Tag: nato

Russian Troops Take Another Eastern Ukraine Town As NATO Leaders Wrangle Over ‘What’s Next’

As NATO leaders met in The Hague for their major annual summit – where the focus was collective increased defense spending, Trump’s proclamation of Iran’s nuclear program having been ‘obliterated’, and more support for Ukraine – Russian forces gained another town in Eastern Ukraine.

According to Reuters on Wednesday, “Russian forces have taken control of the settlement of Yalta in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, the state-run RIA news agency reported on Wednesday citing the Russian Defense Ministry.”

“Battlegroup East units liberated the settlement of Yalta in the Donetsk People’s Republic through active and decisive actions,” the defense ministry said in the statement.

While Reuters and others are not able to independently verify the battlefield report, this is part of Russian forces’ slow but steady momentum in the east, and even lately expanding west of Donetsk as part of establishing Putin’s big security ‘buffer zone’. 

At this point it’s clear that Kiev’s backers in NATO can do nothing about this, except throw more money and weapons at the conflict, and President Trump met with Zelensky on Wednesday on the sidelines of the NATO meeting.

The two reportedly discussed Ukraine procuring more US anti-air defense systems, which ironically enough will likely be purchased with US taxpayer funds already poured into Kiev’s coffers.

As for Ukraine’s push for more US sanctions on Moscow, the response from The Hague was as follows:

“If we did what everybody here wants us to do, and that is come in and crush them [Russia] with more sanctions, we probably lose our ability to talk to them about the ceasefire – and then who’s talking to them?” Rubio said at the NATO summit.

Trump will “know the right time and place” for fresh punitive measures, he added. “If there’s an opportunity for us to make a difference and get them [Russia] to the table, we’re going to take it,” the state secretary emphasized.

But meanwhile, Russia will be busy gaining more territory, and future leverage at the negotiating table, as war fatigue has continued to set in among Ukraine’s Western backers.

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All of Nato, including US, ‘totally committed’ to keeping Ukraine in fight, Rutte says

The whole of Nato, including the United States, is “totally committed” to keeping Ukraine in the fight against Russia’s invasion, alliance secretary-general Mark Rutte told Reuters in an interview on June 25.

Speaking at the end of a summit of Nato leaders in The Hague, Mr Rutte also said nobody in Nato was naive about Russia and all alliance members “have more or less the same assessment” of Moscow.

US President Donald Trump’s more conciliatory stance towards Russia in his efforts to bring an end to the war in Ukraine has prompted questions about US commitments to Kyiv.

“The whole of Nato, including the United States, is totally committed to keep Ukraine in the fight, to make sure that if there is a peace deal, that peace deal – or the ceasefire – will be lasting, will be durable,” Mr Rutte said.

He said the clear direction of travel was that Europeans would be responsible for more of the military aid to Ukraine.

But he said the US would still be “very much involved with intelligence-sharing, with also practical military support” including potentially air defence systems.

“I think there will still be a huge, big American involvement,” Mr Rutte said.

The Trump administration has also told Europeans that they must take over primary responsibility for their own security, rather than relying on the US through Nato.

Mr Rutte said this process would be possible as Europeans had committed to spending more on defence, and it would be “well-organised” to avoid any gaps that Russia could exploit.

“I’ve had these discussions in Washington over the last couple of months,” he said.

“For years, the US has said ‘we have to pivot more towards Asia’. Now that the Europeans are stepping up, that also makes it possible,” he said.

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NATO Pledges $40 Billion to Ukraine

The neocons would never permit a true ceasefire. The war in the Middle East must continue in order to broaden the West’s conflict with Russia. Russia is not permitted to remain neutral, despite Putin’s insistence. Follow the money—NATO has assembled $40 BILLION to prolong aggression against Russia.

“Let’s not forget, Iran is heavily involved in the fight of Russia against Ukraine by, for example, their drone deliveries, which are killing innocent Ukrainians every day, in cities, in communities, without any respect for life,” Rutte said. Russia has paid Iran for defense and drones throughout the conflict in Ukraine, and therefore, the neocons believe Russia should be held responsible for the war in the Middle East.

Russia has successfully fended off NATO and the weaponization of Ukraine by the West. The messaging put forth by NATO aligns with Socrates’ predictions—the worst is yet to come and we have mass panic cycles occurring in nearly every major economy in 2026. The reason cannot be provided by the computer, but historically, we only see such an uptick in activity during times of global conflict.

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NATO To Take ‘Quantum Leap’ in Military Spending, Pledging 5% of GDP Baseline

Each member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is expected to ink a pledge to raise military spending to 5% of GDP over the next ten years. This is more than double the current 2% goal. Responding to President Donald Trump’s demands for greater spending, member states will agree to the new baseline in the Netherlands during an alliance summit this week. On Monday, the eve before the summit, this proposal was referred to as a “quantum leap” by Secretary General Mark Rutte.

Under the compromise deal, by 2035, each member state will commit a minimum of 3.5% of their GDP to “core military needs,” along with 1.5% to be earmarked for cybersecurity, infrastructure, and other security components.

“The defense investment plan that allies will agree [to] in The Hague introduces a new baseline, five percent of GDP to be invested in defense,” Rutte told reporters.Despite alliance concerns over Madrid’s refusal to commit to the 5% spending figure, which would necessitate a military yearly budget of nearly $90 billion, Rutte emphasized Spain will not be allowed to “opt-out.” He said, “NATO does not have as an alliance opt-outs, side deals, etcetera, because we all have to chip in.”

Moreover, Rutte insists the new spending will go toward producing thousands of tanks and a five fold increase in the production of air defenses. The NATO chief declared, “Our focus is ensuring that we have all we need to deter and defend against any threat.” Rutte added the summit will see strong support for Ukraine and noted the “most significant and direct threat facing this alliance remains the Russian Federation.”

The alliance has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into a proxy war with Russia in Ukraine that has seen hundreds of thousands of casualties with Ukraine losing roughly 20% of its territory.

With the US taking the lead, by 2021, defying Russia’s core security concerns and provoking conflict, Ukraine was being treated as a de facto NATO member. Rutte’s predecessor, Jens Stoltenberg, admitted that, under his leadership in the lead up to the war, the Washington-led bloc refused to take potential membership for Kiev off the table in negotiations even though Moscow had made clear that would prevent an invasion.

The policy has not changed. “Last year in Washington, NATO allies agreed… there is an irreversible path of Ukraine to enter NATO. And that is still true today, and it will still be true on Thursday after this summit,” Rutte told reporters.

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NATO’s Procurement Corruption Scandal Might Delay Its Rapid Militarization Plans

Member states might eschew the NATO Support and Procurement Agency’s services, thus delaying their military purchases, which could delay the bloc’s rapid militarization plans if enough of them do this so as to avoid having to pay more if they’re unlucky enough to be serviced by corrupt employees.

NATO’s next summit will be held from 24-25 June at The Hague and almost certainly see the bloc expand upon its preexisting rapid militarization plans.

Trump is demanding that all members spend 5% of GDP on defense as soon as possible, which Politico recently reminded everyone in their article about this is divided between 3.5% on “hard military spending” and 1.5% on defense-related issues like cybersecurity.

Here are three background briefings on NATO’s rapid militarization plans to bring readers up to speed:

* 19 July 2024: “The EU’s Planned Transformation Into A Military Union Is A Federalist Power Play”

* 24 October 2024: “NATO’s Military Schengen”

* 7 March 2025: “The ‘ReArm Europe Plan’ Will Probably Fall Far Short Of The Bloc’s Lofty Expectations”

In short, the EU wants to exploit false fears of a future Russian invasion to further centralize the bloc under that pretext, with the “military Schengen” (for facilitating the free flow of troops and equipment between member states) and the €800 billion “ReArm Europe Plan” being its tangible manifestations.

The first will create the desired military union while the second will then result in there being an urgent need for some mechanism to organize the division of defense investments between all members.

It’s here where the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) is expected to play a major role owing to the lack of any alternatives and the difficulty in getting members to agree on creating a new EU-wide one due to some states’ sovereignty concerns. Per the NSPA’s website, “[its] objective is to obtain the best service or equipment at the best price for the customer by consolidating requirements from multiple nations in a cost-efficient way through its turnkey multinational acquisition framework.”

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Russia Won’t End Ukraine War Until NATO Pulls Forces Out Of Eastern Flank

A top Kremlin official was quoted in Newsweek this week warning that Russia won’t end the Ukraine war until NATO pulls its troops out of the Baltic and ‘eastern flank’ states.

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov demanded that NATO must withdraw its troops from the Baltic region. Russia has long seen the Baltics as very near, and its sphere of influence, also given its territory of of Kaliningrad. 

“The American side requires practical steps aimed at eliminating the root causes of the fundamental contradictions between us in the area of security,” he had said, originally in state TASS.

“Among these causes, NATO expansion is in the foreground,” he emphasized. “Without resolving this fundamental and most acute problem for us, it is simply impossible to resolve the current conflict in the Euro-Atlantic region.”

NATO’s ‘eastern flank’ closer to the start of the Ukraine war – forces have since grown…

“Given the nature and genesis of the Ukrainian crisis, provoked by the previous U.S. authorities and the West as a whole, this conflict naturally acts, well, if you like, as a test, a trial, which checks the seriousness of Washington’s intentions to straighten out our relations,” he said.

Ryabkov said Moscow’s position all along has been that the Western military alliance “not deploy strike weapons near Russian border.”

“In any case, reducing NATO’s Eastern European contingent would likely boost the security of the whole continent,” he concluded.

Such a broader ultimatum was actually issued just before the full-scale invasion, but was not heeded. In fact, countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have only grown more hawkish and vocal in their anti-Moscow rhetoric, and have even taken legal action against the Russian Orthodox Church in the Baltics.

A very provocative and sensational alert issued by German intelligence…

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NATO Chief: Russia Could Be Ready to Fight the West in Five Years

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned that Russia could launch an attack on the bloc within five years. He called on members to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP.

Speaking at the British Chatham House think tank, Rutte told the audience, “Russia could be ready to use military force against NATO within five years. Five years. Let’s not kid ourselves, we are all on the Eastern flank now.” He continued, “There is no longer East or West – there is just NATO.”

Rutte argued that to combat the supposed threat from Russia, NATO states must boost military spending to 5% of their GDP, adding “3.5% will be invested in our core military requirements. While the rest will go towards defence and security-related investments, including infrastructure and building industrial capacity.” He went on to say that “5% is not some figure plucked from the air, it is grounded in hard facts.”

President Donald Trump has also called for NATO to increase its minimum defense spending level to 5% of GDP. The current requirement is 2%, and only 23 of 32 members meet that threshold.

Spain and Italy will hit the minimum level for the first time this year, while Canada is not expected to spend more than 2% of its GDP on defense until 2027.

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker restated that demand last week. “We are currently negotiating within the North Atlantic Council the timelines and what’s included in the 5%, both from a core defense standpoint and also defense-related and security-related spending,” he said Wednesday. He added that member states must rapidly ramp up spending to reach that goal.

According to NATO statistics, in 2024, only Poland spent over 4% of GDP on its military. Four countries, including the US, spend over 3% on defense. For the US, this would mean spending $1.45 trillion annually on the war budget. 

“But let me be clear on this, we cannot have another Wales pledge style where a lot of allies don’t meet their commitments until year 10 or year 11,” he said. “We are asking all allies to increase their budgets as far as they can and as quickly as they can, understanding that this is not the United States setting this timeline, it is our adversaries.”

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Ukraine conflict a NATO ‘proxy war’ – Trump envoy

Russian President Vladimir Putin is right in considering the Ukraine conflict a proxy war against Russia, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy Keith Kellogg told Fox News in an interview on Sunday.

He said that while he believes the peace process will ultimately succeed, “escalatory issues” remain. Kellogg referred to comments by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who last month indicated that Berlin would be open to supplying Kiev with Taurus cruise missiles.

Kellogg addressed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s perspective, saying “he considers this a proxy war by NATO. And frankly… in a way it is.”

“The escalatory issues are still there,” Kellogg said. “Chancellor Merz has said: well, I’m going to give the Ukrainians the Taurus missile system.”

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German chief of defence orders swift expansion of warfare capabilities

Germany’s Chief of Defence, Carsten Breuer, has ordered the German military to be fully equipped with weapons and other material by 2029, a document seen by Reuters on Sunday shows.

By 2029, Russia may have reconstituted its forces sufficiently to attack NATO territory, according to estimates by Breuer and other senior military officials at NATO.

The latest document, entitled “Directive Priorities for the Bolstering of Readiness”, which Breuer signed on May 19, said Germany will meet the goal with the help of funds made available by the loosening of the country’s debt brake in March.

The defence ministry in Berlin did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In the directive, Breuer sets priorities for the weapons that should be acquired or developed most urgently, reflecting in part priorities NATO has previously laid out.

Among them, Breuer lists the strengthening of Germany’s depleted air defences, in particular with a view to intercepting drones.

Last year, sources told Reuters that NATO will request Berlin to at least quadruple its air defences, ranging from systems with a longer range, such as the Patriot, to short-range systems.

Another priority is a capability to launch deep precision strikes, according to the document, effectively hitting targets at a distance of more than 500 kilometres (310 miles) and far behind enemy lines.

In addition to pushing for Germany’s ammunition stocks to be replenished, Breuer also orders Germany to raise its stockpiling targets for all types of ammunition.

Other priorities listed in the document are the swift expansion of Germany’s capabilities in electronic warfare and the establishment of a resilient system of “offensive and defensive capabilities” in space.

In a speech in mid-May, Army Chief Alfons Mais said a large-scale social and industrial mobilisation meant Russian forces were rapidly gaining firepower.

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US to Begin European Troop Withdrawal Talks, NATO Ambassador Says

In a move signaling a long-overdue shift in American foreign policy, the United States, under President Donald J. Trump, is preparing to open discussions with European allies on reducing its military footprint across the continent.

US Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker confirmed the Trump administration’s plans during a security forum in Estonia, stating that the conversations will formally begin after June’s NATO summit in The Hague, Reuters reported.

“Nothing has been determined,” Whitaker said, “but as soon as we do, we are going to have these conversations in the structure of NATO.” He made it clear this isn’t just another round of diplomatic foot-dragging. “It’s more than 30 years of the US desire to reduce troops in Europe. President Trump just said, enough—this is going to happen, and it’s going to happen now.”

The remarks starkly contrast with previous administrations’ foreign policy, which treated NATO like a sacred cow regardless of how little European members contributed in return. Trump-era officials have increasingly called out what they see as chronic European underfunding and dependency.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth minced no words earlier this year, declaring that “stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.”

In private discussions over the allegedly encrypted messaging app Signal, Hegseth reportedly expressed his “loathing of European free-loading,” a sentiment echoed by Vice President J.D. Vance. The two have become key voices pushing to restore a foreign policy rooted in American interests, not global entanglements.

Despite the uproar in some NATO capitals, Whitaker reassured allies that the US isn’t abandoning the alliance altogether—just recalibrating its role. “We’re going to remain in this alliance,” he said. “But we’re not going to have any more patience for foot-dragging.”

The numbers behind the move are substantial. America currently maintains an estimated 128,000 troops across Europe, with Germany hosting the lion’s share. Poland, Italy, and the UK also house significant contingents.

But the political winds are shifting, and rightly so. Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk recently tried to tamp down fears after the US quietly redeployed forces away from a major Ukrainian support hub. Still, the writing’s on the wall.

For decades, Washington has carried the bulk of the military burden in Europe, funding and defending nations that often lecture Americans while failing to meet even basic NATO spending obligations. With ballooning domestic priorities and a border crisis back home, many Americans—especially those aligned with the nationalist, Trump-aligned right—are asking why their sons and daughters are still stationed abroad to defend countries that won’t defend themselves.

Critics of the withdrawal, unsurprisingly, warn of a “security gap” that Russia could exploit.

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