“Ukraine – Russia”

RUSSIAN and Ukrainian aircraft have adopted an unusual tactic for firing unguided rockets. Rather than launch them in pairs directly at a target on a downward angle, pilots tend to fly low before climbing and firing an entire pod of rockets steeply upwards, after which the pilot veers away. This clumsy approach, known as “lofting” or “tossing”, has some advantages, but points to a lack of modern weaponry on both sides.

The technique was originally developed by the American armed forces in the 1940s. To deliver an atomic bomb without having to fly directly over its target, aircraft would make a steep climb before releasing a bomb on an upwards trajectory. The plane would then break off sharply while the bomb continued, achieving the maximum range without catching the aircraft in the blast.

I think we’ve priced ourselves back to the future.

It could expand the war yet Congress has had no say

Over the last four months, the Biden administration has assured us that it is only sending “defensive weapons” to Ukraine. It’s a claim that’s become more difficult to believe as more sophisticated systems are announced seemingly every week that do not require further congressional approval.

Take the most recent example. The White House announced a fresh $1 billion last week for 18 more Howitzers, more long-range missiles for the HIMARS rocket systems announced earlier this month, and a new weapon, Harpoon anti-ship missiles. These are systems that can strike at the more than 20 Russian naval vessels accused of blockading Ukraine’s eastern ports.

It would be a mistake for U.S. policymakers to assume that European allies will continue to view it as in their best interests to follow Washington’s lead.

U.S. policymakers often point to the Western sanctions levied on Russia as evidence of a unified international response to the war in Ukraine. For example, when asked by a reporter last week about whether French president Emmanuel Macron’s peace overtures raised concerns that transatlantic unity could hold up “under pressure,” U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Michael Carpenter responded by pointing to the European Union’s (EU) six sanctions packages as evidence that there is “tremendous unity” with only “occasional differences on tactics.”

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — As was his habit before each flight, the veteran Ukrainian army pilot ran a hand along the fuselage of his Mi-8 helicopter, caressing the heavy transporter’s metal skin to bring luck to him and his crew.

They would need it. Their destination — a besieged steel mill in the brutalized city of Mariupol — was a death trap. Some other crews didn’t make it back alive.

Still, the mission was vital, even desperate. Ukrainian troops were pinned down, their supplies running low, their dead and injured stacking up. Their last-ditch stand at the Azovstal mill was a growing symbol of Ukraine’s defiance in the war against Russia. They could not be allowed to perish.

Ukraine detains senior public figures suspected of spying for Russia

KYIV, June 21 (Reuters) – Ukraine has detained a senior government official and a business leader suspected of being part of an alleged Russian spy network, the Security Service of Ukraine said on Tuesday.

The Security Service (SBU) did not name the two suspects but identified them as a senior official in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers and a department head at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a business lobby.

Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov published a documentary about the most riskiest and complicated mission of the whole war in Ukraine – delivery of supplies, weapons and troops into besieged Mariupol via helicopters. pic.twitter.com/UGNneXxGI2

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 20, 2022

Here is the link to the full documentary which we really recommend watching to better understand one of the most intrepid operations of this war so far.https://t.co/sErCKbz1sV

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 20, 2022

Palaces, yachts and vineyards reportedly provided to Vladimir Putin by friends and oligarchs can now be linked to what appears to be an informal network holding assets worth more than $4.5bn (£3.7bn).

A digital paper trail appears to suggest that an array of holiday homes and other assets reportedly used by the Russian president, which according to available records belong to or have been owned by separate individuals, companies and charities, are linked through a common email domain name, LLCInvest.ru.

Please, they say, forget the past. We didn’t really mean all those nasty comments against the Jewish State.

The joke used to be…why did the Almighty give the Jews a Land flowing with milk and honey? Why not gas and oil?

To the astonishment of nearly everyone over a period of some 2,000 years, turns out He did! Let there be gas, He said, and there was gas.

But not so fast. First, people had to believe that this Good Earth could deliver petroleum. There was no history of this for a Land thought to be fuel dry since Creation.

Nearly four months into the invasion of Ukraine, the Russian army is reportedly in rough shape. They have been sustaining withering losses on the battlefield and the military is struggling to find replacements for losses that now number in the tens of thousands. Vladimir Putin has been offering all sorts of incentives to get more people into uniform, but they are still operating under “peacetime” military rules and it hasn’t proven easy.

Five days into the war, a Russian platoon commander and his unit arrived in Motyzhyn, just off the main highway linking western Ukraine to Kyiv. They hid tanks and artillery among the trees, excavated foxholes and commandeered the nearest houses. One became the officers’ quarters, a second a base for jailing, torturing and murdering civilians.

The commander – Oleg Krikunov, 33 – was better known to his troops and victims by the nom de guerre Kaluga. The horrors he allegedly perpetrated and presided over for a month in one small village in Ukraine have been catalogued by officials investigating atrocities carried out by Moscow’s troops, who have designated him a high priority on their list of wanted soldiers.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has predicted Russia will intensify its attacks this week, warning European partners that they too should be prepared for an increase in hostilities as Kyiv awaits a decision on its bid to join the EU.

The caution follows a European Commission recommendation to grant Kyiv candidate status to join – a diplomatic blow to Moscow.

“Tomorrow a historic week begins,” Zelenskiy said in a video address on Sunday night, adding: “There have been few such fateful decisions for Ukraine.

#Ukraine: The Ukrainian National Guard spotted 4x Russian MT-LB armoured vehicles, and passed the location to Ukrainian Army artillery; as a result 1 was damaged and 3 were destroyed. pic.twitter.com/76ulwdgOI2

— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) June 19, 2022

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will meet with Canadian Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland in Toronto on Monday where they will discuss the Ukraine war and joint efforts to deal with the food and fuel price inflation it is causing.

The Treasury said that Yellen during the visit will highlight strong economic ties between the two North American allies, visiting a business incubator and participating in a public forum at the University of Toronto.

Germany must limit its use of gas for electricity production and prioritize the filling of storage facilities to compensate for a drop in supply from Russia, Economy Minister Robert Habeck said on Sunday.

In a move that goes against the principles of his environmentally-friendly Green Party, the country will also have to increase the burning of coal, Habeck said.

Russian gas company Gazprom announced last week that it was reducing supplies through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for technical reasons, saying there had been delays in the repair of compressor turbines by the German company Siemens Energy.

The nuclear bluster and threats from many of those connected to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have, at times, been bone-chilling.

“The horsemen of the apocalypse” are on their way, Dmitry Medvedev warned this past week. The former Russian president, whom many European countries once considered to be relatively friendly to the West, had days earlier condemned the leaders of those same countries, vowing to “do everything to make them disappear.”

But as President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine reaches the four-month mark, there have also been notable shifts in how both sides may be assessing the so-called nuclear “red lines.”