Oorlog in Oekraïne #972 - Iran zonder president

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Partisans: Attack on occupied Crimea damages communications equipment, casualties reported
A missile attack on a Russian communications hub in the city of Alushta in occupied Crimea has caused "significant damage to equipment," with numerous casualties reported, the pro-Ukrainian partisan group Atesh reported on May 24.

The Crimean Wind telegram channel further reported that a large military antenna was struck in the community of Semydviria, just 3 kilometers east of Alushta. The antenna was previously used by Ukraine's military prior to Russia's occupation of Crimea in 2014.

Atesh also reported that the command center of the communications hub may have been destroyed in the attack, although no information is currently available on the status of the military facility.

Ukraine's Armed Forces have yet to take responsibility for the attack, nor have they provided comment.

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Mysterious shooting outside Army Special Forces residence in North Carolina raises questions
Chechen power company subcontractor found shot in North Carolina near Army colonel’s home

A mysterious shooting in North Carolina north of Fort Liberty, formerly Fort Bragg, not far from where some of America’s most elite U.S. Special Operations forces live and train is under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division as well as local police. The shooting in Carthage, North Carolina occurred May 3 at 8:15 p.m. following a phone call about a suspected trespasser near a Special Forces soldier's property.

Two Chechen men who spoke broken English were found near the soldier's home. The family alleges the suspected intruder, 35-year-old Ramzan Daraev of Chicago was taking photos of their children. When confronted near a power line in a wooded part of the property, an altercation ensued and Daraev was shot several times at close range. A second man, Dzhankutov Adsalan, was in a vehicle some distance from the incident and was questioned by authorities and then released. The Moore County Sheriff's office is leading the investigation.

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Russia, in New Push, Increasingly Disrupts Ukraine’s Starlink Service
Russia has deployed advanced tech to interfere with Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Ukrainian officials said, leading to more outages on the northern front battle line.

^{Members of the Achilles Drone battalion of Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade in Kharkiv, Ukraine. They depend on Starlink service for communications and to conduct drone strikes.Credit...Sasha Maslov for The New York Times}

Just before Russian troops pushed across the Ukrainian northern border this month, members of Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade lost a vital resource. Starlink satellite internet service, which soldiers use to communicate, collect intelligence and conduct drone attacks, had slowed to a crawl.

Operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Starlink has been critical to the Ukrainian military since the earliest days of the war with Russia. Without the full service, Ukrainian soldiers said, they couldn’t quickly communicate and share information about the surprise onslaught and resorted to sending text messages. Their experiences were repeated across the new northern front line, according to Ukrainian soldiers, officials and electronics warfare experts.

At the heart of the outages: increased interference from Russia.

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CNN's Matthew Chance looks at the increasing appearances of Tucker Carlson on Russian state TV as the Kremlin sees propaganda value in the former Fox News anchor.

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Rosneft asks Kremlin to compensate for costs of protecting oil refineries from drones
The CEO of Russia's state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, sent a letter to Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin asking the Kremlin to approve tax breaks to offset the cost of preventing drone attacks on the company's oil refineries, Russian state-controlled media reported on May 23.

In recent months, Ukrainian forces have launched a series of drone strikes aimed at damaging Russia's oil industry, which is crucial to sustaining Moscow's war efforts, as well as its military hardware.

More than a dozen oil refineries have been reportedly hit. Earlier this week, on May 20, Russian media claimed that a refinery in the Russian town of Slavyansk-on-Kuban was damaged following an overnight drone strike.

In the wake of such attacks, many refineries have been forced to suspend operations, leading to a drop in fuel supplies.

In the letter, Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, reportedly asked the Kremlin to "provide tax benefits to offset the costs of drone attacks on oil refineries in the Russian Federation."

Sechin writes that due to the increase in "terrorist risks," the company has been forced to implement a wide and costly set of measures to physically protect oil facilities from drones.

The CEO said the company suspended operations at the Syzran, Ryazan, Kuibyshev, and Tuapse refineries due to drone strikes. Sechin proposed compensating the company for security costs through deductions from the mineral extraction tax or income tax and increasing the reverse excise tax on oil.

He also noted that Western sanctions have undermined efforts to modernize the refineries, limiting the supply of equipment and increasing the cost of logistics and construction work.

Earlier this month, Politico reported that Ukrainian drone strikes were successful in putting pressure on Russia's fuel supplies, causing gasoline and diesel prices to surge for Russian consumers.

Energy exports have long been a key source of Moscow's revenue and have helped to sustain its ongoing war against Ukraine.

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Putin arrives in neighboring Belarus for a two-day visit with a key ally
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday evening arrived in Belarus for a two-day visit

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived Thursday in Belarus for a two-day visit as part of several foreign tours to kick off his fifth term in office, underscoring close ties with a neighboring ally that has been instrumental in Russia's war effort in Ukraine.

Putin traveled to China earlier this month, and is expected in Uzbekistan on Sunday. Earlier on Thursday, the Russian president hosted Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa in the Kremlin.

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