Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

Trita Parsi: Middle East Unraveling — Are We on the Path to World War?

Glenn Diesen | September 22, 2026

Trita Parsi is the co-founder and Executive Vice President of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Follow his excellent Substack: https://tritaparsi.substack.com/

Follow Prof. Glenn Diesen:

Support the research by Prof. Glenn Diesen:

September 22, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Video, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Comments Off on Trita Parsi: Middle East Unraveling — Are We on the Path to World War?

Finland’s Stubb tells European leaders to calm down

RT | September 22, 2026

Finnish President Alexander Stubb has pushed back against warnings from fellow European leaders that Russia could attack NATO in the near future, saying Helsinki’s intelligence sees no evidence of an imminent military threat.

Moscow has repeatedly dismissed claims that it intends to attack NATO. Russian officials have argued that Western governments are exaggerating the prospect of a confrontation with Moscow to justify increased military spending and continued support for Ukraine.

Stubb made the comments in an interview with Politico on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday, after several European officials suggested that Moscow could target members of the US-led military bloc within months.

“We don’t see the evidence of that,” Stubb said. “In our intelligence we see that there is activity but no imminent military threat right now.”

“It is not in the interest of Russia nor in the capacity of Russia to go full-scale,” he added.

Stubb’s assessment contrasts with increasingly urgent warnings from several other European officials.

Last week, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk claimed Russia could fire drones or missiles into NATO countries backing Ukraine in “the next few months.” French President Emmanuel Macron described Tusk’s warning as “sound and well-documented.”

The head of the Czech Republic’s BIS security service, Michal Koudelka, likewise suggested that possible Russian actions could include “a limited incursion, false-flag provocations, [or] a massive influence campaign,” saying such scenarios could unfold within “months, not years.”

Stubb, whose country shares a 1,340-km (833-mile) border with Russia, described predictions that NATO countries could soon be targeted as an “overreaction” and urged his European counterparts to remain “cool, calm, and collected.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that “some European leaders are openly declaring that they are preparing for war with Russia,” accusing them of seeking to “salvage their declining ratings by covering up mistakes in their economic and social policies.”

“Instead of stopping and listening to their citizens, who have made it clear during the elections that they don’t want any war with Russia, these leaders continue to escalate the situation,” Putin said.

Finland abandoned its longstanding policy of military non-alignment and joined NATO in 2023, following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict the previous year.

Despite Stubb’s assessment that there is no imminent military threat, Helsinki has continued expanding its defense and civil preparedness. Earlier this month, Finland staged what AP described as Europe’s largest civil-defense exercise since World War II, involving more than 2,000 participants.

September 22, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , | Comments Off on Finland’s Stubb tells European leaders to calm down

Black Sea grain crisis puts global wheat supplies under pressure

Al Mayadeen| September 21, 2026

The disruption of grain shipments from the Black Sea is deepening concerns over global food security, with Russia and Ukraine’s reduced wheat exports threatening to push prices higher and intensify inflation pressures.

The two countries account for more than a quarter of global wheat trade, making the Black Sea a critical route for grain shipments to some of the world’s largest importers. However, escalating attacks on ports, grain terminals, storage facilities, and vessels have severely disrupted exports since July.

The crisis comes as markets remain focused on energy disruptions and rising oil prices linked tothe US and Saudi aggressions in West Asia, while food supply risks have received less attention from investors.

“We can think of the Black Sea as important for global wheat trade as the Strait of Hormuz is for global oil trade,” Caitlin Welsh, a food security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said. “The world is underestimating the impact of these attacks.”

Black Sea grain routes face mounting pressure

Tue Vuong, chief executive officer of Golden Wheat, a milling company based in Ho Chi Minh City, secured four cargoes of wheat from the Black Sea region, accounting for about a fifth of the company’s annual supply.

However, after the summer escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war, he was informed that some shipments would not be delivered.

“I was very panicked,” Vuong said. He received replacement offers for two cargoes from Bulgaria but spent weeks searching for additional supplies to avoid shortages.

“We were too exposed to a crisis in the Black Sea,” he added.

Golden Wheat eventually switched two vessels to load Bulgarian wheat from Burgas, located about 500 kilometers from the Ukrainian port of Odesa. Vuong also monitored shipping movements, insurance conditions, and developments in the Red Sea, where vessels face additional security concerns.

“Although the vessels were insured, if they had been attacked, we would have faced shortages,” he said.

The company later turned to US wheat supplies at a significantly higher cost, while prices continued to climb.

Russia and Ukraine wheat exports disrupted

Russia and Ukraine are among the world’s largest wheat exporters, while also accounting for major shares of sunflower oil and corn shipments.

Combined Russian and Ukrainian wheat exports are expected to reach roughly half last year’s level during the July-September harvesting period, according to researcher SovEcon.

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, has not received Black Sea grain shipments for about a month. Russia’s exports have been affected by Ukrainian drone attacks, while Ukraine has struggled to move grain after damage to ports and disruptions to shipping routes.

Ukraine has attempted to redirect exports through Romania’s Constanta port and alternative routes along Romania and Bulgaria’s coastlines, but these channels are facing congestion.

A backlog of around 80 mostly smaller vessels has formed around Ukrainian Danube ports as traffic moves away from major Black Sea terminals, according to ship-tracking data compiled by Kpler and Bloomberg.

September 21, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , | Comments Off on Black Sea grain crisis puts global wheat supplies under pressure

Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent – Toward Total War in the Middle East

Glenn Diesen | September 20, 2026

Prof. Seyed Mohammad Marandi is a professor at Tehran University and a former advisor to Iran’s nuclear negotiation team. Marandi argues we could be days or hour away from a major war between the US and Iran, which could engulf the entire region.

Glenn Diesen clip channel

Follow Prof. Glenn Diesen:

Support the research by Prof. Glenn Diesen:

Books by Prof. Glenn Diesen

September 20, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Video, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Seyed M. Marandi: U.S. Strike Imminent – Toward Total War in the Middle East

Russia Voted Under Fire. Washington Is Loading the Tankers.

By Larry C. Johnson | SONAR21 | September 20, 2026

Two things happened this weekend that belong in the same frame, though you will not see them connected anywhere in the Western press. Russia held a national election under a hail of drones and cyberattacks — and came through it. And overnight, the United States began signaling that it is about to widen the war in the Middle East. They are not separate stories. The same barrage that tried to break the Russian vote also tore a piece out of Russia’s refining capacity, and that connects directly to the fuel crisis Washington is about to make worse. Take them in order.

An election under attack

Russians voted over three days, September 18 through 20, to seat the ninth convocation of the State Duma, their national legislature — all 450 seats. What made the final day extraordinary was the effort, backed by the West, to disrupt it by force.

Overnight, Ukraine launched the largest drone assault of the war. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, reported that air defenses brought down more than 1,600 drones across Russia since Saturday, roughly 450 of them bound for the capital region; the Russian Defense Ministry put the single-night intercept figure at 1,110, the highest it has ever reported. I will be candid: I woke up Sunday morning with no idea any of it had happened. The overwhelming majority were destroyed well before they reached Moscow. A handful got through — two people were killed and about twenty injured in the Moscow region. For those who lost their lives, and for their families, it is a tragedy. But set it against the scale: some seventeen million people live in the Moscow region, and their day went on. Then, through the voting hours, came waves of cyberattacks on the electronic voting system — another attempt to break the election that failed to break it.

Now the numbers that matter. Official turnout, per the Central Election Commission, came in around 56.7 percent over the three days. Ten parties qualified for the ballot. And in the four newly constituted republics — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson — turnout ran dramatically higher than the national figure, despite those regions being under active attack. People who face drones on their way to the polling station and vote anyway are telling you something about how much the franchise means to them.

The election was watched by international observers — independent-minded people, some of them frankly sympathetic to Gennady Zyuganov’s Communists, no friends of the ruling party. I spoke with several. Their verdict was the same: this was a free and fair election. I saw nothing to contradict it — no signs going up and being torn down, no one dragged away for campaigning.

Now, I know exactly what the Western press will wave in reply, so let me meet it head-on. Yes: the Supreme Court struck the federal list of Yabloko, the one small party that campaigned against the war, and Boris Nadezhdin was kept off the ballot and has since left the country. Those are the two names you will hear over and over as proof that the whole exercise was theater. It is not much of a case. Yabloko has polled below the five-percent threshold for the better part of two decades; the position it staked out — abandoning the four republics and the men fighting for them — is one almost no Russian holds. Excluding a marginal faction that stands where the West stands is not the same thing as crushing dissent, and it does not turn a three-day, ten-party election with 56.7 percent turnout into a fraud. The real spectrum of Russian politics does not run from pro-war to anti-war. It runs from those who support the special military operation to those who want it fought harder — and inside that spectrum the parties went at each other in the open, and the observers, including men who would sooner see a Communist in the Kremlin, judged the contest fair. On the evidence in front of me, the endless claim that Putin simply crushes all opposition is a fabrication.

Here is what the West consistently misreads. Russia’s parties argue fiercely about domestic policy — income inequality, taxes, education, health care, the ordinary business of any democracy. But on foreign policy they are united, something on the order of 95 percent behind the President and the special military operation. If the ruling bloc’s share slips, it will not be because Russians want the war to end. It will be because they want it prosecuted harder. That is the opposite of the war-weariness Western capitals keep predicting.

The refinery, and the squeeze

Here is the hinge the Western coverage misses entirely. In that same overnight barrage, a drone reached the Gazprom Neft refinery on Moscow’s southeastern edge — a plant that processes on the order of 245,000 barrels a day and supplies fuel to the capital region — and set it ablaze. Strip away the election framing for a moment and look at what that means for the world’s fuel balance. Every refinery knocked offline, in Russia or in the Gulf, tightens the same global distillate market. Ukraine, prodded and supplied by the West, is not only trying to break a Russian election; it is degrading Russian refining capacity at the precise moment the world can least afford to lose a barrel of diesel or jet fuel. That is the thread running straight into the second half of this story.

Washington reaches for the matches

The second development arrived overnight as well, and it points the other direction — toward escalation.

Late Saturday, September 19, the State Department sharpened its travel guidance, telling Americans outside the Middle East to seriously reconsider any travel to or through the region and warning those already there to brace for airspace closures and canceled flights. That advisory is confirmed and public. Alongside it came reports — which I have not been able to independently confirm, so I flag them as reports — that personnel manning Central Command’s operations centers are being recalled to duty, and that aerial refueling tankers are up and flying over the region. Anyone who has watched these sequences knows what airborne tankers usually precede.

The open question is the target. It could be Yemen and the Houthis — Ansar Allah — who have been trading strikes with Saudi Arabia and just put a plume of black smoke over Riyadh’s King Khalid airport. It could be Iran. It could be both. I cannot rule out any of the three. As I write this Sunday night, there is no sign that strikes are actually under way. So we will learn soon enough whether this is saber-rattling or whether Donald Trump means to escalate.

What we already know is that the global diesel and distillate crisis is getting worse, not better, and nothing on the horizon reverses it. The EIA now expects U.S. distillate inventories to sit below the five-year low through much of 2027; industry veterans reckon the world has lost something like seven million barrels a day of refining capacity to this year’s fighting. Last night’s strike on the Moscow refinery subtracts a little more. This is the box Trump has built for himself. He wants gasoline and diesel cheaper and inflation tamed — and every move he has made around the Persian Gulf, Iran, the Gulf states and now the Houthis guarantees tension stays high and the distillate squeeze stays on.

The market has been whipsawing on every on-again, off-again ceasefire rumor; crude actually eased into Friday’s close, near $104 Brent, on hopes that Saudi Arabia could restore pipeline flows. But if fresh American strikes land this week, expect that to reverse hard — crude spiking, equities selling off, the pump price and the diesel crack climbing right back up. These signals went out on a Sunday evening. Come Monday morning in New York, the odds favor a market moving the wrong way for a President who says he wants the opposite.

So that is where we stand. Trump, for all his talk of ending wars and lowering prices, keeps doing the one thing that makes both harder: pouring fuel on the fire. I will have more once the real shape of the Russian result is clear and once we know whether the tankers meant anything.

For now, the democracy that is Russia did more than survive this weekend. It was attacked, and it voted anyway. Thanks for reading.

Video interview

September 20, 2026 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , , , , , | Comments Off on Russia Voted Under Fire. Washington Is Loading the Tankers.

US-Denmark Agreement on Greenland Is ‘PR Stunt’ Ahead of Midterms

Sputnik – 19.09.2026

“This treaty is mostly for show, but in legal terms it’s much ado about nothing” because “the US already had free access to Greenland and the main responsibility for the defense of Greenland,” Swedish military and geopolitics analyst Mikael Valtersson told Sputnik, commenting on the new US-Denmark Greenland deal.

While the agreement grants the US permanent military access, basing and overflight rights, Valtersson pointed out that Washington already had these rights, and that it was the US itself that “voluntarily and drastically reduced its own military resources on Greenland” after the end of the Cold War.

Valtersson suspects the deal is “mainly a PR stunt for the US government ahead of the upcoming midterm elections in November.”

However, given fears in Denmark and Europe in general that the current administration’s “erratic foreign policy” might trigger an actual military conflict over Greenland, which “would have created a huge crisis in Transatlantic relations,” the agreement is likely to be a relief to the EU, and will let Copenhagen “stop worrying about a potential military confrontation with the US” over the dependency.

September 19, 2026 Posted by | Deception, Militarism | , , , | Comments Off on US-Denmark Agreement on Greenland Is ‘PR Stunt’ Ahead of Midterms

Araghchi: Military intervention cannot create security; coercion cannot bring peace

Press TV – September 19, 2026

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says military intervention cannot create security and coercion cannot bring peace, calling for a fundamental shift from militarism and intervention toward sustainable development, respect for national sovereignty, and lasting peace.

Addressing the “Calling for a Global U-Turn: Recentering Development, Reclaiming Humanity, Restoring Justice in a Crazi(er) World” conference at the 2026 Global Town Hall hosted by the Foreign Policy Community of Indonesia on Saturday, Araghchi said decades of foreign intervention, military pressure, and endless wars in West Asia have demonstrated that military intervention does not create security and coercion does not lead to peace.

The tragedy of Gaza and the ongoing crimes committed by the Israeli regime are among the clearest and most horrific manifestations of this failed pattern, Araghchi said.

He warned that a dangerous pattern has emerged in which military force is no longer being used as a last resort, but as a permanent mechanism for reshaping the political and security landscape of the region.

Under such circumstances, aggression becomes normalized, escalation becomes institutionalized, and destruction turns from a consequence of war into a tool for advancing political objectives, he said.

Araghchi described the US and Israeli military action against Iran as part of this broader pattern, calling it illegal, unjust, and aggressive and pointing out that it occurred without prior provocation.

He also referred to targeted assassination campaigns against Iranian officials, threats against political figures, violations of national sovereignty, and impunity for acts of aggression, saying the failure of the international community to respond effectively to such actions would gradually erode the boundaries established by international law.

Referring to the killing of 168 students in an attack on a school in Minab, southern Iran, Araghchi said the victims should not be reduced to numbers in war statistics.

Behind each of these lost lives, there was a family, a future and a life, he said, asking, “When do we say enough is enough?”

Araghchi said international law could not be upheld if it were ignored whenever the interests of major powers demanded it, adding that human rights could not be called universal if they were treated as an inherent right for some nations and a conditional privilege for others.

He stressed that the answer was not abandoning multilateralism, but establishing real, effective and fair multilateralism.

The foreign minister called for a shift from militarism to sustainable development, interventionism to respect for national sovereignty, collective punishment to protection of civilians, selective accountability to universal justice, and endless wars to lasting peace.

He also stressed that lasting security in West Asia could not be dictated from outside the region.

Regional security must belong to the region itself, Araghchi said, arguing that regional countries should be able to discuss security, stability, development, and their shared future and find solutions without foreign intervention.

He said Iran believed sustainable security could be achieved through dialogue, confidence-building, cooperation, and mutual respect among regional countries rather than through the military presence of foreign powers and the imposition of their will.

Araghchi concluded that the international community faced a historic choice between continuing militarism, intervention, and endless conflict and changing course toward development, human dignity, justice, and respect for international law.

The time for this is not tomorrow or some indefinite future; the time is now, he said.

September 19, 2026 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Militarism, Progressive Hypocrite, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Comments Off on Araghchi: Military intervention cannot create security; coercion cannot bring peace

Saudi crown prince seeks dialogue with Ansarullah after Yemeni blows: Report

Press TV – September 18, 2026

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has called for temporary ceasefire and dialogue with Yemen’s Ansaraullah resistance movement, amid crippling Yemeni blockade and painful strikes on the kingdom, a report says.

Lebanon’s al-Akhbar news website, citing informed sources, reported that Riyadh has asked Oman to convey to Ansarullah its proposal for a two-week ceasefire and direct talks with the movement’s leadership with the aim of “addressing humanitarian demands” and ultimately “reaching a comprehensive agreement by the end of the truce.”

According to the report, the kingdom expressed its willingness to lift the siege on Yemen and allow the entry of aid into the country.

However, the report said, Ansarullah seeks “a final and comprehensive solution to the conflict, on the basis that there is a Yemeni-Saudi battle that has nothing to do with internal Yemeni affairs.”

The sources stressed that the resistance movement’s demands include an end to the blockade in all its forms: aerial, ground and naval, as well as Saudi Arabia’s military, security and political withdrawal from Yemen, and Saudi compensation for damage caused by the kingdom’s strikes.

Ansarullah had previously informed Muscat that the Saudi proposal to sponsor an intra-Yemeni dialogue was unacceptable, as it constituted foreign interference, stressing that the Yemeni dialogue is an internal affair in which no one has the right to interfere.

Al-Akhbar noted that the Saudi proposal came as the kingdom was “shocked” by the rapid advance of the Yemeni military and Ansarullah fighters along the Western coast and their control of Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the failure of Riyadh’s calls for aid to be heeded.

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) reportedly briefed the Saudis on an assessment indicating a “sudden disintegration” within the mercenary force led by Tariq Saleh, noting that “Sanaa’s forces appeared fully apprised of every move made by Saleh and his troops.”

A source familiar with the matter said the US stance is “akin to a reprimand of Saudi Arabia over the conduct of its allied forces,” coupled with an emphasis that “the United States would not deploy its own forces to fight on anyone’s behalf.”

The Saudi retreat also comes as the idea of ​​recruiting mercenaries from Syria, Libya, and Sudan to fight in Yemen has also failed to gain traction, according to the report.

Ben Salman was also advised by Egyptian officials, who surprised him by a historical overview of the situation in Yemen during his visit to Cairo, to hold talks with Ansarullah.

The outlet also noted that bin Salman is monitoring with concern reports that officials from the US administration have informed Omani officials of Washington’s desire to hold talks with Ansarullah to ensure that the Bab al-Mandab Strait would not be closed.

According to an Omani source, communications between officials in Muscat and Mohammed Abdulsalam, the spokesman for Ansarullah and Yemen’s chief negotiator, stressed that the Sana’a government “has no intention of taking any measures that would jeopardize navigation in the Red Sea.”

The Omani mediator informed the US and Saudi Arabia that Ansarullah had clearly stated that maritime navigation in the Red Sea is safe, except for Saudi ships. The group also stressed the ban would remain in effect until Riyadh practically lifts the blockade on Yemen.

Several countries such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt have reportedly been communicating with Yemeni and Ansarullah officials for a week with the aim of stopping the country’s military operations.

The report quoted a relevant source in Muscat as saying that diplomatic efforts to persuade Riyadh to back away from its rigid stance began after all mediating parties have realized that the movement is determined to find a “final” solution to the current situation.

Yemeni armed forces continue to consolidate their positions along the Western coast, taking additional measures to counter any attempt by Saudi-backed mercenaries to make up for their losses.

Senior Ansarullah officials have informed mediators that continued Saudi airstrikes on Yemen will be met with significant escalation, including more heavy strikes against vital facilities deep inside the Kingdom.

The current maritime blockade is a direct response to the devastating, years-long siege imposed on Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition.

For nearly a decade, the coalition has enforced a crippling land, sea, and air blockade, which the United Nations has repeatedly described as a primary driver of the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

This siege has deliberately targeted Yemen’s ability to import food, fuel, and medicine, while simultaneously attempting to plunder the nation’s oil and gas resources.

Utilizing their advanced asymmetric naval capabilities, including drones and missiles, Yemen has shifted from a purely defensive posture to an active pressure campaign.

This strategy is designed to inflict direct economic and military costs on the Saudi regime until the siege is permanently lifted, the war is ended, and Yemen’s full sovereignty is restored.

September 18, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism | , , | Comments Off on Saudi crown prince seeks dialogue with Ansarullah after Yemeni blows: Report

South Korea says will not send troops to join terrorist US war on Iran

Press TV – September 18, 2026

South Korean President Lee Jae​ Myung has declared that his country will not deploy troops or military assets to join the US-led military adventurism against Iran, defying calls from Washington to support the illegal war.

“There won’t be deployment that would involve or enter war. I can tell you that very clearly,” Lee said during a news conference on Friday. “We won’t deploy military assets in any form to that end.”

He also emphasized that Seoul has maintained the principle of not becoming directly involved in combat and will continue to do so.

However, he added, South Korea is considering expanding the operational scope of its naval presence off the coast of Somalia for anti-piracy operations.

US President Donald Trump has openly lashed out at South Korea over its refusal to participate in the war against Iran and scaled back major joint military drills by the two countries’ armies this summer.

Reports said earlier this month that South Korea is flirting with the idea of deploying military assets to the Strait of Hormuz, which has remained under Iran’s control since the early days of the criminal US-Israeli war of aggression against Iran.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei had warned that any military presence by other parties in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz will constitute direct support for the aggressor, bearing serious consequences.

“No sovereign and responsible country will submit to US pressure and blackmail to collude in committing acts of aggression and heinous crimes against the great Iranian nation,” he said on September 7.

Iran restricted transit through the Strait of Hormuz in response to the terrorist US-Israeli aggression that began on February 28.

On June 17, Tehran and Washington signed the Pakistan-brokered Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), whose Article 5 places responsibility for reopening and managing the Strait squarely in Iran’s hands.

However, Washington attempted to undermine Iran’s sovereignty over the vital global energy chokepoint, resumed its airstrikes on Iran, and imposed a naval blockade in violation of the war-ending deal.

The unlawful US measures prompted Iran to re-impose restrictions on the Strait of Hormuz.

September 18, 2026 Posted by | Illegal Occupation, Militarism, Wars for Israel | , , | Comments Off on South Korea says will not send troops to join terrorist US war on Iran

Russia Just Struck the Eyes of NATO’s War Machine in Ukraine

Sputnik – 18.09.2026

Russia’s overnight attack on the De Novo data center in Kiev “will significantly affect operations, particularly in the realm of intelligence data processing,” military expert Yan Gagin told Sputnik.

“Intelligence agencies relied on this center to process info gathered through their agent networks. It was utilized to facilitate strikes against our facilities, including deep within our rear areas,” with “every target logged into a specific system and database, processed and assigned a strike priority.”

This digital kill chain network “will now face certain operational difficulties,” Gagin believes.

“While they have redundancy measures involving other data centers, including in Europe, the fact that this specific facility has been partially disabled will have a serious impact on operations, particularly in the realms of data processing and potentially, target designation.”

Crucially, this includes targeting data received by Ukraine from its “NATO partners,” the observer emphasized.

“For instance, we have become accustomed to the fact that prior to strikes on Crimea, Sevastopol, Novorossiysk, and elsewhere along our coastal zone, reconnaissance aircraft – primarily belonging to the US and Britain – appear near our territorial waters. They loiter over the Black Sea close to our shores, gathering and refining information, which is then relayed to the Ukrainian military. Subsequently, targeting is adjusted based on this data – mapped to specific coordinates, and attacks are executed.”

“Strikes against the European part of Russia are conducted in exactly the same way. Therefore, this system for transmitting this intelligence data will also be – let’s put it this way – if not paralyzed, then at least significantly hampered in its operation,” Gagin summed up.

September 18, 2026 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Comments Off on Russia Just Struck the Eyes of NATO’s War Machine in Ukraine

Russia summons UK charge d’affaires over Kiev drone support

Al Mayadeen | September 18, 2026

Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned UK Chargé d’Affaires in Moscow Danae Dholakia on Friday, lodging a formal protest over London’s growing supply of drones and other weapons to Kiev.

The ministry said in a statement that by continuing to arm Ukraine with long-range weapons, the UK is placing itself in the position of “accomplice to Kiev’s atrocities.” Dholakia was presented with a list of international obligations Russian officials say London is violating through its military backing of Ukraine.

Moscow said it reserves the right to take retaliatory measures under its right to self-defense, warning that the UK “bears full responsibility for any further unfavorable development of the situation.” The ministry said the UK side “has been required to abandon its escalatory course and bring its actions in line with its relevant international obligations.”

The ministry added that UK military facilities inside Ukraine used to carry out strikes on Russian territory “are a legitimate target for the Russian armed forces.” The ministry stressed that British actions in Ukraine “clearly aim at prolonging and escalating the armed conflict.”

UK’s expanding drone production support

The summons comes as Britain deepens its role in manufacturing weapons for Ukraine rather than simply supplying them. London has pledged to deliver more than 150,000 drones to Kiev by the end of 2026 and has committed roughly £16 billion in military support since the war began.

Separately, the UK has also become a manufacturing base for Ukrainian-designed weapons.

Under Programme Lyra, a bilateral framework launched after the UK and Ukraine signed a 100-year partnership in January 2025, British manufacturers have begun building Ukrainian-designed drones under license, for delivery back to Ukraine’s armed forces.

A Ukrainian-designed interceptor drone, the Octopus, entered licensed production in the UK late last year, with output expected to reach several thousand units a month. A dedicated factory in Suffolk, opened earlier this year, is now producing roughly 2,000 drones a month for transfer to Ukraine.

Wider diplomatic tensions

Friday’s summons follows a similar move by Moscow against Germany’s charge d’affaires earlier this month.

On September 2, Russia’s Foreign Ministry summoned the German diplomat to reject Berlin’s allegations linking Russia to a drone incident at Leipzig Airport. Moscow responded to the broader wave of European summonses by expelling its consulate general from Bonn and shutting down the Russian House in Berlin.

September 18, 2026 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Comments Off on Russia summons UK charge d’affaires over Kiev drone support

NATO member warns bloc seeking pretext for war with Russia

RT | September 18, 2026

Europe is moving dangerously close to a direct clash between NATO and Russia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has warned, accusing the West of seeking a “pretext” for a major conflict between the two sides.

Fico made the comment in a Facebook post on Thursday, which accompanied the remarks he delivered before traveling to Ukraine for a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and several European leaders.

“I am deeply concerned that they are merely looking for a pretext for a major conflict between NATO and Russia,” he wrote.

Reflecting on the Ukraine conflict, Fico said that the hostilities had “gotten out of control,” while accusing European nations of engaging in increasingly bellicose rhetoric which he said risked dragging the continent into a broader war. “The situation has never been as serious and tense regarding the possibility of a pan-European war conflict as it is now,” he said.

Fico also warned that Bratislava could face pressure from NATO to commit troops if the bloc’s Article 5 – a collective defense clause applied if a member state is attacked – is invoked. “Can anyone imagine being told to prepare 5,000 soldiers, 10,000 soldiers, and that they would go somewhere to fight? We don’t know with whom, why, or for what reason,” Fico said.

“I don’t want Slovakia to be part of any military conflict because of some Article 5,” he stressed, adding that, though his country still “cares about collaboration and fulfilling obligations”. “As prime minister, I will do everything to ensure that Slovakia is never drawn into a war,” Fico stressed.

Fico has consistently opposed military support for Ukraine since returning to office in 2023 while halting government weapons shipments to Kiev. He has also opposed Kiev’s accession to NATO, and insisted that Ukraine’s EU membership is only possible if it meets all the requirements.

He has also argued that the West’s strategy to “bring Russia to its knees” had “completely failed.” “The European Union does not need more weapons and Russophobia. The European Union needs more diplomacy and concrete plans to help the economy,” Fico said last month.

Russia has accused the EU of rapid militarization, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the bloc is directing increasing military capabilities against Moscow while portraying it as an enemy.

President Vladimir Putin has consistently rejected claims that Moscow intends to attack NATO countries, but warned last week that deploying European forces to Ukraine “would mean war with Russia.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also stressed that Russia has no intention of attacking the West but warned that if Europe attacked first, the resulting conflict would be “very short.”

September 18, 2026 Posted by | Militarism, Russophobia | , | Comments Off on NATO member warns bloc seeking pretext for war with Russia

« Previous Entries     Next Entries »