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Europe
Latvia
09th Mar 2025 'European countries should absolutely introduce conscription says Latvian president Rinkevics'. (Source: Joe - a website. Headquarters Dublin, Ireland)
Russia
09.03.2025 France will provide Ukraine with 195 million euros ($211 million) in military aid using the interest from frozen Russian assets, French Defense Minister Lecornu said. 'The new aid package will support the delivery of 155-mm artillery shells and AASM gliding bombs, which will be used by Ukrainian Mirage 2000 aircraft'. 'France is also expediting the transfer of older military equipment, including tanks and armored vehicles to Ukraine'. The UK reached a similar agreement with Ukraine on March 1 'to provide a $2.84 billion loan for defense purchases, also backed by frozen Russian assets'. Western countries have frozen roughly $300 billion in Russian assets since the onset of the war. The majority of these funds remain inaccessible, with only about $3.2 billion annually available in interest to fund initiatives like the one announced by France. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
(9 March 2025) Russia has already taken back more than two-thirds of its territory in Kursk initially seized by Ukraine. /Photo/ (Source: Gulf Today - United Arab Emirates)
Europe
(9 March 2025) The recent abrupt turn in US foreign policy calls into question a whole range of things the world has taken absolutely for granted. Europe could weigh Trump risk to its US weapons systems. When US foreign policy abruptly changes, the aircraft remain - but contractors, spare parts and badly needed software updates suddenly disappear. Within weeks, more than half the aircraft are grounded. This was the reality for Afghanistan in 2021. Today, a similar spectre haunts US allies in Europe. Many European governments are feeling buyers’ remorse for decades of US arms purchases that have left them dependent on Washington for the continued functioning of their weaponry. If they see how Trump is dealing with Zelenskyy, they should be worried. The Nordic and Baltic states need to think: Will he do the same to us? Most European militaries depend heavily on the US for communications support, for electronic warfare support, and for ammunition resupply in any serious conflict. America was accounting for 55 per cent of Europe’s defence equipment imports between 2019 and 2023 - up from 35 per cent in the previous five years, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. An appraisal of dependencies and vulnerabilities across international partners - including the US.- would allow reflection on whether there needs to be any strategic changes. What’s the point of Denmark sending F-35s to protect Greenland? Whether the F-35s would fly if the US did not want them to? The plane relies on continuous updates and maintenance support from the US through its Autonomic Logistics Information System - which is to be replaced by a successor programme known as Odin, the Operational Data Integrated Network. The systems manage everything from mission planning and threat databases to maintenance diagnostics. The problem with really sophisticated defence equipment is that it needs so much support from the vendor, that if the vendor decides to stop supporting it, the equipment stops working, if not instantaneously then very, very quickly. More than half of Europe’s advanced combat aircraft - mainly the F-35 and the F-16 - are bought from the US. The UK - a top buyer that makes many parts for the plane - asked for guarantees of operational sovereignty, but no US ally has Washington’s level of access to the source code for the system. Britain’s deterrent has come under particular scrutiny because it relies on submarines armed with Trident ballistic missiles. These missiles are leased from the US and regularly return to the US base in King’s Bay, Georgia for maintenance. Missile testing is also carried out under US supervision at Cape Canaveral in Florida. This reliance is a constraint on the independence of the system. Trident is part of the Mutual Defence Agreement between the US and UK that was prolonged indefinitely when it was re-ratified last November. Given the role the US plays in maintenance, Cunningham, analyst at Agency Partners argued Britain should at least investigate the possibility of using France’s M51 submarine-launched ballistic missiles. France and Britain are the only nuclear powers in Europe. Important parts of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance airborne fleet in Europe was effectively mortgaged to the US and predicated on their collaboration. Specific examples include the UK’s Rivet Joint spy planes, P8 Poseidon submarine hunters (used by Norway and ordered by Germany), Wedgetail early warning aircraft, and Protector drones. Many European nations use the US Reaper drone, made by General Atomics, which relies on US-provided satellite communication links and software support. Italy and France needed a lengthy US permission process to equip the drones with missiles. The concern in European capitals is not so much about specific weapon systems but the potential for the US to withdraw communications support and information sharing across any platform, from fighter jets to Chinook and Apache helicopters as well as air-defence systems such as the Patriot. While Trump may have rattled the transatlantic alliance, Finkielman, director of DI Danish Defence and Security Industries, said day-to-day contacts on the industry side continued as normal. “There is a lot of uneasiness about what’s going to happen, but up until now we haven’t felt any changes in the relationship with the US.” Finkielman noted that Denmark made more than 100 parts for F-35 aircraft itself, and was one of many national suppliers. “I don’t know what capability the US has to produce them if they don’t get the Danish elements,” he said. The chief victim of the uncertainty, meanwhile, is just as likely to be the US arms industry, rather than its European customers. Trust is something you can only break once. Shares in America’s leading defence groups have significantly lagged those of their European rivals, which have boomed since Trump’s return to the White House. Though no US orders have been cancelled, few doubt that Europe will begin taking a more independent approach. Heaven help the US arms industry. This is catastrophic from an export standpoint. (Source: Financial Times – United Kingdom)
Asia
Saudi Arabia
Monday, March 10, 2025 Zelenskiy travels to Saudi Arabia today. Ahead of talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials on ending the war with Russia at an increasingly precarious moment for Kyiv, Zelenskiy is expected to meet the Saudi crown prince. He has said he will not attend tomorrow’s talks with U.S. officials, where the Ukrainian delegation will include his chief of staff, his foreign and defence ministers and a top military official in the presidential administration. Tomorrow’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials are expected to focus on a bilateral minerals deal and how to end the war. The United States has upended its wartime policies in its stated pursuit of a rapid end to the fighting, engaging directly with Moscow while cutting off military assistance and intelligence sharing for Kyiv. U.S. officials said they were planning to use the meeting with the Ukrainians in part to determine whether Kyiv is willing to make material concessions to Russia to end the war. Zelenskiy has said Kyiv is ready to sign the minerals deal with the U.S., which would create a joint fund from the sale of Ukrainian minerals. Washington says it is crucial to secure continued U.S. backing. Zelenskiy has called for a truce in the air and at sea, as well as a prisoner exchange, in what he says could be a test of Russia’s commitment to ending the war. Trump special envoy Witkoff, who has been arranging the talks, has said the idea is to “get down a framework for a peace agreement and an initial ceasefire as well”.“You can’t say ‘I want peace,’ and, ‘I refuse to compromise on anything’,” one of the officials said of the upcoming talks. “We want to see if the Ukrainians are interested not just in peace, but in a realistic peace,” a second U.S. official said: Trump said yesterday that he expected good results out of the upcoming talks, adding that the United States had “just about” ended a suspension of intelligence sharing with Kyiv. With U.S. support in question, Zelenskiy has been urging his European allies to ramp up their support as Kyiv’s battlefield position deteriorates and it faces mounting pressure to retreat from Russia’s Kursk region. Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region are nearly surrounded by Russian forces, open source maps show. Moscow has rejected the idea of a temporary truce, which has also been proposed by Britain and France, saying it was a bid to buy time for Kyiv and prevent its military collapse. (Source: DD News, an Indian state-owned Hindi news television channel / Reuters - United Kingdom)
Syria
2025-03-09 The death toll from violent clashes in Syria’s coastal region has risen to more than 1,000, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported today. /Photo/ (Source: Shafaq News - Iraq)
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