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☆ It may look like Trump scared NATO back into readiness — but it's probably all down to Putin
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-23 | by ( Mia Jankowicz | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

NATO states' increased defense spending in recent years has little to do with Trump, experts told BI. NATO spending has indeed accelerated since Trump entered politics. It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do itTrump's demands of NATO allies also weren't a departure from existing US policy. Threatening partners is "bananas"Trump's transactional take on NATO collective defense is ultimately reasonable, Bury said — but encouraging other countries to attack NATO allies is "bananas." AdvertisementIf US allies are spending more money on NATO defense, it's not because Trump is goading them, but because they're concerned about increasing global instability.

Persons: Trump, it's, —, Kaja Kallas, Mark Rutte, Edward Hunter Christie, Hunter Christie, William Alberque, Russia hadn't, hadn't, Alberque, Patrick Bury, Barack Obama, didn't, Joe Biden, Bury, Vladimir Putin Organizations: NATO, Trump, Service, Estonia's, Dutch, Finnish Institute of International Affairs, International Institute for Strategic Studies, UK's University of Bath Locations: Russia, ”, NATO, Crimea, Trump, South Korea, Japan, United States, Ukraine

☆ Russia may be replacing 100 tanks a month — but with older models which 'smacks of absolute desperation,' expert says
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-07 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russia is generating 100+ tanks a month, largely replacing its battlefield losses, UK intel said. Nicholas Drummond, a defense analyst, agreed, telling BI that Russia is relying on older models as its ability to produce new ones is limited. AdvertisementBut Drummond is skeptical that Russia can even make battle-ready 100 of the older tanks a month. Ramping up productionRussia has seemingly been increasing its output of new tanks, while still relying on older models. AdvertisementBut another expert said these older tanks can still create a problem for Ukraine.

Persons: —, William Alberque, Nicholas Drummond, DIMITAR DILKOFF, Drummond, George Barros, Russia's, Oleksii, It's, Alberque, Rajan Menon, Menon, it's Organizations: intel, Service, UK Ministry of Defence, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Getty, Institute for, Anadolu Agency, Getty Images, Defense Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, AFP, Dmytrivka, Kyiv region, Getty Images Russia, Ukrainian

☆ Ukraine's tactical switch could make it even harder for an already struggling Russia to make any progress in the war
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-06 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A tactical shift by Ukraine will likely make it even harder for Russia to gain new territory in its invasion, an expert told Business Insider. Riley Bailey, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War, told BI that Ukraine's defenses will make it "harder for Russian forces to attack head on into entrenched fortified positions. Russia has already struggled to make progress, and these fortifications will likely make its goals even harder to reach. It frustrated advanced Ukrainian weaponry like tanks. 110th Separate Mechanized BrigadeThe extra fortifications will now make Russian decision-making harder, Bailey said.

Persons: Riley Bailey, Bailey, Thomas Peter TPX, Patrick Bury, William Alberque, Ukraine doesn't, Alberque, Jack Watling Organizations: New York Times, Institute for, Business, REUTERS, Patrick, UK's University of Bath, NATO, Mechanized, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Reuters Locations: Ukraine, Russia, Ukrainian, Kupiansk, Kyiv, Avdiivka

☆ Russia made a flashy upgrade to its cruise missiles since Ukraine shot down so many — but it likely won't help
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-24 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Russia appears to have put decoy flares on its cruise missiles, a world first. AdvertisementRussia appears to be putting decoy flares on its cruise missiles to reduce how often Ukraine successfully shoots them down. A video at the end of December appeared to show a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile using decoy flares during an attack. Ballistic missiles, which are typically faster than cruise missiles and can have larger warheads, have used such flares in the past. Russia is trying to stop losing missilesRussia has been firing vast numbers of cruise missiles across Ukraine during its invasion.

Persons: —, Timothy Wright, Fabian Hoffmann, Hoffmann, It's, JUAN BARRETO, Wright, they'll, William Alberque, Alberque Organizations: Service, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Norway's University of Oslo, Russia, Getty Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Russian, Ukrainian, Bakhmut, Donetsk

☆ Ukraine War Drives Shift in Russian Nuclear Thinking -Study
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-22 | by ( Jan. | At A.M. | ) www.usnews.com time to read: +4 min

NSNWs include all nuclear weapons with a range of up to 5,500 km (3,400 miles), starting with tactical arms designed for use on the battlefield - as opposed to longer-range strategic nuclear weapons that Russia or the U.S. could use to strike each other's homeland. "The Russian perception of the lack of credible Western will to use nuclear weapons or to accept casualties in conflict further reinforces Russia's aggressive NSNW thought and doctrine," it said. But he has shifted Russia's stance on key nuclear treaties and said he is deploying tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. NUCLEAR DEBATEWestern analysts and policymakers have been closely tracking a debate among Russian military experts about whether Moscow should lower its threshold for nuclear use. William Alberque, author of the IISS report, said Karaganov was part of a wider discussion in Russia on the failure of its military to win the Ukraine war decisively and quickly.

Persons: Mark Trevelyan, Vladimir Putin's, Putin, hawkish, Russia's, Sergei Karaganov, William Alberque, Karaganov, Alberque, Mark Heinrich Organizations: Mark Trevelyan LONDON, NATO, International Institute for Strategic Studies, Russian Federation, Pentagon Locations: Ukraine, Moscow, Western, Russia, U.S, West, Russian, Belarus, Europe, United States

☆ Russia's war in Ukraine: Live updates
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Christian Edwards | Ed Upright | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

A view shows Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol after the Nova Kakhovka dam breach in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on June 16, 2023. Zakharova responded by calling Ukraine “a terrorist regime.”“Now they have embarked on a plan for ‘their own salvation’ - systematic damage to the Zaporizhzhia NPP. The NATO summit should have focused on this very subject. After all, the vast majority of the Alliance members will find themselves in the direct hit zone,” she said. However, Zakharova’s claim that the “majority” of NATO members will find themselves in the hit zone is false.

Persons: Alina Smutko, Maria Zakharova, Zakharova, Hanna Maliar, Ukraine “, Volodymyr Zelensky, ”, Vladimir Putin, ” William Alberque, Zakhorova, Read Organizations: Reuters Russia's Foreign, NATO, Zaporizhzhia NPP, Alliance, Ukrainian, Technology, International Institute for Strategy Studies, CNN Locations: Kakhovka, Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, Russian

☆ Zaporizhzhia: Ukraine warns Russia might blow up nuclear power plant. How worried should we be?
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-05 | by ( Christian Edwards | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

CNN —Russian troops have placed “objects resembling explosives” on roofs at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a video address Tuesday that instantly sparked concerns around the world. That is, Russia may claim that any explosion at the power plant was the result of reckless Ukrainian shelling, rather than its own explosives. Grossi points on a map of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, March 2022. “The whole thing was saying: Russia’s basically going to have to kill me, in order for me not to make this nuclear power plant more safe. The Zaporizhzhia plant seen from the banks of the Dnipro on June 16, after the Nova Kakhovka dam collapse.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelensky, Zelensky, Vladimir Putin, Zaporizhzhia, “, Kyrylo Budanov, ”, ” Karolina Hird, Dmitry Peskov, ” Peskov, –, Rafael Grossi, Petro Kotin, Joe Klamar, William Alberque, ” Alberque, Russia’s, Alberque, Alina Smutko, ” Cheryl Rofer, Stringer, Xi Jinping, Putin Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, Institute for, International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, United Nations, Russian, Grossi, Getty, Technology, International Institute for Strategy Studies, CAN, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Rescuers, Reuters, Russia, Financial Times Locations: Ukrainian, Russia, Ukraine, Zaporizhzhia, Zaporizhzhia oblast, Kyiv, Europe –, Dnipro, Enerhodar, Russian, AFP, Nova, Moscow, ZNPP, Pennsylvania, India, Pakistan

☆ How an elite brigade of Russian marines was repeatedly mauled in Ukraine and became an emblem of the invasion's failures
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

An elite brigade within Russia's military is a shadow of itself after taking huge losses in Ukraine. In many ways, the journey of the 155th reflects the larger struggles of the Russian military, which entered Ukraine expecting a quick victory but has instead suffered embarrassing setbacks. Baev said that its members are supposed to be better trained and more professional than other parts of the Russian military, which can rely on conscripts. And, as the fighting dragged and more marines died, the Russian military kept reinforcing the 155th with fresh recruits, which brought its own problems. Yet earlier this month Ukraine claimed that commanders in the brigade were refusing to fight near the city of Vuhledar.

[1/3] Russian President Vladimir Putin delivers his annual address to the Federal Assembly in Moscow, Russia February 21, 2023. In a major speech almost a year after his invasion of Ukraine, Putin said Russia was not abandoning the New START treaty - the agreement signed in 2010 that limits the number of Russian and U.S. deployed strategic nuclear warheads. But nuclear experts noted the treaty contains no provision for either side to "suspend" its participation, as he said Moscow was doing - they only have the option to withdraw. According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia has an estimated 5,977 nuclear warheads in total, while the United States has 5,428. "HUGE INSTABILITY"Putin justified the Russian move by saying it was "absurd" for the United States to demand the right to inspect Russian nuclear sites, as the treaty allows, while NATO was helping Ukraine to attack them.

☆ Russia has spent 9 months bleeding troops to try to capture a city with limited strategic value, experts say
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Russia has spent nine months trying to capture Bakhmut in a slow and brutal campaign. Experts say the city does not even have that much strategic value. Ukrainians fighting in the city say it has been a "living hell" for months, while commanders on both sides have called the battle a "meat grinder." But ultimately, experts say, the city may not be important enough to justify the effort and expense Russia has put into it. A map showing the location of the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

☆ Russian mercenaries are forbidden from helping wounded comrades and forced to leave them behind, Ukrainian intel says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Wounded Wagner Group soldiers are being left on battlefields for hours, Ukrainian intelligence said. The deaths of thousands of Wagner soldiers do not matter to Russian society, it suggested. "The deaths of thousands of Wagner soldiers do not matter to Russian society," the report said, according to CNN. Wagner soldiers are also being killed if they withdraw from an area without permission, the document said. The Wagner Group, which the US says is responsible for "atrocities and human rights abuses' in Ukraine, has close links to the Kremlin.

☆ Russia's top general has inherited a poisoned chalice in Ukraine, after his predecessor lasted just 3 months. This could lead to an escalation in the war.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Russia appointed a new general in charge of Ukraine war, replacing predecessor after just 3 months. The ministry described Gerasimov not as a simple replacement, but as occupying a new role with even greater oversight over Russia's war in Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow, Russia, on December 21, 2020. McGlynn said Gerasimov's appointment "is definitely a commitment to keep fighting. McGlynn said Gerasimov's appointment "leaves him in an impossible situation and one that is only likely to get worse."

☆ Russia has failed to destroy a single HIMARS launcher to date, but Ukraine still needs more artillery: report
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia has not destroyed a single HIMARS launcher to date, a defense official told Politico. The long-range rocket launchers have been a huge asset to Ukraine's war effort thus far. But Ukraine still needs much more artillery for the fight ahead, the official said. Russia has failed to destroy a single HIMARS launcher since Ukraine first began using them in June, a senior Defense Department official told Politico. Despite the HIMARS' power, Ukraine still needs more artillery for the fight ahead, the same defense official told Politico.

☆ A month after Putin started drafting Russians to fight in Ukraine, some are already coming home in body bags
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-21 | by ( Sinéad Baker | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Some, Putin said, are trained for as little as 10 days, leading commentators to conclude they were effectively cannon fodder. In Western armies, it would likely be impossible to die within a month of enlistment, because training lasts much longer than that. Radio Free Europe, the US-funded outlet, also reported deaths among newly-mobilized men, swiftly returned to Russia in body bags. Alberque said the mobilized troops probably could not fight effectively — and may never have been meant to. David Betz, a professor in the War Studies department, also at King's said that so few mobilized troops had arrived that their effective casualty rate was "zero."

☆ Ill-equipped Russian soldiers with only days of training are dying in combat: 'these guys are just literally cannon fodder'
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( Hannah Getahun | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Russia's military has made it a priority to quickly recoup the number of soldiers it has to fight. Mobilization efforts have resulted in soldiers with little training being sent to the front lines. Some of these recruits had less than 10 days of training, the Times reported. "They are giving them at best basics and at worst nothing and throwing them into combat, which suggests that these guys are just literally cannon fodder," William Alberque, a specialist in the Russian armed forces, told the Times. One user on social media claimed Russian soldiers were living in "inhumane conditions" and had to provide themselves with food, the Times reported.

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