Europe

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37200227

The German military deems Russia an "existential risk" to the country and Europe, according to a Spiegel news magazine report that cites a new Bundeswehr strategy paper.

The confidential document warns that the Kremlin is aligning both its industrial and leadership structures "specifically to meet the requirements for a large-scale conflict against NATO by the end of this decade."

[...]

Russia is verifiably preparing for a conflict with NATO, particularly by strengthening forces in western Russia "at the borders with NATO," the report cites the strategy paper as saying.

As early as next year, Russia could have around 1.5 million soldiers on active duty, according to the paper.

Germany can only counter this threat "with a consistent development of military and society-wide capabilities," the document concludes.

Military personnel and experts developed the strategy paper over the past 18 months to serve as a guideline for the future direction of Germany's Bundeswehr, the Spiegel report said.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3230887

Archived version

According to the latest estimates by the World Bank, Russia has caused significant damage to Ukraine by destroying at least 60 million square meters of residential property. The cost of restoring this housing is estimated to be at least 86 billion US dollars.

...

• 60+ million m² – total area of destroyed or damaged housing (according to data from “Diia”, about 850 thousand applications have been received);
• 4.6 million people have received internally displaced status;
• 600 thousand people are waiting for housing;
• 1 billion euros is allocated in the Ukrainian state budget until 2027 for the implementation of the “eRecovery” programs and providing housing for servicemen;
• 110 thousand families have already received compensation under the “eRecovery” program.

...

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3233480

Archived

Vladimir Putin has announced the launch of a Russian youth drone-flying championship, dubbed Pilots of the Future, to start in 2026, the Kremlin press service announced on Monday.

The championship will be run by the youth organisation the Movement of the First and Russia’s Drone Racing Federation, according to the Kremlin, while funding will come from the federal budget.

The championship will be open to children aged seven and over. Putin has instructed the Sports Ministry and the Drone Racing Federation to lower its age requirements, as both currently only allow children aged 10 or over to operate drones.

The announcement comes amid a marked shift towards drone warfare in the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both sides continuing to launch drone strikes deep into each other’s territory.

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Over the past several years, Russia has increasingly indoctrinated children about the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, everyday life on the front line and serving in the army. Novaya Gazeta Europe recently estimated that at least 40,000 military-themed events involving war veterans had been held in Russian schools since the start of the war for children as young as six since the start of the war.

As Ukraine's Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group noted on its site, "Russia has lowered the age to seven of activities aimed at teaching children, including in occupied Ukraine, to operate the drones it is using to slaughter Ukrainian civilians."

cross-posted from: https://scribe.disroot.org/post/3229688

Archived

Russia handed over some bodies of its own soldiers to Ukraine under the guise of Ukrainian casualties during a recent exchange of the deceased, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko announced on June 19.

"Yes, we have facts. We have established the names of these soldiers and officers who are unwanted by their homeland," Klymenko wrote on Telegram.

The discovery was made after the handover of remains under an agreement reached during the June 2 talks in Istanbul. In total, Ukraine received 6,057 bodies of its fallen soldiers as part of the phased exchange. Russia, according to Kremlin aide and negotiator Vladimir Medinsky, took back 78.

One of the bodies returned to Ukraine, labeled No. 192/25, was dressed in a Russian military uniform and carried a Russian passport issued to Alexander Viktorovich Bugaev, born in 1974.

Alongside the passport, officials found a military ID indicating Bugaev had served in the 1st Battalion of the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade.

According to Klymenko, Bugaev went missing during heavy fighting near Novomykhailivka in Donetsk Oblast in March 2025. His family had been searching for him for months. Klymenko said Russia had located Bugaev's body but chose to "dump" it among the Ukrainian dead.

"This is yet another proof of how Russia treats its people with contempt, throwing their bodies onto the bodies of Ukrainian soldiers," Klymenko said.

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Kyiv has consistently called for an "all-for-all" exchange of prisoners of war, but Moscow has so far refused to agree to a comprehensive swap.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/42034893

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37200636

Archived

This is an ope-ed by Robbin Laird, a military and security analyst.

[...]

Europe finds itself confronting an unprecedented dual challenge to its critical infrastructure: immediate military threats from Russia requiring urgent port and transportation upgrades, while simultaneously grappling with long-term strategic vulnerabilities created by decades of Chinese and Russian investment in European infrastructure.

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The urgency of Europe’s infrastructure challenge became starkly apparent in recent NATO planning discussions. At the upcoming NATO summit, alliance members are targeting a dramatic increase in military spending from 2% to 5% of GDP, with 1.5% specifically allocated to what officials term “nonlethal domains” – cybersecurity, infrastructure, roads, railroads, and critically, ports.

[...]

European officials and NATO planners have identified 500 critical locations across the continent requiring immediate upgrades to ensure rapid troop movement to eastern borders. The challenge extends beyond mere logistics – it encompasses the fundamental question of whether Europe’s commercial infrastructure can serve dual civilian and military purposes without compromising either function.

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The infrastructure crisis reveals what defense analysts call the convergence of cyber and physical vulnerabilities. As one expert noted, “Critical infrastructure is an area where the cyber and physical worlds are converging – the operation of digital systems affects our physical world, and so a cyber incident can have direct and serious physical impacts on property and people.”

[...]

While Europe races to address immediate military infrastructure needs, a parallel challenge has been building for over a decade through Chinese and Russian exploitation of European free market mechanisms. Authoritarian states have systematically invested in and gained control over key European infrastructure, creating dependencies that could be leveraged during future crises.

The scope of this challenge is staggering. Chinese companies now control 29 ports and 47 terminals across more than a dozen European countries, including a 67% stake in Greece’s strategically crucial Port of Piraeus. In France, a Chinese consortium owns nearly 50% of Toulouse airport, located at the heart of the country’s aerospace industry.

[...]

The Nordic Model: Hardened Infrastructure as Standard

Some European nations are pioneering approaches that address both immediate military needs and long-term infrastructure security. Norway’s reconstruction of its F-35 air base at Ørland provides a template for how infrastructure development can prioritize security from the ground up.

The Norwegian approach emphasizes hardened facilities, secure supply chains, and workforce security. As Lt. Col. Eirik Guldvog explains: “The Armed Forces Estate Agency has built camps on the base to house workers to work on the base. Because of classifications, only Norwegian workers are being used.”

This model of “security by design” in infrastructure development contrasts sharply with the ad hoc approach of retrofitting existing commercial infrastructure for military use – the challenge now facing most European ports.

[...]

Europe’s current infrastructure crisis represents more than a response to immediate military threats – it reflects a fundamental awakening to the intersection of economic openness and national security. The continent that pioneered free trade and open markets is learning to defend these achievements against authoritarian powers that view economic integration as a vulnerability to exploit rather than a mutual benefit to preserve.

The success of Europe’s infrastructure security initiative will depend on its ability to maintain the delicate balance between openness and security, competitiveness and resilience. The stakes extend far beyond military logistics – they encompass the fundamental question of whether democratic societies can maintain their openness while defending against authoritarian manipulation.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/41990967

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37199831

Some universities accepted money from companies and institutions with ties to the People’s Liberation Army in China, including those which are sanctioned by other countries.

Other universities took funding from institutions and tech firms accused of helping the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spy on and target users, spread misinformation and abuse human rights.

The director-general of MI5 last year warned vice-chancellors that China and other states the UK Government views as adversaries are attempting to steal technology from universities that can “deliver their authoritarian, military and commercial priorities”.

The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said The Ferret’s research suggests that funding from CCP-linked organisations in Scottish higher education is particularly prevalent. This, it claimed “should be a matter of deep concern for ministers and the wider Scottish public”.

[...]

Ten universities collectively received at least £39.7m of funding. Of that, £5.5m came from organisations allegedly linked to the military, human rights abuses or spying, or was used to fund controversial Confucius Institutes. These are CCP-funded educational and cultural programs on UK campuses which have been accused of monitoring and censoring UK students, and pushing propaganda.

[...]

Some universities accepted money from Chinese organisations with military ties.

Strathclyde university received £130,000 in research funding from Wuxi Paike New Materials Technology, which makes metal forgings for the Chinese military.

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Strathclyde also accepted £22,100 for “research studentship/knowledge exchange” from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on an undisclosed date. The academy is designated “medium risk” by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), due to its alleged weapons research. ASPI is a defence think tank founded by the Australian Government.

[...]

In 2020, a drone submarine developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences was found by an Indonesian fisherman in the South China Sea and thought to be on a possible covert mission by military observers.

The following year, in October 2021, Robert Gordon University (RGU) was given £46,820 by the academy to research spectral imaging – a method of capturing highly detailed images.

An RGU spokesperson said the research collaboration was transferred to the university in 2021 after it appointed a professor from Strathclyde who was working on the project. The collaboration ended in 2023.

In April this year, The Times reported that RGU, Aberdeen and Strathclyde universities were among 23 UK institutions to have signed an agreement with Chinese institutions with alleged military links, despite warnings from MI5.

[...]

Some universities accepted money from tech firms, including those accused of helping the CCP to spy on users, and spread misinformation.

Heriot-Watt University received between £150,000 and £200,000 from tech firm Huawei to research wireless communications hardware between November 2020 and November 2021.

[...]

In 2022/23, Edinburgh university accepted £127,973 from tech firm, Tencent, to fund a research project called “serving big machine learning models”. Allegations of mass surveillance and human rights abuses by Tencent were reported years earlier.

CCP committees within Tencent ensure that the state’s “political goals are pursued”, according to a 2020 study from ASPI.

A 2022 report from Human Rights Watch claimed that via its messaging app, WeChat, Tencent “censors and surveils” users on the CCP’s behalf and “hands over user data to authorities when ‘sensitive’ information is discovered”.

[...]

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Universities are autonomous institutions and are expected to understand and manage the reputational, ethical and security risks associated with international partnerships.

“This includes conducting appropriate due diligence before entering into new partnerships, and monitoring existing partnerships to ensure they comply with relevant legal requirements”.

[...]

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37206503

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/37204227

Archived

“They Told Me: Deripaska Is the Client. Don’t You Want To Sell Your Virginity?” - How a network for selling sex with teenagers was built in Russia - and which of its influential clients managed to escape responsibility

[...]

The meeting between the schoolgirl and the man she would later call Oleg Deripaska was organized by five people: Svetlana Titova, Alexandra Shantyreva, Olga Goncharova, Maksim Nekozyrev, and Anastasia Yakusheva. They became the defendants in the criminal case opened in 2019 in Priozersk, Leningrad Oblast.

The network for recruiting girls operated for at least two years (2018–2019) under the cover of regional, often children’s, beauty contests, modeling agencies, dating sites, and themed groups on messengers.

According to detectives from the Investigative Committee, one of the key roles in this network was played by 51-year-old Svetlana Titova. She grew up in Mordovia, where in the 2000s she founded her first modeling agency, Lel. Later, Titova organized several local beauty contests: Miss Carnival, Miss Bust, and Beauty of Mordovia. In 2017, their participants said that Svetlana recruited them into her agency and promised good income.

[...]

“The men knew I was 17, they asked, as well as where I studied, what city I was from,” Irina recalled during her interrogation about that trip to Moscow. “I answered that I was 17, studying to be an economist, that I was a model, and so on.”

[...]

“They were specifically looking for us. I was found at age 15. They wrote to me on VK under some fake photo,” recalls Alena Yaroshenko, another underage girl from the case files. She is now 23. In 2021, she was summoned for questioning in the case against Titova and Nekozyrev, but she refused to testify. Four years later, Alena agreed to speak to journalists.

“They told me the client was Deripaska and asked if I wanted to sell my virginity. Apparently, I had the kind of face Oleg was willing to pay for. He was supposed to come to an economic forum in Petersburg. At first, I agreed, because I had remembered him since childhood from the story with the pen, and I liked him. But then I imagined what my mother would do to me,” she said.

[...]

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.06.20-210634/https://www.ft.com/content/1ca893d0-7384-45c6-b305-904fb2f6c0af

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/41926212

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.06.21-163843/https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/germany-hire-11000-more-military-personnel-this-year-bild-reports-2025-06-21/

BRUSSELS — Israel’s actions in Gaza may have violated the terms of the country’s agreement with the EU, the bloc’s diplomatic corps found.

“On the basis of the assessments made by the independent international institutions … there are indications that Israel would be in breach of its human rights obligations under Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement,” the European External Action Service (EEAS) concluded, according to a leaked document seen by POLITICO.

Kallas told lawmakers in the European Parliament on Wednesday that “Israel has the right to self-defense, but what we see in practice from Israel goes beyond self-defense,” adding that Israel is “undermining decades of humanitarian principles” by blocking food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza, along with sidestepping U.N. aid.