Latvia To Deport 6,000 Russians – Latvia/Lithuania Move Troops To Border With Belarus
In a rare moment of public vulnerability, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pleaded for his military to “show results” before the upcoming NATO summit that is being held July 11-12 in Vilnius, Lithuania. The plea comes as some in Washington are growing weary of providing U.S. arms to Kyiv if its military is incapable of making advances.
Days after Wagner’s short-lived mutiny in southern Russia as the group of mercenaries marched toward Moscow, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters in Lithuania, “I think what we’re seeing in Russia over the last days demonstrates the fragility of the [Russian] regime, and, of course, it is a demonstration of weakness.”
In an NBC News interview that was published Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky targeted former President Donald Trump and attacked his vow to negotiate an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Zelensky argued that if Russia is not defeated in Ukraine, then Moscow will attack or invade another NATO member state and force the U.S. and the alliance into a direct conflict with Russia.
The Biden administration made it clear in May that Washington would not prevent its allies from providing F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv, which would be a move widely seen as highly escalatory and one that could lead to direct conflict between NATO and Russia. However, it has also been largely understood that training Ukrainian pilots to fly Western combat aircraft could take at least a year, if not longer.
As NATO’s summit approaches, former NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen has warned that some of the alliance’s Eastern European states are considering sending their troops to Ukraine if NATO does not make substantial pledges to Ukraine during the summit.