‘WEAPONS, WEAPONS, WEAPONS’: A grim-faced Dmytro Kuleba arrived at NATO headquarters this morning in Brussels to deliver a concise message to his fellow foreign ministers on behalf of Ukraine, which is bracing to repel a major offensive by Russian forces in the eastern Donbas region.
“My agenda is very simple. It only has three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons,” said Kuleba, standing next to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in NATO’s cavernous headquarters as ministers gathered for two days of urgent meetings. “The more weapons we get, and the sooner they arrive in Ukraine, the more human lives will be saved.”
“I call on all allies to put aside their hesitations, their reluctance to provide Ukraine with everything it needs,” Kuleba said, “because, as weird as it may sound, but today weapons serve the purpose of peace.”
“I am certain that we will address the need for more air defense systems, anti-tank weapons, lighter, but also heavier weapons, and many different types of support to Ukraine,” said Stoltenberg. “Ukraine is fighting the defensive war. So this distinction between offensive and defensive weapons doesn’t actually have any real meaning in a defensive war as Ukraine is fighting.”
MARIUPOL MAYOR SAYS 90% OF INFRASTRUCTURE DESTROYED, 5,000 CIVILIANS DEAD
‘WE KNOW HOW TO FIGHT’: Kuleba’s urgent plea comes as Russia has completed its withdrawal of troops from the north, where its attempt to capture Ukraine’s capital Kyiv ended in spectacular failure, and is reconstituting its combat power and redeploying its forces in what could be the decisive battle in the east, where Russian-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian troops for eight years.
“The Ukrainian army and the entire Ukrainian nation has demonstrated that we know how to fight. We know how to win,” said Kuleba, who called out Germany as one NATO nation that is not acting fast enough.
“The issue that concerns me the most is the length of procedures and decision-making in Berlin. Because while Berlin has time, Kyiv doesn’t,” Kuleba said. “It’s clear that Germany can do more given its reserves, reserves and capacity, and we are working with the German government on providing us with additional weapons.”
Asked what kind of weapons are most needed, Kuleba replied, “Planes, shore-to-vessel missiles, personnel armored vehicles, heavy air defense systems.”
RUSSIAN FORCES NEAR KYIV AND CHERNIHIV HAVE COMPLETELY WITHDRAWN, PENTAGON SAYS
BLINKEN: ‘LIKELY … THIS GOES ON FOR SOME TIME’: U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is echoing the Pentagon’s assessment that given the high political cost that Russian President Vladimir Putin would suffer in defeat, he’s likely to prolong the war as long as possible with the hope of achieving something he can call a victory and improving his negotiation position for any possible diplomatic settlement.
“There is also a very likely scenario by which this goes on for some time,” Blinken said on MSNBC upon his arrival in Brussels. “The Russians, even as they’re moving their forces, they’ve retreated from Kyiv, they’ve retreated from the north and the west, they’re consolidating forces in the east, in the Donbas. They have a lot of force still left,” he told NBC’s Andrea Mitchell.
Asked if Ukraine can win a long war against Russia’s superior number, Blinken said, “Ultimately, yes, because what is success, what is victory? It’s holding on to the sovereignty and independence of their country.”
“And there is no scenario by which over time that will not happen. The problem is it may take time, and in the meantime, tremendous death and destruction. But what is so powerful here is that the Ukrainians have made it very clear that they will not subjugate themselves to Vladimir Putin’s will.”
Blinken will hold a press conference at the end of today’s session at 11:15 a.m. Washington time, while Stoltenberg will join Blinken for brief remarks at 11:55 a.m.
KYIV IS ‘STILL VULNERABLE’ DESPITE RUSSIAN REDEPLOYMENT
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HAPPENING TODAY: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, and Pentagon Comptroller Michael McCord are back on Capitol Hill this morning to testify again in support of the president’s $773 billion defense budget for 2023, this time before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
The themes will be the same as their appearance before the House Armed Services Committee, but the format will be a little more relaxed because there are fewer senators asking questions — 24 compared to the almost 60 members of the House committee. Even with each House member strictly limited to five minutes, Tuesday’s marathon session ran more than four hours, and there were many times in which Austin or Milley were not given time to answer the questions posed to them.
Republicans have already made it clear they believe the budget proposed by the Biden administration does not adequately account for inflation that is running at nearly 8% and that an additional $30 billion may need to be added by Congress.
Biden can expect “yet another broadly-bipartisan rebuke from Congress as we remedy the administration’s dangerous funding shortfall,” said Alaska Republican Dan Sullivan.
“Our top military brass from all branches are wisely asking for more. More ships, more planes, more weapons, more satellites, and more training. But President Biden is instead providing them less to complete their mission,” said Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker.
“You simply can’t look at the world around us now and think this budget is adequate to confront all the threats we face,” said Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe, ranking Republican on the committee.
Austin and Milley will also be questioned about what more the U.S. can do to expedite weapons delivery to Ukraine, Biden proposals to kill a program to build a low-yield submarine-launched cruise missile, and shipbuilding plans that would shrink the size of the Navy in the short term.
In his House testimony, Austin called the proposed budget “robust,” even though it did not factor in the current inflation rate. “Clearly, you know, when we snapped the chalk line, when we built the budget, inflation was at a different point,” Austin said. “But I think this budget gives us the capability to go after the types of things that we believe that we need to support our strategy and give us the warfighting capabilities that we need.”
NEW SANCTIONS GET PERSONAL: President Joe Biden announced a series of new financial sanctions against Moscow yesterday in response to the growing evidence that Russian troops in Ukraine have been committing horrific war crimes, murdering, raping, and torturing civilians.
“Responsible nations have to come together to hold these perpetrators accountable. And together with our allies and our partners, we’re going to keep raising the economic cost and ratchet up the pain for Putin and further increase Russia’s economic isolation,” Biden said.
The measures announced yesterday would block Russia’s largest financial institution, Sberbank, Russia’s largest private bank, and critical major Russian state-owned enterprises; prohibit new investment in Russia; and sanction more Russian elites and their family members, including Putin’s two adult daughters, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter, and members of Russia’s Security Council, including former President and Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
“Look, these oligarchs and their family members are not allowed to hold on to their wealth in Europe and the United States and keep these yachts worth hundreds of millions of dollars, their luxury vacation homes, while children in Ukraine are being killed, displaced from their homes every single day,” Biden said.
GERMANY INTERCEPTED AUDIO OF RUSSIAN SOLDIERS DISCUSSING BUCHA KILLINGS: REPORT
IRAN DEAL DYING ON THE VINE: In his interview with MSNBC, Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted the hope of the Biden administration to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is fading fast.
“I’m not overly optimistic at the prospects of actually getting an agreement to conclusion, despite all the efforts we put into it and despite the fact that I believe … our security would be better off. We’re not there,” Blinken said.
The fatal sticking point seems to be Iran’s demand that its Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps be delisted by the State Department as a foreign terrorist organization, something Blinken says the U.S. has not agreed to.
“I’m not going to get into the details of where we are on the negotiations,” he said. “This is something that we’ll be talking to our European partners about this afternoon and then over the course of the next day. We’ve been working in very close coordination with the Europeans, with the European Union, with France, with Germany, with the U.K. So, we’ll see where we get.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS AIM TO FORCE VOTE TO THWART IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
INDUSTRY WATCH: The Air Force and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency conducted a successful test of Lockheed Martin’s version of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept missile but didn’t tell anyone out of concern that Russia might misinterpret the test as provocative.
The test missile was released from a plane and quickly accelerated to faster than Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound), reaching an altitude greater than 65,000 feet and flying for more than 300 nautical miles, according to DARPA.
“The flight test likely achieved about 327 seconds of hypersonic flight under scramjet power, versus 200 seconds achieved by the Boeing X-51 Waverider in 2010, based on figures provided by DARPA,” reported Air Force Magazine, which reported that Stefanie Tompkins, head of DARPA, told the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on emerging threats and capabilities. “This test set a record for scramjet endurance, and we believe it’s an inflection point on the path to reclaiming U.S. leadership in hypersonic weapons.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The Rundown
Washington Examiner: Mariupol mayor says 90% of infrastructure destroyed, 5,000 civilians dead
Washington Examiner: Allies see ‘growing’ risk that battered Russian forces use chemical weapons
Washington Examiner: Russian forces near Kyiv and Chernihiv have completely withdrawn, Pentagon says
Washington Examiner: Kyiv is ‘still vulnerable’ despite Russian redeployment
Washington Examiner: Russians using mobile crematorium to cover ‘their tracks’: Ukrainian officials
Washington Examiner: COVID-19 vaccination data for Ukraine scarce since Russian invasion
Washington Examiner: How the US is helping investigate war crimes in Ukraine
Washington Examiner: Germany intercepted audio of Russian soldiers discussing Bucha killings: Report
Washington Examiner: Runners living in Russia or Belarus banned from Boston Marathon
Washington Examiner: Ex-Trump aides Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino held in contempt of Congress
Washington Examiner: Georgia helicopter crash that killed one soldier ‘not an accident’: Report
Washington Examiner: House Republicans aim to force vote to thwart Iran nuclear deal
Washington Examiner: Texas will bus illegal immigrants to DC, Abbott says
Washington Examiner: Turkey suspends Khashoggi murder trial, transfers case to Saudi Arabia
Washington Post: Ukraine’s East Braces For Onslaught
New York Times: Kremlin Rushing To Reposition Its Forces For A Narrower Fight
Wall Street Journal: Strike on Ship Alters Russians’ Strategy
New York Times: U.S. Says It Averted Russian Cyberattacks
AP: Russia’s failure to take down Kyiv was a defeat for the ages
AP: Ukrainian refugees find route to US goes through Mexico
Air Force Magazine: New HAWC Hypersonic Missile Sets Record for Endurance
Bloomberg: U.S., U.K. And Australia Plan To Develop Hypersonic Weapons
Washington Times: AUKUS Weapons Technology Sharing Detailed
Reuters: South Korea’s President-Elect Wants U.S. Nuclear Bombers, Submarines To Return
USNI News: Navy On Track To Deploy MQ-25A Carrier Tanker In 2026 On USS Theodore Roosevelt
Navy Times: USS Ford Completes Flight Deck Certification
Air Force Magazine: Space Force Uniforms Approved, a ‘Home Run’ With Guardians
Air Force Magazine: Repositioning of Russian Forces in Ukraine Creates Nightmare Scenario for Romania
Star and Stripes: Adm. Linda Fagan Nominated To Be Commandant Of The Coast Guard, Would Be First Woman To Lead A Service Branch
19fortyfive.com: Stealth Showdown: F-35s Now Fly Alongside China’s J-20 Fighters in Asia
19fortyfive.com: Australia Will Build Long-Range Hypersonic Missiles to Stop China
19fortyfive.com: Does Putin Think He Is Already At War with NATO?
19fortyfive.com: Would China Really Help Russia Win the Ukraine War?
19fortyfive.com: The World Will Never Accept a Russia Led by Vladimir Putin
The Cipher Brief: Rise of the New Hacker Army but Where’s the Battle?
Calendar
THURSDAY | APRIL 7
1:30 a.m. NATO headquarters, Brussels — Day Two of an in-person meeting of NATO foreign ministers, a special session including ministers from Australia, Finland, Georgia, Japan, South Korea, New Zealand, Sweden, Ukraine, the European Union and the European Commission. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg will brief reporters at the conclusion of the meeting https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/news
8 a.m. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “Will Russian War Crimes in Ukraine Continue?” with former Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksandr Danyliuk; retired Army Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton; Vladimir Milov, Russian opposition politician; Alyona Getmanchuk, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center; and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/will-russian-war-crimes-in-ukraine-continue
8:30 a.m. Burlington, Massachusetts — National Defense Industrial Association New England Chapter annual cyber event, “Zero Trust & CMMC 2.0: Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity,” with Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.; Brian Hermann, director of the Defense Information Systems Agency’s Cybersecurity & Analytics Directorate; and Stacy Bostjanick, CMMC director and chief of implementation and policy in the Office of the Defense Department CIO https://ndianewengland.org/index.php/event
9 a.m. — Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense Forum event with David Trachtenberg, vice president, National Institute for Public Policy https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register
9:30 a.m G-50 Dirksen — Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense defense authorization request for FY2023 and the Future Years Defense Program, with testimony from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin; Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Defense Undersecretary/Comptroller Michael McCord https://www.armed-services.senate.gov/hearings
9:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Commercial Wireless Networks and National Defense: Emerging Requirements, Challenges, and Opportunities,” with Terry Halvorsen, general manager for client solutions and development leader at IBM’s U.S. Federal and Public Sector; Callie Field, president of T-Mobile’s Business Group; and Maj. Gen. Robert Wheeler, deputy chief information officer for command, control, communications and computers and information infrastructure capabilities at the Defense Department https://www.csis.org/events/commercial-wireless-networks
10 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “North Korea’s latest missile threat,” with Sydney Seiler, national intelligence officer for North Korea at the National Intelligence Council https://www.csis.org/events/capital-cable-45-sydney-seiler
10 a.m. — Heritage Foundation virtual discussion: “The Chinese Communist Party’s 20th Party Congress: What to Expect and the Implications for Washington,” with Joseph Fewsmith III, professor of international relations and political science at Boston University; Willy Wo-Lap Lam, senior fellow at the Jamestown Foundation; and Michael Cunningham, visiting fellow at the Heritage Asian Studies Center https://www.heritage.org/asia/event/the-ccps-20th-party-congress
12 p.m. — New America virtual discussion: “Targeting Putin’s Wallets: Exploring the Impact of Sanctions on Russian Oligarchs,” with Brian O’Toole, nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center; Luke Harding, foreign correspondent at the Guardian; and Candace Rondeaux, senior fellow at Arizona State University’s Center on the Future of War https://www.newamerica.org/new-america/events/targeting-putins-wallets
2 p.m. — University of California, Los Angeles Women in STEM: Breaking Barriers conference, with Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering Heidi Shyu https://wistembreakingbarr.wixsite.com/website/2022-conference
2:30 p.m. 1030 15th Street N.W. — Atlantic Council virtual discussion: “Managing strategic competition to avoid a U.S.-China war,” with former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, president and CEO of the Asia Society and author of The Avoidable War: The Dangers of a Catastrophic Conflict between the U.S. and Xi Jinping’s China https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/managing-strategic-competition
3 p.m. — Council on Foreign Relations virtual discussion on national security concerns, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the relationship between Russia and China, climate diplomacy, and global human rights abuses and corruption, with Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. https://www.cfr.org/event/conversation-us-senator-ben-cardin
3:30 p.m. — Washington Post Live virtual discussion: “Targeting the Oligarchs,” with Andrew Adams, director of the Justice Department’s KleptoCapture task force https://www.washingtonpost.com/washington-post-live
FRIDAY | APRIL 8
8:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Responsible Artificial Intelligence in a Global Context,” with Brad Smith, president and vice chair at the Microsoft Corporation; Julie Sweet, chair and CEO at Accenture; Gregory Allen, director of strategy and policy at the Defense Department’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center; Mignon Clyburn, former commissioner at the Federal Communications Commission; and Helen Toner, director of strategy at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology https://www.csis.org/events/responsible-ai-global-context
8:30 a.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies virtual discussion: “Strategic Japan 2022: Competition in New Domains,” with Tatsushi Amano, director general at the Japan Bank for International Cooperation’s Strategic Research Department; Mihoko Matsubara, chief cybersecurity strategist at the NTT Corporation; Fukunari Kimura, professor at Keio University; and Sugio Takahashi, head of the National Institute for Defense Studies’ Defense Policy Division https://www.csis.org/events/strategic-japan-2022-competition-new-domains
10 a.m. Chicago, Illinois — The Atlantic and the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics virtual conference: “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy,” with Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., participates in a discussion on “Targeted by Lies: How Disinformation Spurs Political Violence” https://www.theatlantic.com/live/disinformation-democracy
MONDAY | APRIL 11
1 p.m. 1030 15th St. N.W. — Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative virtual and in-person book discussion on The Fifth Horseman and the New MAD, (Massive Attacks of Disruption) with author Harlan Ullman, senor advisor, Atlantic Council; Susan Eisenhower, president, Eisenhower Group, retired Adm. James Foggo, dean, Center for Maritime Strategy, Navy League of the United States; and Isabel Sawhill, senior fellow, Brookings Institution https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/event/the-new-mad-massive-attacks-of-disruption
WEDNESDAY | APRIL 13
8 a.m. Arlington, Virginia — Association of the U.S. Army day-long in-person “Hot Topic” event: “Army Installation Partnerships for Mission Assurance,” with Paul Farnan, acting assistant Army secretary for installations, energy and environment; Leon Panetta, former defense secretary and CIA director, among others. Register at: https://www.ausa.org/events/army-installation-management-hot-topic
12 p.m. — Center for Strategic and International Studies “Smart Women, Smart Power” online conversation,” with Stacey Dixon, principal deputy director of national intelligence https://www.csis.org/events/conversation-dr-stacey-dixon
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“I came to Brussels to participate in the NATO ministerial, and to hold bilateral meetings with allies. My agenda is very simple. It only has three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons, and weapons.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, upon arrival at NATO headquarters this morning.
