Category Added in a WPeMatico Campaign
The war in Ukraine has expanded to attacks on civilian targets in both countries.
This has culminated in Russia striking cities and Ukraine hitting Moscow’s energy infrastructure, including e-commerce warehouses that have dual-use civilian and military products.
Tu-22M Bomber from Russia. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Now, there are hardline voices in Russia who are calling for Vladimir Putin to do the unthinkable – use tactical nuclear weapons to win the war against Ukraine once and for all.
In classic Russian fashion, Moscow has long relied upon its strategic depth when fighting the Ukraine War to insulate its people from the negative effects of the war.
That buffer is now eroding, and a sustained Ukrainian long-range drone campaign targeting Russia’s oil refining sector has evolved into a nationwide fuel crisis inside Russia that increasingly harms the daily lives and prosperity of ordinary Russians.
Msta-S Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
MSTA-S Russian Army. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Iran launched another attack on a commercial tanker in the Strait of Hormuz on the morning of Tuesday, July 21, forcing its crew to abandon the vessel.
The strike came after the United States completed its tenth consecutive night of airstrikes against the Iranian regime.
(June 11, 2017) Sailors aboard the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Pinckney (DDG 91) stand in formation as the ship pulls alongside the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) to conduct a replenishment-at-sea.
While the United States and Iran duke it out for control over the Strait of Hormuz, Iran’s proxies in Yemen, the Houthis, have declared a naval blockade on the Bab el-Mandeb Strait against Saudi Arabia as tensions across the Middle East flare up. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the most important oil shipping routes connecting the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean. Because of its geographical position, around 9.2 million barrels of oil pass through Bab el-Mandeb every day, making it one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints in the region, next to the Strait of Hormuz.
The 2026 iteration of Cyber Shield, a massive annual National Guard-led exercise, is focused on honing participants’ skills in defending the power sector and associated operational technology from digital attacks, according to officials involved in the effort.
More than 1,000 troops and civilian experts from 44 U.S. states and territories and 23 international partners are participating in this year’s event, which kicked off July 12 in Little Rock, Arkansas, and will run until July 25.
“This is our biggest Cyber Shield so far, with the most international participants,” Lt. Col.
Since the outbreak of U.S. and Israeli military operations against Iran, the regime and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have relied on the Strait of Hormuz as a primary source of leverage against the United States.
Even after devastating U.S. strikes on Iranian military infrastructure, a relatively small force of IRGC soldiers is threatening global energy markets by disrupting the world’s most important oil transit route – even as Washington promises safe passage with U.S. Navy escorts.
(Sept. 16, 2023) – The U.S.
As the war in Iran continues to escalate, shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has slowed down significantly since the end of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Despite attempts from Trump and the U.S. Navy to ensure traffic through the valuable waterway, Iran continues to attack ships that travel along the coast of Oman, away from IRGC-approved shipping lanes.
(Mar. 21, 2025) – The Los Angeles-class fast-attack submarine, USS Santa Fe (SSN 763), transits the Pacific Ocean, March 21, 2025.
Experts in the Pentagon’s All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office are investigating a report from the U.S. Navy involving roughly 100 mysterious airborne objects and watercraft that were recorded operating off the coast of Virginia.
AARO’s Fiscal Year 2025 Consolidated Annual Report on Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena, released this week, briefly discloses that modern military account of UAP swarming near a U.S. installation.
“A lack of timely and actionable sensor data continues to constrain AARO’s ability to resolve cases,” officials wrote in the 14-page review.
A Russian “shadow fleet” tanker that is under sanctions and reported an explosion in early June appears to have spilled a substantial quantity of oil off the coast of Oman, likely polluting an environmentally sensitive area.
According to Reuters, the Caroline Bezengi vessel took Russian oil on board in Novorossiysk before leaving for its most recent voyage bound for India, according to ship tracking data.
(Oct. 5, 2025) An MH-60S Sea Hawk attached to the “Dusty Dogs” of the Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron (HSC) 7 fires flares above the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W.
Alliances are an important part of grand strategy, and Vladimir Putin has forged new relationships among malign actors that have formed an axis of evil that will be a factor into the 2030s and beyond.
These aggressive anti-Western countries are flexing their muscles. Look no further than North Korea. Kim Jong Un knows that he has friends in Moscow. Putin loves that Pyongyang has sent more than 13,000 North Korean troops to fight against Ukraine in Kursk.
North Korea Artillery. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
North Korea Frigate from KCNA. Image Credit: North Korean State Media.