🇷🇺🇨🇳⚡️ — A joint investigation by DER SPIEGEL, The Insider, and Le Monde explores an extensive secret military cooperation between Russia and China, including discussions on countering Western weapons, disrupting Starlink, training Russian drone operators, and jointly developing advanced missile-defense systems.

Leaked documents describe a previously undisclosed Russian-Chinese Forum for Military Technology, attended by senior military officials, arms manufacturers, and government agencies. Its central objective is reportedly to weaken U.S. military superiority, with participants portraying Russia and China as strategically “encircled” by the West.

One Chinese presentation proposed an “anti-Starlink alliance,” examining methods to jam, hack, slow, or even “destroy the enemy satellites in orbit.”

The investigation also found that at least 200 Russian military personnel were trained to operate Chinese drones at six locations in China before returning to the war in Ukraine. Chinese military officers have also visited the front in Ukraine as observers, allowing Beijing to study Russia’s battlefield experience for possible future use, including in a conflict over Taiwan.

Secret records further reveal an agreement to deepen cooperation on a next-generation air and missile-defense system capable of intercepting maneuvering ballistic and hypersonic missiles at altitudes of up to 40 kilometers. The project, potentially intended to become operational by 2030, would exceed the capabilities of existing Russian and Chinese systems.

The findings suggest Moscow and Beijing are increasingly treating the wars and potential conflicts in Ukraine, Europe, Taiwan, and the Pacific as interconnected fronts against a shared Western adversary, even without establishing a formal military alliance.

🇺🇸🇮🇷⚡️ — Shipping activity through the Strait of Hormuz has fallen sharply, with only 22 verified transits logged on Thursday, according to Kpler.

➡️ Just one vessel used the Omani channel — the remainder transited via Iran's designated shipping lane.

➡️ The figure marks a steep decline from the 40–50 weekly transits recorded in recent weeks, and a fraction of pre-war daily averages exceeding 100.

➡️ Some ships are switching off transponders entirely, suggesting real traffic volumes may exceed what tracking data captures.

🇺🇸💥 Ex-US diplomat crushes Ukraine’s Patriot pipe dream

The US has no Patriots available for delivery to Ukraine, and there will be none in the coming years, Chas Freeman, a former US Assistant Secretary of Defense, tells Russian media.

👉 Even if the US greenlights a production license for the interceptors for Ukraine, it is staring down a multi-year slog before it can produce its own missiles, he notes.

On top of that, he questions whether joint manufacturers RTX and Lockheed Martin are even willing to hand over their proprietary know-how—and if so, under what conditions.

➡️ Freeman also pours cold water on the system's battlefield credentials, reminding that Patriots "have a distinctly unimpressive track record when it comes to countering Russian missiles," after they notably flubbed multiple intercepts against Russian barrages.

NATO-supplied Patriots have also been pinned to a string of fails against Iranian incoming ballistic missiles during the recent Middle East escalation.

❗️ Russia has responded by warning that any Patriot license deal would mark another glaring instance of NATO encroachment, further sabotaging an end to the Ukraine conflict.

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