A US decision to provide Ukraine with lethal weapons will fuel the conflict in the country's east, a senior Russian diplomat says.

• State Department says sending weapons is to "deter further aggression"
• More than 10,000 people killed during conflict since 2014
• US has already provided support equipment and training

US officials said on Friday that President Donald Trump's administration approved a plan to provide lethal weapons to Ukraine, including American-made Javelin anti-tank missiles.

Ukraine has long sought the weapons for its fight against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

The officials describing the plan were not authorised to discuss it publicly and demanded anonymity.

The State Department, responsible for overseeing foreign military sales, would not confirm that anti-tank missiles or other lethal weapons would be sent.

But in a statement, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the US had decided to provide "enhanced defensive capabilities" to help Ukraine build its military long-term, defend its sovereignty and "deter further aggression".

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http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-12-23/ukraine-trump-administration-to-pr...

The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country. The department's headquarters is at the Pentagon.

https://www.defense.gov/

Deterring war for the DoF is to encourage wars so the soldiers keep busy...

The Marine Corps commandant told about 300 Marines in Norway this week that they should be prepared for a “bigass fight” to come, remarks his spokesman later said were not in reference to any specific adversary but rather intended to inspire the troops.

“I hope I’m wrong, but there’s a war coming,” Gen. Robert Neller told the Marines on Thursday, according to Military.com. “You’re in a fight here, an informational fight, a political fight, by your presence.”

Neller was visiting a Marine rotational force near Trondheim, about 300 miles north of Oslo. The Marines have been stationed there since January. Their presence in Norway is intended to support operations by NATO and the U.S.  European Command, as well as to help the Marine Corps facilitate training in cold weather and mountainous conditions.

But Neller and other Corp leaders told the force they should be prepared for a change in their peacetime mission, should the need arise. In particular, Neller predicted the Pacific and Russia to be the focus of any conflict in the future outside of the Middle East, Military.com reported.

“Just remember why you’re here,” Sgt. Maj. Ronald Green told the troops, according to the military news site. “They’re watching. Just like you watch them, they watch you. We’ve got 300 Marines up here; we could go from 300 to 3,000 overnight. We could raise the bar.”

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/checkpoint/wp/2017/12/23/theres-a-wa...

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The US aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, which set sail from the world’s largest naval base in Norfolk (Virginia), has entered the Mediterranean with its strike group.

The strike group consists of the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and the guided-missile destroyers USS Farragut, USS Forrest Sherman, USS Bulkeley, and USS Arleigh Burke. Two others, USS Jason Dunham and USS The Sullivans, will rejoin the strike group at a later date. The German destroyer FGS Hessen is added to the Truman strike group.

The fleet, with more than 8,000 men on board, has enormous firepower. The Truman – a supercarrier 300 meters long, equipped with two nuclear reactors - can launch 90 fighters and helicopters in consecutive waves. Its strike group, supplemented by 4 destroyers already in the Mediterranean and some submarines, can launch over 1,000 cruise missiles.

The US Naval Forces Europe-Africa – whose headquarters are located in Naples-Capodichino while the base of the Sixth Fleet is located in Gaeta – has thus been reinforced. They are under the orders of the same admiral (currently James Foggo) who commands the Allied Joint Force Command Naples at Lago Patria.

The deployment of the US fleet in the Mediterranean is part of the overall strengthening of US forces in Europe, under the orders of the same general (currently Curtis Scaparrotti) who holds the position of Supreme Allied Commander in Europe.

In a congressional hearing, Scaparrotti explains the reason for the strengthening of US forces in Europe. What he presents is a real war scenario: he accuses Russia of carrying out “a campaign of destabilization to change the international order, fracture NATO and undermine US leadership around the world”.

After "the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia and its destabilization of Eastern Ukraine", the United States, which deploys over 60,000 troops in European NATO countries, has increased its position in Europe by deploying an armoured brigade combat team and a combat aviation brigade, and by pre-positioning equipment for additional armoured brigade combat teams. At the same time the US doubled its maritime deployments to the Black Sea.

To strengthen its forces in Europe, the United States has spent more than 16 billion dollars in five years. At the same time, the US pushed their European allies to increase their military spending by 46 billion dollars in three years to strengthen NATO deployment against Russia .

This is part of the strategy launched by Washington in 2014 with the Maidan putsch and the consequent attack on the Russians of Ukraine: making Europe the first line of a new cold war to strengthen US influence on its allies and hinder Eurasian cooperation. The NATO foreign ministers reaffirmed their consent on April 27, preparing a further expansion of NATO to the East against Russia through the entry of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia, Georgia and Ukraine.

This strategy requires an adequate preparation of public opinion. To this end, Scaparrotti accuses Russia of "using political provocation, spreading disinformation and undermining democratic institutions" even in Italy. He then announces that “the US and NATO counter Russian misinformation with truthful and transparent information". In their wake, the European Commission announces a series of measures against fake news, accusing Russia of using "disinformation in its war strategy".

It is to be expected that NATO and the EU will censor what is published here, by decreeing that the US fleet in the Mediterranean is fake news spread by Russia in its "war strategy".

Source 
Il Manifesto (Italy)

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http://www.voltairenet.org/article200992.html

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Meanwhile at the UK DoD:

The United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry appears to have mistakenly let slip the fact that UK-owned MQ-9 Reaper drones have used thermobaric missiles, an extremely powerful weapon known to kill anything in its path indiscriminately, in Syria.

A Freedom of Information Act disclosure by the British Ministry of Defense dated May 1 shows that the combat drones fired 19 AGM-114N4 Hellfire missiles in Syria during the first two months of 2017. The FOIA disclosure was sent to Drone Wars, which first reported on the use of the UK's weapons.

The basic idea behind a thermobaric missile is that it releases a cloud of explosive compounds into the air before impact. Upon impact and explosion of the weapon's internal payload, the fuel-air mixture is detonated, too. Accordingly, they are also commonly known as fuel-air explosives, or FAEs.

According to Drone Wars, "The ‘N' version of the missile uses a Metal Augmented Charge warhead that contains a thermobaric explosive fill using aluminum with the explosive mixture."

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/europe/201805041064161442-UK-drones-fired-thermobaric-missiles/

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