FyldeFan

BREAKING: Zelensky just landed in the UAE and signed a defence cooperation agreement with President MBZ. The deal on the table changes everything about this war. Ukraine is offering Gulf states 1,000 drone interceptors per day. Each Sting interceptor costs $2,100. Each Patriot missile it replaces costs $3.9 million. In exchange, Ukraine wants the Patriot missiles the Gulf states are burning through, because Kyiv cannot get enough of them to stop Russian missiles. Read that again. The country America refused to arm fast enough is now arming America’s allies with a weapon that costs 1,857 times less than the one America cannot produce fast enough. The National reported on March 27 that Zelensky told reporters: “We’d like to quietly receive the Patriot missiles we have a deficit of, and give them a corresponding number of interceptors.” AFP confirmed the UAE agreement on March 28. Eleven countries have formally requested Ukraine’s drone defence expertise per Zelensky’s own count. Over 200 Ukrainian military specialists are already deployed across the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. Here is the arithmetic that should terrify every Pentagon procurement officer on earth. The United States fired 943 Patriot interceptors in the first four days of the Iran war per a US Congressional study cited by the Jerusalem Post. That is eighteen months of Lockheed Martin’s annual production consumed in 96 hours. Each of those 943 shots cost $3.9 million. Total expenditure: $3.68 billion in four days on defensive interceptions alone. Iran produces 10,000 Shahed drones per month per Reuters. Each drone costs $20,000 to $50,000. The cost exchange ratio is 114 to 1 in Iran’s favour per Military Times. Ukraine’s Sting interceptor inverts this arithmetic entirely. At $2,100, the cost ratio flips from 114-to-1 against America to roughly 10-to-1 against Iran. Ukraine can supply 1,000 per day. That is 30,000 per month against Iran’s 10,000 Shaheds per month. For the first time in this war, the defender’s production rate exceeds the attacker’s production rate at a fraction of the cost. And the country that built this weapon is the same country that Trump publicly rejected. “No, they are not helping. We do not need their help. We know more about drones than anyone else” per Fox News. He doubled down: “The last person we need help from is Zelensky.” Meanwhile the Pentagon notified Congress of plans to redirect $750 million in Ukraine-bound Patriot missiles to Gulf states per House of Saud reporting. America is simultaneously refusing Ukraine’s cheap solution and cannibalising Ukraine’s expensive one. Zelensky framed this explicitly. He told The National: “No matter how many Patriots, THAADs, or other air-defence systems are in the Middle East, that alone is not enough for fully effective air defence.” He told the UK Parliament: “When it comes to shooting down massive Shahed attacks, only Ukrainian experience can really help with this today.” The Pentagon is spending $3.9 million per interception, raiding Swiss fighter jet accounts to cover shortfalls, and diverting Ukraine’s own Patriot supply to the Gulf. Zelensky is offering the same result for $2,100 and producing 1,000 units per day. The market has a word for this kind of disruption. The $2,100 drone is the most important weapon in this war. And the country that built it is the one America said it did not need. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

JUST IN: Iran gave Russia its Shahed drones. Russia improved them in Ukraine. Now Western intelligence says Russia is shipping the upgraded versions back to Iran. And the country that learned how to kill those drones on the battlefield just sent 228 experts to the Gulf to teach five countries how to do the same thing. The full circle is extraordinary. Iran supplied thousands of Shahed-136 kamikaze drones to Russia starting in 2022 for use against Ukraine. Russia rebranded them Geran-2 and, over three years of combat, upgraded the navigation systems, added anti-jamming capabilities, improved the engines, and refined the payload delivery. The Financial Times and AP reported on March 26 citing Western intelligence that Russia is now in the final stages of shipping those upgraded Geran-2 drones back to Iran’s IRGC, along with medicine and food supplies. Kremlin spokesman Peskov called the reports “lies” and “fake news dumps.” Meanwhile, Zelensky arrived in Saudi Arabia on March 26 for an unannounced visit, met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, signed a defense cooperation deal focused on air defense and drone expertise, and departed Jeddah on March 28. Ukraine has deployed 201 to 228 military drone specialists to five Gulf and Middle Eastern countries: the UAE, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Jordan. Another 34 are ready per Zelensky’s statement on March 17. These specialists are not there as a symbolic gesture. They bring the single most effective counter to Shahed drones that exists anywhere on earth. Ukraine developed FPV interceptor drones that account for roughly 70 percent of all Shahed and Geran-2 shootdowns in Ukraine per Forces News and Atlantic Council reporting. The method: radar and acoustic sensors detect the incoming drone at 20 to 50 kilometres. A cheap, fast quadcopter or fixed-wing interceptor launches from a mobile platform. An operator pilots it at high speed toward the target. It destroys the Shahed through kamikaze collision or a small explosive payload on impact. Cost per intercept: a fraction of what a surface-to-air missile costs. Militarnyi reported on March 22 that Ukrainian teams have already confirmed multiple Shahed shootdowns in the Middle East. The arms race running through this war is now a closed loop. Iran builds the drone. Russia tests it, improves it, and allegedly sends the improved version back. Ukraine learns to kill it through three years of battlefield iteration. Ukraine exports that knowledge to the Gulf states Iran is attacking. The Gulf states pay Ukraine in money, technology, and diplomatic support. Russia denies everything while the drones fly in both directions. This is not a bilateral conflict. It is a global drone ecosystem where every improvement by one side is studied, countered, and re-exported by the other. The Shahed that hits a refinery in Bahrain tonight may carry Russian-upgraded navigation. The interceptor that destroys it may be piloted by a Ukrainian operator trained in Zaporizhzhia. The defense deal that funded the deployment was signed in Jeddah while the war it was designed to address raged 1,500 kilometres to the northeast. SpaceX’s Starlink provides the communications backbone for these teams in contested environments where terrestrial networks are degraded by the same war. The same helium shortage threatening semiconductor fabs and quantum computers is threatening the rocket launches that put Starlink satellites in orbit. The same strait carrying the oil carries the data cables that the drones are trying to protect. Every domain connects through the same 39 kilometres of water. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

BREAKING: The United States just took over $126 million from Switzerland’s fighter jet account to cover missile shortfalls in the Iran war. Switzerland did not approve this. Switzerland did not consent. Switzerland had already frozen its Patriot payments after learning deliveries would be delayed four to five years. The US circumvented the freeze. SRF, Switzerland’s national broadcaster, reported on March 26 that Washington redirected Swiss funds originally allocated for 36 F-35 fighter jets to cover Patriot air defence shortfalls using the Foreign Military Sales pooled trust fund, a structure that allows the Pentagon to reallocate payments across a buyer’s contracts without that buyer’s permission. Swiss armaments chief Urs Loher confirmed the diverted amount is a “low three-digit million” Swiss francs and called the situation “very unsatisfactory.” The money Switzerland paid for jets is now subsidising a war Switzerland refused to participate in. Bern halted new arms exports to the US on March 20 citing the Iran conflict. Switzerland rejected two US military flyover requests linked to Iran operations. Two hundred years of armed neutrality, and Washington reached into the account anyway. Here is why. The United States fired 943 Patriot interceptors defending Gulf states in the first four days of Operation Epic Fury per a US Congressional study cited by the Jerusalem Post last week. Lockheed Martin and Boeing produce 620 Patriot interceptors per year combined. In four days, America burned through eighteen months of global Patriot production. The war has consumed roughly one-third of the entire THAAD missile stockpile. Annual THAAD production does not exceed 100 units. The cost asymmetry is what makes the depletion irreversible at current production rates. Each PAC-3 interceptor costs $3.9 million. Each Iranian Shahed drone costs between $20,000 and $50,000. The cost exchange ratio is 114 to 1 in Iran’s favour per Military Times. Iran manufactures an estimated 10,000 Shaheds per month per Reuters. America produces 620 interceptors per year. Iran builds more drones in a single week than the United States builds interceptors in an entire year. Every interceptor fired in the Gulf is one that cannot be delivered to Switzerland, Ukraine, Taiwan, Japan, or Poland. The State Department warned allies on March 27 that Patriot deliveries to Ukraine would face disruptions as the Pentagon prioritises Iran per Quiver Quantitative. Senator Chris Murphy said on record: “We’ve been told again and again one reason we can’t provide interceptors for the Patriot system for Ukraine is that they’re in short supply.” Lockheed signed a framework to quadruple production to 2,000 units per year. That capacity will not arrive for six to seven years. The Pentagon has asked Congress to shift $1.5 billion from other programmes to accelerate procurement per Bloomberg. None of this helps now. The interceptors are depleting now. The allied accounts are being raided now. Switzerland is considering reducing its F-35 order from 36 to 30 jets and accelerating evaluation of European alternatives per Bluewin and Global Defense Corp. Swiss parliamentarians have called the redirection “an unacceptable violation of procurement sovereignty.” The Swiss parliament is preparing formal hearings. Switzerland is the canary. A neutral country with two centuries of armed neutrality just had its fighter jet money taken without consent to feed a four-week-old war that burns 18 months of interceptor production every 96 hours. Every US ally with a pending defence contract should be asking one question: whose account is next? Full analysis: open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

The most absurd part is this: when Europeans refuse to get involved in a war with Iran, Trump throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats. When Europeans agree to cooperate with him, Trump still throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats, and declares he doesn’t need anyone. When Ukraine -- despite all the shovelfuls of dirt that Trump throws at it daily -- chooses not to be a dick about the situation and immediately offers help, along with its specific technologies and frontline experience, Trump still throws tantrums, hurling insults and threats. And his exhalted fans online shout that Ukraine is “ungrateful” (to whom?? to Trump??) and isn’t eagerly licking his boots hard enough. He’s now publicly smearing even Mohammed bin Salman with crude insults. In this sea of erratic behavior, there are simply no rules for navigating it correctly. No matter what you do, the outcome is the same. Apparently, the only winning strategy is to behave like Putin and directly and openly support the Iranian regime. Then Donald Trump will be the one tiptoeing around you, brushing off dust, and kissing your hands.

When I travel outside of Ukraine, I get daily intelligence updates online. This morning, I was briefed that U.S. military facilities in the Middle East and the Gulf region were photographed by Russian satellites in the interests of Iran. On March 24th, they imaged the U.S.–UK joint military facility on Diego Garcia located in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. They also captured pictures of Kuwait International Airport and parts of the infrastructure of the Greater Burgan oil field. On March 25th, they took pictures of the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The Shaybah oil and gas field in Saudi Arabia, İncirlik Air Base in Türkiye, and Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar were all imaged on March 26th. There are no Ukrainian facilities on this list. But who is helping whom when sanctions are lifted from an aggressor that earns daily revenue and provides intelligence for strikes against American, Middle Eastern, UK, and U.S.–UK bases and so on? When surveillance is carried out over facilities in Ukraine, we always understand that they must be protected, since plans are in motion to destroy them – energy and water infrastructure, military facilities, and so on. Everyone knows that repeated reconnaissance indicates preparations for strikes. How can sanctions be eased if this is what the Russians are doing? There must be pressure on the aggressor. And lifting sanctions is certainly not pressure. It looks strange. Sanctions are being lifted, while the aggressor is providing intelligence to strike facilities, including those of the countries that are discussing or have already lifted sanctions. From my conversation with journalists (3/3).

Many congratulations to @SheffieldRUFC on being promoted to @Natleague_rugby Div 1. An outstanding season from a very good squad, totally deserved!

🚨Do you understand the irony of what just happened.. the FBI spent two years investigating Hillary Clinton for using a personal email for government work.. it dominated every news cycle.. it decided an election.. "lock her up.." the man they put in charge of the FBI.. just got his personal email hacked by Iran.. the DOJ confirmed it.. Iran-linked group "Handala" breached FBI Director Kash Patel's personal email and got his data.. think about the timing.. America has fired 850 Tomahawk missiles at Iran this month.. spent billions.. and Iran didn't fire back with a missile.. they walked through the front door of the FBI.. and here's what nobody wants to say out loud.. the FBI Director was using a personal email in the first place.. the same thing the FBI called a national security threat when Hillary did it.. the agency that decides what's a crime.. doesn't follow its own rules.. The rules only apply until you're the one making them.

I just heard that my Republican colleagues met with members of the Russian Duma, with @RepLuna giving them a private tour of our Capitol yesterday—including @SpeakerJohnson's offices! Let's be clear: Russia illegally invaded Ukraine in 2022. Military aid and sanctions by the United States and our allies have been the ONE thing standing in Putin’s way of rebuilding the Soviet Union. Foreign political operatives of our adversaries should NEVER be allowed on Capitol Hill. This 'visit' opened the doors to a massive #security threat to the Speaker, to our Congress, and to democracy itself. All while Trump funds the Russian war machine by removing sanctions on their oil this week. This yet another extension of the Trump administration’s moral equivalency between Russia and Ukraine in this war.

Russia is currently providing Iran with both intelligence and drones to support its attacks on American servicemen and women.

Wondering why no NATO country is helping America in Iran? Really? Trump spent 13 months talking down a NATO and 700 million people. He bullied their leaders, questioned their sovereignty, threatened their economies and made clear he considered them obstacles rather than allies. And now Washington is surprised by the silence. When people say Trump is effectively siding with Russia against America’s largest trading partners, that is not a conspiracy theory. That is a description of events. This week, American congressmen gave a guided tour of Capitol Hill to Russian State Duma deputies. In the fifth year of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. A war with documented atrocities, mass graves, bombed hospitals and deportated children. To European eyes. To Canadian eyes. To Australian, New Zealand and Japanese eyes. This is not a diplomatic misstep. This is the equivalent of inviting Hitler’s inner circle for a friendly tour of Washington while the death camps were already known to the world. The same moral category. The same historical weight. There is no walking this back. There is no reset button. No charm offensive, no summit photo, no carefully worded statement will undo what has been seen. America’s allies are not drifting away. They are making a decision. Follow Gandalv @Microinteracti1

The Orbán mafia can see that it’s over. The "Dynasty" has begun moving its stolen wealth abroad. Orbán’s longtime ally and friend, György Matolcsy, the former national bank governor is now quietly liquidating his domestic holdings. Orbán’s oligarch, Lőrinc Mészáros, is securing his fortune. Orbán’s son-in-law, István Tiborcz, is shifting his assets abroad. Those at the very top already know that their power and their unchecked looting is coming to an end. They know the clock is ticking. That is why the scramble to abandon the sinking ship has begun. A TISZA government will uncover every case. It will review every contract. We will trace every financial transaction. We will know exactly where the money came from, who it passed through, and where it ended up. It will no longer be possible to make public money disappear without consequences, nor to move abroad what belongs to the Hungarian people. To @PM_ViktorOrban and his circle, we send this message today, in the coming 16 days, and especially on April 12: this era is over.

(1/10) @realDonaldTrump cited me as supporting his attack on Iran and expressing regret we didn’t do it during the Biden Administration. Except I didn’t.

BREAKING: Trump just attacked NATO and then goes on to say that "25 years ago" he said that NATO was a "Paper tiger" and that "they would never come to our rescue". FACT: 25 years ago was March 26, 2001. Less than 6 months after that, on September 12, 2001, NATO invoked Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty for the first and only time ever. They lost 1100 soldiers fighting for us. Trump is a Moron.

We have known for a while, but the evidence is becoming more and more damning. Putin is helping Iran try to kill US forces. And Trump is protecting and helping Putin at the same time. MAGA is perverse. kyivindependent.com/russia-sending…

US citizens unable to stop Trump or have daily mass protests, the majority of the population unfortunately has bone spurs.

While the world’s media obsesses over every spit and fart from the White House over Iran, and Trump’s endless commentary on talks and deals and negotiations, the 🇷🇺 🇺🇦 war he said he would solve in 24 hours continues unabated … and in addition to benefiting from the oil price rise and lifting of sanctions Putin has also unleashed the largest 24 hour aerial attack on Ukraine since the war began. Almost 1000 drones. A UNESCO world heritage site hit. A maternity hospital hit. Residential buildings hit. Several killed. Dozens injured. Barely registers on the news. This war must not be forgotten

.@fyldecoltsu18s pulled off a fine win at @SedgleyTigers Colts by 24-31 in the semi-final of the Joe McDonough U18 Trophy at Park Lane on Sunday. They face @LSH_Rugby Snr Colts on Sunday, 19th April. Great work lads! See: bit.ly/4bNFoF2

Strange situation where we await a statement from Iran to check whether there's any truth to what US president is saying.

In 40 minutes, Donald said: the Strait of Hormuz isn't closed, but he wants it reopened; we’re not at war with Iran, but our allies are cowards for not helping; he wants a ceasefire, but he doesn’t want one. He also declared victory three times. Such clarity. Such leadership.

"The cynic in me wonders how many of his mates knew this announcement was coming." This morning - as markets opened - Trump declared productive talks to end the war with Iran. An hour later, Tehran contradicted him. Was Trump simply declaring peace to drive oil prices down?