I joined @osc-london.bsky.social on board a small fishing vessel to intercept a sanctioned Russian gunrunner as she sailed up the Channel

We caught Maia-1, a vessel notorious for shipping arms between North Korea and Russia, transiting behind a convoy of cargo ships guarded by Kremlin warships

This commander of a Multiple Launch Rocket System said no wildlife was harmed in NATO’s Arctic artillery exercise this week

Other army chiefs told me “accidents still happen” despite vigorous checks, as they sometimes find dead reindeer next to bomb craters

Interesting take from a Times reader…

As for assault rifles, Finnish commander Olli Taskinen told Nato troops to keep their firearms “frozen all the time”

“If you take this inside, all the snow and ice melts and gets in the gun, then you go outside again and it freezes completely. Leave it outside your tent.”

The demos are designed to test troops in harsh winter terrains after Finlands accession to NATO doubled the alliance’s border with Russia

We were also shown similar “deep strikes” from Finnish forces using K9 self-propelled guns

(One of the blasts made me drop my phone…)

NATO’s largest ever artillery exercise is taking place on the outskirts of the Arctic Circle this week

Finland is hosting alliance forces for the first time, including British troops who live-fired brand new 52-calibre Archer Howitzers today👇

@larisabrown.bsky.social and I later confirmed that a British-made Starstreak missile shot down a Russian helicopter in the weapon’s first recorded use on the Ukrainian battlefield

www.thetimes.com/article/uk-m...