Thread by @anno1540

🇬🇧 For every little more than 90 meters of advance, Russia loses 2,000 fighters, - The Times.
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Russia is losing as many as 2,000 men for every 100 yards gained in human wave assaults in eastern Ukraine, according to Nato intelligence.
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The figures came after a day of pledges by Nato defence ministers to equip Ukraine against the Russian offensive, particularly its aerial threat, amid reports that the Kremlin is massing fighter jets, bombers and attack helicopters on its western borders.
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Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said Nato was “laser-focused’ on providing equipment that would prove decisive on the battlefield, giving Kyiv the ability to push Russia back in the next three months
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You’ve seen us move to provide Bradleys, Marders [infantry fighting vehicles], Leopard tanks and a number of other things . . . that I think will make a pretty significant difference,”-
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-he said yesterday at a meeting of Nato defence ministers. He added that “Russia continues to pour large numbers of additional people into the fight. Most people are ill-trained and ill-equipped and, because of that, we see them incurring a lot of casualties.”
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US officials said they were racing to provide Ukraine with advanced air defence systems before a huge Russian aerial assault planned for the spring.
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There was said to be “a lot of action on the border, a lot of preparations” of Russian bombers, fighter jets and helicopter gunships, highlighting the need to deliver equipment to Ukraine and to renew ammunition supplies, which are running low throughout Nato.
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“Russian land forces are quite thinned out, ragged and very demoralised, so the best indication is that they will try to switch to aerial combat,” an American official said.
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The United States,
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Germany and the Netherlands are trying to accelerate the delivery of Patriot missile batteries to Ukraine
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while France
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-
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- and Italy are supplying SAMPT/T or Mamba rockets.
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Other NASAMS, or National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, that can identify, engage, and destroy aircraft, helicopters, cruise missiles, and drones have also been pledged.
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Austin told defence ministers that the US had no specific intelligence on an imminent aerial attack by Russia. “In terms of whether or not Russia is massing its aircraft for some massive aerial attack, we don’t currently see that,”-
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he said in Brussels. “We do know that Russia has a substantial number of aircraft in its inventory and a lot of capability left. That’s why, we have emphasised that we need to do everything that we can to get Ukraine as much air defence capability as we possibly can.”
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Jens Stoltenberg, the Nato secretary-general, has warned the alliance of a “race of logistics” to get ammunition and missile systems to Ukraine in the coming weeks.
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Armouries are running low on stocks of ammunition such as artillery shells, which are being fired at a rate of 5,000 a day by Ukraine and the waiting time for munition orders have increased from 12 to 28 months as defence industries struggle to keep up
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Stoltenberg said today that the alliance was “strengthening our deterrence and defence” by putting 40,000 troops under Nato command in the eastern part of the alliance.
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The number of battlegroups would double from four to eight, he said, with significant air and maritime assets.

He added that to ensure Nato had “the capabilities necessary for a credible deterrence and defence”
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it would look for ways to enhance defence industrial capacity. “We will also address how we can maintain and step up defence spending across the alliance,” he said
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Thus far, President Putin has appeared reluctant to use aircraft and helicopters, preferring to use cruise and ballistic missiles to press the Russian aerial advantage while holding his expensive aircraft in reserve. A Russian Su-35 fighter jet costs about £35 million.
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At one point, this tactic appeared to be working. Russian missiles and Iranian-made suicide drones were getting through air defences. On October 10, Ukraine shot down 43 of 83 missiles launched by Russia, or 52 per cent.
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The integration of western air defence systems such as German Iris-Ts, the American NASAMS and Slovakian S-300 into the Ukrainian military has improved rates. Ukraine shot down 61 of 71 missiles on one day last week, or 86 per cent.
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Meanwhile, America and Germany are arming Kyiv with batteries of Patriot missiles, one of the world’s most sophisticated systems.
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Nato members are divided on increasing spending commitment beyond the present 2 per cent of national GDP, which is being proposed to shore up their own forces and accommodate a voracious demand from Ukraine.
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“I think moving towards the 2 per cent target alone will not be enough, it can only be the basis for further steps,” Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, said.
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Canada, Italy, Luxembourg and Spain are reluctant to step up commitments and want overseas operation and economic heft taken into account. “The 2 per cent is okay but we must also guarantee that we have some flexibility because the countries are different,” -
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François Bausch, Luxembourg defence minister, said.

The decision will be taken at a Nato summit in Vilnius in July.

As part of the effort to undermine the Kremlin’s offensive, the EU plans to increase sanctions on Russia, banning from export-
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-dual use products worth about €11 billion in annual trade. 
We need to keep up the pressure,” Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said of the bloc’s tenth sanctions package
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“We are suggesting restrictions on some dual-use and electronic components used in Russian armed systems such as drones and missiles and helicopters.”
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The package is also likely to target Iran for supplying Russia with military equipment. “There are also hundreds of drones manufactured in Iran, used by Russia, in the battlefield in Ukraine,” she said.
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These Iranian drones kill Ukrainian civilians . . . so for the first time we are also suggesting sanctions targeting Iranian economic operators including those linked to the Revolutionary Guards.”
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Russian military aircraft including fighter jets and strategic bombers have been intercepted by North American air defence forces as they flew over international airspace near Alaska.
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The aircraft, which were identified on Monday, did not enter American or Canadian airspace and did not pose a threat, the North American Aerospace Defence Command said.
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