It feels like I’m watching a scene from a James Bond film.
Somewhere near Moscow, Russia’s president is up on stage being quizzed about the Apocalypse. The moderator reminds Putin he had once predicted that, after a nuclear war, Russians would go to heaven.
“We’re in no rush to get there, are we?” the moderator enquires hopefully.
There’s a long, uncomfortable pause. Seven seconds of silence.
“Your silence is worrying me,” the moderator says.
“It was meant to,” replies Putin with a chuckle.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is warning of “tougher, rough years ahead,” for his country and Europe. In his address Friday dubbed a “state of the nation” speech, the German president said the war in Ukraine has led to “the deepest crisis” in a reunified Germany, citing an energy crunch, the soaring cost of living, and increasing poverty rates.
“This crisis demands that we learn to be modest again,” Steinmeier said during the speech at his official residence, Bellevue Palace, in Berlin. He pledged Germany’s commitment to support Ukraine and its partnership with NATO and EU allies.
Russia could start conscripting women to join the war against Ukraine as part of ongoing mobilization efforts, according to a former commander-in-chief of the Russian Ground Forces.
Army General Vladimir Boldyrev, who led the Russian ground forces from 2008 to 2010, made the remarks on October 21 in response to a politician’s calls for military service to be extended to women.
#Ukraine: Two Russian 2S19M2 Msta-SM2 152mm self-propelled howitzers were destroyed and another one was captured in damaged condition by the Ukrainian army in #Kharkiv Oblast. pic.twitter.com/h8Vrt5v5fn
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 28, 2022
Following concerns in Congress and accusations by Russia about weapons smuggling, the Biden administration released its blueprint on Thursday for ensuring that the $17 billion in arms it has so far sent to Ukraine were making it to the battlefield — and not the black market.
Officials said many aspects of the plans, which were put in place over the summer, were classified and could not be publicly revealed without risking the steps necessary to tracking weapons that the West has delivered to Ukraine since Russia invaded in February.
A five-page document broadly outlining the program described providing additional support to Ukraine’s own efforts to account for the weapons, as Kyiv has pledged to do, including training for border guards and stricter monitoring of arms and ammunition.
#Ukraine: Ukrainian Artillery fire destroyed a Russian IFV (Possibly a BMD-2) after it was spotted by a drone. pic.twitter.com/iIeut1KXsk
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 27, 2022
Multiple acts of sabotage have taken place on key infrastructure
Over the last month, a wave of mysterious hybrid attacks have taken place across Europe. It is not clear whether these incidents are related, but the frequency with which they’ve occurred is notable. All have taken place since the Nord Stream pipeline attacks at the end of September, marking Russia out as a suspect — but there is almost no proof either way.
Russia, angry about Ukraine’s sophisticated ability to communicate in real time on the battlefield, appears willing to risk a ruinous war in outer space to stop it.
Elon Musk donated 20,000 Starlink satellites to Ukraine at an estimated cost of $100 million. The Starlink system, which offers high-speed broadband internet service anywhere in the world, has proven to be a valuable tool for the Ukraine army in the war. Easy to use, secure, and portable, Starlink has leveled the playing field with Russia in many respects.
OTTAWA — The more than 1,200 individuals sanctioned by the Liberal government in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are not automatically banned from entering Canada, the National Post has learned.
“The sanctions applied to date in response to the situation in Ukraine do not presently trigger inadmissibility” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, the Canada Border Services Agency confirmed.
They’re workin on it.
Sweden’s Armed Forces said on Wednesday it had begun new inspections in the Baltic Sea at the sites of suspected explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines last month.
“The Swedish Armed Forces are this week carrying out complementary seabed surveys at the gas leaks with minesweepers,” the armed forces said on Twitter. “The investigation is done at our own initiative and is not part of the police investigation.”
Military officials did not want to be drawn into what sparked the new probe. “I can’t comment on what we are looking for, why we are there; but we had the need to come back to do an additional search,” a spokesperson for the military said.
Alleged recordings of the head of a major Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer accused of aiding the Russian military – saying he “completely understands” why a Russian missile was fired at his factory – have been released by Kyiv’s security services after his arrest at the weekend.
Vyacheslav Boguslaev, the president of Motor Sich, has been charged with treason after a raid at the weekend on his home in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The manufacturing heavyweight is suspected of selling engines – before and after the invasion – for Russian attack helicopters that have been used extensively against Ukrainian troops.
Germany has called for a “new Marshall Plan” to rebuild Ukraine even as Russian forces continue to bombard a blacked-out Kyiv with cruise missiles and Iranian-made drones.
Tomorrow Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, hosts a meeting of international aid organisations and experts on the “recovery, reconstruction and modernisation of Ukraine”.
The Ukrainian government has complained that the European Union has so far paid up “zero” in financial aid that was already promised.
#Ukraine: A Russian T-62M tank was destroyed by a Ukrainian Artillery strike in #Kherson Oblast. pic.twitter.com/93Cfmi9nlW
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 24, 2022
Ukraine’s military spy chief has said that invading forces are intent on drawing the local army into urban combat in the city
Russia’s army has not abandoned Kherson city and is instead reinforcing it ahead of a major battle, Ukraine’s military spy chief has said.
Major-General Kyrylo Budanov told the Ukrainska Pravda newspaper that Russian forces wanted to draw Ukraine’s army into urban combat in the south Ukrainian city.
“They are not leaving right now. They are preparing to defend,” he said. “They are creating the illusion that all is lost. Yet at the same time, they are moving new military units in.”
#Ukraine: A Ukrainian Sisu XA-185 amphibious armored personnel carrier (donated by Finland) and a previously captured BMP-3 IFV were destroyed by Russian anti-tank mines and direct fire in the vicinity of Opytne, #Donetsk Oblast. pic.twitter.com/29Sja4CSsw
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) October 24, 2022
Nato’s secretary general has warned Russia over its “false” claim that Kyiv might use a “dirty bomb” – conventional explosives laced with radioactive material.
Jens Stoltenberg tweeted that the Nato allies “reject this allegation” and “Russia must not use it as a pretext for escalation”.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu made the dirty bomb remarks in a call with his UK counterpart Ben Wallace.
Ukraine also condemned the remarks.
In his daily video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Moscow’s claims that Ukraine was preparing provocations with the use of a “dirty bomb”, as suggested by Russia’s defense minister during telephone calls with NATO counterparts.
“If Russia calls and says that Ukraine is allegedly preparing something, it means one thing: Russia has already prepared all this. I believe that now the world should react as harshly as possible,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president also said that only Russia was capable of using nuclear weapons in Europe.
This ominous throwback to the Stalin era is not getting the attention in the West that it should.
Russian President Vladimir Putin first took power in 2000. He succeeded Boris Yeltsin in Russia’s first peaceful transition of power from one democratically elected leader to the next — ever. It was a historic moment for Russia.
Putin, however, had decidedly undemocratic ambitions. He was restricted by the Russian Constitution to two terms in power at the most — that is, two elected four-year terms, if chosen by voters. This meant that Putin’s run would have ended in 2008. Quite the contrary, Putin ever since has done everything from unilaterally reconfiguring the Russian Constitution to manipulating elections to bully, coerce, and at times kill dissenting voices. With his many dark maneuvers, Putin has crafted for himself a hold on power that now extends to the year 2036, assuming he lives that long. If he does live that long, he’ll find a way to seize more power for yet more years to come.
Nato planners have always worried about the Storskog border crossing in Finnmark, where Arctic Norway comes face to face with the cold reality of Russia. In Soviet times, the 121-mile frontier was a potential flashpoint. The Red Banner Northern Fleet’s nuclear-armed submarines are still based at nearby Murmansk, on the freezing Barents Sea.
Reasons to worry afresh about the border are multiplying following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. Norwegian police recently arrested several Russians, equipped with drones and cameras, who were showing unusual interest in oil and gas installations. Some of the suspected spies entered via Storskog.
Since Russia cut energy supplies to Europe in retaliation for western sanctions – and following last month’s sabotage of the Nord Stream Baltic pipelines – Norway has become Europe’s biggest gas supplier. And while the Oslo government is not directly accusing Moscow, it knows that makes it a prime target for covert hybrid warfare operations.
