Outgoing German foreign minister, in surprise visit to Kyiv, warns: ‘Putin playing for time’
Annalena Baerbock, Germany’s outgoing foreign minister, has paid an unannounced visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.
Defence
Latest reporting and analysis on defence.
Politico owners Axel Springer hit as board member Varsavsky resigns over its ‘Hamas support’
Martín Varsavsky, a Jewish-Argentinian entrepreneur who since 2014 has been on the board of directors of Axel Springer, the Berlin-based European multinational…
It was always just the US: Europe, a continent unwilling to prepare for war
Europe as a political, cultural and economic entity does not deserve to survive.
US and Russia talk about Ukraine war, eye a Black Sea ceasefire
US and Russian officials held talks in Saudi Arabia on March 24 aimed at making progress towards a broad ceasefire in Ukraine with Washington eyeing a separate…
Tusk accuses opposition of ‘Russian sabotage’ as consensus on Polish defence breaks down
The consensus between the Polish centre-left government led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk and the opposition Conservatives (PiS) over Polish defence and security…
EU leaders to discuss defence as military tensions heat up
Accusations from Moscow, mixed signals from Washington and discord in Europe reigned as another summit unfolded in Brussels.
Military chiefs gather in London to discuss UK-French ‘coalition of the willing’ for Ukraine
Senior military leaders from the UK and French-led "coalition of the willing" have been preparing to gather in London.
Lessons from Minsk II for the Ukraine peace talks
The road to peace in Ukraine is extremely difficult and perhaps also very long, despite president Trump’s initial hopes.
UK chief Brexit negotiator warns against armed confrontation with Russia
Britain’s former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost has warned that direct military confrontation between the UK and Russia must be avoided.
What can we learn if we listen to a Russian officer’s muscular call to arms?
The invasion of Kursk was a disaster, indeed remains a disaster as Ukrainian men continue to be ground down as I write these words.
Baltic States and Poland plan to leave agreement banning anti-personnel mines
The defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have recommended to their governments that they should leave the UN-backed Ottawa Convention, an international…
Armies that do real fighting do not employ women as infantry or submariners
The recent inquest into the suicide of a young female soldier in the British Army nearly four years ago has generated vast amounts of adverse-publicity for the army.
Rwanda cuts diplomatic ties with Belgium over Congo conflict
Rwanda's Government has decided to cut diplomatic ties with Belgium over the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) conflict.
Bavarian health minister calls for war-ready hospitals amid rising threats
German Bavarian State health minister Judith Gerlach has called for war-ready hospitals amid rising military threats from Russia and NATO uncertainty under the second…
Genocide in Syria wipes out the last surviving heirs of European civilisation
As the West postures as the global guardian of human rights and democracy, it turns a blind eye - or worse, lends direct support - to the ongoing ethnic cleansing…
US imposes sanctions on Swedish criminal Foxtrot gang
The US has imposed sanctions on the Foxtrot Network, a notorious Swedish criminal gang led by Kurdish-Swedish fugitive Rawa Majid, commonly known as "The Kurdish…
Armenia and Azerbaijan agree treaty terms to end almost 40 years of conflict
Armenian and Azerbaijani officials said on March 13 that they had agreed the text of a peace agreement to end nearly four decades of conflict between the South Caucasus…
Rheinmetall mulls converting German VW facility into military vehicle production site
German weapons manufacturer Rheinmetall has announced plans to convert a Volkswagen car factory in Osnabrück (Lower Saxony) into a production facility for armoured…
No military sovereignty? EU defence equipment in US hands heightens concerns
As transatlantic relations have grown increasingly strained, concerns over European military sovereignty have been mounting.
US expands global arms dominance as Russian exports decline
According to a report published by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the US has accounted for more than 60 per cent of European NATO…
Poland seeks nuclear weapons cover and wants military training for all its men
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has announced that the government wanted to introduce military training for all adult males and that his country would seek to…
No more ‘Strong Gods’ in Europe: what men will volunteer to fight now?
Imagine being a frontline Ukrainian soldier on February 28th, having survived another nightmarish day of trench warfare with satellite enabled battlefield transparency,…
Lithuania officially pulls out of international convention banning cluster bombs
Lithuania has officially withdrawn from the Convention on Cluster Munitions, an international treaty prohibiting the production and distribution of the controversial…
Polish Right urges Zelensky to start negotiations and wants US to deal with Putin
Both Poland’s right-wing parties, the Conservatives (PiS) and the Confederation party, have supported the US President Donald Trump's attempts to kick-start peace…
Former French PM Fillon: ‘Radical islamism is bigger threat than stagnant Russia’
Former French prime minister François Fillon has said that after three years of war, Russia was "an infinitely less threat" than the "pernicious Islamist ideology"…
Courage lies in seeking peace, not in prolonging this war
As soon as Trump took the first steps toward fulfilling his campaign promise to end the war in Ukraine, proponents of confrontation with Russia rose as one across…
‘Not a single NATO army is ready to resist the cascade of drones’, Ukraine commander warns
NATO armed forces are not ready for a modern drone war, the military commander in charge of Ukraine's unmanned systems warned three years into a conflict with…
Germany to end aid to Rwanda amid DRC conflict while EC continues raw materials deal
Germany has decided to stop new development aid to Rwanda because of the African nation's role in the conflict in the neighbouring country, the Democratic Republic…
‘Poland only has ammunition for three days of war,’ says presidential hopeful
Sławomir Mentzen, the Polish presidential candidate of the right-wing Confederation party, has claimed that if war broke out Poland would only have enough ammunition…
Europe still has no realistic plan on Ukraine
The emergency summit convened in London on Sunday by the UK prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer, was hailed as a major success – and in some ways it was.