JRL NEWSWATCH: “Pentagon’s Ukraine Coffers Run Dry, Threatening Kyiv’s Grip on Its Territory” – WSJ

U.S. Capitol in Bright Sunlight

“Funding for more weapons and ammunition is held up in fight over border policy; ‘We’re out of money’” “The Washington stalemate over U.S. [border] policy … is … reverberat[ing] on the Ukraine battlefield, where Kyiv’s troops are running out of ammunition and the Pentagon says it can’t provide more without emptying its own arsenal. … [T]he Pentagon has run out […]

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Russia in Review, Nov. 17-21, 2023

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

(Russia Matters – russiamatters.org) 3 Things to Know In the past month, Russian forces have gained 16 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while Ukraine gained 7 square miles, according to calculations by Katherine Davidson, associate of the Belfer Russia-Ukraine War Task Force.1Yet, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has this week denied his top general Valery Zaluzhny’s recent claim that the war has reached […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Change of plans: U.S. Army embraces lessons learned from war in Ukraine” – Defense News

Pentagon Aerial View adapted from defense.gov image, with photo credit: DoD photo by U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. John Wright

“Expensive, massive tanks destroyed by small and cheap loitering munitions. Drones helping artillery locate targets. A battlefield so flooded with sensors … it’s impossible to stay hidden for long. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the [U.S.] Army has carefully taken note of these trends. … [T]hose changes are reshaping the service’s plans from acquisition to how to approach […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia’s Army Learns From Its Mistakes in Ukraine” – WSJ

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Early in the war, the West was shocked at the Russian military’s poor performance. But Moscow has fixed many errors and adapted on the battlefield.” “… After Ukraine easily swept through Russia’s lines in the Kharkiv region last autumn, Moscow spent months preparing formidable defenses …. Moscow is also deploying drones to scope out and attack Ukrainian positions … Ukrainian […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Ukraine’s counteroffensive to continue after onset of bad weather, spy chief says” – Reuters

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Ukraine’s counteroffensive … will continue through the onset of cold and wet weather later this year …, Kyiv’s intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said[:] …. ‘Combat actions will continue in one way or another. In the cold, wet and mud, it is more difficult to fight. Fighting will continue. The counteroffensive will continue’ …. Apart from the huge concentration of Russian […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russians Are Unraveling Before Our Eyes; A wave of fresh humiliations has the Kremlin struggling to control the narrative” – Foreign Policy/ Alexey Kovalev

Kremlin and River

“[After militant incursions into Russian territory,] [c]ombined with … Moscow drone attack[s], it’s now clear … Russia’s war has come home to roost … The Ukrainians have also been stepping up their drone attacks on oil refineries, airfields, and other critical sites deep inside Russia. … [T]he Russians seem to be unraveling. … [such as with] the bitter conflict between […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Letter from Moscow: When war suddenly explodes over your roof” – Christian Science Monitor/ Fred Weir

Map of Russia and Russian Flag adapted from images at state.gov

“In Moscow, it can be easy to ignore the devastating but faraway war in Ukraine. But that changes quickly when drones and anti-aircraft missiles start exploding in the skies overhead one morning.” “It’s been frustrating to report from Russia over the past 16 months, when the story has largely been one of prevailing calm, quiet, and outright normalcy, even as […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin is terrified of Ukraine’s counteroffensive” – The Telegraph

Map of Ukraine, Including Crimea, and Neighbors, Including Russia

“Airstrikes on Kyiv were an attempt to undermine morale. Instead, they will have strengthened it.” “Putin is in a panic over the expected Ukrainian counteroffensive, which may already be in its preliminary ‘battlefield-shaping’ stage. He doesn’t know … when the offensive will be launched, where it will strike or whether it will succeed. … [H]e does know … that if […]

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RUSSIALINK: “Russian Officials, Pro-Kremlin Figures Offer Mixed Response to Moscow Drone Attack” – Moscow Times

Tower and Building Inside Kremlin

(Moscow Times – May 30, 2023) Russian officials and pro-Kremlin voices were split over Tuesday’s unprecedented drone attack on Moscow and its surrounding areas, with some downplaying the attack and others sharply criticizing the country’s defense capabilities. President Vladimir Putin called the incident a provocation by Kyiv but appeared calm in televised comments, saying that Moscow’s air defense systems “worked […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Russia Denounces West Over Drone Strike on Moscow” – New York Times

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

“Kremlin officials said Ukraine’s allies should have condemned the strike, and argued again that its real war was with the West.” “A day after a drone strike on Moscow, Kremlin officials jumped on the refusal of Ukrainian allies to denounce the attack as proof that Russia’s real war was with the West. … While none of Ukraine’s allies went so […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Executive Summary: Russia’s Use of Uncrewed Systems in Ukraine” – CNA

European Portion of Commonwealth of Independent States

“Consistent with Russian military doctrine, the Russian military has used uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) extensively in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations in Ukraine. … [giving drones] prominent roles in artillery, counter-battery, and precision strikes missions. … ISR drones play a central role in much of the Russian … targeting process, [but] it appears … the rate of response is […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “What is the war in Ukraine teaching Western armies? It shows the importance of dispersal, firepower and stockpiles” – The Economist

File photo

“… The pivotal role of artillery is a sobering thought for western European armies, whose firepower has dwindled dramatically since the end of the cold war. … Ukraine[] … started the war with over 1,000 barrel artillery systems (those with long tubes) and 1,680 multiple-rocket launchers — more than Britain, France, Italy, Spain and Poland [combined] … the largest artillery […]

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JRL NEWSWATCH: “Putin’s Regime is ‘Cracking’ as Elites Panic: Former U.S. Ambassador” – Newsweek

File Photo of Red Square, Kremlin, Environs, adapted from image at state.gov

“An argument on Russian state television is a ‘good sign’ that the country’s leadership is cracking, according to [] former U.S. [A]mbassador [McFaul]. Russia [reportedly] has threatened to nationalize assets of Western companies … pull[ing] resources from the country following its [Ukraine] invasion …. Hundreds of companies have already left Russia after expressing dissatisfaction with the war … [I]f the […]

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NEWSWATCH: “Russian Hackers Hunt Hi-Tech Secrets, Exploiting US Weakness” [excerpt] – AP

File Image of Stylized Eye Surrounded by Binary Code

“Russian cyberspies pursuing the secrets of military drones and other sensitive U.S. defense technology tricked key contract workers into exposing their email to theft …. What ultimately may have been stolen is uncertain, but the hackers clearly exploited a national vulnerability in cybersecurity: poorly protected email and barely any direct notification to victims. The hackers known as Fancy Bear, who […]

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Drones that attacked Russian military bases in Syria could have been shipped only from U.S. – Russian senator

Syria Map

MOSCOW. Jan 9 (Interfax) – The drones that attacked Russia’s military bases in Syria could have been shipped to the country only from the United States, Russian Federation Council Defense and Security Committee head Viktor Bondarev said. “I think it’s clear to everyone who stands behind the militants. Only a technologically powerful state could have supplied the drones that bombarded […]

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Russia’s shiny new weapons

Kremlin and St. Basil's file photo

(opendemocracy.net – Mark Galeotti – January 10, 2014) Mark Galeotti is Professor of Global Affairs at New York University’s SCPS Center for Global Affairs. He blogs on Russian security affairs at In Moscow’s Shadows and tweets as @MarkGaleotti. His most recent book is Russian Security and Paramilitary Forces since 1991 (Osprey, 2013) ‘Drones are not toys,’ says Vladimir Putin, and […]

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Interfax: Top Russian judge says U.S. drone operators ‘legitimate’ targets in war on terror

Russian Constitutional Court file photo

(Interfax – St. Petersburg, May 30, 2013) UAV operators are a legitimate enemy target in wartime, Russian Constitutional Court Chairman Valeriy Zorkin believes. “A drone operator should have no illusions about his own security and impunity while controlling a UAV from a suburb of the US capital via satellite. He is a legitimate enemy target according to the legal views […]

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