NATO chief warns Bakhmut may fall to Russian invaders in coming days

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A mud-stained gun is seen in front of Ukrainian servicemen who just come back from the trenches of Bakhmut in Chasiv Yar, Ukraine, on March 8, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 09 March 2023
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NATO chief warns Bakhmut may fall to Russian invaders in coming days

  • “What we see is that Russia is throwing more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity,” says Stoltenberg
  • Ukrainian President Zelensky says his armed forces were resolved to stay in Bakhmut, warning that Bakhmut's fall would open the floodgates to nearby cities

KYIV, Ukraine: NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Wednesday the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut might fall to Russia in the coming days following months of intense fighting.
His remarks came as Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, which has spearheaded the attack on Bakhmut, claimed to have captured the eastern bank of the industrial town, devastated in the longest battle since Moscow invaded Ukraine a year ago.
Wagner chief and Kremlin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin said on social media Wednesday that his forces “have taken all of the eastern part of Bakhmut,” a salt-mining town with a pre-war population of 80,000.
The intense fighting around Bakhmut has been the longest and bloodiest in Russia’s more than year-long invasion, which has devastated swathes of Ukraine and displaced millions of people.
“What we see is that Russia is throwing more troops, more forces and what Russia lacks in quality they try to make up in quantity,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Stockholm on the sidelines of an EU defense ministers meeting.
“We cannot rule out that Bakhmut may eventually fall in the coming days,” the head of the US-led military alliance said, adding that “this does not necessarily reflect any turning point of the war.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned in an interview with CNN of what could happen if Bakhmut falls to Russian forces.
“We understand that after Bakhmut, (Russian forces) could go further” and attack nearby cities in the Donetsk region, he said.
“They could go to Kramatorsk, they could go to Sloviansk, it would be an open road for the Russians after Bakhmut to other towns in Ukraine, in the Donetsk direction,” Zelensky said in an interview set to air Wednesday.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu told military officials during a televised meeting on Tuesday that taking control of the city would allow for “further offensive operations” in eastern Ukraine.
Prigozhin has estimated that between 12,000 and 20,000 Ukrainian troops were still defending the town.
Zelensky told CNN that his armed forces were resolved to stay in Bakhmut.
“Of course, we have to think about the lives of our military. But we have to do whatever we can whilst we’re getting weapons, supplies, and our army is getting ready for the counter-offensive.”

Zelensky on Wednesday hosted UN chief Antonio Guterres in Kyiv, his third visit to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion. Guterres stressed the need to extend a deal that has allowed Ukraine to export its grain but is due to expire.
“I want to underscore the critical importance of the rollover of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on 18 March,” Guterres said.
EU defense ministers were meeting in Stockholm to discuss a plan to rush one billion euros’ worth of ammunition to Ukraine as pressure mounts on Kyiv’s allies to bolster supplies to the war effort.
Ukraine’s Western backers warn that Kyiv is facing a critical shortage of 155-millimeter howitzer shells as it fires thousands each day in its fight against the grinding Russian offensive.




A Ukrainian tank fires towards Russian positions at the frontline near Bakhmut, Ukraine, on March 8, 2023. (AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka)

“The current rate of consumption compared to the current rate of production of ammunition is not sustainable, and therefore we need to ramp up production,” Stoltenberg said.
But a report by The New York Times on Tuesday claiming US officials had seen new intelligence indicating a “pro-Ukrainian group” was behind last year’s sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipelines could raise difficult questions among the allies.
“This is not our activity,” Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov told reporters in Stockholm.

In the interview with CNN, Zelensky invited US House speaker Kevin McCarthy to visit Ukraine and see for himself what the war is like. McCarthy has not opposed US aid to Ukraine but he has said more than once that Congress should not be writing “blank checks” to support the war without close scrutiny.
“Mr McCarthy, he has to come here to see how we work, what’s happening here, what war caused us, which people are fighting now, who are fighting now. And then after that, make your assumptions,” Zelensky said,
Ukraine on Wednesday said it had identified the man shot dead in a video that sparked outrage on social media as one of its soldiers.
The footage shows what appears to be a detained Ukrainian combatant standing in a shallow trench and smoking, and then being shot after saying “Glory to Ukraine.”
“Based on a preliminary examination, we believe that the video may be authentic,” a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office told AFP on Wednesday.
 


Explosion at a US air base in southern Japan injures at least 1 Japanese soldier

Updated 37 min 16 sec ago
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Explosion at a US air base in southern Japan injures at least 1 Japanese soldier

  • An explosion occurred at a Japanese military facility inside a US air base in Okinawa, officials told AFP, with local media reporting non-life-threatening injuries

An explosion at or near a US military base on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa injured at least one Japanese soldier but the injury is not life threatening, Japanese defense officials said Monday.
The Self Defense Force's joint staff said they are looking into reports of an explosion at Kadena Air Base that occurred while a team of Japanese soldiers that specializes in handling unexploded ordnance was working near or at the base.
The SDF said they are trying to confirm the cause of the accident and where it occurred.


NATO learns as Ukraine’s ‘creativity’ changes battlefield

Updated 09 June 2025
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NATO learns as Ukraine’s ‘creativity’ changes battlefield

  • “What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse,” says NATO streategic commander for transformation
  • NATO has adopted new objectives for its defense capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Russian aggression

BRUSSELS, Belgium: Ukraine’s “creativity,” including its massive “Spider’s web” drone attack deep inside Russia, holds profound lessons for Western militaries, the top NATO commander overseeing battlefield innovation told AFP.
“What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse — and the trojan horse was thousands of years ago,” French Admiral Pierre Vandier, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, said in an interview.
“Today, we see this kind of tactic being reinvented by technical and industrial creativity.”
Vandier said the operation showed how crucial innovation and adaptation were for victory, as modern warfare changes at lightning speed.
“It was a real coup.”
“We are entering a dynamic era where armies must rely on both major planning but also adaptive planning,” the navy commander said.
“We will witness continuous innovation where, week by week, month by month or year by year, we will be able to invent things we hadn’t anticipated.”

Faced with the Russian threat, NATO this week adopted new objectives for its defense capabilities to ensure it will be able to repel Moscow.
But Western intelligence agencies have warned that the Kremlin is reconstituting its forces at a pace far outstripping NATO and could be ready to attack the alliance in as little as four years.
“Time is truly a crucial parameter. We must act quickly,” Vandier said.
The admiral, who previously commanded France’s flagship Charles De Gaulle aircraft carrier, said NATO needed to amass the forces to dissuade any adversary from trying an attack.
“When you say ‘I’m defending myself’, you have the weapons to defend. When you say you deter, you have the weapons to deter,” he said.
“That’s what should prevent war — making the adversary think: “Tomorrow morning, I won’t win.”
NATO countries under pressure from US President Donald Trump are expected to agree a major increase in their defense spending target at a summit in The Hague this month.
That should see a dramatic surge in spending on military hardware.
But if cheap Ukrainian drones can inflict billions of dollars in damage on Russian bombers, is it still worth investing in vastly expensive systems?
“No-one in the military sphere will tell you that we can do without what we’ll call traditional equipment,” Vandier said.
“However, we are certain we need new equipment to complement it.”
Officials say that over 70 percent of battlefield casualties in Ukraine are caused by drones.
But while drones are indispensable in modern warfare, they are not omnipotent.
“Today, you won’t cross the Atlantic with a 10-meter-long (33-foot-long) drone. You won’t easily locate submarines with such tools,” Vandier said.
“If they accompany your large platforms, you’ll be able to achieve much better results at much lower costs.”

The admiral, who works out of NATO’s US base in Norfolk, Virginia, said the major challenge was “integrating new technologies and new combat methods, based on what we’ve witnessed in Ukraine.”
NATO and Ukraine have established a center in Poland designed to help the alliance learn lessons from Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
Artificial Intelligence and robotics are also increasingly having an impact and are set to help reshape the battlefield.
“All modern armies will have piloted and non-piloted capabilities,” Vandier said.
“It’s much more efficient to deliver ammunition with a ground robot than with a squad of soldiers who could face a 155-millimeter (six-inch) shell.”
This transformation of military capabilities within the alliance, which NATO aims to expand by at least 30 percent over coming years, will come at a significant cost, estimated in hundreds of billions of euros (dollars).
Vandier insisted that while the financial effort was “substantial” it was “fully realistic.”
“Today, we have all the tools. We have the engineering. We have the expertise. We have the technology. So, we need to get started,” he said.
 


US troops make first detentions in Trump border military zones

Updated 09 June 2025
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US troops make first detentions in Trump border military zones

  • US presidents have long used active-duty and reservist troops on the international boundary in support roles to US Border Patrol such as surveillance and construction

US troops have made their first detentions inside military areas set up on the US-Mexico border as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, the US Army said.
The unprecedented military areas along 260 miles (418 km) of border in New Mexico and Texas were declared extensions of US Army bases by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, allowing troops to temporarily detain migrants and other civilian trespassers.
Three “illegal aliens” were detained by troops in the New Mexico area near Santa Teresa on June 3, before being handed to US Border Patrol, Army spokesperson Major Geoffrey Carmichael said in an email.
“This marks the first time Department of Defense personnel have recorded a temporary detainment within either National Defense Area,” Carmichael said.
US presidents have long used active-duty and reservist troops on the international boundary in support roles to US Border Patrol such as surveillance and construction.
President Donald Trump took military use a step further by giving troops the right to hold trespassers they catch in the zones until civilian law enforcement assumes custody.
Federal troops can also search people and conduct crowd control measures within the areas, according to the Army.
Designation of the zones as military bases allowed troops to detain migrants without the need for Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act. The 1807 law lets a US president deploy federal troops domestically to suppress events like civil disorder.
Prosecution of dozens of migrants caught in the zones has faced setbacks in court after judges in New Mexico and Texas dismissed trespassing charges, and acquitted a Peruvian woman, ruling they did not know they were entering restricted areas.
The primary role of troops in the zones is to detect and track illegal border crossers, with around 390 such detections so far, the Army said.
News of the detentions inside military areas came as Trump deployed state-based National Guard troops to Los Angeles during protests over immigration raids.


Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops

Updated 09 June 2025
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Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops

  • California governor accuses Trump of a “complete overreaction” designed to create a spectacle of force
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region

LOS ANGELES: Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs to control the crowd.
Some police patrolled the streets on horseback while others with riot gear lined up behind Guard troops deployed to protect federal facilities including a detention center where some immigrants were taken in recent days. Police declared an unlawful assembly, and by early evening many people had left. Some protesters who remained grabbed chairs from a nearby public park to form a makeshift barrier between themselves and police and throw objects at them.

A woman is arrested, as protesters clash with law enforcement in the streets surrounding the federal building during a protest following federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, California, on June 8, 2025. (AFP)

It was the third day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 federal troops spurred anger and fear among some residents. Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown.
Outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, crowds chanted “shame” and “go home” at members of the National Guard, who stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields. After some protesters closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.

 


Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon, while southbound lanes remained shut down.
Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening as some protesters threw objects down at the roadway and state patrol officers fired back.
Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty.” He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials. It wasn’t clear if he’d spoken to Trump since Friday.

Their deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Mayor Karen Bass echoed Newsom’s comments.
“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” she said in an afternoon press conference. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”
Their admonishments did not deter the administration.


“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement in response.
Deployment follows days of protest
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
Demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
Trump says there will be ‘very strong law and order’
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

 

He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.
Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not gonna get away with it.”
Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He didn’t elaborate.
About 500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Los Angeles were in a “prepared to deploy status” Sunday afternoon, according to the US Northern Command.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lives in Los Angeles, said the immigration arrests and Guard deployment were designed as part of a “cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”
She said she supports those “standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms.”

Defense secretary threatens to deploy active-duty Marines ‘if violence continues’
In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California’s politicians and protesters of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans’ safety.”
“Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,” McLaughlin added.
The troops included members of the California Army National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the Department of Defense.
In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders said the order by Trump reflected “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism” and “usurping the powers of the United States Congress.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a staunch Trump ally, endorsed the president’s move, doubling down on Republicans’ criticisms of California Democrats.
“Gavin Newsom has shown an inability or an unwillingness to do what is necessary, so the president stepped in,” Johnson said.
 


US Speaker Mike Johnson downplays Musk’s influence, says Republicans will pass Trump’s tax and budget bill

Updated 09 June 2025
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US Speaker Mike Johnson downplays Musk’s influence, says Republicans will pass Trump’s tax and budget bill

  • “I didn’t go out to craft a piece of legislation to please the richest man in the world,” Johnson said on ABC’s “This Week”
  • Musk had called the budget bill an “abomination” that would add to US debts and threaten economic stability

With an uncharacteristically feistiness, Speaker Mike Johnson took clear sides Sunday in President Donald Trump’s breakup with mega-billionaire Elon Musk.
The Republican House leader and staunch Trump ally said Musk’s criticism of the GOP’s massive tax and budget policy bill will not derail the measure, and he downplayed Musk’s influence over the GOP-controlled Congress.
“I didn’t go out to craft a piece of legislation to please the richest man in the world,” Johnson said on ABC’s “This Week.” “What we’re trying to do is help hardworking Americans who are trying to provide for their families and make ends meet,” Johnson insisted.
Johnson said he has exchanged text messages with Musk since the former chief of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency came out against the GOP bill.
Musk called it an “abomination” that would add to US debts and threaten economic stability. He urged voters to flood Capitol Hill with calls to vote against the measure, which is pending in the Senate after clearing the House. His criticism sparked an angry social media back-and-forth with Trump, who told reporters over the weekend that he has no desire to repair his relationship with Musk.
The speaker was dismissive of Musk’s threats to finance opponents — even Democrats — of Republican members who back Trump’s bill.
“We’ve got almost no calls to the offices, any Republican member of Congress,” Johnson said. “And I think that indicates that people are taking a wait and see attitude. Some who may be convinced by some of his arguments, but the rest understand: this is a very exciting piece of legislation.”
Johnson argued that Musk still believes “that our policies are better for human flourishing. They’re better for the US economy. They’re better for everything that he’s involved in with his innovation and job creation and entrepreneurship.”
The speaker and other Republicans, including Trump’s White House budget chief, continued their push back Sunday against forecasts that their tax and budget plans will add to annual deficits and thus balloon a national debt already climbing toward $40 trillion.
Johnson insisted that Musk has bad information, and the speaker disputed the forecasts of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that scores budget legislation. The bill would extend the 2017 Trump tax cuts, cut spending and reduce some other levies but also leave some 10.9 million more people without health insurance and spike deficits by $2.4 trillion over the decade, according to the CBO’s analysis.
The speaker countered with arguments Republicans have made for decades: That lower taxes and spending cuts would spur economic growth that ensure deficits fall. Annual deficits and the overall debt actually climbed during the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, and during Trump’s first presidency, even after sweeping tax cuts.
Russell Vought, who leads the White House Office of Budget and Management, said on Fox News Sunday that CBO analysts base their models of “artificial baselines.” Because the 2017 tax law set the lower rates to expire, CBO’s cost estimates, Vought argued, presuming a return to the higher rates before that law went into effect.
Vought acknowledged CBO’s charge from Congress is to analyze legislation and current law as it is written. But he said the office could issue additional analyzes, implying it would be friendlier to GOP goals. Asked whether the White House would ask for alternative estimates, Vought again put the burden on CBO, repeating that congressional rules allow the office to publish more analysis.
Other Republicans, meanwhile, approached the Trump-Musk battle cautiously.
“As a former professional fighter, I learned a long time ago, don’t get between two fighters,” said Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
He even compared the two billionaire businessmen to a married couple.
“President Trump is a friend of mine but I don’t need to get, I can have friends that have disagreements,” Mullin said. “My wife and I dearly love each other and every now and then, well actually quite often, sometimes she disagrees with me, but that doesn’t mean that we can’t stay focused on what’s best for our family. Right now, there may be a disagreement but we’re laser focused on what is best for the American people.”