BERLIN (Reuters) -Russia must never come to the assumption that it can win a war against NATO or one of the alliance’s members, Germany’s Chief of Defence Carsten Breuer warned in a speech to the country’s top military brass in Berlin on Friday.
“We need to look into the lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, adapt them for ourselves and develop our own concepts and structures accordingly because the war in Ukraine is our teacher,” Breuer said, adding that Moscow expected a quick win when it invaded its neighbour in 2022.
“We must prevent Russia from another miscalculation like this. Russia must never come to the assumption that it can win a war against NATO or a single NATO country.”
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold, Editing by Miranda Murray)
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Belgium’s Liege airport temporarily halted flights due to drone sighting, the second such incident this week, national news agency Belga said on Friday citing the skeyes air traffic control service.
Drones spotted flying over airports in the capital Brussels and in Liege, in the country’s east, forced on Tuesday the diversion of many incoming planes and the grounding of some due to depart.
Sightings of drones over airports and military bases have become a constant in Belgium in recent days, and have caused major disruptions across Europe in recent months.
They have forced temporary closures of airports in several countries including Sweden on Thursday. Some officials have blamed the incidents on “hybrid warfare” by Russia. Moscow has denied any connection with the incidents.
The Belgian government called an emergency meeting of key government ministers and security chiefs on Thursday to address what the defence minister called a coordinated attack
(Reporting by Alessandro Parodi, editing by Benoit Van Overstraeten)
MILAN (Reuters) -A Ukrainian man suspected of coordinating the 2022 sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines has begun a hunger strike, demanding respect for his fundamental rights in prison, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
An Italian appeals court in Bologna last month ordered that the suspect, identified only as Serhii K. under German privacy laws, should be transferred to Germany, confirming a previous ruling that it had issued last month.
However, the former Ukrainian officer is currently held in an Italian high-security prison pending a further hearing at the Court of Cassation, the top court, which is expected to take place within about a month.
“Since October 31, SK has been refusing food to demand respect for his fundamental rights,” his lawyer Nicola Canestrini said in a statement.
The Ukrainian is demanding adequate nutrition, a healthy environment, dignified detention conditions and “equal treatment with other inmates regarding family visits and access to information,”, Canestrini added.
The lawyer called for urgent intervention by the prison administration and the Italian Ministry of Justice “to ensure conditions consistent with constitutional and international standards”.
The justice ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Serhii K was arrested in August near the Italian town of Rimini on a European investigation and arrest warrant issued by Germany in connection with the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
In a hearing in September, Canestrini said his client denied any involvement in the attacks.
The explosions largely severed Russian gas supplies to Europe, prompting a major escalation in the Ukraine conflict and squeezing energy supplies on the continent. No one has taken responsibility for the blasts and Ukraine has denied any role.
(Reporting by Emilio Parodi. Writing by Cristina Carlevaro. Editing by Mark Potter)
VILNIUS (Reuters) -Lithuania is in talks with German defence conglomerate Rheinmetall for a second investment project, a Lithuanian presidential advisor said on Tuesday.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas, writing by Louise Breusch Rasmussen, editing by Terje Solsvik)
Walter Russell Mead is the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at Hudson Institute, the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and the Alexander Hamilton Professor of Strategy and Statecraft with the Hamilton Center for Classical and Civic Education at the University of Florida.
He is also a member of Aspen Institute Italy and board member of Aspenia. Before joining Hudson, Mr. Mead was a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations as the Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy. He has authored numerous books, including the widely-recognized Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World (Alfred A. Knopf, 2004). Mr. Mead’s most recent book is entitled The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that, for now, he is not considering a deal that would allow Ukraine to obtain long-range Tomahawk missiles for use against Russia.
Trump has been cool to a plan for the United States to sell Tomahawks to NATO nations that would transfer them to Ukraine, saying he does not want to escalate the war.
His latest comments to reporters aboard Air Force One indicate that he remains reluctant.
“No, not really,” Trump told reporters as he flew to Washington from Palm Beach, Florida, when asked whether he was considering a deal to sell the missiles. He added, however, that he could change his mind.
Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte discussed the Tomahawk idea when they met at the White House on October 22. Rutte said on Friday that the issue was under review and that it was up to the United States to decide.
Tomahawk missiles have a range of 2,500 km (1,550 miles), long enough to strike deep inside Russia, including Moscow.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has requested the missiles, but the Kremlin has warned against any provision of Tomahawks to Ukraine.
(Reporting by Steve Holland, Jasper Ward and Alexandra Alper; Editing by Edmund Klamann, Sergio Non and Michael Perry)
(Reuters) -Russia’s foreign ministry denounced on Saturday “excessive military force” by the United States in the Caribbean Sea deployed as part of a drive against drug trafficking and reaffirmed its support for Venezuela’s leaders.
“We firmly denounce the use of excessive military force in carrying out actions in anti-drugs operations,” foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on her ministry’s website.
“Such actions are in violation of both U.S. domestic legislation … and the norms of international law.”
A U.S. campaign in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific against what Washington says is the illegal drug trade has targeted at least 14 boats and killed 61 people.
The United States has built up a large military presence in the Caribbean in recent months, with fighter jets, warships and thousands of troops.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has occupied large swaths of territory, drawing broad international condemnation.
In her comments, Zakharova said Russia “confirms our firm support for the Venezuelan leadership in defending its national sovereignty.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro signed a strategic partnership agreement in Moscow in May.
Maduro has repeatedly alleged that the United States is hoping to drive him from power.
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s defence minister is confident its fractious ruling coalition can agree on a new model of military service in time for it to come into effect next year as planned, given security concerns over Russia, he told Reuters on Saturday.
The cabinet has already agreed to minister Boris Pistorius’ proposal for a new voluntary military service to help boost the number of recruits and reservists.
The plan still requires approval by German parliament, however, and it has met with resistance from lawmakers within Pistorius’ own party, the Social Democrats, and some of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservatives.
“Everyone is aware of the seriousness of the situation,” Pistorius said. “I am therefore confident that the law will come into force at the beginning of the year.”
MORE TROOPS TO MEET NATO TARGETS, BOLSTER DEFENCES
Pistorius last month rejected one compromise, which had put forward the idea of a conscription lottery for young men if voluntary recruitment falls short. That proposal also called for scrapping a universal medical evaluation of young men’s ability for service.
But the arbitrary nature of a lottery could frustrate younger generations, he said, and result in recruiting candidates who were not motivated.
“We must convince the younger generation with arguments instead of frustrating them,” Pistorius said. “We must make it clear to them that it is worthwhile to have a strong army that is a deterrent to states like Russia.”
Universal medical examinations, meanwhile, were necessary, he said, so that, in the event of an attack, Germany would not waste time determining “who is operationally capable as a homeland protector and who is not”.
Germany ended its previous compulsory military service programme in 2011 and has since struggled to meet troop targets.
Pistorius wants to increase the number of active soldiers from 180,000 currently to 260,000 by the early 2030s to meet new NATO force targets and strengthen Germany’s defences – part of a planned surge in military spending.
‘KAMIKAZE DRONES’: CRUCIAL TECH ON UKRAINE’S BATTLEFIELDS
Separately, Pistorius said Germany aims to finish testing the loitering munitions – so-called “kamikaze” single-use drones – of three companies by the end of this year before choosing one and submitting an order proposal to parliament.
The procurement of loitering munitions has been controversial in Germany, with some politicians associating the weapons with targeted extrajudicial killings by U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
But the army is now rushing to catch up and arm itself with the technology, which has proven crucial in the war in Ukraine and is being used by both Russian and Ukrainian forces.
“At present, three companies are participating in this testing phase,” Pistorius told Reuters. “It will last until the end of the year.”
The Financial Times reported earlier this week that Germany planned to award a contract for kamikaze drones to defence start-ups Helsing and Stark as well as defence giant Rheinmetall. They would each receive a share of the contract, worth close to 300 million euros ($350 million) each, it said.
Pistorius, however, said no agreement had been reached yet.
(Reporting by Sabine Siebold; Writing by Sarah Marsh; Editing by Joe Bavier)
Ukrainian forces hit an important fuel pipeline in the Moscow region that supplies the Russian army, Ukraine’s military intelligence said Saturday, as Russia kept up a sustained campaign of massive drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
The operation was carried out late Friday, according to a statement on the Telegram messaging channel. The agency, which is known by its acronym HUR, described it as a “serious blow” to Russia’s military logistics.
HUR said its forces struck the Koltsevoy pipeline, which spans 250 miles and supplies the Russian army with gasoline, diesel and jet fuel from refineries in Ryazan, Nizhny Novgorod and Moscow.
The operation, which targeted infrastructure near the Ramensky district, destroyed all three fuel lines, HUR said.
The pipeline was capable of transporting up to 3 million tons of jet fuel, 2.8 million tons of diesel and 1.6 million tons of gasoline annually, HUR said.
“Our strikes have had more impact than sanctions,” said Kyrylo Budanov, the head of HUR, referring to international sanctions on Russia imposed over its all-out war and the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow strains to take key eastern city
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday claimed its forces defeated a team of Ukrainian special forces that were rushed to the eastern frontline hot spot of Pokrovsk in a bid to stop Russian troops from pushing farther into the city.
It later posted videos showing two men it said were Ukrainians who surrendered in the embattled city. The videos show the men, one dressed in fatigues and the other in a dark green jacket, sat against a peeling wall in a dark room, as they speak of fierce fighting and encirclement by Russian forces. The videos’ authenticity could not be independently verified, and there was no immediate public comment from Kyiv on the Russian ministry’s claims.
Russia and Ukraine have presented conflicting accounts of what is happening in Pokrovsk, a key Ukrainian stronghold in the eastern Donetsk region. Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed last week that his forces had encircled the city’s Ukrainian defenders.
But Ukraine’s army chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, said Saturday that while the situation in Pokrovsk remains “hardest” for Ukrainian forces, who are trying to push Russian troops out of the city, there is no encirclement or blockade as Moscow has maintained.
“A comprehensive operation to destroy and push out enemy forces from Pokrovsk is ongoing. The main burden lies on the shoulders of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, particularly UAV operators and assault units,” Syrskyi said in a statement on Telegram.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy acknowledged on Friday that some Russian units had infiltrated Pokrovsk, but insisted that Ukraine is weeding them out.
Zelenskyy said that Russia had deployed around 170,000 troops in Donetsk in a major push to capture the city and claim a major battlefield victory.
Putin is trying to persuade the United States, which wants him to seek a peace deal, that Ukraine can’t hold out against Russian military superiority. He has also stressed what he says is Russia’s improving nuclear capability as he refuses to budge from what he says are his country’s legitimate war aims.
A key goal for Moscow has been to take all of Ukraine’s industrial heartland of Donbas, made up of the eastern Luhansk and Donetsk provinces. Kyiv still controls about a 10th of the coal-rich region.
Russian nighttime strikes kill 1, wound dozens
Elsewhere, a civilian died and 19 more were wounded, including a 9-year-old girl, when Russia struck the southern Mykolaiv region with an Iskander ballistic missile on Saturday morning, local official Vitaliy Kim said.
Another Russian strike early Saturday sparked a fire at a gas plant in the central Poltava region, Ukraine’s emergency service reported.
The strikes came as Russia pressed large drone and missile attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, bringing power outages and restrictions across the country earlier this week in what Kyiv described as a “systematic energy terror.”
Moscow launched 223 drones at Ukraine overnight into Saturday, 206 of which were shot down, according to the Ukrainian air force. Seventeen struck targets in seven Ukrainian regions, the air force said, without providing details.
Russia also hit an agricultural enterprise in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv region, injuring a 66-year old woman, according to a Telegram update by regional government official Viacheslav Chaus.
Russian forces during the night shot down or intercepted 98 Ukrainian drones over the country, including six on the approach to Moscow, the Russian Defense Ministry said Saturday.
There were no immediate reports of casualties, but local authorities reported a rare large-scale power outage in a Russian city of over 100,000 people. The municipal administration of Zhukovsky, 25 miles southeast of Moscow, in a Telegram update blamed the blackout on an “automatic equipment shutdown.”
NATO and some of America’s allies in the transatlantic alliance have sought to ease concerns over the Trump administration’s move to reduce the U.S. military’s presence in Europe amid Russia’s ongoing assault on Ukraine and as it’s accused of ramping up hybrid warfare against NATO nations.
The Pentagon announced Thursday that it was reducing the number of U.S. troops deployed in eastern Europe. U.S. officials told CBS News that around 700 U.S. airborne troops who have been deployed in Germany, Romania and Poland would come home and not be replaced.
In a statement, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa said it was part of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s “deliberate process to ensure a balanced U.S. military force posture,” and “not an American withdrawal from Europe or a signal of lessened commitment to NATO and Article 5. Rather this is a positive sign of increased European capability and responsibility.”
U.S. soldiers operate pusher vessels and a transportation barge on the Danube river, during Saber Guardian 25 military exercises in Frecatei, eastern Romania, June 13, 2025.
DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty
“Our NATO allies are meeting President Trump’s call to take primary responsibility for the conventional defense of Europe,” the Army said. “This force posture adjustment will not change the security environment in Europe.”
NATO and allies stress “U.S.’s continued commitment” to Europe
On Thursday, appearing keen to ease such concerns, Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur said in a statement that the U.S. had “made a significant decision to maintain its military presence in Estonia, reaffirming the U.S.’s continued commitment to the defense of the region and NATO’s entire eastern flank.”
“We are working to further strengthen the U.S. military presence in our region,” he added.
In September, Estonia said Russian military jets had violated the country’s airspace for 12 minutes, just days after Poland said more than 20 Russian drones entered its airspace. This week, Lithuania closed its border with Russia’s close ally Belarus, after accusing both countries of a “deliberate escalation of hybrid warfare.”
NATO says deterrence measures along its eastern flank have been “massively reinforced” over the last decade “as a direct result of Russia’s behavior.” That boundary runs from the Arctic Sea in the north to the Black Sea in the south.
A map shows in dark blue the European nations which, along with the United States and Canada, are members of the transatlantic NATO defense alliance.
brichuas/Getty
The reinforcements include U.S. troops, but the Trump administration has pushed its European NATO allies hard to take more responsibility — and bear more of the financial burden — for their own security, announcing earlier this year that it would make the Indo-Pacific a primary foreign policy focus, rather than Europe, despite the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“The decision was expected,” Romania’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement Wednesday, referring to the announcement of the U.S. troop reduction.
U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker said in a social media post that America’s partnership with Romania “remains stronger than ever,” and reiterated the Pentagon’s message that it was in response to European forces’ increased capacities.
The reassurances have not quelled debate about whether the move could be just the beginning of a wider U.S. withdrawal from Europe. The Ukrainian newspaper Kyiv Post reported Friday that further American troop reductions are expected, with troops to be pulled from Bulgaria, Slovakia and Hungary by the end of the year.
There was no immediate public response to the report from the Pentagon or the Trump administration.
NATO has also sought to ease concerns, with a senior military official from the alliance telling CBS News on Thursday that, “even with this adjustment, the U.S. force posture in Europe remains larger than it has been for many years.”
“U.S. commitment to NATO is clear,” the official said. “President Trump and his administration have reiterated this time and again. NATO has robust defense plans in place and we are working to ensure we maintain the right forces and capabilities in place to deter and defend each other.”
Concern in Washington, from both sides of the aisle
The announcement drew bipartisan criticism in Washington, with some senior lawmakers warning it could embolden Russia and undermine the NATO alliance.
In a joint statement issued Thursday by the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, the chairmen of that committee and the corresponding Senate body — both Republicans — said they strongly opposed the change in the U.S. deployment in Romania, which they said “appears uncoordinated and directly at odds with the President’s strategy.”
Senator Roger Wicker and Representative Mike Rogers, in the statement, also indicated that they believed the Pentagon could make further reductions to the U.S. deployment in Europe.
“We strongly oppose the decision not to maintain the rotational U.S. brigade in Romania and the Pentagon’s process for its ongoing force posture review that may result in further drawdowns of U.S. forces from Eastern Europe,” said the Republican lawmakers.
“On March 19, we stated that we will not accept significant changes to our warfighting structure that are made without a rigorous interagency process, coordination with combatant commanders and the Joint Staff, and collaboration with Congress,” said Wicker and Rogers. “Unfortunately, this appears to be exactly what is being attempted.”
On Thursday, Rep. Mike Turner, also a Republican and the head of the U.S. delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, said he was “concerned by reports of reductions of US forces in Romania.”
“Congress has been clear that US force posture across Europe must remain robust and resolute. Russia’s aggressive actions against Eastern Flank countries through intentional airspace incursions underscores Russia’s ambition beyond Ukraine,” said Turner. “It is in our national security interests to support our NATO Allies as they rightly ramp up their investments in their defense capabilities.”
Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the decision to reduce the U.S. presence in the region “deeply misguided” in a statement released Thursday.
“This decision sends exactly the wrong signal to Vladimir Putin as he continues his murderous campaign in Ukraine and tests NATO resolve through provocations against other frontline states,” she said.
BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that he will need to convince U.S. President Donald Trump that Hungary is exposed to pipeline networks when it comes to energy to gain an exemption from U.S. sanctions on Russian oil.
Orban told state radio that the issue of energy will need to be settled at the meeting scheduled for November 7. Orban has said earlier that he would discuss U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies Rosneft and Lukoil with Trump, and will also aim to conclude a broad economic agreement with the United States.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than and Anita Komuves; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on oil and gas facilities in Russia, with one strike hitting the major Orenburg gas processing plant in southern Russia on October 19, 2025. But an image of firefighters battling a massive blaze shared online was in fact taken more than a year ago in the Kursk region.
“Fire at Russia’s gas processing plant following Ukraine’s drone attack on October 19, 2025,” reads a Thai-language Facebook post published on the day.
An image attached to it — shared on a page with over 4,600 followers — shows several firefighters battling a massive blaze.
Screenshot of the false post, taken on October 24, 2025
The Orenburg gas processing plant, run by Russia’s Gazprom, was forced to stop refining gas from neighbouring Kazakhstan’s large oil and gas field, according to Kazakh authorities, after being hit by a Ukrainian drone on October 19 (archived link).
Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure in recent weeks left thousands without electricity, while Ukraine intensified its attack on Russia’s western border regions, as well as its oil and gas facilities, in return (archived link).
The image has also been shared alongside similar claims in English, Chinese and Persian.
But it was taken in Russia’s Kursk region in early 2024.
A combination of reverse image and keyword searches on Google led to a video showing the same scene at the seventh-second mark uploaded to The Telegraph’s YouTube channel on February 15, 2024 (archived link).
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and The Telegraph’s YouTube video (right)
The clip — titled “Ukrainian drone strike hits Russian oil depot in Kursk” — shows flames erupting from the building as thick black smoke billows into the sky.
Screenshot comparison of the false post (left) and the image credited to the government of Kursk distributed by AFP (right)
Its caption says it shows firefighters working to extinguish a fire after “a night-time Ukrainian drone attack set ablaze a Russian oil depot in the Kursk region”.
More of AFP’s fact-check reports on the Russia-Ukraine war can be found here.
LONDON (Reuters) -Russia has in recent months attacked Ukraine with a cruise missile whose secret development prompted Donald Trump to abandon a nuclear arms control pact with Moscow in his first term as U.S. president, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
Andrii Sybiha’s comments are the first confirmation that Russia has used the ground-launched 9M729 missile in combat – in Ukraine or elsewhere.
Russia has fired the missile at Ukraine 23 times since August, a second senior Ukrainian official told Reuters. Ukraine also recorded two launches of the 9M729 by Russia in 2022, the source said.
Russia’s defence ministry did not immediately reply to a written request for comment.
ONE MISSILE FLEW 1,200 KM, SOURCE SAYS
The 9M729 led the United States to quit the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 2019. Washington said the missile was in breach of the treaty and could fly far beyond its limit of 500 km (310 miles) although Russia denied this.
The missile, which can carry a nuclear or conventional warhead, has a range of 2,500 km, according to the Missile Threat website produced at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
A military source said a 9M729 fired by Russia on October 5 flew over 1,200 km to its impact in Ukraine.
“Russia’s use of the INF-banned 9M729 against Ukraine in the past months demonstrates (President Vladimir) Putin’s disrespect to the United States and President Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war against Ukraine,” Sybiha said in written remarks.
He told Reuters that Kyiv supported Trump’s peace proposals and that Russia should face maximum pressure to push it to peace, saying that boosting Ukraine’s long-range firepower would help persuade Moscow to end its war in Ukraine.
Ukraine has urged Washington to provide it with long-range Tomahawk missiles that were not banned under the INF because they were only sea-launched at the time. Russia says this would be a dangerous escalation.
‘AN ISSUE FOR EUROPEAN SECURITY’
Use of the 9M729 expands Russia’s arsenal of long-range weapons for striking Ukraine and fits a pattern of Moscow sending threatening signals towards Europe as Trump seeks a peace settlement, Western military analysts said.
“I think Putin is trying to ramp up pressure as part of the Ukraine negotiations,” said William Alberque, a senior adjunct fellow at the Pacific Forum think tank, adding that the 9M729 was designed to hit targets in Europe.
Russia tested its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile last week, and on Wednesday said it had tested a nuclear-powered torpedo named Poseidon.
The White House did not respond to specific questions about Russia’s use of the 9M729. Trump ordered the U.S. military on Thursday to resume testing nuclear weapons, citing “other countries’ testing programs”.
After the U.S. withdrew from the INF treaty, which banned ground-launched missiles with a range of 500-5,500 km, Russia declared a moratorium on deploying intermediate-range missiles. The West said Russia had already deployed some 9M729 missiles.
On August 4, shortly before using the missiles in Ukraine, Russia said it would no longer limit where it deploys INF-range missiles that can carry nuclear warheads.
“If it’s shown that Russia’s using INF-range missiles, which could easily be nuclear, in Ukraine, then that is an issue for European security, not just Ukraine,” said John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Moscow and Kyiv.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry did not provide details or dates of the 9M729 strikes.
The senior official said they began on August 21 – less than a week after a Trump-Putin summit in Alaska.
Reuters reviewed images of debris after a Russian attack in which a residential building was hit and four people were killed in the Ukrainian village of Lapaiivka on October 5 – over 600 km from Russian territory.
The images showed that two missile fragments, including a tube containing cabling, were marked 9M729.
Jeffrey Lewis, Distinguished Scholar of Global Security at Middlebury College, reviewed the images with analysts.
He said the tube, engine and engine panelling were consistent with what he expected the 9M729 to look like and that the markings made a match even more likely.
Russia has various missiles that can reach across Ukraine, including the sea-launched Kalibr and air-launched Kh-101, but Lewis said the 9M729 offers something slightly different.
“This gives them slightly different attack axes, which is difficult for air defences, and it increases the pool of missiles that are available to the Russians,” Lewis said.
The INF prohibited ground-launched missiles because the launchers are mobile and relatively easy to conceal.
Douglas Barrie, Senior Fellow for Military Aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, said Russia could use the 9M729 to conduct ground-launched strikes from safer locations deeper inside Russia.
Russia would also benefit from testing the system in a battlefield environment in Ukraine, though 23 uses would imply a military purpose, said Barrie.
(Additional reporting by Jonathan Landay, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
MOSCOW (Reuters) -The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russia’s test of a nuclear-powered missile and nuclear-powered torpedo were not nuclear weapons tests after President Donald Trump suggested the United States would resume nuclear weapons testing.
President Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, had cautioned that if any country tested a nuclear weapon, then Russia would too.
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Felix Light; editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine restricted power supply nationwide after Russia’s attack damaged energy infrastructure and injured 13 people in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, officials said on Thursday.
Russian forces have pummelled the energy sector ahead of the heating season, temporarily cutting power to hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Russia was attempting to cause a “humanitarian catastrophe in Ukraine to coincide with winter” after another massive aerial attack last week.
“The strike caused new damage to the energy infrastructure,” Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said on the Telegram messaging app on Thursday.
Six children were among the 13 injured in the strikes on Zaporizhzhia, which also damaged five apartment buildings and infrastructure facilities, its governor, Ivan Fedorov, said.
“People have acute reactions to stress, wounds, concussions, bruises and fractures,” Fedorov added.
State-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia reported power cuts in the southern region of Mykolaiv that cause delays to train services and prompted it to use reserve locomotives.
(Reporting by Anastasiia Malenko; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Clarence Fernandez)
ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) -A group of young Russian street musicians who went viral on social media for playing banned anti-Kremlin songs received more jail time on Wednesday, as authorities crack down on buskers who have staged performances across Russia in support of them.
The members of the band Stoptime were arrested earlier this month after performing the popular song “Swan Lake Cooperative” by exiled Russian rapper Noize MC – who is openly critical of the Kremlin – on a busy street in St Petersburg.
“The power of music is important, and what is happening now proves it,” the group’s 18-year-old vocalist Diana Loginova told reporters ahead of Wednesday’s court hearing.
Stoptime’s show on the central Nevsky Prospekt has spawned several solidarity performances of other anti-Kremlin songs by young buskers across multiple Russian cities, including Yekaterinburg, Moscow and St Petersburg. Several of the musicians have been arrested and charged with petty crimes.
“Swan Lake Cooperative” was banned in Russia in May on the grounds it contained “hostile, hateful attitudes towards people” and promoted “violent changes to the foundation of the constitutional order”. The song makes no explicit reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin or the conflict in Ukraine.
Public expressions of dissent are rare in Russia, which has cracked down on any opposition to the Kremlin’s policies with lengthy prison sentences.
Stoptime’s vocalist Loginova received a 13-day sentence for petty hooliganism on Wednesday. She has already completed a separate 13-day sentence in connection with the Noize MC performance and was fined 30,000 roubles ($369) on Tuesday for singing another song by a different anti-Kremlin artist.
Alexander Orlov, the group’s guitarist, was jailed for 13 days on Wednesday on charges of illegally organising a rally, while drummer Vladislav Leontyev is facing a fresh administrative charge. The two have already served short stints in jail this month.
Maxim Reznik, a former opposition politician in local government in St Petersburg, said he thought authorities would struggle to suppress the street performances.
“We are dealing with a whole generation of people who are unwilling to put up with what is happening,” he told independent television channel Dozhd (TV Rain), which is banned in Russia and operates from Amsterdam.
“No matter how much the authorities tighten their repression, they will not be able to suppress the will to resist.”
(Reporting by Reuters in St Petersburg; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Editing by Peter Graff)
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, it came as little surprise to the international community: leaders from various countries were warning weeks in advance that Vladimir Putin was poised to launch his attack, and made increasingly desperate public pleas to the Russian leader to step back from the brink—until it was too late. As for the Baltic states that border Russia? They told me they’d been expecting such an action for years, and had encountered meddling and mischief-making from Putin themselves.
That’s partly why Estonia, whose eastern border abuts the west of Russia, has become Estonia has become an outsourced tech lab and factory for Ukraine’s frontline.
“If you are in war, your sense of urgency is different,” says Allan Martinson, a board member at the Estonian Founders’ Society, who has been around the country’s tech sector for 35 years. Martinson says that Estonia’s defense tech sector has coalesced in the last three years—since Russia crossed the border into Ukraine—and now accounts for around 10 percent of the total Estonian tech sector in terms of revenues.
The Ukrainian Connection
Around 150 companies operate in Estonia’s defense tech sector, and around a third of them are run by Ukrainians, says Martinson—many of whom are still based in their home country but have taken advantage of Estonia’s e-Residency program. (The program allows non-Estonian residents to set up companies in the country within minutes, thanks to its entirely digital government processes.)
An Inc.com Featured Presentation
The influx of Ukrainians looking to launch tech startups designed to help keep their country safe in a neighboring country has been a “very interesting contribution” to the Estonian tech sector, says Martinson. For Ukrainians, Estonia offers a link to the European Union and NATO member states—Ukraine is currently a member of neither entity. In fact, Ukraine’s attempts to sign up to both blocs is part of Putin’s tenuous public justification for his war.
“If there are teams that are building in the trenches to beat Russia right now, when they have a moment to think about, ‘Okay, how do we work with our NATO partners? How do you sell to them?’ then Estonia makes a lot of sense. It’s nearby,” says Sten Tamkivi, a former Skype executive who is now a partner at Plural, an Estonian-based tech investment firm.
Plural recently invested in Helsing, a defense tech firm that initially developed AI battlefield software, but which expanded into building autonomous strike drones late last year. Tamkivi calls it “the biggest tech breakout story in European defense right now. Helsing’s eastern NATO flank operations are run through Estonia.
The links are also deep between the two countries’ governments: the current advisor to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister on AI and digital transformation, Kristjan Ilves, is also the former chief information officer of the Estonian government.
So while Russia’s movement through Ukraine has stalled thanks to international support, including Estonia, those on the streets of Tallinn and in its tech sector are prepared for any incursion that could come.
“Mentally speaking, I don’t think if you ask people on the street today they will answer that they’re in war,” says Martinson. “But are they afraid of war? My own perception is that we recognize there is a danger, but we are also not afraid. We are preparing on a national level and individual level, with defense entrepreneurs.”
Just days before Martinson spoke to me, Russia flew fighter jets over Estonian airspace for 12 minutes, reaching within seconds of the capital, Tallinn, before being escorted out of the country by scrambled NATO jets. But for now, Estonia is a comparatively safe third-party location for Ukrainian entrepreneurs to base their business and its infrastructure.
Jumping through hoops
One snag in all of this is a NATO policy that requires all defense tech to serve a dual purpose in order to receive NATO funding, and to be part of any NATO state’s supply chain. The need to pretend to have a dual use for technologies that can save lives or defend borders means that encrypted radio communications tech firms are pretending their products could have use in the mining industry in order to attract investors’ eye.
“People are inventing these fake use cases to leave an image that they’re going to go to civilian use cases where they really should be focusing on building what’s necessary right now,” says Tamkivi. “It’s like, ‘Okay, let’s do defense, but let’s at least stay safe. Let’s say that nobody gets hurt,’” he says. “It’s this irrational or unrealistic picture of what is going on,” Tamkivi adds.
Still, Estonia, and NATO countries on the bloc’s eastern flank are more exposed than other NATO states to the problems that can come from a more belligerent Russia. So Estonians tend to believe that there needs to be more action taken to try and tackle the threat.
Ragnar Saas, co-founder of Estonian defense tech venture capital firm Darkstar, compares the sense of urgency to Ukraine, where innovations are coming thick and fast: “How fast tech is growing in defense is probably the fastest area I know,” he says. “Those guys in Ukraine work seven days a week, because you’re basically defending your home.”
Saas, whose wife is Ukrainian, and who sends convoys of vehicles from Estonia to Ukraine to help the war effort there, is bullish about Ukraine’s future—in large part because of its tech prowess, backed up by friendly nations like Estonia. “The biggest and best strategy for how Ukraine will win is by their tech,” he says. “They’re developing new weapons systems.”
The next front
Christoph Kühn, the German deputy director of NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence, which is based in a square, squat building on the outskirts of the Estonian capital, says that in his personal belief NATO is already at war with Russia in the cybersphere. The secretary-general of the Estonian foreign ministry, Jonatan Vseviov, gave the same message: Estonia is at war with Russia already, and is willing to defend itself, including by mobilizing its tech sector.
Estonia’s government is responding to that threat. “For Estonia, helping Ukraine as much as possible is very important,” says Estonian prime minister Kristen Michal, who has been in post for a little over a year. “It’s a priority.” So much so that in the days after Estonia was buzzed by Russian warplanes, his cabinet approved devoting 5 percent of its entire budget to defense.
“I hope that we can be of assistance and contact with Ukraine, for their defensive industry to exchange intellectual property and different kinds of innovations which are happening there,” Michal says. “Conflicts are usually best for innovation,” he adds.
The country punches above its weight when it comes to tech innovation: Its unicorns include Skype, Wise, Bolt and Playtech, a leading gambling tech firm. And Estonians believe that they can put that power of innovation to purposes that do more than just benefit people. They can help protect Europe – and themselves.
“Five years ago, in the whole of Europe, I would suspect that nobody was thinking about the defense tech industry as part of their defense capabilities,” says prime minister Michal. “But right now, after what is happening in Ukraine, they really say, ‘When something happens, we need things to be done here. So we need innovation here. We need things to do here.’”
The prime minister’s word choice seems deliberate. At the minute, Estonia sees things as a case of ‘when’, not ‘if’.
BUCHAREST (Reuters) -Romania and NATO allies were notified of U.S. plans to cut the number of troops stationed on Europe’s eastern flank including soldiers who were to be stationed at Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base, Romania’s defence ministry said on Wednesday.
Washington’s European allies have been told previously by the administration of President Donald Trump that they will need to take more responsibility for their own security as the United States focuses more on its own borders and the Indo-Pacific region.
“The American decision is to stop the rotation in Europe of a brigade that had elements in several NATO countries,” the defence ministry said.
It said the decision was expected given changes in Washington’s priorities, but that roughly 1,000 U.S. troops will continue to be stationed in Romania.
“The decision also took into account that NATO has consolidated its presence and activity on the eastern flank which enables the United States to adjust its military posture in the region,” the ministry said. It did not specify how many U.S. troops will be withdrawn.
There was no immediate comment from NATO.
Despite worries on NATO’s eastern flank about the potential scaling back of the United States’ presence in the region at a time when Russia continues to wage war in Ukraine, Trump said in September that Washington could increase its troop presence in Poland.
ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) -An 18-year-old Russian street musician jailed for nearly two weeks earlier this month for playing a banned anti-Kremlin song was found guilty on Tuesday of “discrediting” the Russian army and fined 30,000 roubles ($369).
Diana Loginova, a music student who performs under the name Naoko with her band Stoptime, was arrested on October 15 after her performance of the popular song “Swan Lake Cooperative” by exiled Russian rapper Noize MC went viral on Russian social media.
Loginova served a 13-day jail sentence for organising an unplanned gathering that blocked public access to the metro – an administrative, as opposed to criminal, offence. Two of her bandmates also served short jail terms.
Upon completion of her sentence, authorities charged Loginova with an additional administrative offence of “discrediting” the Russian military in connection with her public performance of another song, called “You are a soldier”.
The St Petersburg court found her guilty on Tuesday of “discrediting” the Russian army for playing that song.
The artist who wrote it, Monetochka, lives abroad and was placed on Russia’s wanted list last year. She has also been labelled a “foreign agent” by the Russian government.
A Reuters reporter in the courtroom said Loginova was not released from custody following the ruling on Tuesday. Instead, Interior Ministry officers drove away with her from the courthouse in a civilian car.
Loginova went viral earlier this month after video posted online showed her playing the Noize MC song “Swan Lake Cooperative” on St Petersburg’s Nevsky Prospekt as onlookers chanted along.
Noize MC is openly critical of the Kremlin and lives in Lithuania. Russian banned his song in May on the grounds it contained “hostile, hateful attitudes towards people” and promoted “violent changes to the foundation of the constitutional order”.
Last week, another young street musician, Yevgeny Mikhailov, was jailed for 14 days in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg after he performed songs by Noize MC and other anti-Kremlin artists in support of Loginova and her bandmates.
Mikhailov was found guilty of petty hooliganism and “discrediting” the Russian army, according to independent news outlet Mediazona.
(Reporting by Reuters in St Petersburg; Writing by Lucy Papachristou in Tbilisi; Editing by Guy Faulconbridge)
