This is an audio transcript of the FT News Briefing podcast episode: ‘Moscow’s military reshuffle’

Marc Filippino
Good morning from the Financial Times. Today is Thursday, January 12th, and this is your FT News Briefing.

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The European Union is short on medicines, so it’s trying to stock up. Moscow has replaced the leader of its forces in Ukraine. And the failed Virgin Orbit satellite launch is a setback for customers and Europe’s space ambitions.

Peggy Hollinger
Europe could well find itself without the ability to launch its own satellites.

Marc Filippino
I’m Marc Filippino, and here’s the news you need to start your day.

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There’s a shortage of medicines across Europe, even basic ones like penicillin. Now, the FT reports Brussels has a plan to stockpile drugs and make manufacturers guarantee supplies. The European Commission said it will propose legislation to secure access and avoid market disruption. It also told the FT the EU will try to reduce reliance on China for medicines.

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Moscow has tapped a new man to lead its forces in Ukraine. This comes as Russia may have gotten its first military success since last summer. This week, Moscow’s forces stepped up attacks on the small town of Soledar in eastern Ukraine. They may have taken control of most of it. Here’s the FT’s defence and security correspondent John Paul Rathbone with more.

John Paul Rathbone
There’s very fierce and bloody fighting, Russian troops being unleashed wave upon wave upon Soledar. But Soledar’s importance really is because capture of Soledar could help Russian forces encircle another town called Bakhmut. And Bakhmut has got slightly more strategic significance in that it sits on supply routes and if the Russian forces can take Bakhmut, that would represent Moscow’s first military success since last August.

Marc Filippino
So JP, how would this affect the war more broadly? Would it be a morale booster for Russia? Would it be a reinforcement that the war is going well? What would it do?

John Paul Rathbone
So just a bit of a step back a little bit. We’ve got winter settling in very fiercely into Ukraine. It’s minus five outside and the front lines have basically congealed. There’s very fierce fighting, but it’s very small movement. At the same time, from the west, you’ve got pledges of more and more military equipment, possibly tanks. And it was just announced on Wednesday that there’s going to be this reshuffle at the top of the Russian military command. And you have the sense of both sides upping the ante. And within this context, Bakhmut acquires a symbolic significance.

Marc Filippino
So JP, what do you make of Moscow’s decision to shuffle the leadership of its forces in Ukraine? The man known as “General Armageddon” was demoted and has been replaced by Russia’s highest military leader, Valery Gerasimov.

John Paul Rathbone
I expect that having Gerasimov appointed — he is head of the Russian armed forces. Having him appointed head of the Ukrainian theatre probably means that now there is someone in Moscow who knows how to pull all the levers of the military machinery, of the production, of the industry, and he might be able to better channel resources into the Ukrainian theatre and get the Russian machinery moving.

Marc Filippino
JP Rathbone is the FT’s defence and security correspondent.

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The UK went into Monday night hoping to be the first nation to launch commercial satellites from western Europe. But the launch by Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit failed. Something went wrong with the rocket just minutes after it was released from under the wing of a converted 747 jumbo jet. All nine satellites on board were lost. The FT’s Peggy Hollinger covered the launch.

Peggy Hollinger
So the plane takes off just after 10:00 carrying the rocket. It flies for about an hour out over the Atlantic Ocean, does a bit of a circle. And as it’s pointing away, flying away from the south coast of Ireland, it launches the rocket. And we’re all watching this. It all goes incredibly smoothly. And about 11:30, I’m thinking to myself, this is fantastic, you know? But a few minutes later, there was a post on social media from Virgin Orbit that said “Oh, it looks like there’s been an anomaly and it looks like we haven’t reached low-Earth orbit”.

Marc Filippino
An anomaly? What is that supposed to mean? What went wrong?

Peggy Hollinger
There appeared to have been a problem with the second stage of the rocket. The first stage dropped off. Everything was fine. But when the second stage ignited, and it’s that second stage that boosts it into space, it appears to have just stalled. Just completely stalled. And the rocket then started plummeting back towards Earth.

Marc Filippino
Oh, wow. So how big of a setback is this for Virgin Orbit?

Peggy Hollinger
To be fair to Virgin Orbit, they have had five commercial missions and four of those succeeded and just this fifth one failed. So actually, so far, their track record’s not too bad. It was just unfortunate that there were a number of factors here that made it much more high-profile. And that was, first of all, the UK’s first launch, Spaceport Cornwall’s inauguration, if you like, as well. And then Virgin Orbit’s very first attempt to launch satellites from outside of the United States. Basically, they’re hoping that this particular mission would be the blueprint for their expansion globally in their ability to go to any country that wants a spaceport and say “look, we’ve got a mobile platform, we can fly in, launch for you whenever you want, and then we go on to the next one”.

Marc Filippino
Hmm. So what does this mean for the seven customers who had satellites on the rocket? Can you tell us about some of them?

Peggy Hollinger
Well, they’ve lost their satellites, and these satellites can cost anything from, you know, a few hundred thousand to millions. A lot of these guys are start-ups. They’re launching their very first satellite. There was Space Forge, which is a space manufacturing company, which was doing a kind of demonstrator satellite to show that when it finally does send factories into space, it can bring them back to Earth safely. We had another company there called Rhea. It’s a Belgium-based company which constructed its very first satellite. And that satellite was carrying a very novel navigation and timing satellite. We had national security satellites, collaboration between the US and UK military. But space is an amazing domain. I mean, the people who work in space are pretty incredible because they’re used to this high risk and their view was space is hard — you get it knocked back, you get back up again and you try again. I didn’t speak to anyone who was angry about the failure. Sad, disappointed, but pretty much already looking to the next launch.

Marc Filippino
OK. But not everyone might be as chill about this. You recently spoke to the director-general of the European Space Agency and he warned of a crisis. What did he mean by that?

Peggy Hollinger
Well, I think there are two issues here. First, Europe has been slow to develop truly competitive launch vehicles the way SpaceX has been developed. And, you know, that’s a whole question of how the United States kind of encourages and creates the market for these competitive launch vehicles to happen. And the second crisis is that, you know, post- the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Europe has lost access to Russian rockets to take some of their satellites into space, but also their delays and failures on the other rockets, which means that, you know, Europe could well find itself without the ability to launch its own satellites and it might be forced to go to the United States, to SpaceX, for example, or to India. So this is a question of your sovereign capability. Europe cannot afford to be without its own access to space that it can control.

Marc Filippino
That’s our international business editor, Peggy Hollinger. She covers the final frontier for the FT. Thanks, Peggy.

Peggy Hollinger
Thank you very much, Marc.

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Marc Filippino
Before we go, $187 can buy you some decent things. I’m on Amazon right now, and I could get a kid’s bike or a computer monitor or a desk chair for that amount. Or you can use $187 to get an annual subscription to FT.com and read all the articles that are behind a paywall at half the usual price. Way better than a desk chair, right? You can find the offer at FT.com/briefingsale. That’s FT.com/briefingsale. We’ll have that link in the show notes.

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And FT.com is where you can read more on all the stories you heard in today’s podcast. This has been your daily FT News Briefing. Make sure you check back tomorrow for the latest business news.

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