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re: Russia Poses Danger to UK & US Must End Prevarication Thats Prolonged The War
Ukraine War: Satellite Images Reveal Russian Defences Before Major Assault
A beach resort bristling with fortifications. A major road lined with anti-tank ditches. Satellite analysis by BBC Verify has uncovered some of the extensive defences built by Russia as it prepares for a major Ukrainian counter-attack. BBC 22 MAY 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...omo_976-nc.png After months of stalemate, the expected assault is likely to be a crucial test for Ukraine as it seeks to prove it can achieve significant battlefield gains with the weapons it has received from the West. By examining hundreds of satellite images, the BBC has identified some key points in the significant build-up of trenches and other fortifications in southern Ukraine since October. These four locations offer an insight into what Russia expects from the counter-offensive, and what defences Ukrainian forces might encounter. 1. Crimea's west coast Seized by Russia in 2014, Crimea was formerly known for its beach resorts. Now, instead of sun loungers and parasols, the coastline stretching for 15 miles (25km) is littered with defence structures installed by Russian troops. The image below shows the only open sandy beach on the west coast without natural defences such as cliffs or hills. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...zoom-2x-nc.png Firstly, there are "dragon's teeth" along the shore: pyramid-shaped blocks of concrete, designed to block the path of tanks and other military vehicles. Behind them is a line of trenches, providing cover from incoming attacks. Several bunkers can also be spotted along the trenches. Stacks of wood, digging machines and stores of dragon's teeth along the coast suggest building work was still in progress when the image was taken in March. Some military experts suggest the defences are likely to be a precaution, rather than a sign that Russia expects to defend a seaborne assault, since Ukraine has little naval capacity. Intelligence analyst Layla Guest says: "The fortifications are likely in place to deter any bold Ukrainian operation to attack Crimea via the sea rather than on land." The beach fortification is just one example of a vast network of trenches, as shown by the black dots in the map below, based on work by open-source analyst Brady Africk. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...nsv2_2x-nc.png BBC Verify has been able to identify other key fortification sites by pinpointing individual trench locations from videos on social media. Once an exact location was discovered it was then possible to trace an entire trench network using satellite images. 2. Tokmak The small city of Tokmak lies on a key route in the south-east of the country that Ukrainian forces may want to use to cut off Crimea from other Russian-held territories. There have been reports that Ukrainian civilians have been moved out in order to turn the city into a military fortress. This would provide soldiers with access to supplies and a base to retreat to. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...ches-2x-nc.png The satellite image above shows that a network of trenches in two lines has been dug north of Tokmak - the direction Ukraine would have to attack from. Behind these trenches is a further ring of fortifications around the city, with three layers of defences that can be seen distinctly in this close-up satellite image. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...m_v2-2x-nc.png The top of the satellite image shows an anti-tank ditch. These are usually at least 2.5m deep and designed to trap any enemy tanks that attempt to cross. Behind the ditch are several rows of dragon's teeth and another trench network. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...site-2x-nc.png But Ukrainian forces are likely to face further traps. It's highly likely that mines have also been hidden between Tokmak's three defence lines, says Mark Cancian from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. "Minefields are a standard part of every defence, and the Russians have used them extensively throughout the war. "Here they will be large and better concealed, slowing down Ukrainian attacks so that other combat elements, like artillery and infantry, can strike the attacking forces." BBC Verify has also discovered three other towns near Tokmak have been similarly fortified. 3. E105 highway A line of anti-tank ditches and trenches now runs alongside a 22-mile (35km) stretch of the E105 main highway, west of Tokmak. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...hway-2x-nc.png The E105 is strategically important, connecting Russian-held Melitopol in the south with the northern city of Kharkiv, held by Ukraine. The side that controls it can easily move around troops around the region. If Ukrainian forces attempt to use this road, Russia will likely target it with heavy artillery from behind their defences. Russia's position is also in range of another nearby road - the T401 - which could also be targeted. "The Russians are worried about the recently built Ukrainian armour units. If these units can get on a main highway, they can move very quickly," says Mr Cancian. "The Russian defences aim to push them off the roads and therefore slow them down." 4. Rivnopil, north of Mariupol The port of Mariupol has a strategic position between the Russian-occupied territories in the east and Crimea in the south. It also became a symbol of resistance to invasion when a hard-core of fighters held out for months as the city was besieged. Given Russia expects Ukraine to try to retake it, BBC Verify decided to look at the territory surrounding the city - leading to the discovery of a collection of circular trenches. Located near the small village of Rivnopil about 34 miles (55km) north of Mariupol, each circular trench has a mound of soil in the middle, possibly either to protect artillery or to keep guns stable. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...lery-2x-nc.png Meanwhile, the circular trenches allow soldiers to take cover and to move the artillery so it can aim in any direction. It shows that Russia is preparing to defend areas of open ground (without natural protection from hills and rivers) alongside their wider trench network. But some analysts note that Ukrainian forces can use similar satellite images and drone surveillance to identify and bypass many of these defences. Alexander Lord from strategic advisory firm Sibylline Ltd says: "The Russians will therefore likely attempt to funnel Ukrainian forces down certain routes which are heavily mined and pre-targeted by Russian artillery." Satellite images show obvious defences - but that might all be part of Russias' plan. |
re: NATO on Alert: Wagners in Belarus a Growing Threat to Poland & NATO
Russia Poses Danger to UK and The US Must End The Prevarication That May Have Prolonged The War
It’s Zelenskiy who is setting the pace diplomatically and strategically. Kyiv Hit by New MASSIVE Russian Drone Attack as Capital Marks Its Founding Birthday 1,541 Years Ago The Russian Weapon That Signals The Start of a New Stage in Warfare Blindingly fast and manoeuvrable, new hypersonic missiles pose a tough challenge to defend – and they’re only just getting started BBC 28 MAY 2023 https://gdb.rferl.org/034d0000-0aff-...e4_w1023_s.jpg The moment has arrived: Biden must give Ukraine all it needs to win Foot-dragging, indecision and fearfulness have characterised Joe Biden’s off-screen approach to Ukraine since Russia invaded 15 months ago, compounding doubts about the durability of US support as the 2024 presidential election campaign kicks off. The contrast between Biden and the bold, energetic leadership of Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is striking. One man frets about disaster and loss. The other thinks only of winning. Biden’s latest, belated and incomplete volte-face, over providing US-made F-16 combat jets, illustrates the problem. Zelenskiy has been asking for fighter planes since the war began. Neighbours such as Poland were sympathetic. Yet afraid of provoking a fight with Russia, Biden, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Pentagon officials publicly opposed supplying F-16s until as recently as March. Zelenskiy wanted the planes because he knew Ukraine was vulnerable from the air. As the invasion unfolded, Ukraine’s people, homes and vital infrastructure were mercilessly pounded by Russian missiles. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has explained how F-16s or similar planes might have supported air defence systems, reduced casualties and protected ground troops. But they were not forthcoming. Biden and Sullivan also rejected proposals by experienced former US generals for Nato-patrolled “humanitarian no-fly zones”, initially in western Ukraine, to protect civilians from aerial assault. Although admittedly risky, safe havens akin to past operations in Iraq, Bosnia and Libya might have saved many lives and stemmed the refugee exodus. They still could. Biden’s argument, then as now, is that such interventions, coming on top of large-scale US arms shipments, intelligence-sharing and aid, might be viewed by Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, as escalatory. This seems sensible at first glance. Yet it’s way too cautious. Putin and his lickspittle poltroons, Dmitry Medvedev and Sergei Lavrov, are adept at playing on western fears. Whenever new forms of assistance for Kyiv are mooted, they spew dire threats, sometimes involving nuclear weapons. Biden should listen to Antony Blinken. His secretary of state has spotted a pattern over the past year: Kremlin warnings of retaliation and direct confrontation rarely amount to much in practice. The Russians huff and puff – but mostly bluff. Putin is not entirely stupid. He knows he’d never win a fight with Nato, let alone survive nuclear warfare. Another pattern is apparent: Biden’s chronic indecision. Protracted humming and hawing last year delayed supplies of Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Patriot batteries, longer-range high-altitude missiles, and M1 Abrams battle tanks – all of which were eventually delivered. European allies such as Germany used White House waffling to excuse their own foot-dragging. These prevarications may have needlessly prolonged the war. The F-16 U-turn, confirmed at last weekend’s G7 summit in Hiroshima, paves the way for training Ukrainian pilots and the provision of “fourth-generation” jets by Nato allies. Yet it’s a typical Biden fudge. The US itself has not committed to supply planes. If it does, it’s unclear whether they will be the latest F-16 models equipped with the latest weapons. Unconvincing explanations are offered for US dithering. Officials say they followed a deliberate plan to ensure Ukraine first received all the heavy weaponry and armoured vehicles required for its long-anticipated counter-offensive. “We could certainly have started earlier, but there were much higher priorities, and it’s seen by some as an escalatory act,” said US air force secretary Frank Kendall, referring to F-16 training. In fact, it was pressure from US allies that proved irresistible when the 50-nation Ukraine Contact Group met at Ramstein air base in Germany last month. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin was urged to think again by old friends such as Britain and the Netherlands, as well as by the eastern Europeans. On his return to Washington, Austin advised Biden to drop his veto. The American shift on fighter planes is a personal triumph for Zelenskiy. His tireless lobbying bore fruit, once again overcoming Biden’s hesitancy and assuaging, if not dispelling, his misgivings. And it shone a light on yet another emerging pattern: how Ukraine’s president, not America’s risk-averse commander-in-chief or the Nato alliance, is driving the west’s wartime agenda. Zelenskiy’s leading role was highlighted when he stole the show in Hiroshima, making a dramatic entrance after flying in late from an Arab League summit in Jeddah. Ukraine does not belong to the G7, or to the EU or Nato for that matter. But Zelenskiy has earned a place at the top table. His irrepressible diplomacy, aided by Putin’s blundering, has brought membership of both latter organisations within reach. As a leader capable of inspiring his people and influencing international opinion, Zelenskiy puts Biden, Emmanuel Macron, Olaf Scholz and Rishi Sunak to shame. He is also changing the strategic conversation in fundamental ways. US policy towards China, especially Taiwan, has hardened tangibly due to Russia’s aggression – but also thanks to Zelenskiy’s success in re-emphasising the inviolability of territorial borders and national sovereignty as globally recognised imperatives. Ukraine is increasingly setting the pace on the ground, too, independently of its main backers. Incursions into southern Russia by anti-regime militia using US military vehicles, an audacious drone attack on the Kremlin, sabotage, assassinations and mystery explosions in occupied Crimea are a likely prelude to Kyiv’s pivotal counter-offensive. Success is vital if it is to head off Chinese and possible Franco-German pressure this winter to trade land for peace. All this activity, licit and illicit, is compounding White House jitters as American public support for Ukraine appears to soften. Since neither of his main 2024 Republican challengers, Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, is committed to assisting Kyiv, Biden must be braver and do more, faster – for his time, and Ukraine’s, may be running out. Biden describes the war as a seminal struggle between liberty and tyranny. It is. So give Zelenskiy all he needs to win. The Russian Weapon That Signals The Start of a New Stage in Warfare https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=680 It was supposed to be the missile that no one could stop. The hypersonic “dagger” that Vladimir Putin could slip into Ukraine – and Nato’s – chest, like an assassin wielding a blade so fast that the lethal blow is just a blur. Dead before you know it.... Russia Poses Danger to UK The outgoing head of the RAF has told The Telegraph that Russia poses a danger to the UK if it loses in Ukraine and he fears “vindictive” action. https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/pr...g?imwidth=1280 Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston, the outgoing Chief of the Air Staff, has said that Russia poses a direct threat to Britain if it loses in Ukraine. He warned that the threat will endure or even get worse if Vladimir Putin is ousted and says the Kremlin has means of harming us “through air attack, missile attack and subsurface attack”. |
re: NATO on Alert: Wagners in Belarus a Growing Threat to Poland & NATO
Beginning of The End For PUTIN With Break-Up of Russia Coming
Vladimir Putin could be facing the beginning of his own end and further break-ups of Russia are likely once the country is defeated in Ukraine, Luke Coffey, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, said Ukraine Dam: Thousands Flee Floods After Dam Collapse Near Nova Kakhovka A Biblical Deluge: People Along Dnipro River Wake Up to Catastrophe - 'The water keeps rising' BBC 7 JUNE 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...031058e2-1.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...A-CONFLICT.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...P_54019JPG.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...NFLICT-WAR.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...P_54024JPG.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...P_54020JPG.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...NFLICT-WAR.jpg Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are without normal access to drinking water after the Kakhovka dam was destroyed, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said. Tens of thousands remain in flooded areas in southern Ukraine, he said, accusing Russia of failing to help those trapped in parts they controlled. There are fears that water levels could rise further. Ukraine and Russia accused each other of blowing up the dam on Tuesday, but the BBC cannot verify the claims. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the breach "a barbaric act" in a phone call with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Kremlin said in a statement. Mr Zelensky said he had also spoken to President Erdogan, and had stressed the "humanitarian and environmental consequences" of the disaster. "Hundreds of thousands of people have been left without normal access to drinking water," Ukraine's president said on his Telegram channel. "We can only help on the territory controlled by Ukraine. On the part occupied by Russia, the occupiers are not even trying to help people," he added. As mass evacuations continued on Wednesday in Ukraine's Kherson region, satellite images highlighted widespread devastation there. One of the photos showed a flooded port and industrial area in the regional capital Kherson, which is under Ukrainian control. Graphic Showing Evacuated Areas of Ukraine After Burst Dam https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...fter-2x-nc.png |
Re: END For PUTIN-Wagner Chief Says Russia Losing Badly -Skulls Uncovered in Drained
1 Attachment(s)
Skulls Uncovered in Reservoir After Being Drained Following Ukraine Dam Breach
The Nova Kakhovka dam burst earlier this month, an incident deemed a major humanitarian and environmental disaster by many. Wagner Chief Admits Russia Losing Badly Against Ukraines’ Counter-Offensive Wagner Group financier and internally recognised war criminal Yevgeny Prigozhin issued yet another rebuke of the Armed Forces of Russia stationed in Ukraine on Tuesday in what he claimed was merely his update on the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives. BBC 14 JUNE 2023 https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.d...=Api&P=0&h=180 The human remains are believed to date back decades, as one skull can be seen wearing a World War II helmet. Eight decades ago, the area became the theatre of the Battle of the Dnipro, during which thousands of German and Soviet soldiers lost their lives. During this key WWII fight, the Soviet Army launched a counter-attack against the Germans, an operation which involved more than six million troops. In late 1943, the fight focused on Nikopol, where many of the skeletons were found. https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.Z...=Api&P=0&h=180 https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.6...=Api&P=0&h=180 The level of water in the Kakhovka Reservoir continues to decrease. The human remains are believed to be dating back decades At the time, Nikopol was a site of metal ore mines Adolf Hitler was determined to hold on to. However, after sustaining a series of attacks launched by Soviet troops led by Marshal Rodion Malinovsky during the last months of 1943, German soldiers were eventually abandoned the town in February 1944. The human remains may be mostly of Wehrmacht troops, Oleksii Kokot, an expert on German military relics in Ukraine, said. The commentator explained the Soviet fallen were buried, while "dead German soldiers were just left lying in the fields … therefore, these could really be German soldiers". Wagner Chief Admits Russia Losing Badly Against Ukraines’ Counter-Offensive Wagner Group financier and internally recognised war criminal Yevgeny Prigozhin issued yet another rebuke of the Armed Forces of Russia stationed in Ukraine on Tuesday in what he claimed was merely his update on the ongoing Ukrainian counter-offensives. https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img.../1779707_1.jpg Wagner Group Stage Military Rebellion as They Refuse to Work for Russias' Army Russian forces are “not doing enough to fight back against” the rapidly advancing Ukrainian troops, the Wagner Group leader has claimed. As Russian President Vladimir Putin baselessly suggested during a meeting with military journalists on Tuesday that his forces had destroyed 160 Ukrainian tanks and 360 armoured vehicles since the beginning of the counter offensive, Yevgeny Prigozhin shrugged off the claims as inaccurate, saying Ukraine had suffered only “normal combat losses”. A US official familiar with American intelligence said Putin’s comments were “not accurate” and cautioned about putting any stock in Russia’s public assessments as more footage emerged purporting to show Ukrainian successes on the battlefield. The Ruble Could End Putins' Reign Chart Maps Russian Currencys' Staggering Collapse The ruble has now lost 34 percent of its value against the US dollar since its high point just over a year ago, making imports ever costlier for all suffering under Putin's regime. https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img.../1779881_1.jpg https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1686638162494 Mass disinformation campaigns and an iron rule may be enough to prevent the Russian people from overthrowing Vladimir Putin, but the country's business elites are unlikely to suffer vanishing profit margins for long. Last June, 100 units of the currency bought $1.85 at the peak of Russia’s exploitation of skyrocketing prices for its energy exports. This has fallen to $1.21 today. Combined with labour shortages this has the effect of intensifying inflationary pressures, and the Russian central bank has indicated it may have to hike the country’s interest rate for the first time since the early days of the war. Alarm bells have been sounded by foreign analysts and policymakers in Moscow before, but the Russian economy has so far been able to defy doomsayers. This time, however, the situation on the home front is heating up just as Ukrainian forces claim the first victories in their long-anticipated counteroffensive. The ruble has now lost 34 percent of its value against the US dollar since its high point just over a year ago, making imports ever costlier for all suffering under Putin's regime. |
re: NATO on Alert: Wagners in Belarus a Growing Threat to Poland & NATO
Coup in Russia - The Wagner Rebellion in Russia Turns Back - Wagner Chiefs' 24 hours of Chaos in Russia
Newspapers around the world raced to cover fast-moving events inside Russia, with many assessing what it could mean for Vladimir Putin Wagner Mutineers Turn Back - Wagner’s rebellious mercenary leader will move to Belarus under the terms of a truce agreed with President Putin, the Kremlin said on Saturday night. BBC NEWS 25 JUNE 2023 https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/pr...g?imwidth=1280 Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was greeted like a hero by supporters in Rostov-on-Don, had earlier turned his fighters back from marching on Moscow on a dramatic day in Russia. The Russian military has ordered Wagner troops to return to their bases amid reports the mercenary group has launched a coup against the Kremlin. On Friday night Yevgeny Prigozhin, the Wagner mercenary leader, accused the Russian military of shelling his fighters and said his group would stop the “evil” of Moscow’s military leadership, while Russia deployed armoured vehicles on the streets of Rostov. For one long June night and a day, Russia's notorious mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin staged an apparent insurrection, sending an armoured convoy towards Moscow and raising questions about Vladimir Putin's grip on power. The Russian president even accused his former ally of treason, embarking on an armed rebellion and "a stab in the back of our country". But by the end of Saturday, Prigozhin had called the whole thing off and ordered his men back to base. "In 24 hours we got to within 200km (124 miles) of Moscow. In this time we did not spill a single drop of our fighters' blood," he announced. Twenty-four hours of mayhem, and so much we don't know. Was the Wagner boss planning a coup? Prigozhin was adamant this was "a march for justice", not a coup. Whatever it was, it came to an end very fast. For months he has played a vital role in Russia's military campaign in Ukraine, recruiting thousands to his Wagner mercenary group, especially from Russian jails. He has long been in a public feud with the military chiefs running the war, but that turned into open revolt as they sought to bring his forces under their command structure by 1 July. Wagner fighters crossed from occupied eastern Ukraine into the big southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don, then moved up the main motorway via Voronezh, en route to Moscow. It felt like a defining moment in Russia's 16-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But as the Wagner convoy headed north, there came news of a deal, bizarrely brokered by Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko. Few believe the story is as simple as that, but if the Kremlin is right this may be the end of Prigozhin's role in the war and in Russia itself. He is heading to Belarus and will not face criminal charges, says the Kremlin. His fighters have been promised an amnesty. Was it entirely bloodless? That is unclear as at least one military helicopter was shot down. And where this leaves Vladimir Putin is another matter. Wagner vs Russias' Military Chiefs Prigozhin has raged and ranted for months at Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and armed forces chief Valery Gerasimov about their failure to supply his mercenaries with sufficient kit and ammunition. When President Putin backed their deadline to bring all mercenary groups fighting in Ukraine to sign defence ministry contracts, he refused, seeing it as a challenge to his influence. In a lengthy tirade on 23 June he told Russians the whole justification for their war was a lie and merely an excuse for "a small group of scumbags" to promote themselves and deceive the public and president. Then came an extraordinary escalation in their dispute. Prigozhin accused the military of staging a deadly attack on his men in Ukraine. The military denied launching a strike and the video he produced as evidence revealed nothing. Late on Friday he announced his "march for justice" was under way. "There are 25,000 of us and we are going to find out why there is such chaos in the country," Prigozhin exclaimed. "Everyone who wants, join us." Gen Sergei Surovikin, deputy commander of forces in Ukraine, appealed to him to step back and submit to President Putin's authority. Moving his forces across the border into Rostov-on-Don overnight, he claimed control of the military HQ from where the war is being run, and videos showed his men in the centre of the city apparently encountering no resistance. By Saturday morning he declared: "We are inside [military] headquarters." The city, he said later, had been taken "without a shot". Russia's FSB security service then opened a criminal case. The entire Moscow region was put on an alert under a strict "counter-terrorist operation regime", as was Voronezh halfway up the M4 motorway from Rostov. Putins' Televised Address On Saturday morning, looking stern and determined, Vladimir Putin gave a five-minute address on state-run TV and appealed for unity. "What we are facing is precisely treason," he told the nation. Without naming his former ally, he said those behind the military mutiny had betrayed Russia and would answer for it. Prigozhin quickly denied betraying his country, and then went on to criticise the president as "deeply wrong". Until this point he had never directly targeted his anger at Mr Putin. But his sarcastic references to "happy grandfather" were widely seen as indirect criticism. Last month he asked how Russia could win if it turned out that "this grandfather is a complete arsehole". Columns of armoured Wagner vehicles were soon seen heading up the motorway through Voronezh region and further north into Lipetsk too. A fuel depot was set alight `by an airstrike in Voronezh, although it was not clear why. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...r_2x640-nc.png |
Re: Putins' Humiliation -Wagner Deals With Syria to Create Worlds' Biggest Fighting F
Major Russian Military Event Cancelled in Fresh Humiliation For Putin --- Wagner Negotiating Syria Deal to Create Biggest Fighting Force in The World
Russia Launches First Overnight Drone Attack on Kyiv Since Wagner Mutiny - Putin Gives KILL Order against Chief Mutineer Prigozhin. Russia Did Evacuate Orphanages From Ukraine Says Lavrov Following ICC Arrest Warrant Ukrainian Forces Blow Up Multiple Russian Vehicles in HUGE Explosions BBC NEWS 2 JULY 2023 https://images.ctfassets.net/pjshm78...650&h=366&q=80 Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin meet in Moscow last March. https://images.ctfassets.net/pjshm78...650&h=366&q=80 Representatives of Wagner Group were negotiating a lucrative deal with President Bashar al-Assad to make Syria its biggest base, just days before its troops attempted to stage a coup in Moscow. Officials in Damascus were ready to agree to increase the number of Wagner fighters in Syria by more than tenfold - seeing the move as a route to strengthening ties with the Kremlin - but were blindsided by events in Russia last week. The Assad regime is considering whether there is a way to keep the multi-million-dollar contracts with Yevgeny Prigozhin's companies, while not risking the direct military support Damascus receives from Moscow. |
re: NATO on Alert: Wagners in Belarus a Growing Threat to Poland & NATO
Fearful Germany Preparing to Block Ukraines' Nato Bid
Germany plans to postpone Ukraine's accession to the North Atlantic Alliance during the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius on July 11-12 for fear that Ukrainian membership will lead to a war between the bloc and Russia BBC NEWS 9 JUL 2023 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=680 According to the source, Germany plans to call on NATO members at the summit to focus on increasing security guarantees rather than on a potential membership bid. "Time is needed to develop guarantees that would essentially block membership... Berlin does not want Putin to potentially test Article 5," the source told The Telegraph. The next NATO summit will take place in Vilnius on July 11-12, where the topic of the Russia-Ukraine war is expected to occupy a high place on the agenda. Despite this, the alliance has not made any promises to Ukraine about extending a membership offer, and has instead expressed an intention to bring Ukraine "closer" to the alliance. Countries are split about whether to support a Ukrainian membership bid, with some offering full support for Ukraine and others remaining weary about the potential drawbacks of sponsorship. |
Re: Ukraine-NATO Agrees Land/Sea/Air Military Equipment /Russian Chief Calls CIA Chie
NATO Summit Ends; G7 Signs Declaration Outlining Support For Ukraine
G7 signed declaration of support for Ukraine and said they would provide security and economic support, including modern military equipment across land, air, and sea Australia to Send 30 More Bushmasters to Ukraine Wagner Revolt - Wagner Boss Prighozin Had Been Treated For Cancer and Had Nothing to Lose Before Mutiny & Russian Spy Chief Confirms Call to CIA Director After Mutiny... ---Sergei Naryshkin says he and Bill Burns discussed the mutiny and ‘what to do with Ukraine’ in phone call last month BBC NEWS 13 JUL 2023 https://cyprus-mail.com/wp-content/u...IT-960x640.jpg https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.T...=Api&P=0&h=220 G7 leaders announce a joint declaration of support for Ukraine, as the NATO summit is held in Vilnius, Lithuania, 12 July 2023 G7 members are expected to ratify a wide-ranging security pact with Ukraine at the Nato summit on Wednesday. But they stopped short of providing a timeframe for Kyiv to join the security alliance, provoking the anger of President Volodymyr Zelensky. The security arrangement will include defence equipment, training and intelligence sharing. And UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it would send a "strong signal" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The security arrangement with Ukraine comes after its President Volodymyr Zelensky raged against Nato's reluctance to offer Kyiv a timeframe for joining the alliance. G7 leaders will sign the declaration in Vilnius on Wednesday on the side-lines of the second day of a Nato defence summit. Speaking ahead of a meeting with President Zelensky on Wednesday, Mr Sunak said Kyiv's allies were ramping up their "formal arrangements to protect Ukraine for the long term". "We can never see a repeat of what has happened in Ukraine and this declaration reaffirms our commitment to ensure it is never left vulnerable to the kind of brutality Russia has inflicted on it again," he said. British officials said the UK had played a leading role in the agreement involving G7 partners Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US. More details are expected on Wednesday. But unlike Nato membership - this does not include a clause to come to the target nation's aid during a time of attack. The G7 announcement comes after Nato said Ukraine could join the military alliance "when allies agree and conditions are met" - a delay Mr Zelensky has called "absurd". Kyiv accepts it cannot join Nato while it is at war with Russia but wants to join as soon as possible after fighting ends. Addressing crowds in the Lithuanian capital on Tuesday, Mr Zelensky said: "Nato will give Ukraine security - Ukraine will make the alliance stronger." He also presented a battle flag from the destroyed city of Bakhmut - the site of the longest, and possibly bloodiest, battle in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Mr Zelensky had earlier tweeted that "uncertainty is weakness", and said the lack of an agreed timeframe meant his country's eventual membership could become a bargaining chip. Nato might not have said when and how Ukraine might join the alliance, but diplomats emphasised that they had set out a clear path to membership, with the onerous application process shortened significantly. They said they had recognised that Ukraine's army was increasingly "interoperable" and more "politically integrated" with Nato forces, and promised continue supporting reforms to Ukraine's democracy and security sector. Diplomats also highlighted the creation of a new Nato-Ukraine Council, meeting on Wednesday for the first time, which will give Kyiv the right to summon meetings of the whole alliance. Some member states fear near-automatic membership for Ukraine could give Russia an incentive to both escalate and prolong the war. In the past, Western security pledges failed to deter two Russian invasions. Nato allies hope a third round will be robust and explicit enough to persuade the Kremlin that further aggression would be too costly. A series of military packages for Ukraine were also announced at the summit on Tuesday. A coalition of 11 nations will start training Ukrainian pilots to fly US-made F-16 fighter jets at a centre to be set up in Romania in August, officials said. They gave the go-ahead to supply Ukraine with advanced jets, including the long sought F-16s - a significant upgrade on the Soviet-era planes it is currently using. Ukraine had repeatedly lobbied its Western allies to provide jets to help with its recently-begun counter-offensive aiming to retake territory seized by Russia. However experts say the training of Ukrainian pilots to fly and operate Western jets will take some time. In addition to the G7 security pact, the UK has announced plans to deliver more than 70 combat and logistics vehicles to Ukraine, aimed at boosting its counteroffensive operation. |
Re: Belarus Tries to STOP Wagner From Attacking Poland-Putin Trying to Destabilise Eu
Lukashenko Struggling to Keep Wagner Troops From Attacking Poland
Russia Takes Control Over Wagner Groups' Prison Recruitment Pipeline Ukrainian Drones Attack Moscow High-Rise Building Ablaze in Russian Capital Belarus is struggling to restrain Wagner mercenaries from attacking Poland, Alexander Lukashenko has said. The Belarusian leader made the claim during a meeting with Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, days after Warsaw accused Moscow of using Wagner and Minsk to destabilise Eastern Europe. BBC 26 JULY 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...5319385281.jpg Putin ‘plans to use Wagner fighters to invade land between Poland and Lithuania. Putin 'targets NATO's weakest links with invasion threat from Wagner fighters' https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...P_43607JPG.jpg The Russian Wagner Group is poised to set free the last of its convict recruits as Russia seizes control of the prison recruitment pipeline. UK’s Ministry of Defence said the recruitment drive of criminals only resulted in "one of the bloodiest episodes in modern military history" Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin once boasted that he recruited 50,000 convicts to fill the ranks of his mercenary army to help aid Russia with the war in Ukraine. The troops held a huge role in capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut which was one of Russia's few recent claims of success. The UK’s Ministry of Defence said in its daily update on Friday, that the recruitment drive of criminals only resulted in "one of the bloodiest episodes in modern military history". It said: “Up to 20,000 convict recruits were killed within a few months.” Moscow Skyscraper in Flames as Russians Claim Ukrainian Drone Attack Missed Target https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg The high-rise building was set ablaze in the Russian capital after drone attacks suspected to have been orchestrated by Ukraine targeted Russian Defence Ministry facilities |
re: NATO on Alert: Wagners in Belarus a Growing Threat to Poland & NATO
Ukraine WAR: 'People Call Us The Ghosts of Bakhmut' - Ghosts Attack in Bakhmut From All Sides
War is Coming to Russia, Zelenskiy Warns After Latest Drone Attacks on Russia Putin Mixes Threats of New Offensive in Ukraine With Offers of Peace Talks Russian President Vladimir Putin made extensive comments about the war in Ukraine, alternating threats of a new Russian offensive to grab more Ukrainian land with statements about the Kremlin’s readiness for peace talks BBC 31 JUL 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...630069af4b.jpg Sniper commander Ghost says his team got the name "The Ghosts of Bakhmut" after they started their operations in the area https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...4114f6e532.jpg Sniping team marksman Kuzia checks his rifle one last time before heading out on their mission Ukrainian forces are trying to retake the city of Bakhmut in the country's east. The BBC was given exclusive access to a team of elite snipers, referred to as "the Ghosts of Bakhmut", who are conducting night raids nearby. Ghost, the sniping team's commander, takes us to the place he calls the "edge of existence" - their base on the outskirts of the city. "Ghost is my call sign" he tells me. "When we started bringing terror to Bakhmut, we got the name 'the Ghosts of Bakhmut'." Their base is already well within the range of Russian artillery. Ghost doesn't flinch at the crump of a shell landing nearby. "The artillery always makes people worry," he says. "You can hide from artillery, but not from a sniper". The Ghosts, a team of around 20 soldiers, have been operating on the edges of Bakhmut for the past six months. They often hunt for high-value targets. I ask Ghost how many Russians his team have killed. He says, "there's a confirmed number - 524. Seventy-six of those are mine". The team electronically records every shot through the sights of their rifle. Not everyone's keeping count though. Kuzia, the marksman for tonight's mission, says "it's nothing to be proud of. We're not killing people, we're destroying the enemy". Before the war he worked in a factory. He says he never liked guns, but felt compelled to take up arms when Russia invaded. Kuzia does one final check of his US-made Barrett sniper rifle: "Each mission is dangerous, when we make a mistake the enemy can hit you," he says. "Of course I'm scared - only a fool wouldn't be." On tonight's mission he'll be accompanied by Taras, his spotter. Kusch is the driver - who'll bring them as close as possible to the front line. From there the two-man team will have to walk more than a mile to reach their target. Ghost will remain back at the base, along with the rookie, known simply as the Brit. The youngest member of the team got the name after receiving his initial training in the UK. He's yet to have his first confirmed kill. Ghost says he's handpicked every member of the team based on their "humanity and patriotism" rather than their military experience and skills. As dusk approaches the team climbs into their armoured Humvee. I, and cameraman Moose Campbell, will accompany them to the drop-off point. Kusch, the driver, tells us that part of the route is still being targeted by Russian artillery. As he starts the engine the team all give themselves the sign of the cross. Kusch starts to play some music from his phone. He says the Ukrainian rap song gets them in the mood. But it'll also mask the sound of the shelling. At first it's hard to hear the explosions nearby because of the rattle of the Humvee, which Kusch drives at speed over pot-holed tracks. But he points to the sky several times and warns, "incoming". There are a few thuds nearby. We pass half a dozen wrecked Ukrainian armoured vehicles that weren't so fortunate. Kusch points to minefields on either side of the dirt track https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...588293_car.jpg The sniping team, alongside the BBC's Jonathan Beale and cameraman Moose Campbell, inside a vehicle near Bakhmut The vehicle the team is travelling in is damaged by shrapnel after an explosion nearby Twenty minutes later we come to an abrupt halt close to a ruined house. The two-man sniper team open the doors and disappear towards a tree line. Kusch shouts out, "God be with you" before making a fast exit. As we return there's a flash of orange and a louder explosion. The Humvee starts to rattle even more. Kusch opens his door, while driving, to look behind and lets out a stream of swear words. A piece of shrapnel has shredded one of the back tyres. It's a nerve-wracking hobble back to base. When we finally return he shows us the large piece of jagged metal which tore apart the tyre. It's now dark and the shelling has subsided. Inside their base they anxiously hold on to their radios for news from the sniper team. Kusch and the Brit pace the floor. Ghost makes a phone call to his seven-year-old daughter. She's on speaker when she excitedly shouts, "I love you daddy". It's a brief burst of normality - but he's already taught her how to strip a gun. Seven hours later, with little sleep, it's time for the extraction. We shelter in the building while there's a volley of incendiary fire, and then make our way back into the Humvee. This time it's dark, but Kusch tries to drive from memory - avoiding turning on the headlights to attract attention. Another abrupt halt and the two-man sniper team gets back inside the Humvee. The relief is palpable when we get back to their base. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...801000x563.jpg An aerial view shows destroyed buildings in Bakhmut, taken on 15 June Kuzia says: "One shot, one target." Later they show us the video from the night-scope. They say it was a Russian machine-gunner who'd been firing at Ukrainian troops near the front line. They'll rest now until the next night's mission. Kuzia says: "I'm happy to be back and happy that everyone's alive". Over the past six months several of the team have been injured, including the commander Ghost. But none of them have been killed. Ghost says "every trip may be our last, but we're doing a noble deed". One small team of snipers won't win this war, or even take back Bakhmut. But they believe they're having an impact. Kusch says it has a psychological effect on their enemy - hunting down one Russian soldier at a time from a place that can't be seen and with a sound that can't be heard. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...bakhmutmap.png |
re: US FINALLY Approves Sending F-16s From Denmark & Netherlands -Training to Begin
NATO on Alert: Poland Accuses Belarus of Violating Airspace - Tensions Building Between Poland and Belarus
Poland has detained another suspected member of a Russian spy network, bringing the total number of people detained as part of an investigation to 16 Explosions Reported at Russian Port on Black Sea; EU Urges Moscow to Stop Grain ‘Blackmail’ Putin is Using Food as a Weapon – But His Cynical Attempts to Drum Up Forced Allies Will Fail BBC 4 AUG 2023 https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.1...=Api&P=0&h=220 Ukraine and US start talks on security guarantees; EU urges G20 ministers to help persuade Putin to reopen grain export route Sea drone attack reported on Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk Russia says it repelled a seaborne drone attack by Ukraine off Novorossiysk, a major hub for exports. https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.z...=Api&P=0&h=220 Ukraine claims to have put a Russian Black Sea fleet ship out of action Ukraine’s intelligence services have claimed to have put the Russian Black Sea fleet vessel Olenegorsky Gornyak out of action, saying it has sustained a serious breach and is currently unable to carry out combat missions. Reuters reports an intelligence source has told it that the sea drone attack was carried out by Ukraine’s SBU security service and its navy. Polands' Military is Redeploying 46,000 More Units Closer to its Border With Belarus as fears grow over Putin expansionism https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1686998680160 That's after reports of Russia's Wagner mercenary group training Belarusian soldiers in the area. People in Poland near the border said they could hear shooting and helicopters. Warsaw had already sent additional forces to boost security at the border with Belarus earlier month. Polands prime minister said that Wagner's increasing presence in Belarus was a growing threat to Poland and NATO. |
re: Ukraine Continues to BLOW UP & Obliterate Parts of Russia & BLAST/Destroy Russia Arms
US FINALLY Approves Sending F-16 Jets to Ukraine From Denmark and Netherlands & Allows Training to Begin
The Biden administration has formally approved the transfer of F-16 training materials to Denmark, allowing Ukrainian pilots to begin training on the long-anticipated fighter jets BBC 18 AUG 2023 https://www.politico.com/dims4/defau...rade-65103.jpg At the same time, the U.S. this week provided written assurances to Denmark and the Netherlands promising to “expedite” the approval of all necessary transfer requests so that the aircraft can be sent to the battlefield as soon as the pilots are trained to use them, according to one of the U.S. officials and a State Department spokesperson. “This way, Ukraine can take full advantage of its new capabilities as soon as the first set of pilots complete their training,” said the official, who was also familiar with the letter. Reuters previously reported the U.S. assurances of a speedy approval. Taken together, the moves signal a new sense of urgency from Washington to get fighter jets to the battlefield as soon as possible. The move to green light Denmark’s request to transfer training materials — such as instruction manuals and flight simulators — is the last bureaucratic hurdle on the U.S. side before the training can begin. The program will begin “soon,” said the first U.S. official. All three individuals were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive deliberations. Ukraine has sent the U.S. a list of 32 pilots it says are ready for training, but the official said only eight have the English language skills to complete the course. The other 24 must go through an English language instruction program run by the United Kingdom before they can start training on the jets. On Wednesday, a Ukrainian official said that Kyiv was not expecting to receive the jets this year, meaning they would not be available for the current counteroffensive. Meanwhile, Denmark and the Netherlands had asked for U.S. assurances that it would quickly approve their requests to transfer aircraft to Ukraine, once the pilots are trained, according to the first U.S. official. Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent letters to his Danish and Dutch counterparts earlier this week providing those assurances, according to the first U.S. official and a State Department spokesperson. Denmark and the Netherlands, which are leading a coalition of 11 countries to train F-16 pilots, still have not officially said they would send jets to the battlefield. But the letter from Blinken signals that when they do request the third-party transfer, Washington will move quickly to approve it. “The United States is in active discussions with our European partners about how we can support the efforts to provide Ukraine with F-16 pilot training as quickly as possible,” the State Department spokesperson said Meanwhile, two Russian nationals have been arrested in Poland for allegedly trying to recruit for the Wagner Group amid mounting unease over the mercenaries’ presence in neighbouring Belarus. |
re: Ukraine Continues to BLOW UP & Obliterate Parts of Russia & BLAST/Destroy Russia Arms
Moscow Airports in Lockdown as Ukraine Drones Lay Siege to Russia..
Russia Says MORE Drones Injured Five at Kursk Railway Station ---Top Russian General Admits His Troops Cannot Win Ukraine Brings War to Putins’ Door as Powerful Drone Attack Rocks Moscow Ukrainian 'Navy SEAL' Special Forces, Trained by British SAS, Cause Havoc For Russia BBC 22 AUG 2023 https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploa...rip=all&w=1024 BOOM....:rofl:...:crackup:...:laff: Moscows’ four main airports were plunged into chaos this morning after officials closed runways in fear of alleged Ukrainian drone attacks. The capitals’ airspace was locked down early in the morning, forcing around 50 incoming flights to divert at the last minute while another 50 waiting to take off were grounded. The move followed reports by the Russian Defence Ministry that a drone had been downed via electronic warfare in a rural area around 60 miles west of Vnukovo International Airport. No flights were able to take off from or land at Vnukovo as well as Domodedovo, Sheremetyevo and Zhukovsky airports, which together handle almost all the capital’s flight traffic. Operations were close to resuming after two hours of disruption before a second was shot down only 25 miles outside the capital, in the Istra District. The wreckage is believed to have crashed near the home of one of Putin’s most loyal propagandists, who quickly tried to spin the incident into a success for the Russian military. |
Re: Ukraine Continues to BLOW UP & Obliterate Parts of Russia & BLAST/Destroy Russia
Ukraine Blows Up Five Jets Deep Within Russian Territory - What We Know About Drone Attacks in Russia
Wagners' Prigozhin Makes First Video Appearance Since Moscow Mutiny Wagners' Soldiers Committing Violent CRIMES in Russia - Including Rape & MURDER- Women TERRIFIED as Violent EX Partners Return From Ukraine BBC 23 AUG 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...368_wagner.jpg Wagner Group, What & Where Are Its Fighters? Thousands of mercenaries from Russia's Wagner group are now in Belarus, helping to train its soldiers. Polands' government is sending an additional 10,000 troops to the Belarusian border, saying it needs to guard against incursions by Wagner fighters. And the BBC has learned that several prisoners recruited by Wagner to fight in Ukraine have been accused of committing serious crimes since returning to Russia. What is the Wagner Group and How Big is it? Wagners' leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin says he founded the group in 2014. A wealthy businessman with a criminal record, Prigozhin is known as "Putin's chef" because he provided catering for the Kremlin. In 2014, Wagner started backing pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, and is thought to have helped Russia annex Crimea. Wagner forces are also active in Africa and the Middle East. It's thought that the group takes its name from the radio call sign of its first field commander - Dmitry Utkin. Before the war in Ukraine, Wagner had an estimated 5,000 fighters - mostly veterans of Russia's elite regiments and special forces. However, Prigozhin said last June that its numbers had grown since the start of the Ukraine war to 25,000 fighters. Although mercenary forces are technically illegal in Russia, Wagner registered as a "private military company" in 2022. What Did Wagner Do in Ukraine? https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...401000x563.jpg Yevgeny Prigozhin with mercenaries in Ukraine. Wagner was heavily involved in capturing the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut for Russia. Ukrainian troops say its fighters were sent into attacks in large numbers over open ground, and many were killed. File pic of Prigozhin with troops in Bakhmut. In the weeks before Russia's invasion, it is thought Wagner carried out so-called "false flag" attacks in Ukraine, to give the Kremlin a pretext for invading. These are attacks which one side carries out but blames on its opponent. How Many Prisoners Did Wagner Recruit? Prigozhin says Wagner has recruited 49,000 prisoners from Russian jails. They were given pardons and 100,000 roubles ($1000, £800) each for serving for six months in Ukraine. Prigozhin says 32,000 prisoners have returned, but independent researchers say that the numbers of survivors could be as low as 20,000. The BBC has established that 20 former prisoners who fought for Wagner in Ukraine are suspected of having committed serious crimes, including rape and murder, since returning to Russia. Why Did Wagner Troops Stage a Mutiny? Prigozhin regularly criticised Russia's defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, and the chief of staff of Russia's armed forces, Valery Gerasimov, over their approach to the war in Ukraine. He also defied an order from the defence ministry to give it control of the group. On 24 June, about 5,000 Wagner troops seized control of the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don and moved towards Moscow, with the stated aim of removing the military leadership. However, Prigozhin stopped the advance after negotiations with the Kremlin, which were mediated by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko. Wagner fighters were told they could join Russia's regular army or go to Belarus, along with Prigozhin. What Are Wagners' Fighters Doing in Belarus? A satellite image showing the Tsel military base in Belarus https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...ap2_640-nc.png What Do We Know About Drone Attacks in Russia? Russia Has Repeatedly Accused Ukraine of Carrying Out Drone Strikes on Its Territory in Recent Months. A Ukrainian drone hit a railway station in the Kursk region on 21 August, injuring five people, and two other drones were shot down in the Moscow region the next day, according to the Russian authorities. A few days earlier, a suspected drone attack left one of Russia's flagship Tupolev Tu-22 bombers ablaze at an airbase south of St Petersburg, according to footage verified by the BBC. Although Ukraine hasn't claimed responsibility for specific drone strikes, President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said that attacks on Russian territory are an "inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process". How Many Drone Attacks Have There Been in Russia? According to Russian media reports monitored by BBC Verify, there have been over 150 suspected aerial drone attacks this year in Russia and in Russian-controlled territory in Ukraine. There have also been about a dozen sea drone attacks on Russian targets in the Black Sea, including on naval bases and the Crimean bridge. Map of drone attacks in Russia and Russian-occupied Ukraine between 1 January and 22 August https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c..._23-nc.png.png |
re: Russia Police Crisis: Catastrophe as Stressed & Demoralised Police Quitting in Droves
Russia-Ukraine: Ukrainian Drones Strike Six Russian Regions Includng Airbase, Destroying Military Aircraft
The drones hit several Russian regions and damaged two military planes, a fuel depot and a microelectronics factory. BBC 31 AUG 2023 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.w...=Api&P=0&h=220 https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.4...=Api&P=0&h=220 https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.T...=Api&P=0&h=220 Moscow has vowed Ukraine will "not go unpunished" after drone strikes hit targets in Russia, while Kyiv saw its heaviest bombardment in months. Meanwhile Ukrainian officials said most missiles and drones were shot down but two people were killed. Kyiv has not said that it was involved in the latest attacks, but it rarely comments on strikes inside Russia. In recent weeks, however, Ukraine is believed to have increased its use of explosive drones to attack targets in Russia. This is all part of its counter-offensive strategy - making it as difficult as possible for Russia to keep its frontline troops supplied, as it pushes on with its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. At a regional airport in Pskov, a western city that lies some 600km (372 miles) from Ukraine, two military planes were struck and burst into flames according Russian news agencies. The regional governor, Mikhail Vedernikov, said that he was at the scene and posted a video on Telegram showing a large fire, while an explosion could be heard. The damaged aircraft - Ilyushin 76 - are long range cargo planes, that are ideal for transporting troops and equipment over long distances. Pskov airport, which was closed to its select few civilian flights on Wednesday, also serves as an important military hub. They are valuable war assets to Russia, and that makes them targets for Ukraine. Pskov first came under drone attack this year in May. There were more attacks further south, with the Russian military saying it shot down Ukrainian drones in the Bryansk, Kaluga, Oryol and Ryazan regions, plus one near the Crimean city of Sevastopol. Bryansk's regional governor, Aleksandr Bogomaz, said one was intercepted en route to destroying a TV tower, while another hit a microelectronics factory, where components for Russia's weapons systems were made. A fuel depot in Kaluga was also hit - yet another logistical target involved in keeping Russia's war machine rolling. Ukraine's plan to fight back against Russia's invasion has been described as "starve, stretch and strike" by the UK's Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin. Kyiv hopes that this strategy of targeting key infrastructure - as well as long-range artillery and missile strikes well behind Russia's front lines in southern Ukraine - will help Ukrainian forces to push though those lines and achieve some measure of success before the end of the year. In Ukraine's capital Kyiv, meanwhile, night time footage showed balls of fire flying through the night sky and exploding. General Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, the commander-in-chief of Ukraine's armed forces, said there were 44 Russian strikes in total - 28 missiles and 16 drone attacks. He said all except one drone were intercepted. The two people who died were security guards in the city's Shevchenkivskiy district, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Cruise missile debris was scattered across a park north-west of the city centre, and authorities were at the scene investigating the wreckage on Wednesday. The air attacks in Russia are the latest in a spate of strikes deep inside its territory. Last week, three people were killed in the Belgorod region hours after a drone hit central Moscow, Russian officials said. And around the same time, a Russian long-range bomber was destroyed in a Ukrainian drone strike at an airbase south of St Petersburg. President Volodymyr Zelensky has previously said that attacks on Russian territory are an "inevitable, natural and absolutely fair process" as the war with Russia continues. Map showing the location of the drone strikes ovenright https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...0-nc-2x-nc.png |
re: Russia Police Crisis: Catastrophe as Stressed & Demoralised Police Quitting in Droves
Counter-Offensive Troops Punch Through Russia Line -
Ukraine is Now Facing Russian ‘Dragons’ Teeth’ Defenses Ukraines' Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov Dismissed -President Zelensky Said It Was Time For New Approaches BBC 4 SEP 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...191000x667.jpg https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...331000x667.jpg Ukrainian generals claim they have breached Russias' formidable first line of defences in the south, as the counter-offensive launched earlier this summer may be poised to gather pace. Since June, Kyiv's territorial gains have been very small - but is Ukraine finally at a turning point? "Yes, it's true," says Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine's defence minister, when asked if the breach had happened. "Little by little, I think we're gaining momentum," he said. "We are now between the first and second defensive lines," one of Ukraine's top generals in the south, Brig Gen Oleksandr Tarnavskiy told Britain's Observer newspaper. His words echoed those of the White House spokesman John Kirby, who on Friday told reporters in Washington that Ukrainian forces had "achieved some success against that second line." The focus of Ukraine's counter-offensive effort in recent weeks has been an expanding bridgehead around the tiny village of Robotyne, some 56km (35 miles) south-east of the city of Zaporizhzhia. Ukrainian forces raised the country's blue and yellow flag over the village more than a week ago, and are now trying to widen the gap to allow larger infantry and armoured units to pass through without coming under Russian fire. If that can be achieved, there is a chance Ukraine's offensive can gain momentum as it approaches second and third defensive lines, which may not be quite as robust as the first. Fighting has been reported east of Robotyne, on the edge of the larger village of Verbove, but like everything so far, it's slow, painstaking work. A glance at the map shows a mass of overlapping, complex Russian defensive lines, complete with minefields, tank traps and trenches. Some of them converge at Verbove. Without air cover and in the face of sometimes withering Russian artillery fire, small Ukrainian units have been clearing a way through these hazards, preparing the ground for a larger assault. "When these openings appear, of course, it makes it easier for our forces to advance," Mr Sak said. The Fog of War It is hard to assess the significance of the latest claims. Ukrainian officials are extremely tight-lipped when asked for precise details, preferring to allow the fog of war to shroud Kyiv's intentions and extremely reluctant to avoid releasing sensitive information. It does not help that the forces closest to the fight sometimes give very different accounts of what is happening at the front. Approached by the BBC on Saturday, Ukraine's 46th Air Assault Brigade said fighting was continuing near Russia's first line of defence, but that "no one has yet managed to go beyond the first line." This may be less surprising than it sounds. A plethora of units are operating up and down the front, each concentrating on their own narrow section and specific tasks. They do not necessarily know what is going on elsewhere. One of those units, a volunteer battalion known by its commander's call sign "Skala", told Reuters news agency that its men had broken through Russia's first line on 26 August. On Sunday, Skala told us his men were still pushing forward. "Literally, we are moving along the Zaporizhzhia region to the sea," he said in a voice message, without giving further details. "I don't want to rush ahead, but both we and the General Staff are doing everything for the fastest victory." Hard as it is to gauge the precise nature and direction of Ukraine's recent gains, it is clear that the Kremlin is alarmed. It has recently sent elite troops from other parts of the long front line to bolster defences between Robotyne and the key road and railway hub of Tokmak, 21km to the south. According to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW), this is the third time since June. "The second lateral deployment in the span of a few weeks suggests an increasing Russian concern about the stability of Russian defences," the ISW reported in its assessment on 1 September. This, Ukrainian experts claim, is part of Kyiv's plan: forcing Moscow to move front line units from one place to another in an effort to wear them down. "We're trying to involve their reserves and exhaust them," says Serhiy Kuzan, of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Centre, a Kyiv think tank with close ties to the military. The next job, he says, is to exploit any sign of Russian weakness. "The main thing is to widen this bridgehead," he says. "There won't be any orders to go deeper until we do that." Despite the apparently glacial progress of the offensive since June, Mr Kuzan says the fundamental objective has not changed: control of the south Map showing Russian military control in Ukraine https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...402x640-nc.png |
re: Russia Police Crisis: Catastrophe as Stressed & Demoralised Police Quitting in Droves
Ukraine WAR: Kim Jong Un to Visit Putin For Weapons Talks
How Worrying is a Russia-Kim Jong Un Alliance?- He and President Vladimir Putin intend to discuss the possibility of North Korea providing Moscow with weapons to support its war in Ukraine BBC 7 SEP 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...m130986693.jpg https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...794bbfa4f8.jpg North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russias' Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu Where talks would be held is not clear. The Kremlin spokesman had "nothing to say" on the reports, which were also carried by other US media. There was no immediate comment from North Korea. Sources told the New York Times that Mr Kim was most likely to travel by armoured train. The possible meeting comes after the White House said it had new information that arms negotiations between the two countries were "actively advancing". National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Russia's Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, had tried to "convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition" to Russia during a recent visit to North Korea. It is thought that Russia might need 122mm and 152mm shells because its stocks are running low, but it is not easy to determine North Korea's full artillery inventory, given its secretive nature. Weapons on display at the meeting between Mr Kim and Mr Shoigu in July included the Hwasong intercontinental ballistic missile, believed to be the country's first ICBM to use solid propellants. It was the first time Mr Kim had opened the country's doors to foreign guests since the Covid pandemic. In July Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu visited North Korea Mr Putin and Mr Kim have since exchanged letters "pledging to increase their bilateral co-operation", Mr Kirby said. "We urge the DPRK to cease its arms negotiations with Russia and abide by the public commitments that Pyongyang has made to not provide or sell arms to Russia," he said, using an abbreviation for the North. He warned the US would take action, including imposing sanctions, if North Korea did supply Russia with weapons. The two leaders last met in 2019, when Mr Kim arrived by train in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east. He was welcomed by officials with a traditional offering of bread and salt. This was also probably the last time Mr Kim travelled abroad. There is concern both in Washington and in Seoul about what North Korea would get in return for an arms deal, which may result in increased military co-operation between the two countries in Asia. On Monday, South Korea's intelligence service briefed that Mr Shoigu had suggested Russia, China and North Korea hold joint naval drills, similar to those carried out by the US, South Korea and Japan. Another fear is that Russia could supply North Korea with weapons in the future, at a time when Pyongyang most needs them. More worrying still, Kim Jong Un may ask Mr Putin to provide him with advanced weapons technology or knowledge, to help him make breakthroughs in his nuclear weapons programme. North Korea has also tested hypersonic missiles, which can fly at several times the speed of sound and at low altitude to escape radar detection, as well as others launched from submarines. North Korea Missiles https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...e_01_06_23.png |
Kim Jong Un Arrives in Russia on Personal Bullet-Proof Train To Meet With PutIn
Kim Jong Un: North Korea Leader Enters Russia to Visit Putin
Kim Jong-un's Russian Gamble..What Kim Jong-un Wants From His Meeting With Vladimir Putin BBC 13 SEP 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...98655d4d9c.jpg Kim Jong-un, the self-styled “supreme leader” of North Korea who had not left the country since before the pandemic, has rolled into Russia on his personal luxury bullet-proof train for a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin this morning at a space base in the country’s far-east. Putin welcomed Kim to Vostochny in the remote eastern region of Amur telling him he was “very glad” to see him. Kim thanked Putin for extending the invite “despite being busy” presumably with the war in Ukraine. Putin said that Russia would help North Korea build satellites and when asked if he and Kim Jong-un would talk about weapons supplies, he replied that all issues would be on the table including food. The US is concerned that Kim will provide Putin with “literally millions” of artillery shells, rockets and perhaps thousands of mercenaries that Russia desperately needs to continue the war in Ukraine. His train is rumoured to include at least 20 bulletproof cars, making it heavier than average trains. It's weight also means the train is very slow - it can only travel at around 59 km/h (37mph). The White House has said it has new information that arms negotiations between the Russia and North Korea are "actively advancing". National Security Council spokesman John Kirby earlier said Russia's Defence Minister, Sergei Shoigu, had tried to "convince Pyongyang to sell artillery ammunition" to Russia during a recent visit to North Korea. |
Re: BOOM Putin -Ukraines' Massive Naval Victory W.O a Navy-Hits Russias' Naval Fleet
Ukraine-Russia War: Russian Naval HQ Strike Blow to The Dictatorship of Putin - Watch Moment Missile Hits Russias' Black Sea Fleet HQ
Ukraine Has Won a Massive Naval Victory Without Having a Navy ---Russias' Hold Over Sevastopol is Slipping, With Huge Implications For The Black Sea Fleet BBC 23 SEP 2023 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=680 The aftermath of a Ukrainian strike in the Sevastopol area. Ukraine appears to have pushed the Russian navy onto the back foot While much attention is allotted to the success (or otherwise) of the Ukrainian counter-offensive on land, events in the Black Sea periodically remind us of its strategic importance in this ongoing conflict. On 13 September, Russia’s repair yard for the Black Sea Fleet, Sergo Ordzhonkidze, came under attack from ten Storm Shadow cruise missiles fired from five Sukhoi Su-24 Fencers. Some were intercepted, but three hit the drydocks there, crippling the warship Minsk and submarine Rostov-on-Don. The Russians retreated a few miles to their backup command post at Verkhnesadovoe which was then hit on 20 September. Storm Shadow is the British name for the SCALP cruise missile, a French weapon with a British supplied warhead, used by the air forces of both nations and supplied by both nations to Ukraine. One explanation for why some of the missiles made it through is because Ukrainian special forces and Neptune missiles had destroyed Russian S-400 air defence radars some weeks before. These are classic multi-domain shaping operations, very well delivered. Russian Naval HQ Strike https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=680 Russias' Black Sea Navy fleet headquarters was hit by a Ukrainian missile in broad daylight on 22 September 2023. The missile strike that hit a Russian navy headquarters was a “blow to the dictatorship of Putin”, the Ukrainian air force spokesman has said. Yuriy Ignat confirmed the attack that punched a huge hole in the Black Sea Fleet building in downtown Sevastopol on the occupied Crimean peninsula. “This is not only a blow to the heart of the naval forces of the Black Sea Fleet, this is a blow to the dictatorship of Putin,” he said. “Everyone will see it. This cannot be hidden.” Almost eight hours after the strike, Russian authorities were still struggling to put out the fire at the headquarters according to the Moscow-installed governor in Sevastopol. Gas and electricity have been cut and residents have been asked to reduce water consumption until the fire is put out. “I had wanted a bigger hole [in the building] to be honest,” Ignat added. Russian residents of Crimea had provided Kyiv with information for the strike, he said. A Ukrainian source told the Telegraph that British designed Storm Shadows, also known as Scalps, were used. https://cf.eip.telegraph.co.uk/illus...5388351909.jpg Vladimir Putin plans to throw critics in grim gulag where prisoners' hands are crushed |
Re: BOOM Putin -Ukraines' Massive Naval Victory W.O a Navy-Hits Russias' Naval Fleet
Revealed: Europes’ Role in The Making of Russia Killer Drones -Kyiv Says Iranian Drones Used by Russia in Ukraine Have Various European Components
Ukraine Unveils Brand New Stealth Underwater Armed Drone The Ukrainian Experts Dismantling Bombs For Clues to Putins’ Arms Supply A century-old institute that used to focus on criminal cases is studying Russias’ weapons, and where parts are coming from BBC 27 SEP 2023 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.r...=Api&P=0&h=220 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.x...=Api&P=0&h=220 https://defense-update.com/wp-conten...d-136-1021.gif A Shahed-136 drone is displayed during a rally. Yemeni Houthis Display Iranian Drones and Loitering Missiles Iranian kamikaze drones used in the latest attacks on Ukrainian cities are filled with European components, according to a secret document sent by Kyiv to its western allies in which it appeals for long-range missiles to attack production sites in Russia, Iran and Syria. In a 47-page document submitted by Ukraine’s government to the G7 governments in August, it is claimed there were more than 600 raids on cities using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) containing western technology in the previous three months. New Headache For Putin as Ukraine Unveils Brand New Stealth Underwater Armed Drone |
Re: UK Defence Secretary To Send TROOPS To Ukraine to Join NATO Force as Tensions Ris
Grant Shapps to Ramp Up Support For Volodymyr Zelensky - UK Troops Ready to Join NATO Force in Kosovo as Tensions Rise.
Russia Sends Message in New Video of Putin and Warlord UK to Boost Training For Ukrainian Soldiers and Navy May Help Protect Grain Vessels British troops will be deployed in Ukraine for the first time under plans being discussed with military chiefs, the new Defence Secretary has disclosed. BBC 1 OCT 2023 https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.T...=Api&P=0&h=220 British troops will be deployed in Ukraine for the first time under plans being discussed with military chiefs, the new Defence Secretary has disclosed. In an interview with The Telegraph, Grant Shapps said that he had held talks with Army leaders about shifting an official British-led training programme “into Ukraine” rather than relying on UK and other Nato members’ bases. He also called on more British defence firms to set up factories in Ukraine. Following a trip to Kyiv last week, Mr Shapps also revealed that he had talked to Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, about how Britain’s Navy could play a role in defending commercial vessels from Russian attacks in the Black Sea. Both moves would mark a significant escalation in the UK’s involvement in defending Ukraine against Vladimir Putin’s onslaught. Putin Appoints ‘Grey Hair’ Warlord to Lead Wagner Mercenaries https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/vs...6cb1298dc0c6c9 https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.4...=Api&P=0&h=180 Andrei Troshev, a founding member and Executive Director of the Wagner Group, reportedly met Valdimir Putin and Deputy Defence Minister Yunus-Bek Yevkurov on Thursday night. The meeting underscored the Kremlin’s attempt to show that the state had now gained control over the mercenary group after a failed June mutiny by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was killed in a plane crash in August. Just days after the Wagner’s mutiny, Putin offered the mercenaries the opportunity to keep fighting but suggested that commander Andrei Troshev take over from Prigozhin, Russia’s Kommersant newspaper has reported. Addressing Troshev, Putin said that they had spoken about how “volunteer units that can perform various combat tasks, above all, of course, in the zone of a special military operation.” “You yourself have been fighting in such a unit for more than a year,” Putin said. “You know what it is, how it is done, you know about the issues that need to be resolved in advance so that the combat work goes in the best and most successful way.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the RIA news agency that Troshev worked at the defence ministry. “He now works in the defence ministry.” |
Re: Russia Police Crisis: Catastrophe as Stressed & Demoralised Police Quitting in Dr
Russia Police Crisis: Burned Out, Disappointed and Demoralised. Police Quitting in Droves
Interior Ministry Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev said the country had a "critical" shortage of police officers, which could affect crime rates. BBC 1 OCT 2023 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.U...=Api&P=0&h=220 https://tse2.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.r...=Api&P=0&h=220 In the early hours of 14 January 2020, blood-curdling screams could be heard at an apartment block in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar. Shocked and scared, a resident called the police to report what sounded like an attack on a woman. But no-one came. The screaming continued, alongside loud bangs and cries for help. Six more calls were made to emergency services but still no police officers arrived. Neighbours, now fearing the worst, decided to take matters into their own hands and broke into the apartment by smashing down the door. But it was too late. The screaming had stopped. The woman was dead. Police Fail to Answer Calls https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...b3938e42d7.jpg Vera Pekhteleva had been stabbed multiple times, beaten and strangled with an iron cord by her ex-boyfriend in an attack that lasted three-and-a-half hours. Vera Pekhteleva was tortured before being murdered by her ex-boyfriend - and police failed to show up At the time, police said there were no officers or patrol cars in the area to attend. But later, five officers were found guilty of causing death by negligence and were sentenced to 18 months in jail, suspended for two years. The court said the sentences, which were seen by many as lenient, were appropriate because officer shortages were a problem for "the whole force". Russia has one of the largest police forces in the world, employing over 900,000 officers to serve a population of 146 million, according to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. It has nearly 630 officers per 100,000 people - more than double the US or the UK. But in August, Interior Ministry Chief Vladimir Kolokoltsev said the country had a "critical" shortage of police officers, which could affect crime rates. How can that be the case, given the sheer number of officers? Poor Wages, Stress and Corruption Russias' sprawling geography and a lack of back-office support staff are partly to blame. But recent problems stem from a massive drop in police numbers - and many of those leaving are experienced officers. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...c7ecb265ff.jpg Many former Russian police officers have told the BBC they are leaving the force and opting for less stressful jobs which are better paid. "They haven't adjusted the salary at all," a former officer from Rostov, in southwest Russia, said. "After inflation and the new prices, it's not enough." He quit to become a taxi driver. His friend, who was also a police officer, is now a courier. Both of them earn twice as much as they did as police officers. "I reached the rank of major (the equivalent to a sergeant in the UK). But still a person working at a supermarket earned more than me - hardly dangerous work. Only an idiot would join the police now," the former officer from Rostov said. The BBC has found that overstretched police forces are now refusing to open cases, even after a statement has been provided. "Everyone gets 10 days to examine statements, whether there are five or 50, so obviously, the quality of work deteriorates," argues one detective from the Siberian region of Russia. "If there's a string of 10 or so things they must do - call on neighbours, cross-examine witnesses, visit the crime-scene - they'll just do one or two, and write down that it 'wasn't possible' to complete the others. "Then they refuse to open charges - so there will be no investigation," he says. Many former Russian police officers told the BBC they are quitting for less stressful jobs that are better paid As the number of officers drops, the pressures on those who remain increase. Former officers have told the BBC this is leading to corruption. "Officers are beating confessions out of people, inflating arrest quotas, we're seeing this all the time," says a police major from the Russian city of Tomsk. "It's only going to get worse. There will be falsification of evidence, targeted beatings, there just isn't going to be time to investigate anything properly. "You've got a lead and you need to chase it? Much simpler to drag the first suspect back to the station and beat him up, so he takes the blame." Some officers are getting locked up for their actions - further thinning the force. This happened to Sergei, a former police officer of six years, jailed for beating a drug dealer. Sergei says he felt pressure to arrest the dealer and only hit him when he was about to eat his drugs to conceal the evidence. He also tells the BBC that police resources were so thin he had to pay for work essentials himself. "I was using my own car, I bought my own paper, cartridges and printer; my own computer, my desk, my chair, my petrol… I laid my own floor tiles [in the office], repaired everything." A former officer from central Russia says that vacant positions have gone unfilled for a long time. "There's been a shortage for ages. I started in 2015, and only two people have joined our team in the last eight years, while 15 have left." And according to several BBC sources, including two sergeants and one major, the Interior Ministry carried out a purge of officers who were linked to the opposition politician, Alexei Navalny, who has been held in a remote penal colony since 2021. Long-serving, experienced officers were fired in this purge. One source said the Moscow Federal Security Service compiled a list of Navalny supporters based on a hacked database of email addresses. The Impact of The War in Ukraine The number of police officers in Russia was declining before the start of the war in Ukraine. Initially, the war convinced some officers to stay in the force. Russian police officers are exempt from being called up for military duty, so some officers who were on the verge of resigning when Russia invaded Ukraine told us they kept their jobs to avoid fighting. "Either you sat tight, or you left and got drafted," explains one officer from Moscow. "I know there were managers who made a list of everyone who'd threatened to quit and passed it straight to the [army] recruiters. Everyone was pretty scared." But as the war rumbles on, police numbers are dwindling. The force cannot fill existing gaps - let alone recruit the 40,000 extra personnel that the Interior Ministry says is needed in Donetsk and Luhansk, areas of Ukraine that Russia partly occupies. Putin claimed a win after holding so-called referendums in the Russian-held regions of Ukraine in September 2022. But the polls were denounced as a sham by Ukraine's government and its allies. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...021d02c13a.jpg Russian police officers are not allowed to have an opinion about the war Russia predicts it will need another 42,000 officers by 2026 if it occupies further territories. For serving police officers, having an opinion about the war is simply not allowed. They are not even allowed to call it a war. "Officers must keep their mouths shut," one detective says. "We can't have personal views about the 'special military operation' - or they'll fire us." The BBC has also been told officers are burning out because of extra paperwork brought on by the war. Interior Ministry officials from the three Russian cities of Tomsk, Yekaterinburg and Yaroslavl claim they now spend most of their time investigating and revising "endless charges against people discrediting the army". "People are always looking for an excuse to denounce someone," a former major from Tomsk says. "There's nobody around... Everyone's gone to check on some grandma who saw a curtain that looked like the Ukrainian flag. "I see where we're heading," he says. "There's already an emphasis on crimes against the state. Going forward, more cases will fall into this category," he predicts. "As for real problems affecting ordinary people? Kidnap, robbery, rape, murder… there won't be time to investigate." |
re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund WAR
Moment Ukrainian Jet Ski Commandos Storm Crimea in Mission SAS Called Impossible
In the dead of night on August 24, around 20 soldiers loaded up with guns, grenades and rockets to embark on a daring mission inside occupied Crimea BBC 2 OCT 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...d-a-night-.jpg The view from one of the ships during the mission https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...9CrimeaJPG.jpg The moment Ukrainian jet ski commandos launched a raid on a Russian electronic warfare station in Crimea has been caught on camera. In the dead of night on August 24, around 20 soldiers loaded up with guns, grenades and rockets to embark on a daring mission inside occupied Crimea, which Russia has spent years turning into a fortress. They fled 125 miles across the sea on jet skis, with each one carrying two Ukrainian frogmen. Levan, the second in command of the elite special forces regiment of the Timur group, said that he spent two weeks practising the journey on a jet ski before their mission. The aim of the high-risk assault was to destroy a military headquarters. "Our first target was an electronic warfare station so powerful not even a compass could work within 20 miles of the shore", Borghese, the battalion commander who coordinated the mission on the day, told The Times. Footage shows the group from the Brotherhood Battalion revving up their jet skis before setting out across the water on an almost impossible mission they didn't believe they would survive. While the unit approached the peninsula, five Ukrainian support ships fired at Russian positions as a diversion tactic. When their boots hit the ground, they were the first Ukrainian troops to set foot on Russian-occupied Crimea in almost a decade. Ukraine's spy chief Kyrylo Budanov also tasked the men to raise a Ukrainian flag on the peninsula for the first time in nearly a decade, the outlet reported. As the jet-ski men got closer to the base housing the electronic warfare station, their goal was to place explosives, depart and detonate. But as they got within 200 metres of their target one of the teams was spotted. A Russian machine gunner opened up in their direction, prompting a 30-minute exchange of fire. The team had to abandon their original plan and instead destroy the control centre from a distance with anti-tank weapons, the battalion's commander, Borghese, told The Times. They then made a terrifying scramble back to their jet skis, to reach their evacuation ship. By this point, Borghese said, "[they] were really chasing us hard. Four enemy boats came out to intercept us, blocking the retreat to our coastline." Jet skis fled across the sea to reach occupied Crimea for the attack The battle raged for hours, with enemy aircraft circling for around five hours. In a spectacular feat, Ukraine lost no men and a few weeks later they managed to obliterate Putin's Black Sea fleet headquarters. Borghese said: "Our guys are very faithful and the whole operation went like a miracle. There were clouds at dawn, so enemy aviation and their drones couldn’t work well. When we were halfway home, the sun came out and we had good weather." Among those said to have been surprised by the raid's success are British SAS troops and intelligence officers who are believed to be operating on the ground in Ukraine, helping train the country's forces and assisting with planning and strategy. According to a commander known just as Levan, the Allies initially advised against the jet ski raid, believing that the watercraft would be unable to travel the distance required. During a month of training, they were only able to test the craft on journeys up to 87 miles. He said: "At sea, they know and understand a lot, but even for our British partners this looked like an almost impossible task. Neither the Americans nor the Brits gave us much chance of success." In a statement after the attack, they claimed it showed their soldiers setting foot in occupied Crimea for the first time in almost a decade, following its 2014 annexation by Russia. It said: "Our state flag flew again in the Ukrainian Crimea,' the ministry claimed after a 'special operation' in which troops had 'engaged in combat." |
Re: US Sends Ukraine Confiscated Ammunition From Iran + Ukraines NEW Invisibility Tec
US Sends Confiscated Ammunition From Iran, to Ukraine
First Time Washington Has Transferred Weapons Seized From Other Countries Since Putin Invaded BBC 5 OCT 2023 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/...eg?imwidth=680 Ukraines' 18th Army Aviation Brigade resupplying their helicopters The US has sent Ukraine more than a million rounds of ammunition seized from Iran, the US military said on Wednesday. It is believed this is the first time that Washington has transferred weapons confiscated from another country to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia in February last year. The move came days after Congress axed support for Ukraine from the funding deal cobbled together to avoid a government shutdown. Iran has been supplying Moscow with drones, which have been used against civilian and military targets in Ukraine. US naval forces have for years been intercepting fishing vessels suspected of carrying Iranian weapons destined for Yemen. US Navy Seizures The US Central Command said a navy ship seized the 1.1 million rounds from a vessel that was being used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to arm Houthi rebels in Yemen’s civil war in defiance of a UN arms embargo. The 7.62mm ammunition works with the Soviet-era Kalashnikov assault rifles still being used by many Ukrainian military units. Earlier this week, US president Joe Biden pleaded with Congress to approve more funds for Kyiv, warning that Ukrainians would die “needlessy” if support to the country was cut off. He had asked for $24 billion (£19.8bn) to support the next tranche of funding. But Congress refused to back even a dramatically reduced package of $6bn. The US has provided more than $113bn to support Ukraine’s resistance since February last year. Support has included more than 300 million rounds of ammunition and grenades. But continuing support for Ukraine could prove difficult, with many Republicans, who now have a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, opposing further aid. |
re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund WAR
Ukraines' Worst Single Loss of Life in a Year - Missile Strike Destroys ENTIRE Village in Ukraine, Leaving at Least 51 Dead
Germany Refusing to Send Taurus Missiles to Ukraine, Germanys’ Equivalent of Britains’ Storm Shadows, For Fear of Crimea Bridge Attack BBC 6 OCT 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...421000x563.jpg A Russian strike in the north-eastern Ukraine village of Hroza has killed at least 51 people, officials say. According to reports, villagers from Hroza had gathered in a local cafe for a wake following the death of a resident. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of "genocidal aggression". Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the front line in the north-east only this week, because this region has been the focus of Russia's military offensive ever since the summer. Last month, Russia said it had captured strategic heights near Kupyansk, just 30km (18 miles) to the east of Hroza. There is no obvious reason why such a small village would come under attack, but it is within reach of that front line. Ukraine recaptured Kupyansk and areas around it last autumn and Russian forces have spent the past few months trying to re-occupy it. Six weeks ago Ukraine ordered civilians to be evacuated from Kupyansk because of Russian shelling. Mr Zelensky said on Tuesday that the front line between Kupyansk and Lyman further south was "one of the hottest areas" of the war. The latest civilian deaths are an indication of that. |
re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund WAR
World Hurtles Towards Nuclear War as Vladimir Putin Set to Rip Up Key Treaty in Days
Putin Escalates Nuclear Rhetoric With Threat to Resume Testing to Highlight New Missile Capabilities and Abandon Test Ban Treaty BBC 11 OCT 2023 https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1696954956772 https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1696954952168 Vladimir Putin suggested he will revoke a nuclear treaty sending tensions rising around the world with Russia poised to test a weapon of mass destruction. Vladimir Putins’ government is set to rip up a key treaty in a move sure to escalate nuclear tensions with the West. The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation verifies that nuclear-armed nations are adhering to a ban on testing weapons of mass destruction. It has been ratified by Russia but as of yesterday lawmakers in Moscow were given 10 days to find the best way to revoke the treaty. In a move that sent tensions soaring, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov claimed earlier that the United States was planning to test nuclear weapons in the Nevada desert. Ryabkov added that Russia’s foreign ministry was drafting a bill which would revoke the treaty. The news comes amid increasingly hostile nuclear rhetoric from Russian propagandists and politicians as Moscow’s forces bog down in Ukraine. Last month, former Russian President and close Putin ally Dmitri Medvedev threatened direct conflict with NATO which he predicted would end in nuclear war. |
re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund WAR
Cripple Putins’ War Machine by Denying Russia Crucial Weapon Components, West Urged
Denying Russia Access to CNC Machines Will Slow Production and Cause Weapons to Malfunction BBC 15 OCT 2023 https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1697117908845 Western nations have been told they can “cripple Putins’ war machine” by denying Russia access to technology crucial to enabling the mass production of weapons. Ms Yurchenko, International Relations and Foreign Policy Expert, Senior Analyst at the Economic Security Council of Ukraine, said many CNC machines were manufactured in western countries, including Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Olena Yurchenko, said Russia relies on computer numerical control (CNC) to manufacture missiles, aircraft parts, radar technology and submarines. The automated robotic machines are capable of performing operations according to a given program without direct human intervention, making She told Express.co.uk: “According to Russian manufacturers, it is the Russian military-industrial complex enterprises that account for at least 80 percent of the orders they receive. “Thus, the military industry is perhaps the main consumer of CNC machines.” Putin’s Russia was reliant upon the CNC machine tools and their components and spare parts primarily for the military production, Ms Yurchenko explained. She added: “These CNC machines process various materials, but mainly metal, with precision, accuracy and efficiency no other means can provide. “Reliance comes from the exorbitant demand from the military (eg more and more weapons are needed), and the fact Russians cannot produce these CNCs themselves, because it requires huge finances, resources and experience. https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1697117908902 “All the components of CNC machines are produced abroad - bearings, CNC software itself, servoconverters, spindles etc.” MORE: Putin dealt crushing blow as 100,000 soldiers deemed to be ‘unfit to fight’ |
Re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund
Putin Makes Rare Admission of Struggle After New Attempt to Prop Up The Ruble
China is Russias' ONLY Lifeline as Desperate Putin Relies on Xi to Fund War in Ukraine - BUT Putin and Xi’s Bond Has a Weakness Desperate Putin to Experience Severe Limitations This Winter as Ukraine Achieves Success BBC 17 OCT 2023 https://cloudfront-us-east-2.images....HHPTT45UNI.jpg HONG KONG, 17 Oct - Russian President Vladimir Putins’ expected meeting this week in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Belt and Road Forum will underscore a strengthening bilateral bond and increasing erosion of Moscows’ economic sovereignty. https://graphics.reuters.com/BRV-BRV...jzvr/chart.png Following their "no-limits" partnership outlined ahead of Russias’ invasion of Ukraine, the People’s Republic has been gorging on cheap Urals crude and sending more exports to its sanctions-hit neighbour. The $190 billion two-way trade relationship is up 29% since 2021, and has roughly doubled since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Moscow has few places to turn. The European Union’s decision in May 2022 to drastically reduce gas imports amounting to 155 billion cubic metres annually from Russia is depriving it of a major client. Europe has also stopped purchasing coal, seaborne crude and refined petroleum products worth nearly $80 billion a year, while also joining a U.S.-led price cap initiative that prevents operators from transporting Russian oil above a set price. It was natural for the People’s Republic to step up. The country has bought Urals crude at a discount of between 10% and 13% against the price of Brent, the global benchmark for oil. Such discounts have allowed Beijing to save at least $10 billion on its energy bill from crude alone in 2022 and 2023, according to Bank of France estimates, easing some of the growing pressure on the yuan. https://graphics.reuters.com/BRV-BRV...nxpr/chart.png China has emerged as the top buyer of Russias’ crude oil and coal, as well as the second-largest buyer of liquefied natural gas and oil products from Russia, an analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air shows. |
Re: Desperate Putins' Struggle to Prop Up Ruble & China is Russias' Lifeline to Fund
North Koreas' Orient Express Sending Munitions to Russia 'at Scale’
The report says the munitions are regularly loaded on to two Russian ships, the Angara and Maria. BBC 18 OCT 2023 https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1697552274691 Kim Jong-un is supplying Vladimir Putin with munitions, warns the report North Korea is supplying munitions to Russia “at scale” via a so-called “Orient Express”, a new report has warned. James Byrne, director of RUSI’s Open Source Intelligence Analysis group which undertook the analysis, warned the decision by Kim Jong-un’s regime will have “profound consequences”. RUSI’s investigation is published just days after US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby accused Pyongyang of supplying up to 1,000 containers of "equipment and munitions" to Moscow in "recent weeks". The final destination of the shipments appeared to be a munitions depot in the Russian town of Tikhoretsk, roughly 200 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. From here, North Korean weapons and munitions can be shipped to logistics depots on the border of Ukraine for distribution to front line units, the report explained. It added: “The supply will bolster Russia’s war effort, posing problems for Ukraine and its allies who may need to further increase their support to keep pace with this new reality. “It also creates a new source of revenue for Pyongyang, which has traditionally used the proceeds of arms sales to develop its own nuclear and ballistic missile programme in violation of UN sanctions.” The RUSI report, published yesterday, says in recent months, two In recent months, two Russian ships - the Angara and Maria - had multiple trips between the Russian port of Dunai and the North Korean port of Rajin. Both vessels are owned and operated by companies with links to Russia’s military logistics networks. |
re: Putin Invites HAMAS to Moscow & Warns of WW3 & Nuclear Clash
Putin Threatens West With Deadly Meteorite Hypersonic Missile as It's Ready For Combat
The new deadly hypersonic missiles can travel at 27 times the speed of sound. BBC 20 OCT 2023 https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1697799547847 Vladimir Putin has threatened the West with his most deadly “meteorite” hypersonic missile Avangard as it has been shown being readied for combat. The weapon - delivered to targets at 27 times the speed of sound - is seen in new footage installed in an underground launch silo in Russia’s Orenburg region. The 20,000mph missile with a hypersonic glide vehicle is fired outside the earth’s atmosphere before striking any target in the world in less than 30 minutes, according to Moscow. https://cdn.images.express.co.uk/img...=1697799547918 Putin - just back from a rare foreign trip to China - claims the West has no means to stop Avangard. He has previously claimed the Avangard strikes “like a meteorite” and is “invincible” - unstoppable by any defence system. MORE: US sends stark warning to Putin with fresh nuclear weapons test Crucial undersea cables 'sabotaged' as military and coast guard on standby |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Putin Welcomes HAMAS to Moscow For SECOND Time -Putin and Xi Refuse to Condemn Hamas Attack on Israel
Putins' Fighter Jets Scrambled as NATO Military Plane Spotted Near Russian Border Russia Threatens Nuclear Clash as Putins' Right-Hand Man Sends WW3 Warning to US The chilling threat was made by Russias' foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, local reports claim. Russia has warned it will take "compensatory measures" after the US moved nuclear weapons into Europe in its latest WW3 threat. BBC 27 OCT 2023 Putin Forming Axis of Terror as He Welcomes Hamas & Iran to Moscow https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...16&s=931&d=335 Moussa Abu Marzook, a senior Hamas leader, was among the delegation to Russia Putin sought to intervene in the Middle Eastern conflict on Thursday by inviting senior Hamas and Iranian leaders to Moscow. In a move condemned by Israel as an “obscene step” that “gives support to terrorism”, Russian officials met with the terror group who praised them for taking an “active role” in the war. Ali Bagheri Kani, the deputy foreign minister of Iran, the main foreign sponsor of Hamas, was also in Moscow for talks. The developments have raised concern in the West that Russia has formed an “axis of terror” with Hamas, mediated by Iran. Hamas praised Putin personally for his “stance” on the conflict and “acknowledged the active role of Russian diplomacy” in talks over “the recent Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip and strategies to halt the Israeli crimes”. https://img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/...=91&s=587&d=99 A photograph released by Hamas showed Bassem Naeem, its head of international relations, and Mousa Abu Marzouk, a senior member of the Hamas politburo, in a meeting with Mikhail Bogdanov, Putins’ special envoy in the Middle East. Western observers said the meetings suggested Putin had abandoned his long-standing alliance with Israel in favour of closer ties with Iran and its Islamist allies, who carried out the Oct 7 terror attacks on Israel and have stepped up a bombing campaign on American troops in the wider Middle East. Lioir Hiat, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said Israel “sees the invitation of senior Hamas officials to Moscow as an obscene step that gives support to terrorism and legitimises the atrocities of Hamas terrorists”. Speaking at the United Nations on Thursday, Iran’s foreign minister said the country was willing to “play its part” in securing the release of Hamas’s hostages, but called for an exchange with 6,000 Palestinians held by Israel. “The Islamic Republic of Iran stands ready to play its part in this very important humanitarian endeavour, along with Qatar and Turkey,” he said. “Naturally, the release of the 6,000 Palestinian prisoners is another necessity and responsibility of the global community.” Both Russia and China have stopped short of condemning Hamas, and have called for a ceasefire that United States officials say would allow Hamas to rest and regroup for a second assault. On Thursday Maya Yaron, Israel’s de facto ambassador to Taiwan, reiterated her government’s disappointment with China for not condemning Hamas’s attacks against civilians. “This is actually something that is very disturbing with China,” she told reporters in Taipei. However, Israeli leaders have said they intend to press on with a land offensive against Hamas, launching a raid in northern Gaza in an attempt to prepare the territory for a full-scale invasion. Footage from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed tanks, other armoured vehicles and bulldozers crossing into the besieged enclave and appearing to open fire. An IDF statement said the brief “targeted raid” was part of “preparations for the next stage of combat,” while Yoav Gallant, the Israeli defence minister, said that a full-scale ground invasion of Gaza was “not far off”. Putin Invites HAMAS to Moscow Eight Years Ago Putin and Xi Refuse to Condemn Hamas Attack on Israel |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Ukraine War: Whole Family Shot Dead by Russian Soldiers in Russian-Occupied Ukrainian Town.
Nine people, including two young children, have been found shot dead in their house in the Russian-occupied eastern Ukrainian town of Volnovakha. BBC 1 NOV 2023 https://media.cnn.com/api/v1/images/...,w_1280,c_fill https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.8...=Api&P=0&h=180 https://bnn-news.com/wp-content/uplo...io-5427216.jpg https://gdb.voanews.com/E2831A2D-80F...77492F12A8.jpg https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.9...=Api&P=0&h=180 Ukrainian officials say they believe Russian soldiers killed the whole of the Kapkanets family on 27 October for refusing to give them their house. Russian investigators say two male suspects have been held, saying they are Russian soldiers from the Far East. Most of the town has been destroyed. Ukraine and Russia have begun separate investigations into the attack. Photographs have emerged on social media showing blood-splattered and bullet-riddled bodies lying in beds, some of them still locked in an embrace. Ukrainian ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on Monday that "Russians' bloodied hands were involved" in the Volnovakha killings. "According to preliminary information, the occupiers have killed the whole of the Kapkanets family, who were celebrating a birthday and who had refused to hand their own house over to occupiers from Chechnya," he said on Telegram. The Ukrainian-controlled Donetsk prosecutor's office, citing preliminary information, said the attackers in army uniforms shot the family dead after their demand to vacate the house had been rejected. Two children, born in 2014 and 2018, were among the victims, the office added. Russia's official Investigations Committee described those arrested as Russian soldiers from the country's Far East, who had signed contracts with the Russian military. "According to preliminary information, the motive for the crime was a domestic conflict," the committee said in a statement. Astra, a Russian news channel on Telegram, earlier quoted the victims' neighbours as blaming the Russian military for the killings. "All of the neighbours are saying that the killers were in the military. We're all scared," one neighbour told Astra. Baza, another Russian Telegram channel, said members of the household had had "a conflict with unidentified men wearing military fatigues with no insignia". Volnovakha was captured by Russian forces just weeks after the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The killings in Volnovakha come as fierce fighting continues on the vast battle front of Ukraine's eastern and southern regions. Kyiv launched its counter-offensive in June, trying to split the occupying Russian troops in the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in two, and make their resupply more difficult. So far, the Ukrainian advance has been slow and costly, as the Russians have had time to prepare their defensive lines. In recent weeks, Moscow has also been on the attack near the key city of Avdiivka in the Donetsk region, as well as Kupyansk in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. Ukraine's military says all Moscow's attacks have been "unsuccessful", reporting heavy Russian casualties around Avdiivka - a gateway to the Russian-held regional capital of Donetsk. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c...2_2x640-nc.png |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
World War 3 Fears as Putin Puppet Warns Germany Will Eventually Exist Under Russian Flag
Ukraine Special Forces Destroy $125M Russian Radar Using HIMARS BBC 6 NOV 2023 https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.B...=Api&P=0&h=180 Vladimir Solovyov, a close ally of Vladimir Putin, made his latest controversial claims during his show on a Kremlin-controlled television channel. Vladimir Putin's close ally has astonishingly claimed Germany will eventually exist "under a Russian flag" in an unhinged rant that will explode fears over a possible World War 3. Ukrainian special forces destroyed Russian radar worth $125m with HIMARS. Elite units posted drone footage documenting their kills of Zoopark-1 radar. The Soviet system is designed to detect incoming enemy artillery fire and pinpoint the guns that fired the shells so they can be destroyed. However, the radar themselves were targeted by precision rockets. With footage showing five of them being blown up by Ukrainian HIMARS. Such radar systems are expensive to build, and difficult to replace. Taking them out helps level the playing field between Russia and Ukraine. |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Russia-Ukraine War: Putin Likely Successor WARNS of Ukraine Biological Warfare and Hints at New Mobilisation
Putin Ally: West Increasing Risk of Weapons of Mass Destruction Being Used BBC 20 NOV 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Putin and Nikolai Patrushev, Secretary of Russian Security Council, pictured in 2019 Security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, 72, who is Russias' top security official, is often pegged as the most likely man to succeed Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin Russias top security official today warned of biological warfare and ordered regional governors to put their economies on a war footing. Security council secretary Nikolai Patrushev, 72, is seen by some as Vladimir Putin’s likely successor. A strong anti-Western hardliner, he claimed that the conflict in Ukraine could see biological warfare while also suggesting a new round of mobilisation in Russia after heavy losses of conscripts. “Unauthorised access to collections of dangerous pathogens, destruction and looting of laboratory premises, as well as loss of biological samples, cannot be ruled out….” He warned of Ukraine infecting refugees who travel from war-ravaged areas to Russia. "The likelihood of committing terrorist acts and sabotage attacks using biological agents has increased”, he said. Critics say Patrushev - seen as wielding huge control in the Kremlin - is deliberately spreading paranoia, and could even signal a Russian false flag plan to use bio-weapons. Patrushev repeated Moscow's conspiracy theories that the United States has been trying to develop "artificial pathogens and microorganisms" in laboratories set up in Russia's neighbouring countries, including Ukraine. "Taking into account the risks and threats to biological security, I ask regional heads in cooperation with the federal executive authorities to ensure, first of all, that biologically dangerous facilities be protected against terrorists.” Russia needed a “sanitary shield”, he said. "It is necessary to develop a system for monitoring biological risks, preventing and eliminating biological threats, and neutralising the fallout from their use.” He demanded officials “ensure the work of the necessary number of radiation and chemical monitoring stations of civil defence facilities in the regions”. Russia must “expand the production of domestic vaccines and drugs against infections”, he insisted in a speech in Voronezh. Patrushev - formerly head of the FSB security service - demanded more action from border regions to protect Russia against drone attacks from Ukraine. Regional governors must ensure that mobilisation plans for the economy of the Russian regions and municipalities are developed”. This is seen as a strong hint that a new wave of mobilisation is coming. "I ask the heads of regions and federal executive authorities to personally control the implementation of these tasks,” he said. “Specific attention should be paid to the safety of bio-hazardous facilities.” https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Putin was briefly seen today chairing a security council meeting but it was Patrushev who cranked up fears among Russians and Ukrainian and Western biological threats. "There is a high probability of the Ukrainian side completely losing control over biological facilities,” he said. |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Russia Launches Biggest Drone Attack Since Start of War
Footage from Kyiv shows impact of 'Russias' biggest' drone attack to hit Ukraine BBC 26 NOV 2023 https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/976/cp...1648483131.jpg The mayor of Kyiv has said that Russia has launched its biggest drone attack since the war began in 2022. Video footage shows explosions in the night sky and air raid sirens are heard during the attack on Ukraine's capital on Saturday morning. At least five people have been injured. https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/c..._640-2x-nc.png |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Russia-Ukraine WAR: Ukraine Will Join NATO After War, Stoltenberg Says; Estimates of 1,000 Russian Daily Casualties Plausible, Says UK
Jens Stoltenberg says Nato will agree recommendations for Ukrainians; Russian losses in Avdiivka could account for one of most difficult months for Russia BBC 28 NOV 2023 https://i.redd.it/xbwz8u25zaa31.png https://www.stratfor.com/sites/defau...?itok=6mj-96l2 NATO Standards in Former Warsaw Pact Countries Summary Ukraine will become a member of Nato subject to reforms after the war, the military alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, has said. Nato states still agreed that full membership remained impossible in the midst of war, even while ways to move Ukraine and Nato closer continued, he added. The Nato secretary-general said that some of the most intense fighting of the war has taken place in recent weeks in the east of Ukraine. Russian forces have made confirmed advances north-west and south-east of Avdiivka over the weekend, according to the US-based Institute for the Study of War. The UK ministry of defence has described as “plausible” Ukrainian estimates of Russian casualties running at a daily average of almost 1,000 in November. This would, on the face of it, make November 2023 one of the most difficult months for Russian forces, with many of its losses coming from its assault on Avdiivka – although figures on Ukrainian losses were not provided. |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
'I Need MORE Troops' -Deranged Putin Orders Russian Women to Have Eight or More Children
Vladimir Putin told Russian women they needed to be having 'eight or more children' as his war in Ukraine worsens a dive in the population and makes them reluctant to start new families BBC 29 NOV 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2635429159.jpg The huge country of 143.4 million people has seen a huge dive in birth rates over recent years - with the president's disastrous invasion of Ukraine blamed for putting off even more people from having kids. And with an estimated over 100,000 troops now dead since fighting started, he is now demanding that Russians go back to the tsarist era, when large families were more common. Putin himself is believed to have at least six children to three different partners - although he only publicly admits to two daughters. In a controversial new video, he instructed Russians to give birth to more children - and promised they would get state support for “motherhood”. Putin said: “Thank God many of our people have a tradition of a strong multi-generational family, raising four, five and more children. Let us remember how in Russian families many of our grandmothers and great grandmothers had seven, eight, or even more children. Let's preserve and revive these wonderful traditions. Having many children, a large family, should become a norm, a way of life for all the peoples of Russia. A family is not just the foundation for state and society, it is a spiritual phenomenon, the source of morality.” He added that "support for family, motherhood, childhood should cover the work of all areas of government "without exception", with economic, social, infrastructure policies, education and health care among the areas where the principle would be applied. His plea follows a 555,000 fall in the Russian population in the first year of Putin’s war, with many families now too nervous to start or increase their families as more men are sent off to the front line. Russia's crashing economy also discourages families from having children, according to demographers. The average number of babies per woman is currently 1.42 - well below the replacement rate of 2.1. His country is also making abortions harder to get, with several regions banning them in private clinics. https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Putin keeps his private life secret, but his daughter Katerina Tikhonova, 37, is a dancer-turned-mathematician |
re: PUTIN Copies Netanyahu & BOMBS Childrens' Hospital Injuring 53
Ukraines' Secret Service Assassinated Illya Kyva, Ex-MP Traitor in Russia After He Supported The War
Illya Kyva was kicked out of parliament and defected to Russia weeks after Moscow launched its military offensive last year and has now been assassinated by Ukraine The Guardian 9 DEC 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-News.jpg Ilya Kyva, who claimed Volodymyr Zelensky was an MI6 stooge..The former Ukrainian MP has been assassinated in Russia by Ukraine for being a traitor https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2014...rroristic_.jpg Moment Russian sabotage cell was captured by Ukrainian secret service Illya Kyva was shot dead in the village of Suponevo, to the west of Moscow, after he called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a cocaine addict. The man was a Kremlin propagandist and one of Putin's puppets, who appeared obediently on state TV shows and had alleged Zelensky was an MI6 stooge. A source in Ukraine's defence sector told AFP that its SBU security services had orchestrated the assassination of the man who was kicked out of parliament and defected to Russia weeks after Moscow launched its military offensive last year. Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, said in televised remarks that Kyva was "done", adding that "the same fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine and accomplices of Putin’s regime." He said: "We can confirm that Kyva is done. Such a fate will befall other traitors of Ukraine, as well as the henchmen of the Putin regime." Yusov also called Kyva "one of the biggest scumbags, traitors and collaborators" and said his death was "justice." Before going over to the Russian side, Kyva had fought against Moscow-backed separatist rebels in Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk and was elected to parliament in 2019. Since his flight to Moscow, Kyva was a frequent participant in talk shows on Russian state television during which he blasted the Ukrainian leadership. Last month, a court in Ukraine sentenced him to 14 years in prison in absentia on charges of treason. Kyva’s killing follows a slew of other attacks on prominent war supporters in Russia. In August 2022, Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian nationalist ideologist Alexander Dugin, died in a car bomb explosion outside Moscow. Meanwhile, intensifying Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy facilities are worsening humanitarian conditions across the war-torn country, where heavy snow and freezing temperatures have already arrived, UN officials said Wednesday. Assistant Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca told the UN Security Council that Russia’s continuing daily attacks on Ukraine’s critical civilian infrastructure have resulted in civilian casualties, and Moscow recently escalated its barrages in populated areas including the capital, Kyiv. He said: "All attacks against civilians and civilian infrastructure must stop immediately. They are prohibited under international humanitarian law and are simply unacceptable." Jenca also raised the risks to all four of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants. The Zaporizhzhia plant, which is Europe’s largest, suffered its eighth complete off-site power outage since the invasion on Saturday, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Jenca said. Ramesh Rajasingham, the UN humanitarian coordinator, told the council "The deaths, injuries and level of destruction of vital civilian infrastructure is staggering." After more than 21 months of fighting since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Rajasingham said, "millions of children, women and men are now faced with the prospect of yet another winter of severe hardship amid the impact of increased attacks on hospitals, electricity transmission systems, and gas and water supplies." |
re: Ukraine Obliterates Russian Warship & Recalls Men From Abroad to Serve
HUGE Explosions Injuring 53 as Russia Bomb Kyiv Childrens' Hospital
Fallen debris from Russian ballistic missiles injured at least 53 people in Ukraine including children as a paediatric hospital and an apartment building were hit in the blast Daily Mail 13 DEC 2023 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...7272200481.jpg Ukraines’ capital was hit by a huge ballistic missile attack early this morning, injuring over 50 people and damaging an apartment building and a children's hospital, the mayor said. The Ukrainian air force said Russia launched 10 ballistic missiles at Kyiv and all were intercepted by air defences. But fallen debris fell in the eastern Dniprovskyi district, injuring at least 53 people, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on the Telegram messaging app. Twenty people, including two children, were hospitalised while 33 people received medical treatment on the spot. An apartment building, a private house and several cars caught fire, while the windows of a children's hospital were shattered, Klitschko said. Falling rocket debris also damaged the water supply system in the district. Also on Monday, a Russian missile attack destroyed several homes on the outskirts of Kyiv and left more than 100 households temporarily without electricity. As winter sets in and hampers troop movements, Ukrainian officials have warned that Russia will target energy infrastructure to cause power outages and blackouts like it did last winter. While the worlds' attention is elsewhere, Russian President Vladimir Putin is still raining hell on innocent Ukrainians. The bombardment came two days after another attack on Kyiv with ballistic missiles and attack drones. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had left for Washington earlier that day, hoping to rally waning American support for his country. Russia has often used Zelensky's visits abroad to launch waves of major attacks. Ukrainian Troops Rescue Wounded Comrade Amid Fierce Fighting With Russia Near Avdiivka SUPERB Ukrainian Snipers - Ukraines' ELITE Sniper Unit Conducting Raids Ukraines' Horizons' Lord: Sniper Makes Longest Range Kill Shot in HISTORY Ukraine Sharpshooter Eliminates Russian Soldier 3,800 Metres Away |
re: Ukraine Obliterates Russian Warship & Recalls Men From Abroad to Serve
PUTIN Will Thank US Republicans For Great Christmas Gift - No Help For Ukraine
U.S. Aid to Ukraine: Biden Cautions Congress Against Giving Putin Greatest Christmas Gift They Could Possibly Give.. Republicans Have Balked at The US Providing Additional Help For Ukraine BBC 14 DEC 2023 https://images.axios.com/HyBeRJ9JiN0...999.jpg?w=1920 American President, Joe Biden, has called on Congress not to give Russian dictator Vladimir Putin a "gift" and to approve aid to Ukraine before Congress goes on holiday, says President Biden at a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Biden emphasized that Congress should pass additional funding for Ukraine before they take a break for the holiday season. "Congress needs to pass the supplemental funding for Ukraine before they break for the holiday recess. Before they give Putin the greatest Christmas gift they could possibly give him," the U.S. President stated. It is worth noting that the funds allocated for military aid to Ukraine from the United States are running out. In light of this, President Joe Biden has requested over $100 billion from Congress, including over $60 billion for Ukraine. Putin is 'Suffering' From 87 Per Cent Troop Losses...:clapper::clapper: Russia Has Lost 87% of Troops it Had Prior to Start of Ukraine War Russia has lost a staggering 87 percent of the total number of active-duty ground troops it had prior to launching its invasion of Ukraine and two-thirds of its pre-invasion tanks, a source familiar with a declassified US intelligence assessment provided to Congress told CNN. Still, despite heavy losses of men and equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to push forward as the war approaches its two-year anniversary early next year and US officials are warning that Ukraine remains deeply vulnerable. A highly anticipated Ukrainian counteroffensive stagnated through the fall, and US officials believe that Kyiv is unlikely to make any major gains over the coming months. The assessment, sent to Capitol Hill on Monday, comes as some Republicans have balked at the US providing additional funding for Ukraine and the Biden administration has launched a full-court press to try to get supplemental funding through Congress. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is in Washington on Tuesday, meeting with US lawmakers and President Joe Biden in desperate bid to secure the military and economic aid he says is vital to Ukraine’s ability to maintain the fight against Russia. https://assets.bwbx.io/images/users/...1/1200x800.jpg https://s4.reutersmedia.net/resource...AINE-CRISIS-EU https://tse1.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.W...=0&w=161&h=167 Ukraine faces a daunting winter after Zelensky can’t convince Republicans to move quickly on new aid |
re: TRUTH Why US GOP Congress Backs Gaza & NOT Ukraine War-PRO~Israel $$ DONATIONS
HUGE Explosion as Ukraine Strikes Crimea Port Damaging Russian Warship
Putins' Mouthpiece Blames BRITAIN For Being Behind Kremlins' Humiliation After Russian Warship Was Obliterated by Ukraine Strike: 'It was not Ukraine, but Britain that struck the port of Feodosia' DESPERATE Ukraine to Recall Men From Abroad to Serve on The Frontlines US Releases Last Military Aid For Kyiv -US Aid to Ukraine Worth Some $250m (£195m). Includes Air Defence, Artillery and Small Arms Ammunition, and Anti-Tank Weapons Daily Mail 28 DEC 2023 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12...3603707716.jpg Britain has been directly blamed in Russia for waging war on Putin and being behind the dramatic destruction of landing ship Novocherkassk in annexed Crimea. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12...3603768712.jpg Footage showed a raging inferno in the Crimean port after the attack early on Boxing Day, with the governor of the Russian-occupied territory admitting at least one person had been killed Pro-Putin political analyst Sergey Markov said the UK had been emboldened in its backing for Kyiv because Moscow did not hit back against London. He implied a British-supplied Storm Shadow missile attack was responsible for the sinking of a key assault ship believed to have been loaded with munitions overnight. 'In fact, it was not Ukraine, but Britain that struck the port of Feodosia,' he said, listing 'British missiles', 'British and American satellite recon', 'missile guidance by British officers' and 'the joint British-American-Ukrainian decision to strike' as evidence to back his assertions. 'This is a war between Britain and Russia at the hands of the Ukrainian proxy army,' he went on. 'And Britain will continue this war because Russia does not answer to Britain.' https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12...3588825766.jpg An explosion shook the port of Feodosia in Crimea on Boxing Day as Ukraine claimed that its missile attack had destroyed a major Russian Navy vessel. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12...3590743023.jpg The Novercherkassk normally carries 87 sailors. Their fates are not currently known https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/12...3603787542.jpg Staunchly pro-Putin political analyst Sergey Markov, pictured next to a portrait of Putin Ukraine Celebrating First Christmas on 25 DEC 2023 - Why Ukraine Changed The Date of Christmas Journalist Mark Savchuk speaks about the decision to move the date of Christmas and what it signals. |
Re: TRUTH Why US GOP Congress Backs Gaza & NOT Ukraine War-PRO~Israel $$ DONATIONS
Revealed: GOP Congress Backers of Gaza War Received Most $$$$ From PRO-Israel DONORS
Guardian analysis finds top recipients of PRO-Israel contributions in last elections were centrists who defeated progressives in primaries The Guardian 11 JAN 2024 https://i.prcdn.co/img?regionKey=%2f...8q2rAGjQ%3d%3d Congress members who were more supportive of Israel at the start of the Gaza war received over $100,000 more on average from pro-Israel donors during their last election than those who most supported Palestine, a Guardian analysis of campaign data shows. Those who took more money most often called for US military support and backed Israel’s response, even as Gaza’s civilian death toll mounted, the findings show. The analysis, which looks at positions taken during the war’s first six weeks, does not prove any particular member changed their position because they received pro-Israel campaign donations. However, some campaign finance experts who viewed the data argue that donor spending helped fuel Congress’s overwhelming support for Israel. The analysis compared campaign contributions from pro-Israel groups and individuals to almost every member of the current Congress with each lawmaker’s statements on the war through mid-November. About 82% of GOP Congress members were more supportive of Israel, and just 9% more supportive of Palestine during this period. The remainder had “mixed” views. Legislators categorized as supportive of Israel received about $125,000 on average during their last election, while those supportive of Palestine on average took about $18,000. The volume and breadth of the donors’ spending is considerable: over $58m went to current Congress members, and all but 33 received donations. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BttxO-YIMAEZHuf.png |
re: Putins' Armageddon Attack Causes Gas Pipeline Blast & 10 Thunderous Explosions
Russia Declares Emergency Over Ukrainian Kamikaze Drone Blitz
Russia-Ukraine WAR – Kremlin Declares State of Emergency in Border Town After Kamikaze Drone Attack Ukrainian Forces Roll Out Deadly 8x8 Wheeled Amphibious Fighting Vehicles as Ironclad Starts Work Daily Mail 17 JAN 2024 https://828cloud.files.wordpress.com...06/220622b.jpg Ironclad - Ukrainian Wheeled Combat Robot Ironclad Destroys Russian Positions...The GNOM remote-controlled scout robot made by Ukrainian company Temerland ready and armed https://www.idvgroup.com/wp-content/...erav-8x8-1.jpg Deadly 8x8 Wheeled Amphibious Fighting Vehicles https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg The mayor of a southern Russian city near the border with Ukraine has declared a state of emergency after what officials said was a Kyiv-launched drone attack that damaged several buildings and wounded a child. Vadim Kstenin, the mayor of Voronezh City, claimed that nearly three dozen apartments had been damaged in a drone attack overnight. Russian news outlet Shot reported on Telegram that at least 15 blasts were heard near an air base just outside the city, while some drone debris fell nearby onto an apartment building. Footage posted by the governor of Voronezh (pictured below) has since appeared to show that building. The Russian Ministry of Defence (MoD) claimed they destroyed five drones in the region, which is roughly 170 miles from the border with Ukraine, and intercepted three more. “I ask Voronezh residents not to worry - we are introducing a state of emergency so that we can quickly make decisions,” wrote Kstenin. The governor of the region, Alexander Gusev, claimed an 11-year-old girl was injured in the attack. Ukraine has not commented on the strike. The air base near Voronezh City is known host to some Sukhoi Su-34s bombers, according to Russian media. The Kremlin often deploys fighter-bomber aircraft during air strikes... President Zelensky Tells World Leaders Ukraine 'War is Not Just About Us' Ukrainian Forces of The 56th Motorized Brigade Roll Out Deadly 8x8 Wheeled Amphibious Fighting Vehicles The deadly vehicles are designed to stand all weathers and terrains and are a great asset in the fight against Russian military forces with the firepower they have. St. Petersburg Inferno: 70 Thousand Square Meter Fire Spreads Across 'Wildberries' Warehouse- The warehouse of a large online store Wildberries is on fire in St. Petersburg. The area of the fire is 70 thousand square meters, the Russian Emergencies Ministry said. Russian media report that the damage from the fire may amount to 10-11 billion rubles. BREAKING... Latest: Kyiv To Throw Moscow 'From The Skies’ After More Drone Strikes by Putins’ Forces https://static.independent.co.uk/202...CK-KHARKIV.JPG Russia claimed that Ukraine fired at least 12 drones across the border, targeting the Voronezh and Belgorod regions Ukraines’ priority for 2024 is to “throw Russia from the skies”, Kyiv’s top diplomat has said, after the Kremlin fired nearly two dozen drones and missiles over the border. “In 2024, of course the priority is to throw Russia from the skies,” Dmytryo Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, told a conference in Davos, Switzerland. “Because the one who controls the skies will define when and how the war will end.” His comments augur the arrival of the first batch of F-16 fighter jets in Ukraine later this year, which Kyiv has been requesting since the start of the war. Kyiv views these fighter jets as the key to unlocking air superiority over the Russians, which in turn, they believe, could prove invaluable to their aims to remove Kremlin forces from Ukraine. It comes as at least 20 civilians have been injured after Russia fired nearly two dozen drones and missiles across Ukraine, according to local officials. Ukraines interior minister Ihor Klymenko reported that it had been “a difficult night for Odessa and Kharkiv”, cities in the south and north east of Ukraine respectively. |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
Putins' Armageddon Attack Causes Ukraine Gas Pipeline Blast and 10 Thunderous Explosions
A blistering Russian attack led to the explosion of a pipeline in Kharkiv, Ukraine, as further missiles rained down on Kyiv, with a total of two people killed and 13 injured, including a young girl MailOnline 24 JAN 2024 https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Kyiv was struck with 10 explosions https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Two were killed and 13 hospitalised A blistering Armageddon attack by Vladimir Putin on Ukraine saw a gas pipeline explode in Kharkiv and residential buildings hit in Kyiv. There were distressing reports of civilian casualties after Russia deployed its strategic missile aircraft to unleash missiles onto cities. A total of three dead and 13 wounded were reported across Ukraine, amid fears the numbers would rise. Nine were reported wounded in Kyiv where black smoke rose over the skyline with a residential building hit, and one was killed in a separate missile strike on Pavlohrad. *Kyiv was rocked by 10 thunderous explosions. Kharkiv faced at least seven explosions with power lost in a number of districts. A multi-storey residential building in Kharkiv was completely destroyed as a result of Russian missile fire. Two were reported killed, 13 wounded hospitalised including a girl, 10. Children were reported with shrapnel wounds. Two women were in serious condition. Rescuers were removing the rubble, where people might be trapped, the local authorities reported. Explosions were also reported in the Sumy region, Dnepropetrovsk region and Zhitomyr. In Kyiv’s Svyatoshinsky district, a building and cars were on fire, and there were claims of debris hitting a kindergarten. In Solomensky district, windows in an apartment building were smashed by a blast wave. One victim was hospitalised. In Pechersky district, a non-residential building was hit. Emergency services were at the scene. At least eight were hospitalised in Kyiv. A Kh-101 missile was seen firing heat traps during a strike on Kyiv. Kyiv mayor Vitalii Klitchko said: “An unexploded warhead of a rocket was found in one of the apartments in a residential building in Sviatoshynsky district. People are being evacuated from the house.” https://i2-prod.mirror.co.uk/incomin...2west-news.jpg Rescuers scour the rubble for survivors |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
Russia Accuses Kyiv of Downing Plane Carrying Ukrainian Prisoners of War
President Zelensky slams Putin for 'playing with prisoners' lives' after plane carrying 65 POWs crashed in huge fireball - as Russia claims Ukraine was behind tragedy The Guardian 25 JAN 2024 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6088407163.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6149030553.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6148500020.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6149030557.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6149030558.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6149030583.jpg Moscow says aircraft that went down in border region of Belgorod was carrying prisoners who were to be swapped https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6148897090.jpg Ukrainian president Volodymr Zelensky https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/01...6148897091.jpg Russian president Vladimir Putin Dramatic video shows an out-of-control Ilyushin Il-76 plunging from the sky and smashing into the ground in front of horrified locals in the Belgorod region near Ukraine's border yesterday. Russia said that the 65 POWs, six Russian crew and three escorts on board were all killed in the deadly plane crash. Hours after the tragedy, both Russia and Ukraine quickly pinned the blame on one another. Without providing evidence Moscow accused Ukraine of killing its own POWs, while Kyiv demanded an international inquiry and called for full clarification of the circumstances of the incident. President Zelensky, in his evening address, said: 'It is clear that the Russians are playing with the lives of Ukrainian prisoners, the feelings of their loved ones and the emotions of our society.' Video shows the Ilyushin Il-76 plunging from the sky and smashing into the ground in front of horrified locals in the Korochansky district this morning Both Russia and Ukraine have tried to pin the blame on the other for the deadly crash that left no survivors NB: I think Russia deliberately DID NOT inform Ukraine they were sending a RUSSIAN plane carrying Ukrainian Prisoners of War....expecting it to be shot down...:idea: |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
Vladimir Putin Set to Simulate Nuclear Explosions With New Secret Technology. Putin Threatens West in a Rare Visit to Kaliningrad
Russian President Vladimir Putin is set to utilise his secret new technology in huge military drills to simulate nuclear explosions, as the war in Ukraine marches on Calm President Biden to Vladimir Putin on Threat of Nuclear War: 'DONT' MailOnline 27 JAN 2024 https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020...ebookJumbo.jpg Vladimir Putin is set to utilise his new technology to simulate nuclear war, according to reports. The Russian President has developed a new method to mimic an incoming atomic bomb, and will consequently stage several military drills. The latest news comes amid his nation threatening to take the violence in Ukraine up a level by engaging in nuclear war. Experts have declared that Khrulev Military Academy in St Petersburg is responsible for creating the technology which can simulate the mushroom cloud impact that nuclear explosions are renowned for. According to state news agency, ITAR_TASS, the patent document claims: “The purpose of the model is to simulate what a nuclear strike looks like - the shock effect, flash of light and the mushroom cloud of a ground-based nuclear explosion.” *The Moscow Times reported that the invention will be utilised to: "Train radiation, chemical and biological intelligence units to determine the parameters of the epicentre of a nuclear explosion." Fearing the potential consequences of nuclear war, the International Institue for Strategic Studies warns of Russia's potential readiness to deploy non-strategic or tactical - nuclear weapons. Their report claimed: "A particularly troubling trend from a Western perspective is Russia’s belief in its ability to achieve and maintain dominance in an escalating environment, and to compensate for losses of personnel and equipment to a degree unimaginable to the West. “In its war on Ukraine, Russia has used direct nuclear signalling to the US and NATO with its strategic and theatre nuclear forces. More recently, it has shown with Belarus that it sees NSNW [non-strategic nuclear weapons] as a useful tool to exert further control over its near-abroad and increase its coercive power against NATO.” The report added: "The more that can be understood of Russian doctrine and military thought related to NSNW, the more likely it is that deterrence with Russia can be maintained. Understanding Russia and maintaining deterrence vis-*-vis Russia is a matter of survival for the West.” Revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Putin is allegedly planning to restart atomic bomb testing in the Arctic, supposedly ordering defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, to imminently prepare to resume proceedings. The notorious President is currently mocking the West with a major exhibition in Moscow. Putin is showcasing the most powerful bomb in human history - the infamous 50-megaton AN602 'Tsar Bomba'. The massive statement is proof of the 71-year-old's defiance of the West, indicating that he will not let their concerns prevent him from restarting nuclear tests. Supporting his longtime associate, the head of Kurchatov Nuclear Institute, Mikhail Kovalchuk, said: "I think this is a correct idea." Russian President Putin Threatens West in a Rare Visit to Kaliningrad President Biden to Vladimir Putin on Threat of Nuclear War: DONT https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/1024/m...6334_putin.png |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
Secret EU Plan To Sabotage Hungarian Economy Revealed as Anger Mounts at Orbán
Hungarian Leader Viktor Orbán Refused to Green Light Funding to Help Finance Ukraines' Fight Against Russia Brussels’ fury grows over Budapests’ ‘Policy of Blackmail’ in continuing to hold up £50bn support package For Ukraine The Guardian 30 JAN 2024 https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2bae6...0&dpr=1&s=none The EU has tried to use funding as a tool to force Hungary into line on policies and the application of the rule of law. Officials in Brussels have reportedly drawn up a secret plan to sabotage Hungary’s economy if Viktor Orbán decides this week to again block a €50bn support package for Ukraine. The plan, reported by the Financial Times, reflects the fury mounting across European capitals at what one diplomat called the “policy of blackmail” being pursued by the Hungarian prime minister, who leads the bloc’s most pro-Russia state. The FT said the strategy involved targeting Hungarys’ economy, weakening its currency and reducing investor confidence. Orbán blocked the €50bn in Ukraine funds in December, forcing an emergency leaders meeting to be scheduled on Thursday to revisit the matter. According to the FT, the document declares that “in the case of no agreement in the February 1 [summit], other heads of state and government would publicly declare that in the light of the unconstructive behaviour of the Hungarian PM … they cannot imagine that [EU funds would be provided to Budapest]”. Sources on Monday said EU capitals were still hopeful of a deal with Orbán and see the leak as a high-risk political move that could backfire. The Hungarian currency, the forint, depreciated by 0.7% on Monday, briefly down to a low against the euro last seen in October. Hungarys’ economy is heavily reliant on the single market, with nearly all its exports going across the border to neighbouring countries. According to European Commission data, intra-EU trade accounts for 78% of Hungary’s exports (Germany 28%, Romania, Slovakia, Austria and Italy all 5%), while 3% goes to the US and 3% to the UK. The EU has already tried to use funds as a tool to force Hungary into line on policies and the application of the rule of law, a basic requirement of membership of the bloc; €20bn of funds are frozen over concerns about LGBTQ+ rights and other issues. János Bóka, Hungary’s EU minister, told the FT that his country “does not give in to pressure” and there was no connection between Ukraine and general access to EU funds. “Hungary has and will continue to participate constructively in the negotiations,” he said. On Monday he wrote on X: “The document, drafted by Brussels bureaucrats only confirms what the Hungarian government has been saying for a long time: access to EU funds is used for political blackmailing by Brussels.” An EU source said: “The reality is Hungary has not really been flexible on this. The member state level of frustration is increasing. It is higher than in December.” Moment Hungarys' Viktor Orban Fails to Clap Zelensky as He Joins EU Family Orbán Refused to Help Finance Ukraines' Fight Against Russia Ukraine Strikes Another Oil Refinery & MEP Exposed as Russian SPY: The Latest Podcast |
Re: Ukraine Sinks $70M Russian Warship/Putin Seeks to Cut Off His Peoples' NET From W
Ukraine Has Sunk Russian Warship Near Occupied Crimea in Fresh Humiliation For Putin
Putin Seeks to Cut Off His Peoples' NET From West as Russia Hit by Massive Internet Meltdown Yesterday Ukrainian kamikaze drone sinks £55million Russian warship off Crimea. Overnight drone attack deals another blow to Moscows’ fleet and demonstrates Kyiv’s expanding power in Black Sea The Guardian 2 FEB 2024 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791487394.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791490407.jpg The Ivanovets is one of many Russian vessels to have been put out of commission by Ukraine's forces https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791316571.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791324267.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791465134.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...6791455370.jpg A drone bears down on the Ivanovets in this screengrab Ukraine sinks $70M Russian warship Ivanovets in the Black Sea using boat drones Ukraines' armed forces claimed to have sunk another Russian warship using kamikaze attack drones in a formidable strike off the coastline of Crimea. Footage shared by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence showed how its unmanned seafaring vessels bore down on the £55 million Black Sea missile ship Ivanovets. The 184ft warship was hit by multiple drones off annexed Crimea and was reportedly sunk after suffering massive hull damage. Ivanovets was in sea lake Donuzlav, a bay in the west of Crimea used for military vessels, when it came under attack. The fate of the crew - who resisted the attack and shot at the drones - is not known. Neither the Russian Ministry of Defence nor the Navy have officially confirmed the strike, but a slew of pro-war military channels on Telegram have corroborated Ukrainian reports. As a result of a number of direct hits to the hull, the Russian ship received damage that was incompatible with further movement - the Ivanovets tilted to the stern and sank,' said Military Informant Telegram channel. One reported: 'We must give credit to the crew. They fought to the last. Podcast |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
Putin:'I DONT Want World War III - World War III Would Bring All Humanity to Brink of Destruction'
--But Says US ‘Needs to Stop Supplying Weapons’ to Ukraine Vladimir Putin says Russia invading Poland or Latvia is 'out of the question' - and insists military defeat for his troops in Ukraine is now 'impossible' Volodymyr Zelenskiy Fires Top Ukraine Army Commander - Valerii Zaluzhnyi to be replaced by land forces commander Oleksandr Syrskyi, in ‘renewal’ of armed forces MailOnline 9 FEB 2024 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7436032993.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7435498921.jpg He told US talk show host Tucker Carlson in an interview today that they 'simply don't have any interest' in expanding the war in Ukraine https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7435487947.jpg Vladimir Putin played down fears of World War Three last night by claiming the prospect of Russia invading Poland or Latvia was 'out of the question'. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7436887882.jpg Russian soldiers load a rocket into a launcher on a mission at an undisclosed location in Ukraine in a photo released yesterday The President said the Kremlin 'simply don't have any interest' in expanding the war in Ukraine and suggested such a conflict would 'bring all humanity to the brink of destruction'. Putin made the comments in an interview with US talk show host Tucker Carlson, his first with a Western journalist since before Russia's invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago. He also claimed military defeat for his troops was 'impossible' in a remarkable two-hour sit down in which he also said Boris Johnson scuppered a deal to end the fighting 18 months ago. Asked if he could imagine a scenario where his troops would be sent to Poland, Putin told Carlson: 'Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia. We have no interest in Poland, Latvia or anywhere else. 'Why would we do that? We simply don't have any interest. It is absolutely out of the question.' Vladimir Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was read to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine 18 months ago but Boris Johnson scuppered the deal Fears of WWIII were raised when Admiral Rob Bauer, the chairman of NATO's Military Committee urged both civilians and governments to prepare for cataclysmic conflicts and the chilling prospect of being conscripted. 'We have to realise it's not a given that we are in peace. And that's why we [NATO forces] have the plans, that's why we are preparing for a conflict with Russia,' Bauer told reporters last month after a meeting of NATO defence chiefs in Brussels. 'But the discussion is much wider. It is also the industrial base and also the people that have to understand they play a role.' n a stark warning, he said civilians must be ready for a conflict in the next 20 years that would require wholesale change in their lives. The governments of Estonia, Sweden and now the UK have already warned their respective nations that the prospect of large-scale war is on the horizon. Putin outrageously claimed last night that he was ready to sign a deal to end the war with Ukraine a year asnd a half ago but Mr Johnson scuppered the deal. He claimed the former Prime Minister 'dissuaded' the leader of Ukraine's leading party from signing the document and said it 'was better to fight Russia' in the interview with Carlson. The Kremlin said Putin agreed to the interview because the approach of the former Fox News host 'differed from the one-sided reporting of the Ukraine conflict'. The President was allowed to drone on unchallenged for long chunks of time as he gave a rambling history lesson about Russia dating back to the year 800. He claimed that Davyd Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine's ruing party, put his 'preliminary signature' on the deal after direct negotiations with Russians in Istanbul. Mr Putin said: 'But then he [Arakhamia] publicly stated to the whole world, we were ready to sign this document but Mr Johnson, then the Prime Minister, came and dissuaded us from doing this, saying it was better to fight Russia. 'They would give everything needed for us to return what was lost during the clashes with Russia. And we agreed with this proposal'. Mr Putin went on: 'And the fact that they obey the demand or persuasion of Mr Johnson, the former Prime Minister of Great Britain, seems ridiculous. 'And it's very sad to me because, as Mr Arakhamia put it, we could have stopped those hostilities with war a year and a half ago already. But the British persuaded us and we refused this. Where is Mr Johnson now? And the war continues.' He accused the US of telling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to refuse to negotiate any deal and said he wanted to agree a settlement. 'And we made it [a deal],' he said. 'We prepared the huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation. He had fixed his signature to some of the provisions, not to all of it. He put his signature and then he himself said, we were ready to sign it, and the war would have been over long ago. Eighteen months ago. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7445408279.jpg Russian Presidential Aide Vladimir Medinsky, left, and Davyd Arakhamia pose for media during talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Dolmabahce Palace, Istanbul, in March 2022 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7445414362.jpg Ukrainian Parliament member Arakhamia (C front) during Russian-Ukrainian talks in the Gomel Region of Belarus in February 2022 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7445417743.jpg Putin claims they had prepared a huge document in Istanbul that was initialed by the head of the Ukrainian delegation (Pictured: Delegations from Ukraine and Russia in Belarus) https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7445421363.jpg Zelenskyy and Commander of Ukraine's Ground Forces Colonel General Oleksandr Syrski, right, look at a map during their visit to the front line city of Kupiansk, Kharkiv region in November 2023 'However, Prime Minister Johnson came, talk to us out of it and we missed that chance. Well, you missed it. You made a mistake. Let them get back to that.' The Kremlin has previously suggested Mr Johnson's trip to Kyiv in April 2022 as an intervention to derail any peace deal and would have seen Russia withdrawing its troops. The deal would have seen Ukraine abandoning its plans to join Nato and accepting neutrality. US journalist Tucker Carlson caught on camera entering Russian complex for Putin interview Putin, Tucker Carlson interview complete: President Zelensky Sacks Ukraines' Commander-in-Chief |
re: Putin Threatens to NUKE The West & Plans to Flood West With African Migrants
'This Mission Will Go Down in History': British, Canadian, Irish, Australian and US Fighters Storm Frontline Trenches Killing 22 Russians, Whilst Being Bombarded With Suicide Drones in Mission That Left Brit Injured
Ukraine Have Sunk Russian Landing Ship in Drone Attack Military intelligence releases video it says shows drones taking on vessel from Moscow’s Black Sea fleet off Crimea MailOnline 15 FEB 2024 https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7924943021.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7924917282.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925665898.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925688868.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925122002.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925126821.jpg The British fighter is seen lying on the floor after being shot by the Russian soldier New heart-stopping battleground footage has captured the moment a unit made up of English-speaking foreign fighters 'killed 22 Russian soldiers' as they stormed a trench in Ukraine. The unit, formed of Ukrainian soldiers as well as British, Canadian, Irish and Australians, came under intense drone bombardment as it carried out its mission to capture a tactically 'dominant' location near Avdiivka, Eastern Ukraine. Footage of the assault - which left at least one British fighter injured - was released online on Tuesday by the 59th Motor Rifle Brigade, which added commentary to the clips. The commander of the company does not reveal the exact location of the assault, instead referring to the position as '105-106 Heights'. He describes the combat seen in the footage as the most brutal fight his unit has experienced when fighting for a position, telling viewers 'the [Russian] opponents concentrated a lot of resources to hold it'. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925103756.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925106421.jpg 'I think this [mission] will go down in history as an exemplary assault, which was performed with character and constant pressure on the enemy,' he said, introducing the intense 16-minute video of brutal, real-world combat. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925086863.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7931087759.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925983902.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925986336.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7931034863.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7924923252.jpg https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7924921046.jpg New heart-stopping battleground footage has captured the moment a unit made up of foreign fighters 'killed 22 Russian soldiers' as they stormed a trench in Ukraine. A soldier in the unit largely made up of foreign fighters is seen advancing through the trench. Throughout the assault, soldiers on the Ukrainian side were reported to have killed 22 Russian enemies while taking two captive. It was unclear how many casualties the brigade suffered The heartstopping footage opens with a convoy of Ukrainian trucks speeding down the side of a row of trees lining vast, open, bombed-out fields, in August last year Instantly the sound of gunfire is heard being exchanged between the mounted machine guns on the trucks and the Russian soldiers hiding in the trenches which are hidden in the trees Filmed by drones and body-mounted cameras, the footage shows the Brigade's assault units Alpha, Bravo and Charlie storm the trenches under a hail of bullets and eliminate several Russian soldiers who have hunkered down there. It opens with the Ukrainian troops in a convoy of armoured military trucks - speeding down the side of a row of dead trees lining vast, open, bombed-out fields. A date stamp on the footage - released by Ukrainian YouTube channel Butusov Plus - shows that it was filmed on August 23, 2023. Instantly the sound of gunfire is heard being exchanged between the mounted machine guns on the trucks and the Russian soldiers hiding in the trenches. 'F***ng hell,' one of the fighters can be heard saying in a thick English accent. Another, in an American accent this time, says: 'That's Russian.' As the trucks slow down and the fighters prepare to launch their assault on foot, one of the armoured vehicles is hit by an explosion, launching dirt into the air. Undeterred, the camouflaged-clad gunmen press on, climbing out of the trucks and taking up positions to provide covering fire for their comrades. To shouts of 'push up' over the din of gunfire, the unit begins to advance on the trenches. One of the trucks is seen heavily damaged, with soldiers climbing out. It doesn't appear that any of them were badly injured. One of the soldiers filming the attack shouts 'frag out' before hurling a grenade into the sparsely wooded area, where the Russians are bedded down in cover. Drone footage is interspersed with the first-person combat footage, using superimposed flags to show where the Alpha, Bravo and Charlie units are in relation to the Russians in the trenches. The video shows the treeline, and how the three units of the Ukrainian side worked to surround two Russian units, sending one down the middle and two either side. Despite coming under intense fire and several explosions going rocking the ground around them, Ukraine's fighters are seen swiftly advancing to the treeline. The footage shows one member of the Alpha group shoot dead at one enemy soldier, who makes the fatal error of leaving the cover of the trenches. Another Russian soldier seen lying on the floor of the trench, and is also seen being shot as one of the Ukrainian fighters advances. With the Ukrainian fighters now embedded in the trenches, the sound of a drone can be heard buzzing in overhead, forcing the soldiers to take cover. 'Suicide drone!' the soldiers can be heard shouting to each other as a warning. The footage then cuts to the camera mounted on a Canadian's helmet, who shouts to his comrades 'I'm hit!' He appears to be covered in dirt, suggesting he was close to where the Russian suicide drone struck. 'Coming mate, coming,' an Australian fighter is heard saying as he rushes to his comrade's aid. The Canadian's hands are visibly shaking, but after a check-up, the Australian tells him that he 'looks good', encouraging him to get back on his feet. The Canadian is not able to stand, but crawls through the trench to cover. The footage then cuts to a drone filming the Charlie team, which appears to be made up of six soldiers - all bearing down on a Russian position which looks to include an enemy fighter with a grenade launcher. Several explosions send them to the ground, but they all get back on their feet quickly and continue to push on. At the other end of the trench, the Alpha and Bravo teams have a group of Russian soldiers pinned down, and are inching their way towards the position. The Ukrainian drone hovering above the battlefield shows that one of the Russian soldiers is badly wounded and is being treated on the floor of the trench. However, as a British soldier from Alpha unit approaches a nearby bend in the trench, the wounded Russian soldier is able to fire off a hail of bullets from his machine gun - blasting the Brit with several rounds, sending him flying backwards. 'Man down!' one of the fighters on the Ukrainian side shouts as they return fire. Two of the fighters of the Ukrainian side push further up the trench while another brings up the rear to give medical aid to the British soldier. Miraculously, he survived the initial burst of gunfire, and can be seen moving. To add to the chaos in the trenches, another suicide drone is seen overhead and mercifully slams down into the ground a matter of feet away from Alpha's position. With the drone missing its target, a fighter with an American accent continues to assist his downed comrade, whose nickname appears to be 'Mossy'. 'Alright Mossy,' he says. 'I'm going to have to molest you a little bit so I can get these grenades out of you,' while helping him to lift his arms slightly. Although dazed, 'Mossy' appears to be responsive and moving as his comrade retrieves grenades. Re-armed with the explosives, Alpha unit is then able to advance further down the trenches and take out the surrounded Russia position. Blurred footage later shows the body of the Russian soldier who shot the British fighter on the ground. The footage cuts again, this time to fighters in Bravo squad - two of which are seen hunkered down in a ditch littered with debris and fallen trees, while another two are seen in a small bunker dug into the ground. The commentary by the 59th Motor Rifle Brigade's commander returns again briefly. With one flank of the Russian defence wiped out, he explains that the units - Alfa-Bravo to the left and Charlie to the right - are in a 'difficult moment' as they close in on the remaining surrounded Russia position. He explains that the Russians are dug between two positions, with five enemy soldiers having taken cover in holes in the ground. There is a risk, he says, of friendly fire, as the Ukrainian troops approach from both sides. This, he says, means the Ukrainian units have to be patient and wait until they can take shots at the Russians without hitting their comrades on the other side. Back with a camera mounted on a Bravo team soldier, the footage shows two Russian soldiers suddenly running through the trees - out of cover. The soldier with the camera shoots one, but the other runs towards the Ukrainian fighter's position and into the trench - close enough to see his face. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925095717.jpg He appears confused, lost almost, and unarmed. He holds his hands up in front of his body, and the white 'Z' of the Russian army is visible on his armoured vest. Meanwhile, the fighter with the camera, who appears to have an American accent, can be heard shouting 'what the f***' - before the Russian sprints away again. The remainder of the footage - shot by a drone - shows the Ukrainian units gradually picking off the remaining enemy soldiers one by one, completing the mission. It was not immediately clear how many casualties the Ukrainian units took, but it was reported online that a total of 22 Russian soldiers were killed, and two captured. Avdiivka has become a deadly flash-point in the almost two-year long war. In 2023, Ukrainian units crashed against solid Russian defence and it is now Moscow's troops on the attack, particularly around Avdiivka. https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02...7925988398.jpg Residential buildings are seen after being damaged by Russian military strikes in the front line town of Avdiivka, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Donetsk region, November 8 As with Bakhmut earlier in 2023, this industrial city on the eastern front has become a new symbol for Ukrainian resistance. Massively destroyed, it still has around 900 residents compared to 30,000 before the war. However, the Russian noose is slowly tightening and a Ukrainian retreat cannot be excluded. Avdiivka's mayor Vitaly Barabash has called the situation 'critical' in recent days and said there is now house-to-house fighting in the city. Russia has been sending 'waves' of men and the surrounding fields are 'littered with corpses', according to soldiers defending the city. |
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