Latest news with #RussianAggression
The Independent
a day ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Denmark now conscripting women into army in major shift
Denmark is set to make military service compulsory for women for the first time, a significant change in the nation's defence policy. The new rules, passed in June, will apply to Danish women turning 18, placing them on equal footing with men for a gender-neutral draft lottery. This initiative aims to boost the number of young people in the armed forces, with an expected increase to 6,500 annual conscripts by 2033, up from 4,700 last year. The policy is driven by the current security situation in Europe, including Russian aggression, and seeks to enhance Denmark's combat power and contribution to Nato. The duration of military service will also be extended from four to eleven months, with implementation brought forward to summer 2025.
CNN
2 days ago
- Politics
- CNN
Ukraine loses an F-16 pilot and his jet while fighting one of Russia's biggest ever aerial attacks
A Ukrainian pilot was killed and his F-16 fighter jet crashed as after Russia launched a huge aerial assault involving hundreds of drones and scores of missiles overnight, the Ukrainian military said on Sunday. The airman, named as 1st Class Lt. Col. Maksym Ustymenko by the Ukrainian air force, was the third F-16 pilot killed since the Ukrainians began flying the jets last summer, and his plane was the fourth F-16 Ukraine has lost since then. The air force said Ustymenko 'did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area, but he did not have time to eject.' Ustymenko's death is a major loss for Ukraine. Only a small number of the country's top pilots have been trained to fly F-16s, the most advanced of Ukraine's fighter jets. The training is highly specialized and takes months to complete. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ustymenko destroyed seven targets before being killed, praising him and the Ukrainian air force for 'heroically protecting' the country's skies. Zelensky said Moscow launched 477 drones and 60 missiles towards six different locations overnight into Sunday – one of Russia's largest ever aerial assaults in terms of weapons deployed, according to a CNN tally. Russia has ramped up its airborne attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks, launching hundreds of drones and missiles nearly every night. These assaults are not just bigger and more frequent; they are also more concentrated and executed in a way that makes them a lot more difficult to combat – as they are flown at higher altitudes, out of reach of machine guns. Zelensky said on Sunday that more than 114 missiles, over 1,270 drones, and nearly 1,100 glide bombs were launched by Russia against Ukraine just this week. The Ukrainian leader pleaded with Kyiv's Western allies to provide more aerial defenses for his country, saying Russia will continue to attack Ukraine for as long as it can. 'This war must be brought to an end — pressure on the aggressor is needed, and so is protection. Protection from ballistic and other missiles, from drones, and from terror,' Zelensky said. He added that Ukraine was ready to buy 'American systems' to strengthen its air defenses – a clear call to US President Donald Trump and his administration to allow Ukraine to purchase the Patriot air defense systems. The Patriots are widely considered to be among the best air defense systems. While there are other systems manufactured by some of Ukraine's other allies, none can match the Patriots when it comes to protection against advanced hypersonic and ballistic missiles. Ukraine is known to have roughly half a dozen of the US-made Patriot air defense systems, although the exact numbers and their locations are closely guarded secrets. The Patriots play a crucial role in Ukraine's air defense, protecting millions of civilians from Russian missiles. But Kyiv is at risk of running out of missiles for these systems, as Trump continues to threaten withdrawing US aid from Ukraine. The Ukrainian air force said Sunday it had downed 211 drones and 38 missiles launched by Moscow overnight. Russian strikes were recorded in six locations with debris reported across eight locations, it added. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed the strikes targeted Ukraine's 'military-industrial complex facilities and oil refineries,' but the Ukrainians said civilian infrastructure objects were hit. At least 11 people were injured, including two children, in a Russian attack in the city of Smila, in the central region of Cherkasy, local officials said in an update on Sunday. Three nine-story buildings, private houses, and cars were significantly damaged in the shelling, as well as four educational institutions and a psychiatric hospital, Ihor Taburets, head of Cherkasy regional military administration, said.
NHK
6 days ago
- Politics
- NHK
UK to buy nuclear-carrying F-35A fighter jets
The British Royal Air Force will soon carry nuclear bombs again as the government plans to buy a dozen US-made F-35A fighter jets capable of holding them. Prime Minister Keir Starmer unveiled the plan on Wednesday at the NATO summit in the Netherlands, calling it "the biggest strengthening of the UK's nuclear posture in a generation." The British leader said "With this announcement, we're going further in response to growing nuclear threat. It marks the return of the RAF to nuclear deterrence for the first time in three decades." Starmer also stressed his country's "unshakable" commitment to the alliance. He said his country will join NATO's shared airborne nuclear mission, which involves allied aircraft in Europe being equipped with nuclear bombs. Seven other countries are part of it, including the US, Germany and Italy. The UK's nuclear arsenal includes submarine-based missiles. But it phased out air-dropped nuclear weapons after the end of the Cold War. The purchase is in line with the government's new national security strategy that it released on Tuesday. In the document, Starmer warned that the British people are facing an "era of radical uncertainty," and he pointed to threats such as Russian aggression and extremist ideologies. The government said it must prepare for the country "coming under direct threat, potentially in a wartime scenario."
New York Times
19-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
This Oregon Native Went to Kyiv as a Volunteer. He Died in a Russian Attack.
Fred Grandy, an American artist who made whimsical wooden signs and colorful metal flowers, came to Kyiv because he was devastated that the United States seemed to be turning its back on the war in Ukraine. He arrived in the Ukrainian capital in late May, close to his 62nd birthday, and volunteered to clean up the rubble left by Russian attacks, family members said. 'He was a person who wanted to make a difference so badly,' said his sister Sietska Reed, 75, who lives near Bend, Ore. 'I talked to him about five days ago, and he told me that he felt he was right where he should be. And he was hoping he could stay for five or six months more and help.' Instead, Mr. Grandy was one of at least 28 people killed in a large-scale Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv that started Monday night and stretched into Tuesday, hitting neighborhoods across the Ukrainian capital. The nine-hour onslaught was one of the largest such attacks of the war. Emergency workers were still pulling bodies from the rubble on Wednesday, and damage was reported at more than two dozen sites. Most victims died in a nine-story apartment building in western Kyiv that was practically leveled. The Russian Defense Ministry, which regularly denies killing Ukrainian civilians, said the strikes achieved their objectives and hit 'all designated objects.' Russian air assaults have intensified in recent weeks, dimming already faint hopes for a cease-fire. Over 13,300 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the United Nations, although the actual toll is likely much higher. But it is rare for a foreign civilian to be killed in a missile or drone attack. Mr. Grandy appears to be the first American civilian killed in an aerial strike in Kyiv. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Telegraph
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
We must listen to the Baltic States. The Russian hybrid threat is growing
During his visit to London last week, Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte issued this dire warning about the threat of Russian aggression: 'Russia could be ready to use military force against Nato within five years. Let's not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.' Rutte warned that Russia produces more ammunition in three months than Nato manufactures in a year and spotlit Chinese technology's critical role in reconstituting Russia's military arsenal. Rutte's stark warning aimed to snap European countries out of their state of complacency but received a mixed reception on the continent. As Russia helplessly watched the destruction of some of its most-prized strategic bombers and struggles to gain a decisive offensive advantage in eastern Ukraine, Rutte's framing seemed hyperbolic to many in Western Europe. For the Baltic States, however, Rutte's rhetoric was not nearly strident enough. Due to his past support for the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline and sluggish approach to increasing defence spending as Dutch Prime Minister, Rutte was already an unpopular figure in the Baltic States. Rutte's latest comments reawakened those critiques as they depicted Russia as a long-term danger rather than an urgent threat to Nato's security. The Baltic States have compelling reasons to be frustrated with Rutte's incrementalism. By illegally transiting its shadow fleet of oil tankers through the Baltic Sea, weaponising migration across land borders and carrying out disruptive cyberattacks, Russia has demonstrated that it is on a war footing with the Baltic States. By dismissing these aggressive actions as mere hybrid threats, Nato risks trivialising an existential threat to the cogency of its alliance. The mood of frustration in the Baltic States is especially pronounced because of the long build-up to Russia's current escalations against them. When I spoke to senior Estonian officials last month, they argued that Russia never truly viewed the Baltic States as sovereign after they restored their independence in 1991. As Estonia pushed for Nato membership during the 1990s, Russian ultranationalists began issuing apocalyptic threats. After earning a plurality of votes in the 1993 legislative elections, LDPR leader and ultranationalist firebrand Vladimir Zhirinovsky warned Estonians to flee to Sweden on fishing boats and threatened to deport the Estonians who stayed home to Siberia. But instead of being recognised for presciently warning about the Russian threat, the Baltic States were all-too-often accused of crying wolf. Even after Russia displayed its true hand by illegally annexing Crimea in 2014 and launching a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Baltic States still struggled to get their message heard. In response to tightening sanctions against Belarus, President Alexander Lukashenko warned in May 2021 that he would allow drugs and migrants to flood into European Union (EU) territory. Lukashenko's threats came to pass as illegal migrants overwhelmed Latvia and Lithuania's border defences in the autumn of 2021. Despite the scale of this threat, the EU refused to finance the construction of a border wall on Lithuania's frontiers. In response to the unresponsiveness of key Nato countries to their concerns, the Baltic States have taken matters into their own hands. From announcing 5 per cent of GDP defence spending targets to Lithuania's investment of $1.2 billion in border security with Belarus and Russia, three of Nato's smallest member states are setting a positive example for the rest of the alliance. These states are also trying to steer Nato towards committing to a firmer response to security threats that fall below the threshold of conventional war. Their argument is that Russia's hybrid threats are steps on an escalation ladder that could lead to full-scale war. Lithuanian officials justified this contention by arguing that shadow-fleet ships could escalate from cutting undersea cables to destroying liquefied natural gas terminals and use disruptive GPS jamming to down civilian aeroplanes. Based on its track record, Russia would maintain a level of deniability around these aggressive actions and any Baltic retaliation could lead to an invasion. As Nato's Article 5 security guarantees do not clearly extend to hybrid threats, former Estonian president Toomas Hendrik Ilves and former Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis recently called for the creation of a new permanent discussion forum on hybrid threats and the potential construction of a Baltic regional security organisation with robust military capabilities. In the European Parliament and Nato gatherings, Baltic officials are calling for European countries to re-evaluate their risk aversion in confronting Russian aggression head-on and to more thoroughly sanction the financial infrastructure that supports the shadow fleet. The efficacy of Ukraine's cross-border operations and the limitations of Russia's retaliatory capacity has caused some Baltic officials to view an exclusive focus on deterrence as obsolete. Ahead of the Nato summit in the Hague later this month, there will be a major focus on Ukraine's future within the organisation. Time should also be devoted to addressing the concerns of the Nato alliance's three most vulnerable and committed participants.
