Russian forces have destroyed another Ukrainian US-made M1 Abrams tank and an M2 Bradley infantry fighting vehicle in Donbass, the Defense Ministry has said, as quoted by TASS.
In a statement to the agency on Saturday, the ministry said that both vehicles had been taken out in the Avdeevka sector of the front. The strategic city was liberated by Russia in February.
Officials told TASS that the Abrams was hit by a high-precision guided Krasnopol artillery shell fired by troops from the ‘Center’ group of forces, adding that the Bradley was destroyed by a kamikaze drone.
The Krasnopol shell was launched from an Msta-S self-propelled howitzer, with the projectile guided by a reconnaissance drone, according to the statement.
A video shared by several media outlets shows the Russian Msta-S firing from a well-covered position in the woods, with part of the clip filmed from a drone showing an explosion near a barely visible armored vehicle, apparently the Abrams. A close-up from the drone shows the tank being hit on the side, with a plume of smoke rising around the impact area.
READ MORE: ‘Crew does not survive’: Ukrainians reveal Abrams tank troubles Another video published by the media shows a Russian soldier operating a drone, which crashes head-on into a US-made Bradley on a country road.
The US agreed to send a total of 31 Abrams tanks to Ukraine in January 2023, with the batch arriving that autumn. The Russian Defense Ministry reported the destruction of several of the vehicles, one of which was displayed in Moscow last month as part of a trophy show.
In late April this year, Ukraine reportedly pulled back its Abrams tanks from the front because Russian drone strikes were making their battlefield operations much more difficult. At the time, AP estimated that Kiev had lost a total of five Abrams.
Ukraine also received around 200 Bradleys, around a third of which had been destroyed, abandoned, damaged, or captured by March, according to data from open-source military intelligence site Oryx.
US-Präsident Joe Biden traf am Mittwoch zum 80. Jahrestag der Landung der Alliierten in der Normandie in Frankreich ein. Zu einem Zeitpunkt, an dem man eigentlich über den hart erkämpften Frieden nachdenken sollte, wurden die kriegerischen Gene der USA reaktiviert. Am selben Tag läutete das US-Magazin Foreign Affairs die Kriegstrommeln und forderte die USA auf, ihre Verbündeten zu vereinen, um sich auf Kriege in drei Kriegsschauplätzen vorzubereiten.
Der am Mittwoch in Foreign Affairs veröffentlichte Artikel „Eine Verteidigungsstrategie für drei Kriegsschauplätze“ listet zahlreiche Gründe und konkrete Ansätze auf, „wie sich die USA auf einen Krieg in Asien, Europa und dem Nahen Osten vorbereiten können“.
In dem Artikel heißt es, die USA seien derzeit in zwei Kriege verwickelt – den der Ukraine in Europa und den Israels im Nahen Osten – und stünden vor einem dritten in Ostasien. „Washington hat das Glück, fähige Verbündete und Freunde in Ostasien, Europa und dem Nahen Osten zu haben … Sie müssen besser zusammenarbeiten“, heißt es darin.
Obwohl Foreign Affairs in der Schlagzeile das Wort „Verteidigung“ verwendet, scheint es eher so, als seien die USA bereits in der Offensive und planen und den dritten Kriegsschauplatz. Es liegt in Washingtons DNA, dass die USA, wenn sie sich herausgefordert fühlen, zur Lösung ihrer Probleme auf Krieg und militärische Mittel zurückgreifen, selbst wenn der derzeit begrenzte Frieden und die Stabilität dadurch untergraben werden.
Ein anonymer Militärexperte erklärte gegenüber Global Times, dass die USA in eine Ära schwindender Hegemonie eingetreten seien, während sich die Welt in Richtung Multipolarität bewege, was die USA nur schwer akzeptieren könnten. Um ihre Vorherrschaft aufrechtzuerhalten, brauchen die USA die Unterstützung ihrer Verbündeten, darunter die NATO, die EU und sogar einige Länder der asiatisch-pazifischen Region.
Wenn jedoch ein Dreifrontenkrieg die Antwort auf das US-amerikanische Sicherheitsgefühl ist, stellen der Autor und die Medien lediglich ihre Ignoranz und Arroganz zur Schau. Die USA sind nicht in der Lage, drei Kriege gleichzeitig zu führen, nicht einmal mit der Unterstützung ihrer Verbündeten. Der Artikel überschätzt die Stärke sowohl der USA, ihrer Verbündeten als auch ihrer Einigkeit erheblich.
Der Aufruf, sich auf einen Dreifrontenkrieg vorzubereiten, klingt wie Bluff. Die Realität sieht jedoch ganz anders aus. Im Russland-Ukraine-Konflikt verhält sich Kiew zunehmend passiv. Im Israel-Palästina-Konflikt zeigen sich die arabischen Länder sowie Länder weltweit geschlossener in ihrer Ablehnung des hemmungslosen Vorgehens Israels und zweifeln gleichzeitig an der Glaubwürdigkeit der USA und ihrer sogenannten regelbasierten Ordnung. Im asiatisch-pazifischen Raum sind nur sehr wenige Länder bereit, die USA gegen China zu unterstützen. Abgesehen von einigen treuen Verbündeten der USA wie Japan und Australien bleiben andere Länder neutral. Sogar im Streit um das Südchinesische Meer, wo die USA die Philippinen zu Provokationen ermutigen, ergreifen andere ASEAN-Mitglieder keine Partei. In der Taiwan-Frage haben mehr als 180 Länder und internationale Organisationen ihr Bekenntnis zum Ein-China-Prinzip und ihre Unterstützung für China bei der Wahrung seiner Souveränität und territorialen Integrität bekräftigt. Wie können die USA angesichts dieser Umstände drei Kriege gleichzeitig führen?
Man erinnere sich, dass das Weiße Haus bereits im Oktober letzten Jahres warnte, dass die USA nur über genügend Geld verfügen, um kurzfristig die „dringenden Bedürfnisse“ der Ukraine auf dem Schlachtfeld zu erfüllen, und dass das Pentagon den Kongress warnte, dass das Geld knapp werde, was die Einsatzbereitschaft des US-Militärs beeinträchtigen könnte.
Ganz zu schweigen von Bidens Entscheidung, an der D-Day-Zeremonie in Frankreich teilzunehmen und den Ukraine-Friedensgipfel in der Schweiz auszulassen, was deutlich zeigt, dass er kein Vertrauen in die Ukraine hat. Er glaubt nicht daran, dass die Ukraine gegen Russland gewinnen wird, und auch nicht daran, dass der Friedensgipfel fruchtbare Ergebnisse erzielen wird.
Vor diesem Hintergrund scheint der Aufruf an die US-Verbündeten, sich zu diesem Zeitpunkt auf einen Dreifrontenkrieg vorzubereiten, eher ein Zeichen der Unsicherheit der USA zu sein – aus Sorge, dass ihre Koalition auseinanderbrechen könnte und ihre Lakaien an der Stärke, Führung und dem Engagement der USA zweifeln könnten.
Die Landung in der Normandie, oft als D-Day bezeichnet, am 6. Juni 1944, markierte den entscheidenden Moment im Zweiten Weltkrieg. An diesem historischen Tag stürmten US-amerikanische, britische und kanadische Truppen 50 Meilen der erbittert verteidigten Strände der Normandie in Nordfrankreich, inmitten des unerbittlichen Beschusses Nazideutschlands. Ihr mutiges Vorgehen etablierte nicht nur eine entscheidende Westfront in Europa, sondern ergänzte auch die Bemühungen der Sowjetunion an der Ostfront und beschleunigte den Untergang des deutschen Faschismus.
Wenn wir heute über die Bedeutung der Landung in der Normandie nachdenken, ist es unerlässlich, die unschätzbare Lektion anzuerkennen, die sie uns erteilt: die Kostbarkeit des Friedens. Wenn es nicht gelingt, den Frieden zu schätzen und zu schützen, besteht die Gefahr, dass die Menschheit erneut in die Schrecken von Kriegen und Verwüstungen stürzt. Es stellt sich die Frage: Könnten die USA, wenn sie mehrere Kriege gleichzeitig führen würden, den Dritten Weltkrieg auslösen?
In der heutigen Zeit werden die kriegerischen Neigungen der USA und ihr Wunsch, ihr Netzwerk von Verbündeten in einen Mechanismus zur Aufrechterhaltung der US-amerikanischen Dominanz zu verwandeln, zu einer globalen Bedrohung. Die nackte Realität ist jedoch, dass jede Eskalation zum Dritten Weltkrieg heute unweigerlich zu einer nuklearen Auseinandersetzung führen würde. Der Autor, der in diesem Zusammenhang für ein drittes Kriegsschauplatz plädiert, scheint dies übersehen zu haben.
An diesem besonderen Tag, woran genau sollten die Menschen erinnern und wofür sollten sie eintreten? Ein alter Veteran hat die Antwort gegeben. Der Wunsch des Armeeveteranen Dennis Schone, eines der ältesten lebenden Überlebenden des Zweiten Weltkriegs, ist einfach: Er möchte keinen weiteren Weltkrieg erleben.
“Our greatest ally” murdered American sailors and got away with it because of the control they wielded over Lyndon Johnson over the American government.
*******
USS Liberty: The Israeli Slaughter of 34 American Sailors …
And the wounding of 174 more.
Click the link below to see the real history of the dastardly attack on the US Navy by Israeli jets and torpedo boats.
The USSLiberty incident was an attack on a United States Navy technical research ship ( spy ship ), USSLiberty, by Israeli Air Force jet fighter aircraft and Israeli Navy motor torpedo boats, on 8 June 1967, during the Six-Day War. [2]*******The following article originally appeared in Conservative Headlines in August 2019.USS Liberty Veterans Banned Forever From American Legion Nat’l ConventionAugust 27, 201914980 Views 4 CommentsUSS Liberty Veterans Banned Forever From American Legion Nat’l ConventionAugust 27, 201914980 Views 4 CommentsUSS Liberty Veterans Association BANNED FOREVER From the American Legion National Convention An American Legion membership card fluttering down and landing softly on the blouse of an American Legion clerk results in the USS Liberty Veterans Association being BANNED from The American Legion National Convention FOREVER.
Last Wednesday at noon at Arlington National Cemetery I attended the annual commemorative gathering of the survivors and friends of the U.S.S. Liberty. The moving service included the ringing of a ship’s bell for each one of the thirty-four American sailors, Marines and civilians that were killed in the deliberate Israeli attack that sought to sink the intelligence gathering ship and kill all its crew. Present were a number of surviving crewmembers as well as veterans like myself and other Americans who are committed to ensuring that the story of the Liberty will not die in hopes that someday the United States government will have the courage to acknowledge what actually happened on that fateful day.
It was the forty-ninth anniversary of the attack. In truth the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty by Israeli warplanes and torpedo boats on June 8, 1967, has almost faded from memory, with a younger generation completely unaware that a United States naval vessel was once deliberately attacked and nearly sunk by America’s “greatest friend and ally” Israel. The attack was followed by a cover-up that demonstrated clearly that at least one president of the United States even back nearly fifty years ago valued his relationship with the state of Israel above his loyalty to his own country.
It was in truth the worst attack ever carried out on a U.S. Naval vessel in peace time. In addition to the death toll, 171 more of the crew were wounded in the two-hour assault, which was clearly intended to destroy the intelligence gathering vessel operating in international waters collecting information on the ongoing Six Day War between Israel and its Arab neighbors. The Israelis, whose planes had their Star of David markings covered up so Egypt could be blamed, attacked the ship repeatedly from the air and with gunboats from the sea.
The incredible courage and determination of the surviving crew was the only thing that kept the Liberty from sinking. The ship’s commanding officer Captain William McGonagle was awarded a Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic role in keeping the ship afloat, though President Lyndon Baines Johnson broke with tradition and refused to hold the medal ceremony in the White House, also declining to award it personally, delegating that task to the Secretary of the Navy in a closed to the public presentation made at the Washington Navy Yard. The additional medals given to other crew members in the aftermath of the attack made the U.S.S. Liberty the most decorated ship based on a single engagement with hostile forces in the history of the United States Navy.
The cover-up of the attack began immediately. The Liberty crew was sworn to secrecy over the incident, as were the Naval dockyard workers in Malta and even the men of the U.S.S. Davis, which had assisted the badly damaged Liberty to port. A hastily convened and conducted court of inquiry headed by Admiral John McCain acted under orders from Washington to declare the attack a case of mistaken identity.
The inquiry’s senior legal counsel Captain Ward Boston, who subsequently declared the attack to be a “deliberate effort to sink an American ship and murder its entire crew,” also described how “President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara ordered him to conclude that the attack was a case of ‘mistaken identity’ despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.” The court’s findings were rewritten and sections relating to Israeli war crimes, to include the machine gunning of life rafts, were excised.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Senator John McCain of Arizona has used his position on the Senate Armed Services Committee to effectively block any reconvening of a board of inquiry to reexamine the evidence. Most of the documents relating to the Liberty incident have never been released to the public in spite of the 49 years that have passed since the attack took place.
The faux court of inquiry and the medals awarded in secret were only the first steps in the cover-up, which has persisted to this day, orchestrated by politicians and a media that seem to place Israel’s interests ahead of those of the United States. Liberty survivors have been finding it difficult even to make their case in public. In early April a billboard that read “Help the USS Liberty Survivors – Attacked by Israel” was taken down in New Bedford Massachusetts.
The billboard had been placed by the Honor Liberty Vets Organization and, as is normal practice, was paid for through a contractual arrangement that would require the billboard company to post the image for a fixed length of time. It was one of a number of billboards placed in different states. Inevitably, Israel’s well connected friends began to complain. One Jewish businessman threatened to take his business elsewhere, so the advertising company obligingly removed the billboard two weeks early.
After forty-nine years, the dwindling number of survivors of the Liberty are not looking for punishment or revenge. When asked, they will tell you that they only ask for accountability, that an impartial inquiry into the attack be convened and that the true story of what took place finally be revealed to the public.That Congress is deaf to the pleas of the Liberty crew should surprise no one as the nation’s legislative body has been for years, as Pat Buchanan once put it, “Israeli occupied territory.”
The Lobby’s ability to force Congress and even the presidency to submit to its will has been spelled out in some detail by critics, first by Paul Findley in They Dare to Speak Out, later by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in The Israel Lobby, in Alison Weir’s Against Our Better Judgment, and most recently in Kirk Beattie’s excellent Congress and the Shaping of the Middle East.
Congressional willingness to protect Israel even when it is killing Americans is remarkable, but it is symptom of the legislative body’s willingness to go to bat for Israel reflexively, even when it is damaging to U.S. interests and to the rights that American citizens are supposed to enjoy. I note particularly legislation currently working its way through Congress that will make it illegal for any federal funding to go to any entity that supports the Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement, better known as BDS. BDS is a way to put pressure on the Israeli government over its human rights abuses that is both non-violent and potentially effective. As the federal government has its hooks all over the economy and at various levels in education as well as state and local government its threat to force the delegitimization of BDS is far from an empty one.
Existing laws in more than twenty states with more on the way, including most recently New York, punishing entities that support the peaceful BDS movement by labeling BDS as anti-Semitic and making it illegal or sanctionable to support it are direct attacks on free speech. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo stated “We want Israel to know we are on its side.” And it doesn’t stop with BDS. Recently signed trade agreements with Europe were drafted to be conditional on European acceptance of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank while Israel is also pushing to censor the internet to make material that constitutes “incitement” banned. Incitement would, of course, include anything critical of Israel or its government on the grounds that it is anti-Semitic.
In an email to the USS Liberty Veterans Association, Kevin J. Bartlett, J.D., National Judge Advocate of The American Legion (and US Navy Veteran) writes:I understand that your organization would like to submit an application for a booth at The American Legion National Convention in August.The USS Liberty Association is not allowed to rent a booth at national conventions and have them staffed because one of your members committed assault and battery on one of our staff and was convicted of his crimes. In addition, members of your organization have attempted to set up in the national convention exhibit hall without renting a booth.The American Legion has a 100-year track record of helping veterans and their families. Unfortunately, we’ve had a long and unpleasant history with the USS Liberty Veterans Association, and we have chosen not to do business with them.
Democratic candidate presumptive Hillary Clinton has explicitly promised to do all in her power to oppose BDS, telling an adoring American Israel Public Affairs Committee audience in March that “Many of the young people here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming boycott, divestment and sanctions movement known as BDS. Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, especially in Europe, we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate and undermine Israel and the Jewish people. I’ve been sounding the alarm for a while now. As I wrote last year in a letter to the heads of major American Jewish organizations, we have to be united in fighting back against BDS.”
So the treatment of the U.S.S. Liberty should surprise no one in a country whose governing class has been for decades doing the bidding of the powerful lobby of a tiny client state that has been nothing but trouble and expense for the United States of America. Will it ever end? As the Israel Lobby currently controls the relevant parts of the federal government and much of the media change is not likely to happen overnight, but there are some positive signs. If the Democratic Party platform committee under the influence of Bernie Sanders is successful in toning down the usual extravagant praise of Israel – against the wishes of Hillary, one might add – that would be a sign that change is difficult but not necessarily impossible.
If Donald Trump wins and holds to his promise to be neutral between Israel and Palestine in negotiations that too would be a marked shift in perception of the conflict. And if the American people finally wake up and realize that they are tired of the entire farce and decide to wash their hands of the Middle East that would change everything. Just imagine picking up the morning newspaper and not reading a front page story about the warnings and threats coming from that great world leader Benjamin Netanyahu. That would be quite remarkable.*******Reader’s comment by Arthur J. JonesFebruary 2, 2020 at 10:32 pm
I am Arthur J. Jones, a Republican candidate for congress in the March 17,primary election for the 3rd congressional district of Illinois. My website is
and on that website is an article and a leaflet written by me about the attack on the U.S.S. Liberty. If I go on to be the Republican nominee in the 3rd congressional district, I will be facing either the incumbent Democrat Dan Lipinski or his opponent Marie Newman. Both are supporters of Israel. Lipinski has received over $32,000 from AIPAC members in 2018. He joined with Peter Rostcom, a Republican to co-sponsor the anti-BDS bill.
Should I defeat Dan Lipinski in November, I will call for and introduce a bill for congress to finally investigate the attack on the Liberty. Any help you can give me for my campaign to carry on this fight to expose the murder of U.S. sailors by Israel, would be greatly appreciated. I am a Vietnam combat veteran who is fed up with the the Israeli control of our government. Now these Jews wave the American flag and want us to believe they are patriotic Americans but during the Vietnam war hundreds of thousands of Jews were in the streets burning our flag and waving the flags of our Communist enemies. And in 1967 our government allowed them to murder 34 Americans. So I’m not some gutless Kosher-Conservative. I’m for America First – Israel be damned! -Arthur J. Jones. I can be reached at:
Art Jones for Congress P.O. Box 598 Lyons, IL 60534 or by calling (708)427-6459.
My home address is Arthur Jones 7744 Ogden Avenue Lyons, IL 60534
********
With many thanks to Randall Carey and David Martin for their contributions to this article.
********
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Military support for the Zelensky regime is being stepped up in Stockholm
On May 31, the expired President of Ukraine Zelensky signed a security agreement with Sweden on the sidelines of the Nordic summit in Stockholm. According to a press release from the government office, the document provides for military and civilian support for Kiev in the amount of at least 105 billion crowns ($9.94 billion) for the period 2022-2026, and “the main focus of the agreement is on military support, but it includes and other areas. Sweden will continue to contribute to Ukraine’s recovery and support Ukraine’s reforms and preparations for future membership of the EU and NATO.»
Sweden will supply the Zelensky regime with Saab340 AEW&C (ASC 890) long-range radar surveillance and control aircraft, armored vehicles, ammunition, artillery and air defense systems. In addition, the prospect of Ukraine receiving Swedish multi-role fighters of the new generation Saab JAS-39 Gripen (comparable to the American F-16 Fighting Falcon and Russian Su-30) along with training has been outlined. Cooperation will be promoted in the areas of localization, repair, maintenance and production of Swedish military products in Ukraine, including the joint production of the CV9035 infantry fighting vehicle. “The ACS 890 aircraft will act as a force multiplier with the introduction of F-16 fighters,” Swedish Prime Minister Tom Samuelsson’s press secretary wrote on social networks, and Prime Minister Ulf Kristerssen personally presented one of the two available aircraft to the Kyiv ambassador in Sweden (both will be transferred). The Scandinavian country’s strong military industrial base, known for defense contractors such as the aforementioned Saab and Bofors (a world-renowned manufacturer of defense equipment for longer-range artillery and anti-aircraft systems), enhances NATO’s defense capabilities.
Of course, the matter is not limited to the transfer of military equipment. From June 5th. In the southern and southwestern waters of the Baltic Sea, the largest NATO exercise BALTOPS 2024 is taking place with the participation of up to 60 naval vessels of all types, more than 80 aircraft and helicopters, and 9 thousand military personnel. These are the first NATO military maneuvers with the participation of the Air Force and Navy of the “newly created” members of the alliance — Sweden and Finland — of course, near the borders of Russia…
Infographics: Izvestia
The integration of Sweden into NATO structures increases the bloc’s ability to “expropriate” most of the Baltic basin, for which the islands of Gotland (3,200 sq. km) and Öland (1,350 sq. km), located in maximum geographic proximity to the Russian Baltic waters, will most likely be used. accordingly, to the “trans-Baltic” route between the Leningrad and Kaliningrad regions. Earlier, in early April, the Russian Foreign Ministry described Stockholm’s plans to create a NATO base on Gotland as a provocative activity leading to the cessation of the once peaceful Baltic Sea into the arena of geopolitical confrontation.
“The Russian side has repeatedly warned about the risks arising in connection with the military development by the alliance of the territories of new member countries in the North of Europe,” noted on Smolensk Square, adding that “Stockholm intends to strengthen the “strategically important” island of Gotland in order to improve defense against imaginary » Russian threat.» Back in 2015, the Swedish authorities restored a military presence on Gotland, and in April 2023, even before formally joining NATO, “countering an armed attack” was practiced during military exercises on the island. In mid-March, Prime Minister Kristersson said he intended to work with NATO partners to “defend the island of Gotland from Russia” through an increased military presence as well as the deployment of submarines. “As a result of such provocative activity, new threats are created to the safety of navigation and economic activity in the region… To stop threats in the northern direction, the Leningrad Military District has been recreated… Further decisions to ensure the security of Russia will be made depending on the development of the situation,” the Russian Foreign Ministry warned.
This trend may well contribute to the militarization of the Danish islands of Bornholm and Kristiansø in the southern part of the Baltic Sea, despite the fact that, upon joining NATO in 1949, Copenhagen guaranteed the absence of military bases of the bloc on these islands, as the USSR and the Polish People’s Republic assured. By the way, these islands are also located not far from the Russian enclave in the Baltic — the Kaliningrad region.
In the context of the changing balance of forces in the region, it is necessary to note the important strategic role of the island of Gotska Sanden (an area of almost 40 sq. km), located north of Gotland and being — together with the Fårö Peninsula in the north of Gotland — the easternmost “point” of Sweden in the Baltic Sea basin. It is important that Gotska Sanden is closest to the Gulf of Finland: according to some sources, it was here in August 1941 — March 1943. There was a joint facility with the Reich to detect Soviet submarines and was used to destroy them. Gotska Sanden has been a national ecological park since 1963, as well as at least a third of the territory of Gotland, which does not prevent it from being involved in a joint “defense” against Russia with other NATO partners.
The modern plans of the alliance are visibly reminiscent, adjusted for modern conditions, of the plans of Hitler’s Germany to occupy a number of strategically important territories of Sweden, thwarted by the defeats of the Wehrmacht in 1943. Developed by the spring of 1941, the Polarfuchs (“Polar Fox”) plan envisaged the occupation primarily of the above-mentioned islands, as well as the Swedish coast of the Baltic-Atlantic straits and the Norrbotten region (between Finland and Norway). On June 14, 1943, the Swedish Embassy in the USSR brought to the attention of the Soviet government the opinion of its government : “…Sweden understands perfectly well that if it still remains out of the war, it is only thanks to the military successes of the USSR. Sweden is sincerely grateful to the Soviet government for this and speaks directly about it . ” It is also worth recalling that from July 1941 to June 1943 (inclusive), the Swedish Air Force and Navy, including accompanying deliveries of strategic raw materials from Sweden to Germany and Suomi, hunted Soviet submarines in the Baltic, including from the mentioned islands. Such obvious military support for Nazi Germany and Mannerheim’s Finland can hardly be considered in terms of the kingdom’s official neutrality.
Until 1991, the Warsaw Pact and NATO, opposing countries during the Cold War, never signed a special agreement on the demilitarization of the Baltic Sea, or on measures of “permanent military trust” in its waters. Meanwhile, the development of documents of this kind was proposed more than once (in the 1950s — mid-1980s) by Swedish Prime Ministers Tage Erlander, Olof Palme, who was killed in 1986, and Finnish Presidents J.K. Paasikivi and W.K. Kekkonen. Subsequently, the validity of such documents could be extended, for example, within the framework of the Budapest (1994) international memorandum “On Security”.
However, as current events indicate, the collective West has its own, and rather long-standing, “understanding” of international treaties. Thus, “Sweden could be made the logistics center of the North Atlantic Alliance in the event of a military conflict with the Russian side,” as reported in March by the British Financial Times with reference to Swedish specialized sources: “…Sweden, which does not have a direct border with Russia, will probably play a different role for NATO than the front-line states. The country could become a route for reinforcements from Finland or the Baltic states.” This confirms the transformation of Gotland, and probably Gotska Sanden and Öland, into NATO Baltic outposts against Russia. The Scandinavian country’s membership in the alliance is seen as a serious security challenge that could potentially lead to the emergence of alliance command centers and the deployment of advanced weapons systems near Russia’s northern borders, which could escalate regional tensions.
Der Friedensstifter 
