigation over his frequent trips to Ukraine’s war zones and providing what he said was $30,000 in sniper gear to its military, documents show.
The staff member, Kyle Parker, is the senior Senate adviser for the U.S. Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, known as the Helsinki Commission. The commission is led by members of Congress and staffed by congressional aides. It is influential on matters of democracy and security and has been vocal in supporting Ukraine.
A confidential report by the commission’s director and general counsel, which The New York Times reviewed, said that the equipment transfer could make Mr. Parker an unregistered foreign agent. It said that Mr. Parker had traveled Ukraine’s front lines wearing camouflage and Ukrainian military insignia and had hired a Ukrainian official for a U.S. government fellowship over the objections of congressional ethics and security officials.
Does it also come with a kindergarten and an apartment building for the children to practice war crimes on?
Dinner time
Combat cat at work improving morale.
Hopefully this is the only kind of fighting that will go on in Ukraine in the future.