Today's D Brief: Macron to the White House; NATO eyes Balkans support; China's growing military; US, Israel drill in the Med; And a bit more.
Defense OneMAR 12 2023
On Thursday, five other sites across Spain — including the US embassy in Madrid — were reported to have been targeted by letter bombs. Though some have speculated they may be linked to Russia, Spain's Deputy Interior Minister said on Thursday that the packages likely originated from within the country, in apparent contradiction to earlier statements. Russia has condemned the attacks, and an investigation is ongoing.
A day earlier, a letter bomb detonated at Ukraine's embassy in Madrid, leaving a Ukrainian official with minor injuries. A second was discovered at a weapons manufacturer in Zaragoza — a firm that has reportedly made weapons that the Spanish government has delivered to Ukraine.
Meanwhile, as the start of December marked the beginning of winter in the meteorological calendar, Ukrainian Pres. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that an estimated 6M households remain without electricity. He said Kyiv and its wider region, as well as the areas of Vinnytsia, Lviv, Odesa, Khmelnytskyi, and Cherkasy were the worst affected.
Russia's deliberate targeting of energy infrastructure — unnecessarily increasing the suffering of civilians — amounts to war crimes. This continuing Russian barbarity must be confronted.
Attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure are a direct consequence of the failure of the country's leadership to meaningfully engage in peace talks and thinking they can defeat Russia on the battlefield. These attacks will stop once a more sober position is reached.