Foreman, ex-attaché in Moscow: Putin saw Biden as a weak touch after the evacuation from Afghanistan. He looked at Biden and thought: You're weak. I can get away with it
He chose badly. NATO stood together. America stood with Ukraine. Ukrainians fought for their independence. 1/
Foreman: Putin launched the invasion to absorb Ukraine, Ukrainian statehood and nationhood, and Ukrainians as an independent people, and bring them back into the fold.
He believes Russia cannot be a great power without Ukraine. 2/
Foreman: Putin wanted to push back against the 1991 settlement. He and the Siloviki [Russia's security elite] believed Russia had lost the Cold War.
They wanted Russia to regain its place as an independent great power on the world stage. 3/
Krzysztof Bosak, a far-right deputy speaker of Poland’s parliament, says the government secretly transferred Patriot missiles to Ukraine in March.
Poland’s Defence Ministry says the list of military aid is classified — European Pravda. 1/
Bosak says the missiles were bought from the U.S. for Poland’s own layered air defense system.
The interceptors are needed for Poland’s defense against Russian Iskander missiles in Kaliningrad. 2/
The government has not publicly confirmed the transfer.
Deputy Defence Minister Cezary Tomczyk told Polsat News that the list of aid to Ukraine is secret.
But presidential official Marcin Przydacz said the transfer was “highly likely.” 3/
Ukraine publicly displayed its US-supplied Harpoon coastal defense missile system for the first time since receiving it in 2022.
The missile can strike maritime targets at roughly 70–130 nautical miles, or 130–240 km, depending on the version, United24 Media. 1/
Ukraine showed the Harpoon launcher during Zelenskyy’s visit to Odesa region on July 4.
The Navy also presented domestically produced Neptune missiles, unmanned systems and torpedo weapons as part of a meeting on security in southern Ukraine. 2/
Ukraine received Harpoon coastal defense systems from the US and Denmark in 2022.
The missiles have been used operationally since the early stages of delivery, but the launchers had not been officially shown until now. 3/
German tanks are returning to a region they once razed.
For the first time since the Cold War, Germany is permanently deploying military units abroad: the 45th Panzer Brigade in Lithuania, as American forces in the region dwindle, The Economist. 1/
The 45th Brigade trained along Lithuania’s border with Belarus to be ready to fight tonight to defend Vilnius and hold the Suwalki corridor.
It will grow from 1,600 soldiers to around 5,000 by the end of 2027, with armour, artillery, drones and air defence. 2/
Under “NATO 3.0,” America demands that Europeans lead their own conventional defence while the US provides a nuclear umbrella.
Germany plans to spend 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2029 and could outspend Britain and France combined by decade’s end. 3/