British C-17 transport aircraft are currently moving “light anti-armour” weapons into Ukraine in light of “increasingly threatening” behaviour from Russia.

The C-17 transport aircraft are in flight as we speak.

CORRECTION 18-1-2022: I had originally claimed that Germany had appeared to have denied overflight permission for the C-17 aircraft carrying weapons, I said this before I received official confirmation. I was wrong and I apologise. The reality is that the UK did not ask Germany for permission in the first place. Click here for more.

RAF Brize Norton, the home base of the aircraft, is still receiving deliveries for departing aircraft.

According to a statement given by the Defence Secretary in the House of Commons today, the 17th of January 2022.

“As of today, tens of thousands of Russian troops are positioned close to the Ukrainian border. Their deployment is not routine, and they are equipped with tanks, armoured fighting vehicles, rocket artillery, and short-range ballistic missiles. I can today confirm to the House that, in light of the increasingly threatening behaviour from Russia, and in addition to our current support, the UK is providing a new security assistance package to increase Ukraine’s defensive capabilities.

We have taken the decision to supply Ukraine with light, anti-armour, defensive weapon systems. A small number of UK personnel will also provide early-stage training for a short period of time, within the framework of Operation ORBITAL, before then returning to the United Kingdom. This security assistance package complements the training and capabilities that Ukraine already has, and those that are also being provided by the UK and other Allies in Europe and the United States. Ukraine has every right to defend its borders, and this new package of aid further enhances its ability to do so.

Let me be clear: this support is for short-range, and clearly defensive weapons capabilities; they are not strategic weapons and pose no threat to Russia. They are to use in self-defence and the UK personnel providing the early-stage training will return to the United Kingdom after completing it.”

You can read the full statement here.

British Military Assistance to Ukraine – what’s involved?

British military assistance to Ukraine was increased significantly after 2014 and the Russian annexation of Crimea, a Parliamentary Research Briefing paper has taken a look at just what that involves.

In 2015 the UK launched Operation Orbital, a non-lethal training and capacity building operation that provides guidance and training to the Ukrainian armed forces.

“In August 2020 the MOD announced that the UK will lead a new multinational maritime training initiative that will boost the capacity of Ukraine’s Navy to act in the Black Sea. The UK and Ukraine have also launched the Naval Capabilities Enhancement Programme, which will develop Ukraine’s naval capabilities. To date, over 21,000 Ukrainian military personnel have been trained under these initiatives. The UK has also gifted £2.2 million of non-lethal military equipment.”

In June 2021 the UK, Ukraine and industry signed a Memorandum of Implementation that will push the NCEP forward. Work will now commence on:

• Ukraine’s purchase of two refurbished Royal Navy Sandown-class minehunters in a government-to-government sale
• The sale and integration of missiles on new and in-service Ukrainian Navy patrol and airborne platforms, including a training and engineering support package
• Assistance in building new naval bases in the Black Sea and Azov Sea
• The development and joint production of eight fast missile warships
• Participation in the Ukrainian project to deliver a modern frigate capability.

Recently, HMS Defender ignored Russian warnings while the warship was sailing near Crimea, so Russia hit back with information warfare trying to paint a story of aggression.

‘Are you threatening us?’ asks British warship

Additionally, British surveillance aircraft have been keeping an eye on Russian forces. Last week, a British RC-135 ‘Rivet Joint’ intelligence-gathering aircraft once again deployed to Crimea to keep an eye on Russian forces near the border with Ukraine.

Earlier, we reported that there has been an increase in the frequency of British RC-135 aircraft being deployed to the Black Sea region near Ukraine’s border with Russia. The UK has deployed an aircraft for this task every few days over the last month or so.

British surveillance aircraft keeping an eye on Russian forces

British surveillance aircraft being over the Black Sea near Crimea isn’t unusual but we are seeing a significant increase in the frequency of the flights over the last few weeks. American assets are also present.

The British Foreign Secretary has stated that Britain is “ensuring that Ukraine has the capability to defend itself”.

Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said in Parliament:

“In December, I visited British troops forming part of NATO’s enhanced forward presence at Tapa in Estonia, where allies are helping to protect the border with Russia. We are working with our NATO partners to ensure that that protection remains in place and is enhanced so that we can fulfil our commitments.

With Ukraine, we are ensuring that it has the capability to defend itself. That involves training, and the UK has trained more than 20,000 troops in Ukraine. We are also supplying extra capability for naval defences as well as support in areas such as cyber-security and other services.”

You can read more on the above here.

George Allison
George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison
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104 COMMENTS

  2. Typical Germans not wanting to upset Putin.Theyve refused again to send weapons to Ukraine even though they have a new government with Merkel gone.If it escalates and Nato had to fight i wonder if half of the member countries would actually step up.In Afghanistan countries offered soldiers as long as they werent in harms way.And the EU army would be a complete joke with nice shiny toys that nobody has the balls to use.Scary times ahead and with China.

          • I believe the correct title is European Defence Union which at best totally undermines NATO as is not needed, at worst will result in the central command of multiple countries forces.

            The idea took a battering during Brexit as the leaders of the EU clearly found it was not a universally liked idea and didnt want to add any further fuel to other countries movements of wanting to leave.

            However if Macron gets back in the idea will definitely be back on the forefront as hes been an advocate of it for a long time, plus Useless Von De Leyan is a big supporter too.

    • They get most of their gas from Russia If I am not mistaken, plus they still have their non aggression stance. When I worked with German troops in N Afghanistan, they were declared combat non-effective due to all the alcohol they had flown in, they were pasted most of the time.

      • I was in Mazar where there was only 70 Belgian troops in all of Afghanistan. They had no combat roles when I was there. A lot of people don’t understand its Putins fault why their gas bills will rocket in April.

        • It’s not really Putin’s fault as Russia only supplies about 3% of our gas.
          Nah, it Brussels and Washington again. Washington wants Europe to buy expensive LNG from US and Brussels decided it wanted all gas in Europe to be traded on a spot market in Netherlands. Meanwhile Gazprom doesn’t want to sell on the spot market but wants long-term contracts so it can invest appropriately as is its commercial right.

      • More interested in selling us weapons for their economy than actually using them themselves, bad reflection on us both.

        • Why should they lift a finger to defend anyone including themselves when the US and ourselves offer to do it for free. Wonder if the Army still plans to base a Brigade there.

          • The US army leads the way and wins wars with diversity, equity, and inclusion! It’s not that they do this for free, they get paid back by the respect gained from the rest of the world by the premier example they set by letting everyone participate… something as small as addressing someone’s preferred pronouns pays huge dived ends!

    • As far as I’m aware the uk has a large war stock of sorts. It’s not all weapons it’s every thing. Over £10billion worth. What’s in this I don’t know. Could be things we just aren’t going to use. Anti armor weapons is a very broad topic. Could be a heavy machine gun, big sniper, missile, anti tank mines etc etc, cta40 turrets lol

        • We no longer need them, we have the ultimate anti tank system in the UK, terrible traffic congestion and aggressive BMW drivers tailgating and not indicating…..

          Nothing is getting past that mess.

          • Aah am I not the only one suffering ‘boy racers’ (though often age in mind over physical) in their highly tuned screaming souped up Mercs and Beemers making life hell for others. Used to be Cortinas and Escorts back in my day. Some sort of reflection on society I guess. The days when German meant sophistication is long gone it seems.

          • I’m afraid so, I had the dire misfortune to drive through that 1960’s dope smoking planning and building mess, that’s otherwise known as Swindon the other day, so many near misses because virtually no one uses indicators!

            When did they become optional? I just hold back and let these crazy kids swerve all around each other, my old Defender is quite capable of fending off a “kraut on my six”, those steel bumpers can shrug off any Stuttgart or Bavarian made tin….. 😉

          • It’s not just Swindon. Much of Wiltshire is plagued by motorists who seem to be ignorant of things like ‘how to use indicators’ or ‘how roundabout priorities work’.

      • CTA 40 turrets – that’s going put a smile on my face for the whole day – shows how very little you know of British munitions 🤣🤣

        • Haha. It was a joke for everyone to get a laugh at. Of course there aren’t shipping over the cta40. Mount it on a T-72🤣

      • CTA40 turrets you say, I heard from a well informed source that we where building modern day Martello towers in the Ukraine, built from piling up Ajax hulls with a CTA40 turret on top😂

    • NLAW possibly? We purchased 20,000 so sending several thousand could do a lot of damage to Russian IFVs. Potentially Javelin rounds depending on out socks, or anti tank mines?

    • Might be old stocks of Milan that were put in reserve when switching to Javelin, though they would be past their use by date.
      Possibly even early batches of Javelin requiring reconditioning.
      Heck might even be confiscated weapons or those used for OpFor training.

      • Was there a man portable mount for Swingfire and would any be in stock still? Might not be a bad little helping hand if so.

  5. Probably be a hundred or so MBT LAW light anti tank weapons. Most likely the oldest stock as its been in service for about 12 years and soon to be replaced. Probably close to it’s shelf life of 20 years as would have been manufactured a while before they were brought into service. So it’s not a loss to us but something Ukraine will find invaluable as it’s fire and forget.

  6. Dangerous game… but, I’m not unhappy.

    The question is do you slot as many Russians as possible and send them home to their mothers in bodybags or do you injure as many as possible?

    Knowing the Russians, slotting them is the only way and it lets Putin meet the grim reaper of Russian motherhood.

    Good luck The Ukraine.

  7. Ukraine is not a member of NATO and its thousands of miles away. At a time when the British Army is in the middle of a downsizing operation and most of our Challlenger II tanks have been dismantled ready for the upgrade, why are we getting involved in this?

    • We are getting involved due to what Ukraine did with its nukes. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the new sovereign Ukraine became a nuclear power over night along with Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. So stop nuclear proliferation they agreed to give up these nukes in return for security assurances to protects it’s boarders the UK&USA said they would guarantee these assurances and help defend it’s boarders. Sadly Putin has already said the Bucharest memorandum is scraped as the Ukrainian has undergone regime change by terrorists (aligned more to the west)and no longer feels bound by it.

      The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances refers to three identical political agreements signed at the OSCE conference in Budapest, Hungary on 5 December 1994 to provide security assurances by its signatories relating to the accession of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The memorandum was originally signed by three nuclear powers: the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, and the United States. China and France gave somewhat weaker individual assurances in separate documents.[1]

      So the UK is only doing what it said it would do without actually giving physical military support.
      The words for defense purposes only is to not give Putin any excuse in saying we are supplying weapons to be used for an offensive by Ukraine it’s self.

      Hope this explains it for you.

      • Solid reply Mark, the Budapest memorandum has no real international legal standing or requirements for the U.K. to act. But the spirt of the agreement is the important bit, as is our obligation to keep the the spirt of our agreements. Supporting Ukraine to have the ability to defend itself is well within the spirt of the memorandum.

      • You left off the bit where Washington said to Belarus that the Memorandem was not legally binding. If the leader of the rules-base international order says it’ain’t legal binding then it ain’t legally binding.

    • It’s not a member of NATO, but we are a signatory to the Budapest Memorandum and therefore have comparable obligations to guarantee Ukraine’s security. Of course Russia is also a signatory.

      • By that logic we wouldn’t defend Ireland if Putin came to say hello? Ukraine is a senior NATO partner a customer for British military equipment and training and also happens to be sitting on top of europe’s largest gas reserves. If Putin takes Ukraine he has us by the short and curlies

    • Why don’t you think it’s a good idea? It would seem consistent with our obligations with respect to the Budapest Memorandum.

      • Gas/electricity utility prices. The average household will be crippled by the price hike in March/April. Nobody will want this painful increase.

        • Oh so thats ok then? Just so long as your house is kept nice and warm it doesnt matter that tens of millions of democratically free and soverign people might lose their freedom?
          We really have got our priorities wrong in the UK with comments like that.
          Freedom is precious and valuable . Sometimes you have to fight and die for it. Something previous generations of Britons understood.

          • It’s ok as long as they are addressed by their preferred pronouns, that is the real issue here! Russia historically has not respected such things…

      • Let’s face it if the Russian Army go in the Ukrainians will be over run ,I have no doubt there will put up a fight .However UK and other nations sending weapons its just more fuel to the fire,we need to defuse otherwise after is tanks have done the job it may turn out like Aghastan just more blood shed.

    • Showing weakness to Putin is certainly not a good idea. Interesting how after Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft they became far more important to Russia in terms of doing deals with despite we all for a moment feared a new war in the aftermath of that event. Subsequently in The Armenia conflict they humiliated Russia again and the only result is that Russia is going out of its way to try to become bigger mates and in fear of their growing power try to draw them away from NATO. Power is the only thing Putin respects and this very threat is down to the wests tepid response to his previous machinations and recognition that nato countries have little agreement on how to react on almost anything and probably most importantly thinks the US Govt is desperate not to actually engage due to their internal catastrophic dysfunction and Democratic fear of resurrecting Trump or a minion of his persuasion. Never would have dared had there been any semblance of unity in the West and Ukraine is only the early stages of what will become if we show weakness and backdown now.

  11. Don’t forget Putin sent Russian military intelligence officers to London for long weekend brake so they could visit Salisbury Cathedral even though CCTV showed them Walking in the opposite direction from Cathedral towards their anti Putin/Kremlin human target. Russia brought UN banned Chemical Weapon on to UK Sovereign Territory & not for the first time also used it. Almost killing its target & his daughter. Killing a UK Citizen and almost Killing a policeman. Salisbury had to be decontaminated & was lucky not more citizens where not murdered. Russia under dictator “with sham election” cant be trusted. All NATO can do is arm Ukraine with defensive weapons etc and If Russian forces invade rest of Ukraine, NATO will seal its borders near to Russia & Ukraine with reinforcements. Its same NATO doctrine as with Warsaw Pact-NATO Cold war days. Russia has been re arming and modernising over last 20-30 years. European NATO members including UK have been de arming with cuts. Just my thoughts on subject. UK is IMO doing right thing in supplying defensive weapons.

    • And another polonium state killing before that. And that’s only what they have been caught doing. Every country in the world has to stand up to Russian aggression together and help each other. If putin wants to run Russia the way he does and not allow free elections then fine. But keep it in your own borders. He will not want to back down without there being some sign of a victory for himself.

      • Spot on and as we found in the 30s best to confront matters early than let it drag on escalate amped end up its an all or nothing decision. Because we get so used to it we don’t get shocked by Russian Behaviour anymore as it slowly escalates, but just imagine the consequences had there been a nuclear and chemical attack on Russia by an outside country within a decade of each other. Doesn’t bear thinking about yet our allies gave us barely a nod of support certainly until retired big wigs in the US put pressure on Trump who then put pressure on Europe. Putin saw that and we are now reaping what was sowed back then and indeed over many years of acquiescence when instead the likes of Germany tied their economy to Russian energy while Russia itself is far less reliant on Western imports due to its burgeoning commercial links to Chinese tech and products. We have been the orchestrator of our own potential downfall here.

  12. Not really sure this is a good idea. Ukraine doesn’t really stand a chance with or without these weapons and supplying the weapons is just going to alient Russia even more and make them perceive us as an even bigger threat.

    • Russia is already a deadly enemy, whether we like it or not. They’re willing to murder British citizens on our very soil. Giving weapons to a country they’re threatening to invade is the least we can do. Putin doesn’t respect weakness and appeasement. He needs to know that if he invades Ukraine there will be consequences.

      Not to the point of sending our forces to actually fight the Russians, NATO members has to be our red line but providing the means for Ukraine to defend herself is something we should do both for our own sake and for being the right thing to do.

      • Doing nothing is not an option.

        This is the smallest calibrated response we can make.

        It is large enough to say “we are helping” and also make Putin wonder “what else might they do”

        Putin knows we won’t send troops.

        But he cannot guarantee that we don’t assist with AEW and EW. Together these could seriously mess things up for Russian forces if the Ukrainians are fed a live battle space picture.

        TBH all that needs to be done is to push the Russian body count up and the calculus becomes “invasion unacceptable” to Russian populous.

        • Indeed an easy victory and a totally acquiescent NATO/West would embolden him so much that it starts to put the Baltic states in play and who knows how he will use a compliant Belarus to stir up the same excuse to intervene as he has used the Donbas. Will this calculating egotist think that the same weakness will be shown in the Baltics or Finland or elsewhere? After all they have recently used Belarus against Poland to instrument a threat to intervene to judge the response and Poland is an absolute no go area for a NATO response.

      • My concern with this is we aren’t doing enough to protect Ukraine and can’t realistically do so even if we wanted to. The Russian airforce will make quick work of the Ukraine defensive lines and no question Ukraine will fall in days if attacked.

        The issue is, if one of these weapons kills a Russian, we are giving Putin a justification to attack UK interests and his already shown that he will do so and we have shown after the posioning incident that we will do zip about it.

        It’s a dangerous game we are playing, and my question is for what benefit.

        • ‘“Fall in days”? What on Earth gives you that impression? The Ukraine has had time to prepare for this unlike when Russia went into Georgia. They could do exactly as the Russians did in the last war trade space for time.Putin has not got the numbers and resources to keep an invasion going for long and when the body bags start going home I doubt the Russia people will approve either!(only my opinion of course)

          • They have had time to prepare but they were starting at a very low level of preparedness and still not where is needed. They also are significantly out gunned when it comes to airforce / artillery, so Russia can hit them from out of their range to attack back. Every defence think-tank I have seen is predicting a quick victory, if Russia decides to proceed. For sure there will be pockets of resistance for years after, but the country will no longer be functional as one.

          • It’s a question of how many dead Russians will cause Putin to need his troops back home. We’re going to help Ukraine find out how many that is. That seems to be the plan and it’s a good one.

        • So we should do nothng and hope he changes his ways then ?
          He will be the first bully in History to do so.
          Its a pity other countries dont apparently feel the need to step up accordingly.
          Its a shame we have depleted our forces to such an extent we are but a bit part player – but every little counts.
          .

        • Both Russia & China are already attacking UK interests, also NATO interests, just keeping those attacks in the grey zone for now. Better to defend our way of life now than later when Russia/PRC are even stronger. Public opinion was against any foreign wars in the USA until Pearl harbour & Chamberlains appeasement just facilitated the genocide of millions & facing a strengthened Nazi Germany a year or two later.
          If we don’t learn from history we’ll just repeat it & it might not work out so well this time. The tools for dictatorship with the web/net make detecting & eliminating dissenters far easier.

          • Can’t really compare to Chamberlain as we aren’t actually doing anything to counter Russia, we are just poking the bear. A few out of date anti-tank missiles are not going to much. If you want to compare with Chamberlain positioning, then we should be moving troops into Ukraine, to ensure Russia knows it would be ww3 if it attacks them.

            Learning from history means actually learning, not using it to justify actions or inactions.

            Doing a half way house just puts British interests at risk for no realistic gain.

          • I agree Steve. A battlegroup of the willing which will be deployed if Ukraine is invaded any further would send the right signals to nip this kind of thing in the bud. Sending troops beforehand may be the right thing but Putin will then claim it as vindicating his NATO aggression narrative. Wether we have the necessary leadership or nouse is another matter. Given the impoverishment of our military I’d find that leadership hard to believe. We need the wherewithall to stand up if Putin & PRC decide to call our bluff. More ASW escorts & some decent AShMs would be a good start, but ABMs too.

            Indeed we did send our army to France(After we’d declared war) under Chamberlain & we were a mighty world power at the time, yet we still took a hell of a beating. What I meant though was believing empty treaties would check aggressive dictators as per 1938 if I recall correctly. Russia ripped up the Budapest agreement & China the HK one.

          • Our leaders need to talk harder. Just straight up say, ‘if Russia invade Ukraine, then it is only a question of how many Russian boys get sent back to their mothers in body bags before Russia retreats’.

            And this wouldn’t be a message to the West. It would be to Russia (and the PRC), hence why it needs to be so blunt and nasty; they know no other way to communicate.

          • These are NOT out of date anti tank weapons. They are modern current stock. Manufactured right here in the UK. I think a huge follow up order under UOR will follow soon.

    • Yeah they might just decide to attack us with nuclear and chemical warfare ….oh right they already have. Anyone knows NATO couldn’t possibly attack Russia remotely successfully certainly without massive US reinforcement so it’s obvious that this is about strengthening Russian influence in Europe and the next stage in the Russo Chinese policy of a new world order conducted by them and not the West. We can back off as much as we like but that will only embolden them and quicken the momentum and encourage ever increasingly Govts around the world to change their bets on who is likely to prevail eventually. Rightly or wrongly the West is perceived as a crumbling edifice by Russia/ China and much of the rest of the World we just don’t see it yet in the formers eyes and the latter are keeping quiet or sitting on the fence or simply playing both sides. Allowing Putin to dictate events when even he is the ultimate junior partner while they still have delusions of being in control would be the ultimate dangerous game.

      • The history of the US has always been that it needs an enemy to allow it’s government to do as it pleases, and justify issues domestically like inequality etc. I suspect the same is true in Russia, Putin making NATO out as the big threat allows him a lot of extra power.

        What the west needs to do is stop isolating them and feeding into Putin game and instead attempt to productively engage with them and play the mind games against him.

        Until the west and east start working together, we will just have this endless cold war mentality. After all we were insanely close to Russia joining NATO at one point, no reason it couldn’t happen again.

    • I’m not so sure you can write off a nation like Ukraine,would russia win a war, probably but it would be a Pyrrhic victory for russia as the cost in lives and materials would be significant, then what is the final winning state, most of the population of Ukraine are not ethnic Russians so the nation would need to be occupied. Then if you add in the total loss of economic links with the rest of Europe it would likely cripple the Russia for a long time.

    • Putin is a strongman and a bully.

      If you don’t stand up to those types, they just take what they want. They only understand (and perhaps respect) strength.

      Diplomacy has been tried. It is no longer the route to the answer. It can be tried again once action has been taken and it made clear to Putin he will suffer losses.

  13. As a man with a fiancee in Luhansk, God Bless the UK. If I ever make it to Britain, I’m buying every soldier I see a steak dinner and all the beer he or she can drink! I don’t have words to thank you for stepping up, only a sincere and heartfelt THANK YOU!

  15. Its a shame Biden didn’t give the 85 billion dollars worth of jettisoned kit in Afghanistan to Ukraine. What a waste, but we will help if the Americans can’t.

  18. UK & US do everything to help defend Ukraine whilst not giving Putin to a bonafide reason to invade. As I posted the other day if the US B1,2,52s get suddenly posted to UK for training missions that will be a sure sign intelligence says Russians on readiness to invade. US now flying Reapers out of Italy over black sea on intel missions, our P8s monitoring russian amphibian assault ships suddenly on manoeuvres heading towards med/bosphorous. The US moving carrier fleet from gulf to med you can see we are heading towards a show down soon. Let’s not forget assets in other Baltic States. Putin has 6-8 weeks to start and finish any operations as soon it will be spring and the Ukraine soil will thaw and make moving armour impossible.

    • Need to get our fleet ready to surge. Get every sub out asap for extended patrols. We only have 5 or 6 serviceable so dont let them get caught in port. Ditto RN surface fleet. Carriers need to sortie asap. POW is out already. QE needs to follow shortly. Plus every destroyer and frigate from our miserly much weakened fleet.
      RAF need to go to max readiness.
      Rules of engagement might need to change quickly so being on your toes and ready is important.
      A strong signal would be to activate ALL reserve and territorial forces the very second a Russian soldier enters Ukranian territory.

      • Those amphibian assault ships are about 3 days away from the black sea and have to go through the bosphorous. It would be helpful if turkey which controls all shipping through the bosphorous to a point where a Turkish boat pilot has to board and sail each ship through. Delays this transit for a few days. So still got a few days yet and the yanks haven’t stood up any military assests other than a CSG manoeuvring in the med. When they do you can start digging the Anderson shelter in the back yard.

  19. There’s very deep animosity between the Russians and Englishmen stretching centuries back. I hope one day they will square it out once and for all. Maybe Ukraine is presenting that opportunity

  20. When Ukraine became independent from the former USSR, it inherited a significant nuclear arsenal. To help prevent the spreading of nuclear weapons, the UK, USA and Russia signed a treaty agreeing to guarantee Ukraine’s security in exchange for them giving up their nukes. Russia’s actions since then may have lead to a reappraisal of whether that was wise.

    • It certainly won’t be lost on any state contemplating a nuclear deterrent except the anti nuclear lobby here sadly who won’t join the very obvious dots and wouldn’t even if Russian tanks were heading down Whitehall.

    • He won’t he wants NATO to ceed all states that joined NATO after the fall of the Berlin wall. And recreate the Soviet empire.

    • I think what he & Xi want is to destroy free countries & replace them with an empire of like minded dictators. That seems like security to them, the fall of the Warsaw Pat in the 1990’s terrified the CCP, but history also shows us that powerful dictators often don’t get on well. A lot of the big money would go for that as they care only for themselves, but billions would fall under ruthless tyrranny.
      Moscow is withdrawing embassy staff from Ukraine tonight. Looks bad.

  22. Interestingly 1 of the C17s flew back from Kiev to Lossiemouth rather than Brize.

    Also fyi a German P3 operating nr Bornholm & an US P8 nr the Skagerrak this morning.

  23. Given that the UK and the US signed an agreement to protect the Ukraine should they give up their cold war nuclear arsenal, what we are seeing here is not only reasonable, but likely less than it should be.

  25. Thank you Great Britain ! The world can see who helps Unkraine in need. Others are just talkinig in vain. German officials are kissing Lavrov hands and kindly ask not to make war. Europe is passive -does nothing ! I am poilish citizen and the war can break as close as 300 kms from my home

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