Oorlog in Oekraïne #921 Alaskov

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 21:09 schreef oheng het volgende:
Goed, in het vorige deel hadden we dus de eerste (?) resultaten van de 1000km drones op de russische energie sector. En putin die hint op het terugdraaien van de verkoop van Alaska. En onrust onder de russische bevolking.

Hier een promo over de Leopard 1a5:

Still Deadly and Comfy: Leopard 1 German Tank in Ukrainian Service

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 21:37 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Dient die Alaska purchase niet gewoon een heel ander doel? Zoiets onzinnigs doen ze echt niet omdat het onzinnig is.

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 23:02 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Putin weet heel goed dat als er ook maar één Ruzzische grote teen op Alaska stapt het afgelopen is.

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 21:37 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Dient die Alaska purchase niet gewoon een heel ander doel? Zoiets onzinnigs doen ze echt niet omdat het onzinnig is.

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Putin demands to find property of Russian Empire abroad
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree allocating funds for the search, registration and legal protection of foreign properties owned by Russia, including property dating back to the Soviet Union and the Russian Empire.

Source: The Moscow Times

Details: According to the document, the Presidential Administration and the Russian Foreign Ministry will deal with this issue.

The funds allocated are intended to cover the costs associated with "searching for property belonging to the Russian Federation, the former Russian Empire, the former USSR, proper registration of rights and legal protection of this property".

In January 2024, EU countries began implementing the European Commission's proposal to use the proceeds of US$300 billion of Russia's frozen assets in Ukraine's interests.

In response to these actions, Russian officials threatened possible legal proceedings and promised a mirror response in the event of confiscation of Russian assets.

The Kremlin considers any attempts at confiscation as "direct theft", said Dmitry Peskov, the spokesperson for the Russian president.

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Putin stokes tensions with US, declares 1867 sale of Alaska 'illegal'
A brief history of how Alaska became part of the United States: Russia sold it in 1867 for $7.2 million, a deal considered to be mutually beneficial at that time. Nowadays, Alaska, a detached piece of the USA, stands as one of the fifty states constituting the country and has been an integral part of it for over 150 years. Nonetheless, the Russians aren't content with this.

Interestingly, Vladimir Putin appears to have rethought the sale of Alaska to the Americans. It's not a joke: he's trying to give the impression that his influence extends not only to his country's future events but also plans to rewrite the past. Therefore, he signed a decree rendering the sale of Alaska illegal.

This is likely the beginning of a request for its return from the United States.

Putin and his propaganda specialists persistently build an image of Russia as an empire that makes demands against its neighbors and, if unheeded, resorts to war and other consequences. As witnessed in previous years with Georgia and Moldova, Ukraine experienced similar tactics as it was attacked by its neighboring country in 2022.

It appears that Moscow has claims against the United States now.

Vladimir Putin signed a decree declaring the sale of Alaska to the USA as illegal. This action signals the start of a demand for the territory's return and potentially entering into conflict with the superpower. However, this is just political posturing today, and no rational person would suggest that Russia could assault the United States. Nonetheless, as the saying goes, a continuous drip can erode a stone.

"Before Americans seize our properties abroad, they should remember, we also have something to reclaim." - stated Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of the State Duma, during a plenary sitting in the summer of 2022. At the time, Russians reacted nervously to the US-imposed sanctions on Moscow.

This propaganda tactic may not intimidate Washington's authorities but perfectly illustrates the Kremlin's new approach to international politics and its respect for agreements. Today in Russia, a fact clear and not disputed for years - that the Americans purchased Alaska legally in 1867 for $7.2 million - means nothing.

Interestingly, Alaska plays a significant role in the relationship between both countries. The USAF bases and USARAK (American Arctic military forces) are stationed here. Centers found in Fort Greely and Eielson are equipped with advanced machinery through which Americans could quickly launch an attack on Russia, including nuclear warheads.

Notably, Russia employed a similar propaganda mechanism in the case of Crimea, which was legally transferred to Ukraine during the USSR era. The result of this incident under Vladimir Putin's regime is well known.

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 23:14 schreef KareldeStoute het volgende:

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Nu zeker. Maar wellicht is er met Trump wel over te praten…

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 20:50 schreef Ikbenookeenklant het volgende:
gehuild bij het lezen van deze OP

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War in Ukraine
·
November 14, 2022
Latest updates on the war in Ukraine
On February 24, Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine by land, air and sea after months of tensions between Moscow and Kyiv. The attack triggered a chain of

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 08:58 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Kun je ook Nederlandse buurmannen erbij lappen?

Mijn buurman De buurman van een vriend is een enorme teringlijer namelijk

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 08:33 schreef oheng het volgende:
Interne repressie wordt opgevoerd:
A bill on confiscation of property for fakes about the army was introduced to the State Duma


Zie ook bijvoorbeeld:
A resident of the Volgograd region was given five years in prison for lying about the army


Toch mooi om te zien dat dat volk keer op keer hun geschiedenis moet herhalen. Je zou zeggen dat ze een keer leren, maar nee....

Het enige stukje wat nu nog mist is een beloning als je je buurman erbij lapt.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 09:38 schreef Nebelwerfer het volgende:

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Los van de Russen is elk volk wel in staat fouten te herhalen. Zeker ook wij.

Wel blij dat we niet in een land wonen waar je zo op je tellen moet passen.

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 21:37 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Dient die Alaska purchase niet gewoon een heel ander doel? Zoiets onzinnigs doen ze echt niet omdat het onzinnig is.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 10:22 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Nee, hoor. Rusland meent dat gewoon. Als die zeggen dat iets van hun is, dan pakken ze het. Heb je dat nou nog niet door?

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 10:38 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Ik zou het ze wel willen zien proberen, maar dat terzijde.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 10:43 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Simpel, gewoon een referendum en dan naar het SC die voor States Rights is.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 10:50 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Je kan de VS niet verlaten als staat. Zie de amerikaanse burgeroorlog.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 10:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Die is ondertussen gewonnen door de confederatie, dus dat valt nog te bezien.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 12:30 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
Scholz zou de Russische overname van Königsberg als illegaal moeten bestempelen.

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In todays #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Belgian far-right politician and one of the key figures of the far right party Vlaams Belang, Filip Dewinter (@FDW_VB). He's best-known for his ultranationalism, and for promoting authoritarian regimes like Russia, the CCP and Syria. 1/17

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Important facilities in Russia are currently protected by Serp C-UAS systems

In Russia, important defense, industrial, and even business centers are being equipped with Serp C-UAS systems.

Rostec Corporation said that over the past year, Roselektronika had delivered more than 100 Serp C-UAS systems to customers.

The equipment is deployed at Russian fuel and energy facilities and defense companies.

Serp C-UAS systems, developed by the Vector enterprise of the Roselektronika holding, suppress the control channels of drones.

The systems also disrupt the operation of the onboard receiver of global navigation satellite systems.

As a result, the UAV operator loses the ability to control the flight, and the drone itself does not receive information about its position in space and cannot perform the flight task autonomously.

“They protect the territory from drones within a radius of up to 5 km and are able to effectively fight a swarm of drones,” the developers say.

The system’s field of view is divided into sectors with a 90-degree angle and independent operation. It permits to disable one of the sectors and to use it for monitoring proper drones.

Today, anti-drone protection is becoming an integral part of the security system for critical infrastructure facilities worldwide, and the C-UAS systems market is growing rapidly.

“We are currently implementing a number of large projects to install our equipment in industrial plants and large business centers,” said Vector’s CEO.

Recently, the company’s engineers have expanded the capabilities of the Serp family by adding a drone detection function. The modernized Serp-VS5D system can not only suppress UAVs but also detect them using the detector installed on it.

The system is small and mobile. At the end of 2023, it was tested at one of Russia’s energy infrastructure facilities.

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Russian forces 'are constantly replenished' no matter how many get taken out, Ukrainian commander says
• Ukrainian troops are trying to hold out on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.
• They've been targeting Russian positions with drones, per the UK's Ministry of Defence.
• But the Russians are being "constantly replenished," a Ukrainian commander told the BBC.

A Ukrainian commander said that regardless of how many times his unit hits enemy targets on a key battlefront, Russian forces are always being resupplied.

Tymur, a commander in Ukraine's 11th National Guard Brigade, told the BBC that his unit is using drones to target Russian positions across the Dnipro River from the city of Kherson, per the outlet.

But "no matter how many times we hit the same places, [the Russians] are constantly replenished," he said.

At the same time, Ukranian drone attacks have proven increasingly vulnerable to Russia's jamming systems, according to the BBC.

A three-drone crossing observed by the outlet left two drones disabled, with only one making it to the other side of the river.

Ukraine's forces on the east bank of the Dnipro River have been using first-person view drones loaded with munitions to strike Russian vehicles, the UK Ministry of Defence reported earlier this month.

At the time, the UK MOD said that Russia was unable to counter the Ukrainian drone attacks, likely because of a shortage of Russian electronic warfare capability in the area.

However, this no longer seems to be the case, per the BBC.

The latest news comes on top of other struggles reported by Ukrainian soldiers on the left bank of the river, including being heavily outnumbered, difficulties transporting equipment across the river, and a lack of training among some soldiers.

On Sunday, the Institute for the Study of War said that Ukrainian and Russian forces continued "positional" fighting on the east bank of the river, with no confirmed change to the front lines.

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UK sends UN experts photographs of North Korean shipments to Russia
Exclusive: Report shows Russian ships loading at North Korean port, amid accusation that Pyongyang supplies missiles and shells

The UK has provided satellite photographs of North Korean cargo shipments to Russia to a panel of UN experts as part of an attempt to trigger an official investigation into arms deals in violation of international sanctions.

North Korea has been accused of supplying ballistic missiles and hundreds of thousands of artillery shells to the Russian government for its war in Ukraine since Vladimir Putin met with Kim Jong-un in Russia’s far east in September.

Their bilateral relationship appears to be expanding. Putin met the North Korean foreign minister, Choe Son-hui, in the Kremlin this week during a rare, five-day trip by the senior Pyongyang official. The two discussed “further development of our relations in all areas, including sensitive ones”, according to a Kremlin spokesperson.

An unpublished UK defence intelligence report seen by the Guardian shows imagery taken between September and December of three Russian ships, the Maia, Angara and Maria, loading containers at North Korea’s revived Najin port before transiting to Russian ports in the far east. While the agency said it could not identify what was in the containers, it followed a US announcement last week that ballistic missiles from North Korea had been used by Russia in Ukraine last week.

“Russia’s use of North Korean weapons in Ukraine is a violation of multiple UN security council resolutions,” said a UN diplomat. “It undermines international efforts to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and exposes just how desperate Russia has become in its failed invasion. This and other evidence submitted to the UN sanctions committee should trigger a full investigation into Russia and DPRK’s [North Korea’s] flagrant breaking of international sanctions.”

The report, along with other evidence from the United States and other countries, was provided to the UN panel of experts on North Korean proliferation, which is expected next month to publish its first final report since suspected North Korean shipments of ammunition to Russia sharply increased this year.

The ships in the report were all placed under sanctions by the US government in 2022 for their links to the Russian ministry of defence’s shipping company, Oboronlogistika OOO, which has “been involved in Russia’s illegal seizure and occupation of Crimea since 2014, as well as private Russian maritime shipping companies that transport weapons and other military equipment for the [government of Russia]”.

Two of the three ships were also identified in a recent report by the Royal United Services Institute thinktank. It showed a growth in transshipments from North Korea to Russia that “reveal that Russia has likely begun shipping North Korean munitions at scale”. A third was identified by NK News, an independent news website focusing on North Korea, as “part of a group of commercial vessels that have completed multiple deliveries of military equipment and munitions provided by the DPRK to Russia”.

The deliveries have been cited as enabling military strikes against Ukraine in December and January that “killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more”.

Prosecutors in Kharkiv told the Guardian that suspected fragments of North Korean-made Iskander missiles had been sent to Kyiv for analysis and said the missiles had subtle differences: hand-drawn lettering for serial numbers, and a different nozzle exhaust cone and welding.

A statement released by eight members of the security council, including the UK and US, said: “These heinous attacks were conducted, in part, using ballistic missiles and ballistic missile launchers procured from [North Korea].”

The White House’s senior director for arms control, Pranay Vaddi, said this week that the military cooperation between Russia and North Korea was “unprecedented” and warned that Russian military assistance to North Korea could undermine the US nuclear deterrence policy in South Korea and Japan.

“I think the nature of North Korea as a threat in the region could drastically change over the coming decade as a result of this cooperation,” he told the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank.

Choe met Putin, the foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the deputy prime minister Alexander Novak during her visit to Russia.

North Korea also signalled that it may be receiving Russian help for its space programme.

Before the meeting with Putin, a member of the North Korean delegation was photographed with a document apparently titled Observation List in Space Technology Field, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.

The list appeared to include the Progress Rocket Space Centre and the Voronezh mechanical plant, known to produce engines, although the writing was not completely clear, the news agency wrote.

Putin had previously pledged to help North Korea build satellites, and North Korea managed to launch its first spy satellite in November. South Korea alleged that Russia had helped build the spy satellite.

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ISW: Russian air defense may not be prepared for Ukrainian attacks
Russian air defense systems in Leningrad Oblasts are not likely designed to protect the region against attacks from the south, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) wrote in its Jan. 21 report.

The terminal of Russia's Novatek natural gas company caught fire in the port of Ust-Luga in Leningrad Oblast near St Petersburg overnight on Jan. 21. The strike was the result of a planned operation by the Security Service of Ukraine, according to an unnamed source in the agency cited by Ukrainska Pravda.

The ISW said that air defense systems in Leningrad Oblast may not be well-equipped to counter attacks from Ukraine, because they were not designed with southern attacks in mind.

"Russia has historically arrayed its air defense in the area to defend against hypothetical NATO attacks," analysts wrote.

Russian forces are now building up a "Leningrad military district" along the border with Finland in order to intimidate NATO members and possibly prepare for a future war with NATO. Continued Ukrainian strikes on Russian military assets in the region may force Russia to change its tactics.

"Ukrainian strikes in Leningrad Oblast may prompt Russian forces to reposition short-range air defense systems along expected flight routes of Ukrainian drones to defend potential targets of strategic value," the ISW said.

Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force, said on Jan. 20 that Russian air defense systems were sufficient to protect targets near the front lines and in occupied Crimea, but not those on Russian soil.

"Russian air defense is thinning out. They filled the front line and Crimea with it (air defense). But you see that the Russian territory is not so filled with air defense equipment," Ihnat said.

The overnight strike on Novatek was part of a coordinated attack against military targets on Russian soil, including infrastructure in Russia's Tula, Smolensk, and Oryol oblasts. Reports of strikes against rear areas in Russia have increased in recent weeks, though Kyiv rarely gives official comment on these attacks.

According to the ISW, if Ukraine continues to target deep rear areas within Russia, it may "increase pressure on Russia’s air defenses overall."

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'Say you're sorry': Russia's trend for humiliating videos
At the very end of last year, some of Russia's top celebrities issued a series of videos apologising for appearing almost naked at a private party.

In the current climate of the war in Ukraine they were condemned for being unpatriotic and their videos were full of remorse.

They had also joined a rapidly spreading culture of apology videos, which have become increasingly prevalent since the full-scale invasion almost two years ago.

But many of the videos are released by police and feature people who have come under far more pressure than the high and mighty of Russia's pop scene.

Some of the forced apologies were for alleged offences against the Kremlin's official ideology rather than anything else.

The intention of these videos is two-fold, according to Russian rights lawyer Dmitry Zakhvatov.

To humiliate critics of the war with Ukraine and "to intimidate those who do not support the war but have so far not summoned up the courage to say so in public," he told the Kavkaz Realii website.

The trend initially came to prominence in 2015, when apology clips started emerging on social media or local state TV in the Russian republic of Chechnya in the North Caucasus.

Most of the videos showed people saying sorry for criticising Chechnya's strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

One featured a man apologising for being gay. Another featured a man wearing no trousers who had criticised the Chechen leader for singing a song called "President Putin is my best friend".

The videos soon spread to other parts of the North Caucasus and some were published by police.

In one from the interior ministry in Karachay-Cherkessia, a man apologised for snowboarding down a mountain slope sporting nothing but a thong, similar to that worn by the comedy character Borat.

More recently, since Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, numerous clips have appeared featuring critics of what it calls its "special military operation".

Some were published via official police accounts on social media. Many others were posted by pro-war activists or state media, but they also appear to have had some police involvement.

They were filmed in barren rooms typical of police stations and use language characteristic of police reports.

In June last year, a singer called Sharlot burned his passport, saying he did not want to be a citizen of "a criminal Russia" and instead wanted to move to Kyiv in a gesture of support for the Ukrainian people.

He was arrested and soon appeared in a video where he apologised for "a lapse in understanding what is going on".

In another example, the interior ministry in Chuvashia, a region about 600km (373 miles) east of Moscow, posted a video of a man apologising for defacing pro-war graffiti. He had painted over a red flag and turned it into the Russian opposition's white-blue-white flag.

Other videos posted by Russian police feature men repenting for offences such as trying to topple a monument in the shape of the letter Z, which has come to symbolise Russia's war, and setting fire to a pro-war blogger's door.

There have been accusations that such videos are often recorded under duress.

For example, a blogger known as Nekoglay said police in Moscow forced him to appear on camera after stripping him, beating him up and attempting to rape him with a plastic bottle.

The apology video, released via official news agency Ria Novosti, was posted after he recorded a clip parodying a Russian soldier defending himself from a Ukrainian drone attack.

Apology videos are also being used to shame war critics in Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

Two-thirds of the apology videos monitored by Russian human rights website OVD-Info over a period of almost 16 months after the start of the invasion actually came from the occupied region of Crimea.

Russian social anthropologist Aleksandra Arkhipova describes the videos as "rituals of guilt and shame" that amount to extrajudicial punishment.

"This violates internal freedom. This has become the norm, this is very bad. If someone does something wrong, the first thing they're supposed to do is record an apology video," she told the BBC.

One woman in Crimea was shown apologising for sharing Ukrainian songs on her social media accounts and another for posting pictures of various objects in the blue-and-yellow colours of the Ukrainian flag.

A puppet theatre actress from occupied Donetsk who was shown saying sorry for sharing Ukrainian songs on TikTok said later she had been pressured into doing it by the police.

"Either you record this video or... you're going to jail and your child is going to an orphanage," she quoted a police officer as saying.

Ms Arkhipova believes that the videos are a product of a president who treats Russia like an overbearing father.

"Everyone else is like children who have no legal agency of their own. The father is always right. So if they do anything wrong, they have to apologise to their father."

She too has come under pressure from Russian authorities, who have designated her as a "foreign agent".

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Slovak PM: Ukraine must give up territory to end Russian invasion
Robert Fico reiterates opposition to Kyiv’s accession to NATO.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Saturday the only way to end Russia's war against Ukraine is for Kyiv to give up some of its territory to the invaders, and reiterated his opposition to NATO membership for Ukraine.

“There has to be some kind of compromise," Fico told Slovak public broadcaster RTVS on Saturday, according to media reports. "What do they expect, that the Russians will leave Crimea, Donbas and Luhansk? That's unrealistic."

The pro-Russia prime minister took power in December after his leftist-populist Smer party won September's election with promises to stop sending weapons to Ukraine, to block Kyiv’s potential NATO membership, and to oppose sanctions on Russia.

Fico reiterated his opposition to Ukraine's bid to join NATO in Saturday's interview, which came ahead of a planned meeting between the Slovak leader and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Wednesday.

"I will tell him that I am against the membership of Ukraine in NATO and that I will veto it," Fico said, referring to Shmyhal. "It would merely be a basis for World War III, nothing else."

"Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country," Fico continued, but "under the total influence and control of the United States."

“I will confirm that he will not receive any weapons" from the Slovak government, Fico said, accusing Ukraine of being “one of the most corrupt nations in the world.”

The Slovak PM last week expressed support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in blocking a ¤50 billion EU aid package for Ukraine in December. “I will never agree that a country should be punished for fighting for its sovereignty. I will never agree with such an attack on Hungary,” Fico said on Tuesday during a joint press conference with Orbán in Budapest.

Slovakia’s Culture Ministry also announced it will resume cooperation with Russia and Belarus following its suspension in March 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.

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“I will never agree that a country should be punished for fighting for its sovereignty.

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WSJ: EU creates fresh plan for $22 billion in military support for Ukraine
The EU is preparing a new plan that would allocate $22 billion in military support for Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Jan. 21, citing internal EU documents.

Under the current EU tool used for channeling military support to Ukraine, the European Peace Facility (EPF), member states receive reimbursement for weapons they send to Ukraine, with the decisions to allocate and disburse funds requiring unanimous support.

EU members have argued over reimbursement rates and the use of the EPF to offset purchases. Hungary has blocked an eighth tranche of funding to compensate EU countries for supplies. Ukraine has not received funds from the EPF for six months as a result, although individual member states have pledged military aid in the interim period.

The new proposal would seek to approach the deadlock with a plan to disburse the $22 billion back to EU member states over the next four years in compensation for funds they have spent on military aid for Ukraine.

“Given the dependence of Ukraine on external support, the choices made by the EU member states and partners in the coming period will either allow Ukraine to decisively progress or will seriously undermine its ability to resist,” the proposal reads.

The bulk of the funds would go toward compensation to member states, valued at around 7.5 billion euros per year ($8.1 billion). The remaining money would be spent on EU training programs for Ukrainian soldiers, which have increased and already trained more than 40,000 soldiers.

The proposed plan is designed with Hungary's possible obstruction in mind, avoiding the regular disbursement of aid that can be blocked by a single member state. It would instead create a more consistent and predictable funding source over a longer period.

Bloomberg reported on Jan. 19, citing internal EU sources, that the bloc was seeking to reform the EFP by modifying the fund's governance, including fixing its reimbursement rates and giving a higher bonus for joint initiatives between European and Ukrainian industries.

It is unclear if the documents that the WSJ reported on are related to the proposed EPF reforms cited by Bloomberg.

The EU is also set to meet on Feb. 1 to vote again on a $54 billion package of economic aid to Ukraine previously blocked by Hungary in December.

There have been inconsistent signs about Hungary's willingness to support the package, but the EU has also been working on a backup plan in case Hungary again tries to prevent its passage.

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Op zondag 21 januari 2024 23:14 schreef KareldeStoute het volgende:

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Nu zeker. Maar wellicht is er met Trump wel over te praten…

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 17:31 schreef Hathor het volgende:

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Dat gaat zelfs zijn eigen electoraat niet goed vinden.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 17:07 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.politico.eu/a(...)invasion-nato-entry/
[..]
[..]
Aaah, maar dat geldt dus niet voor Oekraïne? Die mag niet vechten voor zijn soevereiniteit? Die moet maar een gedeelte hiervan opgeven? Die moeten maar een compromis afsluiten voor vrede? Wat een clown is die Fico.

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Media: After Ukrainian drone attack on Novatek, Moscow shifts air defenses from frontline to rear areas
Also, following the alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Russian gas giant Novatek in the Baltic sea, tankers nearby moved far out to sea with their loading disrupted.

Following a drone attack by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) on Russian gas giant Novatek’s terminal in the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, tankers nearby moved far out to sea with their loading disrupted, Ukrainian outlet NV reported citing its sources. Additionally, Russians are forced to redeploy even more air defense systems from the front to protect the rear areas.

The Ust-Luga port is a key node in Russia’s energy export system, including a gas processing plant and major port for shipping petroleum products abroad.

“The targeted terminal is one of the newest and most important in Russia. It works on exports but also supplies fuel for Russian troops. This SBU attack caused significant material but also reputational damage to Russia. The vaunted Russian air defenses have shown their porousness,” an NV source said.

On the night of 21 January, explosions and fire broke out at the Ust-Luga port near Saint Petersburg. The flames engulfed a terminal owned by Novatek – one of the world’s largest private natural gas producers. Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing SBU sources, that it was a Ukrainian drone attack.

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Op maandag 22 januari 2024 19:22 schreef the-eye het volgende:

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Maar denk je dat Oekraine dit uitendelijk gaat winnen dan?

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Russian "diplomats" took furniture and bathroom fittings from Consulate General in Bulgaria after its 2022 closure – photo

An inspection of the building of the former Russian Consulate General in the Bulgarian city of Ruse, which the Russians left in June 2022, has found that the building has suffered significant damage: door frames have been damaged, and taps, sinks and kitchen equipment stolen.

Source: Ventsislav Ilyev, the building’s architect, on Bulgarian National Radio (BNR), as reported by European Pravda

Details: The building in Ruse, which housed the diplomatic mission of the Soviet Union and then Russia, is owned by the municipality. Since 1985, the building has been rented out and the rent was paid to the city budget. Russian diplomatic staff left the consulate building in Ruse after their expulsion from Bulgaria in the summer of 2022.

"Yesterday I decided to go and see what was going on. I was surprised to see that door frames were missing and thought that the municipality had removed them. On the second floor, where residential apartments are located, lots of things have gone missing. Even sink taps have been removed in some rooms," Ilyev said.

"Let me summarise to make it clear: when leaving Ruse, diplomats tore out doors, taking with them storage boxes, sinks, beds, and other furniture and kitchen equipment – things that few people would think to take with them," Ilyev added.

After Ilyev’s discovery, City Council member Russe Dejan Gerasimov called for the creation of a commission to study "all the leases for this property".

"I would advise the Russian Federation to take the monument to the Soviet Army that stands next door with them as well," Gerasimov was quoted as saying by the 24chasa (24hours) portal.

On the evening of 19 January, the Russian Embassy in Bulgaria commented on the information about the damage done to the building, claiming that its staff left Ruse in July 2022 "without any trouble".

"We do not know what happened in the building over the past year and a half, it was beyond our control. The relevant Bulgarian services are responsible for the condition of the building, and questions on this matter should be addressed to them," a Russian official told Novini.bg.

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In Sevastopol, due to problems with water supply, there is a shortage of bottled water in stores
In Sevastopol, there is a shortage of bottled water in stores - due to problems with water supply in the city, five-liter containers with drinking water are disappearing from the shelves. A Krym.Realii correspondent reported this on January 22.

According to him, this situation was observed in several stores in Sevastopol that he visited. According to sellers, all five-liter bottles of drinking water have been sold out. Local residents also report a shortage of drinking water in specialized vending machines due to increased demand due to water supply outages.

Earlier, the Russian head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhaev, declared January 23 and 24 days off due to problems with water supply that arose after bad weather on January 19.

According to the Russian head of the city, on January 24 at 20:00 the water supply in the city will resume.

Due to bad weather in Sevastopol on January 19, the waterworks supplying the city were polluted . Their cleansing continues, so local residents are turning off the water. As of January 22, in most parts of the city water is supplied on schedule; in several areas it was not turned off, but in the rest it is being delivered.