The D Brief: Deadly Russian strike; Tussle in Turkey; Houthis’ new tactic; Army division’s gunnery breakthrough; And a bit more.
More than 40 people were killed in Ukraine Tuesday after a Russian missile attack in the city of Poltava, about 200 miles southeast of Kyiv, President Volodymir Zelenskyy said in a video message on social media.
More than 180 others were wounded, with many trapped under the rubble after two ballistic missiles struck a military training facility and a nearby hospital. “The interval between the air-raid alarm and the arrival of the deadly rockets was so short that it caught people at the moment of evacuation to the bomb shelter,” Kyiv’s military said in a statement, according to the Wall Street Journal. The Associated Press described it as “one of the deadliest Russian strikes since the war began.”
“Ukraine needs air defense systems and missiles now, not sitting in storage,” Zelenskyy pleaded in the video. “Long-range strikes that can protect us from Russian terror are needed now, not later,” he said.
Developing: The U.S. is on the verge of giving Ukraine long-range Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles, which—depending on the variety—can range between 230 and 500 miles. The catch? “Kyiv would need to wait several months as the U.S. works through technical issues,” Reuters reported Tuesday.
New: Ukraine just fired its energy chief for his failure to protech energy facilities from Russian attacks, the Kyiv Independent reported Tuesday.
“We have blackouts every day in July in Kyiv,” Katarína Mathernová, the EU Ambassador to Ukraine, said Friday. “We had blackouts 16 to 20 hours a day and we are looking at a very dark and cold winter at the current level of destruction.”
Update: Territorial gains, charted. Last month, Russia’s invasion forces notched their largest monthly gains in two years, according to open source War Mapper on social media. However, during the same month (August 2024), Ukrainian forces invaded Russia’s Kursk region, seizing some 770 km², which is “an area equivalent to all Russian advances since the end of April,” the open source analyst wrote on Monday.
ICYMI: Europe needs a “systemic overhaul” of its defense spending to increase production and reduce its dependence on the United States, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Friday in Prague.
“Our aim must be to build continent-size defense output,” she said at the GLOBSEC Security Forum, without elaborating much. She also said European security depends on continued and predictable support for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders, and that Kyiv must eventually join the EU, Defense One’s Patrick Tucker reported from Czechia over the weekend.
Related reading:
- “Trump says NATO members should spend 3% on defense. Alliance official: ‘Yes’,” Tucker reported separately this weekend from GLOBSEC;
- “U.S. researchers find probable launch site of Russia’s new nuclear-powered missile,” Reuters reported Monday;
- “Ukraine Allies Expect Iran to Ship Missiles to Russia Imminently,” Bloomberg reported Monday;
- “Mongolia ignores an international warrant for Putin’s arrest, giving him a red-carpet welcome,” AP reported Tuesday;
- “‘It was all a blur’: Ukraine’s troops on their audacious incursion into Russia,” the Guardian reported Tuesday;
- “Exclusive new video details how Ukraine was able to infiltrate the Russian border,” CNN reported Monday;
- And don’t miss, “Putin Will Never Give Up in Ukraine,” which is an argument from former CIA-er Peter Schroeder, now with the Center for a New American Security, writing Tuesday in Foreign Affairs.
Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief, brought to you by Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Share your newsletter tips, reading recommendations, or feedback here. And if you’re not already subscribed, you can do that here. On this day in 1954, the Chinese military triggered the so-called “First Taiwan Strait Crisis,” which lasted almost eight months.
Two U.S. Marines were attacked in the Turkish coastal city of Izmir on Monday afternoon during a routine port visit by the USS Wasp (LHD-1). The assailants—allegedly Turkish nationalists—reportedly accused the Marines of having “the blood of Turkish soldiers and thousands of Palestinians” on their hands, according to footage taken during the encounter.
One of the Marines had a bag placed over his head as a crowd yelled “Yankee, go home!” before his fellow service members helped free him from the attackers. The Marines visited a hospital for treatment, and were later released without any injuries.
Fifteen suspects were later arrested by Turkish authorities, according to CNN.
Reminder: Turkish President Recep Erdogan vaguely threatened to invade Israel to assist Palestinians in late July, extending his public adoration for Hamas beyond occasional statements of solidarity since the terrorists launched their surprise attack on Israel in early October.
The U.S. military says it helped capture an ISIS fighter who was helping militants who had broken out of a Syrian prison in late August. In a joint operation with Syrian forces early Sunday morning, the U.S. troops captured the facilitator, named Khaled Ahmed al-Dandal.
Background: “Previously, on Aug. 29, five ISIS Foreign Terrorist Fighter detainees (Two Russians, two Afghans, and one Libyan) escaped from the Raqqah Detention Facility,” U.S. Central Command officials said Monday.
Syrian Democratic Forces recaptured two of the escaped detainees: Imam Abdulwahed Akhwan from Russia, and Muhammad Noh Muhammad of Libya. “The search continues for the three who remain at large,” CENTCOM said Monday.
The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen attacked another crude oil tanker with ballistic missiles and a drone on Monday, striking the Panama-flagged and -owned Blue Lagoon 1 sometime in the morning. The attack took place about 70 nautical miles west of Yemen at about 1:30 a.m. local time. Fortunately, “There are no casualties onboard and the vessel is proceeding to its next port of call,” British maritime authorities said at the time.
About five hours later, a drone hit a ship south of where the earlier attack occurred. (Unclear if this was the same ship, though the Houthis claimed Monday evening to have used both missiles and drones to target Blue Lagoon 1.) But similarly, there were no casualties reported and the vessel continued on its journey, according to the Brits.
U.S. military officials claimed the Saudi-flagged, -owned, and -operated Amjad tanker was also hit in the initial attack early Monday. However, Saudi shipping firm Bahri said Tuesday that Amjad was simply sailing nearby and was not in fact struck or damaged. “The vessel remains fully operational and is proceeding to her planned destination without interruption,” Bahri said in a statement.
Also on Monday, U.S. forces near Yemen “destroyed two missile systems in a Houthi-controlled area of Yemen,” CENTCOM officials announced afterward.
Update: The flaming tanker Sounion “is still on fire and threatens the possibility of a major environmental disaster,” CENTCOM said Monday. The Houthis attacked and disabled while sailing through the Red Sea on August 21. “Private companies are involved in the salvage operation,” European Union officials announced Monday.
The EU’s naval mission in the Red Sea is providing security for the tugboats needed to haul the Sounion tanker to port. “The vessel remains anchored without drifting, and there are no visible signs of an oil spill,” European officials said, with supporting photography.
Under the radar: The Houthis have been carrying out an “unprecedented…wave of abductions in the capital Sana’a since May,” says regional expert Constantin Grund, writing last week.
Previously, Houthi abductions had largely exempted international aid workers. But that’s no longer the case, and it puts the Houthis on par with the Taliban, Grund says. For example, “In June, the Houthis announced they had uncovered an Israeli-American espionage network in Yemen and released videos of alleged confessions from former employees of the US embassy in Sana’a.” Then in August, “the Houthis stormed the UN’s Human Rights Office in Sana’a, confiscating vehicles, furniture and servers…A wave of abductions swiftly followed,” says Grund.
Why bring it up? “It is not so much about the 60 individuals the Houthis are currently using as bargaining chips, but rather about the doubts raised surrounding international partnerships as a whole,” he warns.
Worth noting: “Ten years have now passed since the Houthis first occupied Sana’a” at the start of the country’s latest civil war, Grund writes. “Previous achievements such as a functioning parliament, freedom of the press or universal school attendance have since been systematically rolled back, with blame mostly placed on alleged outside opponents.”
His advice: Enforcement mechanisms with teeth, somehow. “Only a massive diplomatic effort and robust security policy could bring this train to a halt,” says Grund—who is certainly not the first to advocate for a tougher approach toward the Houthis, though (like other Yemen hawks) he did not account for how to keep such an escalation from spiraling out of control in a region that is already on tenterhooks with the nearly yearlong Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Continue reading, here.
Related reading:
Surprising data have Army division reshaping its gunnery training. Turns out you can spot a crew that needs more training earlier than expected. Defense One’s Lauren Williams reports from Fort Carson, Colo., here.
RTX fined $200M for exporting classified defense tech to China, Russia, Iran. Among other violations, employees traveled abroad with unauthorized technical data about U.S. aircraft and other weapons. Defense One’s Audrey Decker, here.
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