Oorlog in Oekra�ne #951

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France denies Russian claims it plans to send 2,000 troops to Ukraine
France’s Armed Forces Ministry has denied claims by Russian Foreign Intelligence Service head Sergey Naryshkin that it plans to send 2,000 troops to fight against Russia in Ukraine.

The Ministry said in a tweet that Naryshkin’s comments represented a “further example of the systematic use of mass disinformation by Russia” and called for the “utmost vigilance” when dealing with such claims.

The denial follows a claim by Naryshkin on Tuesday that France was “visibly concerned” about the number of French volunteer fighters killed in Ukraine and that it was supposedly preparing a contingent of 2,000 soldiers to fight in their place.

In a statement published by Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, Naryshkin said that French soldiers fighting for Ukraine would be a “legitimate priority target” for Russian troops and that their fate would be the same as that of “all Frenchmen who ever came to the Russian world with a sword”.

French President Emmanuel Macron has in recent weeks repeatedly refused to rule out NATO troops being sent to fight in Ukraine, while French Army Chief of Staff Pierre Schill wrote in Le Monde on Tuesday that the country’s military was preparing for the “toughest engagements” to “guard against aggression and defend its interests”.

Russia’s Defence Ministry alleged in March that 147 French “mercenaries” fighting for Ukraine had been killed since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine. In January, France’s Armed Forces Ministry called Russian claims of over 60 French “mercenaries” being killed in a missile strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv part of a “crude Russian disinformation campaign”.

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House Speaker Johnson promises to approve aid to Ukraine "immediately", without specifying timeline
House Speaker Mike Johnson said aid to US allies would be reviewed after the budget is approved

Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, promised to put aid to Ukraine to a vote "immediately" after the resolution of budget issues, he announced at a weekly press conference.

According to him, after considering the issue of the US budget, the House will focus on additional assistance to US allies.

At the same time, the speaker did not name the exact dates of both the budget approval and the consideration of assistance.

Congress plans to pass a budget by March 22 to avoid a temporary shutdown of the US government.

Johnson said that the budget issues are already "practically agreed".

"They should be voted on already this week, although they were preceded by very tough negotiations," the lawmaker stated.

After March 22, the lower chamber of the Senate goes on another recess, and congressmen will resume their work only on April 9.

Earlier, Johnson told Republican senators that he is ready to develop his own version of the bill on aid to Ukraine. It is assumed that it will assume a form of a loan or a lend-lease act.

As Bloomberg reported, Republicans in the House of Representatives are working on their own bill on aid to Ukraine, the main idea of which is to confiscate Russian assets to pay for military aid to Kyiv.

On February 14, 2024, US President Joe Biden called on the speaker of the House of Representatives to immediately put to a vote the bill on aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan.

On February 26, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Johnson had promised him to do "everything" to continue aid to Ukraine.

On February 29, Congress leaders at a meeting with Biden could not agree on aid to Ukraine.

On March 12, the United States announced $300 million in military aid to Ukraine, including artillery shells and ammunition for HIMARS. The supply of ATACMS has not been officially announced.

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Op donderdag 21 maart 2024 19:08 schreef la_perle_rouge het volgende:
[ x ]
On March 19, a number of Russian media reported that the Russian Trawler “Captain Lobanov” sank in the Baltic Sea. Preliminarily, due to �an explosion� on board. Now information has appeared in the Russian media that the ship was sunk as a result of a Russian Navy missile accidentally hitting the ship:

�A relative of a crew member of the trawler "Captain Lobanov" confirmed to Dozhd media that the ship was mistakenly hit by a Navy missile

As a result of a missile hitting the fishing trawler Kapitan Lobanov on March 19, three crew members were killed and four more were injured. A relative of one of the crew members told Dozhd media about this.

The missile that hit the trawler was fired during a Baltic Fleet exercise, the source said. Before the incident, the trawler's crew members were about to go to bed when a missile fell on the captain's cabin.

According to official reports from local authorities, there was a fire on board the trawler, and the cause of the incident is still unknown. In addition, authorities report only one death.

“When the survivors were taken away, everyone knew perfectly well that three people had died. And everyone knew perfectly well that a rocket had hit. But they decided to write that there was a “fire.” I wonder what kind of fire this is, if the captain’s cabin is completely gone, it was simply demolished,” says Dozhd’s media source.

The survivors were sent to a hospital in the city of Pionersk; one of the victims is in serious condition. According to the source, at the hospital the victims were interrogated by FSB officers, who asked the crew members “not to talk about the incident.”

Another missile, according to the source, fell into fishing nets near the industrial vessel of the MRTK company, which was located not far from the trawler “Captain Lobanov”.�