Nato leaders will approve major increases in its forces in eastern Europe at an emergency summit later, Nato's secretary general says.

Jens Stoltenberg says four new battlegroups will be sent to Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania.

US President Joe Biden has left the White House to travel to Europe for the Nato summit.

Ukrainian soldiers are successfully fighting back against invading Russian forces to reclaim ground in some parts of the country, the Pentagon says.

There are reports of the Ukrainian flag being raised again in the suburb of Makariv, west of the capital Kyiv.

But Russian bombardment of the southern port city of Mariupol continues unabated, with some 100,000 people said to be trapped there.

1. The Ruble will go up. It already has, for the time beign at least. But the likelihood for a total boycott of Russian gas from affected states also has climbed. Maybe not Germany, but others.

2. No. Russia will not change this demand. Spock calculated the probability that they would, with less than 10%.

Ukrainian troops are counter-attacking Russian forces in some areas of the country, with reports that they have gained ground near the capital, Kyiv.

Local authorities in the town of Makariv, west of Kyiv, said Ukrainian flags were flying there once more.

A US defence spokesman said Ukrainians were also reversing momentum in some parts of the south.

In the small southern town of Voznesensk, Russian forces were pushed back and an armoured convoy destroyed.

And in Kherson, close to the Crimean peninsula and the first city to fall to Russia, Ukrainian forces are also trying to recapture territory.

A UK defence analyst told the BBC the fightback could force Moscow to change its tactics.

However, the latest assessment from the UK Ministry of Defence says Russian troops in Ukraine are moving in from the north and south to "envelop Ukrainian forces in the east of the country".

The note says "Russian forces are likely reorganising before resuming large-scale offensive operations".
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60847188

They're mean in Chattanooga
 

Perhaps Mr Bennett reads my posts!!?? Today political cartoon>:O: https://media.timesfreepress.com/img...8803249141.jpg

Note this is by Ukrainian sources, and it could be a propaganda attempt to drive wedges between Putin and his security apparatus and alientate him and the establishemnt furtehr form each other by fostering his paranoia.

True but I believe we have long been at the point where anything is possible.

It is interesting to follow what's going on in the air over Europe especially near the Ukrainian border.

Markus

You think so? Not much traffic now, there has been much more in the last days. Tankers and drones, of course only those they want you to see. Forte 11 is going on strong :03:

Maybe not now-But there have been times where there have been a lot of activity in the air. This happens mostly during the daytime

Edit
I'm following No callsign approaching Brussels airport
End edit

Markus

The whole EU must switch to war economy NOW.


FOCUS correctly writes:


With joint gas purchases and shared supplies, the EU should prove to be a true community of solidarity to break free from energy dependence on Russia. Germany's willingness to make sacrifices is still low. The upcoming EU summit could change that. After all, war requires a war economy.

Instead of oil, gas and coal, only blood, sweat and tears: This is what the future looks like, if the warnings of an energy embargo against Russia are to be believed. For Germany in particular, with its criminal dependence on Russian natural gas, such a boycott could only be sustained at great sacrifice. But it is certainly conceivable as an effort of EU solidarity.

Always informed: The course of the war in Ukraine in the ticker - Ukrainian military destroys Russian positions near Kherson for the eighth time.
Putin threatens and cashes in

Corresponding demands are piling up and will be on the table again at the upcoming EU summit. For it is increasingly intolerable that those Europeans who are allowed to live freely and peacefully should transfer hundreds of millions of euros to Moscow's war chest for gas supplies every day that dawns over the ruins of Mariupol. Germany in the lead.

In the first month since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, natural gas dealer Vladimir Putin has continued to pump billions of cubic meters of his stuff into the economic arteries of his Western junkies. Like any unscrupulous drug pusher, he can threaten withdrawal at any time. The Kremlin spews apocalyptic predictions: Western embargoes would have "disastrous consequences for the European energy market," it sounds from Moscow.

Emergency plans are already underway. They envisage forced shutdowns for industrial plants and preferential supplies for private households and public institutions such as hospitals. Manfred Weber (CSU), the chairman of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) group in the European Parliament, used an appropriate word in this context: "war economy".

For all the warnings of production slumps, supply problems and job losses, we cannot avoid the truth of this uncomfortable word. There is indeed a war going on in Europe, and the EU is fighting along on the economic front.
Scholz and the traffic light government shy away from market intervention

War has its own laws; it suspends many rules, including those of the free market. That's why a number of Germany's EU partners are considering government-imposed price caps for electricity. The German government has so far rejected this as inadmissible market intervention. Berlin does not yet seem to have understood how a war economy works.

It is now essential to join forces throughout the EU. This includes sharing strategic gas reserves and making gas purchasing a joint affair in the future. The EU heads of state and government could agree on this step in Brussels. It would prevent EU states from competing with each other on the already overheated gas market and fueling price increases. Instead, they would bring their concerted market power to bear as major buyers.
Selensky's daily appeal: do not continue to finance Russian war machine

At the same time, according to further plans of the EU Commission, the costs of building a significantly expanded European gas stockpile are to be shared in solidarity. The goal is to fill the underground gas storage facilities in the entire EU to 90 percent by October 1 - so far, it is not even 30 percent. By the end of this year, the EU's dependence on Russian natural gas is to be reduced by two-thirds.

These are ambitious goals for a new European energy solidarity community, which currently still covers 40 percent of its gas needs with imports from Russia. Russian oil and gas have so far not been on the EU's ever-lengthening sanctions list. Germany in particular, which obtains more than half of its gas imports from Russia, is resisting a boycott. The German government considers the expected burden on the economy and the population to be too high. This is contrasted by the almost daily appeal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Selenskyi: "Please don't finance Russia's war machine." The moral pressure on Berlin is growing.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)


Meanwhile, there is suspicion that Germany has not deliverd all the weapons it announced it would deliver. The chief of the oppositional CDU demanded explanations and transparency in a general debate in the Bundestag - and Bubble-Olaf did what he excels in: he completely ignored it again and red his speech from 39 pages of paper, emotioinless, unappealing, desinterested, an apparatschik of the worst boring kind, again showing total unwillingness or inability to adress actual events in reality.

It now is reported Germany wants to deliver additional 2000 Panzerfaust-3's When, where, how many in reality - that remains unanswered.

I see potential that this crisis will topple the rooster of powers in the EU, and very very much to Germany's disadvantage, and to France's , Italy's advantage. Putin reacted to the sancitrons the way he always reacts: he escalates beyond the move of his opponents. I wonder why they now seem to be so surprised, although it is the most natural reaction in an effort to neutralise or trick out the sanctions - I waited for this to happen and started to wonder what took Putin so long. I am not that much surprised, because I say since many years the kremlin prepared itself to attack Western currency dominance. While the manouver now is not an explicit effort for this special task, it fits into the greater scheme of things. The context of a war in Ukraine I could not have forseen - the general direction at which Russia moves with this move however does not surprise me. Russia has spend the past ten years to dump its dollar reserves. This was the writing on the wall everyone could have red. Why didn't they, with all their claimed expertise?

Its possible that an economic carnage lies ahead of especially Germany. The perfect storm we all are in - intensifies further.

(From memory)

Someone wrote

Take a day or two off the calendar and be with your family, friends or what makes you happy because we will face a dramatic change in our life where there's no Internet.

Markus

Internet'S undersea cables as an attack target for Russia?


https://www.france24.com/en/europe/2...est-s-internet


https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/...ndersea-cables


https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blog...=pocket_mylist

Lets presume we have a small exchange of nukes here in Europe and between USA and Russia.

Most of our electronics will, due to EMP, be dead. both my computers will be non-functional at all. My tv and radio will meet same fate.
Does this mean that Internet is down ? I don't know there's a lot of electronic in these connection hub.

Markus