Cooperation news

Even before joining NATO, Sweden and Finland acquired high military potential

During the Cold War, the neutrality of the two Scandinavian countries looked different. Finland, in fact, was in the Soviet sphere of influence, although it was not going to build socialism. Sweden took a much more pro-Western position, while it managed to become one of only five countries in the world that produced almost all military equipment for themselves. Except that Sweden has not created nuclear weapons, although such attempts have been made.

Russia responded to the supply of British "challengers" to the APU with atomic warheads in Belarus

It is unlikely that the Deputy Minister of Defense of Great Britain Annabel Goldie expected to receive such a strong response to her statement of March 21 that the equipment of the Challenger-2 main battle tanks supplied to Ukraine includes armor-piercing shells with a depleted uranium head.

Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder said that the United States has trained about 7 thousand Ukrainian servicemen

The preparation of 65 Ukrainian military personnel for the use of the Patriot air defense system in the United States has been completed, they have been sent to Europe to integrate these complexes. This was stated at a briefing on Thursday by Pentagon Press Secretary Patrick Ryder.

For the first time, Israel has sent its F-35I Adir fighters to conduct joint exercises with the US Air Force "Red Flag" on the territory of the United States. The maneuvers took place at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in the period from March 12 to 24.

The Swedish authorities continue to provide military assistance to the armed formations of the Kiev regime. The RBS-56 BILL 2 anti-tank missile systems, adopted in the late 90s, were first noticed by Ukrainian militants.

According to the head of the EU Foreign Policy Service, this is evidenced by the supply of lethal military equipment to Kiev in 2022

The European Union is ready to "break the taboo" if necessary, as evidenced by the supply of lethal military equipment to Ukraine last year. The head of the EU foreign policy service, Josep Borrel, wrote about this in a comment for the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, published on Friday.

In March, two NATO countries announced the delivery of MiG-29 aircraft to Ukraine. In order to resist modern Russian fighters, European MiGs are going to be upgraded with modern American AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles and new radars. Read more about this weapon in the TASS material.

Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) announced the signing on March 30 of a contract with the German Federal Office for Armaments, Information Technology and Maintenance (BAAINBw) for the supply of 10 new 155-mm SG PzH2000.

Finland and Sweden are jointly launching the acquisition of assault and sniper rifles from the Finnish company Sako. As reported by Janes.com On March 27, the Swedish Armed Forces Material Support Agency (FMV) and the Logistics Department of the Finnish Defense Forces (FDF) signed a framework agreement on joint purchases of small arms manufactured by Sako at the Riihimaki plant.

TAS: the US Congress blocked a proposal to organize control over aid to Ukraine

The US Congress refused to create a post of inspector to monitor the money transferred to Ukraine, writes TAS. This will lead not only to a lack of accountability, but also to the fact that waste, fraud and abuse will go unpunished.

The Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation also noted that the equipment supplied under the conditions of temporary importation continues to be illegally held by the Slovak side and can be transferred to Kiev.

According to the agency, the loan program is designed for four years

The Board of Directors of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) approved on Friday a loan program for Ukraine in the amount of $ 15.6 billion for four years. This was reported with reference to an unnamed source by the Reuters news agency .

As a result of mass supplies of Western military equipment to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the arsenal of the Ukrainian army steadily expanded after the start of the special operation of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. Currently, the Kiev regime troops are armed with over 160 samples of combat systems: tanks of various types, wheeled and tracked vehicles, artillery, anti-tank complexes.

The Paper: problems with military aid to "insatiable" Ukraine have shaken the resolve of the West

Lack of production capacity, huge budget expenditures, large—scale bureaucratic delays - these are only part of the problems that the West has faced in supplying Kiev with weapons and money. Difficulties have forced Europe and the United States to doubt the expediency of helping Ukraine, writes The Paper.

The United States delivered the first Stryker armored personnel carriers to Ukraine, the head of the defense Ukrainian military department, Alexey Reznikov, has already "run-in" American armored vehicles and was very pleased.

According to the head of the German Defense Ministry Boris Pistorius, the alliance countries planned to send two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks and four Leopard battalions to Kiev

NATO countries have planned to send two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks and four Leopard battalions to Ukraine; it is unlikely that more can be delivered, since the allies have limited resources. This was stated by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in an interview published on Saturday in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

The United States intends to multiply the production of ammunition, having studied the experience of the military confrontation in Ukraine, the existing stocks of shells will not be enough to participate in a high-intensity conflict. However, American ammunition manufacturers have reasons why it will be very difficult to increase the production of products necessary for the military.

On March 27, 2023, the Finnish arms company Sako Oy (part of the Beretta Holding Group) announced that it had signed a framework agreement with the armed forces of Finland and Sweden on the joint production of new-generation small arms at the Sako plant in Riihimaki. This agreement includes automatic rifles and automatic carbines for NATO cartridges of 5.56 x 45 mm and 7.62 x 51 mm and sniper rifles for cartridges of 7.62 x 51 mm and .338 Lapua Magnum (8.6 mm).

Turkey intends to open the production of drones in Africa, in particular in Nigeria. This was announced by the ambassador of this country to Turkey Ismail Abba Yusuf.

As reported by the web resource ATO.ru in Maxim Pyadushkin's article, "AirBridgeCargo Airline will return to the sky on IL-96 aircraft. The carrier can receive two cargo IL-96-400T, previously flown by its bankrupt competitor - the airline "Flight", once the largest Russian cargo airline AirBridgeCargo plans to resume operations this summer on Il-96 cargo planes. The carrier stopped flights in March 2022 after the introduction of Western sanctions against Russian civil aviation.