According to an article published in the Royal Navy’s official magazine, the Globe and Laurel, Lieutenant General Robert Magowan confirmed that 350 marines were deployed to Ukraine for two separate missions since January – the first prior to the invasion and the second in April.
Tuesday evening, it was announced by multiple U.S. defense officials and a top Biden administration official that the U.S. was working on a deal to send Patriot missile systems to Ukraine. On Wednesday, the Kremlin responded to the announcement with Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, posting on his Telegram account (computer translation), “If, as Stoltenberg hinted, NATO supplies Kyiv fanatics with Patriot complexes along with NATO personnel, they will immediately become a legitimate target of our Armed Forces. I hope the Atlantean impotents understand this.”
After weeks of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, Kyiv’s mayor, Vitaliy Klitschko, is warning residents in the battered country’s capital city that there is a high possibility that a total blackout could occur as temperatures drop below freezing and more Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid are expected.
While the U.S. has hesitated to send long-range missiles to Kyiv that could enter Russian territory due to concerns that such a move could be seen as an escalation or a provocation by Moscow, Latvia doesn’t have the same reservations. Latvian Foreign Minister, Edgars Rinkevics, has called for NATO to allow Ukraine to conduct strikes inside Russian territory.
After weeks of intense Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure have left the war-torn country’s energy grid all but destroyed, the Biden administration, on Tuesday, committed to sending $53 million to Ukraine to repair the power grid that it shares with neighboring Moldova.
As if the White House requesting another $38 billion in aid for Ukraine recently wasn’t enough, a group of bipartisan senators has asked the Biden administration to provide Ukraine with the advanced MQ-1C Gray Eagle drone that would allow Kyiv to have longer-range capabilities.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament declared that Russia is committing war crimes in its war against Ukraine and that it has used “means of terrorism,” which has led to Russia being officially declared a state sponsor of terrorism.
Not even a week after an errant Ukrainian air-defense missile landed in Poland killing 2 people along the border with Ukraine, Germany has provided Poland with a US-made Patriot air-defense system for its border.
According to Inkerman, on Sunday, local sources reported that multiple explosions were heard around the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant which is currently under Russian control. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also released a statement confirming local reports and noting that more than 12 powerful blasts were heard at the battered nuclear plant.
As Russian missiles pounded Ukrainian infrastructure this week, Ukraine’s southern neighbor, Moldova, felt the effects as blackouts began occurring throughout the small country on November 15, according to Inkerman.