In a speech on Tuesday that has been highly anticipated by Western nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is suspending Moscow’s participation in the New START nuclear treaty with the U.S.
Over the weekend, President Joe Biden departed Joint Base Andrews in Maryland to visit Ramstein Air Base in Germany before going to Kyiv for an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital on Monday. The visit comes a few days ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Thursday, NORAD announced that in addition to the interception of 4 Russian aircraft on Monday, Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were intercepted off the coast of Alaska on February 14 as well.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko issued a warning on Thursday saying that if Belarus is either threatened or comes under attack, the country’s army is ready to join the war in Ukraine and fight alongside the Russians.
As NATO warns that its stockpiles of artillery munitions are running low, the U.S. military is attempting to train Ukrainian forces to change how they fight in order to conserve shells. Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, outlined the effort after a meeting in Brussels with the Ukraine Defense Contact group.
As Washington looks for new ways to fund the war in Ukraine, the U.S. Army has begun assessing the possibility of sending thousands of Iranian weapons and more than a million rounds of ammunition to Kyiv.
NORAD announced Tuesday that on Monday, it scrambled jets to intercept 4 Russian inbound military aircraft near American airspace off the coast of Alaska.
According to Ukrainian officials, Friday saw more of the eerily consistent nationwide missile strikes that Russia has been conducting across the country for months. However, there was a noticeable uptick in the number of strikes Russia conducted on Friday with Moscow firing up to 35 S-300 missiles at Zaporizhzhia and the Kharkiv region. The escalated strikes caused additional power outages overnight across the country.
On Thursday, Matt Gaetz will introduce a resolution in the House that calls for the Biden administration to cease U.S. military and financial assistance to Ukraine. The measure also calls for a peace agreement as the war will enter its second year on February 24.
Despite being mixed up in corruption scandals last month involving the Ukrainian government, it does not appear that Oleksii Reznikov will lose his position as Ukraine’s Defense Minister this week, according to a statement from President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. However, Ukraine’s ruling party, Servant of the People, issued a statement on Sunday indicating that Reznikov will be replaced as Defense Minister at some point.