Oorlog in Oekra�ne #972 - Iran zonder president

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Swedish commander: Putin aims to control Baltic Sea, has his eye on Gotland Island
Russian President Vladimir Putin may be seeking dominance over the Baltic Sea and has his eye on the Swedish island of Gotland, Micael Byden, the supreme commander of the Swedish Armed Forces, said in an interview with the German media network RND published on May 22.

A day earlier, Russia unveiled its plans to unilaterally change the maritime border with Lithuania and Finland in the Baltic Sea. Moscow intends to appropriate inland sea waters in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland and near the cities of Baltiysk and Zelenogradsk in Kaliningrad Oblast, according to a decree prepared by the Russian Defense Ministry.

"I am confident that Putin even has both eyes on Gotland. Putin's goal is to gain control of the Baltic Sea," Byden said.

"Who controls Gotland controls the Baltic Sea."

Gotland, Sweden's largest island, is located about 330 kilometers (around 200 miles) north of the Russian exclave Kaliningrad, the headquarters of Russia's Baltic Fleet, and is strategically important for the defense of the Baltic Sea region.

If Russia seizes control of the island, it could threaten NATO countries from the sea, according to Byden.

"This would signify the end of peace and stability in the Nordic and Baltic regions," the Swedish military chief says. "The Baltic Sea should not turn into Putin's playground where he intimidates NATO members."

Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Sweden has reinforced Gotland with permanent troops and additional forces that can be deployed temporarily if the risk level escalates.

Sweden officially joined NATO on March 7, almost two years after it applied to join the alliance in a direct response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and in a reversal of 200 years of formal military neutrality.

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Eagles flying to nesting locations in Ukraine modify their routes to avoid areas where hostilities take place. The birds deviate up to 250 kilometres from the usual route, which may have a negative impact on their reproductive rates.

According to The Guardian, a group of UK scientists arrived at these conclusions in a study published in the scientific journal Current Biology.

Using GPS data, the scientists examined the journeys of 19 greater spotted eagles flying through Ukraine to the south of Belarus in March and April 2022. The resulting routes were compared to those recorded earlier – from 2018 to 2021.

Scientists discovered that after the commencement of the full-scale war, the birds travelled an average of 85 kilometres more than usual. One eagle diverted from the path by 250 kilometres.

Because of this tendency, travel duration has climbed to an average of 55 hours. Furthermore, male birds' flight speeds (they fly from East Africa) were slower than before the outbreak of the full-scale war.

Previously, 90% of eagles made stops in Ukraine, but by 2022, only 32% did. As a result, the birds likely used more energy to reach their nesting places.

"It’s kind of like if you were to run a marathon but you had no water breaks. And at the end, someone asks you to run an extra seven or eight miles," explained study co-author Charlie Russell.

According to scientists, the greatest deviations from the direct route happened in areas with higher hostilities. However, not all birds behaved the same.

For example, despite the fierce combat, an eagle named Borovets continued to fly across Kyiv. However, eagle Denisa altered its course and flew within a kilometre of explosions and fights on the outskirts of the capital.

Deviations from the regular paths may cause delays in reproduction since eagles will most likely need additional time to recover. It can also have an impact on their offspring's chances of survival, as prey may become less accessible when the chicks hatch.

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Drone operators of the 3rd Assault Brigade destroyed the enemy Tyulpan ACS in the Kharkiv region

The operators of the unmanned systems battalion and the Lumiere group unit of the 3rd Assault Brigade destroyed an enemy 2S4 Tyulpan 240mm self-propelled mortar in the Kharkiv region.

The Battalion’s press service reported on this.

The enemy self-propelled mortar was detected by a reconnaissance drone, after which it was hit by an attack drone.

After further reconnaissance, the operators performed control hits and re-attacked the Tyulpan with FPV.

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Sanctioned Russian oligarch threatens legal action over Luxembourg’s �14.3 billion assets freeze

Russian billionaire and Alfa Group co-founder Mikhail Fridman is challenging the Luxembourg government’s freeze on �14.3 billion of his assets and plans to take his case to international arbitration, Russian state-affiliated business daily Vedomosti reported on Tuesday.

Two sources told Vedmosti that the Russian billionaire, whose net worth is estimated to exceed �12 billion, intends to initiate legal action after the authorities in Luxembourg failed to respond to requests to unfreeze Fridman’s assets submitted by his representatives in February.

According to Vedomosti, Fridman considers his assets, which were frozen following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, to have been “expropriated” and is demanding compensation from the grand duchy.

The Luxembourg authorities have six months to respond to his claim, after which Fridman will be entitled to take his claim to the UN Commission on International Trade Law or the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, an institution for international arbitration.

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Russia Removes Controversial Baltic Sea Border Change Proposal from Government Website
A draft bill proposed by the Russian Ministry of Defense, that called for a unilateral change to Russia’s borders with Finland, Estonia, and Lithuania in the Baltic Sea, has been removed from the Russian government’s website.

However, an archived copy of the bill’s description, as proposed by the Defense Ministry, is still available on the archive.is website.

Earlier, The Moscow Times reported that the text of the bill, which they reviewed on May 21, proposed changes to the borders near Baltiysk, Zelenogradsk, and the eastern Gulf of Finland. These changes would have allowed Russia to claim the corresponding waters as its internal seas.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the proposal by the Ministry of Defense to change Russia’s Baltic Sea border is not politically motivated.

“There’s nothing political here, although the political situation has changed significantly since then. You see how tensions are escalating, what a level of confrontation, especially in the Baltic region. Of course, this requires our relevant departments to take appropriate steps to ensure our security,” Peskov said, according to Russian media.

Peskov suggested journalists seek comment directly from the Defense Ministry.

In response to the bill, Lithuania called the move a provocation after the news broke, and the Finnish Foreign Ministry stated that it expects Russia to comply with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which governs changes to territorial waters.

Additionally, Sweden is securing the island with permanently stationed units and temporarily bringing additional forces there if the danger situation increases.

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In Occupied Areas, Russia Pushes Ukrainian Youth To Sign Contracts To Fight Ukraine

^{Russian soldiers stand near a mobile recruiting center with a board containing information about payments in Rostov-on-Don, Russia.}

Residents of Ukraine's largely Russian-occupied Luhansk region report an intense effort by Russian officers to recruit male students at universities and institutes for contract service in the Russian armed forces.

"They say that if I sign a contract and don't get mobilized, I'll have better chances of surviving" Russia's war against Ukraine, said a 20-year-old Luhansk student who gave his name as Anton.

With no end in sight to a war in which more than 315,000 Russian men have been killed or wounded since the full-scale invasion of February 2022, by U.S. estimates, Russian President Vladimir Putin's government seems intent on maintaining or boosting troops numbers.

Eager to avoid a repeat of a 2022 mobilization that prompted hundreds of thousands of people to leave Russia, it's looking to contract soldiers to fill the ranks and help increase the size of the armed forces to 1.32 million in 2024. In December 2023, then-Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu set a "top priority" target of 745,000 contract personnel by the end of 2024, state news agency TASS reported.

Russian recruitment and conscription efforts are not limited to Russian territory. While it is illegal under international law, the military is also targeting men in the five Ukrainian regions Moscow baselessly claims as its own: Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, and Crimea.

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