World

Prepping for War With Russia on the Ice and Snow

Published

7 months ago

April 12, 2025

Prepping for War With Russia on the Ice and Snow

The Finnish Defense Forces sent out an urgent message: We are being invaded. We need help.

Hundreds of American troops — part of a new Arctic division — boarded planes in Fairbanks, Alaska. Their flight curved over the North Pole and landed at Rovaniemi Airport, in northern Finland. The soldiers quickly unpacked their M-4 assault rifles, rocket tubes and belt-fed machine guns and deployed to the quiet snowbound forests, dressed in Arctic whites and vaporproof boots.

This was all just a drill, launched in mid-February. But the scenario is believed to be increasingly possible. As climate change melts ice across the Arctic, this part of the world, once so remote and forgotten, is becoming more accessible and more contested. The world’s major militaries — American, Russian, Chinese and European — are all training for a winter war.

“It’s really only been the past five or six years that everybody’s moved on from the global war on terror,” said Robert McBride, a Canadian brigadier general helping oversee the war game.

“Arctic nations are starting to understand the strategic importance,” he said. “The Arctic now has come to pre-eminence.”

The recent drill played out at a strange time in global affairs. President Trump has been leaning away from NATO and getting friendly with Russia, and European leaders are seriously discussing how to create their own defense industry should America abandon them, something unthinkable just a few months ago.

But on this frozen ground, at least, American military cooperation and the perception of Russia as a widening threat appeared unchanged.

In Finland, which fought the Soviet Union during World War II, Russia remains the once and future enemy. “There’s an old Finnish saying,” explained Janne Kuusela, a Finnish defense official, “Russia will take what’s not nailed to the wall.”

America’s relationship with Finland, one of NATO’s newest members, seems solid. President Trump recently played golf with its president, Alexander Stubb. Afterward he praised Mr. Stubb’s golf skills and said, “I look forward to strengthening the partnership.”

The two sides worked well together during the battle in the snow. The Finns were nimble attackers, zigzagging through the woods on long, narrow skis. The Americans set up machine guns on small round hilltops and dug foxholes in the snow. Both sides said Arctic warfare was different.

“It’s kind of like operating in space,” said Christopher Brawley, an American colonel.

“No one’s coming to help you,” he said. “And the environment will kill you.”

The cardinal rule is staying dry. Jackson Crites Videman, a Finnish soldier, recounted a grueling test that Finnish soldiers must pass. With all their gear on, including skis, they plunge through an ice hole cut into a river and have to scamper out — without freezing or drowning.

The day he did it was minus 36 degrees Celsius (roughly minus 33 Fahrenheit). He had about two minutes to strip off drenched clothes and change into new ones before frostbite set in. And his hands stopped working.

“Your friends have to help you with the zippers,” he explained.

Mr. Crites Videman, who is half-Finnish, half-American, was drafted into the Finnish military a few months ago. Finland is one of the few Western democracies with mandatory conscription. It’s a country with a small population, 5.6 million, and NATO’s longest border with Russia — 830 miles — and it recently raised defense spending.

Finnish defense experts say that tens of thousands of Russian troops used to be based near that border but were decimated in the Ukraine war. The Finns believe it will take five to 10 years before they become a threat again. Before the Ukraine war, the Finns say, Russia was investing in its Arctic forces, modifying tanks to operate better in the cold and designing new troop transporters.

The United States has been doing the same. In 2022, it designated the 11th Airborne, based in Alaska, as its first and only Arctic division. The division is experimenting with new uniforms and different combat skis.

During the exercise, the Americans showed off a new tracked vehicle that chewed its way up icy slopes, some quite steep. The soldiers lived off special cold weather rations, higher in calories, because of all the energy drained from trying to stay warm.

Warfare during the Arctic summer isn’t much easier. First, there is the issue of the sun. It never sets. So the advantage that night-vision equipment gives Western militaries is eliminated.

When the ice melts, the land turns incredibly mushy. Upper Finland, for example, is covered in thick forests, small mountains, marshes, rivers, lakes and bogs, making it very difficult to navigate. In many ways, it’s easier to move in winter.

During the war game, the attackers exploited the frozen rivers like highways. Soldiers dashed across them, guns strapped to their backs. The commanders seemed pleased with the exercise and especially happy not to talk about politics.

When asked if he were worried about Mr. Trump’s friendliness with Russia, Sami-Antti Takamaa, a Finnish general, said, “It doesn’t worry me at all.”

“The U.S. airborne division just came from Alaska,” he said. “That’s what matters to me.”

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World

Video: Torrential Rain Floods Tent Camps in Gaza, Bringing More Devastation

Published

4 hours ago

November 15, 2025

Press Room

Video: Torrential Rain Floods Tent Camps in Gaza, Bringing More Devastation

new video loaded: Torrential Rain Floods Tent Camps in Gaza, Bringing More Devastation

Heavy rain and chilling winds have swept through Gaza since Friday, exacerbating the challenges facing people who have been forced to live in tents in the war-torn area.

By Chevaz Clarke

November 15, 2025

World

Former Zelenskyy associate accused in $100 million embezzlement scheme

Published

6 hours ago

November 15, 2025

Press Room

Former Zelenskyy associate accused in 0 million embezzlement scheme

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A former associate of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been accused of being the mastermind behind a $100 million embezzlement scheme.

Tymur Mindich, who was once Zelenskyy’s business partner, was identified by Ukraine’s anti-corruption watchdogs as being the orchestrator of a scheme involving top officials and Ukraine’s state nuclear power company. Prior to the scandal, some feared Mindich’s growing influence over Ukraine’s lucrative industries that he had access to because of his ties to Zelenskyy.

Mindich allegedly exerted control over loyalists who then pressured contractors for Energoatom, Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power company, demanding kickbacks to bypass bureaucratic obstacles. The requested kickbacks were reportedly as high as 15%.

Despite his history with Mindich, Zelenskyy was not implicated in the investigation. The Ukrainian president also issued sanctions against his former business partner once the anti-corruption findings were revealed.

TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STAYS SILENT AS MASSIVE UKRAINE CORRUPTION SCANDAL ROCKS ZELENSKYY’S INNER CIRCLE

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy participates in a briefing at the Office of the President following a staff meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 7, 2025. (Pavlo Bahmut/Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

On Nov. 11, Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said that a group of individuals, including Mindich, “set up a major corruption scheme to control key state-owned enterprises,” including the country’s state-owned nuclear agency, the Kyiv Independent reported. The Ukrainian news outlet said that sources confirmed law enforcement searched properties tied to Mindich on Nov. 10, but he was tipped off and fled.

Mindich remains at large, with Politico reporting that he fled to Israel as the scheme unraveled and law enforcement zeroed in on him.

“Any effective actions against corruption are very needed. The inevitability of punishment is necessary,” Zelenskyy said in an evening address, according to the Kyiv Independent.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a Coalition of the Willing meeting in London on Friday, Oct. 24, 2025. (Chris J. Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

TOP UKRAINIAN OFFICIALS IN ZELENSKYY GOVERNMENT SUBMIT RESIGNATIONS AMID $100 MILLION CORRUPTION SCANDAL

The NABU’s 15-month investigation allegedly involved 1,000 hours of wiretapping and resulted in 70 raids, the Kyiv Independent reported, citing the agency.

“What we were hearing only as rumors now has some evidence,” activist Tetiana Shevchuk of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center told The Associated Press. “For a long time we have heard that Tymur Mindich is a shadow controller of the energy sector.”

In addition to Mindrich, Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, who was Energy Minister from 2021 to 2025, was also raided, according to the Kyiv Independent, which cited sources.

Flamingo missiles are seen at Fire Point’s secret factory in Ukraine on Aug. 18, 2025. (Efrem Lukatsky, File/AP Photo)

Mindich was co-owner of Zelenskyy’s production company Kvartal 95, something that Shevchuk believes pushed him toward politics. The activist told the AP that Mindich “would have never been in politics, never been in a position of power or business without his connection to Zelenskyy, and this magnitude is worse because it’s happening during war time, and it is related to energy infrastructure at a time when Ukrainians don’t have electricity in their homes.”

This isn’t the only NABU investigation centered on Mindich. The anti-corruption agency is allegedly working on a probe into the former Zelenskyy associate’s dealings with Ukraine’s top drone manufacturer, Fire Point. However, NABU has yet to release its findings in that investigation.

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Fox News Digital reached out to Zelenskyy’s office for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this article.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

World

2% of Russian global oil supply affected following Ukrainian attack

Published

8 hours ago

November 15, 2025

Press Room

2% of Russian global oil supply affected following Ukrainian attack

By&nbspEuonews

Published on
15/11/2025 – 9:37 GMT+1

Russia temporarily suspends roughly 2% of its global oil supply following a Ukrainian strike on one of its major facilities in its southwestern port city of Novorossiysk in Krasnodar Krai on Friday, according to multiple Russian officials and Telegram channels.

The attack, which struck the Sheskharis oil terminal and sparked fires, according to officials, serves as the endpoint for pipelines. It sparked a large fire at the site, now extinguished, causing it to suspend exports of 2.2 million barrels per day, according to Reuters, citing industry sources.

Ukrainian strikes have repeatedly targeted Novorossiysk as it acts as a key hub for Russia’s Black Sea logistics and energy infrastructure.

Russian oil refineries and petrochemical facilities are considered to be legitimate military targets by Kyiv, as they help fund Russia’s war on Ukraine.

The Krasnodar Krai operational headquarters reported that the oil terminal had been hit, damaging several coastal facilities.

A civilian vessel located in the port was reported to have been struck in the mass attack, leaving three crew members injured, local media outlet RIA Novosti said.

Andrii Kovalenko, head of Ukraine’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, commented on the incident on social media. “This is the oil terminal in Novorossiysk after the strike,” he wrote on Telegram. “Meanwhile, Russia is hitting residential buildings and energy infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, earlier in the week Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote on social media X that “For the first time since the beginning of the war, a noticeable decline has been recorded this year in Russia’s oil production and refining,” adding, “The oil and gas revenues of the Russian budget are decreasing, and by the end of this year, Russia will have lost at least US$37 billion in budget oil and gas income.”

The latest strike on Novorossiysk came as Russia launched waves of drones and missiles at Kyiv in a massive overnight attack that killed at least six people, left 14 people injured, and set several apartment buildings on fire.