Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, Truth Social, Gettr
In a show of appreciation to Slovakia for sending Kyiv Soviet-made MiG-29 fighter jets, the U.S. has offered to help Bratislava finance the purchase of several attack helicopters and Hellfire missiles.
According to Slovak Defense Minister Jaroslav Nad, the deal would be for the U.S. to provide $660 million in financing toward the $1 billion cost of purchasing 12 Bell AH-1Z attack helicopters, 500 AGM-114 Hellfire II missiles, and training for Slovak troops. Slovakia would be responsible for the remaining $340 million.
In a separate show of support, the EU plans to compensate Slovakia with $213 million for giving the MiG-29s to Ukraine. While the offer is still being considered, Nad acknowledged that receiving the helicopters would “significantly increase the defense capability of Slovakia.”
Without the MiG-29s that Slovakia sent to Kyiv, the country does not have an air force and is currently relying on Poland and the Czech Republic to monitor its airspace. While Slovakia signed an agreement in 2018 to purchase 14 U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, the new combat aircraft are not expected to be delivered until 2024, leaving the country very vulnerable in the interim.
The offer to help Slovakia purchase attack helicopters indicates that Washington had a hand in Slovakia’s decision to send its 13 MiG-29s to Ukraine – a decision that came after Poland announced that it would be sending its own MiG-29s to Kyiv.
As a result of the deals with Ukraine for the jets, Poland and Slovakia are now the first NATO members to provide Ukraine with fighter jets. A move that is sure to be seen as escalatory by Moscow and the Kremlin.
While a year ago, in March 2022, the Pentagon was staunchly against Poland sending its MiG-29s to Kyiv because officials thought that Russia would see it as NATO directly entering the war, those concerns have clearly faded as NATO has consistently become more involved in the defense of Ukraine over the past year.
Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, Truth Social, Gettr
On Tuesday, the U.S. Army opened its first permanent garrison on NATO's "eastern flank" at Camp Kosciuszko in Poland. NATO's eastern border stretches from the Baltics to the Black Sea and is comprised of 8 countries, all of which are former members of the Warsaw Pact or the USSR. Now, the U.S. Army's V Corps will have a permanent presence in the region.
According to comments from the V Corps' commanding general, Lt. Gen. John Kolasheski, the garrison represents Washington's deepened military commitment to Eastern Europe. "The relationship of the U.S. and Poland serves as an example of the deepening ties throughout the alliance," Kolasheski said before adding, "today's activation ceremony is a tangible reminder of the growth in our relationship."
During the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, many Western leaders reassured Russia that NATO would not establish bases in Eastern Europe or expand its borders into former USSR states. All subsequent U.S. presidents since George H.W. Bush made those promises to Moscow have violated that vow and expanded NATO's border ever closer to Russia's.
The garrison was described as "historic" by Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Błaszczak, who added that Warsaw has been "striving for this for years - for this word 'permanent' - and it has now become fact."
Błaszczak concluded that "this is a historic moment, a sign that the United States is committed to Poland and NATO, and that we are united in the face of Russian aggression."
Given that the U.S. only has 2 officers currently stationed at Camp Kosciuszko and 200 additional troops that rotate in and out of the base, with the Pentagon having already kept about 10,000 troops in Poland, Artur Kacprzyk, an analyst at the Polish Institute of International Affairs, claimed that the significance of the new garrison "is primarily symbolic."
While an American diplomate has confirmed that Camp Kosciuszko was built to confront Russia, the garrison is not near the Russian border. Poland has been a key player in getting Western arms shipments and other equipment to Ukraine, given its proximity to the war-torn country. According to a tweet from U.S. Ambassador to Poland Mark Brzezinski, the decision to open a permanent base in Poland proves that "the United States is committed to Poland and the NATO alliance, and that we are united in the face of Russian aggression."
NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg, on Tuesday, confirmed that NATO and its members want Ukraine to eventually join the military alliance at some point in the future. “NATO allies have agreed that Ukraine will become a member of our alliance, but at the same time that that is a long-term perspective,” Stoltenberg said.
“What is the issue now is to ensure that Ukraine prevails as a sovereign, independent nation, and therefore we need to support Ukraine,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has been pushing NATO for a “fast-tracked” process, despite his country being engaged in war with Russia and having an ongoing conflict in the country’s eastern region dating back to 2014 when Moscow annexed the Crimea peninsula and made it part of Russia.
NATO has never admitted a country that is engaged in an active conflict or has had an active conflict on its border, as doing so would automatically trigger Article 5 once the country was accepted into the alliance.
Ukraine is not the only country having difficulty joining NATO, with Sweden and Finland facing recent struggles as they attempt to join the alliance with a joint bid. All NATO members must unanimously agree to allow a country to join, but Turkey and Hungary have refused to admit Sweden. Stoltenberg said of the two holdout members, “My message has been for a long time… that time has come to finalize the ratification process. The time is now to ratify in both Budapest and in Ankara.”
In an effort to support Kyiv, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin added, “I see that the future of Ukraine is to be part of the European Union and also a member of NATO.”
However, CIA Director William Burns cautioned in a 2008 cable that Ukraine being permitted to enter NATO would be the “brightest of all red lines.”
“Ukrainian entry into NATO is the brightest of all redlines for the Russian elite (not just Putin),” Burns wrote in the cable. “I have yet to find anyone who views Ukraine in NATO as anything other than a direct challenge to Russian interests,” he concluded.
Not only is Ukraine’s entry into NATO going to be a slow process and a long way off, but the process for Kyiv to join the EU is expected to take years or even decades, according to some predictions.
Some Ukrainian officials are saying that their nation is already a de facto member of NATO, given how the level of arms and training NATO allies have offered the country already. Putin views assistance from NATO the same way and has made demilitarizing Ukraine one of Russia’s invasion objectives as a result of it.
Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, Truth Social, Gettr
As NATO warns that its stockpiles of artillery munitions are running low, the U.S. military is attempting to train Ukrainian forces to change how they fight in order to conserve shells. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, outlined the effort after a meeting in Brussels with the Ukraine Defense Contact group.
Austin told reporters, ”We are working with the Ukrainian soldiers in various places throughout Europe to emphasize additional training on maneuver so that as they place more emphasis on maneuver and shaping the battlefield with fires and then maneuvering, there’s a good chance that they’ll require less artillery munitions, but that’s left to be seen.”
The secretary confirmed that Ukraine has used “a lot of artillery ammunition” and reiterated that the U.S. is doing everything possible to keep supplying Kyiv with more munitions. “We’re going to do everything we can, working with our international partners, to ensure that we get them as much ammunition as quickly as possible and that we’ll do everything we can to sustain our efforts there as well,” Austin added.
Over the course of the past year, the U.S. has sent an overwhelming amount of artillery to Ukraine, particularly 155mm shells. Due to the depletion of U.S. stockpiles and the continuing demand for more munitions from Kyiv, the Pentagon is increasing its production of artillery shells by 500 percent over the next 2 years to meet the demand and replenish stockpiles.
Even with the drastic increase in the production of ammo, NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, it is still uncertain whether or not continuing to provide massive weapons caches to Ukraine is sustainable for NATO as Kyiv is burning through more munitions than the military alliance can produce.
“The war in Ukraine is consuming an enormous amount of munitions, and depleting allied stockpiles. The current rate of Ukraine’s ammunition expenditure is many times higher than our current rate of production, and this puts our defense industries under strain,” Stoltenberg added.
Meanwhile, the Chairman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, announced last week that Russia had lost the war and indicated that it was up to Russian President Vladimir Putin to end his “war or choice.”
Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, Truth Social, Gettr
While the U.S. used the “domino theory” with success in order to gain support from the American public during the Vietnam War, former UK Defense Minister Sir Gerald Howarth is attempting to use the same argument to justify his reasoning for inserting NATO troops in Ukraine.
Despite most of the European and American populations being against engaging in war with Russia, established officials seem to be intent on pushing the issue.
NATO and the West’s willingness to no longer send only defensive weapons but now also tanks and longer-range rockets will be seen by Russia as an act of aggression, to which it will respond with more force. That act will then be seen by NATO as a call to escalate things further.
The former Defense Minister does admit that alternative media has been saying for a while that Kyiv’s efforts have come to a halt without additional support from NATO forces, as military funding and weapons can only go so far without additional troops to back them up.
Howarth suggests in his commentary that NATO cannot allow Russia to succeed in its invasion and takeover of Ukraine as it will then embolden Putin to attack other neighboring countries. While there is no solid evidence to support Howarth’s argument, it seems that NATO officials are working to gain favor with the public regarding inserting troops in Ukraine.
In essence, Howarth’s argument seems to be that the West will end up at war with Russia regardless of how fast or slow the West and NATO proceed, so NATO and its allies might as well rip off the proverbial band-aid and take the next big step that many fear will lead to a third World War.
Please Follow us on Gab, Minds, Telegram, Rumble, Gab TV, GETTR, Truth Social
In a move that is sure to further anger China, Taiwan's Defense Ministry announced on Wednesday that some of its military officers have been sent to Italy to attend a NATO war college.
According to Taiwanese air force officer Lt. Col. Wu Bong-yeng, he was sent in 2021 to the NATO Defense College in Rome for a 6-month course that he insisted was purely academic.
Wu added, "This was an academic exchange, not a military exchange. Of course, they were very curious about Taiwan." According to Wu, he studied the same academic curriculum as officers from NATO countries and the Taiwanese Defense Ministry confirmed that other officers attended the war college as well.
While Taiwan has a history of cooperating with the U.S., it is rare for the island nation to interact with other foreign militaries. The announcement of the war college activities comes after NATO announced in its updated 2022 Strategic Concept document that China poses "systematic challenges" to the military alliance.
It was first announced in 2020 that NATO was closely monitoring China and that the alliance would strengthen its Indo-Pacific partnerships with other nations. Since that announcement, Germany, Britain, and France have joined the U.S. in sending warships into waters near China.
While the U.S. and its allies have been working to increase relations with Taiwan in recent years, China views the measures as an assault on the one-China policy, which has resulted in increased Chinese military activity and shows of force in the waters and skies around Taiwan.
After an embarrassing incident in which all 18 of Germany’s Puma tanks failed a drill and were declared unfit for action in the NATO Rapid Reaction Force (NRF), German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said that the country will not be purchasing any more of the tanks until their reliability can be proven.
The failure of the Puma tanks is just one of several recent troubles plaguing the German military. Army Inspector General Alfons Mais said of the Pumas, “there was an unexpectedly high number of failures in the demanding exercise conditions. So far, the Puma combat vehicle has proven to be increasingly reliable in terms of operational readiness.”
The commander of the 10th Armored Division, General Ruprecht von Butler did not have such an optimistic outlook of the Pumas, saying, “Unfortunately, I have to express myself so harshly. It cannot be compared with the usual reliability of German ground vehicles.”
While the Puma tanks are known for their high-quality armor, they are notoriously unreliable. While the German military has been replacing its Marder tanks from the 1970s with the more modern Puma ground vehicles, the military has stopped purchasing Pumas due to the vehicle’s unreliability.
Lambrecht commented on the Pumas’ failures in recent military drills, saying, “The recent failures of the Puma infantry fighting vehicle are a major setback,” adding, “Our troops must be able to rely on weapon systems being robust and stable even in combat.”
Earlier this month a classified report was leaked revealing that the German military is underfunded, lacking resources, and is struggling to meet Germany’s NATO commitments.
Overnight into Tuesday a third airfield deep inside Russia came under attack, suffering a fire after an oil storage depot was bombarded by what the Kremlin described as a drone attack that was repelled after the initial blast. A large blaze raged throughout the night as emergency crews responded.
It came the day after two explosions rocked a pair of air bases even further inside Russian territory, which killed three military personnel in the Ryazan region, and Russian Engels-1 airbase in Saratov. Those incidents were also subsequently described by the defense ministry as the result of drone attacks.
The Russian city of Kursk, which lies closer to Ukraine than the other two sites of attack, had thick black smoke rising over its airfield in the early Tuesday hours. “Oil tankers at a base near the city of Kursk, around 60 miles from the border, were on fire and streaming smoke into the sky early Tuesday morning,” The Daily Mail writes based on regional sources…
To read more visit Zero Hedge.
