The United States is postponing the transfer of weapons to European countries due to the significant depletion of its own stocks against the backdrop of the war with Iran. According to Reuters, the delays have affected even already paid contracts concluded under the Foreign Military Sales program, and may affect not only the security of Europe, but also the volume of aid to Ukraine, Reuters writes.
The situation is most worrying in the Baltic and Scandinavian countries, which directly border russia. Since some of the weapons are transferred to Ukraine, the delays in deliveries will have wider consequences for the entire security system of the region.
American stocks were gradually reduced: first due to support for Ukraine, then for Israel, and after the start of hostilities against Iran, the deficit only worsened. There is a particularly acute shortage of air defense systems, in particular Patriot missiles, which are actively used in the Middle East.
Against this background, calls are increasingly being heard in Europe to develop its own defense production, because even the guarantees of the US government have not protected against supply disruptions. In Washington, on the other hand, they accuse the allies of insufficient support in the conflict in the Middle East.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, on April 15, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that members of the North Atlantic Alliance will provide USD 60 billion in military support to Ukraine during 2026.
© 2026 Ukrainian News Agency
What a laughable ‘superpower’.
It’s sad what this deranged criminal pedophile and his MAGAt supporters have done to our country.
It’s deeply troubling and utterly disgusting to have such people as U.S. citizens. They make our country filthy.
Ukraine has been secretly launching rockets into space from an ‘air spaceport’ flying at 26,000 feet, lawmaker says
• Ukraine has been secretly conducting air-based space launches while at war with Russia, a lawmaker said.
• He said two rockets launched from 26,000 feet in Ukrainian airspace crossed the Kármán line.
• Fedir Venislavskyi said the tech could help pave the way to counter Russia’s Oreshnik missile.
A senior Ukrainian lawmaker said his country quietly launched two rockets into space some time ago using a flying carrier, touting it as a potential means to one day counter Russia’s hypersonic missiles.
Fedir Venislavskyi, the head of the Ukrainian parliament’s subcommittee on state security, defense, and defense innovations, told local media outlet RBC Ukraine that the space launches were conducted while Kyiv was actively fighting Russia’s invasion.
“During the war, Ukraine launched a rocket launcher from a transport aircraft at an altitude of approximately 8,000 meters, which could potentially also be used to launch various types of spacecraft into orbit,” Venislavskyi said in the interview, published Monday.
The lawmaker didn’t say exactly when the launches occurred, but that they were carried out under Kyrylo Budanov when the latter was head of Ukraine’s intelligence services, or GUR. Budanov led GUR until early January, when he was appointed to run Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.
Air-based space launches aren’t new, but are a largely niche concept. Northrop Grumman, for example, has been developing the Pegasus rocket, which is launched from an aircraft at 39,000 feet.
Between 2017 and 2023, Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit also experimented with launching payloads into low-Earth orbit from a Boeing 747, with four successful missions.
Per Venislavskyi, one Ukrainian rocket reached an altitude of about 62 miles, while a second reached 124 miles. The 62-mile mark is generally known as the Kármán line, widely accepted by scientists as the boundary of space.
Launching the rocket from 8,000 meters, or 26,000 feet, allows it to expend less fuel because it would partially avoid denser parts of the atmosphere, Venislavskyi said.
He added that Ukraine aims to soon establish an initial network of about seven to 10 satellites for surveillance and communications.
“We have created an air system that can become an air spaceport in the short term. It can be used for peaceful purposes as well as to counter “Oreshnik.” That is, launch missiles not from the ground, but from the air,” Venislavskyi said.
Oreshnik is an experimental Russian hypersonic ballistic missile that travels in the upper atmosphere, making its trajectory difficult to detect or intercept. It’s also believed to use a Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicle (MIRV) payload, meaning it splits into multiple targets for air defense systems upon re-entry into Earth’s lower atmosphere.
Russia has hailed the Oreshnik as “unstoppable,” first using the missile against Ukraine in November 2024, though the attack was reported to have contained dummy explosives.
While widely seen as a move by Russia to flex its tech, the launch has heightened pressure on the West and Ukraine to develop ways to counter such missiles. China is also known to field an arsenal of missiles that use similar or even more advanced hypersonic technology.
If feasible, air-based space launches may be useful for rapid or cheaper launches of air defenses or detection systems. The US has been prototyping space-based interceptors that, in theory, would spot and shoot down hypersonic missiles in the upper atmosphere.
[From Business Insider via MSN]
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/ukraine-has-been-secretly-launching-rockets-into-space-from-an-air-spaceport-flying-at-26-000-feet-lawmaker-says/ar-AA20OWk8