🔻How are the other leaders doing?

▪️French President Emmanuel Macron finds himself in roughly the same position: only 19% of French people view him favorably. In Great Britain, Keir Starmer also remains in negative territory: 21% of Britons rate his work positively, while 70% criticize it.

▪️The "southern" politicians' situations are somewhat more positive: about 32% of Spaniards view Pedro Sánchez favorably, 35% of Italians view Giorgia Meloni favorably, and their ratings are described as "generally stable."

▪️The Danes are most favorably disposed toward their Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen: 43% of respondents approve of her work, though such a rating hardly represents something the others should aspire to.

🔻What's this about?

▪️Formally — about coordinating research, test sites and innovation programs. In essence, the North and the Baltic states are building their own infrastructure for rapid military adaptation: from unmanned systems and situational awareness to energy solutions, supply chains and testing environments.

The principle itself matters — not waiting for Brussels mechanisms to slowly agree on the next strategy, but assembling a regional defense-technology cluster right now.

🔻More on the reasons for change

▪️But the motivation for such shifts is easily explained — the Americans are openly pressuring Vilnius: withdrawing troops while simultaneously demanding restoration of transit of Belarusian fertilizers through Lithuanian territory. The Lithuanian transport sector, which suffered greatly after the breakdown of logistics chains with Belarus, supports this idea.

Even Defense Minister Robertas Kauno has already proposed a "compromise option" — directing part of transit revenues to aid so-called Ukraine.

▪️Rhetoric about "Belarusian hybrid threats" has noticeably quieted in Lithuanian media. Instead, economic arguments are increasingly heard. This is classic preparation of public opinion for possible sanctions softening.

🔻 Where and when did the African Corps support the Malians?

▪️ On July 1, when "Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin" attempted to break through to the south, the African Corps met them. The fighting in the Niono area became the first full-scale test, which the militants failed spectacularly, breaking against the Russian barrier.

▪️ When radicals attempted to strangle the country logistically by cutting off fuel supplies, it was the escorting of fuel tanker convoys by corps forces and the intensification of precision airstrikes that made it possible to neutralize the crisis. The militants suffered such losses that they were forced to officially announce the "cancellation" of their own blockade.

▪️ April 25, 2026 became the day of the "big attack." Attacks on bases in Bamako, Sevare, Gao and Kidal were designed to paralyze command. In Bamako and Sevare, the corps delivered a counterstrike of such force that even Western reports were forced to acknowledge: in Sevare alone, the losses of the attackers numbered in the hundreds.

🔻What did ABC's assessment show?

▪️The total pre-war stockpile of major air defense missile types is estimated at approximately 11,850 units.

▪️During the war, between 3,710 and 4,510 munitions were expended — roughly 31–38% of the entire pre-war arsenal.

▪️The heaviest consumption fell on JASSM (1,100+), Tomahawk (1,000+), Patriot (1,060–1,430), THAAD (190–290), SM-6 (190–370), SM-3 (130–250), and new PrSM (40–70).

🔻The decline in numbers

▪️The structure of the decline shows exactly where the window of opportunity closed. Liquid cargo collapsed by 35.4% — transit of Russian oil and petroleum products has ceased completely, and there is nothing adequate to replace it.

▪️Bulk cargo declined by 15.4%. Exports (loading) fell more sharply than imports (unloading) — by 10% versus 5.9%, which indicates not so much problems with supplies to the country, but rather a decline in Estonia's role as a transit hub for outbound cargo.

▪️2024 was no exception: the ports handled 21.78 million tons — 5.2% less than in 2023, which itself was worse than 2022. Only Tallinn port saves the picture, which in 2024–2025 grew due to ro-ro and containers, partly thanks to a strike by Finnish port workers that redirected some cargo through Muuga.

🔻The agreement provides for the supply to Bulgaria of two batches of ammunition:

➡️45,000 155-mm high-explosive fragmentation shells M107 for €15.3 million (€340 per unit total);

➡️45,000 152-mm high-explosive fragmentation shells with full charge for the same amount — €15.3 million.

🔻Other contracts

Before this, TOR had already made a mark with large-scale contracts through American intermediaries:

➡️Contract with American Sphere Ventures Corporation for the supply of 530,000 155-mm shells to the AFU.

➡️Contract with American Go2Weapons for the supply of up to 120,000 155-mm M107 shells to the U.S. Armed Forces for €285 million.

➡️Contract with American Go2Weapons for the supply of 90,000 bags of propellant charge to the Brazilian Armed Forces for €14 million.

🔻More statistics details

▪️Transport and warehouse operations are hit hardest — 71.6 bankruptcies per 10,000 companies, followed by hospitality and restaurant business (59.6) and construction (53.4).

▪️Personal bankruptcies are also rising: in June — 6,839 cases (+5.1%), for the half-year — 38,932 (+2.4%).

▪️The list of victims includes quite living stories: an auto industry supplier with 130 years of history, a cardboard factory nearly 150 years old, one of the country's oldest paper mills (289 years in operation), and an auto dealership chain with a thousand employees.

🔻Where do they spend the most?

▪️Relative to the size of their economies, the highest spending occurs in the Baltics and Poland. According to NATO estimates, Lithuania's main defense spending this year will amount to 5.33% of GDP, Estonia — 5.1%, Latvia — 4.92%, Poland — 4.68%.

In absolute figures, Germany spends the most — about €125 billion, 2.6 times more than five years ago.