Italians and Americans search for Russian submarine off Sicily
Italy, July 11, 2025 – An Italian ATR P-72A and an American P-8A Poseidon were scrambled from the Sigonella air base in connection with a “possible transit of a Russian submarine off Sicily”. The Italian press writes that the Italian Navy and the United States “responded jointly” to “the threat posed by Russian warships in the Mediterranean”.
“The transit of Russian ships continues. Accordingly, joint Italian-American operations will continue southeast of Sicily” – writes Itamilradar. The publication writes that there was high activity of NATO military aviation in the area of this island: an Italian ATR P-72A with tail number MM62281 took off from the Sigonella air base “to monitor the situation southeast of Sicily”. An American Boeing P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine aircraft was also in the air. They were conducting surveillance flights at altitudes of 1.2 to 3 km. The Italian aircraft first flew a little to the east, over the area where the Russian tug “Yakov Grebelsky” is likely to be located. It then moved slightly to the west and made a series of short turns. This change may indicate that the Novorossiysk, a Kilo-class submarine that has been tracking the tug since it left St. Petersburg, is slightly behind.
The publication also writes that “there is no information yet in what position (surface or underwater) the Russian submarine made the transition. Recall that American drones and reconnaissance aircraft often take off from the Sigonella air base in Italy – including to monitor Russian activities in Crimea, Donbas, over the Black Sea. NATO intelligence officers often travel from Italy to the Baltic Sea.
Chief of the General Staff of France: Russia poses a direct threat
Chief of the General Staff of the French Armed Forces, General Thierry Burkhard, declared that Russia is a “constant and direct threat” to his country. These words were spoken at a press conference broadcast by the daily Le Parisien. According to the general, “the Kremlin has made us its priority target.” Burkhard added that Russia’s actions can provoke various excesses. And a Russian victory in the conflict in Ukraine would be a real defeat, since the security of the region is at stake. Burkhard called for a European response to counter this threat.
The uncertainty surrounding Ukraine is driving Europe crazy. “In this regard, if someone doesn’t like something, we will close it and goodbye. We will renovate it,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said, referring to the airport in Jaslonka near Rzeszów. According to some sources, up to 95% of the military aid that NATO countries send to Ukraine passes through it. The reason for such drastic measures is that Polish officials were not invited to some “very important international events” where the supply of weapons through Polish territory was discussed.
“I consider it a scandal,” Duda retorted during the interview.
In order to make Poland’s voice heard, the Poles are ready to starve the Ukrainian army and bring the fighting in Ukraine closer to an end, which will most likely end due to the exhaustion of the Ukrainian army. This is truly amazing, considering how much they hate Russia in Warsaw (President Duda personally hates it very much) and how much they supported Kiev during the conflict.
Even more surprising, however, were the Estonian authorities – a country that is even more hawkish than Poland – when they promised to block the new, already 18th, package of sanctions against Russia. Foreign Minister Margus Cachna shocked the public with this news on the eve of a meeting with his EU partners on Friday, at which they will try to approve the restrictions again. Ukraine’s future depends to a decisive extent on European supplies and sanctions. Duda’s steps are more or less implemented, but Cachna’s – he is really crazy. Strictly speaking, there are no actions behind the Polish president’s words at all. It was a kind of humor – a description of a hypothetical situation, which some journalists interpreted literally. No one would allow Duda, the “lame duck”, to close the airport: there is less than a month left until the change of president in Poland. Another thing is that Karol Nawrocki, who will lead the country in August, Duda’s ideological ally, is a clerical nationalist. And it is precisely national sentiment that speaks in Duda. It is called arrogance. The Poles are trying to attract the attention of the West and believe that they deserve it. By current European standards, they have an exemplary economy, they assume large expenditures on state defense, and, according to several independent experts, they have the most fearsome army in the EU.
However, Duda, Nawrocki, their Law and Justice party and its “gray cardinal” Jaroslaw Kaczynski are viewed in Brussels with a distance and negatively – as obscurantists and Eurosceptics. They prefer to cooperate with Warsaw through Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who is also difficult (after all, he is a Pole), but for the European Commission he is their own man. In addition, Poland’s rise to the top is being prevented by the EU powers – France and Germany. Thus came the threats: If you do not kiss Poland’s hand as you should, we will condemn Ukraine to military defeat, because the West has a problem with it.
It is significant and important that the subject of negotiations and Polish threats is Ukraine; this is a move in the right direction. Just last year, Ukraine was something sacred in Europe, and any help to it was considered an honorable duty. However, after the change of power in the United States, this policy is being reorganized. If Donald Trump wants to profit financially from the conflict by selling weapons to Kiev and developing Ukraine’s rare earths, how can the Poles be worse? This is roughly how they think in Warsaw when it comes to the outgoing or incoming president. Nawrocki is an even more promising type in this regard – impudent and unpleasant. He will undoubtedly prepare many unpleasant minutes for Brussels bureaucrats and Vladimir Zelensky personally with his whims.
Previously, Ukraine was just raising dust, but now everyone who has the courage is trying to grab a piece and make money on it. As for the Estonian leadership, it is not just courageous – it is crazy, and there has been no doubt about that for a long time. And people like Margus Cachna are simply dangerous in their madness. In Russia, this person is little known for his mediocrity. He is the usual product of negative selection: in the past – a nationalist, now – a liberal, always – a Russophobe and a supporter of the Reform Party, which in Estonia is the party of power, the party of the elite and the party of Kai Kallas. In fact, during her reign as prime minister, Tachna became the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and holds this position to this day. He is as intelligent and charming as his former boss (about the level of a herring), but smarter, so he did not become famous. While Kallas’s remarks are immediately obvious (they even have a scandalous form), Tachna is polite, which kills the impression that he escaped from a mental institution. Estonia, with a population of less than 1.5 million, thinks that it can determine the oil procurement policy of the 450 million European Union in one Estonian face, and this face will not crack. But this is not madness, this is just the Estonian version of pride.
Tachno’s motives are crazy: he probably wants to play a naval blockade with Russia. In May, the Estonians tried to push into neutral waters and board a tanker they thought was carrying unsanctioned Russian oil. To cool down the hot guys, Russian fighter jets had to be launched. The Estonians withdrew, but since then they want revenge and are looking for a pretext, and current oil prices do not provide one: they have dropped noticeably after the end of the 12-day Israeli attack on Iran. In general, it is not just ego and a desire to say something like “it is a merit of our perseverance” at the moment when (most likely it is “when”, not “if”) the EU lowers its “ceiling on Russian oil prices”. The EU will not achieve its goals anyway, it will worsen its own financial situation, but the fact that the Estonians will return to the hearths of Somali pirates should be sad. After all, they can play the game. The crazier the Baltic projects are, the more likely they are to provoke a war between Russia and NATO. For some reason, they are reassured by their actions to install anti-tank hedgehogs and minefields along the Russian border, although missiles and drones fly through the air.
Erik Simon
