Latest news with #Russia-UkraineWar
Sky News AU
a day ago
- Business
- Sky News AU
‘You can never win': Former foreign minister weighs in on Russia-Ukraine war
Former foreign minister Alexander Downer discusses the role of the United States and Europe in the Russia-Ukraine War. 'The other thing is the Europeans and the Americans are now starting to give still more support to Ukraine in particular, providing them with long-range missiles,' Mr Downer told Sky News host Chris Kenny. 'So, what's the big picture here? The picture is that President Trump and the Europeans want a ceasefire, and that's a good ambition to have; then they have to convince the Russians that the Russians can never win. 'If I were the President of the United States, that'd be my message to President Putin, look mate, you can never win this war, and I'm going to make sure you never can, so let's have a ceasefire.'
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
2 days ago
- Politics
- First Post
How Ukraine's Operation Spider Web marks the death of distance in strategic warfare
This isn't just about Russia. It's about the growing irrelevance of strategic sanctuaries in modern warfare — the idea that command centres, bomber fleets, and critical infrastructure are safe if positioned far enough from the front line has been shattered read more The Russia-Ukraine War has marked June 1, 2025, as a significant day. Russian airbases over 4,000 kilometres from the Ukrainian border lit up with fire and fury. The flames rose not from distant targeting by missiles or aircraft but from inconspicuous containers parked near hardened aircraft shelters. The weapons used were not missiles or aircraft but low-cost, high-impact drones that didn't cross borders—they emerged from within them. This was Operation Spider Web—a meticulously planned, year-long Ukrainian operation that inflicted catastrophic damage on Russia's strategic bomber fleet without launching a single drone from outside Russian territory. Over 40 aircraft were destroyed or disabled, including nuclear-capable Tu-95s and rare A-50 early-warning platforms. Yet the most significant casualty was not hardware—it was doctrine. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Strategic Depth is a Dead Idea For decades, nuclear and conventional deterrence relied on geographic insulation. The deeper a bomber was stationed inside national territory, the safer it was presumed to be. Russia, boasting the world's most elaborate air defence architecture, built its strategic deterrence around this principle. Layers of radar and missile batteries were constructed under the assumption that the threat would arrive from outside and at high altitudes. Ukraine's AI-integrated FPV drone operation rewrote the rules. The strike was not an air incursion; it was an inversion of traditional logic. These drones didn't need to fly across borders. They simply needed access – social, logistical, and physical. Once inside, they lay dormant, embedded in the fabric of civilian movement, disguised within ordinary trucks and wooden cabins. Distance didn't protect Russia. It insulated its arrogance. From Deterrence to Denial: A Doctrinal Collapse Operation Spider Web should shake every defence planner across the world with innovation as the hallmark. The success of this covert drone assault did not lie in technological supremacy; it lay in doctrinal surprise. Conventional air defences are designed to track ballistic arcs, intercept radar signatures, counter drones and maintain exclusion zones. None of those countermeasures apply when the threat is pre-assembled behind the lines, activated by remote control, and flown by handheld devices. Russia's vast air defence network was not breached; it was bypassed. And that distinction is fatal. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This isn't just about Russia. It's about the growing irrelevance of strategic sanctuaries in modern warfare. The idea that command centres, bomber fleets, and critical infrastructure are safe if positioned far enough from the front line has been shattered. Warfare as Performance: The Synchronised Message What makes this operation even more strategically potent is when it happened, not just how. As peace talks opened in Istanbul, Ukraine staged a kinetic and symbolic blow to Russia's war machine. It wasn't just about burning bombers; it was about broadcasting vulnerability. This is modern deterrence theatre: a multi-channel strike designed to resonate across radar screens and news feeds alike. It wasn't aimed at destroying Russia's air campaign capacity overnight. It was aimed at fracturing the illusion of domestic control and strategic supremacy. Warfare today is not just attritional; it is performative. It is synchronised between the battlefield, the browser, and the diplomatic table. Rear Areas Are Now War Zones STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD It is tempting to see Spider Web as an anomaly, a one-off asymmetric success. That would be a fatal misreading. The core insight is this: the rear is no longer rear. There are no fronts and no rears. In 21st-century conflict, the most vulnerable terrain isn't the contested border; it's the parking lot at a secure airbase, the unguarded truck route, and the assumption that peace exists somewhere behind the front. Drones are cheap. AI has enabled drones with precision and intelligence. Containers are everywhere. Distance is no longer a defence. And traditional deterrence logic based on delayed reaction and defined frontlines is obsolete. How India Must Now Adapt Ukraine's brilliance lies in exposing what India must now confront. Our defence systems are not built for internal-origin threats. Our deterrence logic remains stuck in cross-border engagements. That must change—innovatively and systematically. Operation Sindoor has served as a watershed moment in India's strategic and military recalibration against state-sponsored terrorism and proxy hybrid threats. A key lesson emerging is the imperative of sustained readiness for short, sharp, technology-driven conflicts that demand speed, precision, and escalatory control. India must invest in Indigenous AI-enabled drone swarms, AI-enabled ISR networks, and C-UAS systems, and embrace a doctrine of cognitive warfare that shapes both information dominance and narrative warfare. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Operation Sindoor is not just a military success—it is a clarion call for India to redefine its war preparedness and strategic relevance in the 21st-century battlespace. Pakistan will not cease proxy wars but can use innovative means to wage them in future. India must not react but preempt and prevent by proactive measures and strategic thinking. Here's what India must follow: Design for Denial, Not Just Defence: Harden not just perimeters but presumptions. Embrace deception, redundancy, and mobility even for strategic assets. Invest in AI-Enabled UAS System: Drone technology and AI are a sunrise sector, poised to transform warfare. India has no other option but to prepare for future wars dominated by unmanned aerial warfare. The battlefield is going digital, automated, and exponentially more unconventional, mandating being innovative and adaptive for the right war. Future battlefields will be characterised by a mix of high-end systems deployed in smaller numbers, with low-cost attritable systems deployed in far greater numbers. We need bold, transformative leadership to overcome inertia and old ways of doing business. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Harden Internal Vital Areas/Assets: Treat logistics, bases, and communications as vulnerable by default, not sanctuaries by tradition. Rebuild Strategic Storytelling: Our narratives must evolve to shape adversary perception as effectively as our capabilities shape battlefield outcomes. Invest in Counter-Infiltration Doctrine: Hybrid warfare must now include counter-infiltration as a core competency, merging intelligence, counterintelligence, and internal surveillance with kinetic response. Internal Security Reforms: Review the emerging threats and players in the internal security abetted by external actors. Strengthen the intelligence and internal security domain with structures and protocols for such threats and beyond. This is no longer about predicting where an attack will come from; it's about assuming it's already begun and is hiding in plain sight. Conclusion: The Preview of War's Future Ukraine's Operation Spider Web was not just an attack—it was a thesis. A low-cost, high-impact demonstration of how modern warfare will evolve: distributed, embedded, and invisible until it strikes. Russia's bombers may recover. New aircraft may replace the wreckage. But what cannot be restored is the confidence that distance means safety. That age is over. We must now build a defence posture that assumes the breach has already occurred and that the war is already inside the wire. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This isn't escalation. It's evolution. And the next conflict may begin not when a missile is launched but when a $500 drone quietly wakes up next to a $100 million bomber. The author is former Director General, Mechanised Forces. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost's views.
&w=3840&q=100)
First Post
23-05-2025
- Politics
- First Post
‘India stands vindicated on Russia-Ukraine war': Jaishankar says solution won't come from battleground
Three years on, India's position in the Russia-Ukraine war stands vindicated, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in an interview on his visit to Denmark read more External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said that India's approach to the Russia-Ukraine War stands vindicated as the war drags on in the fourth year. In an interview with Denmark's TV2 Channel, Jaishankar said that India has maintained from the beginning that direct contact between Ukraine and Russia is a must for the war to end — direct talks have now started between the two sides after they collapsed within weeks in 2022. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Jaishankar is on a three-nation tour of Netherlands, Denmark, and Germany on May 19-24, 2025. As for the India-Denmark relationship, he said that the country has an important place in sustainability and security matters. 'We are now vindicated three years on' Three years into the conflict, Jaishankar said that India's position in the war has been vindicated. Jaishankar said, 'We always said you're not going to get a solution to the Ukraine conflict from the battleground. We also said you're going to have to talk. There's got to be dialogue. There's got to be diplomacy. And there's got to be direct contact. Now, there was a time that there were these conferences which were going on. Now, we attended those conferences. But we always said, 'look, what's the point of gathering everybody else and not having Russia in the room?' Jaishankar admitted that the Ukraine conflict has concerns for the entire world. He said that the conflict led to a food security and fertiliser crisis. At the same time, Jaishankar addressed the way Indian position has been looked at in the West. While India has garnered some criticism in some quarters in the West for forcefully condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and continuing to purchase Russian oil, Jaishankar pointed out that European nations have also continued to buy Russian gas. He further pointed out that while Europe has been vocal about the violation of Ukraine's sovereignty, it did not pay heed to the violation of India's sovereignty by China and Pakistan. STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD Since 1947-48, Pakistan has continued to illegally occupy parts of Jammu and Kashmir and China has occupied eastern Ladakh's parts since 1950s and 1960s. 'After the Second World War, we are one of the countries which actually have had, you know, a violation of our sovereignty. We still have a violation of our sovereignty by our neighbors. Pakistan and Kashmir region and China. And the fact is, Europe was very detached about it. In fact, at times, Europe was very cynical about it,' said Jaishankar.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UD professor to speak to NATO delegates this weekend
DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) — The NATO Parliamentary Assembly is in town, and one Dayton native will be speaking directly to the international delegates. Natalie Hudson is a professor at the University of Dayton, focusing on global politics and international law. She also teaches courses in women's rights and human rights advocacy. GALLERY: NATO security preparations underway Now, the Dayton native will be the only person from the Miami Valley to address the international delegation this weekend during the NATO summit. Hudson says just a few months ago, NATO officials reached out to her, asking if she could speak during one of their sessions this coming Saturday. 'It was very exciting, I got an invitation in March, and the invitation was to speak at the democracy and security committee meeting, and their discussion of the women and peace security agenda,' said Hudson. Hudson plans to speak on the inclusion of women in the peacemaking and peace building process, saying that to have perspectives from both men and women is essential. 'The work that I do is not an ideology, it's not a feel good theory, it's actually supported by evidence that when women are involved we do it better,' said Hudson. 'It's a research area that I'm very passionate about, and it's one that NATO stands to lead on and has been a leader on in recent years.' Hudson also wants to focus on how women are treated in armed conflicts, pointing to data as recent as the Russia-Ukraine War. 'We know that women and girls experience conflict differently than men and are vulnerable in different sorts of ways, particularly around sexual and gender-based violence,' said Hudson. She also plans on speaking on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's announcement to cut America's Women, Peace and Security agenda. 'Peace and Security agenda is backed by lots of research, that shows when women are involved in conflict resolution, conflict prevention and the protection of civilians, that we are smarter, safer and stronger, both as a military alliance, and also in terms of just general political stability and the promotion of democracy around the world,' said Hudson. Hudson's session will not be open to the public, but if you are looking to interact with NATO delegates, the University of Dayton is hosting public forums this week at the Roger Glass Center. Tickets are free, but they are also limited. Click here to learn more. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Time of India
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
‘No peace without Ukraine': Canadian PM Carney backs Zelenskyy as he blasts Putin's silence on talks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Vladimir Putin of deliberately avoiding peace negotiations, intensifying tensions in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War. In a powerful meeting at the Canadian embassy in Rome, Zelenskyy met newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney during Pope Leo XIV's inaugural mass. Carney reaffirmed Canada's unwavering support, declaring, 'There can be no peace without Ukraine's full participation.' Show more Show less
