Jan 10, 2024. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
US and UK
forces have shot down more than 20 drones and missiles over the Red Sea
launched by Yemen’s Houthis, in what London branded Wednesday the “largest
attack” yet by the Iran-backed militia.
India will increase the number of warships for anti-piracy operations in the Arabian Sea by five times more than last year as the threats of attacks rise.
The new
30x173 millimeter cannon, which is produced by "Zastava Arms" and
whose effectiveness was shown by the Serbian Army towards the end of last year,
is in the final stage before entering the armed forces of the Serbian Armed
Forces.
Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey plan to conclude a cooperation
agreement for demining the Black Sea next week, Bulgarian Defense Minister
Todor Tagarev announced Thursday evening, quoted by EFE.
Jan 5, 2024. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
According
to information published by the Turkish government on January 3, 2023, in
a meeting chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential
Complex, the Defense Industry Executive Committee convened to discuss the
current status and future goals of Turkey's defense industry.
The White
House has said North Korea provided Russia with ballistic missiles and
launchers for its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Putin sped up the Russian
citizenship process for foreign fighters. DW has the latest.
Jan 3, 2024. Hellas. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Hevi al-Malla checks her house in the town of Derbasiyah in Hasakah
Governorate, northeastern Syria, after it was subjected to Turkish bombardment
days ago and sustained significant damage.
The Gerald
R. Ford aircraft carrier will return to its home port, the US Navy said on
Monday, ending its deployment to the eastern Mediterranean, which started
in support of Israel after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas militants.
Jan 1, 2024. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
According to Kosovo media, the President of the country, Vjosa Osmani, Prime Minister Albin Kurti,
The Central Command of the People's Defense Center (NPG) confirmed that its forces carried out 1,712 operations against the Turkish occupation army, which is attacking the defense areas in
Dec 29, 2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
A Russian missile passed through Polish airspace Friday, entering from and then back into Ukraine, the Polish army said, as Russia pummelled Ukraine with one of the biggest missile attacks of the war.
It's
dragging on too long. It's too much of a drain on our resources. It's not our
fight. These are some of the arguments - although to call them that gives them
too much credit - being pushed in Western capitals at the moment.
By STEPHEN
POLLARD
When
historians look back at our century from the vantage point of 2123, it’s
possible they will regard this month as being as disastrous for future peace
and prosperity – and freedom – as we now look back at the Munich Agreement of
September 1938, or Hitler’s invasion of the Rhineland in March 1936.
Our failure
to act against him then set the path which led to the Second World War.
Disastrously, at the very time when Ukraine needs our support – in money and
weapons – there are ever-louder calls for an accommodation to be reached with
Vladimir Putin: which means in reality rewarding him for invading Ukraine.
It’s
dragging on too long. It’s too much of a drain on our resources. It’s not our
fight. These are some of the arguments – although to call them that gives them
too much credit – being pushed in Western capitals at the moment.
Should they
hold sway, they will mark a devastating defeat for the forces of freedom. They
will show that the West is as weak as our enemies believe.
In February
2022 the West was near-unanimous in seeing Russia’s invasion as a
black-and-white issue. We stood solidly by Ukraine’s side, supplying weapons
and money, with eloquent speeches made pledging that the West would do whatever
it took to help repel the invaders.
This was
not altruism. It was – is – in all our interests that Russia is defeated. Had
we simply stood back and shrugged our shoulders, offering nothing except
solidarity, we would have been signing, if not our own, then the death warrant
of any notion of international order, let alone international law.
We would
have been signalling to Vladimir Putin and any other would-be aggressor that
while we might talk a good game of defence and security, when push came to
shove we would fold.
We would be
sending a clear message that violence and force pay – a terrible, disastrous
and ruinous message to send.
We know
this is true because history has shown it time and time again. In 1936, for
example, Hitler saw that he could break the terms of the Versailles Treaty by
invading the Rhineland and the rest of Europe would simply stand and watch.
Similarly,
when the German army entered Czechoslovakia in September 1939, we threw a hissy
fit but then walked away from confrontation when Hitler signed the Munich
Agreement – a meaningless piece of paper in which he said with a straight face
that he had no more territorial ambitions. No wonder he then invaded Poland.
More
recently, having spent a fortune in money and lives in Afghanistan fighting the
Taliban, in 2021 we simply cut and ran, with US soldiers fleeing Kabul in much
the same way as they left Saigon when it fell to the Viet Cong in 1975.
Vladimir
Putin will have drawn the same conclusion as everyone else: that the West is
spineless. He saw the same thing in 2014 when he invaded Crimea. We passed lots
of resolutions and issued full-throated condemnations but what we actually did
was: nothing. Which is why, eight years later, he invaded the rest of Ukraine.
Yes, we
leapt to its aid and gave it weapons and money. But there is a Taliban phrase
which is just as relevant for Ukraine: You have the watches, we have the time.
In other words, at some point you will run out of patience – and we will be
waiting when that happens. Which brings us to December 2023.
A fortnight
ago Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Washington to beg for help.
Last year he was serenaded with a joint session of Congress and a $50billion
aid package. But that aid runs out at the end of this month.
And, as
things stand, that’s it. There is no more money.
President
Biden understands why it is essential we do whatever it takes to defeat Russia,
but his Republican opponents have taken leave of their senses and are refusing
to consider more aid until Biden changes policy on illegal immigration.
I say they
have taken leave of their senses, but they are in reality pre-empting a return
to the White House by Donald Trump. The former president would stop all aid to
Ukraine, handing Putin a terrible victory.
It is
difficult to overstate how awful this is. Allowing Putin to walk away with land
gained from aggression would mark the end of international law and destroy the
next century.
The likes
of China, Iran and North Korea would see that the West remains as weak and
unreliable an ally as they have always believed. This is a disaster, and it is
one of the West’s shameful making
Express
(british)
--
The Iraqi
federal government on Tuesday condemned the retaliatory airstrikes carried out
by United States forces against pro-Iran militia groups in the country earlier
in the day, saying that the attacks targeted Iraqi military bases, killing one
and injuring 18 others.
Dec 24, 2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
Turkish jets on Saturday hit oil infrastructure in northeast Syria (Photo: social media)Turkish jets on Saturday hit oil infrastructure in northeast Syria (Photo: social media)Syria Turkish airstrikes northeast Syria SDF Tirbespi Qamishlo Derik
Dec 23,
2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
Erbil. Kurdistan
Region.
Staff
Lieutenant General Issa Ozer, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Peshmerga, on
Friday received General Pierre Schill, Chief of Staff of the French Army, and
his accompanying delegation, according to a statement from the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) Ministry of Peshmerga Affairs.
A total of
more than 20 countries have agreed to participate in the new U.S.-led coalition
safeguarding commercial traffic in the Red Sea from attacks by Yemen's Houthi
movement as more nations join the effort, the Pentagon said on Thursday.
Dec 19,
2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Cairo.
The Egyptian Naval Forces received the “Al-Qadir” frigate of the
(MEKO-A200) model after completing the receipt procedures in the German city of
(Bremerhaven) to join the Egyptian naval fleet.
On Tuesday, December 19, the Italian government approved the decision to extend military assistance to Ukraine, and it will be continued until the end of 2024. Now, it requires confirmation by the parliament.
Bilateral
Armenia-Greece and Armenia-Cyprus consultations, as well as trilateral
consolations between the three countries were held at the premises of the
Armenian Ministry of Defense.