Trump and Hezbollah rah, rah and Netanyahu diss … gets him in trouble.…
He mentioned about impeaching Israeli PM Netanyahu …
Ukraine and Russia spinning Hamas/Israel conflict for their own good…
Putin visiting the few countries left hanging with Russia these days…
Sweden STILL waiting for Turkey and Hungary to allow its entry into NATO….
The US moving to use impounded Russian funds to bide over any halt in aid to the Ukraine….
Such and action may cause problems
Ukraine F-16 operations are targeted to begin by early Spring next year….
The US ok’s $200M in more aid to the Ukraine , joining other NATO countries assistance while the American Congress tries to get itself together….
Ukraine has increased its Spec Ops action in their Eastern territories against the Russians….
The US and other NATO countries are also training Ukraine troops and their first level platoon leaders in Western military doctrine and learning back from the Ukrainians, who ARE fighting in a real combat envioroment….
Trump and Hezbollah….
Donald Trump’s campaign defended the former president’s remarks calling the militant group Hezbollah “smart” during a rally this week, arguing “smart does not equal good.”
Trump has faced backlash from several political figures for comments made during a speech with supporters Wednesday in Florida, in which he criticized Israel’s lack of preparedness for the widespread attacks from the militant group Hamas. He slammed the Israeli defense minister for issuing a warning to Hezbollah against attacking Israel in the north, saying that Hezbollah is “very smart” and would do so.
On Thursday, the campaign and a Trump adviser sought to defend and clarify Trump’s remarks, saying he was not praising Hezbollah.
“President Trump was clearly pointing out how incompetent
and his administration were by telegraphing to the terrorists an area that is susceptible to an attack. Smart does not equal good,” read a tweet from the campaign’s “War Room” account.
“It just proves Biden is stupid. And now you look stupid, Ron,” the tweet continued, referring to President Biden and GOP presidential candidate Ron DeSantis.
Both Biden and DeSantis had previously chimed in to denounce Trump’s comments…..
Zelensky on Russia and Israel…..
Since the attacks by Hamas on Israel last weekend, Ukraine has sought to position itself as a friend of Israel, while asserting that Moscow would try to use the conflict to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the countries that support it. Russia, for its part, has said that Israel’s war in Gaza shows the failure of the West and in particular U.S. policy in the region.
The trading of accusations illustrates how, nearly two years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the two countries are seeking to nurture their diplomatic alliances and influence opinion to bolster their respective military causes.
The latest example came on Thursday, when Ukraine’s military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, accused Moscow of sending weapons to Hamas that Russian forces had captured on the battlefield in Ukraine. He said this was an apparent attempt by the Kremlin to discredit President Volodymyr Zelensky’s government by making Israel think Ukraine was supporting Hamas.
“We know for a fact that trophy weapons from Ukraine were transferred by the Russians to the Hamas group,” Mr. Budanov said in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda published on Thursday. It was not possible to independently verify the claim, and Mr. Budanov did not provide evidence for it.
But his comments were in line with Ukraine’s campaign to cast Russia as acting maliciously regarding the Israel-Hamas conflict, using it to sow chaos and acrimony. In the last six days Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly stated his support for Israel and condemned Hamas….
Here’s the latest on the war and its ripple effects across the globe.
Putin will meet with the leaders of Kyrgyzstan, Azerbaijan and Tajikistan, as well as representatives from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which is made up of some former Soviet nations, according to Putin’s office. This is Putin’s first known foreign trip since the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest in March. Kyrgyzstan is not a signatory to the ICC statute, which obliges member nations to transfer Putin to The Hague if he enters their territory.
If damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline is found to be from a deliberate attack, NATO will meet it with “a determined and united response,” NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at a news conference after the meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels. As The Washington Post reported, Finnish officials said that the Balticconnector gas pipeline, which runs between Finland and Estonia and can send gas in either direction, was damaged, leading to its shutdown Sunday. The officials said an initial assessment suggested that the damage was most likely caused by deliberate interference, and that they intend to investigate the incident as a crime. If it is “proven to be a deliberate attack on critical infrastructure,” Stoltenberg said, “it would be a serious incident.”
Sweden is “on their way to become a full member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg added Thursday. The Scandinavian country’s accession to the alliance has so far been delayed by Turkey and Hungary, but Stoltenberg said he and the 29 NATO defense ministers whose countries have ratified Sweden’s accession gave a “very clear message” to Turkey and Hungary that they were to also move forward with it. Turkey was aligned with that, Stoltenberg said, adding that he had conveyed the message to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Senior U.S. officials have stepped up their efforts to lead Western governments to use hundreds of billions of dollars of frozen Russian central bank reserves to help Ukraine, The Post reported. The Kremlin has an estimated $300 billion frozen in various bank accounts throughout Western countries, but experts have warned that simply taking that money would face legal challenges and pose major financial risks.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “we are holding our ground” in Avdiivka, as Russian forces advanced toward the town in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region after launching an offensive Tuesday, the Institute for the Study of War said. Russian gains were concentrated to the southwest of Avdiivka without an encirclement of the “notoriously well-fortified and defended” town, which Russia would probably struggle to achieve, the institute said. It added that the operation was probably intended to draw Ukraine’s focus away from its counteroffensive on the southern front.
Three people, including a child, were killed in the Russian city of Belgorod when a Ukrainian drone was downed, Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Thursday on Telegram. Two others were critically injured, and two residential buildings were destroyed in the city about 25 miles north of the Ukrainian border, he said.
Ukraine said it identified two Ukrainian “traitors” who gave intelligence to Russia to direct a missile attack on the village of Hroza. The Oct. 5 attack killed at least 56 people — roughly one-sixth of the village’s population — including one young boy. The toll continues to grow: A 53-year-old woman died in intensive care Wednesday night, Kharkiv Regional Gov. Oleg Synyehubov saidThursday.
A Russian assault struck a school in Nikopol in southern Ukraine, destroying a gymnasium and killing four people Wednesday, Ukrainian Internal Affairs Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. He said the four people killed, all of whom were age 60 and older, included school employees.
A coalition co-led by the United States, Denmark and the Netherlands will aim to establish F-16 fighter jet capacity in Ukraine and, later, oversee the building of a full-scale Ukrainian air force, the Danish Ministry of Defense said in a news release Wednesday. The package includes aircraft donations and pilot training, plus infrastructure and maintenance support. Denmark has promised to donate 19 of the American-made aircraft to Ukraine. The first delivery, of six, should arrive in spring 2024, Danish Foreign Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told Danish news agency Ritzau.
Zelensky denounced “terrorists like Putin — or like Hamas” during his surprise visit to NATO’s meeting in Brussels on Wednesday. It was his first visit to NATO’s steel-and-glass headquarters since Putin’s invasion, and it came a day after he acknowledged in an interview that the Israel-Gaza war could distract global attention from Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Also in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced a $200 million security assistance package for Ukraine. It followed a $1 billion military aid package, including air defense systems, announced by Germany the day before. “We remind the world of our shared commitment to support Ukraine today — and for the long haul,” Austin said in his opening remarks to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group.
From our correspondents
In eastern Ukraine, small assault teams quietly advance against Russia: While big, complex maneuvers unfold in Ukraine’s southern counteroffensive, and long-range artillery duels thunder along the front lines, small-team tactics are less visible.
But these stealthy assaults by a handful of soldiers storming enemy positions have been quietly instrumental in recent gains in the eastern Donetsk region outside Bakhmut, Ukrainian fighters and commanders told Alex Horton and Serhiy Morgunov in the region.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Ukrainian teams of four to a dozen soldiers can attack on foot far less conspicuously than with vehicles, surprising complacent enemies and triggering chaos along the front…..
US and Western countries continue to train Ukraine troops in the ways of Western military leadership….(And vice versa)
The U.S. and Western allies have increased their training of Ukrainian officers and noncommissioned officers, at Ukraine’s request, and may begin training the trainers as well, military officers involved in the effort said Tuesday.
Ukrainian military leaders’ “priority for the last eight months has been leadership training,” said Canadian Brigadier-General Mason Stalker, the deputy commanding general for Security Assistance Group Ukraine, the group responsible for coordinating international military aid to the country. Now, Stalker said, leaders have asked western countries to train the trainers.
“They know that they need to have professional instructors and a professional instructor corps to help continue education and training,” he said.
The U.S. and allies have trained 89,090 Ukrainian troops across 88 training locations so far, with 7,800 more troops in training now, according to a slide shared Tuesday at the annual AUSA conference in Washington.
Of those troops, the countries supporting Ukraine have trained 3,800 leaders. The total includes 2,600 squad commanders, 540 platoon commanders, 300 company commanders, and 40 platoon and company sergeants. An additional 520 leaders are in training….
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Trainers also said they’ve learned from the Ukrainians.
Col. Bryan Harris, commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, helped train Ukrainians to launch combined operations, including coordinating between Bradley infantry fighting vehicles and M109 Paladin howitzers.
A Ukrainian brigade commander training under Harris had “nine or so TVs in the back of his command vehicle, and they were all [to watch feeds from] drones,” he said.
By contrast, Harris had just four screens in his command vehicle. For the Ukrainian forces trained by the U.S., “every squad had their own drone,” he said.
Lt. Col. Seth Barrett, commander of the unit that taught Ukraine to operate Patriot anti-missile batteries, said Ukrainian troops’ ability to quickly master a foreign system in a different language made him reassess what the U.S. might expect from its own soldiers….
Now, you are mixing up two topics under the same heading.
Sorry
On the phone