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U.S. forces were expelled from both Niger and Chad this week, dealing a serious blow to the Biden administration’s diplomacy and counter-terrorism policies in Africa.
The post Biden Diplomacy: Chad, Niger Kick American Soldiers Out appeared first on Breitbart.
Five men charged over an arson attack against a Ukrainian business in East London in March.
The post Alleged Russian Spy Accused of Masterminding Arson Attack Against Ukrainian Business in London appeared first on Breitbart.
Firefighters working in the rubble of a building on Friday after Russian strikes in Derhachi, Ukraine.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meeting China’s leader, Xi Jinping, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Friday.
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Ukrainian border guards along the Tisa River, delineating the Ukrainian-Romanian border, in April. Men between 18 and 60 were prohibited from leaving the country after Russia’s invasion.
Aghaphia Vyshyvana lighting a candle in memory of her two sons, Vasyl and Kyrylo Vyshyvany, who died fighting in the war in 2022, in Khodoriv, Ukraine, last month.
Russia on Wednesday used its veto power at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to block a resolution sponsored by the United States and Japan to ban nuclear weapons in outer space.
The post Russia Vetoes Ban on Nuclear Weapons in Space at U.N. Security Council appeared first on Breitbart.
A handout image from the U.S. Army showing an Army Tactical Missile Systems live fire test at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in 2021.
“We are too slow and not ambitious enough,” President Emmanuel Macron of France said in his speech on Thursday.
A woman transported humanitarian aid to her home in the frontline town of Chasiv Yar in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region in January.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken with Chen Jining, the Communist Party secretary for Shanghai, on Thursday.
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Russian soldiers who turned against their country to fight for the Ukrainian side, in the Sumy region of Ukraine in March.
The Biden administration last month secretly shipped long-range missiles to Ukraine for the first time to enable Ukrainian forces to strike farther into Russian-seized areas in Ukraine, according to a report.
The post Report: Biden Administration Secretly Shipped Long-Range Missiles to Ukraine in March appeared first on Breitbart.
State of the Union: President Biden takes a victory lap after coaxing Speaker Johnson into passing more support for the war in Ukraine.
President Joe Biden’s administration is taking a victory lap as the president prepares to sign a $95 billion foreign aid package that includes $61 billion for Ukraine.
Specifically, Biden and company are boasting about how they worked over House Speaker Mike Johnson in the six months since the Louisianan started his tenure. “For months, President Joe Biden and his team pressed the case for additional aid both publicly and privately, leaning into courting Johnson,” CNN, one of the administration’s favored outlets, reported. The effort mostly took place, “behind the scenes through White House meetings, phone calls and detailed briefings on the battlefield impacts, administration officials said.”
The courtship started with “a Situation Room briefing one day after Johnson became speaker,” per the CNN report. Johnson was worked over by National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Office of Management and Budget Director Shalanda Young—even Biden himself stopped by the meeting. From then on, Biden administration officials were in regular contact with the Speaker. The aids Steve Ricchetti and Shuwanza Goff ran point together for the administration’s courtship of Johnson and his staff. Sullivan gave Johnson the occasional ring; Biden gave Johnson the occasional invite to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
CNN’s story and others like it should embarrass Republicans. They should embarrass Republican voters, who have put their trust in their elected officials to represent them. They should embarrass Republican lawmakers, who have lost on every major issue this Congress. But most of all, they should embarrass Mike Johnson.
The post How Biden Courted Johnson for Ukraine Aid appeared first on The American Conservative.
FBI Director Christopher Wray admitted that officials are concerned about "some kind of coordinated" terrorist attack in the U.S.
The post FBI Director Christopher Wray Concerned About ‘Some Kind of Coordinated Attack’ on Homeland appeared first on Breitbart.
The UK says it will campaign for NATO spending for all members to increase, pushing member states to contribute more to collective defence.
The post Echoing Trump UK Calls on NATO Allies to Boost Defence Spending, Announces Own Budget Increase appeared first on Breitbart.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken landed in Shanghai, China, on Wednesday afternoon for meetings with senior officials, receiving no significant honors upon his landing and preceded by loud warnings from the Foreign Ministry to avoid challenging the Communist Party on its belligerent policies.
The post China Offers Blinken Cold Welcome in Shanghai, Mocks Visit as ‘Imploring’ appeared first on Breitbart.
A top Russian military official arrested on suspicion of accepting a bribe was sent to pre-trial detention Wednesday.
The post Russian Deputy Defence Minister Arrested on Suspicion of Taking Bribe appeared first on Breitbart.
Donetsk, eastern Ukraine. Artillery ammunition has been in short supply for the Ukrainian military for more than a year.
There are problems money can’t fix.
On April 20, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the long-delayed $61 billion aid package for Ukraine. The package quickly passed Tuesday night through the Senate on its way to President Joe Biden’s desk, where it will quickly be signed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson reportedly reversed course and led the aid package through the House in part because, during intelligence briefings, he came to “believe the intel” that without the “lethal aid,” “Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Baltics next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.”
That Ukraine is a stepping stone in Russia’s march through Europe has long been a key argument in justifying continued aid for Ukraine. Johnson should not have so readily believed it. Aside from the not unimportant question of whether Russia even has the ability to invade Europe and engage in a war with all of NATO, there is no evidence that this is Putin’s intent. U.S. Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith said on April 2 that she “really want[s] to be clear” that “we do not have indicators or warnings right now that a Russian war is imminent on NATO territory.”
Nor does the historical record suggest waging war on NATO and conquering Europe has ever been Putin’s intent. Putin’s claim that the decision to go to war was motivated by the security necessity of keeping Ukraine out of NATO has been verified by NATO and Ukrainian officials. Davyd Arakhamia, who led the Ukrainian negotiating team at the Istanbul talks, says that Russia was “prepared to end the war if we…committed that we would not join NATO.” Ukrainian Volodymyr Zelensky called the promise not to join NATO “the first fundamental point for the Russian Federation” and said that “as far as I remember, they started a war because of this.”
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg recently conceded that a “promise [of] no more NATO enlargement… was a precondition for not invading Ukraine.” When NATO refused to discuss such a promise, Putin “went to war to prevent NATO—more NATO—close to his borders.” Stoltenberg concluded that “Putin invaded a European country to prevent more NATO.”
If Ukraine was a member state of NATO and tried to take back Crimea militarily, then Russia and NATO could find themselves at war. If Putin went to war to prevent this scenario and avoid a war with NATO, as he has stated a number of times, then it would seemingly make little sense that he would launch a war against Ukraine as a stepping stone to war on NATO.
But aside from the question of whether Johnson should have been convinced of the need to aid Ukraine, there is the question of whether the $61 billion will provide the aid it is intended to give.
There are five things the aid package will not do for Ukraine. It will not provide enough money. It will not provide the badly needed weapons, nor deliver them on time. It will not provide the even more badly needed troops. And it will not provide victory.
Though $61 billion is a massive amount of money, it is not massive enough to defeat Russia. Ukraine accomplished little but the loss of life and the most advanced weapons during its centerpiece counteroffensive when it was receiving even more.
“$61 billion will not change the outcome of this war,” Nicolai Petro, Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhodes and the author of The Tragedy of Ukraine, told The American Conservative. “In order to change the outcome, much, much more money is needed. Just how much more? We know, because just talking about it is one of the things that got the head of the Ukrainian armed forces, Valery Zaluzhny, fired in February. In an interview in December 2023, Zaluzhny pointed out that a mere 61 billion USD would not suffice to liberate all of Ukraine. That, he said, would require five to seven times that amount, or $350-400 billion.” There is the additional danger that future aid packages might all be smaller.
Even if the money was sufficient, it would not provide Ukraine with the weapons it needs because the weapons are not available for purchase. Retired U.S. Army Colonel Daniel Davis, Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, agrees that the $61 billion “is fairly small in terms of the overall need.” But Davis adds that “even if you get the money, you’re not going to have the number of artillery shells, interceptor missiles for air defense. You can’t make the artillery shells any faster than we are right now. It’s a matter of physical capacity: we can’t do it.”
And even if the West could produce the weapons, there is the question of whether they could deliver them to Ukraine on time. Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Bruce Slawter, who served as attaché at the American Embassy in Moscow and spent 25 years working on government assignments in Russia and Ukraine, agrees that there is an “inability to produce weapons that have already been used up in the war” but adds that “any additional funding for Ukraine will take many months, if not a year or more, to have any effect on the battlefield.” And that may be too late if Russia launches a summer offensive as some expect.
Even if the West could provide Ukraine with the weapons on time, the “big problem for Ukraine,” Davis says, is not the provision of weapons, but the “manpower issue.” Ukraine’s losses on the battlefield, to death and injury, have left Ukraine with a bigger manpower problem than artillery problem. A close aide to President Zelensky told TIME magazine in an interview published in November 2023 that, even if the U.S. gave Ukraine all the weapons it needed, they “don’t have the men to use them.”
For all these reasons, the $61 billion aid package will not provide the promised victory. The one thing it will do is prolong the war and continue the loss of Ukrainian life and land.
“The $61 billion will not change the outcome of this war, which is now decisively turning in Russia’s favor,” Petro told TAC. The best the aid package can do, Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute, told TAC is “help Ukraine to defend its existing lines – though not ensure that it will be able to do so successfully. What it will not do is to enable Ukraine to break through Russian lines and recover the territory that Ukraine has lost. Given the strength of Russian defenses and the imbalance of numbers and ammunition favouring Russia, that looks militarily impossible for the Ukrainians.”
Though the aid package “is extremely unlikely to have any meaningful impact on the eventual outcome of the war,” Alexander Hill, professor of military history at the University of Calgary, told TAC, it “will certainly prolong the bloodshed.” Geoffrey Roberts, professor emeritus of history at University College Cork, agrees that the aid will just “prolong Ukraine’s agony.” He told TAC that “Ukraine will lose more people, more territory and its viability as an independent state.”
“This decision will only prolong the agony of Ukraine and Europe,” Richard Sakwa, Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent, told TAC. But, he added, “It also raises the stakes, and pushes the world one step further towards a cataclysm the likes of which we have never seen. Now is the time to start de-escalating, and to outline what it would take to start a diplomatic process of some sort.”
Hill said that if the U.S. wants to help Ukraine “it would be pushing for meaningful negotiations that would include not only territory, but also the future nature of the Ukraine-NATO relationship, with the aim being to facilitate a lasting peace.” Roberts agreed and added that the $60 billion would be better spent on “aiding Ukraine’s postwar recovery, not its further unnecessary destruction in pursuit of the West’s proxy war with Russia.”
In trying to help Ukraine, the aid package will in fact prolong its tragedy.
The post What $61 Billion for Ukraine Won’t Do appeared first on The American Conservative.
A photograph released by Russian state media showed Timur Ivanov in Moscow in 2018. Mr. Ivanov is known as a protégé of Sergei K. Shoigu, the Russian defense minister.
The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, inside a glass cage in a courtroom in Moscow on Tuesday, must stay in a prison there, a court ruled.
Congress is about to provide billions more dollars to Kyiv, mostly in the form of ammunition and long-range artillery, but questions remain whether new artificial intelligence technology will be enough to help turn the tide of the war.
The American brand will suffer so long as Washington pretends its capacities are limitless.
It is an axiom of warfare that it is always desirable to have friendly territory beyond one’s own borders or the capacity to prevent the buildup of significant military power in neutral territory for an attack against one’s own territory. When it lacked the military strength to do much, the United States promulgated the Monroe Doctrine with a similar purpose in mind.
When Moscow sent Russian forces into eastern Ukraine in February 2022, it did so without any plan of conquest or intention to permanently control Ukrainian territory. As Western military observers pointed out at the time, the Russian force that intervened was far too small and incapable for any mission beyond limited intervention for a brief period. In fact, Western observers predicted Russian forces would soon run out of ammunition, equipment, and soldiers.
The rationale for Moscow’s limited military commitment was obvious. Moscow originally sought neutrality for Ukraine as a solution to Ukraine’s hostility toward Russia and its cooperation with NATO, not territorial subjugation or conquest. Moscow believed, not unreasonably, that a neutral Ukrainian nation-state could be a cordon sanitaire that would shield Russia from NATO and, at the same time, provide NATO with insulation from Russia.
Nearly three years of Washington’s practically limitless funding for modern weapons and support in the form of spaced-based surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance for a proxy war designed to destroy Russia makes this approach laughable. Chancellor Merkel’s admission that the Western sponsored Minsk Accords were really designed to buy time for Ukraine to build up its military power is enough for Moscow to reject Western promises to ever respect, let alone enforce, Ukrainian neutrality.
When questioned on January 19 about the potential for negotiations with Washington and NATO, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, “We are ready [for negotiations]. But unlike the Istanbul story, we will not have a pause in hostilities during the negotiations. The process must continue. Secondly, of course, the realities on the ground have become different, significantly different.” What do Lavrov’s words mean?
In 1982, Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov, Chief of the Soviet General Staff, argued that control of the Rhine River would determine the outcome of any future war with NATO in Central Europe. There is little doubt that Russia’s senior military leaders have already concluded that Russian control of the Dnieper River is essential to Russian national security.
In addition to annexing historically Russian cities like Odessa and Kharkiv, Moscow will almost certainly insist on a modern demilitarized zone from the Dnieper River to NATO’s eastern border to prevent the reemergence of a hostile military force in Western Ukraine. Whether the Poles, Hungarians, or Belarusians decide to engage Moscow in discussions regarding Ukrainian territory with historic connections to their countries is unknown, but the imminent collapse of the Ukrainian state and armed forces will no doubt inform such discussions.
Washington’s strategy toward Moscow, if it can be called a strategy, consisted of organizing coercive measures across the Atlantic Alliance—economic, diplomatic, and military—to harm Russia fatally and destabilize its government. Washington’s unrealistic approach failed, and NATO, the framework for its implementation, is now fatally weakened, not Russia.
As a result, Washington’s brand has been grievously diminished, even enfeebled. Washington’s belief that with the combined might of NATO’s scientific-industrial power it could achieve a strategic victory over Russia by arming Ukrainians to do the fighting for them backfired badly. Like FDR in 1939, who expected the Germans to end up in a stalemate with the Anglo-French Armies on the model of the First World War, Washington did not consider the possibility that Ukraine would lose the fight.
During the 1930s, FDR became trapped in a debt spiral of “special interest” spending. In defiance of logic and affordability, FDR opted for more Federal spending until he realized that it was not working. With the onset of war in Europe, FDR saw the opportunity to extricate American society from the Depression by steering the United States into war. FDR’s scheme worked. The Second World War reinvigorated the American economy and ended America’s chronic unemployment. At the same time, America’s physical insularity kept American infrastructure and the American People beyond the reach of its enemies.
President Biden and Congress are on a similar course with profound consequences, but today, horrifically destructive modern weapons make the war option suicidal. Put another way, 21st-century problems cannot be solved with the use of 20th-century plans and policies. Instead of framing another false narrative to justify funding for a corrupt Ukrainian state that is collapsing, Washington and its allies should question the rationale for a new, costly cold war directed against Moscow, Beijing, Tehran, and a host of countries with world views that diverge sharply from our own.
Business schools teach their students that good brands have the power to sway decision-making and create communities of like-minded people. It isn’t just companies that need brands; countries need them, too. When asked about Washington’s ability to cope with wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, President Biden said, “We are the most powerful nation in the world, in the history of the world. We can take care of both of these [wars].” Biden was and is wrong. America’s resources are not limitless. Our power is constrained.
In Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America, the American brand has been damaged. Americans need (and should demand) a sober-minded analysis of the facts from the men who want to be president. They should be compelled to identify the United States’ true national interests; a process that should also identify the political and cultural realities that are not Washington’s to change.
The post Is It Game, Set, Match to Moscow? appeared first on The American Conservative.
Ukrainian soldiers with a howitzer in the country’s Donetsk region in February.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt said Republicans who voted against the $61 billion to fund the war in Ukraine are "traitors".
The post Top Eurocrat Verhofstadt Brands Republicans Who Voted Against Ukraine Aid as ‘Traitors’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said on this week's broadcast on "Fox News Sunday" that Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) aid package that included for Ukraine would not have passed the House without help from former President Donald Trump.
The post Graham: Ukraine Aid ‘Would Not Have Passed Without Donald Trump’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Ukrainian soldiers of the 148th Separate Artillery Brigade with a M777 howitzer at a firing position in the Donetsk region, Ukraine, in March.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson took an extraordinary political risk to defy the anti-interventionist wing of his party and push through the foreign aid package.
Ukrainian service members training in the Donetsk region earlier this month.
Democrats could save Speaker Mike Johnson, but they once again find themselves in a can’t-lose situation.
The House has passed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s $95 billion foreign aid package.
The House took several votes on the foreign aid package. As The American Conservative has explained, Johnson chose a procedural maneuver called a MIRV to consider the foreign aid package, which meant the House passed one rule to govern the process over each part of the four-part foreign aid package. As Johnson had to rely on Democratic support on the Rules Committee to advance the package to the House floor, Johnson once again found himself relying on Democratic support.
The House passed Ukraine aid 311 to 112, with 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans supporting the legislation. One hundred twelve Republicans voted against. As for Israel aid, 173 Democrats joined 193 Republicans in voting for the legislation. The final tally was 366 to 58. Indo-Pacific aid, mostly directed towards Taiwan, was the least contentious of the bills considered, and passed 385 to 34. The final part of the legislation, the 21st Century Peace through Strength Act, passed 360 to 58.
While Democrats saved Johnson’s foreign aid package—not out of the goodness of their hearts but because it favored their priorities—it remains to be seen whether Democrats will save Johnson’s speakership. Yesterday, Rep. Paul Gosar came out in favor of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate. Between Green, Gosar, and Massie, Johnson’s critics could have the votes at a moment’s notice to invoke privilege and oust Johnson. Massie told the press that he does not expect the anti-Johnson operation to be taken today, but the clock is ticking as the House enters a week-long recess.
It’s a can’t-lose for Democrats.
Allowing Johnson to be ousted, once again throws the GOP into chaos, well beyond the House. Former President Donald Trump has claimed he supports Johnson and some within Trump’s orbit have reportedly said Mar-a-Lago is unhappy with the divisiveness in the House. Ousting Johnson throws Trump into conflict with some of his biggest supporters in the House. The GOP controlled House will once again seem incapable of governing, this time even closer to an election. The risk, however, is that there are enough Republicans in the conference angry enough at Johnson’s handling of appropriations, FISA, and foreign aid that they’ll replace Johnson with a more conservative speaker with a reputation for being a fighter—someone like Rep. Jim Jordan. Nevertheless, it feels unlikely; if Johnson is ousted, someone cut from the same cloth will probably replace him.
But Democrats could also save Johnson by voting against the motion to vacate at large enough margins to overcome Johnson’s conservative objectors. This also makes sense. Johnson has given Democrats almost everything they’ve asked for and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries doesn’t have a chance at becoming speaker, so why rock the boat? The question becomes: Has Johnson run out of things to give Democrats to incentivize keeping him in the House’s top spot? If so, then the last thing Johnson can give Democrats in his brief tenure is to create another crisis in Republican ranks on the way out.
The post What’s Next After the Ukraine Mistake? appeared first on The American Conservative.
Ukraine launched a barrage of drones across Russia overnight, Moscow's Defense Ministry said, in apparnet attacks on energy infrastructure.
The post Moscow Says 50 Ukrainian Drones Shot Down During Attacks on Russian Power Stations appeared first on Breitbart.
Intelligence operation between Poland and Ukraine has led to the arrest of a Polish citizen allegedly conducting hostile reconnaissance.
The post Plot to Assassinate Ukraine’s President Zelensky at European Airport Foiled by Polish Security Services, They Say appeared first on Breitbart.
Zelenskyy said it is no secret Russia wants to take the region, but Ukraine´s military intelligence calls rumors a "psychological operation".
The post Anticipating Russian Spring Offensive, Kharkiv Residents Start to Flee appeared first on Breitbart.
The flags of the United States and Niger fly side by side at the base camp for military personnel supporting the construction of Niger Air Base 201 in 2018.
Abrams tanks, like this one at a training ground in Poland in 2022, have looked vulnerable on the drone-heavy battlefields of Ukraine.
Lithuanian police officers near the home of Leonid Volkov, a close associate of Aleksei A. Navalny who was assaulted with a hammer last month in Vilnius.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, center, and Evan Ryan, his wife, at the Group of 7 meeting on Capri in Italy. The group has grown more active and ambitious in recent years
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Democrats have saved Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid package. In doing so, they also may have just sealed his political fate.
This is a developing story.
Democrats have saved Speaker Mike Johnson’s foreign aid package. In doing so, they also may have just sealed the fate of his speakership.
Just before midnight, Democrats on the Rules Committee sided with Republican supporters of the aid package to overcome the objections of Reps. Chip Roy, Thomas Massie, and Ralph Norman—the conservative representation on the Rules Committee. Johnson rushed the rule to the House floor on Friday morning, where Democrats once again sided with the Louisiana Republican. The rule passed on the floor by a vote of 316 to 94, with a majority of yes votes coming from Democrats (165 of them, in fact). Meanwhile, 55 Republicans objected to the rule. Any number of them could join Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Massie on a motion to vacate.
Rep. Warren Davidson was among the 55 Republican objectors. “My constituents in Ohio’s Eighth District are tired of broken promises by Speaker Johnson,” Davidson told The American Conservative in a written statement. “They know Republicans promised to fund a secure border and a smaller government. The Speaker must understand that passing more foreign aid without legitimate border security legislation hurts America. Speaker Johnson must do what he already promised to do.”
Johnson’s betrayal of his own conference is historic. As Rachel Bovard of the Conservative Partnership Institute told TAC yesterday, “It’s one thing for a rule to pass with Democrat support on the House floor. But it’s a different thing to force it out of Rules with minority votes. I don’t think that’s ever happened.”
“This is worse than John Boehner. If you consider John Boehner the peak level of violence against conservatives,” she added.
“If he forces a rule out of the Rules Committee on the backs of Democrats to fund a war that his conference doesn’t want to fund,” Bovard said, then “nobody’s in charge at that point. You don’t have a majority party at that point.”
Fitting, then, that if there is no majority party that there may soon be no Speaker of the House. If Johnson remains, it will be because he is once again saved by Democrats.
The post Democrats Save Johnson’s Military Spending— But Will They Save His Speakership? appeared first on The American Conservative.
Soldiers of Ukraine’s 32nd Mechanized Brigade in the Kharkiv region this month.
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