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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...

A senior Ukrainian intelligence official warned about the threat Moscow poses on other nations in Europe, saying "the Russians will take the Baltics in seven days" if allies don't stand up to Russia now. The comment was made by Major-General Vadym Skibitsky, the deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence directorate (GUR), during an interview with The Economist published on Thursday. The alarm has been sounded before about the potential of Russian President Vladimir Putin looking to start conflicts in the Baltic states. Earlier this year, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote that the Russian leader appeared 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...

Just as Russia had started to bring back some refinery capacity damaged by Ukrainian drone attacks earlier this year, a new wave of drone attacks hit a major refinery owned by Rosneft, for a second time.Rosneft’s Ryazan refinery southeast of Moscow caught fire after the overnight drone attack, an anonymous Ukrainian military source with knowledge of the situation told Bloomberg News on Wednesday.The refinery in the region of Ryazan, whose main city of the same name is some 120 miles southeast of Moscow, was first attacked by drones in the middle of March. The first attack also led to a...

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...

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...

Russia destroyed the largest power-generating plant in Ukraine’s Kyiv region in a missile attack on Thursday, as President Volodomyr Zelensky accused the West of “turning a blind eye” to his country’s need for more air defenses. Ukraine’s Air Force said it shot down 18 of the incoming missiles and 39 of the drones. Russia fired 82 missiles and drones in total, including six hypersonic Kinzhal missiles – none of which Ukraine’s air defenses were able to down.

Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation", the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday. NATO's successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the alliance from coming closer to Russia's borders. Instead, the war has galvanised NATO, which has expanded again with the entry of Finland and Sweden. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "In fact, relations have now slipped to the level of direct confrontation." NATO was "already involved in the conflict surrounding...

French President Emmanuel Macron's push to deploy troops to Ukraine could yet prove the first domino of an official NATO military presence in the war-torn country, even while Russia's grinding frontline assaults and nationwide bombing campaign continue. The French leader said in late February that "nothing was excluded" with regard to officially putting NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine, though his American and German allies were quick to explicitly, and repeatedly, exclude that possibility. Macron has subsequently maintained his position, even garnering backing from eastern NATO states. This week, the commander of the French ground forces said his troops...

Vladimir Putin has said that Russian forces will destroy any F-16s delivered to Ukraine from its NATO allies "wherever they are," while at the same time insisting that Moscow had no intention of attacking any country in the alliance. During a visit to the 344th Army Aviation Centre where combat pilots are trained, in Torzhok, 160 miles northwest of Moscow, Putin was asked if Russian pilots would be "allowed to hit these targets at NATO airfields." Putin replied: "Of course, if they are used from airfields of third countries, they become a legitimate target for us, no matter where they...

Enormous infernos ripped through the night sky in the occupied port city of Sevastopol. And as dawn broke this morning, Ukrainian forces announced they had hit two large Russian warships- Yamal and Azov. Both damaged vessels are Ropucha-class landing ships, 370ft long, 4,000 ton behemoths designed for D-Day-style amphibious assaults. Ukraine has attacked this type of ship before - sinking sister ships Tsezar Kunikov and Novocherkassk. Kyiv is reported to have used British Storm Shadow missiles in the strike - 600mph long-range weapons which have proved effective against the Russians. Putin's crony in Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhaev, was forced to admit...

-snip- Turning to the announcement of a number of Western embassies in Russia about a terrorist threat alert, Putin called them "frankly provocative." "All this resembles outright blackmail and the intention to intimidate and destabilize our society," he said. Head of the Central Election Commission Elle Pamfilova said on Monday that the terrorist threat alert was meant to decrease voter turnout in the 2024 presidential election.

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