I shall give priority today to the following (see Mercouris 05.31.,2023), because it provides interesting perspective both on the Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow yesterday and on the attack today on Belgorod. The former appears to have involved 8 major aircraft-style drones (mainly if not completely intercepted) and a number, perhaps as many as 24, of smaller drones that may have been intended as decoys. Particular credit has been extended by Putin to the effectivness of Russia’s Pantsir air defense systems. Details of today’s attack on Belgorod are still fairly scarce, but the Russian Ministry of Defense refers to as many as 260 drones mainly focused, so far as I can ascertain at short notice, on one or more settlements close to the border. Russian sources refer to one casualty and two wounded. As many as 29 civilian and residential high-rise structures were hit. Whereas Russia claims that its targets in Ukraine have military significance, those of Ukraine, it claims, are residential. The same broadcast talks about the enhanced role of Chechnyan forces in Ukraine, with especial relevance to Russian advances on Avdievka. It recalls Chechnyan leader Kadyrov’s denunciation of western support for rebel Chechnyan forces in the Chechnyan-Russian wars of the 1990s, and Kadyrov’s opposition at that time to Chechnyan attacks on Moscow. There is also an interesting discussion about the reasdouts of various diplomatic summaries of the conversation that occurred a few days ago at the G7: these show sharp discrepancies of perspective between on the one hand countries such as India, Turkey and Brazil and on the other the US and its closest allies.
NATO Wars Critical Links May 31, 2023
NATO Wars Critical Links May 31, 2023
NATO Wars Critical Links May 31, 2023
I shall give priority today to the following (see Mercouris 05.31.,2023), because it provides interesting perspective both on the Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow yesterday and on the attack today on Belgorod. The former appears to have involved 8 major aircraft-style drones (mainly if not completely intercepted) and a number, perhaps as many as 24, of smaller drones that may have been intended as decoys. Particular credit has been extended by Putin to the effectivness of Russia’s Pantsir air defense systems. Details of today’s attack on Belgorod are still fairly scarce, but the Russian Ministry of Defense refers to as many as 260 drones mainly focused, so far as I can ascertain at short notice, on one or more settlements close to the border. Russian sources refer to one casualty and two wounded. As many as 29 civilian and residential high-rise structures were hit. Whereas Russia claims that its targets in Ukraine have military significance, those of Ukraine, it claims, are residential. The same broadcast talks about the enhanced role of Chechnyan forces in Ukraine, with especial relevance to Russian advances on Avdievka. It recalls Chechnyan leader Kadyrov’s denunciation of western support for rebel Chechnyan forces in the Chechnyan-Russian wars of the 1990s, and Kadyrov’s opposition at that time to Chechnyan attacks on Moscow. There is also an interesting discussion about the reasdouts of various diplomatic summaries of the conversation that occurred a few days ago at the G7: these show sharp discrepancies of perspective between on the one hand countries such as India, Turkey and Brazil and on the other the US and its closest allies.