Russian Ambassador to Japan Mikhail Yurievich Galuzin speaks during an interview 

Russia will not attend a follow-up to last month's Ukraine peace summit, state news agency RIA quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin as saying on Thursday.

Russia was not invited to the initial summit in Switzerland that was attended by representatives of 92 countries, and said that discussing the war in its absence was a waste of time.

Ukraine has said it wants to hold another such summit later this year, probably in the Global South, and that representatives from Russia could be invited this time.

RIA cited Galuzin as describing Ukrainian preconditions for peace talks as an "ultimatum" and that Moscow was "not going to participate in such summits".

President Vladimir Putin's spokesman was less categorical than Galuzin, saying there was currently "no precise substance" regarding the idea of a second summit.

"What proposals are we talking about?" the spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was quoted by RIA as saying.

"You know that President Putin and the Russian Federation are always open to dialogue, we have never refused dialogue. But we must understand what we are talking about."

Putin said last month that Russia was willing to end the war, but only on condition that Ukraine drop its NATO ambitions and hand over the entirety of four regions claimed by Moscow. Ukraine dismissed those demands as tantamount to surrender.

Russian controls nearly a fifth of its neighbour's territory. Kyiv says it is committed to take back all of that, and that peace is only possible if Russia pulls out its forces and Ukraine's full territorial integrity is restored.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

Russia's thwarting of precision Western weapons in Ukraine shows the value of things like old-fashioned, unguided artillery, European general says

• Russia has been jamming precision Western weapons in Ukraine through its electronic countermeasures.

• A Finnish general told The Wall Street Journal it showed there were still uses for unguided artillery.

• "They are immune to any type of jamming," he said.

Russia's thwarting of precision weapons provided to Ukraine by the West shows there are still use cases for unguided artillery in technologically advanced warfare, a Finnish general told The Wall Street Journal.

Weapons guided by a GPS system provide precision strikes against enemy targets and have been crucial for some of Ukraine's prior countermeasures against Russia during the war.

The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, which can hit targets up to 50 miles away, was once seen as a vital lifeline for Ukraine in order to stop Russia's advance in the summer of 2022.

But those same precision weapons, which are being supplied by the West, are being rendered ineffective as Russia adapts on the battlefield and engages in electronic warfare.

The methods involve jamming or spoofing the GPS systems in weapons so they're led off course. These electronic countermeasures are often cheap and can also be used against drones, as Business Insider previously reported. Both Ukraine and Russia have engaged in electronic warfare.

The Journal reported that these measures had also thwarted the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, a US-Swedish guided bomb that has a range of 94 miles, that Ukraine received in early February.

Lt. Gen. Esa Pulkkinen, the permanent secretary of Finland's defense ministry, told the Journal that electronic warfare had shown there were still uses for less-advanced, unguided artillery shells.

"They are immune to any type of jamming, and they will go to target regardless of what type of electronic-warfare capability there may be," Pulkkinen told The Journal.

The New York Times reported last year that precision-guided weapons had been a large point of focus for the US's broader defense strategy, but in Ukraine, the war was largely being fought with unguided artillery.

As a result, the US and others in the West have ramped up production of unguided artillery shells. Pentagon officials have said the US aims to increase production of 155mm artillery shells, which are shot out of howitzers, to 100,000 a month by 2025.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

A new US-Swedish bomb may have already been pulled from Ukraine because it's useless against Russian jamming

• Sophisticated US weapons are being jammed by Russian electronic-warfare units.

• The Wall Street Journal reported that a relatively new US-Swedish bomb had been pulled from use.

• Russia is able to scramble the GPS signals used to guide the weapons.

A new precision-guided US weapon is said to have been pulled from use by the Ukrainian military because Russia is taking it out using electronic warfare.

Ukrainian and Western officials told The Wall Street Journal the Ground-Launched Small Diameter Bomb, manufactured by Boeing and the Swedish company Saab, had failed and was no longer in use pending an overhaul.

The GLSDB is a guided bomb with a range of 94 miles, thanks to its small wings that extend from its body. In 2022, marketing materials for the bomb said its navigation system was "supported by a highly jamming resistance GPS."

As previously reported by Business Insider's Mia Jankowicz, Ukraine received the bombs in early February after months of requesting long-range munitions in the hope of hitting targets in areas such as Crimea.

In April, Defense One reported that Bill LaPlante, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, had said a ground-launched version of an air-to-ground weapon had become vulnerable to Russian electronic warfare. The publication said he was probably referring to the GLSDB.

"When you send something to people in the fight of their lives that just doesn't work, they'll try it three times, and they'll just throw it aside," LaPlante said, according to the report, implying Ukraine no longer seemed interested in the weapon.

A month later, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters the bombs' guidance systems were running into Russian jamming, causing many of the launches to miss their targets.

BI contacted Boeing, Saab, and the Ukrainian army for comment.

The Journal reported that Russia had been able to remotely scramble the GPS signals used to guide weapons with its sophisticated electronic-warfare capabilities.

The GLSDB is one of several precision-guided US weapons Russia has been able to neutralize or reduce the effectiveness of using electronic warfare in Ukraine.

Russian electronic-warfare units have blunted the effectiveness of HIMARS-fired Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems and air-launched Joint Direct Attack Munitions.

BI reported in May that the US was researching ways to counter the problem should a war break out with a major military power.

Russia has seemingly been able to rapidly adapt to counter the threat of sophisticated US-supplied weapons.

In Ukraine, old-school artillery shells that aren't vulnerable to electronic warfare are playing a major role in the war of attrition on the front lines.

Ukraine's Western allies have struggled to provide enough shells, while Russia has massively increased its production of shells and is also sourcing artillery from its ally North Korea.

After Russia made advances earlier this year during a Ukraine aid block by Republicans in the US Congress, the resumption in the flow of aid has enabled Ukraine to hold off further advances, and the war has again become a stalemate.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT