🇺🇦 Corps have been created, brigades continue to be transferred: how the Ukrainian Armed Forces are now managed

https://en.topwar.ru/amp/291595-korpusa-sozdali-brigady-prodolzhajut-peredavat-kak-teper-upravljajut-vsu.html

🇺🇸 🇺🇦 🇩🇪 Active-duty Army units to take over training of Ukrainian troops in Bavaria

The U.S. Army is shifting responsibility for training Ukrainian troops in Bavaria to active-duty units already stationed there, moving the mission toward a more permanent footing after a decade under National Guard leadership.

The training of Ukrainian troops will continue at U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria and its expansive training ranges, the largest in Europe.

The move appears to be part of a broader realignment to use local assets and reduce duplication. It comes just days after Guard members passed command of the NATO peacekeeping mission in Kosovo to Vilseck’s 2nd Cavalry Regiment and supporting units from the 1st Infantry Division.

The Army will continue to coordinate support for Ukrainian forces through U.S. European Command and NATO Security Assistance and Training-Ukraine, in alignment with U.S. policy, Weisman said.

The NATO security assistance group has the primary responsibility of coordinating training across the alliance and with partner nations.

Since relocating to Germany, the group has trained more than 24,000 Ukrainian military personnel across 50 platforms and specialty events, including 300 classes of instruction, the Sunday statement said.

https://www.stripes.com/branches/army/2026-10-19/national-guard-ukraine-training-germany-23197534.html

📢 🇩🇪 🇪🇺 AfD’s Alice Weidel to unveil plan to downsize the EU

Alternative for Germany (AfD) wants to scrap the directly elected European Parliament, shrink the European Commission and let Berlin opt out of common EU policies. That’s according to the party’s policy program, which party leader Alice Weidel will present at the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Last week, Marine Le Pen was in Brussels to outline her plan for the EU if she becomes French president. She vowed to halve Paris’ contributions to the budget if she gets to power, and to turn the European Commission into a “secretariat” in the service of its member countries.

“I’m not fooled by what the European Commission wants to do. The European Commission wants to turn itself into a state; we do not. And so we will stand in its way,” Le Pen said.

The AfD policy paper, obtained by Brussels Playbook, says the AfD would not seek to leave the EU or eurozone at first. Instead, it wants to renegotiate the EU treaties and cut the bloc’s powers, institutions and budget. Weidel will present her strategy at an event on Wednesday afternoon entitled “Our new deal for Europe.”

If its reforms fail, the AfD says it would put Germany’s EU membership to a referendum.

https://www.politico.eu/article/afd-alternative-for-germany-alice-weidel-plan-downsize-eu/

🚢 There are only about 950 supertankers in the world, each carrying about 2 million barrels of crude. Energy analyst Rory Johnston warns that losing a couple a day to attacks around Hormuz "adds up very, very quickly."

Johnston, founder of Commodity Context, told Drop Site News’ Ryan Grim the attacks are getting more serious. Early strikes mostly holed double hulls, damage repairable in a week or two. Now drones are hitting engine rooms, which may take months. Of more than 110 attacks since the war began, three ships have sunk, two in recent weeks.

Shipping a barrel from the Gulf to China now costs $25 to $30, more than ten times the prewar rate, with tanker day rates of $1.3 to $1.5 million.

📎 DropSite News