Russia set for joint naval drills ‘with hypersonic missile’ as major security summit begins

Published

2 years ago

February 17, 2023

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Russia is due to take part in a joint naval exercise with China and South Africa that could see the test launch of a hypersonic cruise missile – as Western leaders assemble for a major security conference.

A frigate armed with the Zircon weapon has been deployed for 10 days of joint drills in the Indian Ocean, which will coincide with the first anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

Putin ‘to throw everything’ at new attack – war latest

The vessel docked in Cape Town last weekend, emblazoned with the letters Z and V – notorious symbols that Moscow’s forces have used to promote the illegal war.

Earlier this month, Russia‘s TASS news agency reported that the drills will involve a training launch of Zircon, though South Africa’s National Defence Force has denied it.

The Russian defence ministry said it last carried out a simulated launch of the missile – which Vladimir Putin has described as “unstoppable” – last month.

South Africa’s decision to host the Mosi II military exercise, which begins Friday, has prompted criticism at home and fuelled western fears about Russian and Chinese influence across Africa.

The government, headed by President Cyril Ramaphosa, says it maintains a neutral stance on the Ukraine war and abstained from a UN resolution condemning the Kremlin last year.

Ahead of the drills, its defence ministry said: “South Africa, like any independent and sovereign state, has a right to conduct its foreign relations in line with its national interests.”

The country has previously held exercises with other international partners, including France in November.

But Reuters news agency reports that several EU and NATO diplomats based in South Africa “do not approve”.

Opposition parties to Mr Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) have also criticised the drills.

But the ANC has long had close-knit ties with Moscow, as the Soviet Union supported the then-banned party in its struggle against the country’s racist apartheid regime.

Major summit begins as Ukraine prepares for ‘escalation’

The drills will begin as a major security conference gets under way in Germany.

Ukrainian officials are expected to address the Munich summit later, as Russian forces step up a brutal offensive in eastern regions of the country they invaded almost a year ago.

Thirty-six missiles were fired across Ukraine on Thursday – 16 were shot down by Kyiv’s air force, but one struck the largest oil refinery nationwide.

Among those set to be at the Munich summit are German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, France’s Emmanuel Macron, and Kamala Harris, the US vice president.

It comes as Kyiv presses its allies for more military hardware, including jets.

Speaking ahead of the conference during his nightly video address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said troops were “holding the situation at the front” but also prepared for “escalation” by the enemy.

Russia’s focus is the small eastern city of Bakhmut, which Mr Putin is said to want captured by April.

He will meet with Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko on Friday.

World

Israel’s PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Published

5 hours ago

August 11, 2025

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Israel's PM tries to get on front foot in propaganda war he knows he is losing

Israel’s prime minister added more detail to his deeply controversial plans for military escalation in Gaza at a news conference with foreign media yesterday – despite the condemnation of the UN Security Council, which met in an emergency session and urged him to rethink.

Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of a “fairly short timetable” to establish designated “safe zones” for the one million or so set to be displaced from Gaza City.

He also vowed to seize and dismantle Hamas’s final strongholds there – in the central refugee camps, and in al Mawasi, along Gaza’s southwestern coast.

This, per Netanyahu, is the only way to destroy the terror group, which he claimed “subjugates Gazans, steals their food and shoots them when they try to move to safety”.

Al Mawasi is already home to a significant displaced population, most of whom live in tents cramped up against the Mediterranean Sea, in what is already a designated humanitarian zone.

If members of Hamas live among them, rooting them out will be hugely complicated and will involve significant civilian casualties. If the residents of Gaza City can’t evacuate south to al Mawasi, where will they go?

Netanyahu’s plan is to set up more aid distribution sites through the controversial Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and to flood Gaza with food.

He claimed his policy was not one of forced starvation – describing particular photos of starving babies as “fake news”, and accusing the media of painting a false picture.

“The only ones who are being deliberately starved in Gaza are our hostages,” the prime minister claimed.

I asked Netanyahu how he would go about preventing the kinds of daily killings taking place at aid distribution points in the months since GHF has been operating.

Doctors Without Borders has described these incidents as deliberately orchestrated.

The prime minister said increasing the amount of aid heading into the Strip was the answer.

“And by the way, a lot of the firing was done by Hamas seeking to have a response by our forces,” he added. “And very often they didn’t, they held back. They stayed their own fire even though their own lives were on the line.”

This was Israel’s prime minister trying to get on the front foot in a propaganda war he acknowledged he was losing. He was loath to admit the presence of famine in Gaza.

It took two questions before he acknowledged there was “deprivation”, even if he would not be drawn on whether his 11-week total blockade of the strip earlier this year had played any role.

He recognises that the appalled response of the international community to the human cost of this war, and the accusations of war crimes and genocide which Israel so vehemently rejects, are a terrible look.

This was his attempt to reclaim the narrative.

World

Defiant Netanyahu sets out plan for military escalation in Gaza – and describes photographs of starving babies as ‘fake news’

Published

11 hours ago

August 10, 2025