Oorlog in Oekra�ne #929 onzeker richting de lente.

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Op dinsdag 13 februari 2024 18:58 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Ben benieuwd wie die 2 Nederlanders zijn die ook op die lijst staan.

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Een van hen is Joyce Koster, de Dordtse ex-militair die in maart 2022 naar Oekra�ne ging met het plan mee te vechten met het Oekra�ense leger tegen de Russische inval.

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De tweede naam op de lijst laat zich vertalen als Robert Meijer. Onduidelijk is waar die persoon door Rusland van verdacht wordt.

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Op dinsdag 13 februari 2024 21:23 schreef theunderdog het volgende:

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Welnee. Je hebt gewoon het 'oeh enge miljardairs' syndroom.

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Op dinsdag 13 februari 2024 21:32 schreef Anton91 het volgende:

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https://www.ad.nl/binnenl(...)x-militair~a94f8583/
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Op dinsdag 13 februari 2024 19:53 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

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Wij evengoed hoor, maak je daarover maar geen vergissing.

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Op dinsdag 13 februari 2024 19:44 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Yup, werd een paar dagen geleden al over geschreven, ik weet niet wat ik er van moet denken aangezien de 3rd Assault Brigade de reserve is/was. Met je vrij inzetbare reserves ga je het offensief in op de door jou gekozen plek en forceer je een doorbraak en breek je vervolgens uit terwijl de rest van de troepen die er al lagen de vijand op alle plaatsen blijven binden en er voor zorgen dat de vijand zijn reserves niet naar de doorbraak kan dirigeren. Kort door de bocht, het leger vecht met zijn reserves en met de reserves breng je de beslissende slag toe. De reserves zijn niet bedoeld om gesleten eenheden te vervangen...

Ik hoop dus maar dat Oekraiene een nieuwe reserve die kant opstuurt.
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Forbes

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Op maandag 12 februari 2024 03:24 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Het offensief van de Russen of Ukraine?

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Op zaterdag 1 april 2023 10:23 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Het is april. De maand van het voorjaarsoffensief van Oekra�ne met moderne westerse tanks.
Dan kunnen we weer een hoop vluchtende strategisch hergroeperende Russen zien die waarschijnlijk weer een hoop materieel vergeten te hergroeperen.

Benieuwd of Poetin weer een 'gebaar van vriendschap' aan Zelenski gaat maken of dat hij dit keer weer een nieuwe reden verzint voor zijn verlies. Misschien krijgen we zelfs wederom een vervanging van de Russische militaire leiding.

Hoe dan ook: nu al zin in!

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Op woensdag 14 februari 2024 00:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Die startte pas later. Rusland was toen bezig om Bakmoet te veroveren. En Vuhledar had je natuurlijk ook nog. En nu zijn de Russen sinds oktober of zo bezig met Avdiivka.

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Democrats win back George Santos seat in hotly contested election
The results allow Democrats to claim momentum in a crucial election year when control of the House and the presidency are on the ballot.

WOODBURY, New York — Democrats flipped the battleground Long Island seat last held by ousted Rep. George Santos, narrowing the already razor-thin Republican majority in the House.

Democrat Tom Suozzi won back his former seat in New York’s 3rd Congressional District, defeating lesser-known Republican rival Mazi Melesa Pilip.

The special election was a nail-biter heading into Tuesday, underscoring just how much the district has shifted to the right since Suozzi was last elected in 2020.

The results allow Democrats to claim momentum in a crucial election year when control of the House and the presidency are on the ballot. The race featured themes Republicans have centered in their 2024 campaigns, including immigration and crime.

Suozzi campaigned on a platform of compromise and common-sense governance — assailing both Republicans and members of his own party who refuse to work together during an era of hyper-partisanship.

“It’s time to move beyond the petty, partisan bickering and the finger-pointing. It’s time to focus on how to solve the problems,” he told a jubilant crowd Tuesday night at the Crest Hollow Country Club.

The diverse group of supporters in attendance included younger organizers who knocked on doors in Queens, where voters turned out big for Suozzi and gave him an early lead. A cheer went up for labor unions when the candidate expressed gratitude from the stage.

“Thank God,” Suozzi said at the top of his remarks, taking a moment to soak in his victory.

“Despite all the attacks, despite all the lies about Tom Suozzi and the squad, about Tom Suozzi being the godfather of the migrant crisis, about sanctuary Suozzi, … despite the vaunted Nassau County Republican machine, we won,” he said. “We, you won this race because we addressed the issues and we found a way to bind our divisions.”

Suozzi’s remarks were briefly interpreted by pro-Palestinian protesters, one of whom shouted, “You support genocide.”

Solidarity with Israel amid the Israel-Hamas war played a role in the race. Both Pilip and Suozzi are staunch supporters of Israel, with Suozzi saying he wants no conditions on U.S. aid to the Jewish state.

Suozzi also positioned himself as an ardent endorser of the bipartisan Senate border bill, knocking Pilip and Republicans who called it a nonstarter as being beholden to former President Donald Trump and prioritizing political gain over the country’s best interests.

Suozzi’s victory means Democrats have flipped the swing seat held until last December by Santos, a Republican who was expelled from Congress amid being criminally indicted on fraud charges. And it puts to rest — for now — anxieties the party had that President Joe Biden, who remains unpopular in the area, would be a drag on his party down ballot.

The 3rd Congressional District in Nassau County and Queens is one of about six New York House seats expected to be determined by close margins this year — a tally that stands to determine which party controls the House in 2025. Though Biden won the district by 8 points in 2020, a Newsday/Siena College poll last Thursday showed Trump was now leading Biden by five points there. The district may be redrawn in the coming days by a commission tasked with designing congressional district lines in New York.

A potential rematch or at least another close race between Democrats and Republicans looms for this seat in November. Even though Suozzi is a centrist and oftentimes conservative Democrat, he remains a Democrat, a brand toxic in some corners of Long Island where the well-tuned Nassau County Republican apparatus has flipped several local seats over the years.

Suozzi’s apparent defeat of Pilip came after the Democrats spent big on the airwaves, his campaign outraising hers by millions. Suozzi may have had the benefit of a bigger campaign war chest and name recognition after 30 years serving the area in elected office, but Pilip and the Republicans had the advantage of staking out a hardline position on border security.

The Nassau County legislator held very few news conferences during her campaign, but hosted two outside the sprawling Creedmoor Psychiatric Center migrant shelter in Queens to denounce Democratic policies that she said encourage illegal immigration.

“We did a great job. We are the fighters,” Pilip said at her party in East Meadow, just outside the district. “Yes we lost. But it doesn’t mean we’re going to end here.”

It wasn’t clear if she’ll be the party’s nominee again in November. “We’ll have to wait and see,” Nassau County Republican Chair Joe Cairo told POLITICO after Pilip’s brief concession speech.

Republican Reps. Anthony D’Esposito, Nick LaLota and Andrew Garbarino and former Rep. Peter King joined Pilip on stage. Her fellow Long Islanders have been a constant presence on the campaign trail, often speaking at events more than the candidate herself.

While border politics and support for Israel were prevailing themes in the race, preserving abortion access and restoring the state and local tax deduction, or SALT, were other key issues.

Pilip is an enrolled Democrat but she campaigned in the special election with the full backing of Long Island Republicans. D’Esposito, as an example, was omnipresent at Pilip’s events.

By contrast, Suozzi ran without party leaders like Gov. Kathy Hochul or New York City Mayor Eric Adams by his side.

He had taken care to distance himself from Biden, who came last week to New York City for three fundraisers but did not campaign for Suozzi.

In the final stretch of the race, after saying “no one is above the law” in a PIX11 interview, Pilip appealed to Trump during a CNN interview for help in her campaign. Additionally, House Speaker Mike Johnson visited the district for a fundraiser and rally centered in their 2024 campaigns, including immigration and crime.

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Moscow MiG fighter factory ablaze, social media report
A Moscow factory that manufactures MiG fighters is on fire, the telegram channel Baza reported on Feb. 13.

The factory is located on Leningradsky Avenue. Preliminary data suggests that the fire started in a workshop under reconstruction, attached to the operational building of the plant.

The fire has affected the second and third floors of the building, covering an area of 70 square meters. The cause of the fire is still unknown.

Evacuation efforts are underway, and multiple fire brigades are on their way to the scene due to the risk of the fire spreading to other buildings of the plant.

Oil depots and refineries have been burning in several Russian regions in recent weeks. NV sources reported that the SBU is behind the attacks.

The most recent attacks included a strike on Russia’s Lukoil refinery in Volgograd on Feb. 3 and a marine terminal in the port of Ust-Luga near St. Petersburg on Jan. 21.

Пожежа на авіаційному заводі МиГ в Москві [Лютий 2024]

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Russia warns the West: we will be very tough if you 'steal' our assets
MOSCOW, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russia warned the West on Tuesday that Moscow would be very tough if the United States and European Union seized hundreds of billions of dollars worth of Russian assets.
After President Vladimir Putin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022, the United States and its allies prohibited transactions with Russia's central bank and finance ministry, blocking around $300 billion of sovereign Russian assets in the West.
The EU on Monday adopted a law to set aside windfall profits made on frozen Russian central bank assets, it said on Monday, in a first concrete step towards the bloc's aim of using the money to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine.
"This is theft: It's the appropriation of something that doesn't belong to you," Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told Sputnik radio, TASS reported.
Zakharova said the response from Moscow would be "extremely tough" as Russia felt it was essentially dealing with thieves.
"Considering that our country has qualified this as theft, the attitude will be towards thieves," Zakharova said. "Not as political manipulators, not as overplayed technologists, but as thieves."
Russia has said that if its property is seized then it will seize U.S., European and other assets in responses.

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"This is theft: It's the appropriation of something that doesn't belong to you,"

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F-16 transfer on schedule, expected in spring 2024 – Ukraine's ambassador to NATO
A coalition tasked with transferring these fighters to Ukraine will present its report at the Ramstein meeting tomorrow.

On February 14th, at a new meeting of Ukraine's partners in the Ramstein format, the coalition will have a briefing preparing F-16 fighters for delivery to the Ukrainian Air Force. Everything is proceeding according to plan, making spring 2024 a realistic timeframe for receiving these aircraft, as stated by Natalia Galibarenko, Head of the Mission of Ukraine to NATO, as reported by Hromadske Radio.

"Tomorrow's meeting will be held in the Ramstein format, and there will be a briefing by the F-16 coalition on how everything is progressing. So, I think that after tomorrow's session, there might be more detailed information, but for now, everything is going according to plan. And spring 2024 is among the realistic timelines mentioned," said the official.

Preparations are underway on several levels: this includes the maintenance of the fighters themselves and training pilots in skills and English language proficiency.

Galibarenko said there is also a significant amount of preparation in training personnel who will service the aircraft: "And this was launched approximately at the same level as the pilots."

The official stated there is also preparation of certain infrastructure underway, as not all Ukrainian runways are ready for F-16s.

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Polish agrarians say they will block all Ukrainian freight transport
Polish agrarians will block all border crossings between Poland and Ukraine, as well as access roads to railway transshipment stations and seaports, starting from 20 February.

Source: RMF FM, citing a statement from Solidarity, an Independent Farmers’ Self-Governing Trade Union; European Pravda

Details: "Not only border crossings, but also transport hubs, access roads to railway transshipment stations and seaports, will be blocked," the trade union said.

Polish agrarians began a new wave of protests on 9 February, set to last 30 days.

The agrarians said they are protesting the uncontrolled flow of Ukrainian goods into Poland enabled by a European Union decision. They said the lack of regulation undermines the profitability of agricultural production, processing and other agriculture-related industries.

"That is why we’re announcing that as part of the 30-day agrarians’ strike on 20 February all protest activities will be directed towards completely blockading all Polish border crossings with Ukraine and field protests," Solidarity said.

The protesters urged the public to support their protests, claiming that they are aimed at "ensuring [Poland’s] food security".

Farmers’ protests have been going on for many weeks now, not only in Poland but across Europe. Producers stand against unregulated import of food from Ukraine, but also against EU rules related to the European Green Deal.

On 11 February, Polish agrarians protesting near the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Polish-Ukrainian border spilled grain from three Ukrainian trucks on the ground.

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Exclusive: Putin's suggestion of Ukraine ceasefire rejected by United States, sources say
MOSCOW/LONDON, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin's suggestion of a ceasefire in Ukraine to freeze the war was rejected by the United States after contacts between intermediaries, three Russian sources with knowledge of the discussions told Reuters.
The failure of Putin's approach ushers in a third year of the deadliest conflict in Europe since World War Two and illustrates just how far apart the world's two largest nuclear powers remain.
A U.S. source denied there had been any official contact and said Washington would not engage in talks that did not involve Ukraine.
Putin sent signals to Washington in 2023 in public and privately through intermediaries, including through Moscow's Arab partners in the Middle East and others, that he was ready to consider a ceasefire in Ukraine, the Russian sources said.
Putin was proposing to freeze the conflict at the current lines and was unwilling to cede any of the Ukrainian territory controlled by Russia, but the signal offered what some in the Kremlin saw as the best path towards a peace of some kind.
"The contacts with the Americans came to nothing," a senior Russian source with knowledge of the discussions in late 2023 and early 2024 told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the situation.
A second Russian source with knowledge of the contacts told Reuters that the Americans told Moscow, via the intermediaries, they would not discuss a possible ceasefire without the participation of Ukraine and so the contacts ended in failure.
A third source with knowledge of the discussions said: "Everything fell apart with the Americans." The source said that the Americans did not want to pressure Ukraine.
The extent of the contacts - and their failure - has not previously been reported.
It comes as U.S. President Joe Biden has for months been pushing Congress to approve more aid for Ukraine, but has faced opposition from allies of Republican presidential nomination frontrunner Donald Trump.
The Kremlin, the White House, the U.S. State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) all declined to comment.

U.S. says 'No back channel'
Putin sent thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, triggering a full-scale war after eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces on the one side and pro-Russian Ukrainians and Russian proxies on the other.
Ukraine says it is fighting for its existence and the West casts Putin's invasion as an imperial-style land grab that challenges the post-Cold War international order.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he will never accept Russia's control over Ukrainian land. He has outlawed any contacts with Russia.
A U.S. official, speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, said that the U.S. has not engaged in any back channel discussions with Russia and that Washington had been consistent in not going behind the back of Ukraine.
The U.S. official said that there appeared to have been unofficial "Track II" conversations among Russians not in the government but that the United States was not engaged in them.
The U.S. official said Putin's proposal, based on what has been publicly reported, was unchanged from past demands that Russia hold on to Ukrainian territory. The official suggested that there appeared to be frustration in Moscow that Washington had repeatedly refused to accept it.
Putin told U.S. talk-show host Tucker Carlson last week that Russia was ready for "dialogue".

Contacts
Intermediaries met in Turkey in late 2023, according to three Russian sources.
A fourth diplomatic source said that there had been Russian-U.S. unofficial contacts through intermediaries at Russia's initiative but that they appeared to have come to nothing.
The U.S. official said he was unaware of unofficial contact through intermediaries.
According to three Russian sources, Putin's signal was relayed to Washington, where top U.S. officials including White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Central Intelligence Agency Director Bill Burns and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met.
The idea was that Sullivan would speak to Putin's foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, and set out the next steps, one of the Russian sources said.
But when the call came in January, Sullivan told Ushakov that Washington was willing to talk about other aspects of the relationship but would not speak about a ceasefire without Ukraine, said one of the Russian sources.
The U.S. official refused to be drawn on any details of Sullivan's purported calls, or whether such a conversation with Ushakov took place.

Putin 'ready to fight on'
One of the Russian sources expressed frustration with the United States over Washington's insistence that it would not nudge Ukraine towards talks given that the United States was helping to fund the war.
"Putin said: 'I knew they wouldn't do anything'," another of the Russian sources said. "They cut off the root of the contacts which had taken two months to create."
Another Russian source said that the United States did not appear to believe Putin was sincere.
"The Americans didn't believe Putin was genuine about a ceasefire - but he was and is - he is ready to discuss a ceasefire. But equally Putin is also ready to fight on for as long as it takes - and Russia can fight for as long as it takes," the Russian source said.
The Kremlin sees little point in further contacts with the United States on the issue, the Russian sources said, so the war would continue.

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Stolen in Ukraine and sold: Russians put up for auction a painting that is internationally wanted
Russia wants to sell the work of famous Ukrainian artist Ivan Aivazovskyy at an auction. Earlier, Ukraine put the painting on an international wanted list.
This was reported by the former deputy prosecutor-general and former prosecutor of Crimea, Gunduz Mammadov, in social network X.

According to him, Russia should put up for auction the painting "Moon Night" by Ivan Aivazovsky, painted in 1878.

This painting was among 52 canvases that were illegally transferred to the Simferopol Art Museum in Crimea," it said.

Mammadov recalled that in 2017 Interpol, at the request of the Crimean prosecutor's office, declared the work internationally wanted. Thus Russia once again violates international law, in particular the UNESCO Convention of 1970, which prohibits the export and transfer of ownership of cultural property.

Russian media also report about plans to sell the painting of the Ukrainian artist. It is known that the auction will be held in the Moscow auction house on 18 February. "Moon Night" Aivazovsky, tentatively estimated at 100 million rubles.

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Pokrova EW system, which successfully neutralizes Shaheds, has been launched in Ukraine

The national electronic warfare system Pokrova is successfully knocking out Russian Shaheds off course in the skies over Ukraine.

Yurii Ihnat, spokesman for the Air Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced this to LIGA.net.

The Air Force spokesperson confirmed the operation and successful use of the Pokrova system in response to a Forbes article about Ukraine’s powerful electronic warfare system capable of intercepting Russian strike drones.

“Pokrova exists and is being used. There are others that work. Electronic warfare systems work against all enemy air attack means,” Ihnat shared.

The Pokrova system uses spoofing technology that replaces satellite signals and thus misleads drone navigation devices. Having diverted from the route, they fly past the target or crash unharmed.

Russian-launched Shahed-136s began to be found on the ground without any signs of damage at the end of January this year.

Spoofing is invisible to drones and can be successfully used in contrast to the usual jamming of all signals. The latter has little or no effect on the Shaheds due to the use of a fully autonomous inertial navigation system in their design, which allows them to continue moving in the direction of the target even without signals.

“Even if all its channels are jammed, it still continues to fly by inertia. And when it leaves the range of the electronic warfare device, it can return to its course. The Shahed’s navigation is suppressed. That is, it goes off course in this way. That is why it is difficult. But they are already being found in the fields, so it is possible to knock them down. In particular, with the help of electronic warfare systems, suppressing the navigation signal,” Ihnat said.

Pokrova system
Apart from the principle of operation, no other details about Pokrova are known. However, it is likely that this name does not refer to a device but to a network of systems operating throughout the country. This stems from the need for constant “influence” on the drone during its flight.

Ukrainian MP Oleksandr Fediyenko said that the country already has developments that can neutralize Shahed drones.

“Ukraine has a modern development, and not just one, that can interfere with the systems of such vehicles using electronic warfare (EW). These are not one, not two, not three transmitters of influence on such aircraft. These are hundreds of thousands of devices that are being installed all over the country,” the MP said.

Ihnat noted that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had instructed Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal to find a mechanism to purchase such systems even at the expense of local budgets. Such a mechanism is needed, in particular, to protect critical infrastructure facilities.

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Montreal woman pleads guilty to shipping weapons components to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine
A Russian-Canadian living in Montreal has admitted to sending millions of dollars of electronics to the Kremlin to support "its ongoing attacks of Ukraine," U.S. authorities announced on Monday.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in the Eastern District of New York said 32-year-old Kristina Puzyreva pleaded guilty to money laundering conspiracy in federal court in Brooklyn and could face up to 20 years in prison when she is sentenced at a later date.

The attorney's office said Puzyreva was part of the "sophisticated" export scheme that involved purchasing dual-use electronics from U.S. manufacturers under Brooklyn-based front companies and sending them to Russian entities and companies in violation of U.S. sanctions. Those components were then used in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and guided missile systems used by the Russian military.

"As she admitted today, the defendant was a key part of the plan, laundering proceeds from the scheme to evade sanctions and ship UAV and missile components to Russia that were later found on the battlefield in Ukraine," stated United States Attorney Peace.

Puzyreva and her husband — 37-year-old Nikolay Goltsev, also of Montreal — were arrested on Oct. 31, 2023(opens in a new tab) in a Manhattan hotel room. Police seized $20,000 from the room during their arrest and have seized US$1.68 million in connection with the export scheme.

Homeland Security Investigations said her money laundering scheme was linked to nearly 300 shipments of restricted technology valued at US$ 7 million for the Kremlin.

The prosecution of Goltsev and another defendant, 52-year-old Salimdzhon Nasriddinov of Brooklyn, is ongoing.

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Russia's Starlink Scheme via NATO Proxy Exposed in Sting Report
Russian forces are buying Elon Musk's Starlink satellite communications network from private sellers and are using them in occupied Ukraine by connecting them to networks in NATO-member Poland, according to the independent investigative journalism site Important Stories (IStories).

Journalists with IStories said they spoke with the representatives of three Russian websites who have advertised selling the Starlink devices, which are operated by Musk's aerospace company SpaceX.

Two of the representatives of separate websites said that personal accounts on the devices connect to a network through Poland, while the individual behind a third site said that they connect "through a European country." Poland shares a border with Ukraine.

Ukrainian military intelligence has said Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces in Ukraine are increasingly using Starlink terminals on the battlefield, while other Russian news outlets also report that Starlink satellite communications systems are now being sold via multiple Russian online stores, supplied via an intermediary in Dubai.

Newsweek has contacted the foreign ministries of the United Arab Emirates, Poland and Russia for comment by email.

In response to a Newsweek email, SpaceX did not provide a comment, linking instead to its statement via a post on X, formerly Twitter.

"SpaceX does not do business of any kind with the Russian Government or its military," the statement on Musk's social media platform said.

"Starlink is not active in Russia, meaning service will not work in that country. SpaceX has never sold or marketed Starlink in Russia, nor has it shipped equipment to locations in Russia. If Russian stores are claiming to sell Starlink for service in that country, they are scamming their customers.

"Starlink also does not operate in Dubai. Starlink cannot be purchased in Dubai nor does SpaceX ship there. Additionally, Starlink has not authorized any third-party intermediaries, resellers or distributors of any kind to sell Starlink in Dubai.

"If SpaceX obtains knowledge that a Starlink terminal is being used by a sanctioned or unauthorized party, we investigate the claim and take actions to deactivate the terminal if confirmed."

The statement did not explicitly address the question about the potential use of Starlink outside Russia, namely in occupied Ukraine, fueling further speculation. The map of the geographies covered by Starlink on its website appears to include at least some contested territories and those occupied by Russia.

Musk said in a statement on X that reports SpaceX is selling Starlink terminals to Russia are false. "To the best of our knowledge, no Starlinks have been sold directly or indirectly to Russia," he wrote.

Musk's SpaceX deployed its Starlink satellites to help provide Kyiv with internet service in the early days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Musk has said that the satellite internet system provides Ukraine with a "major battlefield advantage."

Last year, Musk said he refused to allow Ukraine to use Starlink internet services to launch an attack on Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, to avoid complicity in a "major act of war."

"There was an emergency request from government authorities to activate Starlink all the way to Sevastopol," he wrote in early September 2023 on X. "The obvious intent being to sink most of the Russian fleet at anchor. If I had agreed to their request, then SpaceX would be explicitly complicit in a major act of war and conflict escalation."