Oorlog in Oekra�ne #920 Still no sign of Gerasimov.

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Op vrijdag 19 januari 2024 00:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Europa moet gewoon vaart maken met zelf de productie maar aanzwengelen.

Ze hebben idd fondsen specifiek bedoeld om zelf wapen te kopen, maar de VS doneert, en verkoopt zelfs, niks meer aan oekraine.

En da's los van al het leuke theater van die wet voor oekraine steun, want biden & clan kunnen als ze dat willen prima allerhande spul leveren, maar ze doen het niet.

En ja, voor sommigen die twijfelen of zelensky wel zo slim is om te vragen , ja, dat doet die.

Laatste lijst is trouwens ook redelijk uitgekiend, ze hadden van te voren uitgezocht o.a. welke dingen de VS op de nominatie had om te scrappen, en bv apache's, hebben ze er dus. Dingen hebben wel een 'modern' imago, maar bedenk dat de oudsten alweer bijna 40 jaar oud zijn.

Black Hawks, VS faseert er bakken uit, staan ook gewoon te koop, willen ze graag, vinden ze vele malen beter vliegen dan die sovjet meuk, mag niet.

Lijkt er overigens op dat de VS recent een scholz'je heeft gepulled: alle overbodige bradleys richting marokko, ken je wel weer met een straight face zeggen dat je ze niet meer over hebt.

Scholz deed dat eerder met de marders.

En wat is er met die F/A18's van australie gebeurt? En die M1A1's die ze gaan uitfaseren tbv latere edities?

Ja, als uncle sam het niet ziet zitten dat je die aan oekraine doneert, dan kan je beter luisteren, voor je het weet komen je mooie nieuwe onderzeeers in gevaar.

Enfin, iig Macron begint het te snappen.

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�2321j. Authority to transfer excess defense articles
(a) Authorization
The President is authorized to transfer excess defense articles under this section to countries for which receipt of such articles was justified pursuant to the annual congressional presentation documents for military assistance programs, or for programs under part VIII of subchapter I of this chapter, submitted under section 2394 of this title, or for which receipt of such articles was separately justified to the Congress, for the fiscal year in which the transfer is authorized.

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(b) Limitations on transfers
(1) The President may transfer excess defense articles under this section only if-
- (A) such articles are drawn from existing stocks of the Department of Defense;

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- (B) funds available to the Department of Defense for the procurement of defense equipment are not expended in connection with the transfer;
- (C) the transfer of such articles will not have an adverse impact on the military readiness of the United States;
- (D) with respect to a proposed transfer of such articles on a grant basis, such a transfer is preferable to a transfer on a sales basis, after taking into account the potential proceeds from, and likelihood of, such sales, and the comparative foreign policy benefits that may accrue to the United States as the result of a transfer on either a grant or sales basis;
- (E) the President determines that the transfer of such articles will not have an adverse impact on the national technology and industrial base and, particularly, will not reduce the opportunities of entities in the national technology and industrial base to sell new or used equipment to the countries to which such articles are transferred; and

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(c) Terms of transfers
- (2) Priority
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the delivery of excess defense articles under this section to member countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on the southern and southeastern flank of NATO, to major non-NATO allies on such southern and southeastern flank, to Taiwan, and to the Philippines shall be given priority to the maximum extent feasible over the delivery of such excess defense articles to other countries.

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Major Non-NATO Ally (MNNA) status is a designation under U.S. law [1] that provides foreign partners with certain benefits in the areas of defense trade and security cooperation. The Major Non-NATO Ally designation is a powerful symbol of the close relationship the United States shares with those countries and demonstrates our deep respect for the friendship for the countries to which it is extended. While MNNA status provides military and economic privileges, it does not entail any security commitments to the designated country.
Currently 18 countries are designated as MNNAs under 22 U.S.C. �2321k and 10 U.S.C. �2350a :
• Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, South Korea, Thailand, and Tunisia.
• In addition, Pub. L. 107-228 provides Taiwan shall be treated as an MNNA, without formal designation as such.

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(f) Advance notification to Congress for transfer of certain excess defense articles
(1) In general
The President may not transfer excess defense articles that are significant military equipment (as defined in section 47(9) of the Arms Export Control Act [22 U.S.C. 2794(9)]) or excess defense articles valued (in terms of original acquisition cost) at $7,000,000 or more, under this section or under the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2751 et seq.) until 30 days after the date on which the President has provided notice of the proposed transfer to the congressional committees specified in section 2394–1(a) of this title in accordance with procedures applicable to reprogramming notifications under that section.

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(2) Contents
Such notification shall include-
- (A) a statement outlining the purposes for which the article is being provided to the country, including whether such article has been previously provided to such country;
- (B) an assessment of the impact of the transfer on the military readiness of the United States;
- (C) an assessment of the impact of the transfer on the national technology and industrial base and, particularly, the impact on opportunities of entities in the national technology and industrial base to sell new or used equipment to the countries to which such articles are to be transferred; and
-(D) a statement describing the current value of such article and the value of such article at acquisition.

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(g) Aggregate annual limitation
- (1) In general
The aggregate value of excess defense articles transferred to countries under this section in any fiscal year may not exceed $500,000,000.
- (2) Effective date
The limitation contained in paragraph (1) shall apply only with respect to fiscal years beginning after fiscal year 1996.

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(h) Congressional presentation documents
Documents described in subsection (a) justifying the transfer of excess defense articles shall include an explanation of the general purposes of providing excess defense articles as well as a table which provides an aggregate annual total of transfers of excess defense articles in the preceding year by country in terms of offers and actual deliveries and in terms of acquisition cost and current value. Such table shall indicate whether such excess defense articles were provided on a grant or sale basis.

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Op vrijdag 19 januari 2024 12:14 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Ongetwijfeld, maar enkelen die jij hier neer zet:
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Dat kan overigens wel, moet congress zelf een wet aannemen waar ze in detail zeggen dat die het niet mag leveren. Maar dat komt in de praktijk niet voor.
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Precies. Er gaan JLTV's de deur uit onder die wet. En dat is de vervanger van de humvee, nog geen 10 jaar oud.
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Staat daar ook dat die het meteen moet doen? Of is dat keuze, en kan die ook zeggen: je mag wachten?
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Bv de humvee's, worden in de VS aan scrappers verkocht voor 1 USD.
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Die ATACMS, die er eerst waren, en toen ineens weer niet, hebben een negatieve waarde. Het is zulke rotzooi dat scrappers huiverig zijn om ze te scrappen. Moeten 100.000en dollars bij om die af te voeren.

Dus die limitering, is geen realistische factor, zolang biden & clan zelf bepalen welk prijskaartje ergens aanhangt. Zoals je zelf opmerkt; als ze er in zin in hebben goochelen ze weer met de cijfers en zie daar: er is weer geld.

En je gaat niet in op dat oekraine dus bv geen black hawks mag kopen, terwijl jij en ik dat daadwerkelijk wel zouden mogen ( en da's geen verwijt h�, het gaat mij om dat iedereen zich realiseert dat we van theater worden voorzien. De obstakels waar biden admin mee schermt, hebben ze zelf opgeworpen).

Kudo's voor je uitzoek werk, overigens

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Op vrijdag 19 januari 2024 13:37 schreef oheng het volgende:
Oliedepot in St. Petersburg is aangevallen door een drone met een bereik van 1250km, zegt Oekraine.

[ twitter ]

Deze brand dus.

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The governor of the Bryansk region reported a fire at an oil depot in Klintsy after a drone attack. Ukrainian media write about the special operation in Kyiv

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Baltische staten willen honderden bunkers langs grens Rusland en Belarus bouwen
De Baltische staten willen hun grenzen met Rusland en Wit-Rusland beveiligen tegen mogelijke aanvallen met honderden bunkers. Het Estse ministerie van Defensie zei dat de ministers van de landen in Riga een overeenkomst hadden ondertekend volgens welke Estland, Letland en Litouwen defensiefaciliteiten willen bouwen om een fysieke barri�re aan de grenzen op te werpen.

Het doel is om "militaire dreigingen af te schrikken en, indien nodig, ons er tegen te verdedigen". Volgens de aankondiging zal er een systeem van bunkers en aanvoerlijnen worden gecre�erd. “De Russische oorlog in Oekra�ne heeft aangetoond dat naast uitrusting, munitie en personeel ook fysieke verdediging nodig is”, aldus de Estse minister van Defensie Hanno Pevkur. Volgens berichten in de media zal de bouw van de faciliteiten naar verwachting in 2025 beginnen. Hiervoor was aanvankelijk zo'n 55 miljoen euro gepland.

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Netherlands PM Rutte likely to become NATO Secretary General by summer

Countries supporting the candidacy of the Netherlands’ PM Mark Rutte for the post of NATO Secretary General are working behind the scenes to resolve this issue by summer, Bloomberg reported.

Rutte's candidacy is supported by a significant number of NATO member states as he is seen as someone who can deal with former U.S. President Donald Trump, should he win the 2024 U.S. Presidential election.

The U.S. has twice offered Rutte the role, Bloomberg's source said. He refused last time because he did not expect his cabinet in the Netherlands to collapse as quickly as it did.

NATO member countries’ ambassadors have not yet approved Rutte's candidacy despite broad support from major NATO countries, in particular France and Germany. Some countries from the Alliance’s eastern flank are delaying the matter in the hopes of securing more leadership positions to strengthen the region’s representation in the organization.

Estonian PM Kaja Kallas and Latvian FM Kri�jānis Kariņ� expressed interest in the post last year, but their countries did not officially nominate them.

NATO allies are seeking to complete the process this spring to prevent the Secretary General's post from becoming the subject of bids for leadership positions after the European Union elections. Those deadlines could be extended but most Allies expect a solution to be made before the NATO Summit in Washington, D.C. in July.

Current NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg's term expires in October.

He was due to vacate his post at the end of September 2023 but, due to a lack of consensus on his successor, NATO members asked him to remain as NATO Secretary General for another year.

Rutte was called the undisputed favorite for the post of NATO chairman at the end of November.

He admitted regretting making public statements about his plans to run for the post of NATO Secretary General on Dec. 12.

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Op zaterdag 20 januari 2024 06:52 schreef Elizium het volgende:

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Ja rutte kan trump onder de duim houden 🤣

WITTE HUIS: Rutte onderbreekt Trump in persconferentie

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Dems float a trade: Ukraine-border deal for protecting Johnson
The longshot notion underscores the increasingly desperate thinking around getting a Senate compromise through the House.

With Senate negotiators expected to unveil their elusive bipartisan border deal any day now — and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer floating a vote on the White House’s $106 billion supplemental as soon as next week — the watercooler chatter on Capitol Hill has turned to one elephant-sized question: How the hell do you get this thing past the Republican House?

Speaker Mike Johnson is under tremendous pressure from former President Donald Trump and other conservatives not to give President Joe Biden a win on border security — an issue that has plagued him in the polls — ahead of the 2024 election. And members including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are openly threatening to oust the Louisiana Republican if he allows a new tranche of Ukraine aid through the House.

But given the stakes in Ukraine and the political fallout from the migrant crisis, some Democrats are considering a once almost unthinkable idea to land the plane: trading a border deal for protecting Johnson’s gavel.

Several Democrats — including House Armed Services Committee ranking member Adam Smith (D-Wash.), House Homeland Security Committee ranking member Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and border Rep. Vicente Gonzalez (D-Texas) — said yesterday that if Johnson puts the Senate deal on the floor, some in their party would likely step in to make sure he holds on as speaker.

“Our job is not to save Johnson, but I think it would be a mighty pity, if he did the right thing … for us not to support him,” Thompson said. “Up to this point, he’s been a fairly honest broker.”

First off, let’s be clear: There are a million reasons why this idea will probably never come to pass. For one, Johnson is very unlikely to ever go there. He’d utterly ruin his relationship with Trump — not to mention alienate large swaths of his own conference by relying on Democrats to keep his job.

But the fact that some Democrats are even talking about the idea shows how desperate they are to find a solution. The party knows that time is running out to help Ukraine. And they’re getting pummeled on the border issue politically and need to do something to alleviate the situation.

It might seem like a major change in thinking from just a few months ago, when Democrats refused to lift a finger to help Kevin McCarthy keep his speakership. But more than half-dozen senior Democratic aides and lawmakers told us that there is a huge difference between the two men.

For one, Democrats largely viewed McCarthy as a bad-faith actor who lied to them and was instrumental in resurrecting Trump after Jan. 6. Johnson, they note, hasn’t shown himself to be untrustworthy, even if he’s even more conservative than McCarthy.

“People really underestimate the degree to which people really didn’t like Kevin McCarthy,” said Smith, who has personally implored Johnson to find a way to yes on a border deal. “The argument I’ve made to Mike is: You’re going to make an enormous amount of progress on the border however this comes out — and you’ve still got your political issue because you think there’s more that needs to be done.”

Not all Democrats agree. Some told us that Johnson would likely be asked to pay some sort of political ransom in the form of a power-sharing agreement, more committee seats or other rules changes. But, realistically, Johnson wouldn’t need all Democrats— only a few to counter the Republicans who vote to oust him. (Note: For McCarthy, that was eight.)

Democrats aren’t the only ones desperate to find a path through the House for the supplemental agreement. Some Republicans truly want to see Ukraine aid pass, while others are eager to provide relief to constituents in overrun and exhausted border towns. Already, a host of Republicans are hitting TV airwaves to counter the pressure from the right to hold off on border legislation till after the election.

“I am looking for solutions now, not a year from now,” Texas border Rep. Tony Gonzales, a Republican, told us.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) was even more blunt, arguing that delaying progress for political purposes is, essentially, gross.

“My question to those Republicans … is: How many hundreds of thousands of illegals would you allow in the country just because it might help your chances of the election?” he said. “I ran for Congress literally on getting the border secure. So if I have a chance to do that, and I don’t do that, I’m a traitor.”

Yet there isn’t much these members can do if Johnson either (1) refuses to take up the Senate deal or (2) brings it up but attaches H.R. 2 provisions that will never pass the Senate, effectively killing it. There isn’t an easy way to make an end-run around the speaker.

Lawmakers in both parties told us yesterday that there’s no hope for a discharge petition to force a vote on a Senate deal. Republicans are too skittish to go against Trump and their own leadership. And Democrats readily admit that dozens of progressives and Hispanic Caucus members won’t support the deal at all because of the policy changes it’s likely to include and a process that did not include their input.

“I think it’s dead on arrival in the House,” said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), a skeptic of the deal.

Some Republicans say it wouldn’t come to that, however. Crenshaw, for example, was adamant that even if Johnson is staying in touch with Trump and other border-deal opponents — and despite Greene’s threat of a motion to vacate — that the speaker wants to get to yes.

“I know how Johnson actually thinks, and he’s of the same opinion I am here,” Crenshaw told us.

Democrats? They’re not so sure.

“He’s got to decide if he’s going to do what’s right — or he’s going to do what’s politically expedient to just keep himself there for another — er, I don’t know how long,” Vicente Gonzalez said.

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With Deal Close on Border and Ukraine, Republican Rifts Threaten to Kill Both
A divided G.O.P. coalesced behind a bit of legislative extortion: No Ukraine aid without a border crackdown. Now they are split over how large a price to demand, imperiling both initiatives.

Senator James Lankford, the Oklahoma Republican and staunch conservative, this week trumpeted the immigration compromise he has been negotiating with Senate Democrats and White House officials as one shaping up to be “by far, the most conservative border security bill in four decades.”

Speaker Mike Johnson, in contrast, sent out a fund-raising message on Friday denouncing the forthcoming deal as a Democratic con. “My answer is NO. Absolutely NOT,” his message said, adding, “This is the hill I’ll die on.”

The Republican disconnect explains why, with an elusive bipartisan bargain on immigration seemingly as close as it has been in years on Capitol Hill, the prospects for enactment are grim. It is also why hopes for breaking the logjam over sending more U.S. aid to Ukraine are likely to be dashed by hard-line House Republicans.

The situation encapsulates the divide cleaving the Republican Party. On one side are the right-wing MAGA allies of former President Donald J. Trump, an America First isolationist who instituted draconian immigration policies while in office. On the other is a dwindling group of more mainstream traditionalists who believe the United States should play an assertive role defending democracy on the world stage.

The two wings coalesced last fall around a bit of legislative extortion: They would only agree to President Biden’s request to send about $60 billion more to Ukraine for its fight against Russian aggression if he agreed to their demands to clamp down on migration at the United States border with Mexico. But now, they are at odds about how large of a price to demand.

Hard-right House Republicans, who are far more dug in against aid to Ukraine, have argued that the bipartisan border compromise brokered by their counterparts in the Senate is unacceptable. And they bluntly say they do not want to give Mr. Biden the opportunity in an election year to claim credit for cracking down on unauthorized immigration.

Instead, with Mr. Trump agitating against the deal from the campaign trail, they are demanding a return to more severe immigration policies that he imposed, which stand no chance of passing the Democrat-controlled Senate. Those include a revival of the Remain in Mexico policy, under which migrants seeking to enter the United States were blocked and made to stay elsewhere while they waited to appear in immigration court to plead their cases.

While Senate G.O.P. leaders have touted the emerging agreement as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for a breakthrough on the border, hard-right House members have dismissed it as the work of establishment Republicans out of touch with the G.O.P. base.

“Let’s talk about Mitch McConnell — he has a 6 percent approval rating,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, Republican of Georgia, said of the Senate minority leader. “He wouldn’t be the one to be listening to, making deals on the border.”

She said that after Mr. Trump’s decisive win in the Iowa caucuses, “It’s time for all Republicans, Senate and the House, to get behind his policies.”

As for the proposed aid to Ukraine, Ms. Greene is threatening to oust Mr. Johnson from the speakership if he brings it to the floor.

“My red line is Ukraine,” she said, expressing confidence that the speaker would heed her threat. “I’m making it very clear to him. We will not see it on the House floor — that is my expectation.”

The situation is particularly fraught for Mr. Johnson, the novice House speaker whose own sympathies lie with the far right but who is facing immense institutional pressures — from Mr. Biden, Democrats in Congress and his fellow Republicans in the Senate — to embrace a deal pairing border policy changes with aid to Ukraine.

Mr. Johnson has positioned himself as a Trump loyalist, quickly endorsing the former president after winning the gavel, and said that he has spoken regularly to the former president about the Senate immigration deal and everything else. After infuriating hard-right Republicans on Thursday by pushing through a short-term government funding bill to avert a shutdown, the speaker has little incentive to enrage them again and defy the wishes of Mr. Trump, who has disparaged the Senate compromise.

“I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media this week.

Democrats already have agreed to substantial concessions in the talks, including making it more difficult for migrants to claim asylum; expanding detention and expulsion authorities; and shutting down the intake of migrants when attempted crossings reach a level that would overwhelm detention facilities — around 5,000 migrants a day.

But far-right Republicans have dismissed the compromise out of hand, saying the changes would still allow many immigrants to enter the country each year without authorization.

Election-year politics is playing a big role. Representative Bob Good, Republican of Virginia and the chairman of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, said passing the Senate bill would give “political cover” to Mr. Biden for his failures at the border.

“Democrats want to look like they care about the border, then run out the clock so Biden wins re-election,” Mr. Good said. “It would be terrible for the country to give political cover to the facilitators of the border invasion.”

Representative Tim Burchett, Republican of Tennessee, said that while Mr. Johnson broke with the right on federal spending because he feared a government shutdown, “I think on the immigration issue, there’s more unity.”

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, the No. 2 Senate Republican, warned that the immigration compromise was a “unique opportunity” that would not be available to Republicans next year, even if they were to win majorities in both chambers of Congress and win back the White House.

“The Democrats will not give us anything close to this if we have to get 60 votes in the U.S. Senate in a Republican majority,” he said.

Many mainstream House Republicans believe that Mr. Johnson would be making a terrible mistake if he heeded the advice of the most far-right voices and refused to embrace an immigration deal. They argue that doing so would squander an opportunity to win important policy changes and the political boost that would come with showing that Republicans can govern.

“Big city mayors are talking about the same thing that Texas conservatives are talking about,” said Representative Patrick T. McHenry, Republican of North Carolina, a close ally of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “Take the moment, man. Take the policy win, bank it, and go back for more. That is always the goal.”

But for some Republicans, taking the policy win is less important than continuing to have a political issue to rail against in an election year.

“It’s worse than doing nothing to give political cover for a sham border security bill that does nothing to actually secure the border,” Mr. Good said.

Mr. Burchett, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy, rolled his eyes when asked about Mr. McHenry’s entreaties not to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

“McHenry’s leaving,” he said of the congressman, who has announced he will not run for re-election next year.

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Op zaterdag 20 januari 2024 07:11 schreef Elizium het volgende:
Gaat niet gebeuren. Hoop dat wilders dit op pakt. Heb zelf wel genoeg van het vvd. Hopen op beter

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NATO announces "major investment" in 155-mm ammo procurement
Next Tuesday, 23 January, Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO Secretary General, and Stacy Cummings, General Manager of the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), will sign a contract for the purchase of 155-mm artillery ammunition.

Source: European Pravda

Details: NATO announced on 19 January that the planned agreement is "a major new investment in artillery ammunition".

NATO did not disclose any details of the agreement, merely announcing that statements will be made by the Secretary General and the General Manager of NSPA.

Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western powers, including NATO members, have been faced with a shortage of artillery ammunition, with thousands of shells being fired on the battlefield every day.

Western estimates state that Ukraine uses up to 10,000 155-mm artillery shells every day. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned in February of last year that Kyiv was burning through shells much faster than the West can produce them.

The Alliance is pushing member countries to overcome protectionist tendencies and agree on a single standard of artillery ammunition in order to boost production.

Given the vast amounts of 155-mm artillery shells being expended in the course of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US intends to boost production to 100,000 units per month by 2025.

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Heating mains break in freezing Russia's Novosibirsk, emergency declared
The administration of Russian Novosibirsk has introduced a state of emergency in the city due to a series of major municipal accidents, and heating points have been opened in the city as temperatures dropped below 20 degrees below zero.

Source: Andrei Travnikov, Governor of Novosibirsk Oblast, on Telegram; Russian service BBC News

Quote from Travnikov: "Unfortunately, events in the heating system emergency zone of the Leninskyi district are unfolding according to a negative scenario. A new pipeline defect has been discovered on Petropavlovskaya Street during the system refill.

This marks the third rupture in this city block within the last day. Consequently, the supply of the heat carrier is impeded, affecting the restoration of normal heating in buildings located in the Leninskyi district.

In response, an emergency meeting of the regional emergency commission was convened. A decision has been made to declare a state of emergency in the city of Novosibirsk. The management of the emergency response task force has been elevated to the regional level."

Details: On the night of 18-19 January, the fourth heating network accident within a week occurred in Novosibirsk's Leninskyi district. Over 100 buildings had been left without heat due to a rupture in an intra-quarter pipe on Titova Street.

In the past 8 days, the city experienced two major accidents on main heating networks, affecting virtually the entire left bank with thousands of multi-apartment buildings and a population of at least half a million people, as reported by BBC News.

Following the first accident on 11 January, nearly 2,400 buildings were reportedly affected by the emergency shutdown, according to the city administration. Initially, the Siberian Generating Company, linked to Russian billionaire Andrey Melnichenko under sanctions, reported heating disconnections for only 104 buildings.

The second accident in the Leninskyi District on 17 January resulted in the same buildings being disconnected again. The company then attributed the cause of the accident to a "defect" in a pipeline laid in 1963.

Over the last 10 days, in several quarters on the left bank, heating was provided for only a few hours. Residents share photos on social media showing indoor temperatures around 5 to 10 degrees above zero.

During these days, Novosibirsk experiences nighttime temperatures not exceeding 23 degrees below zero. Meanwhile, the city administration has asked residents to "limit the use of heating devices" in buildings with "old wiring."

Following the left bank accidents, ruptures in heating networks began occurring on the right bank as well. On 18 January, in the Oktyabrsky district, 14 multi-apartment buildings were left without heat due to a rupture. On 19 January, a rupture occurred in the city centre, affecting at least 15 buildings.

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Russian A-50 appears over Sea of Azov, tempting fate – Ukrainian Air Force spokesman
A Russian Beriev A-50 long-range radar detection aircraft was detected over the waters of the Azov Sea on the morning of 19 January.

Source: Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, during the national joint 24/7 newscast

Quote: "It's not often that we have a relatively calm night in the airspace, free from aerial attack threats such as drones, especially considering how accustomed we’ve become to seeing them almost every night during the autumn and winter. This night is one of the few without reported incidents...

After three significant enemy attacks, we’re in a sort of lull, but that doesn’t mean we should become complacent in any way.

Just a moment ago, the map (the Virazh-Tablet program – ed.) was empty, and now there are 5-6 aerial targets, including the infamous A-50, testing their luck in the Azov Sea waters.

Yesterday, we discussed what would happen after the destruction of the A-50: another one would take its place. This is unsurprising, as Russia has more of these aircraft.

So there's the A-50, a fighter jet closer to Rostov, and tactical-level drones monitoring the front line [currently being detected]."

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Russia Jails Disabled Pilot 8 Years for Seeking to Join Ukraine Army
A Siberian court has sentenced a disabled and retired airline pilot to more than eight years in prison on charges of trying to join the Ukrainian army, the human rights project Perviy Otdel reported Friday.

Igor Pokusin, 61, was born in southwestern Ukraine’s port city of Odesa but today lives in Russia’s republic of Khakassia, over 3,000 kilometers east of Moscow.

He has openly expressed opposition to Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, but he maintains that he has never sought to fight for Ukraine.

Perviy Otdel notes that authorities had illegally wiretapped Pokusin’s telephone conversations with friends and relatives in Ukraine, in which he discussed providing humanitarian assistance to Ukrainians.

Defense lawyers argue that authorities had used torture to obtain a confession from Pokusin, who has two prosthetic joints and a stent implanted in his heart.

Khakassia’s Supreme Court found the retiree guilty of vandalism and “seeking to commit treason,” handing him eight years and one month in a maximum security prison.

Pervyi Otdel, which specializes in cases under investigation by the Federal Security Service (FSB), says Pokusin is among the first to be convicted of treason with the purpose of defection.

Prosecutors had requested seven years and one month in prison for him.

Pokusin’s vandalism charges relate to a March 2022 incident in which security cameras captured him throwing paint at the pro-war symbol “Z” and writing “Glory to Ukraine” on the wall of a local museum.

Authorities detained him in July 2022 when he tried to flee Russia for neighboring Kazakhstan.

Russia’s veteran human rights organization Memorial has recognized Pokusin as a political prisoner.

“We have great doubts that he really tried to join the Ukrainian Armed Forces,” Memorial has said. “The age and illness of the former pilot don’t allow us to consider his intentions seriously.”

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Ukraine 'Blackjack' Hackers Hit Jackpot in Russia
A Ukrainian hacking group linked to the country's main spy agency has stolen construction plans for more than 500 Russian military sites, Ukraine's military intelligence agency, the GUR, said Friday.

The group, dubbed "Blackjack", which has previously been linked to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), hacked into a Russian state enterprise involved in construction work for President Vladimir Putin's military. Blackjack was able to obtain more than 1.2 terabytes of classified data. Newsweek has contacted Russia's Ministry of Defense for comment by email.

This data includes the maps of more than 500 Russian military bases across Russia and in regions in Ukraine that Putin has occupied. This includes military headquarters for the Russian Army, air-defense installations, and weapons arsenals.

"Critically important information about Russian military facilities that have already been completed, are at the stage of construction/reconstruction, or are planned for construction, was transferred to the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine," the GUR said on its website.

The GUR added that, as part of Blackjack's cyber operation, all the stolen data was deleted from seven Russian servers. Ukraine's news agency Interfax said the hackers also disabled 150 computers.