SPOILER

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 13:08 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Orks hebben een schip dat Orsk heet.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 13:08 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Orks hebben een schip dat Orsk heet.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 13:08 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Orks hebben een schip dat Orsk heet.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 13:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ow, dus deze ronde zagen ze geen mogelijkheid om oekraine de zwarte piet toe te schuiven? Lastig.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 13:48 schreef Wantie het volgende:

[..]
Elders op het forum zijn ze druk aan het oefenen.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Gaat er weer beschaafd aan toe daar.

Ongepaste foto in tweet.
Aanslagpleger krijgt elektrische schokken bij de ondervraging.

https://twitter.com/clash(...)PxkGCeTaBTSJDWw&s=19

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Mooi. Die kunnen ze afschrijven.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Gaat er weer beschaafd aan toe daar.

Ongepaste foto in tweet.
Aanslagpleger krijgt elektrische schokken bij de ondervraging.

https://twitter.com/clash(...)PxkGCeTaBTSJDWw&s=19

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 14:51 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Lauwe gebeurtenis, niet popcorn waardig.

[ x ]

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 14:10 schreef oheng het volgende:
Suchomimus over de aanval op Sevastopol. Mogelijk 2 landingsschepen, hoofdkwartier, luchtmachtbasis, vliegtuigen, commandopost geraakt

Ukraine Claims to Have Hit Two Ropucha-Class Ships at Sevastopol: The Azov and Yamal

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Mooi. Die kunnen ze afschrijven.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:15 schreef MissButterflyy het volgende:

[..]
Middeleeuwse toestanden. Zo kun je verdachten alles laten bekennen wat goed uitkomt.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:39 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind het vrij modern eerlijk gezegd. Je verminkt ze niet immers. Er is geen schade ofzo.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:39 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind het vrij modern eerlijk gezegd. Je verminkt ze niet immers. Er is geen schade ofzo.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:39 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind het vrij modern eerlijk gezegd. Je verminkt ze niet immers. Er is geen schade ofzo.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:39 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind het vrij modern eerlijk gezegd. Je verminkt ze niet immers. Er is geen schade ofzo.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:58 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Je hebt gelijk. Ze zouden iedereen 2x daags moeten shocken tegen depressie en verveling.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:01 schreef zalkc het volgende:

[..]
Ik gok dat het geen therapeutische schokjes zijn.

Wel knap dat bekentenissen door foltering nog waardevol worden geacht, is toch genoeg ervaring mee opgedaan om te weten dat dat bijna niet werkt.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:00 schreef trein2000 het volgende:
[ x ]
Direct doen. Van die doorgedraaide gekken zoals Poetin moet je met harde hand begrenzen.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Gaat er weer beschaafd aan toe daar.

Ongepaste foto in tweet.
Aanslagpleger krijgt elektrische schokken bij de ondervraging.

https://twitter.com/clash(...)PxkGCeTaBTSJDWw&s=19

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:13 schreef Ali_boo het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:00 schreef trein2000 het volgende:
[ x ]
Direct doen. Van die doorgedraaide gekken zoals Poetin moet je met harde hand begrenzen.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:20 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Dan moet je je Patriots inzetten.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:00 schreef trein2000 het volgende:
[ x ]
Direct doen. Van die doorgedraaide gekken zoals Poetin moet je met harde hand begrenzen.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 19:58 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Je hebt gelijk. Ze zouden iedereen 2x daags moeten shocken tegen depressie en verveling.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:42 schreef byah het volgende:
Het is vrij zorgelijk dat die afweer er niet al staat

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:29 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Snap dit ook niet. Ze kunnen ze zelf neerschieten als ze willen, het is hun eigen gebied.

Tenzij de VS achter de schermen druk uitoefent op dat ze terughoudend moeten zijn in dit soort situaties.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:53 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Binnen de NAVO is vast ook afgesproken om niet "te snel" te happen/reageren. Poetin wil maar al te graag een WOIII, maar wel één die gestart is door de NAVO... Zodat hij zijn handjes in onschuld kan wassen...

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:53 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Binnen de NAVO is vast ook afgesproken om niet "te snel" te happen/reageren. Poetin wil maar al te graag een WOIII, maar wel één die gestart is door de NAVO... Zodat hij zijn handjes in onschuld kan wassen...

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:56 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]
Hoe is een raket neerschieten boven je eigen grondgebied ‘happen’? Daar valt geen Russisch slachtoffer bij, is geen inzet van navo-middelen in UA. Zelfs voor de lui die nog steeds in die permanente ‘EsCaLaTiE’ krampstuip zitten moet dat toch te begrijpen zijn?

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:00 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Naja dat ding wil je al helemaal niet boven je grondgebied hebben.. Dus idealiter knal je dat ding eerder uit de lucht. Of er moet na de grens amper bewoond gebied zijn dan is het wel anders natuurlijk.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:53 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Binnen de NAVO is vast ook afgesproken om niet "te snel" te happen/reageren. Poetin wil maar al te graag een WOIII, maar wel één die gestart is door de NAVO... Zodat hij zijn handjes in onschuld kan wassen...

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 18:13 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]


Mooi. Die kunnen ze afschrijven.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 20:56 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]
Hoe is een raket neerschieten boven je eigen grondgebied ‘happen’? Daar valt geen Russisch slachtoffer bij, is geen inzet van navo-middelen in UA. Zelfs voor de lui die nog steeds in die permanente ‘EsCaLaTiE’ krampstuip zitten moet dat toch te begrijpen zijn?

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:44 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Rusland vuurt vaak raketten af die langs de Poolse grens scheren, die zullen gewoon zeggen dat de raket boven Oekraïens grondgebied onderschept is en het als bewijs zien voor directe interventie. Wat Polen of wie dan ook daarop zegt doet er niet veel toe. Hebben ze een goede reden verder te escaleren.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:46 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]
Alsof Poetin een goede reden nodig heeft. Daarbij, als z’n propaganda-apparaat kennelijk zo sterk is kan hij ook wel wat anders fabriceren. Dat is echt lulkoek.

We laten ons bang maken.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:27 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
Toen Turkije een Flanker uit de lucht schoot werd het ook geen wo3

En die was nog bemand ook

Sterker nog, de Russen hebben er nog steeds nauwelijks op gereageerd, die hebben natuurlijk net zo weinig zin in een wereldoorlog als wij

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:52 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Rusland bombardeerden toen toch Turkse vriendjes in Syrië en stelden een gedeeltelijk economisch boycot in? Er mochten toen onder andere geen Russische toeristen naar Turkije voor een jaar ofzo, dat heeft ze miljarden gekost (en mij geld en rust bespaard )

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:54 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
reden te meer dan

maar serieus het gaat om een raket, zodra ze die loslaten is hij afgeschreven en zodra hij zijn doel gemist heeft kan het ze echt geen kut schelen wat wij er nog mee doen

het is niet zoals in de film dat ze alsnog een ander doel kiezen en de wereld rond kunnen vliegen, de brandstof is als hij naar beneden komt gewoon op

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:52 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Het gaat goed met de NAVO oefeningen.

[ x ]

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:55 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Ik ben het met je eens he

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 21:58 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
Denemarken?

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 22:05 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:

[..]
Eerder omgeving Augsburg-Nürnberg.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 22:09 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
durf ik niet te zeggen, de oefening speelt zich af op half europa
...
maar de vrachtwagen is sowieso niet Australisch, ik denk Deens

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 22:13 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:

[..]
Op de vrachtwagen staat het anders duidelijk aangegeven: M.A.N.
Maschinenfabrik Augsburg-Nürnberg.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 22:18 schreef ipa84 het volgende:
[ x ]
Die Macgregor kan beter een afspraak gaan maken bij de Jellinek.

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 23:00 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Volgens hem is Zelensky een Rus die Ukraine is geïnfiltreerd om oorlog te maken. Dan is de oorlog toch nog steeds begonnen door de Russen?

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 23:05 schreef michaelmoore het volgende:
Ruzzia heeft een paar arbeidsmigranten uit Tajikistan opgepakt en die zijn nu zwaaar de pineut

https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1771986620125757826?s=20

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Op zondag 24 maart 2024 23:24 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Ze hebben inmiddels ook bekend dat ze verantwoordelijk zijn voor de dood van Stalin.

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Slovakia's pro-West diplomat Korcok to face off with Fico ally Pelligrini in presidential runoff
Slovak ex-foreign minister Ivan Korcok and current parliament speaker Peter Pellegrini will face off in April's presidential election runoff, near-final results showed Saturday.

The liberal Korcok led with 42.44 percent backing with 99.9 percent of the vote counted, while former prime minister Pellegrini earned 37.07 percent, the Slovak Statistics Office said.

The result was expected by analysts as the 48-year-old Pellegrini and 59-year-old Korcok topped the opinion polls before the vote marked by deep divisions on the war in neighbouring Ukraine.

Korcok, backed by the opposition, is staunchly pro-Ukraine like outgoing president Zuzana Caputova, a government critic who chose not to seek a second term.

Former premier Pellegrini is a part of the Russia-leaning ruling camp led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has questioned Ukraine's sovereignty and called for peace with Russia.

Though the office is largely ceremonial, Slovakia's president ratifies international treaties, appoints top judges and is commander-in-chief of the armed forces.

The head of the NATO and EU member of 5.4 million people can also veto laws passed by parliament.

SPOILER

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'Slovakia's interests first'
Korcok, who would likely face stiff opposition from the Fico team if elected, said he would "like to address all voters" before the April 6 runoff.

"I want to appeal to voters who disagree with the direction this government is dragging Slovakia... including in foreign policy."

"I want to be a president who... will represent the country abroad and at home and who will take independent decisions, without getting orders," Korcok added.

Pellegrini hailed the result as "a huge success", pointing out that many voters opted for nationalists among the nine presidential candidates.

"The results have shown that most people in Slovakia do not want a liberal, progressive president," he said.

Most Slovaks want "a president who will defend Slovakia's national interests, who will not drag Slovakia into a war but will talk about peace, who... will put Slovakia's interests first," Pellegrini added.

But, casting his ballot earlier on Saturday, he insisted Slovakia would stay anchored in the European Union and NATO after the election.

'Calm and wise'
At a polling station in Bratislava, pensioner Juraj Jankovich said Pellegrini "was a calm and wise prime minister and he will be a good president".

Graphic designer Zora Puskacova in turn said Korcok "would be a worthy representative of Slovakia abroad".

Bratislava-based analyst Pavol Babos told AFP Pellegrini would "most likely act as an ally for the government coalition led by Robert Fico".

The two have been long-time political allies, and Fico has over the years appointed Pellegrini to various positions, including parliamentary speaker and education minister.

Pellegrini also became head of government in 2018 after Fico was toppled as premier.

Comprising Fico's Smer, Pellegrini's HLAS and the far-right SNS parties, the Slovak cabinet in office since last October has refused to provide military aid to Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion since February 2022.

'A counterweight'
Pellegrini also urged "an immediate ceasefire and the opening of peace negotiations" on Ukraine in the last presidential debate.

Korcok, a diplomat who has represented Slovakia in the United States, Germany and Switzerland, has instead urged Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

"The Russian Federation has trampled on international law... I do not think Ukraine should give up part of its territory to achieve peace," he told AFP.

Babos said that Korcok would "very likely be a counterweight to the government coalition and... seek to correct the government's undemocratic tendencies" at home.

Fico's cabinet has recently come under fire for adopting a controversial criminal code reform including easing the penalties for corruption and economic crime.

Though running as an independent, Korcok is backed by opposition parties who believe a Pellegrini win would pave the way for presidential pardons of government allies found guilty of corruption.

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The U.S. Army Is Urgently Investing in Electronic Warfare Systems, the Deadline Is Six Months

Pentagon prioritizes wearable electronic warfare systems for enhanced battlefield awareness
The importance of electronic warfare capabilities and their miniaturization in modern warfare has been underscored by practical experiences, revealing that solely relying on powerful systems on mobile platforms is insufficient. In response, the Pentagon initiated a comprehensive 120-day field study in 2023 to delve into this critical aspect.

Although the details are shrouded in secrecy, some practical actions have come to light. The immediate focus has been on supplying wearable electronic warfare (EW) systems to the U.S. Army. Initially, these units will be dispatched to major army training bases before being distributed to each combat brigade within the ground forces for personnel training purposes.

SPOILER

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According to Defense One, the initial phase, projected to span six months, has been deemed a top priority by the Cyber Center of Excellence, a specialized branch within the army dedicated to training personnel and modernizing communication systems. The exact nature of the system being deployed remains undisclosed, but it is anticipated that a compact wearable system, designed to fit into a backpack, will be operated by a team of two soldiers.

It’s important to note that in English military terminology, electronic warfare and electronic reconnaissance are grouped under the umbrella term of electronic warfare. Consequently, the operators of these wearable systems will be tasked with spectrum analysis for threat identification and likely also involved in creating electronic barriers. Notably, the integration of EW assets within the U.S. Army is being carried out swiftly, with timelines aligned tightly with the army’s structured processes. Moreover, the mass production and deployment of these assets to brigades will occur concurrently with training and the incorporation of new capabilities at the infantry level.

Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that the rollout of these measures could have commenced earlier; however, this initiative is part of a new defense program for which funding was allocated in the 2024 American fiscal year, starting in October. The finalization of the Pentagon’s budget by U.S. lawmakers on March 23 marked a significant milestone in advancing these strategic defense efforts.

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Irish volunteer strikes 6 invaders’ guns in one day

An Irish volunteer hit six D-20 and D-30 guns of the invaders with an FPV drone in one day.

The volunteer’s story was published on the Butusov Plus YouTube channel.

The targets were hit near Avdiivka, where a volunteer from the Terra unit was destroying the enemy.

The volunteer himself is a 19-year-old Irish citizen from Dublin who decided to join the Ukrainian Defense Forces after turning 18.

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He first joined the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine, and later signed a contract with the 3rd Assault Brigade.

The unit’s commander noted that the “Irishman” demonstrates excellent results in destroying Russian troops.

In addition to striking the enemy’s artillery, which was preventing the Ukrainian defenders from moving forward, the “Irishman” also managed to inflict losses on the enemy infantry.

For such a high performance, he was awarded a Glock 17 honorary weapon as a reward by his commanding officer.

It should be noted that the man speaks good Ukrainian, as he has Ukrainian parents and speaks Ukrainian all the time in the family.

Militarnyi previously reported on FPV drones of the 3rd assault brigade destroying the enemy’s artillery battery.

Then, during a night overflight, reconnaissance drones discovered four enemy D-30 howitzers and two more D-20 howitzers on the outskirts of the city.

Ураженн� ворожої артилерії

The Russian artillery was detected by the fighters of the Krylia company and eliminated by the crew of the Over head FPV drones.

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McCaul says Johnson is committed to put a vote for Ukraine funding on the floor after Easter
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is committed to putting a vote for Ukraine funding on the House floor some time after Easter.

“His commitment is to put it on the floor after Easter and we are working on this bill,” McCaul told CBS’s Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

When pressed further on whether this means they will vote on the bill as soon as April 9 — when the House returns from recess — McCaul just emphasized he would like it done “as soon as possible.” McCaul is the chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has been a strong supporter of approving additional funding for Ukraine, which has been fighting Russia for more than two years.

“I think the situation Ukraine is dire…. if we lose in Ukraine like Afghanistan and then lose to Putin, let him you know, take over Ukraine and Moldova, Georgia, and abandon our allies like we did in Afghanistan — Does that make the United States weaker or stronger? I think weaker,” he said.

When asked on why there is a lack of urgency by Johnson on approving funding for Ukraine, McCaul noted that he is in a “difficult” spot.

“He understands this. He is in a very difficult spot, and this motion to vacate the chair thing — I believe he’s committed because he understands national security. And leans on, you know, myself, the chairman of armed services, House Intelligence, for advice on this and he knows how important this is,” McCaul said.

The Hill has reached out to Johnson’s office for comment.

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Mayor: Russian attacks destroy thermal power plant, all substations in Kharkiv
Russian missile and drone attacks have destroyed a thermal power plant and all the electrical substations in Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov told national television on March 24.

The mayor said that Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, experiences the most challenging energy situation.

Russia has recently once again intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, launching over 150 missiles and drones against Ukrainian cities and critical infrastructure on March 22 in one of the largest attacks against the country's power grid.

The March 22 strike damaged the Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant, Ukraine's largest hydroelectric station.

Energy workers are unable to provide a stable power supply across Kharkiv, according to the mayor.

SPOILER

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He also said that electricity supply had been restored for approximately 40% of Kharkiv residents. Meanwhile, heating has been restored in 60% of the buildings, and almost all of them have water supply, according to Terekhov.

The city is imposing scheduled power outages.

The mayor also said it's unclear when the power supply will be restored in Kharkiv.

Meanwhile, power supply has also been restored in Odesa following the March 22 attack, DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company, reported on March 24.

In a separate Telegram post, DTEK said that power supply had also been restored in Kyiv Oblast following the March 24 attack.

In the early hours of March 24, Russia launched its latest major missile and drone attack across Ukraine, targeting critical infrastructure and leaving thousands without heating.

A number of energy facilities in western Ukraine were damaged during Russia's major overnight strike on March 24, state oil and gas monopoly Naftogaz's CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov said.

The attack also damaged an underground gas storage facility, Naftogaz reported on March 24.

Throughout the winter of 2022-2023, Russia launched a series of mass missile and drone strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure facilities, killing dozens of civilians and causing blackouts nationwide. That winter, Russia severely hit almost half of the country's energy system.

The winter of 2023-2024 spelled yet another wave of massive strikes, but the resulting energy disruptions have not reached the scale of those in late 2022 and early 2023. Russia's attacks this year have for the most part failed to disrupt the country's power grid.

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Ukrainian Tank Crew Successfully Targets and Destroys Three Enemy Tanks in Minutes

The tank crew of the Ukrainian 53rd Mechanized Brigade defeated three Russian tanks in one battle.

This was reported by the press service of the Brigade.

It is reported that the crew fought for 15 minutes, fired three shots, and destroyed three Russian combat vehicles.

SPOILER

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It is known that the 53rd Brigade is fighting in the Avdiivka direction, so we can assume that this battle took place in the same area.

“This can rightfully be considered a legendary performance of a combat mission, which will become the foundation for numerous military textbooks,” the brigade commented.

Один в полі воїн: танкі�ти 53-ї бригади знищили 3 ворожі танки за 15 хвилин

Similar cases have previously occurred in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

In particular, in September 2023, Militarnyi reported that the Ukrainian Leopard 2A6 won two Russian T-80BV in battle. The battle took place at the beginning of counteroffensive actions in Zaporizhzhia.

The OSINT community found that the battle occurred on a section of the T0803 highway passing near the settlements of Novodanylivka, Mala Tokmachka, Novopokrovka, Pavlivske, Novofedorivka, Verbove, and Robotyne.

As a result of the battle, one Russian tank received damage, after which two enemy combat vehicles retreated from the position.

It is known that the tank battle took place at a distance of approximately 2.8 kilometers.

In the same month, Militarnyi reported on a tank battle in the fields between the settlements of Dudchany and Nova Kamyanka, Kherson region.

Then four Russian tanks confronted a single Ukrainian T-64BV.

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U.S. Embassy donates six armored SUVs to Ukrainian prosecutors in frontline regions

The Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine received six armored vehicles from the U.S. Embassy, which will help protect the lives of prosecutors as they perform their duties in the frontline regions.

Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin wrote reported this on X, Ukrinform reports.

“The support provided by @StateINL (U.S. Department of State International Narcotics and Law Enforcement – ed.) amid wartime challenges is invaluable. Expressed my deep gratitude to Joshua Temblador, Director of the INL Section at the US Embassy in Kyiv, for the multifaceted technical assistance and strategic advice. We greatly appreciate the donation,” reads the posting.

He noted that the PGO’s “stable cooperation” with INL has become the solid foundation for the development of the Prosecutor General's Office’s institutional capacity, particularly in investigating Russian war crimes, ensuring support for victims and witnesses and streamlining the digital transformation of Ukrainian prosecution and law enforcement systems," Kostin noted.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin discussed strategies during a meeting on March 18 in Kyiv with his counterparts from the U.S. Department of Justice, Nathan Brooks and Tim Rank, as well as with Jared Kimball, legal adviser at the US Embassy in Ukraine, and FBI legal attaché Chris Geiger investigation of Russian cybercrimes committed against the Ukrainian state and partner countries

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Drone attack on Odesa Oblast, air defence activated
The air defence has been activated in Odesa Oblast due to an attack by Shahed drones from the Black Sea on the night of 24-25 March.

Source: Defence Forces of Ukraine's South

Quote: "Combat work is underway in Odesa. A reminder that it can also be dangerous. Interesting shots of the air defence in operation should not cost you your life."

Details: The Russians launched Shahed drones across Ukraine around midnight.

Update: Local media outlet Dumska said some areas of the city had been left without water or electricity.

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Strike on Russian Black Sea Fleet communication centre: satellite images emerge
Satellite imagery has been posted showing the aftermath of a missile strike on the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s communication centre in Sevastopol, occupied Crimea.

Source: Skhemy (Schemes), a Radio Liberty project

Details: The satellite imagery, from Planet Labs, has confirmed that a building on Rudneva Street in Sevastopol was hit as a result of Ukrainian missile attacks.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine had reported that they launched a missile attack on the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s communication centre on the morning of 24 March.

A comparison of satellite images taken of the area on 21 and 24 March shows that the roof collapsed after the attack. Firefighting appliances can also be seen next to the building, Skhemy reported.


Background:
• Late on 23 March, reports emerged that the main communications centre of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in occupied Sevastopol had been hit by cruise missiles.
• Early on 24 March, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported that Ukraine's Defence Forces had struck two Russian landing ships, the Yamal and the Azov, as well as a communications centre and several infrastructure facilities belonging to the Russian Black Sea Fleet in occupied Sevastopol, Crimea.

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About 100 Russian spies work under diplomatic cover in Austria - media
Of the 252 Russian agents in Austria, about 100 work under the guise of diplomats and also operate in neighboring countries. There are likely many more spies operating under the guise of civilians. The information was provided by the Central European country's intelligence chief at a confidential meeting with senior officials.

The Austrian civil servant said that, according to their data, at the Russian embassy in Vienna, as well as in the Russian missions to the OSCE and the UN, there are at least 252 employees, including diplomats, technical and administrative staff, working on “disarmament”.

“The mentioned figure does not include teachers of Russian schools in Austria, who are provided with a certain level of diplomatic protection,” the official noted.

The article also notes that spouses of diplomats have also begun to use diplomatic cover for spy work, which is a growing trend, especially after the recent mass expulsions of Russian diplomats. We are talking about agents carrying out missions for Russian intelligence services, including the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU).

Austria and its neighbors are aware of intelligence activities emanating from Moscow. Slovakia is aware that Russian diplomats in Austria have conducted espionage activities against it, and the Czech Republic is promoting restrictions on the free movement of Russians in the Schengen area to reduce risks. In February, information appeared that Ireland refused to renew the visas of Russian diplomats, fearing espionage activities.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 05:44 schreef quirina het volgende:

Terror In Moscow: KGB's Biggest Fail

Politiebureau zat 15 meter bij crocus hall vandaan.
Er liep ook nog een politieman van de k9 unit binnen in crocus hall tijdens het schieten “van IS”.

De politie deed helemaal niks.
Terwijl als je als Rus met een wit papiertje zwaait al binnen dertig seconden opgepakt wordt wegens onrust stoken.
De buurt rondom het politiebureau en crocus hall hangt vol met camera’s. Zo ook binnen.
Binnen worden bezoekers eerst door beveiligingspoortjes geleid om te controleren op wapens, wat normaal is. Hier wordt je ook gecontroleerd voordat je een concertzaal in mag.. aanslagplegers kwamen van buitenaf binnen volgens camera’s , dan zat er toch beveiliging? Of gingen die even lekker met de benen omhoog?

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 05:53 schreef halfway het volgende:

[..]
Propaganda

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 05:53 schreef halfway het volgende:

[..]
Propaganda

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 00:02 schreef DrDentz het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

Ik vind dit wel een flink stuk land hoor wat die Medvedev even opeist
Polen ook een mooi stuk erbij

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 03:18 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://ghall-com-ua.tran(...)en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
[..]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 09:09 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Vandaag is de dag dat Trump de 463 miljoen euro moet ophoesten. Anders gaan ze beslag leggen op een deel van zijn onroerende zaken.

Ik verwacht niet dat hij op het laatste ogenblik hier nog mee over de balk gaat komen. En mocht dat wel het geval zijn dan moet er zeker onderzoek gedaan worden over waar het vandaan komt.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 09:57 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Sowieso zou iemand die zoveel geld schuldig is, en daarom 'te koop' is, niet eens kandidaat mogen zijn.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 09:57 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Sowieso zou iemand die zoveel geld schuldig is, en daarom 'te koop' is, niet eens kandidaat mogen zijn.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ok, rafinaderijen zijn bijna op, we gaan nu maar voor de energie centrales?

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ok, rafinaderijen zijn bijna op, we gaan nu maar voor de energie centrales?

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ok, rafinaderijen zijn bijna op, we gaan nu maar voor de energie centrales?

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:28 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Ook wel slim. Niet steeds het zelfde raken maar steeds weer andere doelen. Succes met je luchtafweer goed neerzetten

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:57 schreef quirina het volgende:

[..]
Ja en daarna alle waterleidingen doorzagen.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 11:42 schreef over_hedge het volgende:
Rusland heeft Kyiv maandagochtend bestookt met hypersonische raketten. Daarbij is een appartementencomplex beschadigd geraakt.

Erg kosteneffectief is het niet he

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ok, rafinaderijen zijn bijna op, we gaan nu maar voor de energie centrales?

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 10:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ok, rafinaderijen zijn bijna op, we gaan nu maar voor de energie centrales?

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 15:00 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

[..]
Holy shit, 2200+MW, dat is geen kattenpis..

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 14:31 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Heel bijzonder wel dat de VS twee weken van te voren al intel had over de terreuraanslag in Moskou, maar nog steeds niet weet wie er achter de Nord Stream zit.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 17:08 schreef quirina het volgende:
Trump hoeft nu maar slechts 175 miljoen dollar te betalen, dus staat niets meer in de weg om president te worden.
Las ik op nu.nl

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 19:28 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Hoe gaan mensen, bijvoorbeeld correspondenten, nu nog naar Moskou? Zat even voor de grap naar tickets te kijken maar NL doet het niet, via Frankfurt ook niet.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 19:28 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Hoe gaan mensen, bijvoorbeeld correspondenten, nu nog naar Moskou? Zat even voor de grap naar tickets te kijken maar NL doet het niet, via Frankfurt ook niet.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 19:33 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Je kunt via Turkije nog naar Rusland vliegen.

goedkope-vluchten-vanaf-turkey-naar-russia

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 18:22 schreef polderturk het volgende:
WOW

STAR WARS: drone wars wordt werkelijkheid.

[ x ]

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 20:59 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

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Haha die UAV lijkt wel door een hobbyist in elkaar geflanst modelbouw vliegtuigje.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 20:59 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Haha die UAV lijkt wel door een hobbyist in elkaar geflanst modelbouw vliegtuigje.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 21:31 schreef Adrie072 het volgende:
Nu op de VRT (Belgie) misschien wel interessante docu over wapens voor Oekraïne.

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 22:51 schreef Joppiez het volgende:
Rusland ontkent simpelweg dat er een raket door het Poolse luchtruim vloog.

https://www.nu.nl/buitenl(...)nding-luchtruim.html

Deze reactie had ik al voorspeld

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Op maandag 25 maart 2024 20:59 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Haha die UAV lijkt wel door een hobbyist in elkaar geflanst modelbouw vliegtuigje.

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Conservative who moved to RUSSIA with family to escape LGBT ideology now says she hates it because locals don't speak English... then begs for forgiveness after Kremlin hears insults
• Arend Feenstra and his wife Anneesa moved their family of 10 to Russia a month ago, but the transition quickly went downhill
• The funds from their home sale were frozen after Russian officials deemed it to be 'suspicious', leading Anneesa to erupt into an anti-Russian rant
• The YouTubers deleted the clip, and insist they have no plans to leave the former Soviet state and are in it for the 'long haul'

THREE WEEKS LEFT TO PASS THE TEST!!

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Ukrainian porn star raises funds for war amputees
The adult celebrity is a “patriot of her country,” said one of the amputees who took part in a flirty photo shoot.

Yulia Senyuk is more famous under her stage name Josephine Jackson — where her porn appearances have garnered over 200 million views — and now she’s using that celebrity status to raise funds for Ukrainian soldiers who lost limbs in the war against Russia.

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“Porn actress rehabilitates the military. Wow!” Senyuk told POLITICO. “We wanted to draw attention to the problem of rehabilitation after injuries. Because a lot of people collect for drones, but forget about prosthetics. I think I managed to attract attention because more people started collecting donations for prosthetics.”

The 29-year-old resident of Lviv in western Ukraine became an ambassador for Tytanovi Rehab, a media initiative of a Kyiv clinic involved in the rehabilitation of more than 30 Ukrainian military amputees.

Senyuk took part in two photo shoots with Ukrainian war amputees, aimed at drawing attention to the lack of financing for prosthetics — a key need for thousands of Ukrainians who have lost limbs in the Russian invasion.

Kyiv intentionally does not disclose how many people need prosthetics, Oksana Zholnovych, the social policy minister, told Ukrainian media. However, she insisted the government is able to cover those needs.

This year, more than 4.5 billion hryvnia (¤111 million) have been allocated for rehabilitation aid, and there is no need to collect money for those who need prosthetics, said Olena Kulchytska, an adviser to Zholnovych.

However, according to the Protez Foundation, around 59,000 Ukrainians need prosthetic limbs. They can cost $46,000 to $90,000 each, according to Ukraine’s Superhumans Rehabilitation Center. Dozens of Ukrainian clinics and different initiatives are involved in the rehabilitation of military and civilian amputees. Most rely on government programs and donations, but there isn’t enough money to go around.

So when in February Senyuk’s friend came up with the idea of using her notoriety to create a buzz for the prosthetic center in Kyiv, she agreed.

She was invited to swim in a pool and took part in a flirty (but fully clothed) photoshoot with the veterans.

“At first I did not know how to talk to them. But then I just decided to act normal and not focus unnecessary attention on their lost limbs. I just came, we took pictures, and they asked me to make tiktoks with them,” Senyuk said.

The soldiers were thrilled.

“I am in no way a professional rehab specialist, I just come and talk to them, distract them, tell anecdotes about my profession, that is so interesting to them,” Senyuk said. “They shine after my visits, as I was told.”

Her stunt drew both attention and criticism.

Senyuk was attacked on social media by conservatives for the “immorality of her profession” and “trying to PR on soldiers” as well as the “objectification of a woman’s role” at war; it’s illegal to make pornography in Ukraine, which is why Senyuk works abroad.

Anton Ivantsiv, who lost both hands and a leg in the battle for Bakhmut, took part in the photo shoot and defended the actress.

“Thanks to her media persona, Yulia helped to draw attention to the problems of seriously injured people. She organized a donation campaign. Unfortunately, state programs cannot provide good prosthetics,” Ivantsiv told POLITICO. “As for the content she produces, I don’t care. It’s a media product, you can choose whether to consume it. Yulia is Ukrainian and a patriot of her country.”

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Who Do Russians Blame for the Moscow Concert Attack?
At least 133 people were killed and 152 others were wounded when camouflaged gunmen stormed a concert hall in a Moscow suburb and set fire to the building on Friday night.

The Islamic State jihadist group has claimed responsibility for the mass killing, which Russian President Vladimir Putin called a "barbaric terrorist attack" and said would not go left unpunished.

But questions remain as to how the gunmen were able to carry out their attack with seeming ease despite prior warnings from Western governments that such an incident was "imminent."

We asked people in Moscow the day following the attack who they believed stood to gain from the mass killing and whether they thought the government's response was enough.

Who Do Russians Blame for the Moscow Concert Attack? | The Moscow Times

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Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 02:38 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]

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Missiles hit Kyiv seconds after air raid alert, leaving people no time to shelter

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The Economist: The Kremlin launches Operation “Blame Ukraine”
Vladimir Putin is a man who loves victories, preferably orchestrated ones. A rigged election victory followed by a spectacular concert. An incendiary speech on Victory Day. Eight goals in a hockey match. Putin copes worse with unplanned setbacks, preferring to disappear from the scene. In 2000, he failed his performance due to the tragedy on the Kursk submarine. He was missing for more than a day after the failed assault on a school in Beslan in 2004, during which 186 child hostages were killed. Last year, when Yevgeny Prigozhin and his band of mercenaries headed to Moscow, Putin was initially nowhere to be seen. Source: The Economist

So when it took him 19 hours to go on television with a short story about a massive intelligence failure in Moscow's Crocus City Hall, he fell into a familiar rut.

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The appeal itself did not achieve much - and, it seems, served as a safety net. Putin absurdly claimed that Ukraine opened a “window” on the border for terrorists when they tried to escape from Russia in a white Renault Symbol. But Putin stopped short of directly blaming Ukraine for the attack and said nothing about the Islamic State group that said it carried out it.

In part, Putin's reluctance to place full responsibility on Ukraine may reflect concerns that the U.S. government has intelligence that could undermine such a claim. Perhaps the Russian president is embarrassed that his security services did not respond to the American warnings of an impending attack made on March 7. Indeed, just three days before the attack, Putin dismissed the intelligence as “blackmail.”

Such a mistake would have consequences in a country where the authorities can be held accountable. Russia is not such a country.

Still, the attack is a blow to the reputation of Putin and the security services on which he depends. The manner of the attack, which killed at least 137 people, will not soon be forgotten.

Many questions arise about the inept security of a chic establishment located in the north-west of Moscow. It is unclear why the security service was unable to respond promptly. The producer of the show, which took place at Crocus City Hall ten days before the terrorist attack, noted that there were 200 security guards in the hall at that time.

Some unusual aspects of the attack - for the alleged jihadists, the killers appeared to be intent on staying alive - have sparked conspiracy theories that parts of the Russian establishment may have been involved in the attack.

A more compelling explanation is that the Islamist terrorist group took advantage of Russia's distracting wartime conditions, ethnic tensions and economic difficulties.

Moscow provides clear opportunities for jihadist recruitment among poor migrants from the predominantly Muslim former Soviet republics of Central Asia. According to unofficial data, up to 8 million migrants from Tajikistan alone live in Russia.

These migrants are an important cog in the wartime economy, filling low-paying jobs that Russians don't want, such as road cleaning or minimum-wage construction. But ethnic tensions are rising. Putin addressed the issue obliquely in his State of the Union speech on February 29, toning down his previous nationalist rhetoric and emphasizing Russia's "multinationality."

After previous crises, the Russian president responded to any doubt about his power by strengthening it. When he finally appeared in public after the Beslan massacre, he declared that “the weak are beaten” and canceled direct local elections. The ensuing crackdown on dissent and press freedom was a harbinger of worse things to come.

The Kremlin is undoubtedly using the Moscow terrorist attack as a pretext for further tightening the screws within the country. Some of his most loyal supporters have called for an end to Russia's moratorium on the death penalty for terrorism. This threat takes on particular significance in light of the Kremlin's newfound habit of applying this label to opponents of the regime.

Migrant communities are already feeling the pressure, with raids on mosques and dormitories recorded in major Russian cities. But blaming Ukraine has propaganda value, and the threat to migrant workers is associated with economic risks.

Moreover, Putin hinted that the main consequences of the terrorist attack would be felt in Ukraine. He could use this to justify efforts to mobilize more troops.

Kremlin-linked media help shape the narrative. One of them published an “investigation” suggesting that the terrorists were recruited by the Ukrainian embassy in Tajikistan.

Activists from the antibot4navalny cyber monitoring group have recorded a noticeable increase in bot activity on social networks. Most of the fake news blamed the attack on Ukraine, as well as the US and UK.

A Ukrainian intelligence source says he expects similar efforts to intensify, using flimsy arguments to shift blame. “Perhaps they will start blaming France too. In the end, the men fled in a Renault,” he jokes.

Let us recall that the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, which killed more than 133 people, was one of the largest Islamist terrorist attacks in recent years. The Islamic State Khorasan Province group claimed responsibility for the act. Security experts consider the unit one of the most dangerous within ISIS.

According to RLI, Russia plans to use the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall to launch a psychological and disinformation campaign against Ukraine and the United States.

For the Kremlin, a terrorist attack in Russia is currently as profitable as the Ryazan Sugar adventure was in 1999, prepared and led by Nikolai Patrushev. After Yevgeny Prigozhin's attempted rebellion in August 2023, Patrushev took over some of his presidential duties. Now the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall opens up wide opportunities for the Kremlin for information and psychological operations.

Accusing Ukraine of complicity in the terrorist attack provides an opportunity to respond to Ukrainian drone strikes and the infiltration of the Russian Volunteer Corps (RVK) border. In this regard, to undermine international support for Kyiv, Russian forces have again turned to the psychological operations of 2017, when fake news was spread accusing Kyiv authorities of providing a safe haven for ISIS militants.

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Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 02:01 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.dailymail.co.(...)pology-feenstra.html
[..]
Herinner jullie deze Canadese familie nog, die boer die met zijn vrouw en iets van 8 kinderen naar Rusland verhuisd waren en daar een boerderij met land wouden kopen?

Het blijkt dat zij daar waren op een toeristen visum. Welke slechts 90 dagen geldig is. Hoogst waarschijnlijk was hun aanvraag voor een tijdelijke verblijfsvergunning niet succesvol, daar ze in elk geval basis kennis van de Russische taal moesten leren, en ook over de wetten en geschiedenis van Rusland. En hiervoor dus een test moeten doen.

90 dagen is natuurlijk niet voldoende hiervoor, vooral niet als je 8 kinderen moet opvoeden. En dan komt daar ook nog de bureaucratie bij.

Dus hoogstwaarschijnlijk hebben ze het land moeten verlaten en kunnen ze pas weer over enkele maanden voor een nieuwe toeristenvisum gaan. Volgens zijn berekening zouden ze 20.000 dollars kwijt zijn om weer terug naar Canada te vliegen. En dus ook 20.000 dollars als ze ooit weer terug willen komen voor nog een kans.

De enige opties ze er waren voor langer verblijf was of een werkvergunning (hij had nog geen werk) of een studenten vergunning. Al had hij natuurlijk ook nog kunnen trouwen met een Russische dame. Maar dat zal zijn vrouw niet goed gevonden hebben.

Dit zou een perfect verhaal geweest zijn voor zo'n programma als ik vertrek lol. Wat een domme mensen.

THREE WEEKS LEFT TO PASS THE TEST!!

Al zie ik dat ze 10 dagen geleden nog 3 weken hadden voor de test. Maar dat was gelijk ook hun laatste filmpje. Dus er is nog kans dat ze het wel gaan redden. Al betwijfel ik het.

In het slechte geval zou hij altijd nog het Russische leger in kunnen gaan.

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Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 02:49 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Er ging wat mis met het luchtalarm denk ik.
[..]
https://kyivindependent.com/todays-attack-on-kyiv/

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Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 02:54 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]
Dit is echt? Haast niet voor te stellen....

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Poland deploys permanent helicopter base on border with Ukraine
On the night of March 24, Russia hit Ukraine with 29 cruise missiles, one of which flew for 39 seconds into the territory of Poland

A new air base will be created in the Polish town of Świdnik, Lublin Voivodeship, near the border with Ukraine. Helicopters will be stationed there on a permanent basis, the Ministry of Defense of Poland reported.

Polish Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz signed a letter of intent for cooperation between the Ministry of National Defense and the Lublin Voivodeship at Lublin Airport on Monday.

According to the defense chief, this permanent base will be located on an area of 100 hectares, which will appear as part of an agreement between the Ministry of National Defense and local government partners.

On the night of March 24, Russia hit Ukraine with 29 cruise missiles. One of them at 04:23 a.m. flew for 39 seconds to the territory of Poland near the village of Oserdów. The Polish military raised fighter jets just in case, but did not shoot it down as it returned to the territory of Ukraine.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland confirmed that a Russian missile violated the country's airspace on the night of March 24, saying that Warsaw would demand an explanation from Moscow.

Today, the spokesman of the Operational Command of the Polish Armed Forces said that the Polish military command knew that the Russian missile that flew over the Lublin region on the morning of March 24 would "return to Ukraine", which is why it was not intercepted.

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Ukrainian military reportedly causes massive fuel tank backlog on Crimean Bridge
A queue of thousands of railroad cars has amassed at the entrance to the Crimean Bridge, some waiting for as long as six months, the Russian state outlet Kommersant reported on March 25.

A queue of thousands of railroad cars has amassed at the entrance to the Crimean Bridge, some waiting for as long as six months, as reported by Russian business outlet Kommersant on March 25th.

The Russian North Caucasian Railway has accumulated 2,500 loaded tankers carrying oil products due to restrictions on the passage of dangerous goods across the Crimean Bridge and the need to wait for ferries and tankers to arrive.

This issue was deliberated at a meeting of a working group under the Russian Ministry of Industry and Trade on March 15th, as per the minutes cited by the newspaper.

"Some of them have been standing for six months," Kommersant reports.

Market participants propose utilizing tankers more for transportation to Crimea, while temporarily halting the release of additional tanks into this direction.

The downtime in the south underscores the overall shortage of oil and gasoline tanks in Russia, estimated differently from hundreds to 45,000 units.

Oil companies suggest temporarily lifting the ban on extending the service life of tank cars, but railcar builders and Russian Railways oppose this proposal.

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SBU head: Russia no longer using Crimean bridge for weapons supplies after repeated strikes
Russia no longer uses the Crimean Bridge to supply weapons to the front after Ukrainian strikes damaged the crossing, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said on air on March 25.

The bridge, also called the Kerch Bridge, connects the Russian mainland with the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula, making it a crucial supply route for the Russian military in Ukraine.

Construction on the 19-kilometer-long bridge began after the illegal 2014 annexation and occupation of Crimea, and was completed in 2018.

The bridge was heavily damaged in Ukrainian strikes in October 2022 and July 2023. The plan to strike the bridge was first conceived in March 2022, Maliuk said.

Before the bridge came under attack, "42 to 46 trains carrying weapons and ammunition passed there per day," Maliuk said.

"Today there are four or five in a day," of which four are for passenger traffic, and one is for consumer goods, Maliuk said.

Russian proxy authorities in occupied Crimea regularly shut down traffic on the Crimean Bridge amid reports of explosions and drone strikes.

When the structure is fully restored, Russia will likely use the bridge once again for weapons supplies, Maliuk said, but implied that Ukraine plans to then carry out another attack.

"Everything has its time," Maliuk said.

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"To all wild Russians, including Putin, beware! Do not think that we do not have the opportunity to take revenge on you for our captured brothers..." - the message reads. The terrorists promise to organize a massacre in the near future that Russians will remember for generations

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Russian equipment losses in Ukraine surpass 15,000, says Oryx OSINT group
The number of vehicles, aircraft, naval vessels, and weapons systems lost by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has surpassed 15,000, the open-source investigative project Oryx announced on March 24.

The figure includes 2,856 tanks, 135 helicopters, 106 aircraft, 20 naval ships, and one submarine.

As Oryx only publishes visually confirmed data taken from open sources, the real numbers of Russian losses are likely significantly higher.

"What an epic failure from a self-proclaimed military superpower," Oryx contributor Jakub Janovsky said, announcing the milestone in a post on X.

SPOILER

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Among the numbers are some of Ukraine’s most spectacular military accomplishments achieved since the full-scale invasion began, not least the first-ever case of a submarine being destroyed by a cruise missile, according to the Ukrainian media outlet Defense Express.

In a Sept. 13 attack, the Rostov-on-Don, one of the Russian Black Sea fleet's four missile-capable submarines, suffered "catastrophic damage" during Ukraine’s first successful missile strike on Sevastopol in occupied Crimea.

An assessment by the U.K. Defense Ministry concluded any efforts to return it to service would probably take years and hundreds of millions of dollars.

Ukraine has been steadily chipping away at Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, most recently just this weekend when the Yamal and Azov landing ships were hit in a missile attack on March 23.

Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said on March 25 that the Russian reconnaissance vessel Ivan Khurs may also have been damaged.

According to Oryx, a total of 21 Russian naval vessels have been successfully targeted by Ukraine’s forces, 16 of which were destroyed and five damaged.

On land, Ukraine has taken out 2,856 tanks, destroying 1,886, damaging 153, capturing 537, and forcing Russia to abandon a further 280, Oryx wrote.

While many of the tanks Russia has lost are older models, such as the T-62 and T-72, Moscow has also lost a significant number of its more modern vehicles, including 72 T-90s.

Russia also lost three of its cutting-edge BMPT Terminators.

This state of the art infantry fighting vehicle was lauded by Moscow as the best troop carrier in the world and impervious to practically any NATO weapon.

Ukraine’s Armed Forces have called these claims into question by taking out three, two of which were achieved using cheap FPV drones.

In the air, of the 106 Russian aircraft either destroyed or damaged by Ukraine, perhaps the biggest loss for Moscow’s air force has been the destruction of its precious A-50 early warning and control aircraft.

The A-50 provides several critical functions for the ongoing war in Ukraine, such as detecting air defense systems, guided missiles, and coordinating targets for Russian fighter jets.

Each has a price tag of around $350 million and Russia possesses less than 10 – Ukraine has managed to down two, most recently one over the Azov Sea on the evening of Feb. 23.

This came during a particularly fruitful period for Ukraine’s Armed Forces – Ukraine reportedly downed 13 Russian warplanes within just two weeks in February.

Russia has lost 103 helicopters, with 30 more damaged, and two captured, according to Oryx.

One of the captured helicopters was a Mi-8, flown by a defecting Russian pilot to a Ukrainian airfield in a daring operation organized by Ukraine’s military intelligence and reported on Aug. 23.

Maksim Kuzminov said that he contacted the Ukrainian side himself and was told he would receive security for himself and his family, payments, and new documents from Ukraine if he defected.

Kuzminov was featured in the documentary "Downed Russian Pilots," which aired on Ukrainian television in September 2023. The film revealed how the landing was planned and carried out, and Kuzminov called on other Russian pilots to follow his lead.

"If you do what I did, this kind of thing, you will not regret it at all. You will be provided for the rest of your life with absolutely everything," Kuzminov said.

But rather than stay in Ukraine, he moved to Spain, where he was found shot dead in February.

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Security Service of Ukraine Prepares Sea Baby Naval Drones for Top-Secret Operation
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) is preparing new special operations for 2024.

These operations include the use of Sea Baby naval drones, as revealed by a source within the SSU speaking to LIGA.net.

According to the source, the Head of SSU Vasyl Malyuk promises “surprises” for Russia.

For example, 35 Sea Baby drones donated by Ukrainians are being prepared for combat missions at sea.

The SSU has already shown the first drone from this batch, named Avdiyivka.

In addition, the Security Service of Ukraine is preparing for new, top-secret operations.

“It is clear that the special service not only doesn’t disclose its plans, but also does not always tell us about the finished results in detail. But today, the SSU is doing everything it can to bring Ukraine’s victory closer,” the source said.

The first new-generation naval drone was produced for the Security Service of Ukraine. The drone would target not only maritime facilities.

The naval drone for the Security Service of Ukraine was constructed due to the UNITED24 initiative.

The UNITED24 team, together with volunteers, financial institutions, and ordinary citizens, raised more than UAH 320 million in a day and a half to build 35 more naval drones.

Sea Baby naval drones are developed by the Security Service of Ukraine.

They can carry 850 kilograms of explosives, accelerate up to 90 km/h, and cover a distance of 1000 kilometers.

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Russian ambassador rejects Poland's summons over missile in Polish airspace
Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, has rejected Poland's summons to the Foreign Ministry in connection with the Russian missile that entered Polish airspace on March 24, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported on March 25.

Andreyev claimed that Warsaw did not provide enough evidence that the missile had entered Polish airspace and therefore "decided not to visit the Polish Foreign Ministry," RIA Novosti said.

Poland was forced to scramble its fighter jets to protect its airspace during Russia's drone and missile attack against Ukraine on March 24, when a Russian cruise missile entered Poland's airspace for 39 seconds.

The spokesperson of the Polish Operational Command, Jacek Goryszewski, said that Russia deliberately maneuvered the missile in a way that would unexpectedly target Ukraine from the west. Ukrainian air defense is typically prepared for missiles coming from the north or east.

The Polish Foreign Ministry said it would demand an explanation from Moscow.

Russian missiles have previously entered Polish airspace during attacks on Ukraine. On Dec. 29, 2023, a missile entered Polish airspace, putting the country's defenses on high alert.

In another incident on Nov. 15, 2022, a missile flew onto Polish territory during a Russian mass strike, killing two civilians. Polish investigators later concluded that it was a stray Ukrainian anti-air projectile launched to intercept the Russian attack.

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South Korea Has 3.4 Million 105mm Artillery Shells, Everyone Would Benefit if Some Went to Ukraine
Sure, South Korea does have an aggressive neighbor, too, but that's not the only nuance to this situation

Before we get to the main point in the title, let's briefly outline the background. During the Cold War era, the United States established the so-called War Reserves Stockpile, Allies, Korea (WRSA-K) program, which involved forward deployment of conventional weapons inventories. This initiative was maintained by the Americans until the early 2000s, when Congress authorized the direct sale of all munitions and resources accumulated under the WRSA-K program to South Korea.

As a result, South Korea acquired several hundred thousand 155-mm shells and a staggering 3.4 million 105-mm shells. Fast forward to summer 2023, an analysis from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a U.S.-based think tank, suggests that the United States purportedly transferred around 300,000 155-mm shells from South Korea to Ukraine, sourced from the WRSA-K program. Moreover, the analysts speculate that now is the best moment to offer the South Koreans to give part of their 105-mm stock, with the U.S. mediating the transfer.

SPOILER

quote:

Why the focus on 105-mm shells from South Korea?
Mark F. Cancian and Chris H. Park, experts from CSIS, estimate that Ukraine's armed forces have in possession about one hundred 105-mm howitzers from various allied nations, including the USA and Great Britain.

That makes the 105-mm caliber if not the primary but at least one of the commonly used in the Ukrainian military, so the more shells, the better. Especially considering the current situation, with Ukraine needing to bridge a significant gap in artillery firepower compared to the russian federation.

On the other hand, the South Korean military still utilizes 105-mm caliber artillery systems, such as the K105 howitzers mounted on trucks, sort of improvised self-propelled guns; there are currently 200 such artillery systems in service. However, plans are underway to gradually decommission these systems into reserve status, a notion that has been circulating in the media since 2020.

Consequently, some of the 105-mm shells will eventually become "surplus." It can be used to the mutual benefit of all parties: South Korea and the United States will agree on an "exchange" of ammunition in a way that would stimulate their own defense production; and Ukraine will receive essential artillery shells, even if they are of less widely applied 105-mm caliber instead of 155-mm. Which brings us to the next question.

Why not seek 155-mm shells from South Korea as well?
In addressing this issue, CSIS experts argue that while South Korea's stockpile of 155-mm projectiles is vast but not unlimited, it must be preserved in case of war with North Korea. In this context, Ukraine serves as a good illustration of just how much ammunition is necessary for modern all-out warfare.

Additionally, South Korea on its own can only produce about 200,000 155-mm shells annually. This quantity would sustain only one month of high-intensity combat. Moreover, there is this unique feature in the South Korean defense industry, when shell casings are manufactured separately by the Poongsan company, while the final assembly takes place at the Hanwha facilities.

Besides, South Korea is replacing its 105-mm K105 howitzers with none but K9 Thunder 155-mm self-propelled guns, therefore, the demand for shells of this caliber becomes even more pressing for Seoul.

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Furious Russians summon Australian official over social media post criticising presidential election
• In short: Russia's foreign ministry says it summoned an Australian diplomat in Moscow to explain a social media post from the embassy's official Telegram account which was critical of its recent presidential election.
• The post, published on March 16, described holding a vote in parts of Ukraine which Russia had annexed as a "flagrant violation of international law".
• What's next: Russia has demanded Australia's embassy remove the post, but that has not happened yet.

Russian officials have summoned a top Australian diplomat in Moscow for a please explain over a social media post describing the country's presidential election as a "flagrant violation of international law".

A statement on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website revealed chargé d'affaires Jeremy Guthrie had been "summoned" on Friday so it could lodge "a strong protest".

SPOILER

quote:

A chargé d'affaires is the representative of an ambassador while they are away from their country of accreditation.

Russia's presidential election was held from Match 15 to 17 and incumbent Vladimir Putin won with almost 90 per cent of the vote, although many experts said it was rigged.

During the election, the Australian embassy in Moscow's official Telegram account posted a statement saying the fact the vote was also being conducted in parts of Ukraine that Russia had annexed was a "violation of international law".

Telegram is an encrypted messaging service used widely in Russia.

The post also said Australia "strongly condemns" Russia's efforts to "annex foreign territory and deprive Ukrainian citizens of their fundamental rights".

Western leaders and governments reiterated similar messages during and after Russia's election.

Russia has occupied large parts of southern Ukraine since its invasion began in 2022. It also controls the Crimean Peninsula which it annexed in 2014.

Russia's foreign ministry described the post as "deliberately false".

"The Australian diplomat was told that the above-mentioned actions of the diplomatic mission were regarded as interference in the internal affairs of our country," it said in a statement.

It also demanded the post be removed — something that has not happened — and that Australia's embassy "take steps to ensure that similar incidents do not happen again".

Subsequent posts on the Australian embassy's Telegram account have also been critical of the election.

One said: "Australia is deeply concerned by the deliberate exclusion of genuine opposition candidates from the electoral process, the lack of independent and impartial observers, credible reports of voter coercion and unlawful detention, and evidence of electoral fraud and manipulation."

Meanwhile, Australia's Foreign Minister Penny Wong described the vote as "an insult to democracy" — words that were also reposted in Russian on the embassy's Telegram account, which was created in February this year.

"Australia stands by its statement and its support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson told the ABC.

quote:

Wider Europe Briefing: What Ukraine And Moldova Need To Do To Join The EU

Brief #1: The Next Steps For Ukraine And Moldova
What You Need To Know: Earlier in March, the European Commission sent over the so-called "negotiation framework" for Ukraine and Moldova to European Union member states for approval. The 19-page-document, seen by RFE/RL, covers both countries as they so far are paired in the EU enlargement process and outlines the basic principles of European Union accession talks.

One Ukrainian official described it to me as "very broad," adding that "as of now, it causes no concerns to us as there is nothing particularly good or bad in it." That appears to be a fair description as it is essentially a copy-and-paste of the negotiation framework that the European Commission wrote up for Albania and North Macedonia in 2020.

SPOILER

quote:

The big issue now is when the 27 EU member states, via unanimity, will approve the framework. Here Albania and North Macedonia offer a sobering tale. For Tirana and Skopje, it took two years to get the approval, largely as Bulgaria was raising bilateral historic and linguistic disputes with the latter that in fact still aren't fully resolved. So, while the frameworks were amended by EU member states to reflect Sofia's worries and then passed in 2022 as accession negotiations were officially launched, neither North Macedonia nor Albania have to date opened any of the 33 negotiation chapters.

Skopje's inability to include references to Bulgarians as a founding people in its constitution, coupled with a bilateral Greek-Albanian spat over the imprisonment of an ethnic Greek mayor in the southern Albanian town of Himare, has prompted a double veto that so far has meant that neither of the Western Balkan couple has advanced on their respective EU path.

Deep Background: For Ukraine and Moldova, the hope among diplomats in Brussels I have spoken to is that EU member states will give a green light at the end of June. The draft right now doesn't offer any concrete hints of what member states might object to, if anything, but it does give plenty of indications that the enlargement process will be far from smooth sailing.

The paper immediately points out that "by their very nature, the negotiations are an open-ended process whose outcome cannot be guaranteed beforehand" and adds that "the pace of accessions must take into account the union's capacity to absorb new members" -- a perennial discussion that the bloc first must look after its own functioning, especially regarding decision-making in various institutions before additional countries can join.

There are also no surprises in terms of the demand that a new member state must adopt the euro as its national currency but that the decision when that will happen depends on the country fulfilling all necessary economic criteria.

As an example, look at Croatia joining the EU in 2013 but only adopting the currency a decade later. Or take membership into the passport-free Schengen Area. It is clearly stated Ukraine and Moldova will have to adopt all relevant EU laws in the field of home affairs in order to become EU members, but other member states and the European Commission will decide when they are ready for Schengen. Here, you can take Bulgaria and Romania as examples, both having joined the EU in 2007 but only partially joining Schengen at the end of March this year.

Drilling Down
• So, what are the problems that tend to slow down the negotiation process? The EU's Copenhagen criteria, which sets down key requirements for membership, states that any new member state must guarantee "respect for and protection of minorities." For many years now, Budapest has been vocal about what it sees as reduced rights for the ethnic Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
• That is likely to continue. In a debate held last week in the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee, Hungarian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Peter Sztaray hammered home that the issue of Ukraine's Hungarian minority is not a bilateral issue but "an issue of human rights and security."
• In a Hungarian government discussion paper -- seen by RFE/RL and circulated to fellow EU member states at the same time the European Commission was distributing the negotiating framework -- Budapest made clear that it will continue to press the minority issue. "Since 2015 there has been a shift in the policy of Ukraine regarding the rights of national minorities that resulted in narrowing, or in some cases even annulling the rights of national minorities previously guaranteed in the Ukrainian national legislation or in Ukraine's international obligations. We expect the national minority rights of the Hungarian community in Ukraine to be restored to the same level as they were before 2015."
• The ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine are essentially demanding three things: restoring the status of the national minority school system; restoring some language rights when dealing with state authorities; and restoring the right for political representation on a regional as well as national level.
• Broadly speaking, Budapest fears that more than four subjects in schools could become obligatory in the Ukrainian language. Another concern is the reshaping of administrative units in Ukraine that has reduced the number of Hungarians below the 10 percent threshold to claim language rights. Hungarian officials also want to secure an automatic delegate in the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament.
• The issue of minority rights is one of the four remaining conditions set out by the European Commission for Ukraine to complete before proper accession talks can be launched. The main demand was that all of the Council of Europe's Venice Commission recommendations on Ukraine's law on national minorities and on media and education be addressed.
• Several EU member states, as well as Ukraine, believe this has already happened. But the European Commission -- and notably the EU Commissioner for Enlargement Oliver Varhelyi, who is Hungarian -- noted in a speech to EU member states earlier in March that these steps haven't yet been fully completed.
• According to several Brussels sources I spoke to on background, the European Commission will still monitor implementation of the Ukrainian laws. Another report on these matters by the Venice Commission is due in June. Regardless of what it says, it is to be expected that Budapest will want the negotiation framework to reflect these minority rights concerns.

Brief #2: European Commission: This Is What's Needed For A Bigger EU
What You Need To Know: Without much fanfare, the European Commission on March 20 published its ideas on what reforms the bloc needs to undertake in order to take in more members. Numbering only some 22 pages, it is far from comprehensive. Rather, it gathers some initial thoughts ahead of several upcoming reviews in various policy fields that the commission will undertake later in 2024 and in 2025. Once again, EU enlargement appears to be enjoying some momentum as EU leaders in recent months have decided that membership talks should commence with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Moldova, and Ukraine.

Deep Background: The document starts by tackling the perennial question for Brussels officials and wonks: whether to first add new countries to the club or to start by changing internal EU rules.

"The EU must deepen as it widens. We must start preparing today for the union of tomorrow and use enlargement as a catalyst for progress," the paper states.

Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the text concerns the commission's thoughts on EU governance going forward. Debates have raged for years as to whether the EU needs a treaty to change to accept more members or not. Here, the document appears to come down in favor of the latter by noting that "while the commission has indicated its support [for] treaty change, "if and where it is needed," it believes that the "EU's governance can be swiftly improved by using to the full the potential of the current Treaties."

This is the view held by most EU member states as well, no doubt shaped by the trauma from when Dutch and French voters rejected a new EU constitution in referendums held in 2005, and then Irish voters did the same for a revised treaty a few years later. It's a Pandora's box few want to open again.

The main issue, as always when it comes to the running of the EU, is the question of unanimity. Most decisions are these days taken by a qualified majority (55 percent of member states representing 65 percent of the total EU population), but unanimity remains in crucial areas such as foreign policy, taxation, and, notably, enlargement policy. The paper notes that "in a larger union, unanimity will be even more difficult to reach, with increased risks of decisions being blocked by a single member state."

Drilling Down
• So, what can be done without actually rewriting the entire EU rulebook? The European Commission notes that so-called passerelle clauses in the current EU treaty would allow for the shift from unanimity to qualified majority voting (QMV) in all sorts of fields. But for that shift to happen, you need to have unanimity. In other words, a vote of unanimity to end unanimity.
• This is a circle that will be hard to square as it is precisely the veto that makes smaller member states as relevant as the bigger ones in practice. And it's via the threat of vetoes that EU member states can "bargain" to get something in other policy fields. Hungary angling for more EU money withheld from it due to rule-of-law concerns while blocking decisions in other fields is a prime example. Why would Budapest -- or anyone else for that matter -- give up such a powerful tool?
• The document doesn't quite answer that, although it tries. One is the use of "constructive abstentions" -- meaning that a country doesn't actively say "no" or "yes" but lets the decision pass. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban simply leaving the room at a recent EU summit when leaders decided to open accession talks with Ukraine is a good example. But can that happen on a more regular basis?
• Another idea floated is to provide for the possibility for one or several member states to invoke exceptional national interest grounds to continue discussions in order to reach a satisfactory solution on an issue. Yet, this raises the question of how long this could go on and if this really would make the bloc move faster on crucial policy files.
• There are also some ideas on how to speed up the enlargement process as well -- perhaps the most cumbersome of all EU policies and beset with veto opportunities. Every time one of the 33 policy chapters -- the bones of the accession process -- is opened, unanimity is required from the 27 EU member states. And so does their closing, as well as interim benchmarks in some of the chapters. That means that for each country's accession process, there are well over 70 opportunities to block the whole process. Albania and especially North Macedonia are perfect examples of EU hopefuls seemingly stuck forever in the waiting room, simply due to various single-country vetoes.
• The European Commission proposes doing away with unanimity for opening chapters as well as interim benchmarks but keeping them for closing chapters and for the final decision on the actual accession of a new member to the European Union. So, this would reduce the veto opportunities by more than half.
• The bigger question, however, remain if member states wanting to slow down the enlargement process -- either due to bilateral spats with a candidate country or just to squeeze out a more favorable deal in a completely unrelated policy field -- will continue to take advantage of the remaining veto opportunities. In short, reforming the EU and letting new countries join is no cakewalk.

Looking Ahead
Look out for the meeting of EU agriculture ministers in Brussels on March 26. Several EU member states have been rocked by farmers' protests in recent months over rising production costs in the bloc and the influx of cheaper agricultural products from abroad. The ministers will look into ways to channel more EU funds to farmers and cut red tape.

This issue is also high on the agenda as the Polish and Ukrainian governments meet in Warsaw two days later.Polish farmers have for months blocked Ukrainian farm produce from entering the country, and it will be a hot button issue when Poles vote in local elections on April 7.

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Takeaways from Donald Trump’s wild day of legal developments
Donald Trump received both a lifeline from the courts Monday and a trial date for the first criminal trial of a former president in US history, a pair of rulings that hit home the legal whiplash constantly surrounding him.

The twin rulings Monday, which came roughly within an hour of each other, hit the intersection of challenges to Trump’s image and his famed business empire as he seeks a second term in the White House.

Trump’s historic criminal trial in the New York hush money case against him will begin with jury selection on April 15, Judge Juan Merchan said Monday, after a dispute over the late production of documents caused the judge initially to push back the start date.

For Trump, however, the more significant ruling Monday may have been a New York appeals court allowing him to post a reduced $175 million bond as he appeals the $464 million New York civil fraud judgment against him, his adult sons and his company. Trump told reporters he will cover the bond using cash as a collateral.

Here are the takeaways from another historic day for Trump:

SPOILER

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Trump’s hush money trial will begin April 15
Barring another unforeseen hiccup, never something to rule out when Trump is involved, the former president will face a jury on criminal charges for at least one of his trials before the November election

Monday’s hearing was to consider Trump’s motion to dismiss the charges and sanction the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office after the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York turned over tens of thousands of documents earlier this month related to the 2018 federal prosecution of Michael Cohen, Trump’s former lawyer and fixer.

Before noon, Merchan had already dismissed the allegations from Trump’s attorneys, ruling there were no violations and that the trial will begin with jury selection on April 15.

Trump was charged by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg with 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from reimbursements to Cohen for hush money payments he made before the 2016 election to adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

The date is three weeks later than originally scheduled, but the delay won’t make much of a dent on Trump’s 2024 calendar – and it’s still murky whether any of his other three trials will happen before the election.

Appeals court lowers Trump’s bond
Trump’s lawyers said last week that he was unable to post a $464 million bond to appeal the civil fraud judgement against him. Trump faced a Monday deadline to post bond or else New York Attorney General Letitia James could have begun the process of seizing his property.

But the appeals court ruling gave Trump an additional 10 days to post a bond of $175 million, a number the former president said he would be able to come up with.

Trump already posted a $91 million bond this month while he appeals the defamation judgment against him in the case brought by E. Jean Carroll.

The ruling is a major victory for Trump, staving off the prospect, for now, of James seeking to seize the former president’s property to enforce the judgement against him.

Once Trump posts the $175 million bond, enforcement of the civil fraud judgment against the former president, his sons and their company is paused until at least September.

The ruling ordered the two sides to prepare briefs for oral argument by then in a New York appellate court.

‘It will be my honor to post,’ Trump says
Trump didn’t speak inside the courtroom Wednesday, but he still had plenty of chances to make his views of Monday’s developments known.

The former president reacted to the lowered bond first in front of the cameras in the hallway of the courthouse and then at a news conference at 40 Wall Street – one of the buildings that could have been threatened had he failed to post bond to appeal the civil fraud judgement.

“It will be my honor to post,” Trump said, adding he will post “whatever is necessary, whether it be cash, or security or bonds.”

When questioned by a reporter, Trump then said he will use cash for collateral.

At his news conference, the former president also railed against the plan to start his criminal trial next month.

“You have a case which … they’re dying to get this thing started. The judge cannot go faster. He wants to get it started so badly,” Trump said.

Trump’s lawyers have sought to delay all four of his criminal trials to push them past the election. In the other three, he may yet be successful, though the New York trial is now set to begin in three weeks.

Hush money judge says district attorney made ‘diligent, good-faith effort’
During Monday’s hearing, Merchan discredited Trump’s allegations of misconduct against the district attorney’s office, finding that prosecutors cooperated in the effort to secure documents from the US Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York.

“It’s odd that we’re even here,” Merchan said at one point.

The judge repeatedly said how serious and concerning Trump’s allegations were against Manhattan prosecutors, at one point raising his voice on the bench.

“You are literally accusing the Manhattan DA’s office and the people assigned to this case of prosecutorial misconduct and of trying to make me complicit in it and you don’t have a single cite to support that position?” Merchan said.

Merchan found it “really disconcerting” that Trump’s lawyers would accuse Bragg’s office of prosecutorial misconduct without having case law to support their argument that the district attorney had an obligation to obtain documents from the US attorney’s office and the FBI.

Merchan also lectured Trump’s attorney, Todd Blanche — who worked in the US attorney’s office for 13 years — for not making the request soon after the federal agency’s document production in the case last summer.

The judge eventually ruled that the district attorney’s office was not at fault for the late disclosure from federal prosecutors and determined that prosecutors made a diligent, good-faith effort to obtain all available discoverable information from the federal prosecutors.

Trump hasn’t given up his hope to delay the criminal trial
Trump has attempted to delay all four criminal trials until after November’s election — in the event they aren’t dismissed entirely.

Immediately after Merchan’s decision to start the hush money trial next month, Trump’s attorneys sought another way to push back the start of the trial.

Blanche asked to file a motion seeking to delay the trial because of pretrial publicity. Trump’s attorneys have argued that a recent documentary about Daniels and the fallout from the hush money payment being made public prejudiced the jury pool, and that the case is taking place so close to the 2024 election.

The district attorney’s office responded by arguing that pretrial publicity “has been caused and exacerbated by the defendant.”

Merchan was clearly skeptical of the claim, asking what had changed since February, when he initially set the trial date for March 25 and rejected similar arguments. But Merchan said he would let Blanche file the motion, asking how quickly it could be filed.

Merchan didn’t seem inclined to think it would change the trial date, however.

“See you all on the 15th,” he said.

quote:

Op maandag 25 maart 2024 21:31 schreef Adrie072 het volgende:
Nu op de VRT (Belgie) misschien wel interessante docu over wapens voor Oekraïne.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 06:06 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ve_the_authority_to/
Poland says they don't have the authority to defend themselves from Russian missiles.
Of het is uit context gehaald of hij is onzin aan het uitkramen. Lijkt mij dat ze prima hun eigen grondgebied mogen verdedigen. Tenzij het hun eigen politiek is die de belemmering vormt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)_units_continues_to/
"Azov" together with adjacent units continues to repel enemy attacks. Kreminna direction.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)second_turrent_toss/
Full clip of 7 second Turrent Toss.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ives_collision_with/
Russian fighter jet survives collision with powerline.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)p_serving_customers/
Kyiv coffee place doesn't stop serving customers despite damage from today's attack.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)grad_the_new_putins/
In Volgograd (former Stalingrad) the new "Putin's elite" shows Russians the near future

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)shelling_of_kyiv_by/
The consequences of the shelling of Kyiv by Russian invaders. Is this still not terrorism?

https://edition.cnn.com/v(...)npw-pkg-ebof-vpx.cnn
Ukraine destroying Musk's Starlink systems being used by Russia

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 10:23 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Waarom schieten we trouwens die raketten ook niet boven het Oekrainse luchtruim uit de lucht?

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 12:18 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Dat kan pas als er duidelijke (schritfelijke) afspraken gemaakt zijn tussen Polen, Oekraine, en NAVO.

En dan moet dat nog worden omgezet in daadwerkelijk beleid en instructies.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 12:47 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Hebben we pas 2 jaar de tijd voor gehad

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 14:35 schreef skysherrif het volgende:
Holy shit , 60 nieuwe caesars voor Oekraine.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 14:39 schreef skysherrif het volgende:
https://vxtwitter.com/fay(...)lbk-sB472S8bmaaGNuNg

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 14:39 schreef trein2000 het volgende:

[..]
Heb je weinig aan zonder granaten.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 06:06 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ve_the_authority_to/
Poland says they don't have the authority to defend themselves from Russian missiles.
Of het is uit context gehaald of hij is onzin aan het uitkramen. Lijkt mij dat ze prima hun eigen grondgebied mogen verdedigen. Tenzij het hun eigen politiek is die de belemmering vormt.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)_units_continues_to/
"Azov" together with adjacent units continues to repel enemy attacks. Kreminna direction.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)second_turrent_toss/
Full clip of 7 second Turrent Toss.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)ives_collision_with/
Russian fighter jet survives collision with powerline.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)p_serving_customers/
Kyiv coffee place doesn't stop serving customers despite damage from today's attack.

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)grad_the_new_putins/
In Volgograd (former Stalingrad) the new "Putin's elite" shows Russians the near future

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)shelling_of_kyiv_by/
The consequences of the shelling of Kyiv by Russian invaders. Is this still not terrorism?

https://edition.cnn.com/v(...)npw-pkg-ebof-vpx.cnn
Ukraine destroying Musk's Starlink systems being used by Russia

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 14:48 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

RUSSIA - India Stops Buying Russian Oil as Sovcomflot is Sanctioned & USA Crackdown Continues

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 16:02 schreef Wantie het volgende:

[..]
Maar ondertussen koopt China weer meer olie.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 16:05 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Uit de grafiek die Joe toont blijkt dat (nog) niet, tenzij het om een relatief geringe toename gaat.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 16:17 schreef Wantie het volgende:

[..]
Laten we hopen op het laatste.

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 17:48 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 16:02 schreef Wantie het volgende:

[..]
Maar ondertussen koopt China weer meer olie.

quote:

'NAVO overweegt Russische raketten nabij haar grenzen neer te schieten'

De NAVO overweegt Russische raketten die te dicht bij de grenzen van het bondgenootschap komen neer te schieten. Dat zegt de Poolse vice-minister van Buitenlandse Zaken Andrzej Szejna tegen nieuwskanaal RMF24. Polen moest onlangs straaljagers inzetten om zijn luchtruim te beschermen tijdens een Russische luchtaanval op Oekraïne. Een Russische raket vloog toen 39 seconden door het Poolse luchtruim.

"Rusland wist dat als de raket verder Polen binnen zou dringen, deze zou worden neergeschoten", zei Szejna, die een tegenaanval daarmee bevestigt. Hij legt uit dat binnen de NAVO verschillende ideeën worden geanalyseerd voor het geval een Russische raket door NAVO-luchtruimen vliegt. "Onder meer dat dergelijke raketten worden neergeschoten als ze heel dicht bij de NAVO-grens komen."

Daarvoor is wel Oekraïense goedkeuring nodig, voegt de vice-minister toe. De kans bestaat immers dat Oekraïne zelf al zo'n raket probeert neer te halen op het moment dat die bij het NAVO-luchtruim komt.

Afgelopen zondag vloog de Russische raket door het Poolse luchtruim en dat is niet de eerste keer dat een raket boven Polen vliegt sinds het begin van de oorlog. Op 29 december vorig jaar werd de Poolse luchtverdediging ook al in de hoogste staat van paraatheid gebracht nadat een raket het luchtruim binnendrong. Een jaar eerder, op 15 november 2022, raakte een raket ook daadwerkelijk Polen en kwamen twee burgers om het leven. Later bleek dit een verdwaald Oekraïens projectiel te zijn.

https://www.telegraaf.nl/(...)zen-neer-te-schieten

quote:

Op dinsdag 26 maart 2024 14:46 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Wanneer je het hebt over een kernmacht is het niet zo simpel, en geld een ander protocol.

Zie bijvoorbeeld de situatie met Turkije die in 2015 een Russische jet uit de lucht schoot.
Schond het Turkse luchtruim maar volgens Rusland natuurlijk niet.
De NATO partners reageerde ook gelijk panisch en wilden de-escaleren.

quote:

Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 00:29 schreef NeeOfTochJA het volgende:
[ x ]
Het gaat dus niet om de Oekraïense bevolking? Je verwacht het niet.

quote:

Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 00:29 schreef NeeOfTochJA het volgende:
[ x ]
Het gaat dus niet om de Oekraïense bevolking? Je verwacht het niet.

quote:

SBU detains Russian agent who tried to join Ukraine's National Police
In the Kyiv region, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has detained an agent of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) who tried to join the National Police and spy on Ukraine's Offensive Guard.
That's according to the SBU press center, Ukrinform reports.

The traitor hoped to get more opportunities to collect data on the personnel and movement of military equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The information was needed to prepare Russian aerial attacks on the facilities of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and the planning of combat operations on the front lines.

According to the investigation, to verify the agent's capabilities, the FSB instructed him to scout locations of military airfields, hospitals and defense factories in the Kyiv region.

He was also supposed to gather as much information as possible about a mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. To complete the task, the culprit used a local woman and rented her apartment. It was established that her son fought in this brigade and died at the front.

SBU employees documented the actions of the Russian agent step by step and detained him in his own apartment at the final stage of the special operation. At that time, he had already submitted documents as a candidate for joining the National Police.

According to the investigation, the detainee is a resident of the Brovary district, who was remotely recruited at the end of 2023 by a staff member of Russia's FSB. He has already been identified.

Ukrainian law enforcement officers declared the man a suspect under Part 2 of Article 111 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (treason committed under martial law).

The perpetrator is in custody. He faces life imprisonment.

quote:

Russia's large landing ship Kostiantyn Olshanskyi hit by Neptune missile, Ukrainian Navy says
Before the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, the vessel belonged to Ukraine

Ukrainian defense forces hit the Russian ship Kostiantyn Olshanskyi with a Neptune anti-ship missile, Dmytro Pletenchuk, spokesman for the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, announced on the air of the national telethon.

Russia stole this landing ship from Ukraine during the occupation of Crimea in 2014.

"It stood in the bay for nine years, and the occupiers began to dismantle it for spare parts. In the 10th year of the war, the adversary realized that it was running out of large landing ships, so they restored it within a year," said Pletenchuk.

The Navy spokesman noted that the extent of damage to the affected vessel is currently being determined. However, it was definitely engaged and is currently incapacitated.

In a comment to LIGA.net, Pletenchuk said that the damage occurred on the same day as the sinking of the large amphibious ships Azov and Yamal, as well as the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs, i.e. March 24.

After the Ukrainian attack, Russia has five large landing ships in service, four more are under repair, the Navy spokesman added.

"Among the interesting details is that they tried to pass it off [Kostiantyn Olshanskyi] as a repaired Olenegorsky Gornyak or Minsk. After all, the damage there is such that their restoration is highly doubtful," Pletenchuk said.

On March 24, 2024, the General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that as a result of an overnight missile attack on the temporarily occupied Sevastopol, significant damage was caused to the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.

According to the military, the Defense Forces hit the large amphibious ships Yamal and Azov, the communications center, as well as several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol.

The Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs was also struck.

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Ukraine, Sweden to deepen cooperation in nuclear industry
The deepening of cooperation between Ukraine and Sweden in the nuclear industry will help strengthen the energy security of the two countries and the European continent as a whole.
This issue was discussed at a meeting between Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko and Swedish Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Energy, Business and Industry Ebba Busch, Ukrinform reports, citing the Ukrainian Energy Ministry's press service.

"Cooperation in the nuclear industry between our countries is a priority. We were able to show other countries that the future of the nuclear industry is possible without Russia: Ukrainian specialists from Energoatom worked together with specialists from a Westinghouse plant in Sweden to create a technology that allowed us to use Western-made fuel in Soviet VVER reactors. Now this fuel is successfully working at the Rivne NPP," Galushchenko said.

Both parties discussed the prospects for deepening cooperation between Ukraine and Sweden for the further displacement of Russia from the market for nuclear fuel and atomic technologies in Europe.

Busch noted that renewable energy plays a leading role in Sweden, which largely depends on variable factors, including weather. At the same time, the experience of Ukraine, living inwartime, proved the importance of stable and reliable generation, which is important for the country's energy security.

"You can't build an energy system only for peacetime. [...] That's why Sweden plans to develop not only renewable energy but also nuclear energy. And we see significant potential in cooperation with Ukraine in this direction," she said.

quote:

GLSDB hit the position of Russian UAV operators in the Kherson region

The Ukrainian military hit the position of Russian drone operators in the south.

High-precision bombs with a GLSDB rocket motor were used for the strike.

The Aeronauts team published a video of the enemy position’s destruction on the left bank of the Kherson region.

The Ukrainian drone footage shows a building being hit, which is reportedly a position of the enemy UAV crew, preliminarily ZALA.

The powerful explosion almost completely destroyed the large building. If there were invaders inside, they most likely all died.

SPOILER

quote:

Ураженн� будинку, що �лугував позицією дл� ро�ій�ького екіпажу БПЛ� на Хер�онщині [березень 2024]

An explosion of this magnitude indicates the use of a guided bomb. It could have been a GLSDB launched from a surface-to-air launcher, or an American JDAM or French AASM 250 HAMMER from a Ukrainian Air Force aircraft.

OSINT researchers discovered that the house with the invaders was destroyed in the village of Chernyanka, Kakhovka district, Kherson region.

It is also reported that the day before, the house where the crew lived was hit by GLSDB.

The corresponding video captures the invaders moving on a minibus from one house to another in the village.

Ураженн� будинку з ро�ій�ькими операторами БПЛ� на Хер�онщині [березень 2024]

Then, a munition hit the building housing Russian drone operators. As a result of the explosion, the building suffered significant destruction.

Analysts of the СyberBoroshno Telegram channel determined that this house was also hit in the village of Chernyanka on the left bank of the temporarily occupied Kherson region.

The identification and destruction of buildings used by Russian UAV operators was carried out during the joint operation of the 32nd Artillery Brigade, 140th Reconnaissance Battalion of the Ukrainian Marine, and 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center.

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Court remands eighth suspect in Crocus City Hall attack in custody
A Moscow court has placed an eighth suspect in the Crocus City Hall attack into pretrial detention on terror charges until 22 May, the city’s court press service said on Tuesday.

The case file showed that Alisher Kasimov is believed to have first made contact with the attackers online when he rented an apartment to them, state-owned news agency TASS reported. When asked by the judge if he understood the charges against him, Kasimov replied that had known nothing of his tenants’ links to terrorism, independent news outlet Mediazona wrote.

Kasimov, 32, was born in the Kyrgyz city of Osh and now holds Russian citizenship. Citing the suspect, Mediazona reported that he was married with three children and had no criminal record. He said he was self-employed and owned a café in the Moscow suburb of Krasnogorsk where the attack occurred.

A Moscow court placed the last owner of the white Renault allegedly used by the suspected terrorists to reach Crocus City Hall in pre-trial detention Monday. Dilovar Islomov, his brother Aminchon and his father Israil will be held until at least 22 May.

A Moscow court charged four other suspects in the attack with terror offences on Sunday. Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, Muhammadsobir Fayzov and Shamsidin Fariduni will also be held in pre-trial detention until 22 May.

The Federal Security Service and Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday that 11 suspects in the attack, in which at least 137 people were killed, had been detained.

quote:

Russia lauding torture was unthinkable – now it is proud to do so
Moscow’s proud promotion of the brutal treatment of men accused of Crocus City Hall attack marks watershed moment

There was no attempt to hide the evidence of torture. In fact, its perpetrators – serving officers in the Russian military and intelligence services – may have already received state awards for bravery.

SPOILER

quote:

By the time the men accused of murdering 137 people at a concert on Friday night appeared in court in Moscow on Sunday, their faces were swollen and disfigured, their eyes vacant.

One, named as Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda, arrived with gauze over his ear. A video released online showed one of his captors, who appeared to be Russian military personnel, slicing off his ear and shoving it in his mouth, telling him to eat it. Others beat him with their rifle butts.

After his arrest, Shamsidin Fariduni appeared in a photo lying on the floor of a school gym, his pants pulled down around his knees and with wires connected his genital area. The photograph was published by a Telegram channel connected to the Wagner paramilitary group and suggested Fariduni had been shocked with 80 volts and water had been poured over his body to “intensify the effect”.

Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev arrived with new bruises after his interrogation. He also had a plastic bag wrapped around his neck that observers think might have been used to asphyxiate him.

Muhammadsobir Fayzov was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair and appeared to lose consciousness during the hearing. Photographs circulating online appeared to show that one of his eyes was missing, Reuters reported.

There is little to no sympathy in Russia for the gunmen who stormed the Crocus City Hall on Friday night and carried out the worst terrorist attack on Russian soil since the Beslan school siege of 2004.

Video filmed by the men themselves and published by Islamic State shows them cold-bloodedly killing wounded men and women attending a rock concert as they urged themselves on to “show no mercy” and “kill them all”.

But the promotion of the suspects’ brutal treatment by law enforcement and high-ranking Russian officials after their capture has surprised even seasoned observers of the Russian security services.

After two years of war in Ukraine, videos of death and torture have become commonplace in Russia. And methods of torture once only spoken about in witness testimonials are now being promoted online by the perpetrators themselves as they publish photos and videos of brutality for bragging rights.

Human rights researchers said that it was no revelation that Russian security services employ torture against terror suspects. In 2017, after an IS bombing of a St Petersburg Metro station, Human Rights Watch found that one suspect during his detention was threatened with rape with a stick; two were given electric shocks to their genitals.

But those facts were uncovered via testimony to researchers, and not released as videos by the torturers themselves.

“What is different now is the clear demonstrative nature of the torture,” said Tanya Lokshina, the Europe and central Asia associate director at Human Rights Watch. “The footage of the torture seems to be shared not by accident, but in order to warn others who are planning attacks on Russia that they will face the same consequences. The Russian authorities are no longer shy about showing that its security services torture people. There are no window dressing exercises any more.

“Such videos show the level to which violence has become normalised in Russia over the past two years of war; previously, there were widespread allegations of systematic torture by Russian law enforcement, but it would have been unthinkable for them to proudly publicise the video evidence.”

The Crew Against Torture, a Russian NGO that was previously known as the Committee Against Torture, said with regards to the original attack that “all those responsible must be punished for this crime”. But it added that “the answer to barbarism must not be barbarism”, and that the value of testimony extracted by law enforcement agents under torture was critically low.

However, the Russian defence ministry on Monday released footage of an awards ceremony showing several members of an elite border unit who caught the gunmen and might have taken part in their brutal treatment.

VChK-OGPU, a Telegram account that regularly leaks information from the Russian intelligence services, said that military personnel in the border guard cut off Rachabalizoda’s ear. Members of the FSB security service and GRU military intelligence also engaged in torture. “They all ‘had fun’ with the terrorists as much as they could,” it claimed.

The commander of the Leningrad military district “presented well-deserved awards to the servicemen and personally congratulated everyone”. The men received medals “for Bravery” and “for military distinctions”.

As Russia seeks pretexts to blame the terrorist attack on Ukraine, Lokshina noted that forced confessions received by torture are notoriously untrustworthy. “It is obvious that any evidence given under torture cannot be viewed as trustworthy,” she said. “Someone who has electric shock wires attached to their genitals will pretty much confess to anything.”

The Kremlin declined to respond to allegations that the men had been tortured.

Russian officials have publicly lauded the brutal treatment of the suspects. The Russian prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, said the suspects “deserve no mercy”.

“Well done to all those who caught them,” said ex-president Dmitry Medvedev.

He added: “Should they be killed? They should be. And will be. But it’s much more important to kill everyone involved. Everyone. Those who paid, who sympathised with them, who helped them. Kill them all.”

As a result of the attack, some Russian MPs have called for the reinstitution of the death penalty. There has been a moratorium on executions since 1996. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov distanced the Kremlin from such calls, saying: “We are not taking part in the discussion at the moment.”

The officer who cut off Rachabalizoda’s ear had military patches including a far-right Totenkopf (dead person’s head) previously worn by Nazi SS units.

The knife he used has been auctioned off online as the “ear-cutter”, according to Evgeny Rasskazov, a member of the far-right paramilitary battalion Rusich, who facilitated the sale.

“The auction is closed, the lot was sold by the [state] employee privately,” he wrote. “Congratulations to the lucky owner of the ear-cutter. 🔪”

• This article was amended on 26 March 2024. In an earlier version, a quote from the Crew Against Torture that “all those responsible must be punished for this crime” should have made clear that this related specifically to the perpetrators of the attack at Crocus City Hall. This has been clarified, and further reaction from the group has also been added.

quote:

Satellite photos confirm Ukrainian Navy's strike on Russian recon ship Ivan Khurs in Black Sea
Ukrainian Defense Forces hit the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs during the attack on Sevastopol on March 24

The Ukrainian Navy officially confirmed the successful engagement of the Russian reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs on March 24. Subsequently, OSINT researchers published the corresponding satellite images.

Yesterday, Russian Telegram channels began to publish information about the alleged hit on Ivan Khurs. According to propagandists, the vessel was allegedly struck by two missiles of the Ukrainian Defense Forces.

Dmytro Pletenchuk, the spokesman of the Ukrainian Navy, promised details later.

Today, the official Facebook channel of the Naval Forces confirmed the successful destruction of a Russian reconnaissance ship.

OSINT researchers of the CyberBoroshno project published satellite images dated March 24 and March 23.

The place of hit is visible in the rear part of the ship.

On March 24, 2024, the General Staff of the Armed Forces reported that as a result of an overnight missile attack on the temporarily occupied Sevastopol, significant damage was caused to the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation.

According to the military, the Defense Forces hit the large landing ships Yamal and Azov, the communications center, as well as several infrastructure facilities of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol.

quote:

Ukraine is making a big push to woo African governments
THE NEWS
Ukraine is pushing to strengthen its alliances with African countries through an expansion of its grain shipments program, roughly doubling its embassies in Africa, and President Volodymr Zelenskyy making his first state visit to the continent in the coming months.

Now in the third year of a brutal war, following a full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, Ukraine faces an existential battle to build geopolitical ties globally as its key ally in the United States wavers in its support.

The move to ramp up the grain program coincides with broader moves to foster closer ties with African nations. A Ukrainian government spokesperson, responding to Semafor Africa’s questions about plans to expand its diplomatic reach, said Kyiv intends to roughly double its 12 embassies in Africa by adding between 10 and 12 more this year.

It comes as news emerged that Zelenskyy plans to visit the continent. “In the next few months, I believe President Zelenskyy will be coming to South Africa because he’d like to strengthen and expand the engagement,” South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said during an event last week in Washington D.C. at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think tank.

SPOILER

quote:

KNOW MORE
Countries across Africa have been hit by higher food prices in the last two years since the war in Ukraine disrupted the transportation of grain from a country that is among the world’s largest wheat producers.

Ukraine has, since late 2022, worked with the World Food Programme to deliver grain to Ethiopia, Somalia, and Kenya, which have been among the African countries worst affected by food shortages in the wake of the conflict. This year it added Nigeria and Sudan.

Ukraine’s deputy agrarian minister, Markiyan Dmytrasevych, told Semafor Africa more than 200,000 tons had been delivered to African countries so far and his government plans to expand the programme. “We’re working alongside WFP to plan deliveries to Mozambique, Mauritania, Djibouti, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Malawi,” he said.

ALEXIS’S VIEW
Ukraine’s efforts to win hearts and minds in Africa reflects a growing appreciation of the role played by the continent in geopolitical affairs. In a fractured world where the West is no longer the only voice heard on the world stage, it’s important to have allies in various parts of the world.

We saw the value of African alliances in the first few months of the conflict when nearly half of the 35 countries that abstained in a U.N. vote condemning Russia’s full scale invasion of Ukraine were in Africa. The abstentions made it clear that international condemnation of Moscow was not universal.

Now, amid the waning U.S. enthusiasm to continue financially supporting Ukraine’s war effort and global attention turning to the conflict in Gaza, it makes sense for Kyiv to broaden its alliances beyond the West. In a war of attrition that could go on for years, it can only help to have allies in Africa, and across the Global South more broadly. “We will continue to support our partners in Africa who have stood by us in the face of Russian aggression and are experiencing challenging food situations,” Dmytrasevych told Semafor Africa, emphasizing a spirit of mutual support.

Ukraine hopes that with its expanded program of grain shipments, it can counter the impression that Russia is the only side in the conflict trying to address the impact on Africans. At the same time, Zelenskyy’s visit to South Africa offers a high profile opportunity to show an affinity with the continent’s most influential country in geopolitical terms. And, in the longer term, doubling Ukraine’s embassies on the continent will radically strengthen Kyiv’s ability to broker diplomatic agreements and generally develop a more pronounced presence on the continent.

ROOM FOR DISAGREEMENT
Ukraine’s efforts to deepen its ties across Africa come in the wake of a longstanding and multifaceted campaign by Russia to win over governments on the continent. Moscow has sought to exert influence through a combination of its own grain delivery program, military assistance, media partnerships, language courses, and university scholarships.

Last month, Russia said it had shipped 200,000 metric tonnes of free grain to six African countries as part of its efforts to honor its commitment.

And Russia’s offer of increased military cooperation has been accepted in recent months by the military juntas of three West African countries — Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso — battling jihadist insurgencies in the Sahel.

THE VIEW FROM SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa has been steadfast in its refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It has repeatedly stressed its commitment to remaining non-aligned to the interests of major power blocs. But its relationship with Russia as part of the BRICS group of nations — in which the two nations are joined by founding members Brazil, India and China — has prompted accusations from some in the West that Pretoria has sided with Moscow in the conflict.

Pandor, while speaking in Washington DC last week, said South Africa wants to maintain a dialogue with both Russia and Ukraine. “Despite the criticism and the belief that South Africa is partisan, we talk to both,” said Pandor. “We’re the country that remains talking every week to both to say ‘we’ve got to get you in the same room’.”

NOTABLE
• Ukrainian special forces and Wagner mercenaries are fighting in Sudan after backing rival sides in the country’s civil war, according to CNN and The Guardian.

quote:

Russians hold over 10,000 Ukrainian civilians and 5,600 people have been tortured by them
More than 10,000 civilian Ukrainians are being held by the Russians in temporarily occupied territories and in Russia. Moreover, 5,600 Ukrainians have been identified in criminal cases as victims of torture by the Russians; however, the real number is much higher.

Source: Andrii Kostin, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine

Quote: "There are different figures. We estimate tens of thousands, more than 10,000 for sure. We are talking only about those who were forcibly relocated, not about those who made this decision at their own discretion."

Details: As for the creation of a register of civilian prisoners, Kostin said that such work is being carried out at the government level.

In Kostin’s opinion, a UN General Assembly resolution on this issue would be very important, "so that we can use other elements of communication and pressure on the aggressor country to release our civilians and bring them back to Ukraine."

Kostin added that, for his part, prosecutors, together with law enforcement agencies, are bringing to justice those responsible for the deportation of civilians and their illegal detention in temporarily occupied territories and in Russia.

Answering the question of whether it is possible to establish at least an approximate ratio of those who voluntarily moved to the Russian land and those who were forced to and are now in prison, Kostin said: "When we talk about occupied territories, the word 'voluntarily' is inappropriate. Some people are forced to leave because of attacks; others are promised material assistance and illusory security. But any action taken under such pressure is not voluntary. For some, the only way to come back to Ukraine is to get out through Russia; there are many such cases."

Speaking about the number of victims of torture and inhuman treatment, Kostin said that in criminal cases alone, 5,600 Ukrainians have been identified as victims of this type of war crime committed by the Russian Federation.

"However, the full figures may be much higher, as we do not have reliable information from occupied territories," he added.

He said that 164 torture chambers and other places of forced detention have been documented in liberated territories.

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SBU says it caught FSB saboteurs trying to blow up railroad in Ukraine's Poltava Oblast
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on March 26 that it had foiled an attempted act of sabotage by agents from Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) at a railroad in Ukraine's Poltava Oblast.

The Prosecutor General's Office added that the two suspects were Ukrainian citizens.

Ukrainian security services and border guards intermittently intercept Russian saboteur groups attempting to infiltrate Ukrainian territory, although it is more common in areas such as Sumy Oblast that are close to the Russian border.

Poltava Oblast is located in central Ukraine, with its easternmost part some 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Russian border. The SBU did not specify exactly where the attempted sabotage occurred.

According to the SBU, two FSB agents were arrested "on the spot" after they had laid an improvised explosive device by a key railroad track that connects central and eastern Ukraine.

After the two individuals were searched, SBU agents found phones in which the suspects were communicating with their Russian handler, a known FSB agent.

The SBU said that the two individuals had been charged with committing sabotage and face life in prison if convicted.

quote:

US, Britain, Ukraine behind Crocus City Hall attack — FSB chief
Alexander Bortnikov believes that Ukraine has been trying to prove it is capable enough

MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. The United States, Britain and Ukraine are behind the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall, the chief of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov has told the media.

"We believe that this is true. In any case, we are now talking about the factual information we have. This is general information, but they have a long record of this sort," he said after participating in an enlarged meeting of the Prosecutor General's Office board, when asked whether the US, Britain and Ukraine were behind the terrorist attack.

Bortnikov believes that Ukraine has been trying to prove it is capable enough.

"What is it expected to do to demonstrate its capability? It is expected to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts in the rear. This is what both the chiefs of Ukraine's special services and the British special services are aiming at. US special services have repeatedly mentioned this, too," he said.

He pointed out that there was a large amount of information in the public space "showing that the West and Ukraine are out to cause greater harm to our country."

"There have been drone strikes, strikes by uncrewed boats at sea, and incursions by groups of saboteurs and terrorist organizations into our territory," Bortnikov concluded.

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Czech volunteers transferred 1,000 RPG-75M grenade launchers to the Armed Forces of Ukraine
Volunteers from the Czech Republic transferred 1000 RPG-75M anti-tank grenade launchers to the Ukrainian military.

Darek pro Putina (A Gift for Putin), the Czech team of volunteers supporting Ukrainians in the fight against Russian aggression, announced this.

Czech volunteers completed a fundraising campaign that lasted almost two months to deliver the weapons.

This campaign was timed to the 55th anniversary of the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the USSR and Warsaw Pact troops.

The initiative managed to raise more than EUR 900 thousand euros.

SPOILER

quote:

These funds were collected to purchase and deliver 1,000 RPG-75M anti-tank grenade launchers for the 41st Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The RPG-75 portable, disposable, single-shot grenade launcher is designed to destroy enemy tanks and other armored vehicles. It fires a 68-mm grenade.

The weapon was developed in the 1970s in Czechoslovakia. It is now manufactured by the Czech company ZEVETA Bojkovice a.s.

The Ukrainian servicemen are already using these grenade launchers to fight the Russian invaders. Grenade launchers have been supplied to the Ukrainian Defense Forces since 2022 as part of military aid from other countries.

Specifications of RPG-75:
• Bore diameter: 68 mm;
• Weight: 3.2 kg;
• Length (folded for transport): 633 mm, length (combat-ready): 890 mm;
• Maximum firing range: 300 m;
• Maximum range: 1000 m;
• Penetration: 330 mm of rolled homogeneous armor (RHA);
• Time of flight to autodestruction: 3 - 6 seconds.

The launcher of the RPG-75 grenade launcher is a telescopic, two-part launch tube. It is equipped with sighting devices, triggers, firing, and safety mechanisms, along with stops and latches connecting the two parts of the launcher.

The RPG-75 grenade launcher's sighting devices consist of a sight and a reticle. In the field position, the sight is attached to the launcher and held in place by a rubber band. The rotating reticle has the appearance of a plate with a reticle for aiming and a slot, which makes it easier to determine the distance to the target.

The Czech initiative 'Darek pro Putina' (A Gift for Putin) is also raising funds for a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter for Ukraine.

quote:

Latvia’s airBaltic may be first airline to resume flights to Ukraine, says Deputy PM
Latvia’s airBaltic may be one of the first airlines to resume flights to Ukraine once the country’s airspace is reopened to civil aviation, the Ministry for Communities, Territories and Infrastructure Development announced on Facebook on March 25.

“AirBaltic is our long-standing and reliable partner: since 2019, more than 300,000 passengers have been transported from Boryspil and Lviv airports,” said Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov after meeting with airBaltic representatives.

“By the way, the last airBaltic aircraft left Boryspil airport in February 2022, before the airspace was closed. We hope that the airline will be one of the first to return to our market as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Earlier, Kubrakov announced the start of official talks with the EU and the US on the resumption of flights from Ukraine.

The Latvian airline airBaltic was established in 1995. Its main shareholder is the State of Latvia, which owns 97.97% of the shares. AirBaltic flies to more than 70 destinations in Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and the Caucasus. AirBaltic’s fleet consists of 47 Airbus A220-300 aircraft, making it one of the youngest fleets in Europe.

On Jan. 18, Deputy Head of the President’s Office Rostyslav Shurma said that Ukraine was working with its international partners to resume air travel to and from Kyiv and Lviv, with Boryspil Airport remaining the top priority.

quote:

Guerrillas uncover new location of Russian occupants' base in Zaporizhzhia region
Guerrillas have discovered a Russian occupation base in the Zaporizhzhia region. The invaders have deployed engineering and military logistics units in the Rozivskyi district, according to the ATESH resistance movement.

"Thanks to the fixation and escort of military convoys with engineering structures through Mariupol, it was possible to identify a new place of occupation in the Rozivskyi district of the Zaporizhzhia region on the territory of an agricultural enterprise," the guerrillas note.

Engineering units and units responsible for military logistics deploying in this area, which the Russian occupiers later send to the frontline.

"Although, after fixing it, we can probably say 'deployed'," ATESH notes.

The resistance movement notes that all the information "was transferred as intended."

Situation in occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region
Part of the Zaporizhzhia region is currently under Russian occupation. The Russian invaders are actively using the city as a logistics center to send weapons and technical facilities to hot spots on the front line.

However, Ukrainian guerrillas are actively operating on the territory, systematically reconnoitering the situation in the occupied part of the region and inflicting damage on the Russian occupiers.

In the occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhia region, Russians are forcing taxi drivers to inform people with pro-Ukrainian views.

In addition, in part of the occupied territory of the city, the Russian occupiers will tighten control over people on the Internet.

quote:

EU to finance an increase in production of Rheinmetall ammunition
German arms manufacturer Rheinmetall will receive funding from the European Union to increase the production of ammunition.

The press service of Rheinmetall reported on this.

For this, the EU has allocated more than ¤130 million in subsidies to Rheinmetall under the Act in Support of Ammunition Production (ASAP).

Hence, more than a quarter of the total amount of ¤500 million awarded by the EU to expand the production of 155mm artillery ammunition and powder will be channeled into a total of six projects by Rheinmetall AG’s European subsidiaries.

The program will support projects in Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Spain. The corresponding grant agreements are expected to be signed in May 2024.

“We are grateful that the European Union has placed its trust in us as one of the most important European suppliers of 155mm ammunition, to significantly consider us in its funding program,” Armin Papperger, CEO of Rheinmetall AG, said.

He noted that Russia’s war against Ukraine has revealed the great importance of artillery on the modern battlefield. Ukraine needs the ammunition, as well as to replenish the stocks of artillery ammunition of European armies.

Rheinmetall has been increasing its production capacities since 2022, and the company aims to produce up to 1.1 million artillery shells per year by 2027.

In addition, up to 1.5 million propellant modules and 3,000 tonnes of RDX explosives are to be produced annually starting in 2026.

Rheinmetall plans to set up at least four weapons manufacturing factories in Ukraine. The company stated that the factories in Ukraine would be for producing shells, military vehicles, gunpowder, and anti-aircraft weapons.

Arms manufacturer will also build a gunpowder factory in Romania to expand its ammunition production capacity. The investment is worth ¤400 million.

quote:

Ukraine dismisses security council secretary Danilov

President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov on March 26.

The decision was announced on the Presidential Office’s official website.

Danilov has served in the position since Oct. 3, 2019, shortly after the beginning of Zelensky's term in office.

SPOILER

quote:

"I am grateful to fate for giving me the opportunity to serve my country and my people in times of peace and war! I thank Ukraine's president for his trust," Danilov wrote on Facebook, without revealing the reasons for his dismissal.

In the 1990s, Danilov was the mayor of now occupied Luhansk and later became the Luhansk Oblast governor. In 2006, he was elected to Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, as a member of the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc.

The National Security and Defense Council is a body that coordinates and controls the activities of executive authorities in the field of Ukraine's national security and defense, and its decisions are enacted by presidential decrees.

Since 2021, the National Security and Defense Council has been actively used as a tool for imposing sanctions. For over three years, this list has included hundreds of entities and individuals, including a number of high-profile pro-Kremlin Russians, Ukrainians, and Belarusians.

One of the controversial initiatives of the National Security and Defense Council during Danilov's tenure was the national register of oligarchs. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law in 2021 that established the legal definition of an oligarch, in order to list these individuals and limit their influence.

In late September 2023, the government decided to postpone the launch of the register of oligarchs until three months after the end of martial law following the recommendations of the Venice Commission, an advisory body to the Council of Europe, with no person in Ukraine officially included in this list.

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Oleh Ivashchenko appointed as new head of Foreign Intelligence Service
President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed on March 26 Oleh Ivashchenko as the new head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence Service after its current chief, Oleksandr Lytvynenko, was picked to replace Oleksiy Danilov as the National Security and Defense Council's secretary.

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The decision was announced on the Presidential Office's website.

At the moment, no reason was provided for the new personnel changes.

Between 2017 and 2019, Ivashchenko served as a deputy chief for intelligence of the Ukraine's Armed Forces' General Staff. He later held the position of deputy head of Ukraine's military intelligence agency, also known as HUR.

Ivashchenko holds the rank of a lieutenant general.

The Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, known by the acronym SZRU, collects intelligence on political, economic, military, scientific, and technical spheres and is subordinate directly to the president.

Ivashchenko's predecessor, Lytvynenko, has served in the post since 2021.

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Zelenskyy expects strengthening of strategic capabilities after reshuffle in top leadership
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expects the strengthening of Ukraine's strategic capabilities following changes in the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) and intelligence, according to the President's statement on Facebook.

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"I have appointed Oleksandr Lytvynenko as the new Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. He will combine his experience leading the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine with the tasks facing the Council," the statement reads.

The president also announced that Oleh Ivashchenko has been appointed as the new head of external intelligence. According to Zelenskyy, he has relevant experience.

President Zelenskyy added that he expects the strengthening of our state's strategic capabilities to forecast and influence processes crucial for our national security. He also anticipates the reinforcement and modernization of Ukraine across all fronts of our state system.

Restructuring in the NSDC and intelligence
Zelenskyy has already appointed a new Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council. Formerly, he was the head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

The president stated that former Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Oleksiy Danilov, after being relieved of his duties will be reassigned to another position.

Additionally, the president has appointed a new head of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

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Russia unable to meet planned UAV production due to lack of European components — National Resistance Center
Russia cannot produce the required number of drones due to the European Union's sanctions, namely the lack of European components
The National Resistance Center reported the information.

The Russian enterprise Izhmash - Unmanned Systems failed to fulfill the state order due to a shortage of European components required for the production of the Granat-4 complex.

The Center notes that the Russian Ministry of Defense and the plant signed an agreement last summer to produce new systems. However, a few months later, in October, the company announced that it could not fulfill the order due to European sanctions and the lack of components from the EU.

The relevant documents confirming the information were provided to the National Resistance Center by the plant's employees.

"We have another instance where ‘Russian weapons’ fail to live up to their name due to the technological backwardness of the Russian Federation, which thwarts the enemy's plans to destroy Ukraine," the statement summarizes.

• On February 20, the European Union extended sanctions against Russia, originally imposed in response to the occupation of part of Ukraine's territory, until February 24, 2025.

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Ukrainian Volunteers in Rivne Produce Mockups for Military Use

Volunteers from Rivne established the production of various mockups for the Ukrainian military.

The Apate NGO representatives stated that first of all, they primarily fulfill orders for 120mm mortar models.

Volunteers receive hundreds of requests from various units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

Apate’s mockup catalog includes models of 2B9 Vasilyok 82mm automatic mortars, Starlink terminals, and American Sentinel radars.

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“It will be possible to move the Starlink hardware in the right direction. The plate is white and camouflaged if necessary,” volunteers say.

The mockups correspond to 90-100% of the size of real equipment and weapons.

They are made of wood, metal, and plastic. Unlike inflatable layouts, they do not change their shape or size depending on weather conditions.

A 120mm mortar mockup can be used to disguise military equipment and misleading the enemy in combat conditions.

“Our goal is to provide layouts for each brigade, each unit with at least one battery. Orcs should spend the maximum of their ammunition on Apate,” said volunteers from Rivne.

Layouts are required to create ground-based combat positions and location areas.

This allows misleading for the purpose of exposing the enemy, counter-battery warfare, depletion of weapons, ammunition, forces and provision of the enemy, simulating the concentration of military equipment, and changing the enemy’s plans.

Recall that in 2023, to deceive Russian intelligence, the Ukrainian military received mockups of Leopard 2 tanks.

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UN: At least 32 Ukrainian POWs executed in Russian captivity during winter
At least 32 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW), recently captured by Russia, have been executed between Dec. 1, 2023, and Feb. 29, a report by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said on March 26.

Reports of Ukrainian POWs being tortured or killed while in Russian captivity have been surfacing since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. As of late February, the Prosecutor General's Office said 19 criminal investigations were underway regarding the execution of 45 Ukrainian POWs.

OHCHR said it had recorded 12 cases of executions of at least 32 captured Ukrainian POWs during the winter, suggesting that some of them presumably were killed in groups.

"OHCHR has verified three of these incidents in which Russian servicemen executed seven Ukrainian servicemen hors de combat," reads the report, which is based on interviews with 60 Ukrainian soldiers released from captivity.

Their accounts confirmed the previously documented facts of widespread torture, inhuman or degrading treatment and punishment of Ukrainian POWs in Russian captivity, as well as detention conditions that do not comply with international law, OHCHR said.

OHCHR also interviewed 44 Russian prisoners of war who did not report torture in official Ukrainian places of detention. The organization said, however, there were "credible allegations of instances of torture and ill-treatment of Russian POWs committed in transit places after their evacuation from the battlefield," according to the report.

An investigation by the Kyiv Independent from last December revealed the inhumane conditions of detention, hunger, and torture at one Russian camp in particular: Olenivka prison, located in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast.

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1: Nah fuck it bro, YOLO, ready? Launch!
2: GTFO!
1: You motherfucker what do you mean GTFO?!
2: The fucking rockets don't work!

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Trump’s Truth Social is now a public company. Experts warn its multibillion-dollar valuation defies logic

For the first time in almost 30 years, part of Donald Trump’s business empire has gone public. Trading started with a bang, but the frenzy eased considerably by the closing bell, with shares ending well off their highs of the day.

Trump Media & Technology Group, the owner of struggling social media platform Truth Social, began its long-delayed journey as a public company at Tuesday’s opening bell under the ticker symbol “DJT.”

The stock surged about 56% at the open, to $78, and trading was briefly halted for volatility. Trump Media shares stabilized around $70 before fizzling. By the closing bell, Trump Media ended at $57.99, up by a more modest 16% on the day.

Despite the late-day slide, Wall Street is still assigning Trump Media an eye-popping valuation of nearly $11 billion — a price tag that experts warn is untethered to reality.

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Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp., the shell company that became Trump Media Tuesday morning, have spiked more than 200% so far this year. That includes a 35% surge Monday after the deal closed. Shares popped again at the start of trading Tuesday — investors’ first opportunity to trade the stock after the merger, under the new DJT ticker.

The skyrocketing share price comes despite the fact that Trump Media is burning through cash; piling up losses; and its main product, Truth Social, is losing users.

“This is a very unusual situation. The stock is pretty much divorced from fundamentals,” said Jay Ritter, a finance professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business, who has been studying initial public offerings (IPOs) for over 40 years.

Ritter said the closest parallel would be GameStop, AMC and other so-called meme stocks that skyrocketed during Covid-19 as an army of retail traders piled in. He said Trump Media is likely worth somewhere around $2 a share — nowhere near its closing stock price of $58.

“The underlying business doesn’t seem to be worth much. There is no evidence this is going to become a large, highly profitable company,” he said. “I’m reasonably confident the stock price will eventually drop to $2 a share and could even go below that if the company blows through the money it got from the merger.”

The eye-popping valuation is a massive windfall for Trump, who owns a dominant stake of 79 million shares.

At Tuesday’s opening price of nearly $78, that stake is worth nearly $6 billion, although lock-up restrictions likely prevent Trump from selling or even borrowing against those shares anytime soon. The value of Trump’s stake ended at $4.6 billion at the closing bell.

Trump Media generated just $3.4 million of revenue through the first nine months of last year, according to filings. The company lost $49 million over that span.

And yet the market is valuing Trump Media at approximately $11 billion.

For context, Reddit was only valued at $6.4 billion at its IPO last week — even though it generated 160 times more revenue than Trump Media. (Reddit hauled in $804 million in revenue in 2023, compared with Trump Media’s annualized revenue of about $5 million.)

“At these levels, it appears untethered to its underlying business results,” said Matthew Kennedy, senior IPO strategist at Renaissance Capital. “Eventually, valuations tend to fall back on fundamentals. That means this stock is definitely at risk of plummeting back down to earth.”

Michael Ohlrogge, an associate professor of law at the NYU School of Law, told CNN there is “no way to square the current stock price with anything that would be called a rational valuation for this company.”

Truth Social is tiny
Truth Social faces real challenges and is still dwarfed by its rivals.

Truth Social had just 494,000 monthly active US users on iOS and Android combined in February, according to Similarweb stats provided to CNN. That’s a small fraction of the 75 million on X (formerly known as Twitter) and 142 million on Facebook.

Even Threads had more than 10 times the number of monthly active users that Truth Social had in February, according to Similarweb.

Not only that, but Truth Social is shrinking. Its monthly active users plunged 51% year over year in February, Similarweb stats show. The number of unique visitors to Truth Social’s website was 648,000, down 20% year over year.

Kennedy described Trump Media as a “meme-SPAC,” alluding to both its astronomical valuation and the fact it was formed through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.

“Stocks that trade on momentum are subject to falling rapidly,” he said.

Jonathan Macey, a law professor at Yale, told CNN last week that the Digital World stock price is “clearly a bubble.”

Of course, history shows that bubbles can always inflate further, and it’s very difficult to pinpoint when they will pop.

That means Trump Media’s share price could keep skyrocketing for now — even if those gains are not backed up by fundamentals. In theory, a rival company or wealthy group could swoop in and acquire Trump Media even at these price levels, although Ritter said that’s very unlikely.

“We’ve already seen with other meme stocks that even if they eventually fall back to reflecting a fundamental value, the process can take quite a long time,” said Ohlrogge, the NYU professor. “There’s every reason to believe that this stock could remain at highly inflated prices much longer, due to the enthusiasm that Trump’s supporters have for it.”

‘Stay away from it’
Matthew Tuttle, CEO of Tuttle Capital Management, told CNN that Trump Media is probably not worth anything close to what the market is valuing it at.

“But it doesn’t really matter,” he said.

Tuttle noted that there is a history of SPACs spiking on their first day of trading, and he placed options bets that stand to make money if the stock shoots up.

“Because of what this is, and because it’s Trump — you’ve got people expecting this thing will take off [on Tuesday,]” he said.

But Tuttle advised everyday investors to use extreme caution trading Trump Media, noting the implied volatility is “insane.”

“Stay away from it,” said Tuttle, who has sold his shares of Digital World but still owns options that would pay out if the stock rises sharply. “Normally, I wouldn’t touch this with a 10-foot pole. But I’m not playing with much money and I already made a lot on this. If I wake up tomorrow and it’s trading at $1, oh well.”

Beyond the valuation concerns, there are other risks involved in Trump Media.

For example, this company’s future is inextricably linked to that of one person: Trump.

“There is a unique key man risk because Donald Trump is the chairman, top shareholder and the most popular user. He is one man, and he’s 77 years old,” said Kennedy.

Not only that, but Trump is facing felony prosecution in multiple simultaneous cases.

Trump Media noted that risk in SEC filings, saying: “Donald J. Trump is the subject of numerous legal proceedings, the scope and scale of which are unprecedented for a former President of the United States and current candidate for that office. An adverse outcome in one or more of the ongoing legal proceedings in which President Trump is involved could negatively impact TMTG and its Truth Social platform.”

A history of Trump bankruptcies
Not only does Trump himself face reputational issues, but his companies have a history of going bankrupt.

The last Trump company to go public, Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts in 1995, used the same DJT ticker symbol. It went bankrupt in 2004 and was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.

Trump Media even highlighted Trump’s history of bankruptcies as a risk in its SEC filing.

“A number of companies that were associated with President Trump have filed for bankruptcy. There can be no assurances that TMTG will not also become bankrupt,” the company said.

Another question is what happens when the lock-up restrictions on Trump and other key insiders lapse in the coming months.

Trump’s legal troubles could give him a reason to sell his commanding stake, an outcome that would threaten Trump Media’s share price.

Betting on a Trump victory in November
Other insiders, including the sponsor of the SPAC, would also be able to sell.

Like any social media business, Truth Social faces pressure to grow its user base, expand its advertising business and build a subscription service.

Those tasks are complicated by the polarizing political backdrop where at least some portion of the country views the Trump movement skeptically.

Kennedy said that in many ways, Trump Media going public amounts to a “multibillion-dollar bet” on a second Trump term, a return to the White House that could be lucrative for his social media network.

“If he wins in November, Truth Social will probably be the primary means of presidential communication,” said Kennedy. “That’s the bet here.”

Ohlrogge, the NYU professor, agrees that the election could prove to be a real turning point for this company.

“If Trump were to lose the 2024 election, I’d imagine the stock price would crater quite quickly,” he said. “If he were to win, it could conceivably stay higher for longer, maybe much longer.”

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NY judge issues gag order on Trump in hush money trial, blasting his ‘threatening, inflammatory, denigrating’ statements
A New York judge has imposed a gag order on Donald Trump, limiting the former president from making statements about potential witnesses in the criminal trial relating to hush money payments scheduled to begin next month.

Judge Juan Merchan also said that Trump can’t make statements about attorneys, court staff or the family members of prosecutors or lawyers intended to interfere with the case. Trump is also barred from making statements about any potential or actual juror.

The former president, Merchan wrote, has a history of making “threatening, inflammatory, denigrating” statements against people at all levels of the justice system, including jurors.

The ruling will prevent Trump from criticizing his former attorney, Michael Cohen, or adult film star Stormy Daniels, who are both expected to be witnesses at trial.

The order does not prevent Trump from talking about New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is a public figure, or Merchan himself.

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The gag order comes as Trump has repeatedly attacked the district attorney’s case and those involved with it ahead of what would be the first criminal trial of a former president. Trump criticized Merchan, his daughter and one of Bragg’s prosecutors in the hours before Merchan issued his order.

“The uncontested record reflecting the Defendant’s prior extra-judicial statements establishes a sufficient risk to the administration of justice … and there exists no less restrictive means to prevent such risk,” Merchan wrote Tuesday.

Trump’s historic criminal trial will begin with jury selection on April 15, after a dispute over the late production of documents caused Merchan to initially push back the start date. Trump is charged with 34 counts of falsifying business records stemming from reimbursements to Cohen for hush money payments he made before the 2016 election to Daniels to keep her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump. The former president has pleaded not guilty and denied the affair.

The district attorney’s office had requested the gag order last month to remain in place for the duration of the trial.

Trump and his attorneys have argued that as the leading Republican candidate for president, Trump’s speech should not be restricted as he appeals to voters in the 2024 election.

“Judge Merchan’s unconstitutional Gag Order prevents President Trump — the leading candidate for President of the United States — from engaging in core political speech, which is entitled to the highest level of protection under the First Amendment,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land.”

Trump attorney Todd Blanche declined to comment.

Merchan said Trump’s statements have been ‘threatening, inflammatory, denigrating’
Judges in Trump’s other criminal and civil cases have issued similar gag orders, including the New York civil fraud trial and the federal election subversion case in Washington, DC. In the civil fraud case last fall, Trump was twice fined for violating Judge Arthur Engoron’s gag order and making comments about the judge’s staff.

Merchan said he reviewed Trump’s public statements in his other cases as he decided whether to impose restrictions.

“These extrajudicial statements went far beyond defending himself against ‘attacks’ by ‘public figures,’” Merchan wrote.

“Indeed, his statements were threatening, inflammatory, denigrating, and the targets of his statements ranged from local and federal officials, court and court staff, prosecutors and staff assigned to the cases, and private individuals including grand jurors performing their civic duty,” the judge wrote.

Merchan said that he felt he had to go further than a previous order that jurors’ names and identifying information can’t be publicly released.

“While the protective order related to juror anonymity prevents the dissemination of certain personal information, it is not sufficient to prevent extrajudicial speech targeting jurors and exposing them to an atmosphere of intimidation,” the judge wrote.

Merchan watched Trump’s news conference Monday
Trump attended Monday’s pre-trial hearing, where Merchan swiftly rejected the motion seeking sanctions against the district attorney’s office, setting the trial date for April 15.

Afterward, Trump went to his 40 Wall Street building nearby, speaking to reporters to attack the case against him, Merchan and one of the prosecutors on Bragg’s staff who previously worked for the Justice Department, Matthew Colangelo.

On Truth Social Tuesday, Trump continued attacking Colangelo, baselessly claiming that the prosecutor was sent to the district attorney’s office to go after Trump as Attorney General Merrick Garland’s “right hand.”

Trump’s remarks could now run afoul of the gag order, which says Trump cannot comment on any district attorney staff other than Bragg himself.

Merchan made clear in his order that he was paying attention, citing Trump’s comments..

“Notably, within hours of the court appearance on March 25, 2024, setting the trial date for April 15, 2024, the Defendant targeted an individual prosecutor assigned to this case, referring to him as a ‘radical left from DOJ put into [ … ] the District Attorney’s Office to run the trial against Trump and that was done by Biden and his thugs’ in a press conference,” Merchan wrote.

Merchan ‘unpersuaded’ that Trump hasn’t commented as much on hush money case
Merchan also noted Trump’s criticism of his daughter, who has worked for Democratic political campaigns, referencing “the nature and impact of the statements made against this Court and a family member thereof.”

Trump on Tuesday referenced the political work of Merchan’s daughter in a lengthy attack on Truth Social. Last year, Trump asked Merchan to recuse himself in part because of his daughter’s political work. The judge declined to do so.

The judge said he was “unpersuaded” by arguments from Trump’s lawyers that the former president has largely refrained from commenting on the parties in this case in comparison to his other cases.

“Although this Court did not issue an order restricting Defendant’s speech at the inception of this case, choosing instead to issue an admonition, given the nature and impact of the statements made against this Court and a family member thereof, the District Attorney and an Assistant District Attorney, the witnesses in this case, as well as the nature and impact of the extrajudicial statements made by Defendant in the D.C. Circuit case (which resulted in the D.C. Circuit issuing an order restricting his speech), and given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote.

The judge noted that Trump’s statements in his cases had led to “not only fear on the part of the individual targeted, but also the assignment of increased security resources to investigate threats and protect the individuals and family members thereof.”

“Such inflammatory extrajudicial statements undoubtedly risk impeding the orderly administration of this Court,” Merchan wrote.

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How to 3D-print a school in a war zone

^{A digital rendering of a 3D-printed building, currently under construction in Ukraine, that will provide four classrooms for students at a primary school in Lviv. balbek bureau}

With its soft gray lines and sleek, curving exterior, Project Hive looks less like a school and more like a wellness retreat or modern art museum.

The structure’s distinctive appearance, with a texture resembling a cocoon or the structure’s namesake beehive, is down to the construction method used to build it: 3D printing.

Standing less than 200 feet from School No.23 in Lviv, Ukraine, the walls of the 3,983-square-foot educational facility were printed in just 40 hours with a COBOD gantry printer, which follows digital blueprints to lay concrete like piping icing onto a cake.

It’s the first 3D-printed education center in Europe and the first building to be 3D-printed in a war zone, according to Jean-Christophe Bonis, founder of Team4UA, the non-profit responsible for the pilot project.

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“I’m not a builder; I don’t want to be an architect or a developer… But through robotics and AI, through technology, we can accelerate the (building) process,” Bonis told CNN in a video interview.

Soon after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, places like Lviv faced a huge problem: how to cope with tens of thousands of people fleeing to — and through — the city. In the Lviv region alone, there were 173,000 internally displaced people as of December last year, according to the latest figures from the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration.

Project Hive will provide the school with four extra classrooms to help it accommodate additional students displaced by the war, said Bonis. He hopes that, if successful, the project will enable “3D printing to be one of the tools of local construction in Ukraine.”

^{Project Hive employed a gantry-style COBOD printer to layer a concrete mixture with a nozzle. Team4UA}

Blackouts and bombings
3D-printed construction can be significantly faster and, some experts believe, more sustainable than traditional building methods.

Team4UA collaborated with Ukrainian studio Balbek Bureau on the school’s design, and architecture firm Ars Longa on the engineering. The single-story project broke ground in September 2022, and the entire project, from foundations to finishings, was originally expected to take just three months.

But Russian air strikes and bombing across the country through October and November 2022 hit major civilian infrastructure, including the power grid, causing widespread blackouts in Lviv. With local communities turning to power generators, Project Hive was paused while electricity supply became unstable and conditions made it unsafe for the printer to be delivered.

The fact this technology helps to build with a smaller number of specialists is a significant advantage - Olga Gavura, 7CI Group

It wasn’t until last summer that the situation stabilized in Lviv and the power supply was fully restored, finally allowing the printer to be delivered. Although it took less than two days, cumulatively, to print the building’s concrete frame, Team4UA spread this across six weeks so it could deliver training and development sessions on site.

After revising its opening date to January 2024, the project hit another roadblock: funding. Construction costs in Ukraine have risen sharply in the past year, and to complete the final finishing work, such as roofing, windows, doors and interior design, project organizers say they need to raise another $400,000.

“I’m facing challenges on a daily basis,” said Bonis. But he continues undeterred: “(This) is also a way of taking technology to give back hope.”

^{A model of the 3D-printed school showing the four new classrooms. Team4UA}

A costly option
As a relatively new technology, and with limited data on the resulting buildings’ safety and stability, 3D-printed construction has predominately been used for one-off projects or research collaborations.

Dutch architecture firm DUS has been experimenting with 3D-printed houses since 2015, and Texas-based construction firm ICON has 3D-printed entire communities in Austin, Texas and Nacajuca, Mexico. In 2020, the Dubai Future Foundation became the world’s first 3D-printed commercial building, and in 2021, the world’s first 3D-printed school was completed in Malawi, with the walls laid in just 18 hours.

However, when it comes to large-scale construction, the technology is “still in its infancy,” said Christian Lange, an associate architecture professor at Hong Kong University, where he oversees the Robotic Fabrication Lab.

Where 3D printing is really great is when you have special geometries and shapes, because you’re totally free. - Christian Lange, Hong Kong University

Lange is skeptical about the benefits of using 3D printing to build in regions with ongoing conflict or disruption.

While technology has the potential to be cheaper than conventional building methods, the up-front costs of the printers can be extremely high, and their size can make them difficult and costly to move.

According to Lange, there are cheaper, faster alternatives to 3D printing, such as prefabricated and modular buildings. Made using parts that are constructed in factories and quickly assembled on site, prefabs were popular in the early 20th century, when they were used to rebuild after World War II and provide cheap housing for displaced people.

“Temporary shelter doesn’t need to be permanent shelter,” said Lange in a phone interview. “Where 3D printing is really great is when you have special geometries and shapes, because you’re totally free — the robot or the machine doesn’t care if you build a straight wall or a curved wall.”

But in Ukraine, where many technicians, construction workers and industry experts are fighting on the front lines, automation may help counter labor shortages, said Olga Gavura, managing partner at 7CI Group, a contractor on Project Hive.

“The fact this technology helps to build with a smaller number of specialists is a significant advantage,” said Gavura, adding that just four experts were required for the construction phase of Project Hive.

As Russian airstrikes continue to devastate the nation’s infrastructure — 2024 has already seen multiple attacks targeting cities, including Lviv, killing civilians and destroying homes — Gavura believes that, for the number of structures needing to be rebuilt, 3D printing will become essential.

She believes pilots like Project Hive can not only test construction processes but will help train a generation of Ukrainian specialists who “can apply the technology, on their own, in future,” she added.

^{The concrete walls were built, layer by layer, in just 40 hours. Construction was spread out over the course of six weeks to allow for training sessions on how to use the equipment. Team4UA}

Reconstructing communities
Team4UA is not the only organization to see the potential of 3D-printed construction in disaster and conflict zones.

Arizona-based construction company Diamond Age is currently in discussion with Ukrainian officials about printing bomb shelters and military infrastructure, said the firm’s CEO Jack Oslan.

Diamond Age uses a patented 3D printing system that, it claims, insulates the buildings’ walls. Oslan said his company’s structures are 30% more energy efficient than those made from lumber frames and are strong enough to withstand a Category 5 hurricane or moderate earthquake.

“It’s this climate resiliency that gives us the perfect platform to transition into military and humanitarian applications,” he said, adding that automation could help reduce casualities when building in war zones: “There (will) be fewer people in harm’s way, which we think is important.”

Damage to Ukrainian infrastructure between Russia’s full-scale invasion and September 2023 — including homes, schools, energy grids and transport networks — will cost an estimated $151.2 billion to replace, according to a study by the Kyiv School of Economics. Researchers found that over 3,500 educational facilities were among the buildings damaged or destroyed, along with over 160,000 homes.

Oslan sees huge opportunity for 3D printing to help begin rebuilding the nation. “We would expect that anything we deliver to Ukraine today to build military or humanitarian structures would ultimately transition into the building of homes, for the reconstruction of (the country’s) communities,” he added.

^{Once completed, the educational facility will leave some concrete walls exposed with others clad in wood, shown in this digital rendering. balbek bureau}

‘A vision for this country’
Back in Lviv, there’s more excitement around Project Hive than one might expect for a primary school building, according to Bonis.

“When I’m on the site, I have children coming to me with their parents and telling me in Ukrainian, ‘I will be in this school, I’m so excited, my school is unique in the country’,” he said.

In an email to CNN, the head of Lviv City Council’s education department, Andriy Zakaliuk, said the project offered “a unique opportunity” to custom-build an environment for young students.

“It is symbolic that they will begin their new stage of life in a new, modern environment,” said Zakaliuk. “Now these children have the opportunity to see that, with the help of a 3D printer, you can build real buildings.”

While he awaits yet another revised opening date for the new school building, Bonis is already planning two more ambitious 3D printing projects — a bridge in Kherson, and an eight-story building in the center of Kyiv.

Team4UA hopes these pilot schemes can help it increase its speed and efficiency while cutting costs for future projects. Bonis is meanwhile establishing a private company that will purchase two 3D printers to offer “printing as a service” in Ukraine, with profits helping to support Team4UA’s humanitarian aid work.

“It’s not only a concept of printing a school — it’s a vision for this country,” said Bonis. “This war will be over sooner or later. At that moment, we need to get back to life, to build back and turn the page.”

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World Bank approves $1.5B loan to Ukraine under Japanese and UK guarantees
On Tuesday, the World Bank's Board of Directors approved a $1.5 billion Growth Foundations Development Policy Loan (DPL) for Ukraine to support its development policy.
This is said in an official statement by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, according to Ukrinform.

"The funds will be provided under the guarantee of the Government of Japan through the World Bank Trust Fund (ADVANCE Ukraine) in the amount of $984 million, as well as under the guarantee of the United Kingdom in the amount of $516 million," the statement says.

At the same time, in order to reduce the cost of servicing Ukraine's credit obligations under the DPL2024 loan in the coming years, the DPL loan agreement provides for the capitalization of interest in the amount of $99.54 million from Japanese funds.

As reported, the DPL project aims to support reforms in Ukraine, and the funds will be credited to the state budget's general fund in a single tranche based on the results of tasks completed before the agreement was signed. The reforms include improving corporate governance, promoting renewable energy and introducing agricultural bonds, a new instrument for financing farmers. In addition, the reforms aim to strengthen the financial sector by improving access to finance for businesses, transposing EU customs and tax practices into Ukrainian legislation, and improving fiscal policy and capital market regulation. Separate measures are envisaged to ensure transparency and accountability of procuring entities in the e-procurement system.

As Ukrinform reported, Ukraine may receive about $9 billion in aid from foreign partners in the near future.

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Duizenden eisen het aftreden van Viktor Orbán
In de Hongaarse hoofdstad Boedapest riepen duizenden mensen op tot het aftreden van premier Orbán. De demonstranten beschuldigden de regering ervan betrokken te zijn bij een corruptiezaak.

De oppositiepoliticus Magyar heeft gisteren een belastende audio-opname vrijgegeven. Hierin zouden de voormalige Hongaarse minister van Justitie en Magyaars ex-vrouw Varga hebben beschreven hoe regeringsvertegenwoordigers relevant bewijsmateriaal wilden laten verdwijnen. De authenticiteit van de opname kon niet definitief worden bevestigd.
In Hongarije vinden al langere tijd demonstraties plaats. Nog maar twee weken geleden volgden tienduizenden mensen de oproep van Magyar tot protest. De voormalige Orban-vertrouweling maakte bij de demonstratie bekend dat hij een nieuwe partij gaat oprichten.

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FSB geeft het westen schuld van terroristische aanslag Moskou
Rusland geeft naast Oekraïne ook de westerse geheime diensten de schuld van de terroristische aanslag nabij Moskou. Het hoofd van de Russische binnenlandse inlichtingendienst, Bortnikov, zei dat men geloofde dat de westerse autoriteiten betrokken waren bij de voorbereiding van de islamitische aanval. De Oekraïense geheime diensten zouden er zelfs rechtstreeks bij betrokken zijn.

Bortnikov leverde geen enkel bewijs voor zijn beweringen. Oekraïne verwerpt de Russische beschuldigingen. De Afghaanse tak van de terreurmilitie IS heeft de verantwoordelijkheid voor de aanval opgeëist. Ook westerse veiligheidsautoriteiten en deskundigen beschouwen dit als geloofwaardig. Niettemin beweren Russische functionarissen al dagen, zonder enig bewijs te leveren, dat Oekraïne erbij betrokken zou kunnen zijn. Kyiv wijst dit ten stelligste af.

Poetin leek iets gereserveerder. Hij zegt er op te vertrouwen dat de Russische procureur-generaal al het mogelijke zal doen “om ervoor te zorgen dat de daders de juiste straf krijgen, zoals vereist door de Russische wet.” Maandag bevestigde Poetin dat de aanslag in Crocus werd uitgevoerd door islamistische terroristen. Tegelijkertijd maakte hij, net als dit weekend, duidelijk dat hij een Oekraïens spoor ziet.

De Wit-Russische president Loekasjenko weersprak indirect het Russische narratief dat de terroristen na de aanslag naar Oekraïne probeerden te vluchten. Loekasjenko zei in Minsk dat de verdachten tevergeefs hadden geprobeerd zijn land binnen te komen. Pas daarna gingen ze verder richting de Russisch-Oekraïense grens.

In Moskou is nog een verdachte in hechtenis genomen.
Volgens persbureau Interfax gaat het om een Rus, geboren in Kirgizië. Hij wordt ervan beschuldigd de terroristen vóór de misdaad een appartement te hebben verhuurd. De man is de achtste verdachte die is aangehouden. Bij de terroristische aanslag van vrijdag kwamen 139 mensen om het leven en raakten ongeveer 150 mensen gewond.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 09:38 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:
Ben je nu niet een beetje te obsessief bezig met elk Oekraïne gerelateerd nieuwsbericht hier te posten?

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 09:55 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Ik post lang niet elk bericht hier dat ik lees. En ja, mijn interesse in deze oorlog en alles er om heen is een beetje obsessief. Maar zo werk ik nu eenmaal. Om de zoveel tijd vindt ik iets anders waar ik mij compleet op focus. En het geeft mij voldoening/ik heb er plezier in.

Wanneer er veel nieuws is zal ik meer posten dan wanneer er minder nieuws is. En ik filter ook nog een heleboel uit.

Dat en ik post meestal maar 1 keer of 2 keer per dag het nieuws. Dus dan komt er meestal een boel achter elkaar. En de discussies in dit topic/deze reeks is de afgelopen dagen veel minder. Dan valt het ook meer op.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:07 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Lekker blijven doen Vind je post altijd wel fijn. Stuk interessanter dan Extec die weer eens discussie heeft met iemand

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:09 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Laat mij er buiten

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:10 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Oke eerlijk is eerlijk. Had je naam niet hoeven noemen. Maar af en toe ben je voor de 20e keer ruzie met iemand maken en is het halve topic alleen dat Dus ja dan ben ik altijd wel blij als Delenlill er tussendoor komt met info

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 09:38 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:
Ben je nu niet een beetje te obsessief bezig met elk Oekraïne gerelateerd nieuwsbericht hier te posten?

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:15 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Voorspelbaar, wmb.

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 09:38 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:
Ben je nu niet een beetje te obsessief bezig met elk Oekraïne gerelateerd nieuwsbericht hier te posten?

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:23 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Ik zie dit nog altijd liever dan die irritante onderlinge vetes of oneliners.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:19 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Heeft ook allemaal met de verkiezingen te maken gok ik zo.
Als hij nu te trigger happy gaat reageren heb je weer kans dat veel mensen die nu nog twijfelen misschien toch maar op trump stemmen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:30 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]
Dat snap ik. Ik zeg ook niet dat die post niet waardevol zijn, ik vind het soms alleen een beetje veel. Ik moet wel zeggen dat posts over Trump misschien beter thuishoren in het topic in pol. Vooral die berichten die geen directe link met Oekraïne hebben.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:15 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Voorspelbaar, wmb.

[ x ]

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Q: Has the Biden administration asked countries like France to stop talking about sending troops to Ukraine?

MR. KIRBY: No.

Q: Why --

Q: But would the U.S. oppose any nation sending troops to --

MR. KIRBY: No, that's go- -- those are sovereign decisions that a -- a nation has to make. I can just speak for this sovereign nation and this Commander-in-Chief, and he's made it clear that we will not put U.S. boots on the ground.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 05:48 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
Zover is het vooral speculatie natuurlijk. Maar een aantal dingen die hij noemde en liet zien in deel 1 en 2 is wel opmerkelijk.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:14 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Ik heb het niet echt meer gevolgd, maar wat is er met die Men in Blue?

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:00 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Opmerkelijk wel maar ook wel erg amateuristisch als het zo is gegaan.
Dit zijn Sims 3 taferelen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 10:30 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:
Ik moet wel zeggen dat posts over Trump misschien beter thuishoren in het topic in pol.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 09:07 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
FSB geeft het westen schuld van terroristische aanslag Moskou
[..]
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:16 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Ik heb plaatjes gezien waarin dat lijkt overeen te komen met werkkleding die de FSB gebruikt. Nadruk op lijkt, op die plaatjes zag je bv ritsen op de armen, en die heb ik niet terug gezien op al die andere.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:31 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Daar ben ik het dan wel mee eens.
Snap de meerwaarde van de politieke campagne van Trump niet zo voor dit.

Ja, wie president wordt gaat veel bepalen. Maar ja dan kan je elke verkiezing wel meenemen. Heeft geen directe link met de oorlog.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:34 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Het gaat op zich niet over werkkleding. Maar over een aantal types die ongeveer dezelfde outfits droegen en die zich op een opmerkelijke manier gedroegen tijdens de terroristische aanval.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:36 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]
Nou, dat was waar geweest als Donald Trump ook voor steun aan Oekraïne zou zijn geweest. Maar hij is 100% tegen steun.
Ook chanteerde hij Zelensky om een onderzoek in te stellen naar de zoon van Joe Biden. Ik zie dus wel een directe correlatie

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:44 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Maar reduceer je het dan niet tot: ja, maar de FSB'ers hadden gewoon op die dag met elkaar afgeproken dat op die dag blue was the new black?

En als je onopvallend wil zijn, is het dan een slim idee om oppervlakkig gezien allemaal dezelfde kleding aan te hebben?

Let wel; ik zeg niet dat jij er zo in zit

Maar die mensen, die er wel zo inzitten hebben een sterker argument, als het echt FSB werkkleding is. En een vorm van blauwe kleding, is FSB werkkleding. Daarvan zijn plaatjes van andere plekken/tijdstippen te vinden.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:02 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Dat was dus ook om elkaar in één opslag te kunnen herkennen. En misschien ook wel zodat de terroristen hun zouden kunnen herkennen. Zoals ik al zei dit is tot nu toe speculatie maar welk opmerkelijk.

En waarom ze juist voor blauw hebben gekozen, als ze dat normaal ook als werkkleding gebruiken, kan ik ook niet verklaren. Misschien dat het niet algemeen bekend is in Rusland, in elk geval onder de normale bevolking.

Maar als ik "FSB agents" google kom ik eigen geen één tegen met die outfit. Al zijn de meeste beelden van FSB agents die door Oekraïne zijn opgepakt. En zullen de meeste natuurlijk ook niet op google te vinden zijn.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:59 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Dit is een interessant draadje, die wel het e.e.a. opsomt.

Voor de grap even gekeken naar de stelling dat 5G er 'niet' is in rus. Dat is er idd amper, als ik een coverage map opzoek.

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:24 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Dat is inderdaad een goede opsomming van de huidige problemen in Rusland. En het laat zien dat sancties wel degelijk werken.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:09 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Jij post dit soort dingen altijd alsof het de waarheid is. Zie je eerste zin al.

Ik geloof best (zonder bewijs behalve dat er een hoop gekke dingen gebeurden) dat de FSB erbij betrokken is maar dit kledingverhaal is echt een heeeeeeel gezochte theorie. Zo kan je er nog wel 10 bedenken.

Hoezo zou je elkaar in 1 opslag herkennen als je in het blauw bent? De kans is toch heel groot dat andere bezoekers ook iets blauws aan hebben...

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Zaden voor landbouw is wel een leuke takeaway. Als je geen hyper-geengineerde zaden kan kopen, moet je het doen met zaaisel wat je over hebt gehouden van de vorige oogst.

En dan weet je meteen ook dat je volgende oogst tientallen procenten minder opbrengst gaat opbrengen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:44 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ja joh, russia stronk. Ze gaan gewoon ff de concurentie aan met MS en Sony, draaien ze natuurlijk hun hand niet voor om.

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:57 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Naar verluidt gaat de eerste game Call of Ruzzia Modern Special Operation heten, met een gelekte leven met de naam No Americans 😱

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 11:36 schreef grrrrg het volgende:

[..]
Nou, dat was waar geweest als Donald Trump ook voor steun aan Oekraïne zou zijn geweest. Maar hij is 100% tegen steun.
Ook chanteerde hij Zelensky om een onderzoek in te stellen naar de zoon van Joe Biden. Ik zie dus wel een directe correlatie

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:23 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Ja, maar dat geldt voor elke politici.
De 1 is voor, de ander is tegen. Dus dan kan je dus elke verkiezing hier wel plaatsen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:00 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Anders Medal of Duty, of Call of Honour.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:35 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:

[..]
Comrade

https://store.steampowere(...)ces_Soviet_Republic/

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:39 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Cool

Vraag me af of je ook gulags neer kan zetten.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:57 schreef ipa84 het volgende:

[..]
Geen idee. Heb wel begrepen dat het een goeie game is als je van city builders management games houd. Maar ik moet het nog steeds een keer kopen en proberen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 13:23 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Ja, maar dat geldt voor elke politici.
De 1 is voor, de ander is tegen. Dus dan kan je dus elke verkiezing hier wel plaatsen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 14:01 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Ik hou daar ook wel van. Dit lijkt me best cool.

Voor mijn dosis gopnik start ik wel escape from tarkov op.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 14:01 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Ik hou daar ook wel van. Dit lijkt me best cool.

Voor mijn dosis gopnik start ik wel escape from tarkov op.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 14:08 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Streets of tarkov is me favo level. Ik kan genieten van hoe het daar uitziet.

Voorproefje, denk ik.

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'Make America pray again': Trump reveals he is selling Bibles
Former President Donald Trump is urging his supporters to buy a "God Bless the USA" Bible for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills amid his third presidential run.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 18:52 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Baudet wil collega's 'op hun bek slaan' omdat ze beweren dat hij kremlinpraat aan het verkondigen is

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 18:52 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Baudet wil collega's 'op hun bek slaan' omdat ze beweren dat hij kremlinpraat aan het verkondigen is

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 14:01 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Ik hou daar ook wel van. Dit lijkt me best cool.

Voor mijn dosis gopnik start ik wel escape from tarkov op.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 19:13 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Dat is toch die extraction shooter?

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 19:18 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Yes, looter/shooter met efxils. Voor zover een game redelijkerwijs realistisch kan zijn komt het wel in de buurt.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 18:52 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Baudet wil collega's 'op hun bek slaan' omdat ze beweren dat hij kremlinpraat aan het verkondigen is

[ x ]

quote:

Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 18:52 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Baudet wil collega's 'op hun bek slaan' omdat ze beweren dat hij kremlinpraat aan het verkondigen is

[ x ]

quote:

Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 18:52 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:
Baudet wil collega's 'op hun bek slaan' omdat ze beweren dat hij kremlinpraat aan het verkondigen is

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 19:20 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Gewoon potje knokken met bokshandschoenen aan lijkt me wel leuk om een discussie op te lossen.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 12:44 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ja joh, russia stronk. Ze gaan gewoon ff de concurentie aan met MS en Sony, draaien ze natuurlijk hun hand niet voor om.

[ x ]

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 19:52 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Nice. De VAB zou worden vervangen vanaf 2020, en tot nu toe zijn er al 250 gedoneerd. Frankrijk heeft er nog een paar duizend in gebruik. Het zou me niet verbazen als die dingen in de komende maanden ineens overal aan het front gaan opduiken.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:44 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
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👀

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:10 schreef polderturk het volgende:
De VS heeft 116.000 stuks 155mm granaten besteld bij een Turks bedrijf.

Waarom? Ze kunnen toch niet aan Oekraïne leveren zo lang het congress de donatie aan Oekraïne niet goedkeurt.

[ x ]

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US in talks with Türkiye over explosives needed for ammunition for Ukraine
The US is in talks to purchase more explosives from Türkiye in order to boost production of artillery shells as allies try to deliver much-needed ammunition to Ukraine.

Source: Bloomberg

Details: Officials familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg that Turkish supplies of trinitrotoluene, known as TNT, and nitroguanidine, which is used as a propellant, would be "crucial" in the production of NATO-standard 155mm calibre ammunition, "potentially tripling production".

Türkiye is poised to become the largest seller of artillery shells to the US as early as this year.

The Pentagon said in late February it contracted General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems to build three 155-mm projectile metal parts lines in Texas, including with Turkish subcontractors.

The plant in Mesquite, Texas, is scheduled to move into production in June.

Turkish defence firm Repkon is expected to produce 30% of all US-made 155-mm artillery shells by 2025, sources told Bloomberg.

Those sources also said that the US Department of Defense also purchased 116,000 rounds of battle-ready ammunition from Türkiye’s Arca Defense, set to be delivered this year, with further purchases expected soon for delivery next year.

In a statement on the Texas investment and Turkish industry, the Pentagon said working with allies "is key to building a global defense industrial base."

Meanwhile, Western officials also told Bloomberg that US and European ammunition output is expected to significantly increase next year and the year after as big defence companies and smaller suppliers start to ramp up production.

"But that depends in part on the US Congress approving more than $60 billion earmarked for Ukraine, currently blocked by House Republicans," Bloomberg wrote.

Background:
• The Pentagon earlier said that Ukraine would face challenges in its fight against Russia if US aid is delayed because Congress fails to approve an additional aid package for Ukraine.
• US Secretary of Defenсe Lloyd Austin, opening the Ramstein meeting on Tuesday, promised that the United States will continue to support Ukraine's military efforts against Russia.
• Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, told Republican senators on 14 March that the House would work on a draft bill to support Ukraine, but the bill would be significantly different from the one already approved by the Senate, with aid taking the form of credit or lend-lease.
• Johnson suggested that the aid for Ukraine and Israel might be split into two different packages. The new bill would have to garner sufficient support both in the House and in the Senate.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:50 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Goh wie zouden dat zijn.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:44 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

👀

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:50 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Goh wie zouden dat zijn.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 20:59 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat om meer dan alleen die 116.000 stuks ammunitie. Die later dit jaar geleverd zullen worden. Er is geen datum van levering bekend gemaakt, en het bedrijf heeft ze hoogstwaarschijnlijk niet allemaal op voorraad. Dus het zou best kunnen dat dit besteld is met oog op de toekomst. En buiten levering aan Oekraïne om (wat het meest voor de hand liggend is) zou het ook voor eigen gebruik kunnen zijn. Om hun voorraden weer aan te vullen. Of mogelijk voor levering aan bijvoorbeeld Israel of andere landen (minst waarschijnlijk).

Ook zijn ze bezig om de propellant en TNT aan te schaffen in Turkije voor eigen gebruik bij het maken van 155mm ammunitie.

Tevens is er een overeenkomst afgesloten met Turkije voor de levering/het opzetten van 3 productie lijnen voor 155mm shells in een fabriek in Texas. Zodat Amerika eigen ammunitie kan gaan produceren vanaf volgend jaar.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2024/03/27/7448436/
[..]
Maar nog steeds is de hulppakket die vastzit in het Huis hard nodig om dit allemaal te kunnen bekostigen.

En iets zegt mij dat deze gehele deal ook te maken heeft met de uiteindelijke Turkse bekrachtiging voor de toetreding van Zweden tot de NAVO. Net zoals de F-16s deal met Turkije.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 21:07 schreef uitkeringsgenieter het volgende:

[..]
Ik denk Frans Timmermans

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 21:17 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Als dit de juiste website is: https://www.voiceofeurope.com/
https://www.voiceofeurope(...)-mp-frederik-jansen/
https://www.voiceofeurope(...)ep-marcel-de-graaff/
https://www.voiceofeurope(...)ader-thierry-baudet/

En ik denk dat dit de juiste website is. Daar alle interviews van dat soort types is. Moet je maar eens er door heen bladeren:
https://www.voiceofeurope.com/interview/

Ook de opiniestukken zijn stuk voor stuk rechtse propaganda.

Hoe meer ik van de website zie. Hoe meer ik denk dat dit de desbetreffende website is (er is nog een andere https://voice-of-europe.eu/ maar die is lang niet zo extreem).

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 21:21 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Ik vraag me af wat de waarde van het contract is.

De prijs van 155 mm munitie is geëxplodeerd door de oorlog in Oekraïne.

Voor de oorlog was de prijs $1000-$1500 per stuk.

Duitsland heeft voor 100.000 granaten 1,2 miljard betaald. Dat is $12.000 per stuk.

De Turken zullen denk ik de helft goedkoper zijn. Misschien verdient het Turkse bedrijf $600 miljoen aan de deal.

https://bulgarianmilitary(...)imes-more-expensive/

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Geert Wilders for Voice of Europe: “The Patriot Spring is not over yet. It is just beginning.”
Geert Wilders is leader of the Party for Freedom (PVV) in The Netherlands.
With 1.3 million votes his party became the second largest in the latest elections in March this year. The main themes of the Party for Freedom are: de-Islamisation, leaving the EU and better healthcare.

VoE: What is happening in Europe?
Wilders: We are being conquered by Islam. Not only through acts of terror but mostly through a process of population replacement. Our people are being substituted and the consequences will be devastating because the bulk of the massive flow of immigrants replacing the indigenous Europeans are Islamic. Islam is a dangerous totalitarian ideology, Islam hates us and intends to wipe away all our Western values and freedoms.

"Everything the EU does makes matters worse."

VoE: What is the role of the EU in the migrant crisis?
Wilders: Instead of stopping it, the EU is facilitating the process of population replacement. The open border policies imposed by the EU on its member states prevent these countries to control their own borders. The EU Court of Justice dismisses sovereign laws of member states and tramples on their rights to approve who enters their countries. The EU is forcing countries to take in quotas of (mostly Islamic) immigrants. EU Frontex ships pick immigrants up at sea and transport them to the EU instead of sending them back. Everything the EU does makes matters worse.

VoE: Can Europe be saved?
Wilders: Yes, but only if we get rid of the EU, restore national sovereignty and de-Islamise our societies. And that is exactly what we intend to do.

VoE: What is the task of this generation?
Wilders: We are facing an existential crisis. If we do nothing, we will cease to exist. This generation will either be the last free generation in Europe, or it will be the first of a new European renaissance. This generation decides whether the generations after it will still be living in a free and democratic Europe or whether they will be living in the Islamised continent of Eurabia.

“More and more people want to save their nation and its national identity"

VoE: What about the wave of populism you predicted?
Wilders: I predicted a wave of patriotism and I have been proven right. More and more people want to save their nation and its national identity, its values, traditions and freedoms for their children and grandchildren. In the Netherlands, the PVV, a party which barely existed ten years ago, has become the second biggest party in the country. In France, Marine Le Pen made it to the second round in the presidential elections, with one in three people voting for her. In Austria, a patriot almost became President. In Britain, the people voted for Brexit. In Eastern Europe, governments that want to protect their countries against Islam are immensely popular. The Patriot Spring is not over yet. It is just beginning.

VoE: Would you like to see Ayaan Hirsi Ali to join your party?
Wilders: I greatly respect Ayaan Hirsi Ali who is a very brave and intelligent woman. But your question is hypothetical since she does no longer lives in The Netherlands.

VoE: What are your plans for the future? Is there a plan if something happens to you?
Wilders: Our plan is to expand the party even further and embed it even deeper in Dutch society. Next year, we will participate in dozens of municipal elections all over the country. We already have a strong and competent group in both Houses of Parliament, in all the provincial councils and in the European Parliament. I do not intend to leave politics for a very long time.

“I read Voice of Europe every day and draw a lot of information and insights from it."

VoE: What is your opinion on Voice of Europe?
Wilders: I greatly admire your valuable and unique work. I read Voice of Europe (VoE) every day and draw a lot of information and insights from it. We are fortunate to have VoE as an antidote to the indoctrination by the fake media. I wish you luck and hope that ever more Europeans will find their way to you.

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Wilders naar Moskou: 'Rusland is bondgenoot'
PVV-leider Wilders wil volgend jaar een bezoek brengen aan Rusland om daar duidelijk te maken dat niet iedereen in Nederland afkerig is van de Russen. Hij heeft op de Russische ambassade in Den Haag al overleg gevoerd over een reisprogramma.

Dat zegt hij in een interview met Elsevier. "Rusland is geen vijand en dat moeten wij er niet van maken." Hij ziet het land van president Poetin vooral als een bondgenoot in de strijd tegen terrorisme en massa-immigratie uit Afrika.

Nog veel leren
Wilders wil begin volgend jaar naar Moskou reizen, voor een bezoek aan de Doema, het Russische parlement. "Om te laten zien dat er ook hier patriotten zijn." Volgens hem kunnen wij qua patriottisme nog veel leren van de Russen.

Elsevier schrijft dat Wilders zelf contact opnam met de Russische ambassadeur om te praten over een reis naar Rusland. Een eerder gepland bezoek tijdens de verkiezingen ging niet door, omdat de wet voorschrijft dat wapens verboden zijn in Russische stembureaus. Dat betekende dat Wilders' beveiligers niet mee naar binnen zouden kunnen.

Valse vijandbeelden
Minister Ollongren van Binnenlandse Zaken waarschuwde vorige week nog voor pogingen van Rusland om via internettrollen en nepnieuws de publieke opinie in Nederland te beïnvloeden.

Wilders wil naar eigen zeggen tegenwicht bieden tegen "de hysterische russofobie die her en der heerst in Nederland." Er bestaan volgens hem valse vijandbeelden.

Hij heeft begrip voor het gevoel onder de Russen dat ze zich omsingeld voelen door de naar het oosten oprukkende NAVO. "Ik ben een groot fan van de NAVO en de Amerikanen, maar hier heeft Rusland een punt", zegt Wilders.

Hij zegt kritisch te blijven over Rusland. En hij zal nooit leningen accepteren van de Russen, zoals zijn Franse bondgenoot Le Pen van het Front National wel doet. "Er rollen geen roebels door de gangen van de PVV."

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 21:35 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Nice.

https://www.reuters.com/b(...)s-shrink-2024-03-27/

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"We are not being governed by national parliaments" - exclusive interview with Forum of Democracy (FvD) leader Thierry Baudet
Thierry Baudet is a father, a Dutch politician, a bestselling author, and the founder and leader of the anti-globalist party Forum for Democracy (FvD). Before making his foray into politics and becoming a member of the Dutch parliament, Baudet completed a Ph.D. under the supervision of the British philosopher Roger Scruton. Baudet, in his dissertation, which was later published as a book titled: The Significance of Borders, explored ideas like national identity, European identity, and multiculturalism.

In this exclusive interview with the editorial team at Voice of Europe, we discuss, among other things, Mr. Baudet’s newly published book, The Covid Conspiracy: The Globalist Takeover and the Great Reset, his political party, its mission and positions, the war in Ukraine, the emergence of a multipolar war, the future of the United States, globalism, the Great Replacement, the upcoming elections in the Netherlands, and more.

SPOILER

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Good morning and thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Mr. Baudet. For our audience who may not be aware, can you describe what the Forum for Democracy (FvD) is?
— The Forum for Democracy (FvD) is a political party in the Netherlands and it’s actually a special party. It’s different from other parties because it’s focused so much on the community behind it. We used to be a think tank. We started off as a think tank having regular debate meetings and so on. Then we became an activist group campaigning in a referendum concerning the Dutch ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. Two-thirds of the Dutch population voted no in the referendum, which was our position. So we won the referendum and the government brushed it aside and decided to sign the association agreement anyway. That is when we said, okay, now we have to become a political party, we have to cross the Rubicon, as it were, and get into politics to fix this. And that’s how it started. I got elected in 2017 and I’ve been a member of parliament (MP) ever since. And we’ve done some pretty, pretty cool stuff. We are the largest party in the Netherlands in terms of members. And I was the only elected politician in Europe to have opposed all of the draconian measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Your party had a meteoric rise and at one point, during the spring of 2019, the FvD was the most popular party in the Netherlands. Then, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the party lost a considerable amount of support after mainstream politicians along with the globalist-controlled press carried out a targeted campaign against you and your party. For our readers, can you recount the series of events?
— During COVID, I experienced something that was really, really remarkable, which was that there was so much pressure on me and on others to follow the mainstream. And when I didn’t, and I opposed the lockdowns, the forced vaccinations, and the fear campaign that was happening everywhere, I was essentially expelled from decent society. I’ve not been interviewed for three years in the Netherlands. There are no mainstream media that would ever have me on anymore because I opposed the COVID restrictions. I take different views and they don’t accept that. So, I was ostracized from the political establishment essentially.

Despite all of that, I’m still very proud that I stood firm for my beliefs and didn’t bend. But it also meant that my party, the Forum for Democracy, lost some visibility and as a consequence of that some support. And obviously, when you oppose the globalist establishment, you are vilified. They call you all these names that we’re all familiar with. They call you a racist, you’re a fascist, you’re this, you’re that—and the sad part is it works. There are still people who do take these people seriously, even though it’s so clear—it’s clear as the light of day—that this name-calling, this vilification, is only used to manipulate the debate and give the impression that every sensible person agrees. They employ the same tactic with climate change, COVID-19, immigration, and other issues. Essentially, in any majority policy area, no real diversity of opinion is allowed to exist.

You recently published a book called The Covid Conspiracy: The Globalist Takeover and the Great Reset. It’s already been published in several different languages. For those who may not have heard about it yet, can you provide a synopsis of the book?
— I wrote a book about my experiences during COVID-19—being the only elected politician in the Western world to have opposed every element of these ridiculous restrictions, the lockdowns, the vaccinations, everything. As a result, I experienced massive backlash from the establishment. The mainstream politicians, the media, and everyone in the so-called ‘polite society’ ostracized me. So, in the book, I take all the all the arguments that they presented. I essentially debunk the globalist establishment’s dishonest and phony messaging, including the idea that the vaccine was safe and effective.

I show that it’s inconceivable that any sensible person would still believe that we were dealing with an extremely dangerous virus. This was not just a conspiracy at the political level, but it was also a conspiracy at the level of Big Pharma, the mainstream media, and social media corporations like Facebook. We saw that all of these societal institutions came together and were pushing the exact same false messaging that ultimately deceived the public. We’ve been deceived at a level that is still shocking for me to realize and the cruelty of the measures that they were willing to implement was just breathtaking. Elderly people were left to die alone, and children and teenagers were not allowed to go out to play, to see their friends. Small and medium-sized businesses have all collapsed or semi-collapsed. They forced injections with incredible rates of adverse effects. I mean we haven’t seen this with any vaccine in the entire history of medicine and still nobody’s talking about it. And everyone is pretending this is over—like it was a bad dream, like something far away. Lastly, I’m very proud that Steve Bannon wrote the preface of the book. He’s a man I’ve admired for many years and it’s just come out now in America, so it’s very exciting.

You come to some depressing conclusions in your book, namely that the institutions that are supposed to protect us—the media, doctors, courts, national governments—have betrayed us. What are we to do if we can trust what historically have been regarded as our society’s most powerful institutions?
— For about two years during COVID and a little bit after, I was sincerely depressed about the state of the world, and I felt that there was no institution that we could rely on anymore—not the medical profession, the journalists, politicians, the courts, or the judges. I felt we’d been betrayed by this junta of white gowns, white jackets, the doctors, and the medical profession that was forbidding hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and pushing these fake vaccines on us. I felt the media had completely let us down by not asking any critical questions for two years. I was like, okay, so we can’t trust the media anymore, we can’t trust the medical profession, the courts, the judges that were just going along with this brushing aside of constitutional rights or the rule of law—it didn’t mean anything anymore.

My fellow citizens prevented me from entering restaurants and so on because I didn’t have the vaccine code—the QR code .I really felt that it was the end of society as we knew it, as I understood it. Also, the sheer lack of critical questions, not just from a journalistic profession, but also just simply from academia and science. The way peer-reviewed magazines like The Lancet were manipulated—and this has been discussed extensively afterward—but they willingly manipulated studies, retracted papers, they kept things out of the public view. They’re all complicit in this massive conspiracy to bring about unprecedented lockdowns, to push us through these vaccines, and so on. I felt depressed because I felt as if I was falling down and I didn’t have anything to hold on to. I really felt terribly alone and sad.

But then something new started to build amongst many of us. I think there’s a new international network taking the shape of people that see through all these lies that were being fed and all the fake institutions and fake authorities that push us to behave in a certain way. I feel that we’re really on track now to build something new—and that is a very hopeful thing. So in the midst of all this darkness, I feel there’s a lot of light shining from so many individuals and also institutions that do want to safeguard their humanity, that do want to live in truth, that do see through this web of news stories and fake narratives that were meant to believe—and that is a wonderful thing.

So, the COVID period was terrible, but it has also given me and many of us a new sense of reality. That is, we’re living closer to our hearts. And I think that path may lead at some point to some kind of parallel society. I don’t love that word because it suggests that we’re excluding people, but that’s not the case. Everybody’s welcome to join this club, this club of people that have woken up and who’ve come to the conclusion that all this is fake, let’s do something new. And in the Netherlands, that is working very well.

What are some of the main conclusions you’ve come to as a result of what happened during the COVID-19 period?
— One of the conclusions that I think anyone must draw from the COVID period is that we are not being governed, as it were, by national parliaments that function as the brain of the nation. Why? Simply because all these measures that were completely and utterly and provably inefficient, ridiculous, unprecedented, and bizarre, were implemented at almost exactly the same period, the same moment across the board, across the world.

This is a very clear indication that decisions are being made at a different level. And I think it’s super important to realize this because I think it’s the same thing with the open borders. Every Western nation is experiencing a massive influx of immigrants. There’s not a single exception. It’s an irrational policy and it’s a very destructive policy. And it’s being presented as if the decisions regarding immigration policy are being taken at the national level. But they’re not.

Secondly, take climate change. All Western nations are signing up for massive, massive climate change policies that are transforming the entire society which are costing us tons of money and are very illogical and irrational. So again, this is something that is clearly not being decided upon at the national level. The national level functions as a way to help people digest what is happening and to give them a sense of theatre about the process— that you have some groups in favor and some groups against. The national news plays its role as well. But the real decisions are taken elsewhere, the big issues are being set out at a different level. And that should give us pause. We really should think about that in depth because it means that our entire understanding of democracy, the nation-state, and sovereignty, is flawed and we need new concepts to understand the world.

Are there any other observations you make in your book that you would like people to know about?
— Firstly, I show that not only have the major decisions during this period not been taken at a national level but at a global level. That’s clear from the way these lockdowns were implemented on the same day and in the same way. Secondly, I show, very worryingly, that all the institutions of society that in theory should help us reach rational conclusions, completely failed us. There was no rational debate in journalistic magazines or outlets. There was no debate possible on social media because of censorship. The doctors and the experts were not thinking about the consequences of the policies. They stopped prescribing medicines like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin that had been prescribed to billions of people for decades. And all of a sudden they were deemed dangerous and all the doctors just went along with it. So you saw that all these institutions of society didn’t function anymore.

And thirdly, I highlight how those in power were willing to impose incredibly cruel measures—letting elderly people die alone, etc. As a result of the unneeded lockdowns we saw addiction and depression problems skyrocket, domestic violence soared, and businesses were destroyed.Then you have the vaccinations with all the adverse side effects. It’s just heartbreaking to think about how many lives have been destroyed and nobody seems to feel guilty for it. They don’t even feel anything about it.

So these three observations are central to the book. We’re not being governed at the national level, there’s no rational policymaking involved, and thirdly there’s an immense amount of cruelty amongst those in power—an ability for cruelty and a disturbing lack of empathy.

I think those three observations should give us pause and should reshape our understanding of the world. Because if the globalist elite can implement policies like this during COVID-19 they may enact similar policies in the name of climate change. The actions taken so far due to so-called climate change haven’t been rational and there’s been no discussion about them. Nobody’s making cost-benefit analysis and so on and so forth. And it’s extremely destructive. It’s extremely cruel. It robs the middle classes of their ability to build a life, to have affordable energy, to have affordable food, and to have affordable housing.

Do you think there will be another global pandemic that’s used by the globalist elite to further cement its grip on power and to take more freedoms away from the people?
— One of the great questions that are puzzling me and many others is, is it really over? Is Covid really behind us or is it going to come back? Some people say, in what is perhaps a tongue-in-cheek sort of way, that Putin cured COVID-19 by starting a war, right? The pandemic seemed to end from the day the war in Ukraine started. That said, we’ve never had a proper process of looking back and saying, hey, what happened there? What the hell did we do? We didn’t even evaluate the policies. It was like oh it’s over and nobody talked about it anymore.

And that means that we haven’t gone through a process of realizing what mistakes were made and what we should do differently should something like that happen again. Consequently, this means that it can happen again. Because if you don’t learn from your mistakes, you’re bound to repeat them, right? Nobody is saying that mistakes were made during COVID-19 and that the response ought to be different next time. So I’m very worried that we might—next winter, or maybe even sooner—see pandemic measures reinstated.

During the two years of COVID, we saw a massive transfer of wealth from working and middle-class people to the billionaire globalist class. Do you see this as a type of class war that’s being waged by the globalists against everyday people?
— We used to understand a free society as a society with a massive middle class. The middle class is the backbone and is the core of a classically liberal society. When we talk about middle-class people, these are people who participate in the schools of their children, those who own a home and therefore have built up some capital, those would be the people with small and medium-sized businesses, and so on and so forth, the people that would participate in society in a broader sense.

And now what we’re seeing is that these middle classes are vanishing and we’re getting, most people are simply going to members of the working poor or underclass. They’re going to be paid their wages every month or whenever with their rental house, with no basic structures, no sense of community. So you see an alienation, an atomization amongst these working classes who own less and less, who have less and less wealth, and the coming about of a billionaire class, super rich people that essentially own nearly everything. So there’s a shift and the middle classes of Western societies are being cut out, and that’s an extremely sad thing to watch. It’s extremely worrying because we will lose precisely the class that holds society together.

COVID, obviously, has accelerated this because small and medium-sized businesses couldn’t survive. You had the big investors, the massive hedge funds, and venture capitalists that jumped in and bought up all these shops and restaurants and so on. And you had the original owners and also the farmers, which often have their own family companies, agricultural companies, many of them are selling their stuff and like, okay, well, whatever, I’m not doing this anymore.

Is it a plan? Was this the ultimate intention behind all the lockdowns? In my book and elsewhere, I don’t profess to know what exactly is the reason or what actually happened behind the scenes and in the places we cannot venture. I do see what’s happening and I’m confident that these things were not decided at the national level. So something is happening at the global level, but what exactly, I’m very honest about this, I simply do not know.

However, I think it’s obvious that the people on the international stage—the World Economic Forum, World Health Organization, UN, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bilderberg, etc.—have a certain worldview. They think in terms of, well, obviously, climate change, and mass migration, but also they think in managerial terms. They would like to govern us down to the tiniest detail because they feel that if we don’t control society more, people are going to make the wrong decisions, right? That’s why we have to make sure they stop smoking, they don’t eat sugar anymore, they do this, they do that. And that managerial mindset may very well lead to policies that squeeze out the middle classes rather than the state squeezing out the middle classes intentionally. It may be a corollary, it may be a consequence that is not necessarily intended, but it’s just a logical consequence.

Tell us about some of the initiatives the Forum for Democracy (FvD) is spearheading outside of the parliament.
— We have set up our own school, an elementary school. We have our own publishing house, which is now growing into a media house. We might start making documentaries and so on. We have a small company that takes food directly from the Dutch farmers—to support the farmers—puts it in boxes and sends them directly to people’s homes as a part of a subscription service. That’s very nice. That’s a lot of fun. So there are lots of things and other initiatives as well. Other people are doing great things too. So, COVID, I think it was really, a mark in time. There was an age before COVID and an age after, and we’re in the beginning of something genuinely new

You’ve made some controversial comments about the Russo-Ukrainian war in the past. Can you reiterate your position for our audience?
— So the first thing that I think is important to realize when we’re talking about the current situation in Ukraine, is that it’s not, in my view, a Russo-Ukrainian war. It is a war of NATO against Russia. I think it was a provoked war. I think Russia is the defensive party here, even though they decided to attack first. That is clear beyond doubt, but it was a defensive move because if they hadn’t done it, there would have been a massive NATO offensive to reclaim Crimea and Eastern Ukraine, which was something that Russia is never going to accept—which from a strategic perspective very understandable.

The United States would not accept it if Russia would build up a massive army in Mexico. These are things that you might contest in the area of international law, but in international relations, which is another academic subject, of course, it’s completely clear that this is the way the world works. And by willingly ignoring that and pretending it’s entirely normal for the United States to build up a massive army in a neighboring country that has very unfriendly policies towards Russia and for Russia to just accept that is either very, very stupid or it’s simply provoking a war because you have reasons to desire that.

I still think that the moment the West or the American deep state or whatever you want to call it stops escalating this conflict, peace can return very, very quickly on our continent and I think Russia wants peace, Russia wants to make a deal. The Ukrainians, obviously, are being slaughtered by the tens if not hundreds of thousands, which is horrible. I feel very, very much empathy for them. I feel very sorry for them. They are really the victims of American imperial ambitions.

Ironically, these imperial ambitions of the American deep state are also working against America, and its people, because the decline of America is quickening, making a process that’s already happening, namely the emergence of a multipolar world, come about more quickly. Through this war that America is waging in Ukraine against Russia, it is accelerating that process. America is actually uniting the entire world against itself right now, which is not a smart thing to do. And as for Europe, I think it’s super important to wake up and realize that continuing this war is not in its interest. Europe should have normal relations with Russia, should have normal relations with Ukraine, with the United States, with Turkey, and so forth and so on. Why should we be waging this war against Russia? There’s absolutely no point.

You mentioned the emergence of a multipolar world. What do you think that looks like a decade from now?
— My hope is that the multipolar world will create competing power blocks, which as a consequence might lead to more freedom for individuals in the world, Competing power blocs will inevitably be supportive of opposition groups within each other’s sphere of influence. There’s a great analogy, I think the French philosopher Tocqueville makes it, where he says if Germany had been united in the 16th century Martin Luther would never have been able to be the founder of Protestantism. Internal conflicts in Germany with different princes as well as with the Pope and the Emperor made that possible. Medieval Europe was like a hodgepodge of different estates and different regions and everybody was competing with one another. As a consequence, there was a lot of liberty. So Martin Luther could simply go to a different principality, he could go to a different area and there he would be protected because this particular duke or that particular prince wanted to support the enemy of his enemy, right? So my hope for a multipolar world would be that you’ll get more freedom.

You talked about mass immigration. I’m sure you are aware of Renaud Camus’ concept of The Great Replacement. Do you have any thoughts about it? Is it a conspiracy theory as some say it is?
— The great French author, Renaud Camus, wrote about the Grand Remplacement or Great Replacement in English. He coined that term. And what he meant by it, I think, is something we are witnessing every day which is that the indigenous populations of Europe are not reproducing in sufficient numbers to sustain their own numbers—they are migrating away from their native nations. For example, the Netherlands, my country is not just an immigration country but it’s also an emigration country—lots of people are fleeing the Netherlands because they don’t feel at home anymore, they don’t feel safe anymore, they don’t feel that their businesses can thrive, they don’t feel the government is protecting them or taking care of them.

So, you see that the indigenous populations in Europe are in steep decline and at the same time obviously we see a massive influx of people from different parts of the world, Africa, the Arabic nations obviously as well, the Maghreb, North Africa, the Middle East, and this simply means it’s a mathematical inevitability that the population composition of Europe will be very different in the future. Mass migration brings different ethnoreligious groups, different cultures, and different ways of life. And of course, I think that’s a very sad thing because I love the European way of life, love European culture, I love the people who are my fellow Europeans, and I think it’s a great tragedy for the world if that particular way of life, that European way of life, would disappear.

Furthermore, I find it very odd that this Great Replacement, which is an observable fact, it’s something that can be seen very clearly in statistics—it’s not difficult to see—is denounced as a conspiracy theory, while the United Nations has official reports that talk specifically about Replacement Migration. This is a formal policy of the UN—something that panels at the World Economic Forum discuss. It’s happening before our very eyes.

The Biden family has been implicated in corruption schemes in Ukraine. How come this is not widely discussed in European politics? What needs to be done for Europeans to see the vested interests the Democratic Party elites have in Ukraine?
— Yes, the greatest corruption scandal in the history of the American Republic has been kept out of the European press entirely. It’s very, very remarkable, indeed. The President of the United States has been proven to have had links, through his son, to companies in Ukraine, like Burisma, links to schemes in China, and yes, nobody’s writing about it.

It means that the so-called leader of the Western world, the Atlantic Coalition, is completely compromised. It means he’s not able to make free and independent decisions based on the interest of the nation, but he has private interests that interfere with that, and nobody’s writing about it. It’s astonishing.

And again, it shows that—just as we saw during COVID-19—the legacy media, the mainstream media, consider themselves as the defenders of the current corrupt political order. I’m not sure when this shift occurred exactly, but I like to believe that there was a time when journalists defined their job as being critical toward power, asking uncomfortable questions, looking where the sun doesn’t shine, seeing how the mechanisms of power actually work and seeing what ways governments might attempt to fool us and act in their own self-interests rather than the interests of the people. It’s completely gone from the journalistic profession. They express the official line of the deep state, and that’s it. They repeat it ad nauseam and I find it astonishing to watch.

The Netherlands has national parliamentary elections coming up in November. How do you see things panning out?
— The upcoming elections in the Netherlands on the 22nd of November will be very interesting because almost all the major players that we used to be acquainted with in Dutch politics have left the scene. So our former prime minister, Mark Rutte, who had been the prime minister for the last 13 years, is gone. Sigrid Kahr, currently the minister of Finance, who had previously served as our foreign minister, is also gone. The leaders of so many parties are leaving the stage and therefore there’s a lot of room for innovation. And I think if we, the Right, play it correctly, it may just be possible that there’s going to be a sort of center-right coalition with support from Geert Wilders’ party and my party in parliament, supporting a minority coalition perhaps of the New Farmers Party (BBB) and the VVD, Mark Rutte’s liberal-conservative party. The BBB and the VVD might become the central coalition around which maybe my party and Geert Willis’ party might be a supporting bloc—and that could be a very good thing for the country.

Presently in the United States, you see a population that’s more divided than ever. There is more ethnocultural tension than perhaps has ever been seen before in the country’s history. What do you see happening in the near future in the U.S.? Do you think a civil war is a real possibility?
— I’m extremely worried about the future of the United States. I’ve been a fan of the American Republic for a long time, although I’m not a fan of the American Empire. The American Republic, however, is a very interesting and beautiful creation. However, now I think it’s really at breaking point.

As far as I can see, I’m obviously a European, not an American, but what I read from it, and what I see from it is extremely worrying. I think the possible indictment of President Trump is a possible spark that may lead to an actual civil war, civil conflict, or even secession of certain states. It’s possible. I think the ethnic issue remains unresolved, the massive immigration is continuing. So again, the squeezing out of the middle classes here, the backbone of society, is leaving society where most people have essentially nothing, no possessions, therefore nothing to lose—atomized without a community. And then on the other hand, you have billionaires that are very, very intertwined with politics, with big corporations, that live in a reality of their own. I’m deeply worried about the future of America.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 22:00 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat overigens om 14% rafinage uitval, dat is best fors inderdaad. Het is met name de vraag hoe laag reparatie gaat duren.

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Op woensdag 27 maart 2024 22:25 schreef ExTec het volgende:
The Sitskrieg has arrived.

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