CIA Director Ratcliffe: “I don’t take Vladimir Putin at his word.”
Ratcliffe confirmed Iran is seeking intelligence from Russia and China to target US forces. Moscow may be providing data like satellite imagery, NYPost. 1/
Ratcliffe: “The Iranians are requesting intelligence assistance from Russia, from China, and from other adversaries of the US.”
Details on whether support is being provided were kept classified. 2/
Russia may be supplying targeting data, including satellite imagery and intelligence on US assets in the Middle East, to support Iranian operations. Moscow denies the claims. 3/
DNI Gabbard refused to confirm publicly: “If there is that sharing going on, that would be appropriate for a closed session. Support to Iran is not limiting its operational effectiveness.” 4/
Sen. Warner: “We have repeated public reporting about China and Russia assisting Iran, and none of you would confirm that publicly.” 5/
Chairman Tom Cotton: “The media is not a classification authority. But sharing intelligence with Iran certainly sounds like something Russia and China would do.” 6/
Trump on potential Russian support: “They are not doing a very good job because Iran is not doing too well.” 7/
Iran’s FM Araghchi: “Russia and China have always helped us.”
He declined to give details “in the middle of a war,” reinforcing claims of coordination among US adversaries. 8X
Keane: European weakness comes from decades of cutting defense spending to pay for domestic programs.
Russia saw those vulnerabilities and invaded Ukraine, while the US now needs allied support for operations — and expects Europe to step forward after initial hesitation. 1/
Keane: The US objective is to strip Iran of both defensive and offensive weapons, including its nuclear capability.
Progress has been systematic and accurate, with 5,000-pound bombs now used to hit deeply buried missile storage sites that cannot be destroyed from the surface. 2/
Keane: Israeli operations are targeting the organizations that sustain the regime, including militias and command structures
Leadership is being systematically removed, cracks are appearing and the goal is to set conditions for regime collapse by breaking the chain of control 3X
Bolton on NATO support in the Iran war: If you want a coalition to help you in a war, you form it before the war starts.
Trump made no effort to build a coalition with NATO allies, and European leaders are tired of being criticized by him after repeated attacks on the alliance1/
Bolton: European leaders saying Iran is not our war is a very dangerous way to put it.
It invites Trump to respond in the same way and say Ukraine is not our war, while the campaign targets the instruments of Iranian power as the regime loses leaders and begins to fracture. 2/
Q: Was Trump unaware Iran could strike neighbors or close Strait of Hormuz?
Bolton: I know for fact he was aware of those potentials, I raised regime change several times.
Each time there was a list of consequences, including closing the strait and attacks on Gulf oil sites. 3X
Kellogg on Iran and regional operations: I’d be satisfied with kill them all.
They should have taken out Hezbollah a long time ago, and instead everything was allowed to fester across multiple groups in the region. 1/
Kellogg: The Iranian intelligence minister Ismael Khatib has been eliminated.
They are going down the process of taking out leadership, missiles, and nuclear sites, and they keep sequencing targets as this keeps moving forward. 2/
Kellogg: They are sequencing their way toward potentially taking Kharg Island.
Ninety percent of exporting of oil goes through there, and I would take it — once you control that oil and open the Strait of Hormuz, it’s quite advantageous. 3/
Ukraine agreed to allow repairs to the Druzhba pipeline after EU pressure.
The move can unlock a €90bn loan held up by Hungary and Slovakia after months of dispute over Russian oil transit through Ukrainian territory — FT. 1/
Russian strikes damaged the pipeline in January and stopped oil flows.
Kyiv refused inspections and said it had already shown evidence of damage, while Hungary and Slovakia accused Ukraine of delaying the work for political reasons. 2/
Zelenskyy: We can restore flows in about six weeks by repairing a pumping station in western Ukraine with EU support.
But I am against restoring Russian oil flows, I see this as blackmail, and Europe must phase out Russian oil by 2027. 3X
Ukraine is building its own Iron Dome — for a country 30 times larger than Israel. Israel never shared its system. Ukraine had no choice but to design one from scratch — El País. 1/
In January Zelenskyy appointed Pavlo Yelizarov as deputy commander of the Air Force specifically for this mission.
Yelizarov: “Our task is to build an anti-drone dome over Ukraine — a system that destroys the threat as it approaches, not after the fact.” 2/
Last week alone Russia hit Ukraine with 1,770 suicide drones, 1,530 aerial bombs and 86 missiles. Ukraine covers 233,000 square miles — roughly 20% under Russian occupation. The scale of defense required has no modern precedent. 3/