Tag: Ukraine

If you invade, don’t expect our people to make it easy for you. That was the message Lithuania sent to Russia Friday as it published a manual for its three million citizens on how to defend their homeland in the event of invasion. Since Russia annexed Crimea two years ago, Lithuanians have been on edge. […]

Russia is waging aggressive proxy wars in two theatres. It’s no doubt expensive, and they are the subject of ongoing sanctions. They’ve said “screw it” because they believe they’re facing a real threat. Russia feels as though the West is forcing their hand. They’re being pushed toward the brink of war and aren’t afraid to […]

Diplomatic talks with Russia are shutting down. Words and conversations do not matter and action remains the final negotiation. The goal on the battlefield will be to remove the Russian air threat, which is both a threat to our proxy elements and behind a humanitarian crisis. It’s been over two years since the Russian surface-to-air […]

An international criminal investigation into the shooting down of flight MH17 is likely to conclude that the plane was downed by a Buk missile fired from separatist-controlled territory in eastern Ukraine, diplomats say. The Dutch-led Joint Investigation Team (JIT) has been gathering evidence for a possible criminal trial and is due to present its findings on Wednesday. Dutch police […]

An Army Special Forces Officer, having been embedded with a Ukrainian infantry company only days earlier, arrives at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, to give a presentation to a conventional Army brigade preparing for a rotation to Europe. He lectures on the latest anti-tank tactics and counter-drone techniques being used against Russian […]

According to Dolan, “intercepts near Russian territory” are “expected” and “in a word – commonplace.” He adds “aggressive behavior by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy in the Strait of Hormuz” also “is nothing new.”

Some critics, however, blame the encounters on President Obama’s foreign policy weakness, both toward Iran, with the hammering out of the Iran nuclear deal, and toward Russia, with the administration’s measured response to the 2014 illegal annexation of Crimea.

Dolan thinks, however, there’s “strategic communications” in the incidents.

Russia’s new, asymmetric approach is perhaps best exemplified by its state-run nuclear contractor Rosatom’s strategy of creating security vulnerabilities in Europe. A recent report from a think tank in Finland – where Rosatom partly owns a nuclear power plant being built in Pyhajoki – suggested that the Kremlin is striking deals such as these to create dependencies in other countries. Separately, Lithuania has said it may file a lawsuit over the poor-quality construction of the Astravets nuclear power plant, which is being built by Rosatom in neighboring Belarus with no supervision and at a very low cost. Lithuanian officials are worried that Rosatom is using substandard Russian security systems that are likely much weaker than their Western equivalents – a state of affairs that analysts believe could pave the way for a nuclear disaster. Recent reports that at least ten workers died in mysterious circumstances while working at Astravets, and that a 330-ton reactor shell was dropped thus triggering an emergency situation, have hardly reassured Vilnius. Outside of Europe, Rosatom is also playing a very delicate role in Iran’s nuclear program, working on the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power plant while the Obama administration tries to preserve its controversial Iran nuclear deal.

As Americans, our reason for being, externally, is to spread the good news of our democratic revolution. In that, we are aligned with France and the West. There’s some wisdom in the ideas of Rand Paul and other isolationists, I think. But only in certain respects. I agree that regime change as a policy is […]

On Wednesday, the US Army announced the creation of the Rapid Capabilities Office to “expedite critical technologies to the field in an effort to counter urgent and emerging threats.” Essentially that means the Army now has an office with the authority to fast track technologies through the hulking, bloated, wasteful defense acquisition system that tried and failed three […]

They’re taking calculated risks and creating a global narrative. They’re shaping sentiment – and, in turn, exploiting it. It’s both impressive and worrisome for the West.

One of the funnier things I heard in Iraq while advising their counter-terror services and special operations forces – was when their commander lamented how difficult COIN was in comparison to tanks. He noted you could just plop tanks across from one another, and they go at it.

Russia is seeing their international plans come to fruition by employing a nuanced, yet bold approach to foreign policy — while the world watches.