Good Morning.

Як топили “сєрґєя котова” ― відео знищення патрульного корабля чф рф (youtube.com)

No need, Ukraine is already doing that for you.

Two decades after joining the European Union and NATO, Eastern European countries fear they’ll once again be passed as the top jobs of both institutions are reshuffled later this year.

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s likely appointment as the new head of NATO this summer may have received the endorsement of Washington, London, Paris and Berlin. Among many of the alliance’s newer members, however, in particular those bordering Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, the welcome was far less warm.

“What moral credibility does this guy have?” said former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, pointing to the Netherland’s failure to meet its NATO commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense during Rutte’s 13 years as prime minister.

Other contenders for the position included Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, whose government notified NATO of his potential candidacy in February, and Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who has not submitted a bid but expressed interest last year.

“If we think about a geographical balance, it’s going to be the fourth [NATO] Secretary-General from the Netherlands,” Kallas told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast last week. “And then there is a question [of] whether there are first-rank and second-rank countries in NATO.”

“Are we equals or are we not equals? So these questions still remain,” she added.

Poland is the only country from the region to have been awarded one of the bloc’s senior positions. Former (and now current) Prime Minister Donald Tusk served one term as European Council president, and Jerzy Buzek, another former Polish prime minister, headed the European Parliament for three years, roughly a half term.

Currently, the most senior Eastern European in the EU is Valdis Dombrovskis, a Latvian who was put in charge of the powerful trade portfolio after his predecessor Phil Hogan, an Irish politician, resigned following a scandal. Romania’s Mircea Geoană is NATO’s deputy secretary-general

In Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia, senior officials believe that the big powers in Western Europe still hold an unfair bias against them, in particular given their tough positions toward Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The view in the region of Russia as an existential threat is often interpreted by their Western counterparts as hawkishness.

“We [people in Latvia] feel that we were not consulted enough,” former Latvian Defense Minister Artis Pabriks said, referring to the selection process for the NATO top job. “They [Western countries] had reasons behind to think that Baltic countries should not at this moment be proposing a candidate.”

Frans Timmermans, a former top Dutch official at the European Commission, epitomized Western Europeans’ resistance to a Baltic head of NATO, saying last year that “she [Kallas] is also prime minister of a country that is on the border with Russia.”

Kallas’ next best hope for a top job is to succeed Spain’s Josep Borrell as high representative for foreign affairs. Indeed, the possibility has been the talk of the town for months, with senior European officials expecting French President Emmanuel Macron to back her for a senior post.

Not everyone, however, is convinced she has a chance.

An EU official, granted anonymity to speak freely, said that the idea of Kallas serving as the EU’s top diplomat “remains sensitive” in some EU capitals.

“I don’t see France and Germany agreeing to that, because of the same reasons she was not an option for the NATO job,” the official said. “Are we really putting someone who likes to eat Russians for breakfast in this position?”

In Race For Top EU, NATO Jobs, Eastern Europe Asks: ‘Are We Equals Or Not?’ – POLITICO

Netherlands has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, I would not be opposed to them taking the NATO spot but I feel it should be an eastern European country as well, the countries closer to Russia who understand its threat more than most, such as Estonia, Latvia or Lithuania, all are very strong supporters of Ukraine and meet the 2% spending.

Why not add Finland to the mix? I'd also be happy with Sweden, Norway and Denmark but I understand Eastern Europe's point and agree with it, fuck those in Western Europe who call them "hawkish" and still not taking seriously the threat of Russia and how these eastern European countries feel. France, Italy and Spain shouldn't get a say, Lol.

What I don't understand is how France was so against buying shells outside the EU to push the own industry when they didn't really send own shells to Ukraine.

What I also don't understand is why France not only sent so few weaponry to Ukraine but also almost no first aid kits, sleeping bags and stuff like that. That's something which doesn't cost much and only helps to survive without any use to kill.

Before the war I didn't think a country with no navy would be making a country with one of the largest navies in the world look like a little bitch, the advancement in drones is scary, the West should be seriously investing in naval drone technology and counter drone technology and be sending it all to Ukraine for them to test on Russian ships

Germany's defence minister has said that one of the generals on a military conference call on Ukraine that was intercepted by Russia may have broken security protocol by using a non-secure line to dial in.

Boris Pistorius said the 38-minute phone call held over the platform WebEx that was subsequently leaked by Kremlin-controlled TV, had not been intercepted by an individual Russian spy but was most likely the result of a random sweep of insecure data on the sidelines of the Singapore airshow. One of the participants dialled in from his hotel room, and either his mobile phone or an insecure connection in his hotel provided the vulnerability, Pistorius said.

Speaking to journalists in Berlin on Tuesday morning, Pistorius said that disciplinary measures were being looked into, as the participant had contravened rigid security guidelines by not using a secure, authorised connection.

He said Germany was taking technical and organisational steps to ensure a similar incident was not repeated.

Amid widespread criticism towards Germany as well as sheer embarrassment over the call in which information about military tactics of Germany and its European and US allies were revealed – including that Britain and the UK had "troops on the ground" – Pistorius said he had spoken to many of his counterparts on Monday, and they had expressed "no sense of annoyance towards Germany", and "reassured me that trust in Germany is uninterrupted". He said there had been unanimity among Germany's partners, that "we won't let ourselves be divided by this Russian attack".

He said that every one of Germany's partners was "familiar" with such attacks, adding that the "breadth of such attacks is getting ever broader".

Pistorius called the interception part of a "perfidious game" Russia was playing against western allies, accusing it of trying to "drive a wedge" between European and US allies, and added: "[We] will not allow Putin to get on our nerves."

He refused to discuss the contents of the phone call, insisting that to do so would be "letting Putin set the agenda".

Pistorius insisted that the communication system of Germany's defence ministry had "not been compromised". Amid criticism that WebEx is unsafe, he said that for certain conversations up to a specific level of security the platform was used, but not the version open to the public, rather one with an additional level of security, using Bundeswehr-controlled servers, and not foreign ones.

Pistorius said events like the Singapore airshow, which attracted high-ranking military personnel from across Europe, were notorious for attracting espionage and seen as the equivalent of a "laid out banquet" for Russian intelligence services. According to his information, the two-day event had been riddled with "extensive espionage operations" carried out by Russian intelligence. He said the German WebEx conference had been a "lucky hit" by spies working "within the framework of a comprehensive strategy".

IT experts were in the process of forensically investigating the equipment used by the participants, Pistorius said, and the process of disciplinary action was being looked into.

However, he resisted calls to sack anyone involved. As long as "no serious" conclusions came out of the investigation, he said he would "not let any of my best officers become the victims of Putin's games".

Individual error let Moscow intercept military call, Germany says | Germany | The Guardian

Seems like the only damage it did was once again prove that Russia is all talk. UK might as well input the targets themselves into Storm Shadow at this rate. We're still not nuked, it's almost like, Russia is a coward against NATO countries when they actually stand up to it. If anything we might have to say thanks to Germany for accidentally leaking it, Lol.

Emmanuel Macron being brutally honest in Prague today:

"Who launched the war in Ukraine? Vladimir Putin. Who threatens us, whatever we do whatever we say, with nuclear weapons? President Putin.
If every day we explain what our limits are in the face of someone who has none and launched this war, I can already tell you that the spirit of defeat is there lurking. Not amongst us."

French President Emmanuel Macron told expats in Prague on Tuesday it was time for Ukraine's allies to step up, adding that a moment was being approached "in our Europe where it will be appropriate not to be a coward."

Macron has faced a backlash from many Western allies after he discussed the idea of sending Western troopsto Ukraine at a Paris-based conference on Ukraine on Feb. 26.

But during a visit to Prague on Tuesday, Macron said he stood by his comments, and that a "strategic leap" was necessary.

In a reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Macron said that France and the Czech Republic were "well aware that war is back on our soil (in Europe), that some powers which have become unstoppable are extending every day their threat of attacking us even more, and that we will have to live up to history and the courage that it requires."

French officials later explained that Macron's intention was to stimulate debate and that ideas under discussion involved non-combat troops in roles such as demining, border protection or training Ukrainian forces.

Macron also stressed on Tuesday his support for plans announced last month by the Czech Republic, backed by Canada, Denmark and others, to finance the rapid purchase of hundreds of thousands of ammunition rounds from third countries to dispatch to Ukraine.

Ukraine is critically short of artillery rounds as its troops try to hold back Russian forces who are again on the offensive in the east, two years after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion.

Macron did not say what France would contribute to the initiative, adding that ministers would work on that.

But he opened the door to using European funds for it.

One of the key issues for France has been financing of such an initiative, given it has long pushed for the EU to use European financing only for the European defence industry and opposed the idea of using European money to buy outside the bloc.

"We support this initiative and we are ready to contribute to it," Macron said of the Czech plan.

Despite earlier misgivings on using EU funds to buy abroad, he said: "I think that in this context it could be done bilaterally, it could be done in cooperation with third parties, with bilateral financing or European funding, that of the European Peace Facility, which can be partly mobilised for this initiative."

France's Macron urges allies not be cowardly on Ukraine | Reuters

No surprise that this backfired for Russia. Not only did it do no harm, it also brought out in the open that the reasoning of Scholz doesn't hold water; I know this had been said before by various third parties in Germany, but hearing it from Germany's military holds more weight.

As for France, it's good to see that there's a significant change of mind now in the open. EU decisions are largely made by Germany and France (also one of the reasons why the UK wanted out), so if now at least one of the two shows some guts, it creates a chance that something can actually happen instead of collective bystanding and watching how Ukraine slowly loses the war. France still has a long way to go, but their stop to blocking funding of non-EU ammo is a good start. Much more action is needed, but going into year 3 of this war there's at least a little bit less cowardice now.