UK announces 46 new sanctions targeting individuals and groups supplying and funding Putin's war machine

This includes businesses in Belarus, China, Serbia, Turkey the UAE and Uzbekistan who continue to support Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine

By including entities operating in China, Serbia, and Uzbekistan the UK has now taken action against over 30 third-country entities supporting Russia's war efforts. This signals the UK's no tolerance approach to those enabling Russia's illegal war, wherever they may be

UK hits military suppliers propping up Russia's war machine - GOV.UK

"The 12th package of sanctions will actually have a bigger impact on businesses, despite the sanctions being targeted at Russia. There will be an obligation to tighten responsibility throughout the whole trade chain," Neliupšienė said at the Sanctions Management Forum in Vilnius.

"Contracts will have to contain requirements where the buyer will commit not to sell or export sanctioned goods to Russia," she said.

New Russia sanctions package to put more liability on EU firms – Lithuanian vice-minister - LRT

If the United States allows a country to be crushed in an illegal invasion, it will raise grave questions about the credibility of defense and strategic agreements that underpin the entire Western world.

The current commander in chief is squarely in the internationalist tradition of US presidents since World War II who saw the country as a bulwark for freedom, democracy and the rule of international law. Trump's "America First" creed, however, springs from traditional US isolationism. It spurns democracy and alliances in favor of pursuing narrow national interests and transactional deal making with global tyrants and demagogues. This schism between these outlooks likely means that even if the current impasse over Ukraine funding is eventually resolved, it's merely a taste of a long-running national feud to come.

In a broader strategic context, there are growing fears about what a loss of US aid to Ukraine would mean when its counter-offensive has stalled and when Putin is managing to reconstitute Russian forces battered by the war, partly through the help of other US adversaries like Iran and North Korea. One lesson of the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, which did not prompt the West to arm Ukraine, is that if Putin is not stopped he will keep going.

The loss of Ukraine would not just reverberate in Europe. In Asia, where the United States is confronting the implications of a rising China, a conclusion that the US deserts its friends could change Beijing's calculations as it weighs whether to use military force to capture Taiwan. And a weakening of American resolve could prompt allies in the region and in the Middle East to doubt their security guarantees and consider whether to seek their own nuclear safety net.

How the impasse over Ukraine aid could have critical global ramifications | CNN Politics

Ukrainian weapons production chief on why U.S. support is critical in fight against Russia

WASHINGTON, Dec 6 (Reuters) - Ukraine's latest list of U.S. weapons it says it needs to fight the Russian military includes sophisticated air defense systems, F-18 "Hornet" fighter jets, drones, Apache and Blackhawk helicopters, according to documents seen by Reuters.

Officials from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense presented a "list of armaments to meet the needs of defense forces of Ukraine" during a closed-door session of a conference in Washington on Wednesday attended by government officials and defense industry executives.

The comprehensive list included weapons Ukraine already has in stock like Abrams tanks and 155 millimeter artillery, as well some weaponry such as F-16s, drones and long-range ATACMS missiles that it has asked for in the past.

But the list has a few surprises including big-ticket items like C-17 Globemaster transport jets made by Boeing (BA.N) and the C-130 Super Hercules made by Lockheed Martin (LMT.N). Boeing's Apache attack helicopters made the list, as did the Black Hawk helicopter made by Lockheed Martin's Sikorsky unit.

But the Ukrainians did not stop there. The documents show Ukraine is also seeking F-18 "Hornet" fighter jets, three types of drones made by General Atomics including the MQ-9B Sky Guardian and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) air defense system made by Lockheed.

Ukrainians know they must secure Western military aid to carry on the fight.

Legislation that would provide billions of dollars in new security assistance for Ukraine and Israel was blocked in the U.S. Senate on Wednesday as Republicans pressed their demands for tougher measures to control immigration at the U.S. border with Mexico.

Ukraine's latest weapons request includes THAAD air defenses and F-18s | Reuters

Bulgaria overrides presidential veto to provide Ukraine with armoured personnel carriers | Ukrainska Pravda

Bulgaria to allow Ukraine to use its skies for F-16 training – EURACTIV.com

Regarding the above picture, what is it showing there?

I get that its talking about North Korean arms production but I’m not sure what arms component that picture is of.

That is the charge load of an artillery grenade.

It should be uniformly stuffed, with lead wires evenly distributed (against deterioration of the pod).

As we can see, there is a huge variation in charges and sometimes lead wires are missing and simply "thrown in". This means the cannon will fire to random distances, requiring many shots to get to the target. It also means any artillery piece using these random shots will wear down rapidly.

This essentially shows the poor conditions in North Korea (lead was likely stolen by workers, and explosives are made with whatever they can get their hands on).

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/dec/10/hungary-viktor-orban-republicans-ukraine-aid

At what point do we stop calling Orban pro-Russia and the hard-right Republicans isolationists and start calling them Russian allies?

Please leak every single piece of shit that attends that meeting.

Anyway yeah, Orban is a Russian ally, as are these Republicans, I'd happily have swapped Ukraine for Hungary in both EU and NATO.