DefenceTalkRecent close shaves between Russian fighters and civilian aircraft highlight the dangers of the cat-and-mouse game being played out between Moscow and the West in European skies amid the crisis in Ukraine, analysts say. In the latest incident, Sweden said Friday that a Russian military jet nearly collided with a passenger plane south of Malmoe […]https://www.defencetalk.com/danger-in-the-skies-as-russia-nato-play-cat-and-mouse-61181/

DefenceTalkWith Ukraine still trapped in a Soviet-era approach to mental health and psychiatric hospitals so under-funded that some have less than 10 cents a day to feed patients, the country has been left ill-prepared for the trauma of war. As with so many aspects of its sudden descent into conflict, Ukraine has turned to volunteers […]https://www.defencetalk.com/desperate-shortages-leave-ukraine-ill-prepared-for-trauma-of-war-61135/

DefenceTalkNATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has voiced concern about Russia’s “aggressive” behavior. He told a press conference that the alliance was working on a “spearhead” to deter any possible threat. Beginning early next year NATO will have a new reaction force ready, which can be deployed more rapidly on its eastern border. This new force, […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nato-prepares-spearhead-to-ward-off-russia-61095/

DefenceTalkThe US military has delivered three radars to Ukraine designed to detect incoming mortar fire, the Pentagon said Friday, amid appeals from Kiev for Washington to send weapons to help fight pro-Russian rebels. The counter-mortar radar systems were flown to Ukraine in a C-17 cargo plane that accompanied US Vice President Joe Biden, who paid […]https://www.defencetalk.com/us-delivers-anti-mortar-radars-to-ukraine-pentagon-61059/

DefenceTalkRussia on Wednesday called for Ukraine to stay out of the NATO alliance, insisting that a “non-aligned status” was in the interests of the ex-Soviet country. “There is no doubt that (Ukraine’s) non-aligned status is important not only from the point of view of ensuring stability in the European Atlantic but also from the point […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-urges-ukraine-not-to-join-nato-61035/

DefenceTalkNATO member Poland said Tuesday it will acquire combat drones as part of a multi-billion-euro revamp of its armed forces amid heightened tensions with Russia over its role in the Ukraine crisis. “We will use these drones to defend our territory,” Deputy Defence Minister Czeslaw Mroczek told AFP. “My Ukrainian counterpart informed me that one […]https://www.defencetalk.com/poland-to-buy-armed-drones-amid-ukraine-crisis-60956/

DefenceTalkRussian military flights over European airspace are raising tensions and pose a potential danger to security and to civilian aircraft, a US military spokesman said Friday. The United States was concerned about the flights of Russian warplanes and was tracking the activity “very closely,” Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters. “We certainly don’t see these […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russian-flights-over-europe-raise-tension-us-military-60927/

DefenceTalkNATO detected and monitored four groups of Russian military aircraft conducting significant military manoeuvers in European airspace over the Baltic Sea, North Sea/Atlantic Ocean, and Black Sea on 28 and 29 October 2014. These sizable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace. Eight Russian Aircraft Intercepted over North Sea / […]https://www.defencetalk.com/nato-tracks-large-scale-russian-air-activity-in-europe-60910/

DefenceTalkRussia will sue France if Paris refuses to honor a contract on construction of two Mistral-class helicopter carriers for the Russian Navy, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov said Thursday. “We will file a lawsuit and demand compensation [if the contract is not fulfilled], as it’s commonly done in a civilized world,” Ivanov told reporters. […]https://www.defencetalk.com/kremlin-threatens-to-sue-france-over-possible-mistral-contract-breach-60844/

DefenceTalkNATO fighter jets intercepted a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea after it breached Estonian airspace, the alliance said Wednesday in the latest of such incidents amid tensions with Moscow over Ukraine. The Ilyushin IL-20 “intelligence collection aircraft”, which took off from the Russian Baltic coast enclave of Kaliningrad on Tuesday, was first intercepted […]https://www.defencetalk.com/russia-spy-plane-intercepted-in-nato-airspace-alliance-60824/