Syrian and Russian warplanes on Tuesday carried out a joint military drill amid increasing Israeli airstrikes, Syria’s Defense Ministry said in a statement. It was the first such exercise since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began more than three months ago.
The Moroccan Navy rescued 385 migrants heading for Spain last week, the official news agency MAP reported on Wednesday. The migrants, including women and minors, are mostly from sub-Saharan Africa, the agency quoted a military statement as saying. They were traveling in several inflatable boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, which separates Africa from Europe. Some of the migrants were in poor health condition and received first aid from the navy, before being brought back to different Moroccan ports, according to the report. Morocco has become a transit country for African migrants seeking to reach Europe for better living conditions. The shortest distance from Morocco’s Mediterranean coasts to Spain is only 14 kilometers at the Strait of Gibraltar.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met Wednesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara in an effort to stave off a global food crisis by restarting Ukrainian grain exports along a sea corridor.
Norway and Spain are among the few countries that have flown below the radar with their support to Ukraine. Without any drama and unnecessary bureaucracy, Norway has donated some M109A3GN 155mm tracked self-propelled howitzers and is currently used by the Ukrainian forces. Spain is also doing its part by stating that it is ready to send Leopard battle tanks and anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine.
Receiving Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Ankara, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu maintains that the creation of a safe maritime corridor for Ukrainian grain exports should be accompanied by the easing of sanctions against Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated his country’s “understanding” of Turkish security concerns along the Syrian border, saying that the issue of security and Syria’s future will be addressed in trilateral talks between Russia, Turkey and Iran in two weeks.
Amidst allegedly losing two more Russian generals the past week, Russia’s Vladimir Putin decided that it was time to purge his top military generals by dismissing five more generals. This comes as Russia continues to struggle in advancing and capturing areas in eastern Ukraine, specifically in Severodonetsk, where it has failed to capture the entire city.
Amidst raging firefights in the east as Russia and Ukraine enter the fourth month of the war, the Ukrainian Armed Forces claimed that they have destroyed Russia’s 35th Combined Arms Army as a fighting unit in Izyum, Kharkiv.
Following the US’s decision to send its High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to Ukraine, the United Kingdom is also stepping up to the plate and sending its M270 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) to Ukraine. This comes after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly pleaded to the world for heavier offensive weapons amidst heavy Russian shelling in the east.
Net withdrawals of natural gas from U.S. storage totaled 2,264 billion cubic feet (Bcf) this winter (November through March). This amount is the most natural gas withdrawn from storage since the winter of 2017–18 and 10% more than the previous five-year (2016–17 to 2021–22) average, according to our recently released Natural Gas Monthly, which includes data through March 2022.
US and European acquiescence in Turkey’s long-standing refusal to honour Kurdish ethnic, cultural, and political rights has come home to roost with Turkish opposition to Finnish and Swedish NATO membership.