Oorlog in Oekraïne #961 Zal de hulp er nu toch echt gaan komen?

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One less enemy: Z-blogger Misha from Canada crashed in Crimea
Russian Z-blogger Mikhail Kasperov crashed on a motorcycle in occupied Crimea.

On the night of April 20, in occupied Sevastopol, the dangerous enemy of Ukraine, Mikhail Kasperov, said goodbye to his life.

Information about the death appeared in the morning on his own Telegram channel “Misha from Canada,” Dialog.UA reports.

A native of Russian Magadan, Kasperov moved to Crimea after the occupation. Living on the peninsula, he was engaged in propaganda, raising funds for the Russian military, and also persecuted local residents for their pro-Ukrainian views.

This night, while riding his Harley-Davidson motorcycle, he lost control and drove into oncoming traffic. There he collided head-on with a VAZ-2114 car. All that was left of the motorcycle was a pile of debris.

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Insta-Nazis: How Claims Of 'Rehabilitating Nazism' Are Molding A Militaristic Society In Putin's Russia

^{Alyona Agafonova appears in a Volgograd court earlier this month.}

A court in the southern Russian city of Volgograd sentenced a 23-year-old woman to 10 months of compulsory labor on April 5 after convicting her of "rehabilitating Nazism." The charge stemmed from a 2023 social media video that prosecutors said contained "cynical actions that disregarded the norms of morality and ethics."

In the video, Alyona Agafonova, a tourist from the mid-Volga region city of Samara, documented her visit to Volgograd and at one point, using a trick of perspective, playfully "tickled" the breasts of the enormous statue that dominates the city's memorial to the Battle of Stalingrad -- probably the most prominent icon of World War II anywhere in Russia. In court, prosecutors said she had "offended a symbol of the resilience of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War."

The head of the investigations department of the Volgograd branch of the Investigative Committee, Vladimir Surkov, said the case should be a warning to others.

"Anyone who wants to hype themselves in a similar manner should think about this and not do it," Surkov told a local news website.

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After Congress finally does pass new funding, this is how the US can rush weapons to Ukraine
The Pentagon could get weapons moving to Ukraine within days once Congress passes a long-delayed aid bill. That’s because it has a network of storage sites in the U.S. and Europe that already hold the ammunition and air defense components that Kyiv desperately needs.

Moving fast is critical, CIA Director Bill Burns said this past week, warning that without additional aid from the U.S., Ukraine could lose the war to Russia by the end of this year.

“We would like very much to be able to rush the security assistance in the volumes we think they need to be able to be successful,” Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

The House approved $61 billion in funding for the war-torn country Saturday after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., pushed a larger foreign aid bill toward a vote despite threats from within his party that doing so could cost him his job. It still needs to clear the Senate.

After the House vote, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said he was grateful “for the decision that keeps history on the right track.” He said on X, formerly Twitter that the House action “will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”

President Joe Biden has said he would sign it “immediately.”

If that happens, “we have a very robust logistics network that enables us to move material very quickly,” Ryder told reporters this past week. “We can move within days.”

The Pentagon has had supplies ready to go for months but hasn’t moved them because it is out of money. It has already spent all of the funding Congress had previously provided to support Ukraine, sending more than $44 billion worth of weapons, maintenance, training and spare parts since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

By December, the Pentagon was $10 billion in the hole, because it is going to cost more now to replace the systems it sent to the battlefield in Ukraine.

As a result, the Pentagon’s frequent aid packages for Ukraine dried up because there’s been no guarantee Congress would pass the additional funding needed to replenish the weapons the U.S. has been sending to Ukraine. The legislation would include more than $20 billion to restock the Pentagon’s shelves and ensure that the military services have what they need to fight and protect America.

The lag in weapons deliveries has forced Ukrainian troops to spend months rationing their dwindling supply of munitions.

A look at how the U.S. can quickly move weapons to Ukraine:

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Drones for Ukraine coalition raises EUR 500 mln so far: Latvian def min
A Latvian-led drone coalition has so far raised EUR 500 million to purchase drones in support of Ukraine, the Latvian Defense Ministry said on Saturday. Earlier on Tuesday Latvian Defence Minister Andris Spruds announced that the country is sending the first batch of unmanned aerial vehicles to Ukraine.

The ambition of the drone coalition member states is to provide Ukraine with 1 million drones. By signing a letter of intent, the countries pledged to invest in drone production, deliver drones and spare parts, conduct tests, train soldiers, and implement other technical solutions. Latvia pledged to contribute at least EUR 10 million a year to the drone coalition.

Riga also pledged to provide Ukraine with annual military support of 0.25% of its gross domestic product by 2026, and annual support of EUR 5 million for Ukraine’s reconstruction.

Latvia is the first of the Baltic states to sign such an agreement. The country also plans to train at least 4,000 Ukrainian soldiers in 2024, the Defense Ministry said.

The drone coalition
The drone coalition led by Latvia, the U.K., and Sweden also includes Australia, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Ukraine and Poland.

The drone coalition was founded under the Ukrainian Defence Contact Group (UDCG), a coalition consisting of 56 members from NATO, the EU, and partner nations collaborating to coordinate military assistance to the Ukrainian government in response to Russia’s invasion.

In January, the UDCG established a drone coalition with the goal of enhancing Ukraine's unmanned capabilities. In addition to supplying aerial vehicles, participants are urged to offer spare parts, production services, logistical support, testing facilities, training programs, and related technical solutions for Ukraine.

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Latvian citizen accused of plotting sabotage operations in Ukraine
Latvia’s Prosecutor’s Office has charged a Latvian citizen on suspicion of travelling to Ukraine to commit acts of sabotage.

Source: European Pravda, with reference to Delfi

Details: The man’s name is Ivan Tarabanov, and his trial in Riga City Court is scheduled for 7 June.

Tarabanov is accused of attempting to illegally participate in an armed conflict and travelling for the purpose of terrorism. He is currently in custody.

Tarabanov travelled to Ukraine to take part in the war, violating Latvian law, in January 2022.

He received an assignment from a person who introduced himself as Aleksandr, and who remains unidentified, to conduct a sabotage operation involving arson in Ukraine.

Tarabanov travelled to Ukraine to carry out the plan. The prosecutor’s office did not disclose any further information.

Before being referred to the Prosecutor’s Office, the case had been investigated by the State Security Service of Latvia (SSSL).

The SSSL is currently verifying whether several other Latvian citizens were illegally involved in the war in Ukraine on the side of the Russian armed forces.

Background:
• Earlier in April, the Latvian state police opened a criminal case against a man aged around 22 for publicly supporting Russia’s war crimes and glorifying Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in the centre of the Latvian capital, Riga.
• The Latvian state police also detained two Latvian citizens who tore down a Ukrainian flag from a building in Riga.

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Russian disinformation efforts around US elections ‘kicked into gear over the last 45 days’: Microsoft
Russia’s disinformation operations around the U.S. elections have ramped up over the last month-and-a-half after a relatively slow start compared to previous cycles, Microsoft said Wednesday.

The operations use a mix of themes seen in 2020 campaigns with a “renewed focus on undermining US support for Ukraine” as well as efforts to turn U.S. citizens against NATO and to foster domestic infighting.

“Messaging regarding Ukraine — via traditional media and social media — picked up steam over the last two months with a mix of covert and overt campaigns from at least 70 Russia-affiliated activity sets we track,” Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) explained in the new report.

MTAC traced the activity back to several Russia-affiliated influence actors, but the most prolific was housed within the Russian Presidential Administration. Microsoft said the efforts have quietly pivoted away from intelligence services and the Internet Research Agency into a more centralized operation run by Russia’s presidential office.

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Georgia not ready for EU, says ruling party
The pronouncement comes as tensions fray between Tbilisi and Brussels over a ‘Kremlin-inspired’ foreign agent law.

Georgia is unlikely to join the European Union any time soon, despite having been granted candidate status last year, the chairman of the country’s ruling party said on Saturday.

“Last December, we became a candidate country. The next step is joining,” Irakli Garibashvili told reporters on Saturday. “Today, we are not ready to become a member country.”

Despite widespread protests, the Georgian Dream politician and former prime minister defended a controversial new bill that would label NGOs, campaign groups and media outlets that receive more than 20 percent of their funding from abroad as agents of foreign influence. Critics say the legislation would drive a wedge between Georgia and the West and stifle opposition in the same way similar rules have in Russia.

“If we are told that tomorrow we will become a member of the EU, then it will be possible to very easily cancel it, revise, transform or adopt a new one,” Garibashvili said.

At the same time, he claimed that “there is no consensus a country can become a member of the EU today” because the bloc “is not ready for enlargement and it will take time and these next steps depend on many things.”

The EU has told Georgia the proposals, which have brought thousands onto the streets in protest in recent weeks, are incompatible with European values and should be withdrawn, while Washington branded the “Kremlin-inspired” legislation as an attack on civil society.

When the European Commission granted Georgia candidate status last year, it set out specific steps needed for the South Caucasus country to be admitted as a full member, including tackling political polarization and strengthening human rights protections. According to the bloc’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, passing the foreign agent law, as well as the government’s new proposals cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights, “would negatively impact Georgia’s progress on its EU path.”

A December 2023 poll conducted by the National Democratic Institute found that 79 percent of Georgian respondents supported their country’s EU membership ambitions.

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US weighs sending additional military advisers to Ukraine as Russia gains momentum
The troops would be serving in a non-combat role, officials said.

The U.S. is considering sending additional military advisers to the embassy in Kyiv, the latest show of American commitment to Ukraine as Russia appears to be gaining momentum in the two-year conflict.

The advisers would not be in a combat role, but rather would advise and support the Ukrainian government and military, according to Pentagon spokesperson Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

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