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There was a striking lack of military hardware on display after major losses in Ukraine. VLADIMIR Putin has vowed Russia is "always" ready to strike the West and snubbed Britain in a snarling World War 2 rant at Russia's annual Victory Day parade. The Russian tyrant instead lavished praise on China and declared Russia was "combat ready" in these "difficult" times as nuclear missiles rumbled through Moscow's streets. -snip- However, today was a much pared-down parade indicating the strains of war. For the second year in a row, it featured just one measly tank - reportedly an 80-year-old T-34.

Russia said on Wednesday that sending NATO troops into Ukraine would potentially be extremely dangerous, and Moscow was closely watching a Ukrainian petition that called for such an intervention. The petition, posted on the Ukrainian president's website, says Ukraine should ask the United States, Britain and other countries to send troops to help it repel Russia's invasion. "We have repeatedly said that direct intervention on the ground in this conflict by the military of NATO countries potentially carries enormous danger, so we consider this an extremely challenging provocation, nothing less, and, of course, we are watching this very carefully."

Once again, Russian President Vladimir Putin is seemingly rattling the nuclear saber. But why now?The Kremlin, citing recent comments by Western leaders regarding the war in Ukraine, said Monday that it would soon carry out simulated use of battlefield, or tactical, nuclear weapons — marking the first time Moscow announced such an exercise.The announcement drew a sharp response. U.S. Defense Department spokesman Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder called it “entirely inappropriate.” NATO spokesperson Farah Dakhlallah termed Moscow’s plans “dangerous and irresponsible,” and the European Union called on Russia to “stop the escalation.”Like so many pronouncements from Moscow, this one’s timing might...

Russia plans to hold drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced Monday, days after the Kremlin reacted angrily to comments by senior Western officials about the war in Ukraine. The drills are in response to “provocative statements and threats of certain Western officials regarding the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry said in a statement. It was the first time that Russia has publicly announced drills involving tactical nuclear weapons, though its strategic nuclear forces regularly hold exercises. Tactical nuclear weapons have a lower yield compared to massive warheads that arm intercontinental ballistic missiles intended to...

'I am not ruling anything out,' Emmanuel Macron insisted in an interview published today, pressed on whether France would send troops to Ukraine in its hour of need. The remarks echo a new tone on Moscow in recent months, the French President reiterating pledges roundly rebuffed by his allies in the US, UK and Germany. Europe and the United States have now committed more than £130bn to Ukraine in aid but NATO members have stopped short of promising boots on the ground - with Putin still willing to exploit the threat of nuclear Armageddon when prompted. While Macron has argued...

This is the moment more than 100 Russian troops are believed to have been killed in an ATACMS tactical ballistic missile strike on occupied Luhansk. A military training ground was seen being hit by multiple explosions typical of an ATACMS strike in footage captured by a drone flying high above. The strike targeted a group of 100-plus soldiers who were seen in aerial images, say OSINT analysts in what would be the single largest loss of Russian stories in months. The ATACMS (Army Tactical Missile System) showered the troops with hundreds of M74 APAM mini-bombs which are carried by the...

"Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia's economic growth" Foucart said... Other areas of Russia's economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar. Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its...

Despite the time and political capital spent on the $60 billion aid for Ukraine, some Biden administration officials are skeptical it’s enough for Ukraine to win its two-year war with Russia. Battlefield dynamics have shifted a lot in the last few months, partly because Ukraine ran low on weaponry and ammunition while Congress debated authorizing more aid, according to three U.S. officials, all granted anonymity to detail sensitive internal thinking. During that period, Ukraine struggled to maintain eastern territory, though Russia didn’t make significant gains, either. Russia maintains a manpower and weapons advantage, and it would take a lot to...

President Joe Biden suggested war is peace on Wednesday after he signed legislation to provide Ukraine the funds to conduct a war against Russia. “It’s a good day for world peace,” Biden claimed about the war funds in the State Dining Room of the White House, echoing George Orwell’s novel “Nineteen Eighty-Four.” “It’s going to make America safer, it’s going to make the world safer, and it continues America’s leadership in the world, and everyone knows it,” Biden said of the funds. The Senate passed the foreign aid package on Wednesday. Just minutes after the vote, Biden signed the legislation...

Congress is facing the most significant and transformational opportunity to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) since the end of World War II. The heritage equipment that the United States has provided to Ukraine for its self-defense in the face of the brazen and illegal invasion by Russian forces in 2022 needs to be replenished to ensure the United States is postured to continue to deter its adversaries. The new hardware will be produced at factories across the nation. Of the $113 billion appropriated by Congress to date related to the conflict in Ukraine, as much as $68 billion...

A spending bill backed by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) includes hundreds of millions of dollars in American taxpayer money for border patrol agents in Ukraine as illegal immigration at the United States-Mexico border remains at record levels. The spending bill, which 151 House Republicans helped 165 House Democrats advance on Friday, would see more than $95 billion sent to foreign countries — including about $61 billion to Ukraine amid its ongoing war with Russia.

The House speaker’s comments wrecked one of the far right’s most ridiculous, reprehensible tropes.It was a remarkable moment: After introducing a package of bills that includes military aid to Ukraine, Mike Johnson flatly told reporters on Wednesday that enabling Ukraine to defend itself is in the best interests of America and the world. This surprised a lot of people who had wrongly assumed the House speaker was effectively functioning as a stooge for Vladimir Putin—and Donald Trump—and would thus slow-walk Ukraine aid to death before ever allowing a vote on it.Johnson’s new stance has attracted a good deal of positive...

House conservatives have stymied proposed supplemental funding packages for Ukraine since the fall. But their justifications for further delays in delivering military aid to Kyiv got little oxygen during an April 17 defense budget hearing before a key appropriations panel. “With Mr. Putin saying very openly and repeatedly that he wants to restore the old Soviet Union, all of the nation states, in Eastern Europe especially, are looking to us,” House Armed Services Committee Chair Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) said, referring to the Russian leader’s demands seeking no further NATO expansion, no missiles on Russia’s borders, and a return of...

Ukraine’s shortage of ammunition and military equipment resulting from the US and its allies’ struggle to resupply the country’s military is having an increasingly dire effect on the battlefield, US and NATO officials are warning, as Russia intensifies its attacks on Kyiv’s dwindling air defenses knowing that they likely won’t be replenished anytime soon. The Ukrainian military is “experiencing shortages in air defense munitions, mostly in the medium to long range,” a NATO official said on Wednesday. “It’s not just that we know that. It’s that Russia knows that. So Russia is using drones and missiles in ways that are...

The US seems to have backed off of the claim that they are going to invade Crimea. Apparently, there are new victory terms, but they are a secret. After the fake 2024 election, the government will claim it has a mandate to start World War III against Russia. This is probably something people should be preparing for. Fun fact: Trump says it’s not our problem and a border dispute in the former USSR doesn’t matter. In fact, we know it doesn’t matter, because another border dispute in the former USSR was solved last week in the most brutal and inhume...

Ukraine hailed a major development in the level of support it has received from NATO at the weekend as the donation of F-16s went from ‘one day’ to ‘this year’, but the nation has gone right from that news to urging for more nations to pledge their own stocks of jet fighters, too. Denmark and the Netherlands both committed to give Ukraine F-16 fighter jets from their arsenals over the weekend, with Copenhagen saying they would send 19 planes and six of them this year, and Amsterdam promising aircraft without putting a specific number or timeline on deliveries. The Ukrainians...

Military strategists and policymakers across the West are already starting to think about a 2024 spring offensive by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 13.When Kyiv’s counteroffensive began in the spring, optimists hoped Ukrainian troops could replicate their success last year in routing Russian forces. But an initial attempt to use newly supplied Western tanks and armored vehicles to punch through fortified Russian lines stalled, the WSJ said.Since then, progress has been slow and painful, relying on small-unit tactics. A renewed push could still be in the offing. But military leaders and policymakers already are...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday that he would be open to using drone strikes against Mexican drug cartels if he’s elected president. “We will absolutely reserve the right if they’re invading our country and killing our people,” DeSantis said when a voter asked whether he would be willing to use drones against the cartels. Asked later by NBC News to clarify, DeSantis said: “I said I would use whatever force we need to defend the country. “We’d be willing to lean in against them, and we reserve the right to defend our country,” he added. DeSantis has been leaning...

The decision to move forward with providing the tanks marks a reversal for the Biden administration, which had been resisting pressure from Germany to send them to Ukraine. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced that the United States is sending 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in its war against Russia. The U.S. will also provide the necessary training and supplies needed to operate and run these tanks, he said. NBC News reported the development Tuesday. The president said sending the tanks will "enhance Ukraine’s capacity to defend its territory and achieve its strategic objectives" because they are "the most capable...

President Joe Biden has approved another big spending package on arms for Ukraine, this one worth nearly $3 billion. He justified the expenditure with the usual lofty rhetoric: “Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere.” This, after toadying up to the criminally aggressive Saudi dictatorship. Kiev warrants support. But what is the administration’s strategy? To fuel the war as long as governments are willing to fight and people are willing to die? Ukraine...