Author: Joel Gehrke

Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Overnight train, Kyiv to Odesa —  “Kick the door.” The soldier drinking tea on a makeshift seat in the anteroom of a Ukrainian Railways train car could only watch so many unsuccessful attempts to latch the door between carriages, whatever the language barrier. Instructions and…

Russia has deployed a “shadow fleet” of oil tankers in the Baltic Sea to circumvent economic sanctions and also engage in espionage, according to a top Swedish military official. “We are finding antennas and masts that typically do not belong to, for example, fishing vessels, so it is clear that we feel that there are…

Philippine forces have acquired supersonic cruise missiles from India, enhancing Manila’s ability to target China‘s forces in disputed areas of the South China Sea. “Its maximum extent in terms of range exceeds the West Philippine Sea,” Philippine National Security Council assistant director general Jonathan Malaya told local reporters, using Manila’s preferred name for the disputed…

U.S. political “dysfunction” is hampering the country’s options to exploit Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vulnerabilities, according to the CIA chief. “Even with all its ambition, even with all its expanding capabilities, and a really serious military modernization program, [China]’s not 10 feet tall,” CIA director Bill Burns said this week at the George W. Bush…

U.S. officials are “testing the feasibility” of converting naval missile systems into land-based platforms in the Philippines, an American ally that faces a tense territorial dispute with China.  “We are testing the feasibility of bringing this weapon system by air and offloading [it] into a secure and established space,” Philippine Army Col. Michael Logico told…

An air base in Russian-occupied Crimea erupted with explosions after a Ukrainian strike against Russia’s most advanced air defense batteries, according to Ukrainian reports and analysts. “Damage to the latest S-400 system has been confirmed, with the launcher being blown up and serious damage done to the other machines of the system,” according to a…

Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s forces will take Kyiv “in the not too distant future” if House Republicans continue to delay aid for Ukraine, according to a senior Democratic lawmaker. “I don’t know that the public, more broadly, [understands] just how close to the edge Ukraine is right now,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the top Democrat…

Israel’s fighter pilots may soon face “challenges in other sectors” than Gaza, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who visited an air base in a thinly-veiled threat to Iran. “We have determined a simple rule: Whoever harms us, we will harm them,” Netanyahu told Israel Defense Forces (IDF) personnel on Thursday. “We are prepared…