SIGNAL No. 76
'Written past Moscow'
Friday · 5 June 2026
The exchange Europe's diplomacy needed in writing took one news cycle: Zelensky's open letter offered the full ceasefire-for-negotiations that the EU's draft conclusions demand, and Putin — at his own forum — called the letter boorish and a meeting pointless, his terms unchanged since Anchorage. The refusal lands before Merz,…

SIGNAL No. 74
'Deep strikes, both sides'
Wednesday · 3 June 2026
A day after Russia's largest strike on Kyiv, Ukraine struck deep into Russia — long-range drones set the St Petersburg oil terminal ablaze and hit the corvette Boikiy at Kronstadt as Putin's investment forum opened — while Russian advances on the static front fell to 14 square kilometres in May. With neither side able to…

25 - 31 May 2026 | Weekly briefing for policy, intelligence, and defence audiences across NATO and the EU

Canberra, 29 May 2026

Key points

• Australian defence-industry minister Pat Conroy told hartpunkt on 29 May that Germany sits 'right at the front' of potential MQ-28A Ghost Bat export customers, making the vendor's case that the platform is the only one able to meet Germany's 2029 CCA timeline
• Canberra has called a government-to-government deal modelled on the 2024…

Kyiv, 29 May 2026

Key points

• Ukrainian forensic experts on 29 May publish analysis of the Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile recovered from Bila Tserkva: every identified electronic component was of Russian or Belarusian manufacture, dated between 2004 and 2016
• Of components identified, 57 are of Russian manufacture and five are Belarusian — including microchips…

Galați, 29 May 2026

Key points

• A Russian Geran-2 drone, part of a 232-drone barrage on Ukrainian infrastructure, struck the roof of an apartment block in Galați early on 29 May; a 53-year-old woman and a 14-year-old boy suffered burns from a resulting fire
• First civilian casualties from a Russian drone incursion on NATO airspace since 2022; twenty-eighth confirmed breach of…

Berlin, 29 May 2026

Key points

• hartpunkt reported on 29 May, citing well-informed circles, that the Luftwaffe is in talks to order a further 10 to 20 A400M after taking delivery of its 53rd and final contracted aircraft in April
• A reorder of this size would fill the Airbus Defence production line (currently secured only to 2029) for roughly two years and give Germany more…

Ottawa, 28 May 2026

Key points

• German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre made a joint pitch at CANSEC on 28 May for Canada to procure the Type 212CD under the C$60 billion Canadian Patrol Submarine Project
• Berlin offers accelerated delivery of four Type 212CD boats to Canada by 2036 against Hanwha Ocean's pledge of four KSS-III…