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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 18:37 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

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En wat zegt dat?

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Ukraine gives award to foreign vigilantes for hacks on Russia

^{American Kristopher Kortright, known as "Voltage", has been launching hacking operations against Russia since the invasion}

A team of vigilante hackers carrying out cyber-attacks against Russia has been sent awards of gratitude by Ukraine's military.

The team, One Fist, has stolen data from Russian military firms and hacked cameras to spy on troops.

The certificates are a controversial sign of how modern warfare is shifting.

Concerns have been raised about the practice of states encouraging civilian hackers.

One of the hackers called "Voltage" has been co-ordinating hacks from his home in the US.

His real name is Kristopher Kortright and he is an IT worker from Michigan.

The 53-year-old told the BBC he is delighted his efforts for Ukraine have been officially recognised with a certificate of gratitude.

One Fist is made up of hackers from eight different countries including the UK, US and Poland. They have collectively launched dozens of cyber-attacks - celebrating each one on social media.

The certificates were sent to them all for "a significant contribution to the development and maintenance of vital activities of the military". They were signed by the commander of the Airborne Assault Forces of Ukraine.

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Ukraine's Ministry of Defence did not respond to the BBC's request for comment.

Since the start of the conflict, Ukraine has controversially been encouraging volunteer hackers to attack Russian targets. But sending out official awards to foreign civilians is being seen as a controversial move and a sign of the times.

Although many nations, including the UK and the US, have official award systems for ethical hacking, this is thought to be the first time a country has awarded hackers for malicious and possibly criminal hacks.

In October, in response to the increase in vigilante hacking in Ukraine and in the Gaza conflict, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned against the use and encouragement of civilian hackers. It published guidelines to reinforce the ethos of the rules of war laid out in the existing Geneva Conventions.

^{A member of a Polish vigilante hacking gang called Squad 303 which has also carried out attacks on Russia}

Dr Lukasz Olejnik, author of Philosophy of Cyber-security, said Ukraine's awards to foreign hackers are potentially problematic.

"Giving out awards may further blur the lines between combatants and civilians, and even undermine the recent call by the ICRC to limit and end the involvement of civilians in combat operations. In the long run, such an erosion is dangerous," he said.

Dr Olejnik also said it is a "testament of our times" that cyber is now considered as a domain of operations and that anyone can join the fight online.

Kristopher started hacking Russia when it launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022, and says he has devoted himself to the cause and sacrificed a lot.

"I've lost my job doing this and spent all my life savings in pursuit of a victory for Ukraine," he said from his home office. "This award is a real morale-booster," he said.

The awards do not state which cyber-attacks were most useful, but Voltage has three in mind as the most likely candidates.

At the start of the invasion in 2022, One Fist spent months mapping out the physical and cyber-locations of hundreds of publicly viewable CCTV cameras in Ukraine. It was discovered that Russian forces were using them to monitor troops, so his team helped get the cameras switched off.

Conversely, it was One Fist that hacked into cameras in occupied Crimea to catalogue Russian tanks and equipment being moved over the Kerch bridge.

^{One Fist hacked cameras to allow Ukraine to watch Russian equipment transport}

And most recently, in January, Kristopher and others also successfully hacked into a prominent Russian weapons-maker and stole 100 gigabytes of private data, which led to a public celebration from the Ukrainian authorities.

"The array of information transferred to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine contains drawings, specifications, patents, software referring to both existing and promising military developments," the announcement said.

Ukraine added that the data stolen was a "significant blow" to Moscow and worth $1.5bn (�1.2bn) - although it did not say how this figure was reached

The Ukraine conflict prompted a surge of cyber-activity - mostly from supporters of Ukraine. Groups like the Anonymous collective targeted Russia with disruptive and low-level hacks that Russia largely brushed off.

In some instances, TV and radio stations were hijacked and news websites defaced.

Russian authorities too have been accused of working with vigilante hacking groups like Killnet to attack Ukraine, but has never admitted having any relationship to the gangs.

^{Killnet's leader denies working with Russian authorities on hacks against Ukraine}

Most of the vigilante hacking activity on both sides dissipated after the first year as the war ground on. But One Fist has kept attacking Russia and increasingly worked closely with the Ukrainian forces on choosing targets.

Emily Taylor, chief executive of Oxford Information Labs and editor of Chatham House Cyber Policy journal, agrees that the hacking awards are a landmark moment that might shift thinking about how cyber volunteers are used in conflicts.

"Governments usually discourage non-state actors from taking direct action in the cyber-domain, for fear of escalation or unintended consequences, but wartime is often a period of extraordinary technological innovation, and the Ukraine invasion is no exception," she said.

"Sometimes these events force a reconsideration of issues that have previously been taboo."

Kristopher says his team has built up a strong relationship with the Ukrainian military. "They send us ideas and we send them options but they don't ever give us any help or funding as I think that would cross some sort of line," he said.

Kristopher recognises that receiving military awards is controversial, but is determined to keep hacking for Ukraine.

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“Wake up, no one will protect you.” The head of Tatarstan called on enterprises in the region not to rely on air defense - and to independently defend themselves from drone attacks
The head of Tatarstan, Rustam Minnikhanov, called on the heads of the republic's enterprises not to rely on Russian air defense forces and to independently defend themselves from drone attacks. His statement at the republican energy forum was quoted by the website “116.ru”

During his speech, Minnikhanov commented on the Ukrainian drone attacks on Elabuga and Nizhnekamsk on April 2. He noted that “the most affected areas” are energy and related production.

“Apparently, due to the fact that Uraza and fasting are Orthodox, the Almighty gives us a sign: wake up, guys, no one will protect you except yourself. <…> There is no need to wait for missile defense to work; it solves other problems. “We must decide on our own, every enterprise, every municipality, every city,” said the head of Tatarstan, addressing the heads of enterprises in the region. However, he did not specify how enterprises should repel attacks.

Minnikhanov also called on emergency services to always be ready, to have supplies and teams.

• On the morning of April 2, drones attacked enterprises in Tatarstan for the first time since the start of the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine. In Nizhnekamsk, drones attacked the Taneco oil refinery, a subsidiary of Tatneft. In Yelabuga, a dormitory for students at the Alabuga Polytech College was damaged as a result of the attack. According to the authorities, 14 people were injured, including citizens of Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, and South Sudan. Two of the victims are minors.
• The damaged Alabuga Polytech dormitory is reportedly located a few hundred meters from the plant where the Shahed-type kamikaze drones that Russia uses to attack Ukraine are assembled.
• Ukrainian publications, citing sources, reported that the drone attack on enterprises in Tatarstan was an operation of military intelligence of Ukraine and the SBU.

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Zelenskyy: We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening address on April 3 that Ukraine clearly understands why Russia will be drafting soldiers into its army.

Source: Zeleskyyʼs address

Quote: "We are gradually planning our work with our partners for the coming months – both May and June should be a time of activity for the sake of Ukraine, for the sake of achieving our goals in this war.

We clearly understand what Russia is preparing for, what they want, and what they will be drafting soldiers into their army for. And we, all of us, our partners, must have a strong response to Russian operations – any Russian operations. We must win this war. This is Ukraine's historic chance to thwart Russian revanchism, and we must seize it. For the sake of reliable security for our children."

Details: Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said he had listened to a long and detailed report of Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi on actions on key fronts and on protection and strengthening of positions. They also discussed key defence and active action plans for the near future.

Note: Zelenskyy said Russia is preparing to mobilise 300,000 military personnel by 1 June.

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MP's demand names of Dutch politicans possibly bribed by Russia; Tricky, Minister says
The Tweede Kamer wants to know as soon as possible whether, and if so, which Dutch politicians have been bribed by Russia. As long as this information is unknown, suspicions will hang over the political parties and the European elections in June, and that is harmful, the parliamentarians agreed in a debate on the Czech Republic's revelation of a Russian disinformation and bribery campaign, NOS reports.

That’s easier said than done, outgoing Minister Hugo de Jonge of Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations told the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament. It concerns information from the secret services - the AIVD in this case - and they decide for themselves what they disclose.

On Thursday, Czech authorities announced that they exposed a pro-Russian disinformation campaign. According to them, Russia was using pro-Russian politicians in several European countries and the news site Voice of Europe to plant questions about Ukraine’s “territorial integrity, sovereignty, and freedom” in people’s minds ahead of the European Elections in June.

The Czech Republic did not reveal the names of Dutch people involved and does not intend to do so “at the moment,” De Jonge said in the debate. The Dutch intelligence service AIVD is in contact with its counterpart in the Czech Republic. But, the Cabinet and the AIVD do not intend to say what information they have received.

FvD leader Thierry Baudet and MEP Marcel de Graaff have often given interviews to Voice of Europe. The party is also notoriously reluctant to publish its financial accounts. Much to the Tweede Kamer’s disappointment, Baudet refused to participate in the debate on Tuesday. He said his party was the subject of a witch hunt and called the debate “unworthy” of the Tweede Kamer. “Bickering and speculation that is based on nothing is reserved for the pub or the kitchen table.”

PVV leader Geert Wilders acknowledged that he and his party are mentioned in suspicions because of his former close ties with the Putin government and Russian parliament. He again denied the allegations and said he is resigned to the fact that nothing will be made public for now. “What we don’t want is to get in the way of the secret services if they possibly want to tackle a corrupt person,” he said in the debate.

The Tweede Kamer has little choice but to wait and see what the AIVD will reveal. Several parliamentarians made proposals to make the rules on financial donations to political parties stricter. But most don’t think it will stop this kind of bribery.

The Dutch intelligence services’ processes and methods are all strictly confidential in the interest of national security. The only politicians to receive information about some of their activities are the members of the Stiekem Committee - the parliamentary faction leaders of the five largest parties. Currently that’s Geert Wilders (PVV), Frans Timmermans (GroenLinks-PvdA), Sophie Hermans (VVD), Pieter Omtzigt (NSC), and Jan Paternotte (D66). The word “stiekem” translates to “secret.”

The information they receive is strictly confidential and may not be shared with the other members of their party or used in parliamentary debates. It is possible that the AIVD informed the Stiekem Committee about Dutch politicians who form part of the Russian disinformation campaign, but the members can’t say anything about it.

According to NOS, it is for this reason that it has sometimes been suggested that the Stiekem Committee be abolished because what good is information that can’t be used? But the alternative is that no one will know anything about what the intelligence services are doing.

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Seoul seizes cargo ship sailing from North Korea to Russia — report
South Korean authorities have seized a vessel believed to be in breach of UN sanctions against North Korea, Yonhap news agency reported on April 3, citing unnamed sources.

The 3,000-ton cargo ship DEYI was en route from North Korea to Russia via China when South Korean forces intercepted it near Yeosu, on the peninsula's southern coast.

The vessel's 13-person crew, including the Chinese captain and various Chinese and Indonesian crew members, reportedly refused to stop the ship when approached, leading to its forced redirection and docking near Busan.

Commenting on the incident, a South Korean Foreign Ministry official said, "Our government is working closely with the United States to investigate the suspected breach of UN Security Council resolutions by the ship in question."

Officials have yet to confirm whether the ship has violated sanctions, as the crew has denied access to the vessel's cargo hold, the report adds.

Under UN Resolution 2397, adopted in 2017, nations have the right to detain, inspect, and seize any vessel within their territorial waters if it is suspected of engaging in illegal activities with North Korea.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 19:53 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://english.nv.ua/nat(...)report-50406922.html
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Chinese farmers are quietly “taking over” Vladivostok
Despite the fact that Beijing and Moscow are actively promoting their “borderless partnership” on the international stage, China has turned its attention to the Russian Far East. The border region of Primorsky Krai has seen a large influx of Chinese farmers, and their growing economic presence is beginning to surpass the local population. Source: Newsweek

Read also: China will use the port of Vladivostok for domestic trade

The area, which was ceded to Russia by the Qing dynasty in 1860, is attracting attention from Beijing's political circles and Chinese nationalists. Last year, the government stipulated that maps of the country must include Haishenwai (the Chinese name for Vladivostok, the administrative center of Primorsky Krai) and the Chinese names for seven other Far Eastern Russian localities. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, believes that Ukraine has supposedly “always been part of Russia,” similarly, Chinese leader Xi Jinping puts the restoration of lost territories at the forefront of his program for the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.”

China promises to annex autonomous Taiwan in the future. It also claims much of the South China Sea, where Beijing's "historic rights" clash with claims from the Philippines and other neighbors.

In light of the dire economic conditions in Hegang, a former coal mining town in northeast China, more Chinese farmers are considering moving to Russia.

Concerns about the “yellow menace” in the Russian Far East are not new. It has existed for decades, if not centuries, due to significant population imbalances on both sides of the border.

The concern is that the arrival of the Chinese could undermine Russian control.

A 2021 study published in the American Journal of Economics and Sociology found that in some cases, the presence of Chinese farms and the sale of businesses to Chinese owners led to higher land prices through increased competition.

Russia, which is dependent on the yuan, would be in a difficult position in the event of any diplomatic or trade conflicts between the two countries, and already finds itself more susceptible to economic difficulties. Moscow is also exposed to influence from third parties due to its dependence on Beijing. For example, Russian companies with business ties to China faced payment problems after Washington imposed secondary sanctions on banks that facilitate the transport of prohibited goods.

Let us recall that Chinese nationalists demanded that Russia return Vladivostok.

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F-16 fighter jets ‘no longer relevant’, says Ukrainian military official
American-made F-16 fighter jets due to arrive in Ukraine this summer are “no longer relevant”, a senior Ukrainian military official has said.

Ukraine’s air force is expected to take delivery of the first tranche of a dozen aircraft in July after Ukrainian pilots have been trained and the country’s airfields prepared.

Before their arrival, the Western warplanes had been held up by some as a potential war-winner that could turn the tide of the conflict in Kyiv’s favour.

“Often, we just don’t get the weapons systems at the time we need them – they come when they’re no longer relevant,” a Ukrainian high-ranking officer told the Politico news website.

“Every weapon has its own right time. F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024.”

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Ukrainian forces are being beaten back by their Russian enemy across almost the entire 600-mile front line – a situation blamed on worsening ammunition shortages, partly caused by a blocked $60 billion US aid package.

This has increased calls by Kyiv for more traditional weapons, such as air defence interceptors, artillery howitzers and shells.

“We need howitzers and shells, hundreds of thousands of shells, and rockets,” the officer said, estimating that Ukraine needed four million shells and two million drones.

Ahead of his arrival in Brussels for a meeting to mark the 75th anniversary of Nato, Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian foreign minister, called for Kyiv’s Western allies to prioritise sending more US-made Patriot air defence batteries.

“Seven Patriot systems would be optimal, but let me be modest,” he said. “With five Patriot batteries, we can defend the main industrial cities against Russian missiles.”

The US, Netherlands and Germany have so far contributed several of the systems, which are estimated to cost about $1 billion each.

“And once we’ve taken the threat away, the Patriots go back to where they were stationed.”

But after a meeting with his Polish counterpart, Radek Sikorski, Mr Kuleba upgraded his demand to “all Patriot batteries available around the world that can be provided to Ukraine must be delivered to Ukraine”.

“Ukraine is currently the only country in the world that defends itself against ballistic missile attacks almost every day,” the Ukrainian official added.

At their meeting in Brussels, Nato foreign ministers are discussing a $100 billion, five-year military aid package for Ukraine.

The Telegraph reported on Tuesday that the scheme, dubbed Nato Mission Ukraine, was being drawn up to shield Kyiv from the “winds of political change” in the United States.

Jens Stoltenberg, the alliance’s secretary-general, told reporters on Wednesday: “What is obvious is that we need new and more money for Ukraine and we need it over many years.”

He went on to warn again that the political dispute in the US Congress was helping Vladimir Putin’s forces seize Ukrainian territory.

“That’s one of the reasons why the Ukrainians have to ration the number of artillery shells, why they have problems standing up against the Russian force with overwhelming military power because they’re able to outgun them with more ammunition and more artillery,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

Meanwhile, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, has warned Russia is preparing to mobilise 300,000 soldiers by June.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:16 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/f-16-fighter-jets-no-131449451.html
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Special forces show enemy vehicles, ammo depots being destroyed by Brimstone missiles
The Special Operations Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed an enemy ammunition depot, two tank transporter tractors and two Russian infantry fighting vehicles.
According to Ukrinform, the Command of the Special Operations Forces reported this on Facebook and posted a relevant video.

🔥 Оператори ССО ЗС України знищили танкові тягачі, БМП та військовослужбовців противника

While performing combat missions in one of the operational areas, FPV drone operators of the eighth regiment of the Special Operations Forces spotted and destroyed two tank transporter tractors, one infantry fighting vehicle and eliminated two Russian invaders.

Brimstone missiles were used to destroy one infantry fighting vehicle with its crew and a field ammunition depot.

As reported by Ukrinform, soldiers of the eighth regiment of the Special Operations Forces destroyed a mortar position and eliminated five Russian servicemen using FPV drones.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:22 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Dat lijkt me nonsens.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:25 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Ga er maar gewoon vanuit dat hij uit frustratie spreekt dat het zo lang duurt. Natuurlijk zullen de F-16s bruikbaar zijn. Alleen hij heeft wel gelijk dat Rusland meer dan genoeg tijd heeft gekregen om voorbereidingen te treffen. En dat de levering al meerdere keren uitgesteld is om wat voor reden dan ook.

En eerlijk gezegd zal het mij niks verbazen als straks de door de F-16 gebruikte wapens de bottleneck zullen zijn. Dat ook de benodigde raketten maar mondjesmaat aangeleverd gaan worden zoals nu gebeurd met de normale raketten en wapentuig.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:30 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Veel standaard F16 spul is al Oekra�ne. Daar maak ik me niet zo druk over.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:30 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Veel standaard F16 spul is al Oekra�ne. Daar maak ik me niet zo druk over. En qua voorbereidingen? Wat precies? Drones ter grootte van een Cessna vliegen dwars door de Russische luchtverdediging.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:34 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Als de bange puppies in het witte huis verkondigen, nee, je krijgt geen BVR raketten, want anders krijgen wij een nuke op ons hoofd! - zakt de toegevoegde waarde naar ongeveer: niet anders dan een mig29.

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Guns: 1 � 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan 6-barrel rotary cannon, 511 rounds

Hardpoints: 2 � wing-tip air-to-air missile launch rails, 6 � under-wing, and 3 � under-fuselage pylon (2 of 3 for sensors) stations with a capacity of up to 17,000 lb (7,700 kg) of stores

Rockets:
4 � LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19/7 � Hydra 70 mm/APKWS[288] rockets, respectively)
4 � LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19 � CRV7 70 mm rockets)
4 � LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4 � Zuni 127 mm rockets)

Missiles:
Air-to-air missiles:
6 � AIM-9 Sidewinder
6 � AIM-120 AMRAAM
6 � IRIS-T
6 � Python-4
6 � Python-5
2 � AIM-7 Sparrow[286][287] and 4 � AIM-9 Sidewinder

Air-to-surface missiles:
6 � AGM-65 Maverick
2 � AGM-88 HARM
AGM-158 JASSM (JASSM)
4 � AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)

Anti-ship missiles:
2 � AGM-84 Harpoon
4 � AGM-119 Penguin
Joint Strike Missile (to be integrated)

Bombs:
8 � CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition
8 � CBU-89 Gator mine
8 � CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon
4 � Mark 84 general-purpose bombs
8 � Mark 83 GP bombs
12 � Mark 82 GP bombs
8 � GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB)
4 � GBU-10 Paveway II
6 � GBU-12 Paveway II
4 � GBU-24 Paveway III
4 � GBU-27 Paveway III
4 � Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) series
Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD)
B61 nuclear bomb
B83 nuclear bomb

Others:
ADM-160 MALD[285]
SUU-42A/A flares/infrared decoys dispenser pod and chaff pod or
AN/ALQ-131 & AN/ALQ-184 ECM pods on centerline or
LANTIRN, Lockheed Martin Sniper XR & Litening targeting pods or
AN/ASQ-213 HARM targeting system (HTS) Pod (typically configured on station 5L with Sniper XR pod on station 5R) or
Up to 3 � 300/330/370/600 US gallon Sargent Fletcher drop tanks for ferry flight/extended range/loitering time or
UTC Aerospace DB-110 long range EO/IR sensor pod on centerline

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:40 schreef QAnonn het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:35 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Die F-16s mogen niet op Russisch grondgebied gebruikt gaan worden. En hoe dat precies zit met de raketten weet ik niet.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:44 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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D'r zijn helikopters en vliegtuigen door Patriots neergehaald op 80-100km van de grens. Maar om eerlijk te zijn denk ik dat missies ver in Rusland ook niet zo heel slim zijn. Ik denk dat naar Moermansk vliegen om daar de luchtbasis te bombarderen geen goed plan is. Te gevaarlijk. Als je een drone verliest is dat jammer. Maar een F16 met piloot kwijtraken is iets anders.....

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An undisclosed type of air-launched cruise missile with a range of up to 300 miles will be among the munitions delivered to Ukraine alongside its long-awaited F-16 fighters, according to Lt. Gen. Serhii Naev, the commander of the Joint Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

In a statement reported by the Ukrainian RBC news outlet, Naev said that the deliveries of F-16s were expected to be accompanied by air-to-ground missiles to arm them, with a range of “300-500 kilometers” — 186 to 310 miles. Naev added that the weapons were expected to arrive in “further military aid packages,” but provided no more details.

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As Zelensky’s party falters, Ukrainian parliament drifts to standstill
In recent months, Ukraine’s parliament is drifting to a standstill, as the government struggles to gather necessary votes during sessions.

The reason is not political disagreement over pending legislation, but a general sense of frustration among parliament’s members, according to experts and lawmakers who spoke to the Kyiv Independent. Some of them asked not to be named to avoid political retribution.

Lawmakers cited different reasons for their dissatisfaction, including increased restrictions on their travel abroad, poor communication or pressure from other government bodies, growing concentration of power in the President’s Office, and being blamed for unpopular policies by their constituencies or other government officials.

The two most commonly cited reasons are the travel restrictions, and a general breakdown in the relationship between parliament and other branches of the government.

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Some lawmakers feel Ukraine’s government is shifting responsibility onto parliament for unpopular legislation, said Dmytro Natalukha, a member of the Servant of the People majority party and chairman of the parliamentary Economic Committee.

“There appears a growing feeling that parliament is now the ultimate scapegoat of all the bad things that are happening in the country, which a lot of my colleagues consider unfair,” said Natalukha, adding that lawmakers “don’t want to be the one who will press the button and then take all the blame.”

Currently, bills vital to the war effort – such as the extension of martial law every three months and reforms necessary for EU integration – still pass with broad support. However, domestic issues such as tax reform are becoming increasingly stalled by a lack of votes.

With critical legislation on the agenda for 2024, including an upcoming bill to mobilize more soldiers, leaders in parliament have acknowledged the worsening situation.

Davyd Arakhamia, the head of President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People majority faction in the Verkhovna Rada, warned in January of a “looming crisis” in parliament during a discussion with media groups, citing a lack of unity and a drop in the number of parliamentary seats filled.

Arakhamia did not respond to questions for this article, sent to him via LinkedIn and WhatsApp.

Falling number of parliamentarians
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, has a record low 401 members. By law there should be 450.

Half of Ukraine’s lawmakers are elected by distributing seats proportionally among parties to fill from party lists. When such members resign or leave their posts, they can be replaced by their party without the need for another election.

The other half, however, are elected individually and can only be replaced through new elections, which are suspended under martial law. When lawmakers in these seats leave their posts, the seats remain vacant.

After the most recent elections in 2019, only 424 seats were filled, due to the impossibility of holding elections in Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia, and occupied territories in eastern Ukraine. Since 2022, that number has continued to drop.

Immediately after the full-scale invasion, 11 pro-Russia political parties were banned, and four lawmakers were stripped of their parliamentary mandate. Other members have since resigned, left parliament due to scandals or criminal cases, been promoted to cabinet positions, and a few have died.

Many more have requested to resign from their positions, but parliament has decided to block further resignations unless due to medical necessity, Arakhamia said in December.

If not for the war and martial law, fresh elections would have been held in October 2023. Instead, lawmakers are in their positions indefinitely.

Despite the drop in number of the total lawmakers, experts note that Zelensky’s ruling party still holds a supermajority of 235 seats, while only 226 are needed to pass most legislation.

“The formal number of parliament members is not as important as how much they are actually present in the session hall,” said Oleksandr Salizhenko, a parliamentary analyst for the non-profit political watchdog Chesno.

Though lawmakers can be blocked from resigning, they can’t be forced to vote. If parliamentary members from the Servant of the People faction attended and voted during sessions along party lines, the party would have the numbers to pass desired legislation. But at the most recent March 28 parliamentary session, only 154 members of the faction were registered as present for voting.

“Therefore, I would rather describe it as a crisis in the Servant of the People party, not a crisis of parliament,” Salizhenko said.

While most agree that there is not a full-blown parliamentary crisis yet, it is clear that members of parliament are dissatisfied.

Ihor Chalenko, a political scientist who heads the Ukrainian think tank Center for Analysis and Strategies, describes the slowdown in legislative activity as a form of protest.

“The morale of the lawmakers is really depressed today,” said Chalenko. “We see that there are real problems with the sufficiency of votes for certain bills.”

‘It is better to not show up’
According to the parliament members and political experts, there is no single reason for the breakdown.

One of the most contentious issues has been limitations on lawmakers traveling abroad.

Already, all Ukrainian men 18-60 years old are banned from leaving Ukraine during martial law, with special exceptions.

An additional ban by the National Security and Defense Council in January 2023 further restricted all top officials – including lawmakers regardless of gender – from traveling abroad unless receiving special permission for state business, after a deputy prosecutor general abused travel privileges to go on vacation. The scandal sparked outrage among Ukrainians.

However, members of parliament have reported cases where they were refused permission even for official business abroad.

Parliamentary diplomacy has been effective in swaying allies to provide support, and limiting travel is “damaging for our country’s war effort,” said Natalukha, the Economic Committee chair. “Why would one want to limit the possibility to communicate with allies?”

Some lawmakers the Kyiv Independent spoke with have called the limits “too careful,” but others directly attribute decisions about travel to political punishment connected with how they vote.

Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the liberal Holos party and first deputy head of the Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy, said he was forbidden from visiting Brussels despite an invitation from a European Parliament member after he voted against a draft law championed by the President’s Office. He said he was also warned he would not be given permission to travel to Paris for a meeting of the OECD Global Parliamentary Network.

After other members who voted in favor of the law were allowed to travel, he understood the decisions as an attempt by the President’s Office to exert undue influence on his legislative activity.

When parliament members feel their ability to travel for work depends on their voting, “they are just like hostages,” Zhelezniak told the Kyiv Independent. This contributes to demoralization and absenteeism: “It’s better to not show up, than to vote negatively and be punished.”

Several lawmakers from opposition parties and the Servant of the People party echoed Zhelezniak’s sentiment to the Kyiv Independent, many on the condition of anonymity due to fear of retaliation, saying that they feel increasingly powerless in the face of the influential President’s Office.

Outside the parliament, experts have a similar observation.

“There is a feeling that the parliament is effectively on pause and there is a perceived conflict between the president and the parliament,” said Ukrainian political scientist and commentator Mykola Davydiuk.

Iryna Pobedonostseva, a representative for the President’s Office, said in a statement that charges of the office’s interference in lawmakers’ foreign travel “do not correspond to reality,” and noted that parliament’s leadership is responsible for travel approval.

“The position of the Office of the President is very clear – during a full-scale war, all representatives of all branches of government, including legislative, executive and judicial, as well as absolutely all officials in the field of public administration must work at 100%,” the statement said.

Some in Zelensky’s party feel the blame lies outside of the government, however. Mykyta Poturaiev, chair of the Humanitarian and Information Policy Committee, believes negative public opinion against parliament is a bigger driver of a lack of participation for some of his colleagues.

“I understand that in every country people don't like parliaments,” said Poturaiev. But after voting on historically vital laws for national security, defense, and European integration, “you don’t feel support from the media, you don’t feel support from the population.”

“How should they feel when they read about themselves, that they are all bastards, corrupt bastards?”

In December, a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology found that only 15% of Ukrainians trusted parliament, down from 35% the prior year and the lowest among government bodies in the poll.

Additionally, what it means to be a parliamentarian has changed since the elections in 2019. Parliamentary immunity, which required approval by parliament before arresting or charging lawmakers, was abolished later that year. And efforts to bring Ukraine up to European standards have led to increased financial monitoring and reporting requirements on lawmakers and their families.

“If earlier politicians were sure that they had certain protection against law enforcement and anti-corruption bodies, now there is no such thing,” said Salizhenko, of Chesno.

This heightened scrutiny has contributed to the fall in parliament’s reputation, as several MPs have been implicated in corruption cases since the last election, including being caught attempting to solicit or take bribes. However, parliament is not the only government body to be hit by recent corruption scandals, with high-profile cases also hitting the Defense Ministry, President’s Office, and the Cabinet.

Salizhenko also notes that journalists have not been allowed in parliament during the war, due to security reasons. “The presence of journalists, as it was before the full-scale invasion, kept all the MPs on their toes, and this at least stimulated them to attend meetings and work.”

‘There is no magic pill to solve this problem’
Though many agree that travel restrictions are currently a key sticking point, “there is no magic pill to solve this problem,” said Zhelezniak of the Holos party. “There are a lot of small things, which can be combined.”

To reach enough votes, Zelensky’s party faces a choice: increase cooperation across party lines or resolve dissatisfaction within their majority.

Natalukha believes the core issue is a “crisis in communication” across the government that requires more joint cooperation between parliament and other government bodies.

The Office of the President and cabinet officials have held meetings with parliamentary members in recent months to improve relations, but these have yet to bear fruit. Some members of parliament left the meetings feeling they were still not being heard, according to attendees and sources who spoke to them after the meetings.

Two years after the full-scale invasion, “politics has returned to parliament,” said Chalenko, of the Center for Analysis and Strategies. The ruling party can no longer count on legislation sailing through easily, as it had in the immediate aftermath of the February 2022 invasion.

But parliament’s ability to function as a “island of stability” is vital to the country’s future, said Chalenko.

"There is really a lot that now depends on the productivity of the Ukrainian parliament itself,” he told the Kyiv Independent. “Let me remind you that our state is still a parliamentary-presidential one, despite the enormous influence of the current president, Zelensky. Therefore, the work of parliament must continue.”

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Russia's Air Force still strong with 100 Su-35 jets, 7 A-50U radar aircraft, Ukraine's intel says
The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense noted that several Russian A-50Us are under repair

The Russian army still has about 100 Su-35 multipurpose fighters, more than 100 Su-34 fighter-bombers, as well as seven A-50U long-range radar detection and guidance aircraft, reported the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense in response to a request from ArmyInform.

Military intelligence reported that three A-50U aircraft are under repair, and Moscow is also trying to modernize them.

According to intelligence data, work is being carried out at the facilities of Taganrog Beriev Aviation Scientific and Technical Complex and the Aviastar Aircraft Plant in Ulyanovsk.

On February 29, the Defense Forces shot down three Russian planes. In the morning it became known that one Russian fighter-bomber Su-34 was shot down on the eastern axis. Oleschuk later stated that the Armed Forces shot down two more Su-34s near Avdiivka and Mariupol.

On March 1, a Russian plane was shot down near Mariupol, which was trying to hit Ukrainian positions with guided aerial bombs.

On March 2, Air Force soldiers attacked two more Russian warplanes.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:16 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/f-16-fighter-jets-no-131449451.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

quote:

F-16s were needed in 2023; they won’t be right for 2024,” he said.

And that’s because, according to this officer, Russia is ready to counter them: “In the last few months, we started to notice missiles being fired by the Russians from Dzhankoy in northern Crimea, but without the explosive warheads. We couldn’t understand what they were doing, and then we figured it out: They’re range-finding,” he said. The officer explained that Russia’s been calculating where best to deploy its S-400 missile and radar systems in order to maximize the area they can cover to target the F-16s, keeping them away from the front lines and Russia’s logistical hubs.

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Top Republican Says Party Base 'Infected' by Russian Propaganda
Russian propaganda pushed by the Kremlin has "infected" part of the Republican base, a senior GOP congressman has said, as indications grow that a vital U.S. military package for Ukraine will come up for a vote with U.S. lawmakers this month.

"I think Russian propaganda has made its way into the United States, unfortunately, and it's infected a good chunk of my party's base," House Foreign Affairs Committee chair and Texas Republican, Michael McCaul, told Puck News.

SPOILER

quote:

A new tranche of military, economic and humanitarian aid for Ukraine, worth around $60 billion, has been ensnared in Congress for months by infighting, causing deep concerns in Kyiv as Russian forces inch westward and gain territory while Ukrainian forces contend with shortages along the frontlines.

The U.S. aid is the backbone of support flowing into Ukraine to sustain its war effort against Russia, now well past the two-year mark. Aid from other sources, like several European nations, is dwarfed by the contributions from the U.S., and Russia has mobilized its defense industry to keep its own fight going.

The Biden administration managed to drum up $300 million in additional aid for Ukraine in mid-March, but has looked on with frustration at the Republican-controlled House of Representatives stalling the fresh aid package.

Newsweek has contacted the GOP for comment on this story.

"We really need Congress to pass the supplemental budget," Pentagon Press Secretary Pat Ryder told reporters late last month. "That is the route to ensuring that Ukraine has the support that it needs and the volume of support that it needs to continue the fight."

Without the aid, Ukraine has been clear, the picture for the rest of the year's fighting is dire. "If there is no U.S. support, it means that we have no air defense, no Patriot missiles, no jammers for electronic warfare, no 155-milimetre artillery rounds," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told The Washington Post in an interview published in late March.

"It means we will go back, retreat, step by step, in small steps," he said. Should the frontlines not hold out because of shortages, he added, "the Russians could go to the big cities."

"The delay in passing the supplemental has undoubtedly emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin and his regime," the U.S. think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said in December. Anxieties in Kyiv have only worsened in the months since, particularly as it prepares for a Russian summer offensive starting as early as May.

"I have to explain to them what's at stake, why Ukraine is in our national security interest," McCaul said. Should Ukraine fall, the Kremlin will turn to neighboring nations like Moldova and Georgia, and then look to the Baltic region on NATO's eastern flank, he said. "So I just think it's preventative."

Pressure from former president and current presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has halted the aid's progress on the House floor. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson—contending with his own precarious position—is now expected to bring a vote on Ukraine funding when Congress returns from recess next week.

"His commitment is to put it on the floor after Easter," McCaul told CBS News on March 24.

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State Emergency Service: Russian double-tap attacks have killed 91 first responders, injured 348
Russia's "double-tap" attacks against Ukraine have killed 91 first responders and injured 348 since the start of the full-scale war, Suspilne reported on April 4, citing information from the State Emergency Service.

The Kyiv Independent has previously reported on Russia's use of so-called "double-tap" strikes, in which there is an initial strike followed by a second - with a delay - so that it can potentially wound or kill first responders.

Most recently, Russian forces used such a tactic in a drone attack against Kharkiv overnight on April 4, killing three State Emergency Service employees: 52-year-old Vladyslav Lohinov, 32-year-old Serhii Baidalinov, and 41-year-old Volodymyr Matiushenko.

Another rescue worker was injured and is in serious condition, the State Emergency Service said. The attack also killed one other resident and injured 12.

In March, first responders and police officers were among the killed and injured in a double-tap missile attack against the southern port city of Odesa.

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Kremlin says Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation"
MOSCOW - Russia and NATO are now in "direct confrontation", the Kremlin said as the U.S.-led alliance marked its 75th anniversary on Thursday.

NATO's successive waves of eastern enlargement are a fixation of President Vladimir Putin, who went to war in Ukraine two years ago with the stated aim of preventing the alliance from coming closer to Russia's borders. Instead, the war has galvanised NATO, which has expanded again with the entry of Finland and Sweden.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "In fact, relations have now slipped to the level of direct confrontation."

NATO was "already involved in the conflict surrounding Ukraine (and) continues to move towards our borders and expand its military infrastructure towards our borders", he said.

Putin has repeatedly said that Russia was cheated by the West in the aftermath of the Cold War as Moscow's Warsaw Pact alliance was disbanded but NATO moved eastwards by taking in former pact members and the three Baltic states that had been part of the Soviet Union.

The West rejects that version, saying NATO is a defensive alliance and joining it was a democratic choice by countries that had shaken off decades of Communist rule.

NATO says it is helping Ukraine fight for its survival in the face of Russian aggression, and has provided Kyiv with advanced weapons, training and intelligence.

Russia says that makes NATO de facto a party to the conflict. Putin said in February that a direct conflict between Russia and NATO would mean the planet was one step away from World War Three. REUTERS

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 21:48 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.straitstimes.(...)ntation-kremlin-says
[..]

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 22:25 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

Update from Ukraine | Ukraine will cut the Kerch Brigre soon Intelligence says | Glory to Ukraine

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 22:43 schreef Jahr00n het volgende:

[..]
Wat is het toch met die brug de hele tijd. Je zou denken dat het slopen daarvan niet zo moeilijk zou zijn

quote:

Putin denies involvement of Islamic fundamentalists in Moscow concert hall attack
Russian President Vladimir Putin has rejected the idea that the Moscow concert hall terror attack was carried out by Islamic fundamentalists.

Putin commented on the motivations behind the terror attack during a trade union federation congress on Thursday, saying that Russia could “hardly be an object of attack by Islamic fundamentalists”, as it demonstrated “a unique example of interfaith and interethnic unity”.

Putin went on to say that the sole goal of the attack was to “undermine the unity of Russian society”.

Islamic State had previously claimed responsibility for the attack in Crocus City Hall, a concert venue near Moscow, that killed at least 144 people and injured hundreds more.

The Russian authorities had not previously denied the involvement of Islamist movements in the attack, with Putin himself admitting last week that “radical Islamists” were involved in the Crocus City Hall shooting, but indicating that Kyiv and Washington played a part in organising it. Both Ukraine and the US reject these claims as false.

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Smashing Drone Is A $90,000 Sport Plane With A Robot At The Controls
Ukrainian engineers fitted autonomous controls to an A-22 sport plane—and loaded it with explosives

^{Aeroprakt A-22.}

To pull off one of its deepest strikes ever targeting Russia’s strategic industries, the Ukrainian government took a locally-made ultralight sport plane, swapped its manned controls for robotic controls and packed it with explosives.

Video of the emergency response following the Tuesday attack on the Alabuga Special Economic Zone industrial campus, 600 miles from the Ukrainian border, reveals that the drone—possibly two of which struck the campus—is based on an Aeroprakt A-22. A high-wing, single-propeller sport plane with room for two.

That the Ukrainians could convert an A-22 into an explosive drone strongly implies the strike on the Alabuga facility, which reportedly assembles Iranian-designed Shahed drones for Russia’s own war effort, won’t be the last for this new drone type.

The simple, reliable and innocuous A-22 after all lends itself to drone conversion. And equally importantly, it’s made in Ukraine—and it’s affordable at just $90,000 a copy.

SPOILER

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To put that into perspective: an A-22-based drone, capable of traveling 600 miles through Russian air defenses to deliver—with high accuracy—potentially hundreds of pounds of explosives, costs just slightly more than a single American-made Javelin anti-tank missile costs. Ukrainian troops fire Javelins by the hundred.

An A-22 drone is, on a production level, scalable. Thus, “we expect that more attacks will be attempted in the future,” the Ukrainian Conflict Intelligence Team stated after analyzing the Alabuga raid, which reportedly injured 14 people and damaged either the drone factory or a nearby dormitory for workers.

The A-22 is the kind of plane a middle-class hobby pilot might buy for fun jaunts over the local airport. “If you're looking for a rugged aircraft that's easy to handle, has amazing short field performance, yet is capable of cruising at 95-plus knots, while (legally) carrying a good load—you've come to the right place!” Arizona-based Leighnor Aircraft, which deals the A-22 in the United States, boasted on its website.

“Control and safety,” Leighnor stressed. “Stalling is a non-event, even without flaps. ... At slow speeds, the controls are light and effective—[and] at higher speeds they firm-up and make cruising a more relaxed affair.”

“Correctly proofed, metal structures are durable and resistant to the external environment,” the company added. “The best news yet, it all starts for less than $90,000!”

^{Drone controls the U.S. Air Force installed in a Cessna 206}

We don’t know exactly how the Ukrainians transformed the A-22 into a killer drone, but it’s not hard to guess. Remember that, in 2019, the U.S. Air Force stripped the seats and controls out of a 1968-vintage Cessna 206 light plane and installed, in their place, a set of computer-driven servos.

“The system ‘grabs’ the yoke, pushes on the rudders and brakes, controls the throttle, flips the appropriate switches and reads the dashboard gauges the same way a pilot does,” the Air Force Research Laboratories explained. “At the same time, the system uses sensors, like GPS and an inertial measurement unit, for situational awareness and information-gathering. A computer analyzes these details to make decisions on how to best control the flight.”

“Imagine being able to rapidly and affordably convert a general aviation aircraft, like a Cessna or Piper, into an unmanned aerial vehicle, having it fly a mission autonomously, and then returning it back to its original manned configuration,” said Alok Das, an AFRL scientist. “All of this is achieved without making permanent modifications to the aircraft.”

In the case of the A-22 drone, the Ukrainians clearly aren’t worried about uninstalling the autonomous controls. The drone is, in effect, a slow cruise missile. It’s not supposed to return to base.

And as a cruise missile, the A-22 is a real bargain. Counting the price of the new controls and the explosive payload, an A-22 drone might cost a few hundred thousand dollars.

That’s cheaper than Ukraine’s locally-made Neptune cruise missile, which costs around $500,000. And it’s much cheaper than the $3-million Storm Shadow cruise missiles Ukraine has received from the United Kingdom.

As a bonus, an A-22 with its approximately 600-mile range outdistances the Neptune and the Storm Shadow, both of which travel no farther than 200 miles.

The main downside of the sport plane cruise missile is its low speed: at most, 126 miles per hour, compared to the 600 miles per hour a Storm Shadow can sustain.

In theory, that makes an A-22-based drone vulnerable to Russian air defenses. In practice, air defenses are spread thin across the vastness of Russia’s interior. There’s plenty of room for Ukraine’s new cheapo sport-plane drones to roam—and strike.

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Wanted American Man Flees to Russia, Signs Military Contract
A former American city council member who is wanted in the United States on child pornography charges appears to have fled to Russia and joined the Russian military, according to footage shared by regional authorities in the northern Khanty-Mansi autonomous district.

Wilmer Puello-Mota, former city councilor of Holyoke, Massachusetts, reportedly left the United States on Jan. 7 in violation of court orders while being tried in Rhode Island for possession of child pornography.

The Massachusetts-based newspaper The Republican reported last month that people who know Puello-Mota had recognized his voice in a short video showing the capture of the Ukrainian town of Avdiivka in February.

On Wednesday evening, the Khanty-Mansi regional government’s official channel on the Telegram messaging app published a video interview at a military enlistment center with a man identified as former U.S. soldier “Wil.” The man appears to be Puello-Mota.

The Republican said Puello-Mota, 28, was a member of the U.S. National Guard before being separated from the service due to child pornography charges in October 2022.

“An American signed a military contract at the patriots center in Khanty-Mansi,” reads a message accompanying the video on Telegram. “He liberated Avdiivka fighting shoulder-to-shoulder with Russians.”

“I definitely would do it again, I’d go back if I could,” Puello-Mota says in the video as he recounts his experience fighting in an “international brigade” alongside the Russian army.

The Khanty-Mansi government did not mention Puello-Mota by name or the outstanding criminal charges against him in the United States. The video was widely circulated among influential pro-war bloggers on Telegram.

Russian authorities have not commented on Puello-Mota’s reported recruitment into the military.

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"We must support Russia": an American signed a contract for military service at the Patriot Center in Khanty-Mansiysk

"Vil" served in the US Armed Forces, but realizing what was really happening in Ukraine, several months ago he came to the Northern Military District as a volunteer. Together with the Russian guys, shoulder to shoulder, I liberated Avdeevka.

Vila's comrades - military personnel from Pyt-Yakh (KhMAD), a volunteer from Serbia, who also went to the Northern Military District through Yugra, convinced the guy by personal example that it was better to sign a contract for service in the RF Armed Forces in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Arguments: payment of 745k rubles immediately and 150k every two months, full equipment now and supply with everything necessary already in service.

In the video: American "Vil" signs a contract at the Center of Russian Patriots in Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: "this is amazing social support."

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 22:43 schreef Jahr00n het volgende:

[..]
Wat is het toch met die brug de hele tijd. Je zou denken dat het slopen daarvan niet zo moeilijk zou zijn

quote:

In rare call, Russian defense minister warns French counterpart against sending troops to Ukraine
Russia's defense minister warned his French counterpart against deploying troops to Ukraine in a rare phone call Wednesday and noted that Moscow is ready to take part in talks to end the conflict.

Sergei Shoigu told French Defense Minister S�bastien Lecornu that if Paris follows up on its statements about the possibility of sending a French military contingent to Ukraine, “it will create problems for France itself,” according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry. It didn't elaborate.

The conversation followed French President Emmanuel Macron’s comments in February, in which he said that the possibility of Western troops being sent to Ukraine could not be ruled out.

The call marked the first such contact between Russian and French defense ministers since October 2022.

Shoigu noted Moscow's “readiness for dialogue on Ukraine," emphasizing that a planned round of peace talks in Geneva would be “senseless” without Russia's involvement. He added that possible future negotiations could be based on a draft document, which was discussed during Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul in March 2022.

Media reports have said that the draft negotiated in Istanbul weeks after Moscow sent troops into Ukraine envisaged that Ukraine will abandon its bid to join NATO and remain neutral. No final deal was reached and the talks collapsed quickly after.

The Russian Defense Ministry also said in its readout of Wednesday's call that Lecornu offered condolences over the March 22 attack on a suburban Moscow concert hall that killed 145 in the deadliest assault on Russian soil in decades.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his officials have sought to link Ukraine and the West to the attack despite Kyiv's fierce denial, a claim of responsibility issued by an affiliate of Islamic State group and an advance warning that the U.S. had issued to Moscow about imminent attack.

The Russian Defense Ministry said that during the call Lecornu tried to persuade Shoigu that Ukraine and its Western allies had no relation to the concert hall raid, but Shoigu insisted that Moscow has “information about Ukrainian trace in organizing the terror attack.”

“The Kyiv regime does nothing without approval of its Western handlers,” the ministry quoted Shoigu as telling Lecornu.“We hope that the French special services weren't involved in it.”

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Ukrainian man jailed for life over role in Russian strike on pizzeria
Man provided information on restaurant in Kramatorsk that was hit last June, killing 13 people including novelist Victoria Amelina

A Ukrainian man who helped Russia target a missile strike on a pizzeria in the eastern city of Kramatorsk last June has been jailed for life.

Thirteen people including the novelist and poet Victoria Amelina were killed when a Russian ballistic missile tore through the popular Ria Pizza restaurant on the evening of 27 June 2023.

SPOILER

quote:

“A local resident was sentenced to life imprisonment for guiding the occupiers’ missile attack on the pizzeria in Kramatorsk,” the office of Ukraine’s prosecutor general said on Thursday.

It said the man was recruited to carry out the task by an intelligence official in the Russian-controlled part of the eastern Donetsk region, who asked him to gather information about the restaurant.

“The convict agreed to the offer. In the city centre, he noticed cars with military licence plates in the car park and military themselves in the restaurant,” it said.

The man then covertly recorded two videos of the site, which he sent to his handler via Telegram before covering up evidence of his actions, it said.

“The man was sentenced to life imprisonment with confiscation of property for high treason,” it added.

Kyiv has waged an intense crackdown on those suspected of having aided and abetted Russian forces since the invasion in February 2022, many in its east and south.

The UN said last year that Ukraine had opened more than 6,600 criminal cases “against individuals for collaboration and other conflict-related crimes” since the war began.

Also on Thursday, Russian drones struck two apartment buildings and a power plant in Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, killing four people, as the Kremlin continued to escalate its bombardment of civilian areas.

Shahed drones smashed into two apartment buildings in Kharkiv, near the Russian border, which has frequently been targeted. Other drones targeted the power grid.

In recent months, Russian forces have stepped up their aerial barrages of Ukraine, hitting urban areas. The approximately 1,000km (620-mile) frontline is largely deadlocked, but Kyiv officials say Moscow’s troops have recently been probing for Ukrainian weaknesses on ahead of an expected large-scale Russian offensive in the summer.

The Russian strikes hit a multistorey building in Kharkiv twice in quick succession, killing three first responders, local authorities said. Six people were wounded. Another 14-storey building was hit by a drone, killing a 69-year-old woman.

Ukrainian officials have previously accused Russia of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles – the first to draw crews to the scene and the second to wound or kill them. Russians used the same method in Syria’s civil war.

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HIMARS Strikes Enemy Construction Site, Neutralizes Russian Forces

The operators of the 73rd Maritime Special Operations Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine used HIMARS to target the invaders who were constructing fortifications.

This was reported by the press service of the Special Operations Forces (SOF).

During reconnaissance operations in the southern direction, SOF discovered enemy personnel constructing new fortifications and control posts.

The operators transmitted the coordinates for the strike to the missile-artillery unit and adjusted the fire toward the enemy position.

SPOILER

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Ураження особового складу противника

It is reported that, as a result of the strike, 14 Russian servicemen died and 7 were injured.

Judging by the interface, target detection and artillery adjustment were carried out by the Ukrainian Shark reconnaissance drone.

Recently, Militarnyi reported that the operators of the Special Operations Center “East” (former 3rd Special Forces Regiment) targeted HIMARS at the R-330Zh Zhitel electronic jamming system in the Zaporizhzhia region.

Previously, on March 26, 2024, it was reported that in the Zaporizhzhia region, the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces helped destroy the Russian Buk air defense system.

The system was deployed in the field for combat duty but proved incapable of detecting and shooting down the Ukrainian reconnaissance drone.

The destruction of the BUK air defense system by Ukrainian gunners required only one GMLRS rocket fired from HIMARS.

Before that, on March 12, the Special Operations Forces reported on the destruction of the 9A310 TELAR or 9A39 TEL of the Buk-M1 enemy air defense system.

The BUK air defense system component was neutralized by a GMLRS rocket launched from the HIMARS MRL system, following a pattern observed in other similar situations.

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Several Allies may announce supply of air defenses to Ukraine in coming days - Stoltenberg
Several NATO member states may announce the supply of air defense systems to Ukraine within the next few days.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said this in Brussels on Thursday, according to an Ukrinform correspondent.

"Allies understand the urgency and therefore I welcome the announcements from several Allies to provide more ammunition and more types of systems to Ukraine. They also understand the urgency of stepping up when it comes to air defense in particular. And therefore Allies will now go back and look into their inventories, look into if there are any ways they can provide more systems, in particular Patriots. But also, of course, ensure that the systems which are already there have the ammunition but also the spare parts so they can all function as they should. So this is partly a question of systems, batteries, but also very much a question of delivering the interceptors to the systems which are already there [in Ukraine]," Stoltenberg said.

"Several Allies promised that they should make a new effort to find what they can… to look into what more they can deliver. I will not be specific before they are able to conclude, but I just listed several Allies that have just over the last days made new announcements of additional support," he added.

He recalled that a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council was held this morning. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba updated Allies on Ukraine's short and long-term needs and on the progress of its reforms.

According to Stoltenberg, the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine remains serious. Ukraine needs more air defenses, more ammunition, and more aid.

Stoltenberg welcomed that Allies continue to step up with major new announcements. In recent days, this includes nearly EUR 600 million from Germany for the Czech-led artillery initiative, as well as 10,000 drones from the United Kingdom, more missiles and armored vehicles from France, and just yesterday, a new package of aid from Finland worth EUR 188 million.

"But we need to do even more. And we need to put our support on an even firmer and more enduring basis. Yesterday, Allies agreed to move forward with planning for a greater NATO role in coordinating necessary security assistance and training for Ukraine. This work will continue in the weeks ahead," he said.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 23:33 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Het ligt 250km van de front en zoals Delenlill al opmerkte, om zoiets uit te schakelen moet je de pijlers vernietigen.
Het gaat ook om een 18km lange brug, met een trein- en een weggedeelte. Dat maakt het allemaal erg lastig.

De beste mogelijkheid is wellicht als Duitsland alsnog Taurus raketten gaat leveren. Bij nieuwere wapens is er altijd een aanpassingsperiode en dat is de mogelijkheid om een dergelijk doelwit te treffen.
Misschien is het overigens beter de voorkeur te geven aan andere doelwitten gezien deze verbinding na de nieuwe route naar Melitopol niet zo belangrijk meer is.

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Defense Minister of Netherlands comments on �100 billion initiative for Ukraine
Defense Minister of the Netherlands Kajsa Ollongren considers Jens Stoltenberg's proposal to create a NATO fund for Ukraine worth �100 billion "very interesting."
She said this in a comment to a Ukrinform correspondent in The Hague.

Ollongren noted that it is necessary to "study the details of this proposal of the NATO Secretary General".

"We are currently coordinating assistance to Ukraine in the Contact Group on Ukraine's Defense, the so-called Ramstein format. This is a special format in response to Russia's large-scale invasion. Unfortunately, this war is likely to last for a long time, so I am always interested in strengthening the coordination of military assistance to Ukraine. So I think this is a very interesting proposal and I look forward to discussing it in the context of NATO," said the Netherlands Defense Minister.

As reported, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg proposed to create a fund to finance military assistance to Ukraine with a budget of �100 billion for five years.

quote:

When asked which language they speak at home, 12% of Ukrainians said they speak only Russian, while 59% said they speak only Ukrainian, according to a poll by the Sociological Group Rating published on April 4.

A similar survey conducted by Rating in 2022 showed that 18% of respondents spoke exclusively Russian at home. At the end of 2021, shortly before the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, 26% of respondents said they spoke only Russian at home.

The latest survey also showed that 28% of respondents said they speak a mix of both languages at home.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 00:11 schreef ipa84 het volgende:

[..]
Heeft ook een stukje symbolische waarde natuurlijk als ze die brug weten te vernietigen. Maar zoals je al zegt is het maar de vraag of het lukt.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 23:18 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://novayagazeta.eu/a(...)-hall-attack-en-news
[..]

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Trump suffers setbacks in efforts to shut down two of the criminal cases against him
Former President Donald Trump was dealt two major setbacks Thursday in his efforts to derail the criminal cases against him, with judges in the Georgia election interference case and in the federal classified documents case both rejecting bids by the presumptive 2024 GOP presidential nominee to have those cases thrown out.

The judges in both cases have yet to decide other requests put forward by Trump seeking the dismissal of the Georgia and federal prosecutions, which were brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis and special counsel Jack Smith, respectively. But for now, the prospect of the cases eventually going before juries remains alive, and a trial in a third criminal prosecution against Trump – the 2016 campaign hush money case brought in New York – is on track to start this month.

SPOILER

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The New York case aside, the likelihood that the other prosecutions against Trump – which also include a federal election subversion case brought in Washington, DC, by the special counsel – will go to trial before the November election is very much still in the air. Delay has been a key part of the former president’s strategy, and he has had considerable success in prolonging the pretrial litigation in the prosecutions against him. The DC case, which at one point was moving the most quickly among all the Trump criminal cases, is now on hold while the Supreme Court considers whether Trump’s status as a former president grants him immunity from those criminal charges. Those arguments are scheduled for this month.

Trump has made similar presidential immunity arguments in the Georgia case and in the classified documents case. He has pleaded not guilty in all four criminal cases.

In the classified documents case, which is proceeding in south Florida, US District Judge Aileen Cannon on Thursday declined Trump’s request that she dismiss the case based on his arguments that he had the authority to take classified or sensitive documents with him after he left the White House.

Cannon’s short order, however, kept open the possibility that Trump could still use the argument to defend himself at trial or could bring it up in other pre-trial proceedings.

The judge, a Trump appointee, didn’t detail her views on the claims Trump was making, based on a law called the Presidential Records Act, but said Trump’s attorneys did not meet the legal standard to dismiss charges.

She wrote that prosecutors “make no reference to the Presidential Records Act” in the indictment against Trump and did not “rely” on the statute to bring charges.

Cannon also used the order to push back on a request by the special counsel she make a final ruling on whether the theory could be incorporated into the jury instructions of an eventual trial, so that prosecutors could appeal such a ruling to the 11th Circuit. She said that “demand” was “unprecedented and unjust.”

There are still more than a dozen outstanding motions for Cannon to decide, including several other motions to dismiss the case.

Georgia election subversion case judge rejects Trump’s free speech arguments
In the Georgia election subversion case, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee rejected the argument that Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election were protected under the First Amendment.

“The defense has not presented, nor is the Court able to find, any authority that the speech and conduct alleged is protected political speech,” the Atlanta-area judge wrote in his order.

McAfee’s ruling is the latest step inching the state racketeering case against Trump forward. Willis has suggested she would be ready to go to trial as soon as August, but the judge has still not set a trial date for Trump or his remaining 14 co-defendants in the Peach State.

The decision comes as some of Trump’s fellow defendants consider seeking a gag order against Willis after she has made public comments about the case.

McAfee’s refusal to scrap the indictment comes as the free speech defense has repeatedly fallen short in pretrial wrangling in election meddling cases.

“After interpreting the indictment’s language liberally in favor of the State as required at this pretrial stage, the Court finds that the Defendants’ expressions and speech are alleged to have been made in furtherance of criminal activity and constitute false statements knowingly and willfully made in matters within a government agency’s jurisdiction which threaten to deceive and harm the government,” McAfee wrote in his order issued Thursday.

McAfee previously rejected similar First Amendment challenges from other defendants in the Georgia case. In the federal election interference case brought in Washington, DC, by the special counsel, Judge Tanya Chutkan also heard – and rejected – the argument that Trump’s actions should be considered protected political speech.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office declined to comment on Thursday’s order from McAfee.

Trump’s Georgia lawyer Steve Sadow said in a statement that Trump and other defendants “respectfully disagree” with the ruling and will explore their options.

“It is significant that the court’s ruling made clear that defendants were not foreclosed from again raising their ‘as-applied challenges at the appropriate time after the establishment of a factual record,’” Sadow’s statement read.

Cannon defends her approach
While the new order from Cannon in the federal classified documents case was a loss for Trump, prosecutors were also rebuffed in their request for more clarity from the judge about how she views the Presidential Records Act in the context of the case.

Smith made the request when Cannon ordered both sides to submit hypothetical jury instructions that would take into account Trump’s claims of sweeping record-retention authority.

Cannon defended that exercise in Thursday’s order, saying it should not “be interpreted as anything other than what it was: a genuine attempt, in the context of the upcoming trial, to better understand the parties’ competing positions and the questions to be submitted to the jury in this complex case of first impression.”

The post-Watergate PRA governs how records are handled after an administration ends, including the turnover of presidential records to the National Archives. Trump has claimed that under the law, he had the ultimate authority to decide which documents are his personal records that he’s allowed to keep in his possession.

Prosecutors have maintained that the PRA is not relevant to the charges. In court filings, they argued Trump’s theory that the law allowed him to designate the classified records as his personal documents was a “fiction” invented many months after he let office.

Cannon said Thursday that her requests for jury instructions “should not be misconstrued as declaring a final definition on any essential element or asserted defense in this case.”

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 01:28 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Van een foto van vandaag zegt men dat er negen toestellen zouden staan. Maar al raken ze er maar drie is dat natuurlijk nog steeds een prima score.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 01:51 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Met meer dan 60 explosies hebben ze hopelijk een heleboel schade gedaan aan die vliegtuigen en de infrastructuur daar.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 00:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Het is Oekra�ne al twee keer gelukt. Dat de Russen het ding steeds repareren is ook vooral propaganda.

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Ex-Adviser to Zelensky’s Office Arrested, Released on Bail
Artem Shylo, who had also worked for the SBU, is being held for two months on Hr.30 million ($770,000) bail.

The Supreme Anti-Corruption Court on Wednesday evening arrested former advisor to the President’s Office, Artem Shylo, for suspected involvement in a group that allegedly embezzled Hr. 94.7 million ($2.4 million).

The group allegedly charged Ukrzaliznytsia (Ukrainian Railways) nearly twice the going rate for transformers.

Shylo had been detained on Tuesday, April 3, Kyiv Post sources in law enforcement said.

He was either to be held for two months in jail or released on Hr.30 million ($770,000) bail.

The press office of the court stated that he exercised his right to be released on bail. However, the court did not disclose who posted the bail. As a condition of his release, Shylo is prohibited from leaving the country and contacting other individuals involved in the criminal case."

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Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) reported on Telegram Tuesday that it, along with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO), had seven suspects in the corruption scheme which caused losses for Ukrzaliznytsia from 2022-2024.

Shylo allegedly arranged the preparation and submission of a letter “Regarding Threats to State Security” to the State Security Council, which was used to reject offers from other procurement participants with better prices.

As NABU reported, the contract “winner” used a company registered in Bulgaria to purchase transformers from a manufacturer in Uzbekistan and resell them at inflated prices to Ukraine.

According to law enforcement officials, the “winning” company is controlled by a Belarusian citizen with ties to Russia.

According to NABU, the suspects in the scheme included the leader of the group, two more members, the former deputy head of the Ukrzaliznytsia “Production Support Center” branch, Ukrzaliznytsia’s deputy director for economic and information security, a person acting on behalf of the owner of the supplier company, and a subordinate of the group’s leader.

Shylo, who Kyiv Post sources suspected of being the leader of the group, had also worked for the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) – Ukraine’s primary intelligence, law enforcement, and security agency.

Yevhen Cherniak, the head of Global Spirits, the largest alcohol holding in Eastern Europe, celebrated Shylo’s detention, saying that unfounded criminal cases against his company had been approved by Shylo.

“Fabricated and unissued suspicions, over a hundred searches, pressure documented on video, audio, intimidation—and not a single piece of evidence, not a single violation throughout the entire concocted case,” Cherniak wrote on Facebook Tuesday.

“Apart from Global Spirits, another 400 Ukrainian businesses are under pressure from similar cases; now it will definitely become easier. Justice exists; we just need to fight for it…Other corrupt individuals—be prepared. No one will forget or overlook anything; everything will be done according to the law, not quickly, but surely!”

Shylo had served as an adviser to the Office of the President of Ukraine from 2021 to 2022. He had advised Oleg Tatarov, the deputy head of Zelensky’s office.

Kyiv Post sources said that Shylo's arrest might have reverberations for Tatarov and that a segment of the President's Office team might attempt to shield Shylo from prosecution.

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Engels, Saratov region of the Russian Federation -- explosions.

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Tragedy of 128th Brigade: Ukraine's Security Service claims Russia probably located unit by hacking into soldier's phone
The Ukrainian Security Service believes that the Russians obtained information about the date and location of the gathering of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade by hacking a soldier’s phone.

Source: Illia Vitiuk, Head of the Cyber-Security Department at the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU), in an interview with Ukrinform

Quote: "Now, one of the main versions that explains how the attack was made possible is because of technological penetration. This case demonstrates how dangerous it is to use cyber weapons in military operations."

Details: According to Vitiuk, the Russians most likely gained access to the soldier’s messenger apps by distributing phishing messages.

"We found that one of the devices on which there was a Signal messenger received a message about a specific date and place of gathering of military personnel, where the missile struck later."

Background:
• On 4 November, Ukrainska Pravda sources reported that Russia had struck a group of soldiers of the 128th Brigade in a frontline village in Zaporizhzhia Oblast at 10:00 on 3 November. It was reported that more than 20 soldiers may have been killed. The soldiers were supposedly gathered in one place to be presented with awards in honour of Artillery Day.
• On the evening of 4 November, Defence Minister Rustem Umierov instructed the Main Inspectorate of the Ministry of Defence to conduct a full investigation into the tragedy.
• A three-day mourning period was declared in Zakarpattia Oblast because of this strike.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that this tragedy could have been prevented. He stressed that an investigation is underway to provide the families of the deceased soldiers and society with honest answers as to how the tragedy occurred and whose orders were wrong.
• On 6 November, the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade based in Zakarpattia Oblast confirmed the deaths of 19 soldiers from a Russian attack during celebrations near the frontline on 3 November.

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Japanese Executive Found Dead in Moscow Hotel
AJapanese CEO has been found dead in a Moscow hotel room, the latest in a series of executive deaths in Russia.

Acquaintances of Jun Aoki, chairman of Yamaha Music in Russia, had notified police after not hearing from him for several days, according to Baza, a Russian-language Telegram channel with links to the country's security services.

Aoki's body was discovered Tuesday at the five-star Radisson Collection Hotel Moscow, formerly known as the Hotel Ukraina, on Kutuzovsky Prospekt, a major avenue in the Russian capital.

The preliminary cause of death has been listed as acute heart failure, according to Baza. He was 55 years old.

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Aoki had been chairman of Yamaha's Russia operations for at least four years, according to a Yamaha internal note from March 2020. He was also a member of the Moscow Conservatory's Board of Trustees.

Newsweek has not seen any information suggesting that foul play was involved in Aoki's death. Radisson Hotels and Moscow's State Conservatory did not immediately respond to Newsweek's emails for comment.

Aoki joins a growing list of top executives who suddenly turned up dead in and around the Russian capital. Four of these deaths were high-ranking officials of Russia's second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, which called for a quick end to the war in Ukraine shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in 2022. Vitaly Robertus, the energy giant's vice president, was found dead in what appeared to be a suicide.

Multiple Russian Telegram channels, including Baza as well as the independent Russian journalism project Astra, reported that Robertus had been found "hanged" in his Moscow office.

Last October, Vladimir Nekrasov, Lukoil's chairman, died. Acute heart failure was also given as the cause of death.

In September 2022, Lukoil Chairman Ravil Maganov reportedly fell to his death from a hospital window, though the oil company said he had "passed away following a severe illness."

Former top Lukoil manager Alexander Subbotin was discovered dead in the home of a shaman in May 2022 in Mytishchi, about 12 miles northeast of Moscow," the state-owned news agency Tass reported at the time.

The spate of deaths goes beyond oil executives. Vladislav Avayev, former vice president of the private Russian bank Gazprombank, was found dead along with his daughter and wife in April 2022.

The deaths of critics of the Putin government have garnered the most attention. The mysterious death of 47-year-old opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a Siberian penal colony in February led many activists and Western political leaders, including President Joe Biden, to say Putin was responsible.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 07:13 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Aoki joins a growing list of top executives who suddenly turned up dead in and around the Russian capital. Four of these deaths were high-ranking officials of Russia's second-largest oil producer, Lukoil, which called for a quick end to the war in Ukraine shortly after President Vladimir Putin launched the invasion in 2022. Vitaly Robertus, the energy giant's vice president, was found dead in what appeared to be a suicide.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 07:05 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
[ x ]
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 07:13 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www-newsweek-com.(...)en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
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SPOILER

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 07:25 schreef sturmpie het volgende:

[..]
die zie je veel in Belgi�
zit ook veel russisch geld in Brussel ?
gingen ze de rente gebruiken om wapens in te kopen ?
gaan ze het gehele tegoed gebruiken ?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 07:58 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Het plan is inderdaad om de rente en andere inkomsten over de bevroren tegoeden te gebruiken voor Oekra�ne. En 90 procent hiervan direct aan wapens.

En uiteindelijk willen ze de bevroren tegoeden gebruiken als pressiemiddel tegen Rusland voor herstelbetalingen wanneer de oorlog voorbij is.

Maar er zijn ook landen die gewoon de gehele 300 miljard nu al willen inzetten voor Oekra�ne. Er wordt nog gekeken naar een legale basis hiervoor. Maar andere landen zijn hier erg huiverig over.

Er is al geschat dat het opnieuw opbouwen van Oekra�ne, en ook het vergoeden van overige schade 500+ miljard gaat kosten. En hoe langer de oorlog duurt hoe meer dit zal worden natuurlijk.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 10:30 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Bots!

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 10:30 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Bots!

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 10:36 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

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Alsof het een battlefield lobby is. Geweldig

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 11:54 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Wingsuits, grappling hooks 😱

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 11:57 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

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Grappling hooks was toch van Battlefield special forces ofzo?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 11:57 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

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Grappling hooks was toch van Battlefield special forces ofzo?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:00 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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[..]
Uit dat gedrocht 2042,waar ze de classes vervangen hadden door 'specialists', waaronder 1 met een wingsuit en 1 met een grappling hook

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:01 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

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Die was best wel tof, met die enorme motherships. Was alleen niet echt populair

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:03 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Dat was 2142

2042 kwam 2 jaar geleden uit.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:07 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
Vuige n3rds hier.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:25 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Weet de VS iets dat wij niet weten?

De Amerikaanse inlichtingendiensten waren heel accuraat over het begin van de oorlog in Oekra�ne.

[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:25 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Weet de VS iets dat wij niet weten?

De Amerikaanse inlichtingendiensten waren heel accuraat over het begin van de oorlog in Oekra�ne.

[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:32 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

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Natuurlijk weten ze dat. De VS is de enige die er een beetje verstand van heeft. Wij Europa zijn direct van we slaan er vol op.

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:40 schreef QAnonn het volgende:
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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 20:40 schreef QAnonn het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op donderdag 4 april 2024 21:48 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.straitstimes.(...)ntation-kremlin-says
[..]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:32 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Natuurlijk weten ze dat. De VS is de enige die er een beetje verstand van heeft. Wij Europa zijn direct van we slaan er vol op.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:38 schreef zuchtje het volgende:

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Wij, samen met de VS, hebben al redelijk wat "large military aid" gestuurd. En andere Russische rode lijnen genegeerd. Zover ik weet heeft dit niet geleid tot een nuke op de VS. _{Maar je weet het maar nooit met die yanks. Misschien proberen ze de aanval onder de pet te houden}

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 13:14 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

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Die rode lijnen zijn alleen bekend bij Rusland en de VS, en onze inlichtingendiensten. Voor zo ver zijn er gen rode lijnen overschreden. Weet je nog dat Burns en Naryskin elkaar sparen in Instanboel?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 13:14 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Die rode lijnen zijn alleen bekend bij Rusland en de VS, en onze inlichtingendiensten. Voor zo ver zijn er gen rode lijnen overschreden. Weet je nog dat Burns en Naryskin elkaar sparen in Instanboel?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 13:32 schreef oheng het volgende:
De russen melden dat er 44 drones op Morozovsk werden afgestuurd.

Dus die hebben flink wat schade gedaan. En de hoeveelheid en bereik lopen alleen maar op.

Maar ook op de grond worden de verliezen ronduit belachelijk:

[ x ]

ATP Geopolitics heeft een zeer goede samenvatting vandaag:

Ukraine War Update NEWS (20240405a): Pt 1 - Overnight & Other News

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 13:18 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
[ afbeelding ]

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Hungary: The Destabilizing Force for the EU

Tolerance, softness, and loyalty of the European politicians towards Russian agents in the EU will not lead to good. When the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orb�n, began not latently, but openly and actively to support Russian narratives and the rogue state, it was clear that Europe was plunging into a serious internal crisis, not because of the presence of Orb�n, like a lousy sheep in the herd, but because of the inaction of the herd itself.

Now Viktor Orb�n is entering a new level of destabilization of Europe, not just blocking initiatives to help Ukraine, but catalyzing and sponsoring a new war in Europe, in the Balkans. This week Viktor Orb�n visits Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH), where he will hold a meeting with the President of the Republika Srpska, Milorad Dodik. Viktor Orb�n will give Dodik 100 million euros, which he calls “investments in the social sphere”, but there is a nuance. Viktor Orb�n is currently a mediator through which the funds for destabilizing the EU are transferred.

It is Milorad Dodik who blocks the issue of BiH joining the European Union, promotes the idea of splitting BiH, by supporting the exit of Respublika Srpska from BiH. The EU is deliberately introducing strengthened personal sanctions against Dodik, but Viktor Orban will block them in turn.

In fact, thanks to Viktor Orban, Euroskeptic sentiments and pro-Russian policies are now being financed, which, considering the tension in the region, may quickly turn into another bloody conflict in the Balkans. In turn, the next war in the Balkans may distract Europe from Ukraine, which is what the Russians are striving for.

Russia’s goal is to exclude Bosnia and Herzegovina from joining the EU, split it up, and provoke bloodshed. Thus, this is exactly what Viktor Orban is financing Dodik for.

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New Portuguese government supports Ukraine's accession to European Union
The new government of Portugal, headed by Lu�s Montenegro, supports Ukraine's accession to the EU.
This was stated by Portugal's Foreign Minister Paulo Rangel at the end of the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, Ukrinform reported citing Euractiv.

“Prime Minister Lu�s Montenegro has given a clear signal that he is in favour of EU enlargement. This is something that I think needed to be clarified because Portugal had some hesitations, especially when it was being given candidate status last year,” said Rangel.

The minister recognised that the previous socialist government of ex-prime minister Ant�nio Costa was “totally on Ukraine’s side”, but on the issue of enlargement “there was at least some hesitation there, which always created a margin of ambiguity”.

“Now there is no ambiguity,” he added.

As reported, on April 3, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the preparation of a bilateral security agreement with Portugal's Prime Minister Lu�s Montenegro.

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Is An Elite Russian Paratroop Division Still Elite When It Has 70-Year-Old T-55 Tanks?
That the 76th Guards Air Assault Division has no choice but to attack with T-55s should worry Russian leaders

Ukrainian drone operators surely couldn’t believe their eyes when they focused their cameras on a Russian assault group rolling toward Ukrainian lines outside Novopokrovka in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Oblast on March 30.

It seemed the assault force included troops and vehicles from the Russian airborne corps’ 76th Guards Air Assault Division, a once-elite formation with better training and equipment than most Russian divisions.

But something was off. The tank leading the assault wasn’t a modern T-72 or T-90, previously the standard tanks of the 76th GAAD. No, it was a 1950s-vintage T-55 fitted with crude anti-drone armor.

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The assault ended in disaster for the Russians as the Ukrainian 118th Mechanized Brigade opened fire with artillery, anti-tank missiles and explosive first-person-view drones, destroying at least 11 Russian vehicles, including that 40-ton, four-person T-55 with its crude optics, 100-millimeter main gun and 200-millimeter-thick armor.

But that’s not what really matters as Russia’s wider war on Ukraine grinds into its third year. After all, Ukrainian forces are defeating large Russian assault groups every few days all along the 600-mile front line of the wider war—this despite the Ukrainians struggling with ammunition supplies ever since Russia-friendly Republicans in the U.S. Congress blocked further U.S. aid starting in October.

No, the real story is that a unit that was among the best in the Russian armed forces now deploys tanks that were obsolete 50 years ago—and which had been sitting in open storage for decades before the Russians began reactivating them last year in order to compensate for staggering losses of modern vehicles in Ukraine.

It’s more apparent than ever that Russian industry can’t produce enough modern vehicles to replace the roughly 400 tanks, fighting vehicles and howitzers it’s been losing every month this year. That’s a monthly rate of loss that’s a third higher than the loss-rate from September.

So, the Kremlin is pulling more and older vehicles out of long-term storage and assigning them to more units that once operated the best new equipment in the Russian inventory.

To be clear, that’s not the only option. The Kremlin could pause front-line attacks and gradually rebuild combat units with modern equipment operated by well-trained troops. It’s choosing, instead, to keep attacking—and send those units whatever hardware and people it can scrounge.

“Russia is constantly rebuilding its forces and trying to replace losses, including recruiting new personnel and creating new units and military districts,” Ukrainian analysis group Frontelligence Insight explained on Thursday. But that doesn’t mean the rebuilding brings forces back to their previous strength.

“We documented evidence of the replacement of T-72 tanks of various modifications with [1960s-vintage] T-62 and T-55s in at least one tank unit,” the group noted. “While we don't know the situation across all units, occasional videos of T-55 and T-62 in different areas suggest that this is not an isolated case.”

In a sense, the regiments, brigades and divisions getting 60-year-old T-62 and 70-year-old T-55s are the lucky ones.

According to open-source intelligence collective Oryx, Russian vehicle losses since the start of the wider invasion in February 2022 exceed 15,000, including nearly 2,900 tanks. That’s as many tanks as the Russian armed forces had in active service two years ago.

“Russia cannot replace such numbers within two years,” Frontelligence asserted. Russian factories build maybe 600 new tanks annually while also restoring a somewhat greater number of older tanks.

These replacements are too few, which explains why more Russian assaults involve totally unarmored civilian vehicles including, shockingly, Chinese-made Desertcross golf carts. “Armored losses are being replaced by civilian vehicles,” Frontelligence explained.

And even that is better than the alternative. The worst case for Russian units that they simply do without vehicles, as recently has happened around one eastern battleground city. “Russian forces are compelled to conduct infantry assaults against defense forces positions on the Bakhmut direction due to a lack of armored vehicles,” the Ukrainian Center for Defense Strategies noted on Thursday.

All that is to say, it should be apparent by now that Russia is expending military resources much faster than it can replenish them. And it’s not hard to figure out why.

“Once military aid has been significantly limited such that Ukrainian munition stocks become depleted, Russia intends to initiate further offensive operations to make significant—if slow—gains on the battlefield,” Jack Watling and Nick Reynolds, analysts with the Royal United Services Institute in London, predicted in a Feb. 13 report. “These gains are then intended to be used as leverage against Kyiv to force capitulation on Russian terms.”

That’s exactly what’s happening, seven weeks later. With Ukraine’s ammunition stocks desperately low—the inevitable consequence of the suspension of American aid—Russian leaders sense an opportunity to advance. Even if advancing is so costly that they must replace many of the modern vehicles they lose with much older vehicles or, worse, civilian vehicles.

Or much worse, simply not replace them at all.

In other words, for the Russians in Ukraine, it’s now or never. If the current offensive fails, the Americans finally vote for aid and the Ukrainians re-arm, the Russians might discover they’ve spent their army—and no longer have any speedy way to restore it as the Ukrainians regain the initiative.

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80% of Ukraine's thermal power infrastructure destroyed by Russia in recent weeks, PM Shmyhal says
Over six gigawatts of Ukrainian power grid capacity were destroyed by Russia's recent missile attacks, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has said

In recent weeks, Russia has destroyed 80% of Ukrainian thermal power plants, said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in an interview with ERR .

"Unfortunately, Russia continues its energy terror – in the last few weeks alone, the Russians have destroyed more than six gigawatts of our power grid <...> Unfortunately, over the last few weeks, Russia has destroyed 80% of thermal power plants," he stated.

According to the premier, this is both hydropower and coal power. The Russians continue to fire missiles at Ukrainian energy facilities, destroy transformers and generators.

Ukraine is cooperating with its allies, creating a decentralized energy supply system, Shmyhal added.

On the night of March 29, an air raid alert was announced in Ukraine: Russian troops launched Kinzhals and cruise missiles from the Tu-95MS. As a result, the Polish military reported the takeoff of its aircraft.

As a result of the attack, thermal and hydropower plants in the center and west of the country were damaged. In Cherkasy Oblast, the Russian forces launched a missile attack on an energy infrastructure facility. A children's camp and houses in Khmelnytskyi Oblast were also damaged due to the Russian attack.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the Kaniv and Dniester HPPs were the deliberate targets of the Russian military, and the Russian Federation wants a repeat of the Kakhovka HPP environmental disaster.

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Ukraine resumes transportation of containers through Black Sea
A container ship entered one of the ports of Greater Odesa for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war

Ukraine resumed container transportation through the Black Sea. A container ship entered one of the ports of Greater Odesa for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, the local outlet Dumska reported.

The pioneer was T Mare under the flag of Panama. It had already set out on its way back to Constanta.

So far, this is not a full-fledged specialized ship, but a so-called feeder, which makes charter flights between Constanta and the ports of Greater Odesa, the publication notes.

Until then, container transportation was carried out to a limited extent through the Danube ports of Odesa Oblast.

In mid-March, the Deputy Minister of Infrastructure Yuriy Vaskov said that the first container shipments through the Ukrainian sea corridor could take place within two to three weeks.

In February, the Ukrainian sea corridor reached a record volume of export and import - 8 million tons, of which 60-65% fell on agricultural products, while the rest were ore, metals, import of fertilizers. The renewal of container and ferry transportation will add at least 20% to the volume of transportation, predicted Vaskov.

In January 2024, Ukraine reached a record during the large-scale invasion in terms of physical export volumes - 12 million tons of products, which is only 2 million tons less than in pre-war January 2022. Of these, 8.7 million tons were transported by sea. 6.3 million tons of cargo pass through the ports of Greater Odesa.

quote:

South Korea handed over 70 ambulances to Ukraine


UKRAINE, Apr 05 — The South Korean government has provided Ukraine with 70 more ambulances for emergency medical care, reported the press service of the Ministry of Health.

“The Ministry of Health of Ukraine has received another 70 ambulances from the Korean government to provide emergency medical care during the war. Earlier, 30 ambulances had already been delivered to Ukraine,” the press service said.

Specialists will use the vehicles to assist patients who need additional life-sustaining measures during transportation to and between hospitals. The ambulances have the necessary equipment to provide life-saving assistance to patients during medical transportation.

According to the service, the Russian Federation destroyed, damaged, or seized more than 500 ambulances during the war.

In total, since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, the Russian army damaged 1,523 medical facilities and destroyed 195 more. Five hundred-two medical facilities have been fully restored, and another 362 partially restored.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 14:47 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://russiavsworld.org(...)ng-force-for-the-eu/
[..]

quote:

Russians found the legendary Azovets BMPT

Russians in the occupied territories found the buried remains of the famous prototype of the Azovets tank support fighting vehicle.

Footage of the vehicle was released by Russian propagandists.

Developed back in 2015 by the Azov engineering group, led by the former technical director of the country’s main armored enterprise – the Malyshev Plant, this vehicle was intended for participation in heavy urban battles.

However, the project did not succeed and disappeared from public space for years. Only now invaders found it buried in the occupied territories.

SPOILER

quote:

Azovets was in disassembled condition. In the photo, you can see that automatic guns and, probably, a tank engine were removed from it.

Azovets BMPT
Azovets is a heavy combat tracked vehicle built on the chassis of the T-64B tank. It was designed as a specialized vehicle for infantry fire support in urban fighting.

“It is probably more correct to call it” armored fighting vehicle for urban warfare.” It’s weight is 40 tons. A special armor design is able to reliably protect the crew: even if the vehicle hits a sub-caliber projectile into the side, it will not cause much damage. The vehicle can have heavy machine guns, four guns for mortal firing, Stugna ATGM and rapid-fire GSh-23 guns capable of turning concrete fortifications into a pile of garbage with 23mm rounds. The concept of a combat vehicle is based on the safety of its crew,” says designer Mykola Stepanov.

These weapons were to be placed in two independent turrets, which were to be operated by two crew members. The other two, the commander and the driver, were responsible for controlling the vehicle on the battlefield.

The high level of protection of the vehicle should be provided by massive tank armor and the installation of built-in “Knife” reactive armor, which can counteract both HEAT and sub-caliber projectiles.

The layout of the tank chassis with the placement of the engine in the aft part did not change, so the exit from the vehicle was placed in the wheelhouse, and landing was supposed to pass over the engine compartment, as in Soviet IFV.

In the area of ​engine compartment, side panels were also built up so that in the event of evacuation under fire, the crew could safely leave the damaged vehicle.

The special appearance and concept of the vehicle were explained by the influence of the Azov Regiment experience of fighting with invaders, in particular, for Shyrokyne.

“Please note, we decided to abandon triplexes precisely because our fighters told how the enemy snipers are trying to blind our tanks. They hit triplexes and the blind crew is unable to fight. Therefore, instead of triplexes, we intend to install 360-degree television cameras,” the Azovets developers said.

The publicly known part of the history of this combat vehicle ended dramatically: in September 2016, at the request of the SSU, the court arrested all property on the territory of the ATEK plant, including the prototype. However, on October 23-24, unidentified persons removed Azovets from the plant, after which it broke off.

quote:

Media: Identities confirmed of more than 50,000 Russians killed in Ukraine
The BBC's Russian service, along with the Russian independent media outlet Mediazona, confirmed on April 5 the identities of more than 50,000 Russian soldiers killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale war.

The research, using open-source analysis, only cites those confirmed as being killed, thus almost certainly undercounting the real total. The BBC estimated the true figure likely surpasses 100,000.

The figure also does not include soldiers from Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. According to the BBC's research, around 23,400 soldiers from Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts have been killed, bringing the total of confirmed deaths to close to 75,000.

At the end of March, Mediazona confirmed the identities of 49,281 Russian soldiers killed since February 2022.

Total estimates of Russia's casualties since the full-scale invasion vary widely.

In a joint study with independent Russian media outlet Meduza released in February 2024, Mediazona reported that at least 83,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Russia's war.

President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed in February 2024 that 180,000 Russians had been killed in the war. He added that 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers were also killed. Zelensky said that the exact number is unknown, and it would only be possible to find out once the territories occupied by Russia were liberated.

According to the BBC, at least 43% of those confirmed as being killed were not associated with the army before February 2022, adding that the total could be as high as 70%.

Among those confirmed as killed were the names of 101 conscripts, who are not allowed by law to fight abroad.

In total, the BBC said that 18% of those killed were prisoners, 13% were soldiers who joined voluntarily, and 12% were mobilized.

The highest proportion of deaths as a percentage of the population came from regions far from Moscow and St. Petersburg. The highest was from Tuva, a republic in southern Siberia, followed by Buryatia, also in Siberia, and the Nenets Autonomous Okrug in Russia's Arctic.

Tuva's population is overwhelmingly ethnic Tuvan, while Buryatia and Nenets have significant non-ethnic Russian populations.

There have been widespread claims that Russia is disproportionately mobilizing ethnic minorities to fight in Ukraine.

quote:

Despite war fatigue, Ukrainian confidence in victory remains high at 88%
Despite the ongoing conflict and signs of war fatigue, a striking 88% of Ukrainians believe their nation will triumph over Russia, according to a nationwide survey conducted on Feb. 17-21 by the Ukrainian polling group Rating on behalf of the International Republican Institute (IRI).

While a robust 58% of participants are unequivocally sure of victory, another 30% lean strongly towards a positive result for Ukraine. Even as these numbers have slightly waned since the war's escalation, the sentiment of hope remains significantly potent, with 80% of respondents envisioning a brighter future for Ukraine.

"Our surveys consistently show that Putin cannot break the strong spirit of the Ukrainian people," said Stephen Nix, Senior Director of IRI Eurasia.

In terms of the conflict's potential duration, opinions vary: 37% anticipate a resolution within the next one to two years, 26% expect it to conclude within a year, and smaller percentages predict longer timeframes.

Only 3% are convinced that the war between Ukraine and Russia will never end.

Meanwhile, only 45% of Ukrainians remain optimistic about their country regaining its 1991 borders post-war with Russia.

The research was carried out across Ukrainian territories under government control, excluding Crimea, Donbas, and parts of southern Ukraine, using a Computer Assisted Telephone Interviews (CATI) methodology with randomly selected mobile numbers. A total of 2000 residents of Ukraine aged 18 and older were surveyed.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 15:38 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)_to_storm_positions/
Russians using "EW tanks" to storm positions.
[ afbeelding ]
[ afbeelding ]

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The Azov Brigade shows attacks on invaders near Terny

Soldiers of the Azov Brigade showed Russian armor and logistics destroyed in night attacks in the Kreminna sector.

The press service of the brigade released the video.

The 12th Azov Assault Brigade, which holds the frontline near the village of Terny in the Donetsk region, repels constant attacks of the Russian invaders.

The published video shows the destruction of 21 units of equipment. In particular, the drones neutralized 9 infantry fighting vehicles of various modifications, 2 ARVs, 3 MT-LBs, and three tracked vehicles that could not be identified. 5 trucks with infantry and ammunition were also hit.

SPOILER

quote:

"Азов" наносить удари по логістиці окупантів під Кремінною [Квітень 2024]

The Azov Brigade said that the fighting did not stop even at night. The Russian invaders are trying to conduct offensive actions and logistics operations under the cover of night due to the large number of Ukrainian drones in this sector.

The soldiers of the National Guard of Ukraine are able to deter nighttime attacks, in particular, thanks to night reconnaissance drones and FPV drones with thermal imaging cameras.

The village of Terny has been virtually destroyed by Russian aircraft and artillery, but its surroundings remain an important strategic point in the defense of Ukrainian Forces along the Terny-Yampolivka-Zarichne-Dibrova line.

To assault Ukrainian positions, Russians are using massive assaults with large groups of infantry, as well as armored vehicles and aircraft. In particular, Russian invaders are actively using guided bombs in the sector.

Using their entire arsenal and pulling up reserves, the Russian military is trying to force the Ukrainian military out of the Zherebets River bridgehead and advance toward Lyman.

Soldiers of the 1st Presidential Burevii Brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine, who also hold the frontline nearby, said that the focus of the fighting in the forests of Kreminna was, in particular, on strikes against logistics to complicate the functioning of enemy forces.

“The enemy controls our movements and transportation, and we control theirs, respectively. In the Serebrianskii forest, the enemy focuses on logistical movements, striking logistical “arteries”. This creates difficulties in the supply of ammunition and personnel,” says Denys Zelenyi, officer of the operational planning section of the Khoryv Battalion.

According to Denys, attempts to influence Ukrainian logistics with artillery remain a key catalyst for constant artillery duels in this area.

quote:

Ukrainian forces try to hold Russians back from stronghold in east

KYIV, April 5 (Reuters) - Fighting raged on Friday between Ukrainian and Russian forces near the town of Chasiv Yar, a Ukrainian stronghold in the east, but Kyiv denied that Moscow's troops had reached the suburbs.

Russian forces are inching forward in eastern Ukraine after capturing the bastion town of Avdiivka in February. Kyiv's soldiers are trying to dig in, facing long-term shortages of artillery shells with U.S. aid stuck in Congress.

Ukraine has needed the U.S. arms package for months in its fight with a much larger and better armed foe, and had hoped House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson would unveil an aid bill next week that would clear the Republican-controlled chamber.

But Republican infighting has created pressure to postpone it again.

A rapid Russian advance on Chasiv Yar, a heavily fortified town with a pre-war population of 12,200 situated west of the ruined, Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, would be a grim setback for Kyiv.

Russia controls around 18% of Ukrainian territory and has stepped up its long-range strikes on energy infrastructure in recent weeks, causing large-scale outages.

Russia's RIA news agency cited an official as saying Russian troops had entered the suburbs of the town, which Moscow sees as an important staging point for Kyiv's troops.

Andriy Zadubinnyi, spokesman for Ukraine's eastern military command said the report was untrue and that fighting continued. He told Reuters the situation was "tense".

On Thursday, Serhiy Chaus, the mayor, said the situation in Chasiv Yar was at its most difficult since Russia began its full-scale invasion more than two years ago, in comments broadcast by the Espreso TV channel.

RUSSIAN WARPLANES DESTROYED, UKRAINE SAYS

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday that Ukraine had managed to stabilise its positions and that "given the shortage of shells and a significant slowdown in supplies, these results are really good".

Zelenskiy has said Russia may mount a new offensive in late May or summer, but that Kyiv has a battle plan of its own.

As Ukraine has gone onto the defensive, it has deployed hundreds of long-range drones to attack targets deep inside Russia.

A Kyiv intelligence source told Reuters that Ukraine's SBU security service and military had attacked an air base at Morozovsk in the adjoining Rostov region, destroying six Russian warplanes.

Reuters could not independently verify the claim. The source did not say how the attack was conducted but said eight more warplanes had also been damaged.

Russia's RIA news agency cited the Russian defence ministry earlier as saying air defences had downed 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, most of them over the Rostov region.

The source said the air base had been used by Russian tactical bombers that had fired guided bombs at Ukraine.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 14:22 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
[ x ]
[ x ]
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 16:33 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Is dit niet gevaarlijk?

[ x ]

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Minister Tsjechi�: Rusland voert cyberaanvallen uit op Europees spoornetwerk
https://tweakers.net/nieu(...)es-spoornetwerk.html

Rusland heeft verschillende cyberaanvallen uitgevoerd op het Europese spoornetwerk. Dat claimt de Tsjechische minister van Transport. Het Kremlin zou daarmee de Europese infrastructuur willen destabiliseren.

Rusland heeft sinds het begin van de oorlog in Oekra�ne 'duizenden pogingen' gedaan om het Europese spoornetwerk te ontregelen, vertelt de Tsjechische minister Martin Kupka in een interview met de Financial Times. Tsjechi� heeft volgens hem ervaring met dergelijke hackpogingen. Rusland zou onder meer signaleringssystemen en de netwerken van de Tsjechische spoorwegmaatschappij Česk� dr�hy hebben aangevallen.

Er zouden ook Russische aanvallen gericht zijn op seinsystemen. Dergelijke cyberaanvallen kunnen, als ze succesvol zijn, ernstige ongelukken veroorzaken. Kupka zegt dat dit tot nu toe niet is gelukt. In het verleden is eerder bericht over Russische pogingen om de Europese energie-infrastructuur te destabiliseren, maar er werd minder gesproken over hackpogingen op het spoornetwerk, schrijft de FT.

Vorig jaar publiceerde het Europese cybersecurityagentschap Enisa al wel een rapport waarin dergelijke dreigingen werden besproken. Het agentschap waarschuwde toen dat spoorwegmaatschappijen vaker worden aangevallen, vooral vanwege de Russische inval in Oekra�ne. Ook het Tsjechische agentschap voor Cybersecurity, Nukib, waarschuwde eerder voor een grote toename van het aantal cyberaanvallen.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 17:43 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Cyberaanval kun je je ook geen drol bij voorstellen eigenlijk tenzij het hele banksysteem in Nederland plat ligt en er geen transacties meer mogelijk zijn.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 18:54 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:08 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
De Friedrich Paulus Brigade 😱

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 15:31 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://kyivindependent.c(...)s-killed-in-ukraine/
[..]
Dat zijn de daadwerkelijk bewezen en ge�dentificeerde doden. Exclusief de soldaten uit de bezette gebieden Luhansk/Donetsk. En waarschijnlijk ook exclusief Wagner soldaten/andere huur soldaten maar daar wordt verder niet over gesproken. BBC Russia schat het totaal aantal doden op zeker 123.000 (inclusief alles).

Maar er zijn ongetwijfeld ook nog een hele hoop vermisten, waarvan de lichamen weg te liggen rotten op het slachtveld, of die nog ergens opgeslagen liggen omdat ze niet te identificeren zijn.

Het BBC artikel wat genoemd wordt:
https://www.bbc.com/russian/articles/cd18939jnm3o

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 16:35 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
Als iemand die ooit is afgestuurd in productietechniek durf ik wel te zeggen; 'Nee, dat is niet gevaarlijk, mits je een laag toerental, lage snijsnelheid en een lage voeding gebruikt'.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 18:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Iets meer details.

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The Russian army still has about 100 Su-35 multipurpose fighters, more than 100 Su-34 fighter-bombers, as well as seven A-50U long-range radar detection and guidance aircraft, reported the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense in response to a request from ArmyInform.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:14 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Het aantal Russische doden van 488.000, opgegeven door Oekra�ne, ligt dichter bij de waarheid.

Ik schat dat er gemiddeld tussen de 500 en 1000 Russen per dag dood gaan op het slagveld.

Als er maar 100.000 Russen zijn omgekomen, dan zouden er geen mobilisatierondes zijn in Rusland.

quote:

During the press conference on February 25, 2024, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also specified that a total of 180,000 Russians have been killed in Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine. With people injured or missing, it is up to 500,000 troops.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:20 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Dat is niet alleen maar doden, maar ook zwaargewonden die 488.000.

Al zeggen de Russische cijfers zelf dat ze zo'n 500.000 extra gehandicapten hadden vorig jaar.

https://war.ukraine.ua/fa(...)r-losses-in-ukraine/
What are the Russian death toll and other losses in Ukraine?
[ afbeelding ]
As of March 1, 2024, Russian combat losses amount to 414,680 troops, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
[..]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:14 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Als er maar 100.000 Russen zijn omgekomen, dan zouden er geen mobilisatierondes zijn in Rusland.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Dat is dus 6 vernietigd + 8 beschadigd op vliegveld nummer 1
3 beschadigd op vliegveld nummer 2
En 2 vernietigd op vliegveld nummer 3

Geen slecht nachtje dus: 8 vernietigd en 11 beschadigd is telling tot nu toe.

En dan nog iets van 30 doden waarvan mogelijk enkele piloten.

Dat is bijna 10 procent van hun luchtvloot als de telling van eerder deze week klopt.
[..]
Al zie ik dat dat alleen om A-50Us, Su-35s en Su-34s gaat.

SPOILER

En wat ga je doen als de F16's komen?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:30 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Doden:gewonden verhouding is normaal gesproken 1:2.

Tegenwoordig ligt dat rond 1:1 door precisiebombardementen.

Die 500.000 was in ��n jaar. Dus sinds het begin van de oorlog ligt dat op.1 miljoen. Dus een half miljoen doden is zeker mogelijk.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 18:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Iets meer details.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:35 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Als die site het verschil niet weet tussen een Tu-22 en een Tu-95 heb ik er alvast niet heel veel vertrouwen in...

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:33 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
De kans dat alle beschadigde toestellen snel weer kunnen vliegen acht ik niet heel hoog. Ze zullen zeker uit elkaar moeten worden geschroefd.
Maar het veroorzaakt nog een probleem: Vliegvelden binnen 500 km van Kyiv zijn overduidelijk zeer kwetsbaar voor dit soort aanvallen. Snel bunkers bouwen zal geen optie zijn. En die hele zware bommen doen dan weer wat met het bereik van een Su-34. Die worden er ook niet wendbaarder op. Wat doe je dan? Het risico nemen dat ze op de grond worden gepakt, of trek je ze nog verder terug? Al met al is het nogal kut voor de Russen.
Bommenwerpers gebruiken om kruisraketten van ver in Rusland af te schieten is dan nog een optie. Maar heb je daar wat aan voor close air support?

SPOILER

En wat ga je doen als de F16's komen?

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:38 schreef Ulx het volgende:
En als jij het niet weet tussen een Tu-22 en een Tu-22M zegt dat ook wel wat.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:37 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Offtopic

Worden mensen hier stiekum fitgemaakt voor het leger?
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:41 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]


De M3 als je het nog preciezer wil hebben ouwe.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:53 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Maar da's een upgrade. Maar de Tu-22 is echt een ander toestel. De Tu-22M zou eigenlijk Tu-26 genoemd worden maar politieke redenen en blablabla.

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 20:14 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Alsof ik dat niet weet... Maar ik zal het voortaan wel over Backfire, Bear en Blinder hebben.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:41 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Dat zijn squats. Maar zou mij niks verbazen als er stiekem een lijstje wordt bijgehouden met de mensen die hun hand er niet voor omdraaien. Als het ook nog etnische minderheden zijn des te beter.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 20:22 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Als Oekra�ne zo doorgaat kun je de Badger ook wel gaan noemen denk ik.

Russian Paratroops Jump From Wing Of Tupolev TB-3 (1937)

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 14:26 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Hoe vaak doe jij wel iets niet zeggen en doen alsof het de feiten zijn?

Hilarisch hoe veel zelfkennis je hebt.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 13:14 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Die rode lijnen zijn alleen bekend bij Rusland en de VS, en onze inlichtingendiensten. Voor zo ver zijn er gen rode lijnen overschreden. Weet je nog dat Burns en Naryskin elkaar sparen in Instanboel?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 21:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Dat de Iver Huitfeldt de aanval succesvol zou afslaan, was die nacht nog helemaal niet zo zeker. Volgens het bericht van de commandant dat Olfi publiceerde, zorgde een issue tussen de Nederlandse APAR-radar en het Deense C-FLEX Combat Management Systeem (CMS) dat het schip de ESSM-raketten niet kon lanceren. De problemen zouden zijn veroorzaakt door een "token issue", maar de exacte oorzaak was niet bekend. De problemen hielden een half uur aan.

quote:

Bij de inzet van het kanon kwamen andere problemen aan het licht. De Iver Huitfeldt heeft op de bak twee Oto Melara 76mm-kanons (hetzelfde kanon als de Nederlandse M-fregatten en patrouilleschepen hebben). Ongetwijfeld tot schrik van de bemanning ontplofte de helft van de granaten al vrij snel na het verlaten van de loop. "Zonder enig effect te hebben op de vijandelijke doelen", stelt het bericht.

"Alle granaten in de standaard oorlogsuitrusting zijn meer dan 30 jaar oud, ze zijn geretrofit [achteraf voorzien van] met een '2005 proximity fuze' [ontsteker die de granaat vlakbij het doel moet laten ontploffen], die ongeschikt blijkt voor een daadwerkelijk gevecht", schreef de commandant.

De Oto Melara Compact heeft een vuursnelheid van 85 schoten per minuut en de Super Rapid haalt 120 schoten per minuut. Het schip heeft twee kanons en de dreiging bestond uit steeds ��n drone. Waarschijnlijk slaagde het schip er daardoor in om de aanval ondanks dat de helft van de granaten niet eens in de buurt van het doel kwam, af te slaan.

De commandant benadrukte wel dat het schip heel veel munitie nodig heeft om doelen uit te schakelen en snel door de munitievoorraad heen zal zijn. Ook meldde hij dat dit de "effectiviteit in het gevecht ernstig vermindert en ook de overlevingskansen van het schip worden gereduceerd".

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 12:32 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Natuurlijk weten ze dat. De VS is de enige die er een beetje verstand van heeft. Wij Europa zijn direct van we slaan er vol op.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:02 schreef Glazenmaker het volgende:
https://marineschepen.nl/(...)iet-goed-020424.html

Kleine overstap naar een andere oorlog, maar dit zijn toch wel angstaanjagende taferelen. Dit verwacht je bij onze Russische vrienden, maar niet bij een modern Europees schip en het is niet eens het enige EU schip dat een modderfiguur heeft geslagen op de Rode Zee.
[..]
Maar dan al helemaal angstaanjagend:
[..]
Wat hier redelijk als understatement staat is volgens andere bronnen echt vlak na verlaten van de loop.

Die 2% norm halen is nog maar de start van wat nodig is om de EU ook maar een beetje klaar te maken op eigen benen te staan.

quote:

The USAF MQ-9 was targeted by the German frigate Hessen as the drone was conducting a mission for Operation Prosperity Guardian, the U.S.-led maritime operation that is protecting international shipping from Houthi attacks, a U.S. official said.

The German ship fired two missiles at the MQ-9, but they missed the drone. “The UAV did not receive damage and continued its mission,” according to a U.S. defense official.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:10 schreef spicymchaggis het volgende:

[..]
Dat is natuurlijk niet vreemd aangezien wij naast die misdadige barbaren leven.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 21:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 21:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:13 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Tsja, hetzelfde als de Duitsers (met nb. een luchtverdedigingsfregat) die per ongeluk 2 SM-2's richting een MQ-9 stuurden en gewoon misten...
[..]
Dat ze er op schoten is al heel knullig maar dat ze dan ook nog een keer een MQ-9 niet weten te raken met 2 SM-2's is helemaal te triest voor woorden...

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 21:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:10 schreef spicymchaggis het volgende:

[..]
Dat is natuurlijk niet vreemd aangezien wij naast die misdadige barbaren leven.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:25 schreef Glazenmaker het volgende:
Ze zijn er ook achter gekomen dat de munitie voor het kanon van dat schip niet meer gemaakt wordt.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 19:14 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Het aantal Russische doden van 488.000, opgegeven door Oekra�ne, ligt dichter bij de waarheid.

Ik schat dat er gemiddeld tussen de 500 en 1000 Russen per dag dood gaan op het slagveld.

Als er maar 100.000 Russen zijn omgekomen, dan zouden er geen mobilisatierondes zijn in Rusland.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:34 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Is dat zo? Dan mag de KM ook wel eens op zoek gaan naar een vervanger aangezien bijna de complete vloot uitgerust is met de Oto-Melara 76...

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:58 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Het grootste vliegtuig ter wereld, de Antonov AN-124 is vandaag op vliegbasis Gilze-Rijen geland.

Vet man.

https://www.ad.nl/gilze-e(...)-dat-eruit~affff5df/

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:34 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Is dat zo? Dan mag de KM ook wel eens op zoek gaan naar een vervanger aangezien bijna de complete vloot uitgerust is met de Oto-Melara 76...

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:30 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Als je geleidt wordt door emotie ja. Altijd dat emo gedrag. Met COVID ook al. Zou hier gewoon neutraal naar kijken zoals iemand als Rob de Wijk.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:41 schreef Glazenmaker het volgende:

[..]
https://www.zdf.de/nachri(...)tion-drohne-100.html excuus het gat volgens mij om de raketten die ze niet meer maken. Mn Duits is niet zo best.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:58 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Het grootste vliegtuig ter wereld, de Antonov AN-124 is vandaag op vliegbasis Gilze-Rijen geland.

Vet man.


https://www.ad.nl/gilze-e(...)-dat-eruit~affff5df/

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:18 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Ah okee, ik schrok al...

Maar goed, de SM-2 is wel het primaire wapen van onze LCF'en dus rapidos de SM-3 aanschaffen!

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:22 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

Was toch al gezegd dat dat niet ging gebeuren?

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:08 schreef Starhopper het volgende:

[..]
Nu de storingen zijn opgelost van de 2e handsjes is er geen munitie voor de vervangende kanonnen? Wie bedenkt zoiets?

NWS / Kanonnen marine (gekocht bij maker van fyra) hebben ernstige storingen

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:22 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Was toch al gezegd dat dat niet ging gebeuren? Misschien de Belgen.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:08 schreef Starhopper het volgende:

[..]
Nu de storingen zijn opgelost van de 2e handsjes is er geen munitie voor de vervangende kanonnen? Wie bedenkt zoiets?

NWS / Kanonnen marine (gekocht bij maker van fyra) hebben ernstige storingen

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 00:52 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

Prima avondje.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 00:02 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Als je van een product er een handje vol per jaar verkoopt, zonder langlopende contracten, dan trek je er vanzelf de stekker uit. Ik denk dat dit hier gebeurd is.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 01:08 schreef oheng het volgende:

En er waren in heel Oekraine 67 luchtaanvallen in totaal vandaag, wat redelijk normaal is.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 02:21 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Dat zal best. Maar of het een goed idee is vliegtuigen binnen bereik van de drones te laten staan is wel een agendapuntje voor de volgende vergadering denk ik.

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Norway does not rule out deployment of troops to Ukraine, says Foreign Minister
Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide has stated that in the long term, he would not rule out the deployment of troops to Ukraine, although there are currently no such plans.

Source: Espen Barth Eide in an interview with European Pravda

The minister noted that the discussions regarding the potential deployment of Western troops to Ukraine were not actually about combat units for direct confrontation with Russian forces, but rather about support, training, military advisors, and so on.

"We have no current plans to send troops. I don't think many countries have. But on the other hand, in the very long run I don't think we should rule out anything in principle," said Eide.

He said that NATO wants to support Ukraine to a level where Ukraine succeeds and Russia suffers defeat.

"But there is no desire to be a direct party to the war, because that could lead to a world war which we don't want to see," the minister stated.

Background:
• In March, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he had not ruled out the possibility of sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future. He later added that these remarks, which caused an uproar, had been carefully thought through.
• Later, commenting on the idea, Macron emphasised that French forces would not engage in an offensive against the Russian Federation in such a scenario.
• Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that Poland had no intention of directly participating in combat in Ukraine.

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NATO Not Planning to Train Soldiers Inside Ukraine but Tensions with Russia Rising
Meanwhile, NATO considering supporting Ukraine with a five-year �100 billion fund.

At the Alliance’s next meeting, NATO officials are not planning to discuss member-states training Ukrainian servicemembers inside Ukraine’s borders, despite an invitation from Kyiv’s Foreign Minister and ensuing speculation, according to a report Friday, April 5 from the Ukrainian news site European Pravda.

“At the moment, this is not on the agenda,” an unnamed NATO official tells European Pravda. “And let me add that there are currently no plans to send troops to Ukraine in any shape or form,” the official is reported saying.

SPOILER

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Meanwhile, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has warned of the “real” threat of continental conflict in Europe, saying March 29 that for the first time since the end of World War II Europe has entered a “pre-war era.”

“Those who say ‘let’s not support Ukraine’ do not make the choice of peace, they make the choice of defeat,” Macron said.

French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly refused to rule out sending troops to help Ukraine fight Russia’s full-scale invasion, which has been ongoing since February 2022.

“Those who say ‘let’s not support Ukraine’ do not make the choice of peace, they make the choice of defeat,” Macron said on French TV on March 14.

NATO member France’s stern stance against Russian aggression has raised hackles there, where Russian talking heads have openly discussed bombing Paris.

In a phone call Wednesday between the countries’ foreign ministers, Russia’s Sergei Shoigu, made what Macron called “bizarre and threatening” suggestions that France was linked to the Islamic State’s terrorist attack on Crocus City Hall on March 22.

Russia has similarly accused prospective NATO member Ukraine of being behind the attacks, a claim repeatedly rubbished in the West.

In comments to Kyiv Post, a representative of Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) said that the best revenge for the terrorist attack at Crocus City Hall would be “the overthrow of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s criminal regime, which did not protect its own citizens, or was involved…”

The United States – which will host the next NATO summit meeting on July 9-11 in Washington D.C. – had informed Russian authorities two weeks in advance of the possibility of a terrorist attack taking place at Crocus City Hall – but three days before the attack, Russian leader Vladimir Putin had dismissed the US Embassy warning that: “extremists are planning to attack large crowds in Moscow, including concerts,” saying the warnings were simply a provocation to undermine him and his regime.

Other areas of cooperation
The European Pravda source did say that there are other areas of military and political cooperation that NATO could pursue with Ukraine.

At a NATO foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Wednesday, outgoing NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg floated the idea of creating a �100 billion ($108 billion) five-year fund to aid Ukraine.

“We must ensure reliable and predictable security assistance to Ukraine for the long haul so that we rely less on the voluntary contributions and more on NATO commitments, less on short-term offers and more on multi-year pledges,” he said – remarks coming against the backdrop of delays in a $60 billion Ukraine aid bill in the US Congress and uncertainty about what would happen were NATO-critic Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to win victory in November.

On Thursday, April 4, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Washington is confident that Ukraine will eventually join NATO, without a specific timeframe, during a meeting with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba in Brussels marking the 75th anniversary of the Alliance.

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The defense is strengthened with 600 billion. This is the shopping list
The government will double defense budgets in twelve years. - A historic boost, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St�re (Ap). Here you can read how the government wants to strengthen the Armed Forces.

The long-term plan is an enormous investment in the Armed Forces, which will obviously push aside other ventures with taxpayers' money.

In twelve years, defense budgets will almost double compared to today. In total, the Norwegian Armed Forces will be strengthened by NOK 600 billion.

The government justifies this with great uncertainty and Russia's invasion of another neighboring country, Ukraine.

- It is a historic boost for the Norwegian armed forces, says Prime Minister Jonas Gahr St�re (Ap).

SPOILER

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Need to repair the foundation
The first thing the Ap/Sp government will do is to replenish the Defense's warehouses with ammunition, fuel and equipment.

It alone will cost NOK 70 billion, according to the Storting report on the long-term plan, which has been named "Forsvarsl�ftet for Norway's security".

According to Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp), the government will start the investment already now in 2024/25 with NOK 15 billion as the first step into the long-term plan.

But first the plan must be negotiated and adopted in the Storting.

The government will also initiate a massive construction program in the country's military bases, and increase the education of new soldiers and officers.

A large part of the long-term plan appears to be completely in line with the order that Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen gave to the politicians in his professional military council last year.

- We are strengthening all defense branches, says St�re.

The government is already receiving positive signals from the largest opposition party, the Conservative Party:

- The plan that has been presented provides a good basis for negotiations, writes the head of the foreign affairs and defense committee, Ine Eriksen S�reide (H), in an e-mail.

Five new frigates
These are some of the innovations in the Norwegian Armed Forces' long-term plan, which runs over the next 12 years:
• The government will acquire five new frigates to replace today's aging frigates, plus an option for one more large warship.
• They are to be ordered and built in a so-called strategic partnership, together with other NATO countries.
• The navy will also be able to purchase an additional submarine in addition to the four submarines that Norway has already ordered from Germany. And open to acquiring another one if necessary.
• To improve inland coastal defence, the government will also order 28 new smaller vessels for various roles. The Navy gets 16 of these, while the Coast Guard gets 12.

The army must grow
The army will finally have a fully equipped brigade . This means that Brigade Nord will get a fourth combat battalion, in addition to the current three.

• In addition, the government wants to build up two further brigades, a Finnmark brigade which will be a standing department - and one in southern Norway which will mainly consist of reservists, i.e. commanders and soldiers who have been trained for the purpose, and who can be mobilized if necessary.
• The army will also get a separate battalion with rocket artillery with a far greater range than the current artillery system has.
• The Army and the Norwegian Armed Forces' special forces will receive new helicopters during the planning period.

They will not build new military bases, but build on the bases that the Norwegian Armed Forces already have.

During the next twelve years, 4,600 new employees will be recruited in the Armed Forces, and a further 4,600 conscripts will be trained each year. Eventually, the Armed Forces will also have 13,700 reservists who can be trained so that they can be called up at short notice.

- We must secure the peace, so that we never experience what we experienced on 9 April 1940 , says Finance Minister Trygve Slagsvold Vedum (Sp).

In order to equip itself quickly, Norway must purchase equipment in a different way.

- We shall have less particularly Norwegian solutions in the future, but rather cooperation, buying off-the-shelf goods and faster procurement than today, says Defense Minister Bj�rn Arild Gram (Sp).

Larger HV
The Home Guard will grow to 45,000 soldiers, and get three new task forces. They will be given new equipment and will be trained annually.

• A separate HV task force based in Oslo must be earmarked to be deployed in Finnmark.
• HV also gets its own responsibility for defending the sea front, with the main emphasis on protecting allies who come to Norway's aid. But it is specified that the Norwegian Maritime Authority will not return.

More air defense
The government will spend NOK 90 billion on air defense in the coming years.

The government wants to more than double the current air defense capacity, which is limited to protecting the fighter aircraft bases on �rland and Evenes, plus the surrounding areas.

Three current batteries operating the Norwegian-developed Nasams system will be supplemented by a further four. It will be about mobile air defense that can be moved.

- It gives the opportunity to protect, for example, to protect the capital area if we estimate it as most required. It is mobile, but can stand still in the same place for a long time if we wish, Gram answers questions from VG.

Read also: The Chief of Defense's flight alert: This is why Norway needs more air defence

The Norwegian Defense Forces will also order long-range air defenses and develop anti-aircraft missiles that can shoot down and stop so-called ballistic missiles.

- Clear commitment
Chief of Defense Eirik Kristoffersen says that it is now up to the Armed Forces to get the most out of the money they receive.

- It is a responsibility that the Armed Forces take on very seriously, says Kristoffersen in a comment and adds:

- The government's long-term plan is a clear response to a more serious security situation, he says.

Confederation leader Torbj�rn Bongo of the Norwegian Officers' and Specialists' Confederation says that the plan is very comprehensive, but has some challenges:

- The plan represents a clear commitment to the Armed Forces. But there are considerable challenges when the plans can be realised.

There is also uncertainty about education and recruitment, he believes:

- Do we have the people to realize the large acquisitions and the rapid growth? We hope the government can clarify that quickly, says Bongo.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 04:20 schreef Elizium het volgende:
Rusland red dit niet tot winter 24/25

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Mercenaries of Wagner PMC recruit men in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to be sent to Africa
Russian private military companies are recruiting Ukrainian citizens in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine to be sent to Africa.

The National Resistance Center of Ukraine reported on this.

It is reported that the so-called Wagner Private military company has launched a large-scale recruitment campaign for men aged 22 to 50.

They are promised salaries of 240 thousand rubles if they sign a contract for six months.

In addition to participating in combat operations, mercenaries will have to work at mining facilities.

SPOILER

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Conscription of Ukrainians in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine
On September 29, it was reported that Russians had started the autumn draft, which had taken place, in particular, in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson regions and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.

From the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territory, the recruits moved to their permanent deployment points in Russia.

Russian mercenaries
Militarnyi reported on March 15 that Russia was increasingly recruiting mercenaries from countries facing economic hardships to participate in the war against Ukraine.

A large flow of mercenaries comes from Cuba because Russian agitators feel free there, so the number of people willing to join is growing.

In addition, there are many mercenaries from India, Africa, Nepal, and partly Serbia fighting on the battlefields of the Russian-Ukrainian war. There are also mercenaries from Latin America, Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq.

It was also reported that the Nepalese government had asked Russia to send back hundreds of Nepalese citizens who had been illegally recruited by Russia to participate in the Russian-Ukrainian war.

The Nepalese government has also asked Russia to repatriate the bodies of those who died. Nepal’s Foreign Minister Narayan Prakash Saud said that the Russian army had recruited more than 200 Nepalese citizens to fight in Ukraine, and at least 14 of them had been killed.

Militarnyi also reported that Police in Nepal had detained ten people on suspicion of illegally recruiting the country’s residents into the Russian military.

The detainees illegally charged each person up to $9,000 and sent them to Russia on “tourist visas,” mainly through the UAE.

They were then recruited into the Russian Army. In October 2023, Ukrainian troops captured a Russian mercenary from Nepal in the Avdiivka direction.

In the same month, the New York Times reported on dozens of Nepalese who signed contracts with the Russian army and went to war in Ukraine.

Many of them did so because of low wages and unemployment in the country. The Nepalese government does not allow its citizens to serve in foreign armies, except for the Armed Forces of India and the United Kingdom.

In addition to representatives of African and Asian nations, Europeans are also fighting on the side of the Russians. For example, in January 2024, it was reported that Dejan Beric, a Serbian mercenary who served in the Russian invasion troops, had complained about chauvinism and inhuman treatment by the Russian military.

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Slovakia: pro-western diplomat contests Russia-friendly politician for presidency
Polls show Ivan Korčok and Peter Pellegrini, an ally of prime minister Robert Fico, neck-and-neck before Saturday’s runoff

A pro-western diplomat and a politician accused of promoting Russia-friendly talking points will face off in a nailbiting presidential runoff in Slovakia on Saturday, amid fears the country is sliding away from the west.

Ivan Korčok, a former foreign minister, and Peter Pellegrini, the speaker of parliament who is backed by Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, are neck-to-neck in the polls.

Since coming back to power late last year, Fico has pursued a foreign policy more friendly towards Moscow and begun targeting independent institutions at home, sparking anger and protests.

The government’s critics say the election is key because the future office holder can act as a check on Fico and stem the tide of democratic backsliding.

SPOILER

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“What is at stake is the future of our democracy,” said Ľubica Karva�ov�, a candidate in the European parliament elections who is running on the opposition Progressive Slovakia’s list. Voters, Karva�ov� said, “don’t want to feel ashamed of our country as they do when the current Slovak government systematically burns bridges with its allies”.

And while the Slovak president’s powers are limited, the winner can make a difference. The president can act as a “barrier for more autocratisation”, said Michal Ov�dek, a lecturer at University College London. “Doesn’t mean it is not going to keep happening – but probably slower,” he added.

Korčok, who previously served as Slovakia’s ambassador in Washington and Brussels and has been campaigning on a pro-western platform, scored a surprise victory in the first round of the presidential race last month.

Pellegrini, a former prime minister who used to be a member of Fico’s Smer party and now leads the government coalition party Hlas, has cast himself as the “peace” candidate.

“Slovakia should not be merely a passive receiver of what is dictated in Washington and Brussels,” he said in a television debate on Tuesday.

Before the election, the central European investigative outlet VSquare alleged that when Pellegrini was prime minister in 2020 he asked Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orb�n, for help arranging a trip to Moscow to boost his credentials among pro-Russian voters in Slovakia.

Experts say the last days of campaigning were marked by rampant disinformation. “We see that Ivan Korčok, after winning the first round, he has become the sole person a lot of disinformation and smear campaigns are targeted against,” said Katar�na Klingov�, a senior research fellow at theGlobsec thinktank.

From social media to leaflets, negative narratives and disinformation have been spreading, often portraying Korčok as a warmonger backed by the west.

But Smer has accused Korčok’s supporters of fuelling divisions.

“They still use this narrative that the people who are supporting the government or who support Smer or whoever else, not Korčok, are the bad guys,” said Katarina Roth Neveďalov�, a member of the European parliament representing Smer. “This is very dangerous and it’s not very OK – and it’s dividing society strongly,” she said in a phone interview.

And while the two candidates appear virtually tied in the latest polls, outrage at Fico’s policies has mobilised a segment of the population in support of Korčok.

There is a sense that Pellegrini could fall behind. “There’s a big part of his electorate, which is fairly moderate,” said Ov�dek. “And so anything he does to appease the far right that he’s now trying to court, might alienate them.”

Adding to the candidate’s troubles is that while he formally enjoys Fico’s support, the prime minister’s backing is not believed to be wholehearted. “You can actually see from Smer’s support for Pellegrini that it’s quite lukewarm,” said Ov�dek.

Neveďalov�, however, insisted that Pellegrini had the party’s full support. “We don’t have any other candidate,” she said, “we are standing behind him.”

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Max: Is this episode on video?

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Serhii: Soldiers of the 60th Ingulets Brigade hit a Russian tank with your drone with homing, then hit an infantry fighting vehicle with an ordinary drone

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Doctors Without Borders says office in Donetsk Oblast 'bombed and completely destroyed'

^{An employee of Doctors Without Borders' office in Pokrovsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, stands in front of the office's destroyed building after an overnight attack on April 5, 2024. (Doctors Without Borders/Facebook)}

Doctors Without Borders, an international medical humanitarian organization that provides help in conflict zones, reported on April 5 that its office in Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast was "bombed and completely destroyed."

Settlements in the Ukraine-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast, such as Pokrovsk, suffer from daily Russian attacks due to their proximity to the front line. Heavy fighting continues in Donetsk Oblast as Russia seeks to occupy the entire region.

The organization's office in Pokrovsk, around 50 kilometers northwest of the Russian-occupied regional capital, Donetsk, came under attack at about 3 a.m. local time, Doctors Without Borders said on Facebook.

The office's employees were not wounded, but five local residents who were nearby at the time suffered injuries, according to the report.

SPOILER

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"We condemn the attack on the office that provided emergency medical humanitarian aid to people in Donetsk Oblast," the organization added.

"Doctors Without Borders calls for the protection of its facilities, as well as civilians, humanitarian organizations and health care workers."

"The attack on our office is far from an isolated incident," said Vincenzo Porpiglia, Doctors Without Borders' emergency coordinator in Ukraine. "Destruction of civilian infrastructure has been a characteristic feature of this war for a long time."

In his morning update on the consequences of Russian attacks over the previous 24 hours, Donetsk Oblast Governor Vadym Filashkin reported that two people had been killed and another nine had been injured, including five in Pokrovsk.

Filashkin also said that 17 houses had been damaged in the Pokrovsk attack.

Since the start of Russia's war against Ukraine in 2014, local and international charities and volunteers have been risking their lives to help civilians in front-line areas. This is not the first time they have come under attack.

A Russian FPV (first-person-view) drone reportedly struck a volunteer's car in the front-line town of Chasiv Yar in Donetsk Oblast on Jan. 26, destroying a part of humanitarian aid for locals.

In September last year, two foreign volunteers were killed, and two more were hospitalized when their car was struck by Russian shelling while driving through Chasiv Yar.

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Russian programmer sentenced to seven years for donating to Navalny’s organisation

^{Alexey Malyarevsky picketing outside the Kremlin. Photo: SOTAvision}

A Russian programmer was sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday for donating to Alexey Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK).

Alexey Malyarevsky was found guilty of “participation in an extremist community” and “financing extremism”, Mediazona reported.

Malyarevsky, who had lived for five years in the Czech Republic but returned to Russia last year, was accused of donating $150 to FBK, which was declared extremist by the Russian government in 2021.

A source told Mediazona that Malyarevsky had been beaten by the police during a search of his apartment and forced to unlock his phone, which is how the police managed to get access to his bank account data.

According to Mediazona, the prosecutor scolded Malyarevsky for “donating money to the opposition rather than to elderly people or orphans”.

On his return from Czechia, Malyarevsky held a picket near the Kremlin in September, bearing a poster that said “Freedom to Navalny, freedom for political prisoners.” He was briefly detained without a record in his file, but then remanded in custody on “financing extremism” charges in October.

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Going to war for dental treatment
Many Ukrainian refugees in Great Britain cannot even get a dentist appointment in an emergency. They travel to Kiev or Dnipro for treatment. Does your example also set a precedent among the British?

Anyone who has ever had tooth root pain can perhaps imagine what Natalia Negreba had to go through: It was "unbearable," says the 36-year-old . She took ibuprofen and paracetamol every day - it didn't help enough. "The pain just wouldn't go away." What Negreba didn't get: a dentist appointment. At least not one that cost them less than 800 British pounds.

So she took a low-cost airline to Poland , a bus across the border to Ukraine - and then the train to Dnipro in the east of the country, not far from the front. Today the pain is gone. "If I have another problem with my teeth, I'll have it treated again in Ukraine," she told the BBC.

SPOILER

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There are currently many cases like Natalia Negreba's in Great Britain : Ukrainian refugees travel to their homeland for dental treatment - for example because the appointment is too expensive or because it takes too long to get it: The family of a seven-year-old girl, for example, reports this A 15-hour odyssey by bus through the Ukrainian provinces to Kiev : �Lisa's pain was terrible. “She just couldn’t wait a few more months and take antibiotics,” said the mother, justifying the trip. How many people make the trip, whether there are any official figures at all - it's difficult to say; the Ukrainian Dental Association could not be reached for a SPIEGEL query on Friday. One thing is certain: the British press is full of reports.

Brits line up at the dentist
The reason for the numerous trips is the disastrous state of the NHS health service, from which many Britons also suffer. Dentists are rare in the country, especially for the less well-off: according to a Labor Party survey recently reported on by the Guardian , 83 percent of practices now refuse to accept patients who want to use NHS care . The symbol of the shortage is a queue several hundred meters long that formed in Bristol a few weeks ago to mark the opening of a practice: there had been no dentist in the district in question for seven months.

The conditions not only shock the British themselves, but also obviously immigrants. A study by the University of Birmingham into the experiences of immigrants from Hong Kong and Ukraine found that both groups were shocked by the generally poor health care in the country and specifically the problems finding a dentist. �We don't have a dentist. It's crazy," a 30-year-old Ukrainian woman is quoted as saying. It's no problem finding one in your own country - and the visit wouldn't cost more than ten pounds, or around 11.65 euros.

Air alarm in Dnipro several times a day - and yet many patients
In the search for pain relief, people are apparently willing to take risks: for example, the city of Dnipro, where Natalia Negreba had root canal treatment, is regularly the target of Russian attacks. At the beginning of last year , 45 people died after a long-range rocket hit a residential building. Just a few days ago, Kiev reported several people injured as a result of an attack that also targeted a kindergarten .

Dentist Kateryna Lagun told the BBC that it was dangerous in Dnipro, with air alerts going off up to 15 times a day. She herself lives near a factory that is frequently bombed. �I thought several times that this was the end.�

Nevertheless, there are many people who come from outside Ukraine for dental treatment. In her practice she treated several patients who traveled from the United Kingdom. "I think in Great Britain people have little choice." Not even the British themselves could get quick treatment, she heard.

Insider tip for Brits too?
This is also apparently different in Ukraine - as the case of Richard Howe shows: When the 58-year-old developed severe pain due to an abscess last year, there was no hope for him of an early appointment with the NHS, as British media reported . A private treatment would have cost around a thousand pounds (around 1,165 euros).

So Howe, who worked in Kiev for a long time, decided to travel to the Ukrainian capital. He was treated immediately in his old practice: He said afterwards about his experiences: “Anyone can walk off the street (into a practice) and be examined immediately. And the country is a war zone.”

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Two foreigners detained in Odesa for leaking data on AFU deployment to Russians
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) detained two foreigners in Odesa, agents of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), who were passing data on the location of the Defense Forces in the region to the enemy.
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the SBU.

The special service thwarted a new attempt by Russian invaders to inflict fire on the locations of the Defense Forces in Odesa region. Among the main targets of the aggressor were the headquarters of the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the southern direction.

СБУ затримала двох іноземців-агентів фсб, які готували ракетний удар по штабу Сил оборони

"To carry out the hostile task, the FSB engaged two of its agents, citizens of one of the South Caucasus countries who lived in Odesa," the statement said.

SPOILER

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On the instructions of the Russian secret service, these suspects reconnoitered the locations of Ukrainian troops in order to record their coordinates on Google maps.

After establishing the geolocations of the desired objects, the agents collected as much information as possible about the personnel, military equipment and work patterns there.

In this way, they hoped to identify the control points and combat units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in order to report to the FSB.

To gather intelligence, Russian agents walked the streets of Odesa and covertly recorded potential targets.

At the same time, they used their connections among local residents to obtain information about the Ukrainian military.

The defendants also created a public organization in the city that operated under the guise of providing assistance in legalizing foreign nationals in Ukraine. In reality, they tried to recruit foreigners into their own network of informants within the NGO.

In case of receiving intelligence, the invaders planned to carry out a series of targeted missile and drone strikes on military infrastructure and combat positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

After completing the hostile mission, the agents hoped to get a job in the FSB.

The SBU officers exposed the aggressor's accomplices at the initial stage of their reconnaissance and subversive activities.

The SBU then carried out step-by-step documentation, which allowed them to fully trace the routes of the defendants and detain them when they were conducting additional reconnaissance near one of the facilities.

At the place of detention, the SBU seized a phone from the offenders, which they used only to communicate with the FSB.

SBU investigators served both suspects a notice of suspicion under Part 3 of Article 114-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (unauthorized dissemination of information about the location of the Armed Forces committed under martial law).

They are in custody. The offenders face up to 12 years in prison.

As reported by Ukrinform, the court sentenced an agent of the Russian Federal Security Service who was preparing missile attacks by Russian troops on the airfields of the Defense Forces in Kirovohrad region to 15 years in prison.

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WHO Reports Increased Russian Attacks on Ukrainian Ambulances and Medical Facilities

Since the beginning of 2024, the Russians have been attacking Ukrainian emergency medical services more frequently.

The World Health Organization has released the relevant statistics.

The organization notes that ambulance workers and other personnel servicing health transport in Ukraine face a risk of injury and death 3 times higher than that of other healthcare service workers.

In addition, they note that the number of Russian attacks has increased and amounted to 68 attacks in the first quarter of 2024.

Approximately 12 of 68 attacks—almost 20%—targeted emergency medical services.

It also includes 9 attacks targeting emergency medical aid base stations, 7 attacks resulting in damage to ambulances, and 6 attacks affecting assets and emergency medical aid equipment.

This grim number underscores the pressure on the Ukrainian healthcare system,” stated Dr. Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine.

In 3 of these 12 attacks, 4 health workers were injured, and 2 health professionals were killed.

This information shows a casualty rate nearly 3 times higher than for other healthcare services during the same period.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is unclear about why Russia is targeting healthcare facilities and emergency medical services.

Militarnyi previously reported that Finland had donated six modern ambulances and associated medical equipment to Ukraine.

The vehicles are equipped with all the necessary equipment to save the lives of civilians and soldiers in the east of Ukraine.

quote:

Leader of Dutch far-right PVV abandons idea of leaving EU - Bloomberg
The leader of the Dutch far-right PVV (Freedom Party) Geert Wilders, whose party won the early parliamentary elections in the Netherlands, has abandoned the idea of leaving the European Union and instead intends to promote the country's interests in the community.
This was reported by Ukrinform with reference to Bloomberg.

SPOILER

quote:

"Dutch election winner Geert Wilders dropped his pledge for “a binding referendum on Nexit” ahead of June's European Parliament elections," the report says.

It is noted that Wilders has abandoned the idea of leaving the European Union and instead intends to promote the interests of the Netherlands in the community.

Instead of the idea of leaving the EU, the party now intends to "work hard to change the EU from within."

This thesis appeared in the PVV's election program ahead of the European Parliament elections, published on Friday.

It is worth noting that in the last elections to the EU's main legislative body in 2019, PVV advocated Nexit by analogy with the British Brexit, and the same idea was promoted during the national parliamentary elections last November.

According to the agency, this is the latest in a series of compromises that Wilders was forced to make to attract potential coalition partners after he won an unexpected victory in the early Dutch parliamentary elections in November.

In particular, Wilders said that the refugee quota for the Netherlands should be reduced, and also called on the EU to abandon "hasty" demands for a green deal.

As Ukrinform reported, earlier the leader of the Dutch far-right PVV (Freedom Party) Geert Wilders unexpectedly announced that he was ready to abandon his intentions to lead the government.

As reported by NOS, Wilders will not be able to become the new prime minister of the country, a demand put forward by the leaders of three other parties to continue negotiations on the formation of a ruling coalition, and Wilders agreed.

The agreement was reached between Wilders and the leaders of the other three parties, with whom the issue of forming a coalition government is being discussed. The leaders of the PVV (Freedom Party), VVD (People's Party for Freedom and Democracy), NSC (New Social Contract) and BBB (Farmer-Citizen Movement) are ready to remain in the House of Representatives in case a new cabinet is formed. Wilders himself confirms this news, saying he did not have enough support among other parties.

quote:

This is literally how the nuclear apocalypse movie starts, Musk
American billionaire Elon Musk believes that Ukraine’s accession to NATO could lead to a “nuclear apocalypse.”

In a recent post in X with the NATO Secretary General’s statement that Ukraine will become a NATO member, Musk wrote: “This is literally the beginning of a nuclear apocalypse movie.”

To his publication, Elon Musk attached a movie about the beginning of nuclear war.This is literally how the nuclear apocalypse movie startshttps://t.co/g28nCvn3cO

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 5, 2024

It has also been reported that Ukraine will not receive an official invitation to join NATO at the July summit in Washington.

This was reported by the New York Times with reference to representatives of the alliance.

The United States and Germany are opposed, fearing that they will be drawn into a war with Russia.

Therefore, NATO is looking for something to give Ukraine in return that is “sufficiently weighty” to show its support “in the long term”.

quote:

NATO expelled several Russians suspected of espionage in recent years: Stoltenberg
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, in an interview with the German daily Bild on Friday, stated that in recent years, numerous employees of the Russian mission had been expelled from NATO headquarters due to suspicions of espionage.

“We have seen that Russian intelligence services have operated across European countries for many years,” Stoltenberg said in the interview.

“We’re also seeing attempts to step up their activities but of course, NATO allies are monitoring, following this very closely,” he added.

He said NATO “expelled, for instance, Russian personnel from NATO headquarters because we realized that they were carrying out activities that were not actually diplomatic work, but intelligence work.”

In October 2021, NATO expelled eight Russian diplomats deemed to be intelligence officers. As of November 1, 2021, Russia has suspended activities of its delegation to NATO, the NATO military liaison mission, and also the Alliance’s information office in Moscow.

quote:

Russia declares 'state of emergency' after mystery radiation leak in Khabarovsk
Russia has declared a 'state of emergency' in one of its cities after a mysterious radiation leak.

High radiation levels were found near a pylon in Khabarovsk - around 1.5 miles away from residential buildings.

The area has been cordoned off but the source of the radiation leak has not been made public.

Khabarovsk head of civil defence Andrey Kolchin said: "A source of increased radiation levels was discovered… the area was cordoned.

"It was decided to introduce a state of emergency in Khabarovsk to carry out work faster."

No one has been injured or exposed to radiation and "there is no threat to the health of citizens", TASS quoted the local branch of Russia's consumer safety watchdog as saying.

A source at Radon nuclear agency said: "The radiation source was removed and placed in a protective container, transported to a radioactive waste storage facility.

"There is no environmental pollution and no threat to society."

A state of emergency is expected to remain in place for the next three days while authorities continue to monitor radiation levels and work out the cause.

However, it is understood to have taken a week for authorities to act on reports of the leak.

It was said to have first been reported by a boy on March 28 but no action was taken until April 5.

quote:

T�rkiye withdraws from Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
T�rkiye becomes the third country to suspend the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, an agreement that imposes limits on the categories of conventional military equipment deployable by NATO and the former Warsaw Pact.

T�rkiye has withdrawn from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

"It has been decided to suspend the implementation of the Treaty between the Republic of T�rkiye and the other states that are parties to the Treaty as of April 8, 2024 in accordance with Article 3 of the Presidential Decree No. 9,” according to the country’s Official Gazette.

In 1999, an updated CFE treaty was drafted and approved in Istanbul, taking into account new realities such as the Warsaw Pact's dissolution and NATO expansion.

Russia also withdrew from the treaty in 2023, blaming the United States for undermining post-Cold War security with the enlargement of the NATO military alliance.

Russia suspended participation in the treaty in 2007 and halted active participation in 2015. More than a year after its military attack against Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin in May signed a decree denounced the pact.

Poland also withdrew from the treaty last month.

CFE Treaty
The 1990 Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, placed verifiable limits on categories of conventional military equipment that NATO and the then-Warsaw Pact could deploy.

The treaty was designed to prevent either side of the Cold War from amassing forces for a swift offensive against the other in Europe.

It imposed limits on five key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe — tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, helicopters, and combat aircraft — and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry.

quote:

Ex-Russian official issues warning about Putin
Vladimir Milov, Russia's former deputy minister of energy, tells CNN's Erin Burnett how he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin could impact the US presidential election and "complicate" President Biden's reelection campaign. Ex-CIA chief of Russia operations Steve Hall reacts.

quote:

Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 22:30 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Als je geleidt wordt door emotie ja. Altijd dat emo gedrag. Met COVID ook al. Zou hier gewoon neutraal naar kijken zoals iemand als Rob de Wijk.

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Op vrijdag 5 april 2024 23:52 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Cool.
Was je gaan kijken als je wist dat hij zou komen?

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 04:20 schreef Elizium het volgende:
Rusland red dit niet tot winter 24/25

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:
Oekrainers dood en die worden niet aangevuld met nieuwe soldaten

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 08:53 schreef TLC het volgende:
De russen willen onze baby's brainwashen

https://www.nu.nl/tech/63(...)ereen-op-scherp.html

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:30 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Nouja er is net een wet ondertekend om de oproep grens naar 25 te doen. Dus komen er weer meer bij.

Of het genoeg is geen idee. Maar voorlopig gaat rusland ook nog niet erg hard vooruit.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Oekraine wel dan? Die houden hun dodenaantallen zorgvuldig stil, maar als er een half miljoen Russen dood zijn, dan zijn er ook wel 200k Oekrainers dood en die worden niet aangevuld met nieuwe soldaten. Op een gegeven moment is de koek daar op en dan walst Rusland er overheen, gewoon, met slecht bewapende, slecht getrainde soldaten, maar wel met een overmacht. Want Oekraine heeft helemaal niemand meer dan.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Oekraine wel dan? Die houden hun dodenaantallen zorgvuldig stil, maar als er een half miljoen Russen dood zijn, dan zijn er ook wel 200k Oekrainers dood en die worden niet aangevuld met nieuwe soldaten. Op een gegeven moment is de koek daar op en dan walst Rusland er overheen, gewoon, met slecht bewapende, slecht getrainde soldaten, maar wel met een overmacht. Want Oekraine heeft helemaal niemand meer dan.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:27 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Oekraine wel dan? Die houden hun dodenaantallen zorgvuldig stil, maar als er een half miljoen Russen dood zijn, dan zijn er ook wel 200k Oekrainers dood en die worden niet aangevuld met nieuwe soldaten. Op een gegeven moment is de koek daar op en dan walst Rusland er overheen, gewoon, met slecht bewapende, slecht getrainde soldaten, maar wel met een overmacht. Want Oekraine heeft helemaal niemand meer dan.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:37 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Maar hoeveel gaan daar op reageren? Ik zie jonge Oekrainers niet staan springen. Wel krijg ik ongekend veel CVs binnen van Oekrainse ITers; die zijn allemaal de grens over. Die zie ik niet ineens teruggaan om in dienst te gaan en door een kolonel de loopgraven in te worden gejaagd.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:37 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Maar hoeveel gaan daar op reageren? Ik zie jonge Oekrainers niet staan springen. Wel krijg ik ongekend veel CVs binnen van Oekrainse ITers; die zijn allemaal de grens over. Die zie ik niet ineens teruggaan om in dienst te gaan en door een kolonel de loopgraven in te worden gejaagd.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 14:04 schreef oheng het volgende:
De schade op de vliegvelden lijken beperkt. Zoals Suchomimus zegt, trage drones vs mobiele vliegtuigen zijn niet echt geschikt. Beter zet je drones in tegen stationaire doelwitten.

Satellite Imagery of Morzovsk, Engels-2 and Yeysk Airbases After Mass Drone Attack

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:55 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Strijkt ongetwijfeld enorm tegen de hyper-individualistische NL haren in: je land verdedigen is geen vrijblijvende aangelegenheid.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:31 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Oh dat ben ik met je eens. Ik zal als 50+er niet in de eerste mobilisatieronde zitten dan, maar als in NL zo'n oorlog ook voortwoekert ben ik ook aan de beurt. En dan doe ik het gewoon.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:55 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Dan mogen we op z'n ergst wat anders doen. Ouwe lullen zoals wij hebben niet veel toegevoegde waarde op het slagveld.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:55 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Dan mogen we op z'n ergst wat anders doen. Ouwe lullen zoals wij hebben niet veel toegevoegde waarde op het slagveld.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:55 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Dan mogen we op z'n ergst wat anders doen. Ouwe lullen zoals wij hebben niet veel toegevoegde waarde op het slagveld.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:31 schreef Knipoogje het volgende:

[..]
Oh dat ben ik met je eens. Ik zal als 50+er niet in de eerste mobilisatieronde zitten dan, maar als in NL zo'n oorlog ook voortwoekert ben ik ook aan de beurt. En dan doe ik het gewoon.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 18:42 schreef skysherrif het volgende:
[ afbeelding ]

Deze tank die veel rond gin in de media met 4/5 verschilende EW systemen er op is vandaag door Azov buitgemaakt

bron : https://t.me/azov_media/5634

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 14:04 schreef oheng het volgende:
De schade op de vliegvelden lijken beperkt. Zoals Suchomimus zegt, trage drones vs mobiele vliegtuigen zijn niet echt geschikt. Beter zet je drones in tegen stationaire doelwitten.

Satellite Imagery of Morzovsk, Engels-2 and Yeysk Airbases After Mass Drone Attack

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 18:42 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
In Oekra�ne zitten 50 plussers ook gewoon de hele dag granaten in een howitzer te duwen.

quote:

A kamikaze drone attacked a military unit in the so-called “Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic”

A kamikaze drone attacked a military unit in the R�bnița district of the unrecognized “Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic”.

Local media reported on this.

The incident reportedly took place yesterday at 2:35 p.m., targeting the only radar in Transnistria, the P-12 Yenisei , which sustained minor damage after the strike.

Local residents posted a video showing a drone moving toward the military unit, followed by an explosion.

A crater was created at the crash site, and there were no casualties among the personnel.

SPOILER

quote:

Атака дрона

A kamikaze drone attack on a helicopter
On March 15, Militarnyi reported that a kamikaze drone had attacked a helicopter on the territory of a military unit of the so-called “Pridnestrovian Moldovan Republic” at the Tiraspol airfield.

The drone’s flight to the military facility was recorded from the side of the road junction, which is locally known as the Kleverny Bridge.

The distance from the bridge to the landing site of the Transnistrian armed groups is about 6 kilometers.

According to the wreckage characteristics, the drone hit a helicopter that was equipped with unguided missiles.

Local Telegram channels report that the incident occurred at around 12:10 p.m.

A video capturing a helicopter being hit by a small drone that looks like an FPV was also released.

No casualties have been reported as a result of the hit, and the relevant emergency services immediately arrived at the scene.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 13:43 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
In 1 jaar bereiken 100.000 tot 200.000 Oekrainsche mannen de dienstplicht leeftijd.

Mannen. Raken. Niet. Op.

quote:

Biden and Sullivan halt push for Ukraine aid amid concerns of Russian nuclear threat
U.S. President Joe Biden and his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan “bought into” idea that Russia could use nuclear weapons if the U.S. provides Ukraine with “too many” weapons, Head of U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, said in an interview with Puck News on April 2.

“Jake Sullivan is too cautious. He is very timid,” he said.

“And he has bought into the idea that if we give them (Ukraine) too much, Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons against us. Most of the intelligence I’ve seen suggests that they won’t. Because that would be a game changer for everybody.”

He also noted that Biden is like-minded with Sullivan on this issue and is as cautious about helping Ukraine as Sullivan.

According to McCall, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, on the contrary, at the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, fully supported provision of MiG-29 fighters to Ukraine, and it is Sullivan who is primarily “slowing down” assistance to Ukraine.

“It’s not him (Blinken slowing down aid for Ukraine). I think it’s Jake Sullivan and the White House,” congressman added.

“This is a very timid reaction. I like Colin Powell’s doctrine. You’re either in or you’re out. Don’t stop halfway. You know, we are giving Putin exactly what he wants. This is a stalemate. It’s a war of attrition. And he has more bodies to throw.”

Earlier, Biden signed a $1.2 trillion package of bills to fund government agencies, which had been passed by the House and Senate shortly before. He urged the House to pass the bill, which includes support for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan on March 23.

White House spokesperson Karin Jean-Pierre said that United States is convinced that the bill containing aid to Ukraine will receive enough votes from both parties, but House Speaker Mike Johnson is looking for an excuse not to put it to a vote on March 26.

quote:

UK unable to fight Russia ‘for more than couple of months’
In a recent Defence Committee meeting, concerns about the British military’s capacity for sustained operations were raised.
Witnesses examined included Grant Shapps MP, Secretary of State for Defence; David Williams CB, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence; Tom Wipperman, Strategic Finance Director; and Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan KCB CBE, Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Capability).

The dialogue began with Emma Lewell-Buck MP, questioning the rejection of over 125,000 Army applicants due to a reported lack of vacancies. The Secretary of State for Defence, Grant Shapps, responded that he was unaware of the specific FOI mentioned but acknowledged systemic issues in recruitment practices needing urgent attention.

The conversation then moved to the UK’s military readiness, with Lieutenant General Sir Rob Magowan asserting the nation’s preparedness for immediate conflict but recognising limitations in sustained engagement capabilities.

“We are ready for war, and I fundamentally believe that. We have very high readiness forces…who can go out of the door tonight,” Magowan stated.

However, when Mr Francois probed about the endurance of the UK’s military forces, Magowan conceded, “Absolutely,” agreeing that the military could face significant challenges in a prolonged conflict with a major power like Russia.

“We could not fight an enduring war for more than a couple of months…because we do not have the ammunition or the reserves of equipment to do it. That’s true, isn’t it?” Francois pressed, to which Magowan replied, “True”.

quote:

An unidentified naval drone was found off the coast of Romania

An unidentified naval drone with a powerful warhead was discovered off the Romanian coast in the Black Sea.

It is alleged that Cyrillic letters were found on the naval drone, which may indicate Russian or Ukrainian origin.

First, two days ago, Romanian border guards spotted an overturned boat in the sea near the village of Tuzla.

A vessel of the Romanian maritime search and rescue was called to the scene and towed the finding to the port of Constanta, where it was examined by specialists from various services.

Sources familiar with the investigation said that it was a former search and rescue boat weighing about 3 tons that had been converted for some military purposes.

SPOILER

quote:

Біля берегів � умунії знайшли невідомий морський дрон

An antenna for jamming signals was found in the bow of the boat, and an explosive device could have been attached nearby.

The boat was taken to a Capu Midia Training Range and then blown up.

After the planned explosion, local residents were frightened, and a strong shock wave was felt by all residents of the area. Army officials confirmed that it was the result of a naval drone explosion.

“The explosion was so strong that the sound wave reached Constanta,” Romanian media reported.

Such an explosion may indicate that the drone had a powerful warhead.

This drone resembles a rigid inflatable boat (RIB), probably designed for rescue operations (the red color of the rescue boats is partially preserved), repurposed as an unmanned surface vessel with a powerful warhead.

To recap, in 2023, the Russian company KMZ unveiled the Oduvanchik naval drone, which is designed, according to a design, similar to Ukrainian drones.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 19:30 schreef Nebelwerfer het volgende:

[..]
Dat waren vaak wel de 50+erg met de nodige ervaring uit het verleden.
Vraag is wel of je beter af bent met een taak in een of ander depot of iets dergelijks. Die drones komen overal :p

quote:

Pipe transporting petroleum products to tankers blown up in Russia – Ukraine’s defense intel
The Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reported that a pipeline Russia used to ump petroleum products into tankers for military purposes was blown up in Rostov region.
That’s according to the GUR press service, Ukrinform reports.

"In the early hours of Saturday, April 6, in the area of the town of Azov (Rostov region), as a result of the explosion on the pipeline used to pump petroleum products from a local oil depot to tankers in the Azov seaport, the loading of tankers was suspended indefinitely," the GUR emphasized.

Russia utilized this infrastructure for military purposes, to support the war effort against Ukraine, the report says.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on April 2, the GUR organized a strike targeting a Shahed kamikaze drone factory and an oil refinery in Russia’s Tatarstan. A Ukrainian long-range drone hit the primary oil processing facility at the Nizhnekamsk refinery, causing a fire.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 19:53 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Maar daar heb je geen ervaring voor nodig toch als je gewoon 1 van de 5 mannetjes bent. Tis bij wijze van achter een vuilniswagen staan maar dan met iets zwaardere dingen. Je hoeft bij wijze van niet eens te weten hoe de howitzer werkt, gewoon granaat erin en je commandant regelt de rest.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 19:50 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
which may indicate Russian or Ukrainian origin.

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South Korea to donate $2.3 billion to Ukraine
South Korea will provide Ukraine with a medium and long-term aid package in the amount of $2.3 billion starting this year.
This was announced by South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Tae-yul during a meeting of NATO’s Indo-Pacific partner countries, Ukrinform reports, referring to Yonhap.

Also, Seoul will offer $12 million for the rehabilitation of wounded Ukrainian soldiers through the NATO trust fund for assistance to Ukraine. At the meeting, Cho also promised to continue supporting Ukraine.

In addition, the head of the South Korean Foreign Ministry said North Korea's weapons support for Russia affects not only the security of Europe, but also that of the Korean Peninsula and the Indo-Pacific region, adding that the transfer of military technology by Moscow and the supply of refined oil to Pyongyang will threaten the global nonproliferation regime.

The meeting was held with the participation of representatives of NATO partners in the Indo-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia, and New Zealand.

As, Ukrinform reported earlier, Ukraine received 70 more ambulance vehicles from the Korean government.

quote:

Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 20:01 schreef capricia het volgende:

[..]
En heel hard en snel wegrijden na het afschieten.

quote:

Kajsa Ollongren, Minister of Defense of the Netherlands
We have to work on increasing defense production in Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S.

In early April, the Netherlands signed a bilateral security agreement with Ukraine, which, among other things, lays down EUR 2 billion in military aid for this year, as well as further defense assistance over the next 10 years. The Netherlands, together with the U.S. and Denmark, are leading the aviation capabilities coalition within the framework of the Ramstein format.

A few weeks ago, the Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Kajsa Ollongren, during a visit to Ukraine, announced a new aid package of EUR 350 million, which will fund the purchase of munitions for F-16s and hi-end reconnaissance drones. The Minister said the Netherlands intends to hand over the first batch of F-16 fighters to Ukraine in the second half of 2024.

We have to work on increasing defense production in Ukraine, Europe, and the U.S

SPOILER

quote:

An Ukrinform correspondent managed to have a blitz conversation with Kajsa Ollongren at the military air base in Leeuwarden, where the MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance and attack UAV was presented. In particular, the Minister spoke of how many F-16 jets will be donated to Ukraine and how, in her opinion, arms production for Ukraine should be increased.

WE ARE DOING EVERYTHING WE CAN TO GET THE AMMUNITION TO UKRAINE

- Thank you for doing this interview and for the invitation to visit the air base in Leeuwarden. Tell us about the MQ-9 Reaper that was unveiled today. What tasks does the UAV perform in Romania?
- This is the MQ-9 Reaper, an uncrewed plane. We are here in Leeuwarden, in the north of the Netherlands, and other such planes are currently in Romania, operating there for Netherlands and NATO, including to help us get the best possible picture of the situation over the Black Sea and on the border with Ukraine.

- In March, you visited Ukraine. You also saw the area where Russian missiles and drones hit the city of Dnipro and you also spoke with the Ukrainian military. Please share your impressions of your visit and what was its main purpose?
- I think it is very important to visit Ukraine regularly. So far, this has been my fifth visit. This time I went to Dnipro. It was only two weeks ago, and just a few days ago, Dnipro was hit and casualties were reported. And, of course, this is extremely impactful to see the Ukrainian people. I really admire courage and resilience of the Ukrainian military. When I was there, it was the start of a four- or five-day large-scale missile barrage spree by the Russians, targeting Kyiv and other cities. And that is the reality in Ukraine these days. So it is important to bring that picture back to the Netherlands, to show people what this war really is about and why Ukraine so desperately needs more ammunition, more air defense capabilities, because Russian aggression continues is ongoing and intensifying.

- Why is this war not only for Ukraine, and why is victory important not only for the Ukrainian people?
- You are absolutely right. This war that Ukraine is fighting is about freedom, democracy, rule of law, and standing against an illegal aggression. And that is why we are also committed to support Ukraine, and that is why we are doing everything we can to get the ammunition there, especially 155mm rounds, as soon as we can. We are working very hard to this end.

MORE OPTIONS OF ASSISTANCE TOWARD UKRAINE'S VICTORY

- What capabilities does Ukraine need to prevail against Russia?
- We are very well aware of the painful situation at the front, that there’s ammunition shortage. But will get there. And we also understand the importance of air defense, since Russia has been able to employ large numbers of missiles, drones, and aerial bombs, from which Ukraine has to protect its cities, citizens, and critical infrastructure.

- How does Russia manage to produce arms at such a pace?
- We know that Russia has switched to "war economy". On the part of the Netherlands, we have been engaging a lot with our industry to make sure they increase output, that we open new production lines, that we do joint procurements and seal large orders for Ukraine. Also, when I visited Ukraine, we discussed the possibilities of increasing production in Ukraine, which, of course, is the most efficient way in defense production. I think we have to try everything. We have to work on production in Ukraine, production in Europe, the United States, and other countries. We also have to see if we can find more existing stocks that can be used. So we are working on that from all possible angles.

- What do you think about Jens Stoltenberg's proposal to create a EUR 100 billion NATO fund for?
- We have to study the details of the proposal by the NATO Secretary General.

We are now coordinating aid to Ukraine within the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the so-called Ramstein format. This is an ad hoc format as a reaction to Russia’s large-scale invasion. Unfortunately, maybe this war is going to take a long time so I’m always interested in strengthening the coordination of military aid to Ukraine. So I think this is a very interesting proposal and I look forward to discussing it in the NATO context.

TWENTY-FOUR F-16 FIGHTER JETS FOR UKRAINE

- In February, you said Ukraine would receive an additional six F-16s from the Netherlands. So how many F-16s will your country donate? And when can we expect to get them?
- In total, we are going to give 24 F-16s. They will be transferred to Ukraine as soon as everything is in place and ready. That depends on the training of Ukrainian pilots and maintenance technicians, as well as, on infrastructure, of course. It’s a joint effort with Ukraine, but also with Denmark, the United States, and other countries. It's difficult, it’s complex, but we will get there. In the coalition we hope that by this summer we will have been able to start delivering the F-16s – first the Danish and then the Dutch.

- Is it true that you and Prime Minister Rutte personally asked the U.S. to help Ukraine with the F-16s?
- Let's say we have been discussing all possibilities with our partners and friends. I think what counts is that we have, together with the U.S. and Denmark, my opinion, what matters is that we have, together with the United States and Denmark, been able to take that decision, and from that moment onward, we've been working very hard to deliver this capability.

- Tell us please what did you feel on February 24, 2022, when you learned about Russia's invasion of Ukraine?
- For me it was like what we feared most became a reality. That was my first reaction. And then I had this really big admiration for the Ukrainian government and president, who decided to stay in Ukraine. I think that was a really important moment. And from that moment on, we’ve been working very-very hard to do whatever we can to support Ukraine. I will never forget the first phone call I got – that the large-scale invasion had started. Like I said, the immediate response was very important. Now, more than two years into the invasion, we see that Ukraine is fighting an incredible fight with incredible courage, but this can only be done with our support that must continue. I am determined to do whatever I can to help.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 20:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.ukrinform.net(...)the-netherlands.html
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SPOILER

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 20:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.ukrinform.net(...)the-netherlands.html
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SPOILER

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Reign of Fear: Secret Raids Sweep Russia After Terror Attack
Russian authorities have unleashed a frenzied crackdown on migrants in Russia in the aftermath of the Moscow concert shooting.

The Kremlin has been accused of ordering sweeping raids, unlawful deportations, and baseless arrests targeting migrants on the heels of the deadly terrorist attack in Moscow last month, in what appears to be a frenzied effort to deter future attacks.

Russian authorities have relentlessly beat, attacked, and intimidated scores of migrants after blaming the concert hall massacre on four men from Tajikistan, Valentina Chupik, a human rights activist who has been working with migrants targeted in the crackdown, told The Daily Beast. The police are demanding bribes in order to let migrants go in some cases, Chupik said.

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In one case, a woman from Tajikistan was detained in Zhukovsky airport and brought to the basement for intimidation purposes, Chupik said. There, the police suggested she pay them off with 30,000 rubles or risk being detained, according to Chupik, who added that they had no legal reasons to detain the woman. The woman’s son-in-law allegedly paid off the cops with 10,000 rubles, and his mother-in-law was allowed to leave the country without getting detained.

The Russian Federal Air Transport Agency had previously announced increased security measures at airports including Zhukovsky, but made no mention of police detaining migrants and demanding bribes.

Others haven’t been so lucky. Some Russian police appear to be getting a green light from superiors to instruct migrants to break the law, and then punish them for following their orders, Chupik told The Daily Beast.

In one case, local authorities urged migrants to formalize some of their documents in Odintsovo, an area that restricts foreigners’ entry, she said. But when migrants began arriving this week, police allegedly began pulling them over and detaining them indiscriminately. One migrant from Uzbekistan told her he was beaten and jailed for 15 days for not following police instructions.

“Russian authorities created rationale,” Chupik said. “They created the potentiality of deportation of migrants.”

In a dormitory near Moscow, other migrants recounted stories of getting beaten by police. One migrant had his eyes clawed out, Chupik said.

Some are fleeing the country to seek safety, Chupik said, recounting multiple phone calls she had recently received from migrants who were looking for advice on whether they should leave. Tajikistan’s Ministry of Labor said it has recorded a surge of citizens leaving Russia, while others are laying low by staying home from work, according to the BBC.

“They called from work and said not to come yet,” one migrant from Tajikistan, whose name was changed for their safety, told the BBC.

Last month police in St. Petersburg conducted raids they called “Anti-Migrant” raids, according to human rights group Department One. The Daily Beast could not immediately verify the accounts.

Similar attacks are happening all across the country, including in Moscow, Samara, Yekaterinburg, and St. Petersburg, Chupik said. Court records show that since the Crocus City Hall attack, Russian authorities have recorded 2,647 cases under Article 18.8 of the Code of Administrative Offenses in Russia—which concerns immigrants and rules of entry—in Moscow alone, marking an uptick since the attack.

In just the last week and a half, Chupik says she has written nearly 600 appeals for migrants that have been unlawfully detained in Russia. Their appeals likely won’t be heard until next year.

Target Practice
The raids coincide with increasing concerns about the Kremlin’s ability to prevent terrorist attacks on Russian soil after the shooting attack last month, which killed over 140 people. Russian authorities had ignored multiple warnings from British and American intelligence agencies about a possible “imminent” attack.

After ISIS claimed responsibility for the massacre, the Russian government blamed the shooting on four men from Tajikistan, stoking alarm over connections between immigration and terrorism.

In an apparent effort to broadcast that the government is taking serious measures to protect citizens, Moscow police have been instructed to go door-to-door searching for overcrowded housing or other places where illegal migrants might live, according to a report from BAZA. The raids, which reportedly began on April 1, combine criminal investigation officers, district police officers, and other forces, according to BAZA. Training is still reportedly being conducted in other regions for similar raids.

“They detain everybody who has no blonde hair and blue eyes.”

Putin urged the Ministry of Interior Affairs this week to crack down more harshly against illegal migration, noting that he thinks migration is a breeding ground for extremism and criminality. He also stressed that the ministry must prioritize preserving the cultural and linguistic identity of Russia in the overhaul.

“We need to deeply, radically update our approaches to migration policy," he said at a board meeting of the Ministry of Interior Affairs, according to a Reuters translation.

According to Chupik, while the raids may look like they’re targeted at migrants, Russian authorities are also going after anyone who looks like they might be an immigrant—and more specifically, anyone who doesn’t have blue eyes and blond hair.

“They detain everybody who has no blonde hair and blue eyes,” she said. “They just stop everybody who has dark skin, black hair, black eyes.”

Russian authorities are still working to track down suspects in the Crocus City Hall attack, having announced at least five more arrests this week.

The interior ministry has also proposed a new policy of limiting foreigners’ stays in the country to just 90 days, according to a spokesperson. Currently, foreigners can stay for 90 days and return for another stay if they leave for a period of time. The draft law also suggests establishing biometric identification of foreigners entering the country.

Russia is currently working on proposals to restrict the hiring of foreign workers, according to the spokesperson.

Other roundups abound. Police detained dozens of migrant workers working at a corporate warehouse in the Moscow region after conducting a “document inspection,” according to RIA Novosti.

Many other immigrants have noted a surge in discrimination against them, including instances in which they were refused cab rides. “Hello, if you are Tajik, cancel the order, I’m not going with you,” one message reads, according to Meduza.

The fear in Russia is spreading to other countries as well. The Kyrgyzstan Foreign Ministry recently warned residents against traveling to Russia, urging them to keep their documents proving the legality of their entry into the country if they must go.

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Russia carrying out illegal chemical attacks on Ukrainian soldiers
Telegraph investigation reveals those on front line are being exposed to gases banned during wartime

Russian troops are carrying out a systematic campaign of illegal chemical attacks against Ukrainian soldiers, according to a Telegraph investigation.

The Telegraph spoke to a number of Ukrainian soldiers deployed in positions across the front line who detailed how their positions have been coming under near daily attacks from small drones, mainly dropping tear gas but also other chemicals.

The use of such gas, which is known as CS and commonly used by riot police, is banned during wartime under the Chemical Weapons Convention.

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Ihor, the commander of a Ukrainian reconnaissance team who is deployed near the front line city of Chasiv Yar, in Donetsk Oblast, told The Telegraph: “Nearly every position in our area of the front was getting one or two gas grenades dropped on them a day.”

He said that because of how embedded many Ukrainian troops are now it was difficult for the Russians to attack with conventional artillery or drones firing missiles, adding: “The only way for them to successfully attack us was with gas.”

Even when not lethal or immediately incapacitating, these gas attacks usually cause panic. “Their first instinct is to get out,” Ihor said. They can then be attacked with more conventional weapons.

Two other Ukrainian soldiers, deployed on opposite ends of the front line, spoke of similar experiences.

Mikhail, the commander of an infantry unit deployed in Robotnye, in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, where a Russian offensive is currently under way, said: “Gas masks saved more than one of our lives.”

He said his soldiers were now required to carry their masks with them at all times.

Slava, a senior lieutenant whose unit is deployed near Lyman, in Donetsk Oblast, said some Ukrainian units in his area were coming under “almost daily” gas attacks.

One of these CS gas grenades was provided to The Telegraph for verification by Rebekah Maciorowski, an American combat medic and a qualified nurse serving in the Ukrainian army.

She has been routinely called to provide medical aid to Ukrainian soldiers in the three brigades she works with in Donetsk Oblast after chemical weapon attacks, which she described as “systematic”.

The grenade was originally retrieved by soldiers in the 53rd Mechanised Brigade, one of the brigades with which she works. “My guys retrieved it whilst under fire because nobody believed they were being attacked with chemical weapons,” she said.

Marc-Michael Blum, a chemical weapons expert and former head of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons laboratory, confirmed the recovered munition was a K-51 gas grenade, which are typically filled with tear gas.

Other types of chemical gas have also been reported, although the reports could not be independently verified by The Telegraph.

Ms Maciorowski said that she attended one incident last year caused by what she suspected was hydrogen cyanide, a deadly, colourless gas used as a chemical weapon by the West in the First World War.

A Russian drone dropped two munitions containing an unknown gas that had a “crushed almond aroma” on soldiers in Donetsk Oblast, she said.

Two people were killed and 12 required hospital treatment. In an interview with Le Monde in JanuaryYuriy Belousov, the head of investigations for Ukraine’s prosecutor general, referred to one of the deaths as being caused by an “unknown gas”.

There have also been reports of the use of chlorine and chloropicrin – a substance typically used as a pesticide that was deployed by the Germans as a chemical weapon in the First World War.

Officially the Ukrainian military has claimed that 626 gas attacks have been carried out by Russian forces since the start of the full-scale invasion.

But Ms Maciorowski believes this is almost certainly a gross underestimate, saying: “Sadly, as it stands right now, the causes of deaths of many Ukrainian soldiers are not properly investigated. There are just so many of them.”

The attacks have become such a feature of Moscow’s tactics that Ukrainian soldiers now have specific training to deal with them.

One training document supplied to The Telegraph detailed a Russian attack on Ukrainian positions close to the city of Bakhmut, in eastern Ukraine, late last year.

Russian drones dropped three chemical grenades, believed to have been filled with CS gas, directly into their dug-in positions. As the soldiers attempted to flee, they were attacked with shells and drones dropping conventional grenades.

The training manual tells soldiers to stay where they are and suffer through the first few minutes of tear gas exposure instead of fleeing their fighting positions. After the first few minutes of exposure, the document says, the effect of the gas weakens.

Compounding the problem is the fact that protective equipment provided is not always provided to Ukrainian soldiers and, when it is, it is often of poor quality.

“We have gas masks, but in almost all cases they’re very old, ex-Soviet models, and they’re not very effective,” said Ihor. Some even have filters that contain asbestos.

Ms Maciorowski said some of the soldiers in her brigades are given no protective equipment at all and have to rely on donations from volunteers or source their own.

The Russians have made little effort to conceal their use of chemical attacks. The Black Sea Fleet’s 810th Naval Infantry Brigade boasted about the deployment of chemical weapons in a post on Telegram in December, posting a video of what it claimed were K-51 gas grenades being dropped on Ukrainian positions.

“Thanks to the head of the radiation, chemical and biological defence troops… for the weapons provided and their timely delivery,” the caption read.

Similarly, a news report aired on the Russian state television station Channel One in May 2023 contained explicit discussion of the issue. One Russian soldier said: “The enemy decided that using gas masks would help. The gas masks don’t help.”

Soldiers’ names have been changed to protect their identities

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:58 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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De Gemechaniseerde Brigade in scootmobiels

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 20:11 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

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Dat doen ze niet allemaal natuurlijk. Maar dat kan je natuurlijk ook op je 50ste doen. Zou perfecte baan zijn voor iemand die al 30 jaar vuilniswagen rijdt

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 20:59 schreef AchJa het volgende:
Zei iemand scooter?

Scooter - Back In The U.K. (Official Video)

SPOILER

ik heb een toe-toe-toeter op mijn waterscooter
Daarmee toe-toe-toeter ik naar jou
ik heb een toe-toe-toeter op mijn waterscooter
daarmee toeter ik naar elke vrouw

ik heb een toet-toet
ik heb een toet-toet
ik heb een toet-toet
wohooo 2x

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 17:55 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Dan mogen we op z'n ergst wat anders doen. Ouwe lullen zoals wij hebben niet veel toegevoegde waarde op het slagveld.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 14:22 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Weer een dijkdoorbraak. Slecht onderhoud + lente = veel water en doorbrekende dijken.

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Rocket and drone assault: Fire in Kharkiv, explosions in Zaporizhzhia - Night attack details
The Russians attacked Ukraine with cruise missiles, Kalibrs from the Black Sea, as well as drones. As a result of the enemy's attack, there are casualties, victims, and damages.

Details of the aftermath of the night attack are covered in the RBC-Ukraine material below.

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Sources used during material preparation: Telegram channel of the commander of the Air Force Mykola Oleshchuk, Telegram channel of Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov, Telegram channel of the Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Syniehubov, Telegram channel of Kharkiv Regional Police, Telegram channel of the Head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration Ivan Fedorov, Telegram channel of the Secretary of Zaporizhzhia City Council Anatolii Kurtyev, Telegram channel of Kyiv Regional Military Administration, Telegram channel of the Mayor of Makarov Vadym Tokar, Telegram channel Suspilne Khmelnytskyi, Telegram channel of the Defense Forces of Southern Ukraine.

Russian attack on Ukraine
During the night of April 6, 2024, Russian occupiers attacked with 32 Shahed-131/136 strike UAVs from the areas of Primorsko-Akhtarsk and Kursk - RF.

Additionally, Russian forces attacked Ukraine with six missiles of various types:
• three S-300 surface-to-air guided missiles from the Belgorod region;
• two Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles from strategic aviation aircraft from the Saratov region;
• one Kalibr cruise missile from the Black Sea.

Kharkiv region
In Kharkiv, explosions were heard during the night air raid alarm. According to the Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration Oleh Syniehubov, Russian forces hit near residential buildings in the Shevchenkivskyi district.

"As a result of the occupant's strike, one civilian man was killed. Data is being determined. At least seven people were injured," Syniehubov wrote.

The Chief of the Main Directorate of the National Police of Kharkiv, Volodymyr Tymoshko, reported that Russians struck the city with S-300 missiles.

"At night, the Russians struck Kharkiv with S-300 missiles. While the city slept. After midnight, in the residential quarter of the Shevchenkivskyi district, the Russian invaders launched two missiles from the S-300 surface-to-air missile system," the police reported.

Shortly after, drones attacked the regional center. There were explosions in the city, and air defense systems were active.

In the morning, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov reported an increase in the number of casualties and fatalities.

"As a result of the night strike on the Shevchenkivskyi district, as of this morning, we have six fatalities and 10 wounded," said Terekhov.

Oleh Syniehubov also provided updated information.

"The youngest injured is 23 years old. The young man suffered explosive trauma and shrapnel wounds. In stable condition are also a 25-year-old and a 71-year-old woman, six men aged 35 to 85 years old. Other casualties have minor injuries," wrote the Head of Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.

Updated at 9:10 AM

As reported by Syniehubov, the number of casualties from the attack has increased. Eleven people were wounded.

Zaporizhzhia region
During the air raid alarm in Zaporizhzhia, explosions were heard. Ivan Fedorov, Head of Zaporizhzhia Regional Military Administration, reported that Russians attacked the regional center with missiles.

"For the second day, the enemy has been heavily attacking Zaporizhzhia. In the morning, Russians targeted the city with missiles. Industrial enterprises have been damaged. Preliminarily, there were no casualties," Fedorov said.

Anatolii Kurtyev, Secretary of Zaporizhzhia City Council, reported damage to residential buildings, medical facilities, and educational institutions.

"After the morning enemy attack, damage to educational and medical institutions, as well as residential buildings (mostly broken windows), was recorded in the city. No one was injured this time," the secretary wrote.

Kyiv region
Russian forces attacked the Kyiv region with drones. The air defense system is reported to be in operation.

"Enemy drones movement detected! Air defense forces are active in the region. Do not photograph or film the work of our defenders," Kyiv Regional Military Administration stated.

In the town of Makariv near Kyiv, the premises of one private enterprise were damaged by debris. There are no casualties or injuries.

Kherson region
The Ukrainian Defense Forces reported that seven Shahed drones were destroyed in the Kherson region. However, there was a hit on an agro-industrial enterprise, resulting in a fire.

The fire has already been extinguished. There is no information about any casualties.

Khmelnytskyi region
Explosions were also heard by residents of the Khmelnytskyi region. The Air Force reported a drone heading towards the region.

Air Force operations
As reported by Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk, two cruise missiles, Kalibr, and 28 drones were shot down.

"As a result of the air combat by the Ukrainian Defense Forces, two Kh-101/Kh-555 cruise missiles, one Kalibr cruise missile, and 28 Shahed-131/136 strike UAVs were shot down," the statement said.

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Russian dam bursts forcing thousands to evacuate in flood-hit southern region

^{Emergency workers evacuate a local resident after a part of a dam burst causing flooding, in Orsk, Russia. Russian Emergency Ministry Press Service via AP}

Thousands of Russians have been evacuated from their homes after an embankment dam broke in the southern region of Orenburg, near Kazakhstan, authorities said.

The dam in the city of Orsk could not contain the flow of water of the Ural river and broke in two places, local authorities told TASS.

At least three people have died as a result of the flooding, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

Authorities have reported that 4,208 people in the region have been evacuated, including 1,019 children, and 495 temporary accommodation centers for 82,200 people are being prepared, according to TASS.

^{Three people are reported to have died so far. Russian Emergencies Ministry via Reuters}

As of Saturday morning, the level of the Ural river was nearly double the level the dam was designed to handle, according to regional authorities.

The dam failure occurred because the hydraulic structure was not properly maintained, and a criminal investigation has been opened, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

The dam was protecting the city from the waters of the Ural river. By Saturday morning, the water had reached several districts of the city, flooding nearly 2,400 residential buildings, TASS reported.

“A state of emergency is in effect in Orenburg,” the head of the Orenburg region Sergey Salmin said in a Telegram post Saturday.

“This situation leaves us no choice; overnight the [river] level may reach a critical level. I demand that everyone immediately leave their houses in the flood zone.”

^{Rescuers make their way in a flooded residential area in the city of Orsk. Russian Emergencies Ministry via Reuters}

“Those who refuse to leave the danger zone voluntarily will be evacuated forcibly, with the participation of police officers,” he added.

Orsk, a city of 230,000, lies near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev described the flooding as one of Kazakhstan’s largest natural disasters in 80 years, according to Reuters.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 22:00 schreef oheng het volgende:
Hadden we de zoveelste mislukte massa aanval al gezien waarbij de beruchte tank met een pallet vol EW materiaal bovenop is aangetroffen?

Omdat het zaterdag avond is, hier weer een super accuraat anti drone wapen van de russen.

In Orsk is trouwens nog een dam doorgebroken, 3 uren geleden.

Hier de russische variant van een "clown car".

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 19:45 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://ukdefencejournal.(...)an-couple-of-months/
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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 22:36 schreef polderturk het volgende:

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Dus Oekra�ne is veel sterker dan GB?

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 22:24 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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24 clowns tell ik zo snel even. Dat is wel heel erg knus.

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Op zaterdag 6 april 2024 23:09 schreef Anton91 het volgende:
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