"The 1980's are calling to ask for their foreign policy back."

https://x.com/zelenskyyua/status/1755683146270416985?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

https://apnews.com/article/ukraine-f16-pilot-training-russia-5ba9a0842ec02e02b2d0b86ef85247a5

https://x.com/nexta_tv/status/1755876690277105927?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

I wonder what the FSB has on Elmo.

https://x.com/enbridgethe3rd/status/1756918421839884376?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

https://bsky.app/profile/jlazarus.bsky.social/post/3klbdt5v2qf27

Ukraine says Russia buying Starlink terminals in 'Arab countries'

https://x.com/neilphauer/status/1757513354791322021?s=46&t=iYW3foyqIA6Tn8VWwn3nwQ

https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/14/poli...n-serious-national-security-threat/index.html

Huh. Who could have imagined that the response to a potential American President saying, “Fuck it. Let the Russians have Europe.” would be an increase in European military spending?



https://www.reuters.com/world/europ...ilitary-spending-wake-ukraine-war-2024-02-14/

The bastards killed Navalny.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68315943

https://www.france24.com/en/live-ne...al-security-agreement-on-friday-élysée-palace

Ukrainian troops leave key city to avoid encirclement.

After the failure of their own offensive, they're now being pushed back.

The manpower situation is such that the average age of a Ukrainian soldier is now 42. Apparently this is bad, which should irk me, since that's my age.

In World War II the average age of the combat soldier was 26
In Vietnam he was 19
Nananananinteen

How long that I did not think of that song... but I still know the numbers

Seriously though, 42 as an average age seems almost unbelievably high (and hits too close to home for me, too, although at 40, I'd still be younger-than-average)

An average age of 42 sounds more like what the desperate late-war Nazis would have been at when these guys were brought in:

if they hadn't balanced it off with with those:


If true, that is actually really worrisome for Ukraine

Wait, I got that wrong. It's 43! Should this make me feel better?

https://www.businessinsider.com/average-age-ukrainian-soldier-43-amid-personnel-problems-2023-11

Ukraine has so far made the decision not to draft 18-25 year olds, instead relying on older vets. The average age has increased over time as they go higher and higher.

Their initial thinking was that their youth were their future. They are their most educated, most westernized, most capable of excelling in high tech environment, etc so they didn’t want to mortgage their future.

As the war drags on and America is failing to supply them properly they are now having to reconsider that policy.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/just...00000-forfeited-russian-funds-estonia-benefit

While Republicans hold up $64B in Ukrainian assistance Estonia just donated the equivalent (adjusted for GDP) of $868B to Ukraine. Also, for comparison, 3.6% is larger than the entire US defense budget.

Such a small country Estonia. And yet so much money. I wonder why they feel countering Russian aggression is so important?

There's a lot I don't like about Mittens, but at least he gets Ukraine.

https://bsky.app/profile/bnonews.com/post/3kls26f7cze2y

What is BNO? I haven’t been able to discern if they’re trustworthy yet.

Breaking News Outlet. From what I can tell, they just grab stuff from wire services and post the headlines. I haven't seen anything to indicate that they're more error-prone than reputable news sources, though oftentimes they don't give enough details on the story.

So since Trump and his followers don’t understand how NATO works and he was just mouthing off about encouraging Russia to invade NATO members a little aside.

There is no NATO budget that folks aren’t contributing to. Okay well yeah, there is a small NATO budget for like SACEUR* HQ and a couple other things but everyone is paying into those things.

This is about an agreement made in 2014 that by 2024 NATO member states would spend 2% of their GDP ON THEIR OWN MILITARY. They aren’t paying the US anything. It is their own military.

Well it is is 2024 and not everyone’s budget is finalized but it looks like only a little over half of NATO members will meet the 2% target.

If we don’t include Ukraine funding. If we consider Ukraine funding to be defense spending then like 2/3rds of Europe is compliant.

Regardless what I want to talk about is the second part that for some reason no one else is mentioning.

2% of GDP on defense 20% of spending on new and upgraded equipment.

You can’t just raise the pay of your generals to meet the threshold you gotta actually be investing in your capabilities.

Damn this is gone on too long but anyway only six NATO countries** currently meet both recommendations. The United States, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland.

Now five of those countries seem to have geographical commonalities. And some shared history.

So when Trump talks about encouraging an invasion who the fuck is he talking about?

*SACEUR - I know it is a total throwback to WWII but I hope they never get rid of it - Supreme Allied Commander Europe is seriously one of the most badass titles ever.

**There are two very conspicuous absences on this list. Countries with both very large economies and very capable, very well trained militaries but apparently beans on toast and gravy on fries is more expensive than it would seem (both meet the 2% not the 20%)

Russian pilot who defected found dead in Spain, says Ukraine security agency

Ukraine-Russia war live: FSB arrests US citizen for ‘treason’

https://bsky.app/profile/bnonews.com/post/3kly3se6y4s2u

https://news.sky.com/story/british-...e-in-ukraine-sky-data-analysis-finds-13077660

Summary: The UK sanctions have meant a collapse in direct trade to Russia, but UK companies are supplying the Russian military via other Russian allies, who act as a middle-man. How the hell is this not taken into account when sanctions are designed?

https://x.com/economyinformal/status/1761434207165755504