🇺🇦 🇷🇺 After Suffering Heavy Losses, Ukrainians Paused to Rethink Strategy

Early in the counteroffensive, Ukraine lost as much as 20 percent of its weapons and armor. The rate dropped as the campaign slowed and commanders shifted tactics.

The startling rate of losses dropped to about 10 percent in the ensuing weeks, the officials said, preserving more of the troops and machines needed for the major offensive push that the Ukrainians say is still to come.

Military analysts cautioned that it was still too early to draw definitive conclusions about the counteroffensive. “It does not mean that it is doomed to fail,” said Camille Grand, a defense expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations and a former NATO assistant secretary general.

Nevertheless, he added, the absence of air superiority and air defenses that Western jets could provide for Ukraine’s attack means “that casualty rates are likely to be higher than in other conventional conflicts.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/15/us/politics/ukraine-leopards-bradleys-counteroffensive.html

https://archive.ph/txllV

🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇹🇼 "A serious assessment will reveal we can't support Ukraine as we have been and also prepare with anything like the scale and urgency needed for Taiwan. Those hoping the war will end soon are betting on the lottery. Here's my attempt to reckon with this." - Elbridge Colby

https://time.com/6294670/us-strategy-ukraine-prioritizing-asia/

https://archive.ph/cD1Bt

Human trafficking , murders, water theft - The dark side of the illegal marijuana industry that threatens the lives of Californians living in the rural desert communities who are now the latest victims.

@police_frequency

🇸🇪 🇺🇸 🇷🇺 A US Green Beret drill with fake guerrilla fighters shows how Sweden has been preparing for an 'unconventional' clash with Russia

In May and June, US Army Green Berets conducted unconventional warfare training in Sweden.

Unconventional warfare is meant "to coerce, disrupt, or overthrow" a government or an occupier.

Sweden is used to such a threat, having spent decades next to the Soviet Union and now Russia.

While the US military has a long history with unconventional warfare, it leaned into the mission set two decades ago.
Following the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Pentagon opted to give special operators a leading role in the campaign against Al Qaeda and its Taliban allies. Instead of committing large numbers of conventional forces, the US military went in with Green Berets, Delta Force operators, and Night Stalkers, crushing the Taliban in a shift campaign that lasted a few weeks.

The US military is now shifting away from those kinds of campaigns and refocusing on the large-scale, conventional wars it would expect to fight against Russia or China. Unconventional warfare can still play an important role in that kind of war, but it would be a supporting role.

https://www.businessinsider.com/us-army-green-berets-conducted-unconventional-warfare-training-sweden-2023-7

⬆️ 🇸🇪 Nordic Air Force Takes Flight
NATO may soon have an alliance within the alliance.

And they have an ambitious plan to centralize command of about 250 combat aircraft across four countries under one command-and-control system.

“The plans for the northern part of the alliance will be much easier to develop, whether it’s the closeness to the Baltic States, or the fact that, beforehand, it was a very short border between Norway and Russia,” said Camille Grand, a former NATO assistant secretary-general. “The working assumption was that the other two might be out of the conflict, if a conflict were to happen. And now you have a much, much more coherent group in the north.”

“[The Nordic Air Force is] an air force that is larger than the [British] Royal Air Force,” Grand said. “The Swedes and the Finns will have to integrate air and missile defense posture, the whole NATO air policing. Those were precisely one of the few things that were not really open to partners. So that’s where they have a big learning curve.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/06/21/nordic-air-force-russia-ukraine-norway-finland-sweden-denmark/

https://archive.ph/LETIF

🐻‍❄ 🇸🇪 🇫🇮 NATO's Arctic Command: A Case for the Expansion of NATO’s Mission in the High North

NATO’s interest in the Arctic
Because NATO operates through consensus, advancing priorities for the benefit of the entire organisation can be scuppered by individual nations lacking the knowledge or interest in particular regions. While such divisions occasionally slow the coordination of NATO, there is no question that the future of the Arctic is a priority for its member states. The alliance has directed increasing attention to the North Pole with joint military exercises such as Trident Juncture in 2018 and a Norwegian-sponsored operation in 2022, Cold Response. The addition of Sweden and Finland will only bolster the resources NATO has to dedicate to the Arctic issue. However, escalating exercises is not enough to demonstrate the importance of the Arctic to NATO.

Danoy and Maddox, authors of a recent article compiled for NATOs 20/2020 review, discuss further expansion of the NATO footprint in the Arctic.12) In their opinion, for NATO to contend with the enlargement of Russian and Chinese influence resulting from the changing climate, it must build political consensus on Arctic policy, enhance domain awareness, ensure allies can operate effectively, and maintain stability through discussion and, if necessary, deterrence.13) Without a doubt, “Finland and Sweden together would vastly expand the alliance’s presence in the Baltic Sea and the Arctic Circle.

https://www.thearcticinstitute.org/nato-arctic-command-case-expansion-nato-mission-high-north

🇸🇪 🇫🇮 🇷🇺 NATO has been steadily increasing its control of the Baltic Sea, long a crucial maritime gateway for the Russian fleet.

With Finland and Sweden in NATO, the alliance will close the vise.

https://www.politico.eu/article/nato-lake-what-sweden-and-finland-will-change-in-the-baltics-russia-ukraine-war

🇸🇪 🇫🇮 Implications of a Finnish and Swedish NATO Membership for Security in the Baltic Sea Region

While both Sweden and Finland have a credible domestic production of arms for security, international procurement is essential. NATO membership is likely to strengthen the two countries’ access to international arms markets and would open opportunities for greater specialization and collaboration. In terms of market dynamics, the Nordic defense markets are competitive. In Finland, Patria - the mostly state-owned provider of defense, security and aviation support services - serves domestic demand together with some 120 small-medium sized companies. In terms of capabilities, Finnish companies manufacture - among other things - naval ships, maritime surface technology, armored wheeled vehicles, satellites and telecommunications, as well as cybersecurity solutions. Prominent Finnish arms trading partners include the United States, Sweden, Norway, Italy, France, Germany, Netherlands and Israel (Figure 2). In terms of exports, the United States and Sweden ranks among Finland’s most significant partners. Major historical weaponry purchases from the past decade include AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles from the United States (2012), Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and Leopard 2A6 main battle tanks from the Netherlands (2014), K9 armored howitzers from South Korea (2017), and most recently 64 F-35 fighter jets from the United States (2022) as well as the renewal of several older sea vessels (Squadron 2020). Furthermore, Finland is preparing to procure anti-air missile equipment from Israel.

Swedish defense markets are served - together with international partners - by small and medium sized companies as well as larger companies such as Saab, BAE Hägglunds and BAE Bofors. The Swedish arms industry is much larger and more export oriented than the Finnish one, and Sweden is the 13th largest arms exporter in the world. Sweden possesses an advanced, internationally operating aerospace manufacturing industry, and produces fighter aircraft systems, telecommunication solutions, and naval ships.Sweden's largest arms trading partners include the United States, Italy, Germany, France and Canada. Air defense systems and aircraft are among the most important military technologies exported by Sweden. In 2012, Sweden set an order for renewal of its aircraft fleet (60 Saab Gripen jets) that are currently being delivered, in 2021 became the first non-NATO country to deploy a US manufactured Patriot air defense system, and started the procurement process for new combat sea vessels. In 2022, Sweden is expected to increase its number of military personnel, defense capabilities on the Gotland island as well as to commit to buying more Archer 155mm howitzer artillery.

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/article/implications-finnish-and-swedish-nato-membership-security-baltic-sea-region

🦣 Hyperborea | CIG #commentary (quick summary)

The inclusion of a Nordic NATO is to permanently support NATO projection into the Arctic Circle as a counterweight to Russian & Chinese aims in the region. Turning the Baltic sea into a NATO lake surrounding Kaliningrad & St. Petersburg. These countries also have somewhat extant defense industries that don't really exist in other parts of Europe, along with plenty of artillery.

As with all climate change related events the discussion in Paris inevitably turned to international centralization of power and the formation of a global consortium to fix the problems that they claim sovereign nations cannot or will not fix.

…a convergence of narratives – Central banks and international banks are now suddenly more concerned with carbon taxation and global warming than they seem to be concerned with stagflation and economic collapse. Likely because this was the goal all along and economic collapse is part of the plan.
Globalists are now combining the climate change issue with international finance and monetary authority. In other words, they aren’t hiding the fact that the climate change agenda is part of the “Great Reset” agenda anymore. They are even suggesting that the threat of climate change be used as a springboard for giving global banks more power to dictate the circulation of wealth and for deconstucting the existing system so it can be replaced with something else.

Source

🇺🇸 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Elon Musk:
"Russia has at least 4 times the artillery of Ukraine and 10 times the ammunition.

We have run out of normal ammunition to send Ukraine, so now send them cluster bombs in desperation, debasing ourselves with no change to the outcome."

🇸🇾 Fearing military operation by International Coalition | Residents continue to leave Al-Mayadeen city towards Damascus province

https://www.syriahr.com/en/304550/

🇺🇸 🇸🇾 2,500 10th Mountain Division soldiers are off to combat. Members of the 2nd Brigade Combat Team are heading to Iraq and Syria.

“This combat deployment is significant. It’s significant for the soldiers, the families of this brigade, for the 10th Mountain Division and for the United States Army. Once again we are called to lead the way and start another climb to glory,” said Fort Drum Senior Commander Col. Matt Braman.

The soldiers will be spending the next nine months in Iraq and Syria as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, an ongoing military operation to defeat the Islamic State.

https://www.wwnytv.com/2023/07/14/soldiers-with-2nd-bct-leaving-fort-drum-iraq-syria

⚡️🇹🇷🇪🇬 Allegedly, Yassin Aktay, the deputy chairman of the AK party, gave direct orders to the Egyptian "political asylum-seekers" (mostly the Muslim Brotherhood) in Turkey to cease "the blatant assaults on the Egyptian government and its figures, and to be professional and only report the news and events within the legal frameworks of Turkish law."

This comes after

1) 50 Muslim Brotherhood members were detained in Turkey and shipped to undisclosed locations
2) certain members of the Muslim Brotherhood were extradited back to Egypt - where such members face the death penalty
3) some pro-MB anchors have already moved to London and Vienna, and are calling the group to abandon Turkey and to not rely on the Turkish government anymore.

Erdogan simply wishes to normalize with Sisi, and I think the Syrian HTS are looking at this situation very closely, because very soon, just like Erdogan shook the hands of Sisi in Qatar, perhaps, Erdogan will also shake the hands of Assad.

@mediterraneanman