"All of Vlad's forces and all of Vlad's men, are out to put Humpty together again." (3 Viewers)

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Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that NATO is escalating a direct war with Russia as the U.S. and Britain discuss allowing NATO-provided weapons to be used by Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia.

"This would in a significant way change the very nature of the conflict," Putin said on Thursday. "It would mean that NATO countries, the US, European countries, are at war with Russia."

Putin's warning comes amid multiple recent reports that the U.S. is close to clearing the way for Western weapons to be utilized to hit deep inside Russia. The New York Times reported that President Biden is close to allowing Ukraine to use long-range missiles. Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer is willing to give Ukraine permission to use "Storm Shadow" long-range missiles, but wants U.S. approval first, the Times reported.

"If that's the case, then taking into account the change of nature of the conflict, we will take the appropriate decisions based on the threats that we will face," Putin said to a state television reporter.



Oh, dear, Vlad's mad. Whatever shall we do?
 
The Turks won't let it out. It's treaty-bound to stay in the Black Sea.
Good point, the corvette is stuck by the Montreux Convention which controls access through both the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits. But Ukraine's latest warship is not located in the Black Sea, but in the Sea of Marmara. It's an important difference, since if the Hetman Ivan Mazepa was located in the Black Sea it could (under Russian protest) sail to an Ukrainian port and presumably begin combat operations.

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This is a possible path the mysterious submarine building in Romania may take. Barged down the Danube into the Black Sea, all without involving Turkey.
 
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Good point, the corvette is stuck by the Montreux Convention which controls access through both the Dardanelles and Bosporus Straits. But Ukraine's latest warship is not located in the Black Sea, but in the Sea of Marmara. It's an important difference, since if the Hetman Ivan Mazepa was located in the Black Sea it could (under Russian protest) sail to an Ukrainian port and presumably begin combat operations.

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This is a possible path the mysterious submarine building in Romania may take. Barged down the Danube into the Black Sea, all without involving Turkey.


That's right, I forgot it was built in Turkey.
 
"...We were suddenly in a war where a lot of us are convinced that it's normal for Russians to be in Ukraine, but it's not normal for Ukrainians to be in Russia, which is a total innovation in the history of warfare," said Timothy Snyder, a Yale historian who was in Ukraine this week as a representative for United 24, a Ukrainian state fund-raising group. "Nobody has ever claimed that before, let alone made their enemies believe it."

"That is an incredible psychological success on the Russian side," he said. "And there was no way for the Ukrainians to get us to think any way else except by proving it, which is what Kursk did, right?..."

''...William H. McRaven, a retired U.S. admiral who was a commander of special operations forces in the Obama administration, said that until Kursk, he had thought the best Ukraine could hope for was an armistice, security guarantees from allies, and money from frozen Russian assets for rebuilding. But the Kursk invasion surprised him, and it could give Mr. Zelensky a new card to play, he said.

"It boosts the morale in Ukraine right now," he said last week at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. "Morale is always important, but probably more important now than ever before
..."

 
''...We need these helicopters for our soldiers who are fighting on the frontline in the Ukrainian provinces of Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and other regions but also leading an operation in the Kursk region...''

''...Ivchenko said that officials in Kyiv are also making efforts to host the production of Bell helicopters at a designated Ukraine-based facility. "We wish to deepen our industrial cooperation with the United States to produce such helicopters in Ukraine," according to the lawmaker. "This foreign investment would be guaranteed by the Ukrainian government...''

 

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