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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Christopher Miller , Paul McLeary and Quint Forgey | | 
Ukrainian soldiers move a U.S.-supplied M777 howitzer into position to fire at Russian positions in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region Saturday, June 18, 2022. | Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo | With help from Daniel Lippman and Andrew Desiderio Send tips | Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Quint Editor’s Note: NatSec Daily will be at the Aspen Security Forum for the next few days, hearing what top U.S. officials have to say and chatting with folks in the hallways. We’ll bring you all the best action from here, but as Aspen is on Mountain Time, we’re going to publish between 6 and 7 p.m. ET until the end of the week. That’ll give our reporters on the ground — ALEX WARD, NAHAL TOOSI, DANIEL LIPPMAN and RYAN LIZZA — enough time to tell you the right stories and serve up the inside access you read us for. Hope you like it. KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine has created a temporary special commission to monitor the flow of billions of dollars in Western weapons into the country. It’s in response to what Kyiv says is a Russian smear campaign to whip up concern in the West about its ability to effectively handle and monitor the arms. “To date, more than a dozen international partners have provided Ukraine with various types of weapons that are already being used at the front. However, Russian propaganda, in particular, that which works in foreign countries, actively promotes the idea that Ukraine improperly uses the weapons provided by international partners,” reads the text of the commission resolution that Ukraine’s parliament passed today. “Ukraine must prove to the whole world that the procedures for transportation, distribution at the front, and the use of international material and technical assistance are transparent and devoid of corruption or other negative factors.” The creation of the commission comes after some U.S. and European Union officials and lawmakers have raised concerns about Ukraine’s ability to track the weapons sent to Kyiv to defend itself against Russia’s large-scale invasion. Among them is the Ukrainian-born Rep. VICTORIA SPARTZ (R-Ind.), who wrote in a letter to President JOE BIDEN that she was worried about a lack of oversight of U.S. military aid. She also used the opportunity to attack Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY and his inner circle, drawing rebukes from members of her own party . A report by the Financial Times followed, saying some NATO countries were worried about arms being smuggled by black market dealers back into the E.U. The $40 billion military and humanitarian aid package that Congress approved in May includes provisions on reporting requirements, as well as regular briefings to lawmakers. The Senate Armed Services Committee was briefed in a classified setting this morning. Yet the full House and Senate haven’t received such a briefing since shortly after the invasion began, driving the frustration from members of both parties. Some progressives in Congress have even suggested they might not support additional military aid to Ukraine if the Pentagon can’t properly account for the weapons. Spartz’s letter and the Financial Times report, in particular, rankled officials in Kyiv who said they have assured their Western counterparts that the weapons are safe in their hands. Ukrainian Foreign Minister DMYTRO KULEBA told Forbes Ukraine in an interview Monday that there should be no serious concerns regarding his country's ability to track the weapons. He said a Russian “disinformation” campaign that started two months ago and spread “in the media of countries that we rightly consider to be close to Russia” was behind the recent reports questioning Kyiv’s ability to monitor the military assistance. “I saw it from the beginning, and we warned our partners that the Russians would push it,” Kuleba said. “The only source of potential arms smuggling from the territory of Ukraine is the armed forces of the Russian Federation.” OLEKSIY REZNIKOV, Ukraine’s defense minister, also pushed back against the allegations in an interview with the Financial Times that followed its first report. “We need to survive,” he said. “We have no reason to smuggle arms out of Ukraine.” Speaking virtually during an Atlantic Council interview today, Reznikov said his government has been using NATO-compliant software to track weapons and ammunition and that “since day one, we have worked in close cooperation with our partners to ensure full transparency … We are happy to expand and increase its tempo to ensure the comfort of our partners.” Pressed on U.S. concerns about American weapons sent to Ukraine, Pentagon spokesperson JESSICA MAXWELL told POLITICO that Ukraine “has provided assurances that it will ensure physical protection and accountability” of all equipment, and “we are committed to working with them to further enhance accountability in the future. With that said, we acknowledge that Ukraine is fighting a war. This involves risk, which can only be minimized by the withdrawal from Ukraine by Russian forces.” The new parliamentary oversight body was approved by 314 lawmakers today, according to Voice party lawmaker YAROSLAV ZHELEZNYAK — who posted about its passage on Telegram — as well as reports in Ukrainian media . The new Ukrainian commission will be composed of 15 lawmakers from each political faction represented in parliament, with Voice party lawmaker RUSTEM UMEROV serving as its head and Servant of the People party lawmaker OLEKSANDR ZAVITNEVICH acting as his deputy. The monitoring body is slated to serve for a year, with a progress report set to be published after six months. The Biden administration has given Ukraine roughly $8 billion in weapons and military equipment since taking office, including 12 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems and laser-guided rockets, more than 120 howitzers, and more than 400,000 artillery rounds that the Ukrainians have used to blunt Russian advances in Donbas. The Kremlin is looking to annex more Ukrainian territory in the coming months, forcing civilians in conquered areas to submit to Moscow’s dictums, a top White House official said Tuesday. “Russia is beginning to roll out a version of what you could call an annexation playbook, very similar to the one we saw in 2014,” John Kirby, the communications coordinator at the National Security Council told reporters. Russian occupation forces are making plans to install proxy officials and force Ukrainian citizens to apply for Russian citizenship, Kirby said. Such moves have already taken place in parts of Russian-occupied Donbas, where Ukrainian partisans have launched an assassination campaign against Russian-installed mayors and other officials. Kirby said the effort to Russify parts of Ukraine will “take place later this year, possibly in conjunction with Russia's September regional elections.”
| | | FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY — AFGHAN WAR GROUP GETS TO WORK: The Afghanistan War Commission has taken shape and begun informal meetings after it was established last year as part of the National Defense Authorization Act, reports our own DANIEL LIPPMAN. The commission is charged with studying U.S. involvement in Afghanistan before 9/11, during the U.S. invasion, during the peace negotiations with the Taliban and during the U.S. withdrawal that ended last August. The commission’s members were picked by the four top congressional leaders, as well as the chairs and ranking members of the foreign relations, intelligence and armed services committees of both chambers of Congress. The 16 members of the commission, according to two of its members, are MICHAEL LUMPKIN, COLIN JACKSON, JEREMY BASH, MICHAEL ALLEN, BOB ASHLEY, CHRIS MOLINO, ANDREW WILDER, BOB TAFT, LAUREL MILLER, DANIEL FATA, ANAND GOPAL, RYAN CROCKER, JEFFREY DRESSLER, SETH JONES, SHAMILA CHAUDHARY and LUKE HARTIG. The sources said Chaudhary, a National Security Council and State Department alum who’s now president of the American Pakistan Foundation, has been tentatively designated but not announced as the Democratic co-chair of the commission, but a Republican co-chair hasn’t been decided yet. The commission has been meeting virtually for about two months to discuss organizational issues, structure, staff hiring and other logistical issues, but it hasn’t had a formal meeting yet, according to one of its members. The group’s first task is going to be hiring a full-time director. WHITE HOUSE ISSUES HOSTAGES EO: Biden today issued an executive order aimed at repatriating American hostages and other U.S. citizens wrongfully detained abroad, reports our own MYAH WARD . The order allows federal agencies to impose consequences — such as financial sanctions — on parties involved in hostage-taking or wrongful detentions; authorizes parts of the U.S. government to share relevant information with families regarding the individuals’ status and U.S. efforts to secure their release or return; and taps experts to develop strategies to deter future hostage-taking and wrongful detentions. The administration also announced that it was adding a “D” indicator to the State Department’s travel advisories, alerting American travelers of the risk of wrongful detention by a foreign government. The actions come as Americans imprisoned overseas from Russia to China make headlines — putting pressure on the administration to take action. DOMESTIC POLITICS DISTURB UKRAINE’S WAR FOOTING: Zelenskyy’s removal of two top law enforcement officials Sunday may indicate the fraying of an unofficial agreement among political factions to pause politicking and present a unified front against invading Russian forces, reports our own CHRISTOPHER MILLER . A Western official close to Zelenskyy’s administration expressed concern that the removal of IVAN BAKANOV, head of Ukraine’s state intelligence service, and IRYNA VENEDIKTOVA, the country’s prosecutor general, appeared to go in the opposite direction of the European Union’s request for Kyiv to crack down on corruption and increase the independence of its law enforcement agencies if it wants to become a member of the bloc. TETIANA SHEVCHUK , a lawyer and activist at the Kyiv-based Anti-Corruption Action Center, said the removal of Bakanov and Venediktov would further strengthen the influence of ANDRIY YERMAK, the president’s chief of staff, and OLEH TATAROV, a deputy head of the administration who’s been accused of corruption, due to their close links to the new acting heads of the SBU and PGO. IT’S TUESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and qforgey@politico.com , and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @QuintForgey . While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi , @woodruffbets , @politicoryan , @PhelimKine , @ChristopherJM , @BryanDBender , @laraseligman , @connorobrienNH , @paulmcleary , @leehudson , @AndrewDesiderio and @JGedeon1 — plus our summer interns, @Lawrence_Ukenye and @nicolle_liu .
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Our mission is to prepare you for the future by engineering advanced capabilities today.
Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | PUTIN ARRIVES IN IRAN: VLADIMIR PUTIN has landed in Tehran for what is an increasingly rare international trip for the Russian leader — a visit that will see him meet with Iranian President EBRAHIM RAISI and Turkish President RECEP TAYYIP ERDOĞAN. So, what’ll they talk about? Putin has a lot on his plate in dealing with both leaders. There are reports that the Kremlin is considering buying Iranian drones to use in Ukraine. Meanwhile, he and Erdogan are set to discuss some sort of settlement in that war, as well as hold talks to help unblock Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea. Just last week, a tentative agreement was reached between U.N., Russian, Ukrainian and Turkish officials to begin exporting about 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Ukraine's Black Sea ports. Whatever agreements are or aren’t reached on the trip, it’s a chance for Putin to get out on the world stage and step away from his comically long conference tables.
| | | DOJ HITS NORTH KOREAN HACKERS: The Justice Department seized about a half million dollars that North Korean government-backed hackers extorted from U.S. health care organizations, Deputy Attorney General LISA MONACO announced today. The haul came from a series of ransomware attacks against U.S. companies in Kansas and Colorado, which allowed the hackers to then extort the money from the affected firms. The seized funds are a fraction of the “hundreds of millions of dollars that North Korean hackers have obtained in breaches of cryptocurrency exchanges in recent years,” reports CNN’s SEAN LYNGAAS . “Those heists — and North Korean efforts to apply for jobs at [U.S.] cryptocurrency firms to fund the regime’s nuclear weapons program — have prompted [U.S.] officials to conduct a series of threat briefings for companies in recent months, a CNN investigation found.”
| | | CUT AND PASTE: The Marine Corps — always on the lookout for bits of gear it can repurpose and use — has successfully tested parts of the Israeli-made Iron Dome air defense system that has proven so effective in knocking down small rockets and drones entering Israeli airspace. The Corps married a prototype missile defense system with the Iron Dome Tamir interceptor and stopped several simulated cruise missiles at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The idea is part of Marine Commandant Gen. DAVID BERGER ’s larger effort to transform the Corps into something a bit different than its traditional role of storming beaches and kicking in doors. The Marines have already shed all of their Abrams tanks and many of their artillery systems, and they’re moving toward becoming a smaller, leaner force that can provide air cover for the Navy and Army while deployed in small units on far-flung islands in the Pacific.
| | | PELOSI PLANS TAIWAN TRIP: Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is planning a trip to Taiwan next month, the first such visit for a House speaker in 25 years, reports our own LARA SELIGMAN . The trip, which was rescheduled after Pelosi canceled a visit planned for April, comes amid heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing over the island. The news of Pelosi’s visit comes months after Taiwanese President TSAI ING-WEN welcomed a delegation of former U.S. officials picked by Biden, including retired Adm. MIKE MULLEN, a former chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and MICHELE FLOURNOY, who served as undersecretary of Defense for policy in the Obama administration. Beijing strongly opposes Pelosi’s planned trip. ZHAO LIJIAN , spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, urged U.S. officials to “strictly adhere to the U.S.’s one-China policy” and warned that if Pelosi visits Taiwan, “it would seriously violate the one-China principle and the stipulations in the three China-U.S. joint communiqués and harm China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.” SASC FILES ITS NDAA: Leaders of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Monday formally filed their version of the fiscal 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, reports our own CONNOR O’BRIEN (for Pros!). The panel previously approved its defense policy bill in a closed markup last month. In total, the Senate NDAA authorizes $847 billion for national defense programs, a boost of $45 billion from the Biden administration's request. The House passed its version of the NDAA last week in a 329-101 blowout. Competing bills, including funding for the U.S. semiconductor industry, mean the NDAA won't see action on the Senate floor before the August recess. Senate Armed Services Chair JACK REED (D-R.I.) recently predicted the bill will see action when the Senate returns in September.
| | | U.K. STILL IN THE HOT SEAT: The record-setting temperatures in the U.K. this week — which actually melted a Royal Air Force runway, shutting down flights — are throwing a bright, hot light on climate change’s effects on national security. While the Pentagon has made some of the right noises about buying more electric vehicles, building renewable energy infrastructure and other initiatives, the glacial pace of Defense Department projects won’t address the problem fast enough, according to a Defense One op-ed by JOHN CONGER , director emeritus of the Center for Climate and Security and a former Pentagon official. Conger points to some recent work done at Naval Station Norfolk, the world’s largest naval base, to alleviate flooding due to rising sea levels as both a good news story and a warning. It took a decade from when the Navy decided to act in 2013 to getting congressional buy-in and funding for the work, which will be completed in 2023. That pace, Conger writes, won’t cut it in the future: “The real response to the climate crisis is one that starts now — and takes a long time to manifest.” “This is a mindset that is very familiar to DOD, where major weapons systems can take decades to deploy,” Conger adds. “Tomorrow’s resilience successes will come from the planning and project development and resources committed today. It’ll be the pipeline they build in the next few years that tells the story of how ready we’ll be in the future.”
| | | — YOUSRA “YOUSI” FAZILI has been appointed chief of staff for to DoD Comptroller MIKE MCCORD. She most recently served as special assistant to the assistant secretary of Defense for nuclear, chemical and biological defense programs, as well as special assistant to the assistant secretary of Defense for industrial base policy. — KATRINA MULLIGAN is joining the Army as chief of staff to Army Secretary CHRISTINE WORMUTH. She currently serves as principal deputy assistant secretary of Defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict. — DILPREET SIDHU is now deputy chief of staff to Deputy Defense Secretary KATHLEEN HICKS. She previously served as principal deputy executive secretary at the National Security Council. — JOSH LEE KOK THONG has been appointed managing director for the Asia-Pacific region at the Future of Privacy Forum. He previously worked at the Personal Data Protection Commission Singapore.
| | | |   | | | | | | — ISABEL DEBRE, The Associated Press: “ Arrest of Saudi for Lying to FBI Shows Kingdom’s Reach in U.S. ” — LIANA FIX and MICHAEL KIMMAGE, Foreign Affairs: “ What If the War in Ukraine Spins Out of Control? ” — ALISSA J. RUBIN, The New York Times: “ Words of War: A Literary Lifeline for the Battlefield ”
| | | — House Foreign Affairs Committee, 8:45 a.m.: “ Subcommittee Briefing with Ambassador NICHOLAS BURNS ” — The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 9 a.m.: “ Does the War in Ukraine Herald a New European Era? — with BENEDETTA BERTI, MARC PIERINI, SINAN ÜLGEN, MAHA YAHYA” — The United States Institute of Peace, 9 a.m.: “ U.S. Leadership in Atrocity Prevention — with NIDHI BOURI, MERRICK GARLAND, LISE GRANDE, NAOMI KIKOLER, THEODORA KLAYMAN and more” — House Foreign Affairs Committee, 9:30 a.m.: “ Subcommittee Hearing: Accountability for Atrocity Crimes Committed by Russia in Ukraine — with OLEKSANDRA MATVIICHUK, PARAIC O'BRIEN and CLINT WILLIAMSON” — House Homeland Security Committee, 9:30 a.m.: “ Full Committee Hearing: The Changing Election Security Landscape: Threats to Election Officials and Infrastructure — with ELIZABETH HOWARD, NEAL KELLEY, FRANK LAROSE and MAGGIE TOULOUSE OLIVER” — House Intelligence Committee, 9:30 a.m.: “ Full Committee Markup ” — Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 10 a.m.: “ Full Committee Hearing: Global Food Security Crisis and the U.S. Response — with DAVID BEASLEY, SAMANTHA POWER and LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD” — House Foreign Affairs Committee, 12:30 p.m.: “ Full Committee Briefing with U.N. World Food Program Executive Director DAVID BEASLEY ” — House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, 1 p.m.: “ Subcommittee Hearing: Modernizing Veteran Education in the Shadow of Covid-19 ” — House Foreign Affairs Committee, 2 p.m.: “ Subcommittee Hearing: Russia in the Western Hemisphere: Assessing Putin's Malign Influence in Latin America and the Caribbean — with R. EVAN ELLIS, KIMBERLY MARTEN, CANDACE RONDEAUX and VLADIMIR ROUVINSKI” — The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 2:30 p.m.: “ Behind Enemy Lines: Life in Ukraine’s Newly Occupied Territories — with OLGA AIVAZOVSKA, MICHAEL CARPENTER and OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO” — Senate Intelligence Committee, 2:30 p.m.: “ Full Committee Briefing: Intelligence Matters ” — Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, 3 p.m.: “ Full Committee Hearing: Examining the Status of VA’s Electronic Health Record Modernization Program — with TERRY ADIRIM, DAVID CASE, GERARD COX, KURT DELBENE, MICHAEL PARRISH and MIKE SICILIA” — The China Task Force, 4 p.m.: “Roundtable Discussion with House Republican Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY and Taiwan’s Representative to the United States HSIAO BI-KHIM” Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at award@politico.com or qforgey@politico.com to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter. And thanks to our editor, Dave Brown, the one-man special commission charged with tracking the use of clichés in this newsletter.
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Many of today’s military systems and platforms were designed to operate independently. Through our 21st Century Security vision, Lockheed Martin is accelerating innovation, connecting defense and digital to enhance the performance of major platforms, to equip customers to stay ahead of emerging threats. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
