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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 10:28 schreef Elan het volgende:

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Maar daar zijn ze ook niet veilig meer.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 12:23 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Als ik primer wil ga ik wel naar de Gamma

https://www.gamma.nl/asso(...)art-750-ml/p/B233634

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 12:48 schreef oheng het volgende:
Massale russische aanval gericht op o.a. Oekraine's energienetwerk.
Ze kunnen de Shaheed's goed neerschieten, ik vraag me af in hoeverre de Gepard/Cheetah daarvoor verantwoordelijk is.

[ x ]

De GPS jammers in Kaliningrad zijn uitgezet.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 12:53 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Oei, buitenlandse wapens die Ruzland afvuurt op Oekra�ne 😱

Escalatie 😱

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:00 schreef oheng het volgende:

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Over escalatie gesproken, rusland heeft de blyatmobiel een upgrade gegeven.

Is dit het wunderwaffen waarmee rusland deze invasie gaat winnen?

Sadomasy & DJ One - Body Motion (Club Mix) - 1991

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:29 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:50 schreef Kickinalfa het volgende:
Wat zijn nu de vooruitzichten, een economische uitputtings slag tussen de "westerse" steun en de Russische economie?

Wat die laatste in principe nooit kan winnen.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:29 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 14:01 schreef oheng het volgende:

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rusland heeft volgens hun eigen cijfers:
- basis rente van 16%
- torenhoge inflatie
- arbeidstekort van bijna 5 miljoen
- 33% van het budget gaat naar deze oorlog
- afgesloten van de internat. Kapitaalmarkt
- tekort in de eerste 4 maanden van 2024: 43,65 miljard eurodollar

En dit is allemaal gebaseerd op russische cijfers, de werkelijkheid is waarschijnlijk erger.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:29 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 14:12 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Een setje mislukte oogsten, of eigenlijk zaaisel wat kapot bevroren is dus de oogst straks zal mislukken, bananen niet meer te betalen, tekort aan locomotieven, dat terwijl rus het volledig moet hebben van spoor, te groot land, niet genoeg wegen, we beginnen de eerste beelden te zien van lege militaire opslag complexen, volgens mij deze week de primeur gezien van weer een oudere tank bij rus, de T-54, weer net wat ouder dan de T-55, golfkarretjes zijn op, ze moeten het nu doen met underpowered brommers, enzovoort.

Het is niet waarschijnlijk dat 1 van deze factoren de doorslag gaat geven, maar death of a 1000 papercuts lijkt waarschijnlijk.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 14:56 schreef oheng het volgende:
Reisner van het Oostenrijkse leger heeft een nieuwe video gemaakt. Het is nog onzeker of hij een russische spion is, dus neem het met een korreltje zout.

The Russian Momentum is back

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China weigert Zelenski's verzoek om naar vredestop te komen: 'Het hoort ook Rusland een podium te geven'

Oekra�ense president Volodimir Zelenski wil dat China bij de aankomende internationale vredestop in Zwitserland aanwezig zal zijn, maar de kans lijkt klein dat dit daadwerkelijk gebeurt.

Sinds het begin van de oorlog tussen Oekra�ne en Rusland meent het land geen positie in te nemen.

Oekra�ne heeft besloten dat Rusland niet welkom bij de vredestop is en daarom is het voor China 'moeilijk' om wel te komen.

"De vredestop hoort zowel Rusland als Oekra�ne een podium te geven", zegt de Chinese woordvoerder van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken Mao Ning. "
Er hoort een gelijke deelname van alle partijen te zijn, zodat er een eerlijke discussie over de vredesplannen gevoerd kan worden."

Oekra�ne heeft Rusland toegang tot de vredestop ontzegd en dat brengt China in een benarde positie. "Dit voldoet niet aan onze eisen en verwachtingen van de internationale gemeenschap.

Daarom wordt het moeilijk voor China om aanwezig te zijn", aldus Ning.

Kremlin-woordvoerder Dmitry Peskov vindt het absurd dat Rusland niet welkom is bij de vredestop.
"Zoeken naar opties voor een oplossing voor het Oekra�ense conflict zonder de deelname van Rusland is absoluut onlogisch, nutteloos en tijdverspilling.".

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 14:56 schreef oheng het volgende:
Reisner van het Oostenrijkse leger heeft een nieuwe video gemaakt. Het is nog onzeker of hij een russische spion is, dus neem het met een korreltje zout.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 18:34 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
Waarom zou Reisner een Russische spion zijn? Dit is waarschijnlijk de best beschikbare bron met informatie over het conflict, we zien helaas maar weinig bronnen van academisch niveau.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 19:09 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Omdat een bepaald figuur in dit topic vindt dat heel Oostenrijk lid van de FSB is...

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 19:29 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

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Hij zegt wel dat het een patriot was in dat ene filmpie

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 13:29 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 10:21 schreef Elan het volgende:
https://www.rtl.nl/nieuws(...)tegen-doelen-rusland

Dit is toch gewoon het begin van het einde, of zien jullie nog ruimte voor nuance waardoor het niet verder gaat escaleren?

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Growing independence sentiment in Bashkortostan amid Russia's Ukraine invasion
Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has intensified the desire for independence in Bashkortostan, Ruslan Gabbasov, Bashkir National Movement's committee head, said in an interview with NV on May 25.

"Since the invasion began, society in Bashkortostan has become polarized. Some have been swayed by Russian propaganda to view Ukraine through the lens of Nazism, while others, particularly those inclined to protest, increasingly support the idea of separating from the Russian Federation," Gabbasov explained. Previously, this latter group had only sought greater autonomy within Russia.

"Two years ago, the Bashkir people were mostly skeptical about independence, but today, a significant number are joining our cause, believing that independence is the only way to save our nation," he added. This new wave of support includes many influential figures in culture and science, though they tend to express their views privately due to the sensitive nature of the topic.

Despite this growing enthusiasm, Gabbasov acknowledged that the movement faces considerable opposition: "About 80% of Bashkirs back independence, and nearly half of the Tatars view it positively. However, more than 80% of ethnic Russians oppose it. Thus, the situation remains complex."

Protests in Bashkortostan in January 2024
Up to 10,000 people gathered outside a court in the city of Baymak in the Russian Republic of Bashkortostan on Jan. 17, protesting the incarceration of Fail Alsinov, sentenced to four years in prison, marking a significant moment of civic action in the region.

The court convicted Alsinov of "inciting ethnic hatred" after he spoke about the consequences of gold mining in the region. In his remarks, Alsinov used the term "kara khalyk," which can be translated as "black people" in Russian but is commonly used in Turkic languages like Bashkir to refer to ordinary people. However, the court's linguistic experts treated it as an ethnic slur.

Alsinov became well-known for his efforts to protect Bashkortostan’s Mount Kushtau from industrial development, as well as his advocacy for Bashkortostan's sovereignty through his organization Bashkort, which he led until it was banned as "extremist" by the court in 2019.

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In Basjkirostan woonden 4.104.336 mensen in 2002. Hiervan is 29,8% Basjkiers; 36,3% Rus; 24,1% Wolga-Tataars; andere bevolkingsgroepen zijn de Tsjoevasjen met 2,9%, Mari met 2,6%, Oekra�ners met 1,3%, Mordwienen met 0,6%, Wit-Russen met 0,4% en Russische Duitsers met 0,2%.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 20:31 schreef skysherrif het volgende:
Sterke geruchten (telegrams die erover praten) van zowel de Russen als Oekraiense zijde dat Oekraine binnenkort een counteraanval inzet in het Kharkiv gebied nadat ze de afgeloepn 24 uur non stop Russische doelen raken in Rusland nu het mag met Himars systemen.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 19:56 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Als je dit allemaal geloofd ben je wel een beetje dom hoor.

Overigens, typisch, The Sun.

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India’s Russian oil imports at 10-month high in May, supplies from Saudi Arabia dwindle
India’s second-largest source of crude—Iraq—accounted for a fifth of New Delhi’s oil imports in May, while Saudi Arabia’s share was 11.4 per cent.

India’s Russian oil imports climbed to a 10-month high in May as low Russian refinery capacity use due to Ukrainian drone strikes made more of Moscow’s oil available for the export market, as per oil tanker tracking data and industry experts. The rise in India’s import of discounted Russian oil over the past few months has hit flows from Saudi Arabia the most, the data shows.

Indian refiners imported a total of 1.96 million barrels per day (bpd) of Russian crude oil in May, the highest since July of last year, and nearly 3 per cent higher than volumes imported in April, as per provisional ship-tracking data from commodity market analytics firm Kpler. May also marked the fifth consecutive month of growth in India’s Russian oil imports.

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Oil imports from Saudi Arabia—India’s third-biggest source market for crude—declined almost 13 per cent sequentially to 0.55 million bpd, the lowest since September of last year. The primary reason for the decline is seen as the ample availability of Russian crude, which continues to maintain a price advantage over Riyadh’s oil.

“Russian refinery runs have been counter-seasonally low because of the Ukrainian drone strikes, so there was more crude going into the wider markets for exports,” said Viktor Katona, head of crude analysis at Kpler.

“The (Indian refiners’) decision to minimise imports (from Saudi Arabia) is solely a commercial one, reflective of the fact that there remains a $5-6 per barrel difference between the pricing of Saudi and Russian barrels. So, basically, it is direct displacement (of Saudi Arabian crude),” Katona said.

In September, when imports from Saudi Arabia were lower at 0.48 million bpd, the refinery maintenance season in India was in full swing, which meant that overall crude oil demand in the country was lower as some refineries were out of action. May, however, saw subdued oil imports from Saudi Arabia despite no refinery maintenance activity in India.

Supply of the medium-sour Urals crude—Russia’s flagship crude grade and the mainstay of India’s Russian oil purchases—to Indian refiners touched a record high in May at 1.53 million bpd, accounting for over 78 per cent of India’s Russian oil imports. Evidently, the price differential between Urals and competing crude grades from India’s traditional West Asian suppliers was significant enough for Indian refiners to prefer the Russian grade.

May also marked a 10-month high in India’s oil imports from the United States (US)—New Delhi’s fifth-largest source of crude oil. Indian refiners imported a total of 0.21 million bpd of crude from the US in May, 4.5 per cent higher than the imports in April, and the highest since July of last year. The increase in import volumes from the US was evidently on account of American crude becoming relatively cheaper than comparable grades from West Asia.

“India’s oil imports from the US mostly are of light sweet grades that are routinely blended with heavier barrels from Russia, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. Considering Dubai is now the strongest benchmark, trending higher than Brent for more than a month already, the arbitrage of relatively cheap US barrels into India is fairly open. The commercial advantage is there,” Katona said.

In terms of market share, Russia accounted for almost 41 per cent of the total 4.79 million bpd of crude oil imported into India in May. This is the second consecutive month of Moscow having a share of 40 per cent or more in New Delhi’s oil imports. Russia’s share had declined to around 33 per cent in the four months preceding April from the peak level of nearly 46 per cent seen in May 2023, the data shows.

India’s second-largest source of crude—Iraq—accounted for a fifth of New Delhi’s oil imports in May, while Saudi Arabia’s share was 11.4 per cent.

Prior to the war in Ukraine, Iraq and Saudi Arabia were the top two suppliers of crude oil to India. But as the West started weaning itself off Russian energy supplies following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Russia started offering discounts on its crude and Indian refiners started snapping up the discounted barrels.

As the world’s third-largest consumer of crude oil with a high import dependency level of over 85 per cent, India is extremely sensitive to oil prices. Although trade sources have indicated that discounts on Russian crude have shrunk considerably over the past months, Indian refiners have evidently remained keen on buying Russian oil as given the high import volumes, even lower discount levels lead to significant savings.

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IT coalition raises �58 million for Ukraine

^{IT Coalition meeting. Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine}

The IT Coalition led by Estonia and Luxembourg raised �58 million.

The press service of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reported on this.

This week, a meeting of the steering group of the IT coalition led by Estonia and Luxembourg took place in Tallinn.

The initiative’s participants and observers summarized the first deliveries of equipment to Ukraine from the IT coalition and announced new contributions.

During the meeting, Spain announced its intention to join the IT coalition in the near future.

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^{The first batch of equipment from the IT Coalition for the Ukrainian military. May, 2024. Photo credits: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine}

In addition, the countries that are members of the initiative have confirmed new contributions of �22 million from Luxembourg, Iceland, Estonia and Belgium.

“The work of the IT coalition is progressing rapidly, and step by step we are moving to meet the needs of Ukraine. In early May, the first laptops, monitors and other communication devices arrived in Ukraine. Estonia is making an additional contribution of �2 million. This contribution will be used to develop the register of conscripts Oberih. Together with our partners, we have already managed to cover the most urgent needs, but there are still many priority items,” said Tuuli Duneton, Deputy Minister of Defense of Estonia.

Prior to the coalition meeting, a technical session was held at which developers from the Innovation Center of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine presented the DELTA situational awareness system to the partners.

^{Illustrative photo of DELTA. Photo from open sources}

The Ukrainian military presented the participants the tools for planning operations, technologies for integrating air, sea, and ground drones, secure chat, and streaming services with built-in artificial intelligence information processing functions.

“I am grateful to our partners for their continued support, new contributions and quick response to the critical needs of our military. The IT coalition initiative works on a bilateral basis, we share our own developments and experience with our partners. Our cooperation brings the use of information technology in combat operations to a new level,” said Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Kateryna Chernohorenko.

The IT Coalition is a group of states that has joined forces within the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (Ramstein format), led by Estonia and Luxembourg.

Other members of the initiative are: Belgium, the UK, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Latvia, Lithuania and Japan.

This group is focused on providing support to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of IT, communications and cybersecurity.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 20:00 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Rusland schiet burgerdoelen in Oekra�ne in puin. Oekra�ne schiet militaire doelen in Rusland in puin. Welke van de twee is volgens jou escalatie?

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A historic day for South Africa
A reminder of where we are so far:
• With almost all (99.51%) of the votes announced, the African National Congress (ANC) which has governed the country since 1994, is certain to lose its majority in parliament
• The party once led by Nelson Mandela, which brought white-minority to an end, has 40% of the vote - its worst result in 30 years
• This means that to stay in power, it will have to do a deal with one or more smaller parties
• The president is not directly elected - he or she is chosen by parliament, where they would need the support of 50% of MPs
• The obvious options for the ANC are either the DA, which came second with 22%, or the MK of former President Jacob Zuma
• The centre-right DA opposes core ANC policies such as black economic empowerment so a deal could be tricky
• MK says it cannot work with the ANC while Cyril Ramaphosa is president
• He ousted Zuma as ANC leader and president in 2018 after a bitter power struggle

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 21:17 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://indianexpress.com(...)arabia-data-9365545/
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Aan de ene kant kunnen wij hier niet blij mee zijn natuurlijk. Maar er zijn twee conclusies die ik hier uit kan trekken:
- Rusland kan een steeds groter deel van zijn eigen ruwe olie niet meer verwerken, en moet deze met flinke kortingen verkopen
- Oekra�ne zijn aanvallen op de Russische olie infrastructuur zijn succesvol.

Wat er nu dus moet gebeuren is de prijsgrens van Russische olie verder omlaag zetten, er moeten meer sancties komen en Oekra�ne moet meer olie infrastructuur vernietigen zodat het steeds moeilijker wordt om geld te verdienen via olie door Rusland.

RUSSIAN Oil Exports to India Collapsing due to Currency Problems, Pricing Issues & Sanctions

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Ukraine will be flooded with immigrants from third-world countries

Ukraine may disappear in 50 years because of the betrayal of the United States.

This was stated by journalist Tucker Carlson during an interview with the son of former US President Donald Trump Jr.

During the interview, Trump’s son said that it seems to him that foreign investors want to take control of Ukraine’s agricultural lands at the end of the war.

These farmlands will be worked by migrants, to which Carlson responded, “We betrayed them (Ukraine) like no other country.”

“They will flood Ukraine with immigrants from Third World countries. And there will be no Ukraine in 50 years.”

“There will be no Ukrainian nation. We have betrayed them in a way that no other country has,” Carlson stated.

Also, Trump Jr. called Vladimir Zelensky the “high priest” that American Democrats worship.

In general, the conversation between the American politician and the journalist was in the genre of Russian propaganda – that’s all you need to understand about this interview.

Earlier, it was reported that journalist Tucker Carlson had started hosting his new show on Russian television.

But later, Carlson’s team denied the report about the alleged launch of his own TV show in Russia.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 21:37 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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De prijsgrens doet eigenlijk niet zoveel meer, Russische olie wordt al maandenlang ruim boven die grens verkocht.

Dit deed me wel denken aan een video hier enkele maanden terug:
Joe Blogs hoeven we in ieder geval niet meer serieus te nemen.

RUSSIAN Oil Exports to India Collapsing due to Currency Problems, Pricing Issues & Sanctions

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How Biden got to a ‘yes’ on letting Ukraine hit inside Russia
A coalition of officials and lawmakers in Kyiv and Washington raced behind the scenes as the assault on Kharkiv roared on.

In early May, as Russian artillery began landing in northern Kharkiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy found himself in a position he’d been in many times before: asking President Joe Biden to change his mind on how far he’d go to aid Kyiv.

Time and again since Russia’s invasion in 2022, Zelenskyy and others had successfully gotten Biden to switch from “no” to “yes,” whether it involved sending missiles, tanks or fighter jets.

But this latest request was arguably even bigger: For more than two years, Washington had told Ukraine that using weapons supplied by the U.S. to hit targets inside Russia was a no-go, and risked escalating the tensions between the two superpowers.

Still, Zelenskyy ultimately succeeded this week, thanks to a coalition of lawmakers and senior officials in Washington and Kyiv who used the desperate situation in Kharkiv to get Biden to lift his restrictions.

SPOILER

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This story is based on interviews with 18 senior U.S., Ukrainian and European officials and lawmakers — most of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely about sensitive diplomatic conversations.

It shows how the group of officials gamed out how to get both national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Biden to agree to what could be the biggest yes of the war.

Russia advances in Kharkiv
The loss of Kharkiv to Russia was a growing possibility and one that would deal a significant blow to Ukraine’s position on the ground. If Russia were to take Kharkiv, it would have a significant opening to take over other crucial areas in eastern Ukraine. It would also undermine Biden’s bet on Kyiv — one he’s propped up with billions of dollars worth of weapons and other aid. If there was one battle Biden could be convinced to say “yes” rather than “no,” it was Kharkiv.

Even before the offensive in Kharkiv, officials at the Pentagon and U.S. European Command headquarters in Ramstein, Germany, were growing concerned about Ukraine’s position on the battlefield. DOD had not been able to send badly needed weapons to Kyiv since December, when it ran out of funds to replenish its own stockpiles, and Congress had stalled for months on passing a new supplemental. As a result, Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines were fast running out of ammunition and air defenses.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his team watched with alarm as Russian forces began making progress on the battlefield and, in mid-April, began amassing on the Russian side of the border near Kharkiv. Austin and his team became concerned that Moscow could capture the city. The Pentagon chief began discussing with his team the “military utility” of allowing the Ukrainians to attack Russian targets across the border to defend against Moscow’s attacks in the Kharkiv region, according to a DOD official.

As consensus was growing in Washington that Ukraine needed to hit inside Russia, one of the administration’s most passionate advocates for Kyiv in its fight against Moscow landed in Ukraine.

In March, Michael Carpenter, the former U.S. representative to the Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, based in Vienna, started at the National Security Council as senior director for European affairs. His sentiments toward Kyiv are rooted in his experience meeting with and hearing stories from survivors of the 2022 Bucha massacre where hundreds of people, including children, are reported to have been killed by Russian forces.

He traveled to Kyiv for meetings with Zelenskyy and his aides on May 13 — just three days after the Russian offensive in Kharkiv began. Kyiv’s message was clear: We need you to lift the restrictions on U.S. weapons immediately. More than 4,000 people had evacuated from Kharkiv, but several civilians had already been killed in the fighting — and the death toll would likely rise.

Western intelligence appeared to corroborate Kyiv’s assertions about the state of fighting on the battlefield in Kharkiv. Russia had the upper hand — by far. Its aircraft could strike inside Kharkiv without ever leaving Russian airspace. And Ukraine could not intercept its glide bombs — which have ranges of anywhere between 40 and 60 kilometers — without going against Washington’s demands.

That same day — May 13 — Sullivan, Austin and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. C.Q. Brown met with Zelenskyy and his aides over a secure video conference. Kyiv officially requested that the White House lift the restrictions on the weapons so they could use them to hit Russian positions across the border. They also asked for an accelerated delivery of anti-tank and air defenses, a request Austin committed to working on.

In the call, Sullivan, Austin and Brown all agreed that Ukraine’s request made sense and decided to make an official recommendation to Biden that the U.S. lift the restriction for this specific case.

The only question was whether Biden would agree.

Full court press
That same day in Washington, a coalition of Ukrainian lawmakers landed for discussions on Capitol Hill. The lawmakers frequently visit the U.S. to try to persuade Congress and the administration to do more to help Ukraine — more weapons, more training for pilots, more money.

The U.S. has traditionally moved slowly when making decisions on which weapons to send and under what conditions it will allow Kyiv to use them, and the Ukrainians use each trip to push for one big request. It’s a gamble whether the administration will agree that day, in a week or months down the road.

This time, they asked for three things: more training for Ukrainian pilots inside the U.S., air defense systems and the lifting of restrictions on striking inside Russian territory.

In a series of conversations with both Democrats and Republicans, Ukrainians told Congress just how vulnerable the Ukrainian military was in Kharkiv and how many civilians would be killed if Kyiv could not hit inside Russia across the border. The U.S. fears about escalation were valid, they argued, but they did not outweigh what would be lost if Ukraine could not fight back with the weapons — and quickly.

“The U.S. has said for years it is worried about escalation,” one Ukrainian lawmaker said. “We were beginning to think it was just an excuse.”

On Capitol Hill, several lawmakers met with the Ukrainians to discuss how to pressure the White House to change course. Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), the heads of the House Intelligence Committee, and Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), wrote a letter May 20, urging the administration to support Kyiv’s requests.

Himes spoke with Sullivan again, urging the administration to seriously consider the damage already done in Kharkiv and the consequences to allowing a second Russian front to open in Ukraine.

“I feel like the White House has always been overly conservative on the types of munitions provided,” Himes said in an interview. “But when the Russian offensive into Kharkiv occurred, this is what really brought the issue to the forefront. The Russians knew the Ukrainians had their hands tied and couldn’t reach this artillery that was wreaking havoc in Kharkiv.”

By the time the meetings with lawmakers wrapped on the Hill, Sullivan was finalizing the recommendation to take to Biden, which he presented May 15. In the Oval Office, Sullivan argued that Ukraine should be able to use U.S. weapons to fend off Russian attacks in Kharkiv specifically for counterfire purposes — a limited lifting of the restriction.

The president agreed, and instructed Sullivan and the Pentagon to get to work on the change.

At the same time as those conversations were happening at the White House, Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Kyiv for another, sobering round of discussions with Ukrainian officials.

During a May 15 press conference in Kyiv, Blinken stressed that the United States was “rushing” an array of weapons to help Ukraine. And while he said Washington has “not encouraged or enabled strikes outside of Ukraine,” he also noted that “ultimately Ukraine has to make decisions for itself about how it’s going to conduct this war.”

While Biden had already instructed Sullivan and the Pentagon to push ahead with a final round of internal discussions about the decision, but it was a May 17 conversation with Blinken that further assured the president it was the right move.

Blinken, who’s spent many years at Biden’s side, briefed the president on his visit to Kyiv, saying that Russians were taking advantage of the president’s ban to attack Kharkiv with impunity.

The decision
While the U.S. deliberated and planned, it watched more than a dozen countries give similar permissions to Ukraine. The Biden administration’s isolation grew in recent days after France’s president, NATO’s chief and the United Kingdom’s top diplomat threw their support behind lifting restrictions.

On May 20, at the Pentagon, top defense and military leaders from across the world met virtually with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group. The meeting, led by Austin and Brown, touched on whether to allow Ukraine to use U.S. weapons to strike across the border in Russia.

The U.S. focus is on supporting “the close battle in various areas. And we’re paying attention to what’s going on in and around Kharkiv,” Brown told reporters after the meeting, hinting at the internal discussions.

Earlier this week, Sullivan gave the Pentagon the final green light to inform Ukraine of the administration’s official decision. A classified letter was sent to Ukraine’s military, outlining the details of exactly which weapons it could use in Kharkiv and under what circumstances.

Officials in Washington and Kyiv agreed to keep the news of the decision quiet while Ukraine planned its counteroffensive.

Blinken on Wednesday publicly offered the world its first wink-wink, nudge-nudge of what had already been decided.

A “hallmark” of the Biden administration’s approach “has been to adapt as the conditions have changed, as the battlefield has changed, as what Russia does has changed,” he said during a visit to Moldova, a country also in the Kremlin’s crosshairs. “We’ve adapted and adjusted, too, and we’ll continue to do that.”

The next day, U.S. officials confirmed the shift in policy. POLITICO first broke the news.

The looming question now is whether the Biden administration will eventually give Ukraine more leeway to use American weapons on Russian territory beyond the Kharkiv area.

Two people close to the Zelenskyy administration said there is some frustration in Kyiv over how geographically limited the Ukrainian use of U.S. weapons will be, restricted to the border area in Kharkiv, a limitation other countries have not imposed. But it’s a start.

Zelenskyy will meet with Austin on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue summit in Singapore on Saturday, where the issue will be high on the agenda.

At a news conference in Prague on Friday, Blinken was pushed on how far the Biden team will let Ukraine go. He didn’t rule out the possibility of targets elsewhere in Russia.

“Going forward, we’ll continue to do what we’ve been doing, which is, as necessary, adapt and adjust,” Blinken said. “And that, as I said, has been a hallmark of our engagement; it will continue to be.”

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 21:17 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://indianexpress.com(...)arabia-data-9365545/
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Aan de ene kant kunnen wij hier niet blij mee zijn natuurlijk. Maar er zijn twee conclusies die ik hier uit kan trekken:
- Rusland kan een steeds groter deel van zijn eigen ruwe olie niet meer verwerken, en moet deze met flinke kortingen verkopen
- Oekra�ne zijn aanvallen op de Russische olie infrastructuur zijn succesvol.

Wat er nu dus moet gebeuren is de prijsgrens van Russische olie verder omlaag zetten, er moeten meer sancties komen en Oekra�ne moet meer olie infrastructuur vernietigen zodat het steeds moeilijker wordt om geld te verdienen via olie door Rusland.

quote:

Urals-oil

Urals Crude Oil (USD/Bbl) 67.61

Brent Crude Oil (USD/Bbl) 81.31

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:03 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Hoho niet zo snel conclusies trekken. Ten eerste weet je niet in welke munteenheid wordt betaald en onder welke voorwaarden.
Bovendien weten we al vanaf de allereerste aanval op een rus raffinaderij in februari dat rusland nu olie MOET exporteren.

quote:

May 29, 2024: Reliance Signs One-Year Oil Deal with Rosneft in Russian Ruble

Synopsis:
Reliance Industries secures a one-year deal with Rosneft, agreeing to buy at least 3 million barrels of oil monthly in rubles. Amidst global sanctions, this strategic shift underscores the growing partnership between India and Russia in the energy sector.

Reliance News Today
Reliance Industries, the world's largest refining complex operator, has inked a significant agreement with Russia's Rosneft to procure a minimum of 3 million barrels of oil each month, payable in roubles.

Geopolitical Implications
This move comes as part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to diversify trade away from Western currencies amid ongoing sanctions. The shift to rouble payments reflects Moscow's strategy to strengthen trading ties despite international pressures.

Economic Benefits for Reliance
The term deal with Rosneft enables Reliance to secure oil at discounted rates, especially as the OPEC+ alliance extends supply cuts. This strategic partnership offers Reliance a competitive advantage in accessing essential energy resources.

India's Role as a Major Importer
India, the world's third-largest oil importer and consumer, emerges as a key player in this deal. With Western sanctions limiting options, India's partnership with Russia expands, positioning it as a significant buyer of Russian crude.

Terms of the Agreement
Under the terms, Reliance will purchase Urals crude and low-sulphur crude, with discounts and premiums applied to Dubai benchmarks. Payment will be facilitated through HDFC Bank and Gazprombank, streamlining the transaction process.

Future Outlook
As geopolitical dynamics continue to evolve, the Reliance-Rosneft agreement underscores the resilience of strategic partnerships amidst global uncertainties. The alignment of economic interests between India and Russia sets the stage for further collaboration in the energy sector.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:09 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Volgens mij meen ik gelezen te hebben dat India en Rusland overeen zijn gekomen om in Roebels te betalen. Maar dat is net afgesproken zie ik:

https://www.bajajbroking.(...)he%20energy%20sector.
[..]

quote:

Ukraine plans to get gunpowder from Argentina

^{Propellant charge for 155-mm shells manufactured by Fabricaciones Militares, Argentina}
The Ukrainian government plans to negotiate the supply of Argentine gunpowder to the country.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, said this in an interview with Argentine journalists.

Ukraine is working with the Argentine government of Javier Milei on cooperation between defense companies.

It regards the production of weapons parts, drones, naval drones, and electronic defense systems.

Zelenskyi noted that Argentina might not be able to provide Ukraine with weapons, but hopes for defense cooperation.

SPOILER

quote:

^{President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi and President of Argentina Javier Milei. December 2023. Argentina. Photo credits: Office of the President of Ukraine}

“We have drones, electronic defense systems, and we want to develop this together with Argentina. We have already studied some of the opportunities that Argentina has, and we would like to develop this type of cooperation, to do joint production,” Zelenskyi said.

The President emphasized that Ukraine’s defense industry was currently facing a shortage of gunpowder. Ukraine is ready to cooperate with Argentina in this area.

In Argentina, the explosives factory of the Fabricaciones Militares company in the city of Villa Mar�a produces gunpowder.

The plant is located on a 316-hectare site about 7 km from the city center in the province of C�rdoba.

^{Explosives factory of the Fabricaciones Militares company in the city of Villa Mar�a. Argentina. Photo from the company’s website}

The Argentine company Fabricaciones Militares also offers its customers propellant charges for 155-mm shells.

The use of a cartridge bag makes it possible to complete an artillery shot in advance and increase the rate of fire of artillery.

^{Propellant charge for 155-mm shells manufactured by Fabricaciones Militares, Argentina}

In March it became known that Argentina had handed over to Ukraine two Mi-171E helicopters initially acquired from Russia.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:15 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Ah ok. Maar voorheen was Ruslands totale dagelijkse export ongeveer 5 miljoen vaten, dus 150 miljoen per maand. Dus deze deal is goed voor 2%

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:16 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Grote Russische colonne aangevallen in Rusland toen ze op weg waren naar Oekra�ne.

[ x ]

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:20 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Een klein deel dus inderdaad. Maar wel een eerste belangrijke stap voor Rusland. Want roebels kunnen zij in elk geval uitgeven.

quote:

Russia labels military wives pressure group The Way Home ‘foreign agents’
Russia’s Justice Ministry has added the demobilisation campaign group The Way Home and former presidential hopeful Yekaterina Duntsova to its register of so-called “foreign agents”, it said in a statement on Friday evening.

Announcing the first update to the register in almost two months, the ministry said that the organisations and individuals added to the list had “spread false information aimed at creating a negative image of the Russian Federation and its army”.

In a unusually frank rebuff published on its Telegram channel, The Way Home, which campaigns for the demobilisation of men drafted to fight in Ukraine, told Russia’s Justice Ministry to “fuck off” and denied that it had ever “been funded by anyone”.

“The [government’s] absurdity is gaining momentum, but we have no intention of stopping. Our loved ones are still in mortal danger, under the rule of Russian ‘patriots’ and friends of the state,” the group said.

Duntsova, a journalist and local councillor from the city of Rzhev in Russia’s western Tver region, burst onto the national stage in November when she announced her intention to run in March’s presidential election on an anti-war platform.

However, Russia’s Central Election Commission barred her from running in December, citing “mistakes” in her candidacy application. A month later, she was briefly detained by police after a meeting at which she announced her intention to form a new anti-war political party, Dawn.

Duntsova said that adding her to the “foreign agents” list was the “government’s way of dealing with an inconvenient politician”, but that the label would not prevent her and her associates from “building the Dawn party” and would not affect its members “in any way”.

Individuals and organisations deemed “foreign agents” by the Russian government are obliged to identify themselves as such in all social media posts and other publications, and are also subject to stringent financial requirements. In May, Vladimir Putin signed into law a bill banning “foreign agents” from running for office at any level.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:21 schreef skysherrif het volgende:
Veel russische bronnen melden nu dat het oekraiense coutneroffensief in Kharkiv begonnen is.

Benieuwd of het waar is.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:25 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Die bank uit India kan in ernstige problemen komen als zij niet kunnen aantonen dat die olie $60 per vat of minder heeft gekost. Ga er maar vanuit dat dat het geval zal zijn.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:25 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Die bank uit India kan in ernstige problemen komen als zij niet kunnen aantonen dat die olie $60 per vat of minder heeft gekost. Ga er maar vanuit dat dat het geval zal zijn.

quote:

Howard Buffett Foundation to fund the restoration of the Factor Printing House in Kharkiv, which was bombed by Russians
Initially, it may be in a temporary format to get textbooks printed as soon as possible so that children in schools receive them on time

The Howard G. Buffett Foundation – the foundation of American philanthropist Howard Buffett, son of legendary investor Warren Buffett – will finance the restoration of the Factor-Druk printing house, which was destroyed by a Russian missile strike.

Source. This was reported by the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine.

Howard Buffett has already established work with Serhiy Polituchyi, president of the Factor group of companies, to find the necessary equipment, the statement said.

In his video message, Buffett said that they had spoken with Sergіy Polituchyi. The Foundation will help restore the printing house, possibly in a temporary format at first, to replace the equipment as soon as possible and start printing textbooks so that children in schools receive them in time for the school year.

SPOILER

quote:

‘They can destroy books, but not Ukrainian resilience and commitment. And we have to restore the printing house, and we have to do it quickly. We look forward to working with Sergiy and working in Kharkiv,’ Buffett said.

According to Sergiy Polituchyi, under favourable conditions, the printing house is expected to be restored in 4-5 months.

The Ministry of Economy stressed that government programmes are also available to publishers. In particular, publishing houses and printing houses will be able to receive a grant of up to UAH 8 million for the purchase of equipment or other needs. More information about the grants is available here.

Yulia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, stressed that the attack on the Kharkiv-based Factor-Druk printing house was not accidental, but another manifestation of Russia's systemic policy of destroying Ukrainian culture. The enemy's attack significantly reduced the capacity of the book publishing industry. About 50,000 books burned at the enterprise.

Howard Buffett is an American billionaire and philanthropist, the middle son of businessman Warren Buffett. Since the age of 30, he has been involved in the agricultural sector and is a member of the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway. He is also the CEO of the Howard G. Buffett Foundation, a charitable organisation dedicated to food and community security.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:32 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat om een grote korting. Dus het zou best kunnen dat die nog groter is dan eerder vermeld is. en precies op de prijs cap is gezet. En dat het betalen in roebels de ruil is die zij daar voor gedaan hebben. Maar dat is moeilijk te zeggen.

Maar als dit niet het geval is dan zullen er vast consequenties volgen.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:22 schreef QWARQTAARTJE het volgende:
Zijn er in de afgelopen tijd nog dorpen ingenomen/verwoest?

quote:

The Netherlands stopped allowing Russian fishing vessels into its ports for fear of espionage
Dutch ports are denying access to Russian fishing vessels. Source: Radio Liberty

The Norebo vessel was not allowed into the port of Eemshaven, and then into other ports of the country. The shipowner has all the necessary documents, including catch certificates and permits to enter ports.

The refusal to enter the ports is associated with an investigation by the Dutch media about possible espionage on the part of Russian fishing vessels, including the Norebo vessels. Journalists suggest that the Norebo ships, which regularly call at Eemshaven, could conduct reconnaissance near military installations and strategic infrastructure (communication cables, LNG terminals).

In 2022, the Maritime Doctrine of the Russian Federation was updated, allowing the use of civilian vessels, including fishing vessels, for military purposes.

Norebo denies the allegations, calling them “fantasies.”

Norebo clarified that the restrictions apply only to the entry of vessels flying the Russian flag, and the supply of fish products is still not limited in any way.

European services report that Russian fishing vessels located in the Dutch port of Eemshaven can engage not only in economic activities, but also in espionage.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:31 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Huh, je hebt gelijk ook nog.
De russen melden vol trots dat ze vele HIMARS raketten uit de lucht weten te schieten. Bijvoorbeeld Kots nieuws.

Ken niet uit volgens mij.

quote:

Urgent
Kharkiv direction
Direction to Lyptsi.
🔴It is reported that at these moments the enemy began to carry out counterattacks using armored vehicles.
🔴Our soldiers were ready and are destroying enemy battle formations.
VKS is currently sending another batch of KAB-500
Let's keep our fingers crossed for our Fighters

quote:

As for the situation at the front. The [Ukr] began their counter-offensive in the Kharkiv region. The goal is to drive our troops behind the border again. They are advancing on Vovchansk and Lyptsi. This is a full-fledged offensive, and not a defense with the aim of holding positions. Himars are actively used for work in the border territory of the Russian Federation and are used successfully. There are effective arrivals at the columns. Nothing can teach fools, and never will.

quote:

The Armed Forces counterattack the Rashists in Volchansk

quote:

Russian court extends detention of Radio Free Europe journalist
A Russian-American journalist working for Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty had her pre-trial detention extended by a Russian court for a further two months on Friday.

Alsu Kurmasheva, a Russian-born mother of two based in Prague, has been in detention in her native Tatarstan region of Russia since October 18, 2023, for failing to register as a ‘foreign agent’. The crime she is charged with carries a penalty of up to five years in prison.

She had been briefly detained prior to that in June of last year while attempting to fly out of the country after visiting her mother. She was first found guilty of failing to declare a U.S. passport, which is mandatory under Russian law.

Russian news agency Tatar-Inform has reported that she also stands accused of gathering military information and of disseminating disinformation about the Russian armed forces.

Kurmasheva was the second journalist with links to the U.S to be detained by Russia following the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. The other was The Wall Street Journal’s Evan Gershkowich, who is being held on espionage charges.

Kurmasheva’s husband, Pavel Butorin, posted on the X platform: "The action taken by a Russian court today in Kazan is a disgrace. This is a cruel and disturbing outcome. Alsu is a journalist, an American and a mom."

quote:

Russia hits Ukraine energy infrastructure in large-scale missile, drone attack
Attack damaged energy infrastructure in five regions, according to Ukraine’s national grid operator.

Russia launched a large-scale missile and drone attack — the most extensive in more than three weeks — against Ukraine overnight, damaging the country's power system, Ukrainian officials said on Saturday.

The strike damaged equipment at facilities in five regions across Ukraine, according to national grid operator Ukrenergo.

Ukraine's air force reported that its air defenses shot down 35 of the 53 missiles and 46 of the 47 attack drones launched by Moscow in the overnight attack.

"Russian terrorists do not abandon their intentions to destroy the fuel and energy sector of the state," said the air force on its Telegram channel. "The Air Force and the Defense Forces of Ukraine are doing everything possible to prevent the enemy from achieving its goals on every part of the front."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned the attack in a post on X, saying that emergency workers were on the ground to assess the situation and provide relief.

He also slammed Western allies for their "indecision" in providing military aid to his country, urging them to ramp up support so that Russian President Vladimir Putin would lose "the ability to target civilians and civilian infrastructure" and would ultimately "be forced to stop his terror."

"This is a test of humanity and determination for the free world," Zelenskyy wrote in his post. "Either we pass it together, or the world will suffer further destabilization and chaos."

Russia's attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure have intensified since March, inflicting more permanent damage to the system — which could have knock-on effects on the EU's power supply.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:25 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Die bank uit India kan in ernstige problemen komen als zij niet kunnen aantonen dat die olie $60 per vat of minder heeft gekost. Ga er maar vanuit dat dat het geval zal zijn.

quote:

“The (Indian refiners’) decision to minimise imports (from Saudi Arabia) is solely a commercial one, reflective of the fact that there remains a $5-6 per barrel difference between the pricing of Saudi and Russian barrels. So, basically, it is direct displacement (of Saudi Arabian crude),” Katona said.

quote:

Lithuanian Foreign Ministry believes Ukraine should be allowed to strike Belarusian territory
Lithuania's Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis believes that if Russia puts valid military targets in Belarus, Ukraine has the right to strike them.

Landsbergis stressed before a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague that Ukraine "must be able to defend itself".

"If Russia, fearing that targets in Russia could be struck, moves them somewhere else, I feel that the choice of target should also be changed accordingly" the Lithuanian foreign minister added.

Ukraine recently confirmed media claims that the administration of US President Joe Biden had secretly approved Ukraine's strikes on Russian territory using US-supplied weapons, but only near Kharkiv Oblast.

Furthermore, the German government stated that they authorise Ukraine to utilise the German weaponry for assaults on Russian military facilities on the territory of the Russian Federation in the context of the Russian offensive in Kharkiv Oblast.

According to the European Commission, Ukraine has the right to defend itself from armed aggression under international law, including striking military targets on Russian territory.

quote:

New level in intelligence: aviation expert on providing Ukraine with two Saab 340 aircraft

Aviation expert Bohdan Dolintse says that two Saab 340 long-range radar surveillance aircraft will be able to see the entire airspace up to 450 km in all directions in a simultaneous flight
He told about this on Espreso TV.

SPOILER

quote:

"This is a truly historic event, because Ukraine did not have its own fleet of long-range radar surveillance aircraft. In fact, this is a new level of intelligence in terms of detecting enemy targets and supporting the aviation industry. The second important component is why there are two aircraft? Because there is a certain flight cycle, meaning that this aircraft can perform tasks continuously in the air for 6-7 hours, and then it has to land and undergo a number of technical maintenance activities," the aviation expert said.

According to him, having two such aircraft, it is possible to launch them alternately, thus increasing the continuous flight time to 10-14 hours.

"The next important component is that each of these aircraft has a viewing angle of 120-140 degrees in both directions, maybe up to 150, but it depends on the conditions. And to have full 360-degree coverage, at least two aircraft must be flying at the same time. Accordingly, then these aircraft will see the entire airspace up to 450 km in all directions and no enemy aircraft or missile will be able to sneak up unnoticed," explained Bohdan Dolince.

• Sweden has presented the sixteenth and so far the largest aid package to Ukraine worth �1.16 billion. It includes aircraft, armoured vehicles, ammunition and tanks.
• Defence Express military expert Ivan Kyrychevskyi noted that the Swedes are providing Ukraine with a radar surveillance aircraft to enable F-16s to better see enemy aircraft from the air defence system.
• Oleksandr Kovalenko, a military and political observer at the Information Resistance group, noted that the moment of the F-16's arrival in Ukraine is so close that you can already hear the roar of the engines.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:42 schreef skysherrif het volgende:

[..]
Even snel wat bronnen:

https://t.me/rezervsvo/58280
[..]
https://t.me/apwagner/24343
[..]
UA bron:

https://t.me/vert_i_call/17871
[..]
UA https://t.me/stanislav_osman/6095

[ afbeelding ]

(Silence omdat de himars veel vijandeiljke artillerie uitschakelen, ter voorbereiding van het counteroffensief)

En dit

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Remylind23, [1-6-2024 14.21]
Het vijandelijke leger voert geen, ik herhaal nee, tegenoffensieve acties uit in het gebied van Liptsy en Volchansk. Het is onjuist om de operationeel-tactische situatie in het operatiegebied van de Noordelijke Hoofdgarde van de Russische strijdkrachten een tegenaanval van de strijdkrachten van Oekra�ne te noemen.
Opmars van aanvalspantsergroepen (BTG) van de Russische strijdkrachten in deze gebieden per dag, in sommige gebieden tot 400 meter in de vijandelijke verdediging.

Ja, de strijdkrachten van Oekra�ne proberen activiteiten uit te voeren langs het front met een aanvallend karakter, met invallen van landingskrachten en aanvalsvliegtuigen in bepaalde gebieden, en ook met aanvallen op de plaatsen waar onze strijdkrachten en middelen worden ingezet. Maar dit is allemaal positioneel van aard, zonder de massale inzet van troepen langs de LBS.
Bovendien, zoals onze hongerige militaire correspondenten schrijven, “tankvuisten op Volchansk.” Kom over je kater heen, idioten. Beschaamd.

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:40 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]
Belangrijkste is het grenstadje Volchansk, wat in Russische stijl volledig verwoest is.

quote:

"We can find 1.5 –2 million shells for Ukraine within a year. I don't understand why there isn't money for this"
Tom� Kopečn� is a Czech defence expert and government official, one of those responsible for relations with Ukraine. His official position is the Governmental Envoy for the Reconstruction of Ukraine. However, Kopečn� is currently more focused on what is a prerequisite for Ukraine's reconstruction – its victory in the war against Russia. Specifically, supplying weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for this victory.

He worked at the Defence Ministry as the Deputy Minister for Defence Cooperation until the end of 2022. Under his leadership, the Defence Ministry developed the weapon procurement scheme for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which has become known as the "Czech Initiative".

We met in Prague before the start of the NATO ministerial meeting. Kopečn� spoke with a small circle of journalists for the first time about how the Czech Initiative came to life and how it had operated secretly since early 2022, when most Western countries were afraid to send weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

We are publishing the most important points from his speech. Additional context and explanations from EP are provided in italics where necessary.

SPOILER

quote:

How the Czech Initiative for supplying ammunition came about
The story of the Czech Ammunition Initiative started in January 2024 with tense discussions about the one million shells the EU has promised Ukraine (the EU had to admit that it could not fulfil its commitments on time last year).

At the European Council meeting on 1 February, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told his counterparts that an initiative to acquire ammunition from non-EU countries had been running in Czechia for two years.

This initiative has been running since the start of the full-scale invasion. Other countries have also been involved, and we have invited more allies to join us. However, until 2024, we were doing this secretly.

So when first Prime Minister Fiala and then President Pavel revealed at the Munich conference that this operation was running, it was a new thing for us. What we didn't want to do was to reveal too much information.

But it turned out that the publicity was helpful.

After this public announcement, many other countries we had been keeping informed over the last two years now approached us and started expressing their support and commitment to support.

However, there is a limit to publicity in arms procurement. We were not revealing too much information. We were not specifying the sums. We were not specifying the countries of origin of this ammunition. And in most of the instances, we will keep on sticking to this policy.

How many shells can Ukraine receive?
Today, the pace of deliveries depends on a single factor: the availability of financial resources.

President Petr Pavel mentioned the figure of 800,000 shells, and we can indeed provide this supply. But we could increase this to 1.5 or 2 million. The only thing we need to make this happen is enough funding. We’re talking about contributions from about 20 countries. But only five have paid so far.

Right now, we have confirmed commitments for 500,000 large-calibre munitions (including not only 120-155 mm shells but also smaller shells from 81mm calibre upwards).

If we talk about the maximum limit, in the mid-term perspective, approximately 12 months, there are single digit millions of ammunition rounds that we are competing for (meaning fewer than 10 million; the diplomat declined to specify the number).

And we are competing for these munitions with Russia as well.

However, an important question is: what is the real need for Ukraine?

This year, next year, and in 2026, the need is roughly 200,000 pieces of artillery shells per month just to match the enemy, let alone outshooting them. So 500,000 shells would only cover 2.5 months. Fortunately Ukraine isn’t reliant on the Czech Initiative alone.

How the initiative works and who’s funding it
The Czech government started the initiative on 26 February 2022 and has been contributing ever since.

In fact, Czechia started approaching some of our partners in January 2022. Back then it was too early for other leaders to go for it. So we continued and we are very happy that the Netherlands decided to join us in September 2022. They were happy with it, so they told the Danes, who in turn joined in May-June 2023. Since then, the initiative has essentially operated with these three countries: the Netherlands, Denmark and Czechia.

The United States made a one-time contribution for the acquisition of T-72 battle in autumn 2022.

In total, before the public announcement of this initiative in February 2024, we had delivered more than 1.3 million large-calibre shells to Ukraine. We are still delivering a significant amount of ammunition to Ukraine every month, which the Netherlands and Denmark paid for last year.

We will start delivering what we have contracted as part of the now public Czech Initiative.

The first delivery in June will be between 50,000 and 100,000 shells.

Since the announcement in Munich, the number of potential donors has increased. However, so far, only five countries (or six, including the Czech Republic) have actually allocated funds for procurement – Germany, Portugal and Canada have joined. Another ten NATO member states have clear commitments and have already signed a memorandum, but have not yet allocated funds.

But there are also allies who have not been particularly active. The third category includes all major European countries, except Germany, which is unfortunately the only major EU country that has supported the initiative.

(Note: Tom� Kopečn� declined to name the countries that have been disappointing in their stance, explaining that he does not aim to publicly shame them. However, given his description, it is clear that problematic countries definitely include France, Italy, Spain and most likely the UK (if counted as a European country in this sense), as well as Poland (if it is considered one of the "largest"). At the same time, at least France and Poland have expressed interest in the initiative but have not reached real decisions.)

Restrictions on striking Russia
Whether Ukraine is provided with certain munitions along with restrictions on their use depends on who is funding it. We only provide the procurement system, and the interaction between the donor and the Ukrainian side is up to them.

But I can tell you that Czechia has never even considered the issue of restricting the use of weapons by Ukrainian defenders and allowing them to use them only where the Russians want them to. There was never even a discussion about it.

Most of the countries that supply materials through our system share this approach, but I don't want to speak for them. Although there is another approach. (Kopechny did not elaborate, but it is known that Germany has until very recently been committed to limiting the area of use of the weapons it provides).

Czechia's leadership
This is not the first time Czechia has been ahead of the game in this conflict. We have often been pioneers: for example, we were the first country to send Ukraine tanks (Soviet T-72s), and the first to send armoured personnel carriers, multiple launch rocket systems, combat helicopters and howitzers.

All of this happened between February and April 2022, when everyone was telling us: "Oh my God, do you know what this could mean for escalation?" They explained to us that we would not be able to safely transfer these things to Ukraine, that the equipment would not get there. But none of the fears were justified; they were not even based on logical assumptions.

Instead, we see – especially now, in the context of the Russian offensive on Kharkiv – how Russia is using these self-imposed restrictions. The Russians are shelling Ukrainian towns and villages from their own country knowing that the Ukrainian Armed Forces cannot respond. Only occasionally, when they feel comfortable enough, do they enter Ukrainian territory for a while and then return to Russia.

It makes no sense to keep restrictions on the use of weapons by Ukrainians.

Similarly, everyone sees the massive deployment of troops to the border of Sumy region. And what are we doing? We are just waiting for them to cross the border.

How shells are procured
If we are talking about the 800,000 shells mentioned by President Pavel (he spoke about half a million 155 mm shells and another 300,000 122 mm shells), it is now worth more than twice as much, rather than the �1.5 billion that was originally discussed.

Prices are rising because this is the market, and it reacts when many buyers appear at the same time. Therefore, prices also depend on our coordination: if Ukraine's allies do not coordinate their actions well, they compete with each other. We receive price offers that are even four times higher than this amount.

But in general, the rise in the price of shells has slowed down. The other thing is that global prices have already quadrupled compared to the pre-war period.

There are two ways we work. Either we receive funds from the Czech state budget and make the purchase ourselves, or we help donors find the right business partner with whom they sign a contract. Berlin, for example, chose the second option. Another Czech initiative is both to purchase existing shells in stock and to order the production of new ones at facilities in other countries.

I would like to emphasise that Germany has allocated much more than any other country for this procurement – over �600 million.

I have already said that we can provide for the purchase of both 1.5 million and 2 million shells.

To fully meet the basic needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (i.e. to supply 200,000 shells per month), we need about 7-10 billion euros a year.

And I don't understand why this money cannot be found. I don't understand why it is impossible to provide loans for prepayments, refinancing, etc. From the first day of the war, I have been asking myself why there is a problem, and I have no answer.

This is especially disappointing when you compare the amounts needed with the costs and loans that were allocated during the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of billions of euros? Easy!

Or the $200 billion we spent on Afghanistan almost every year. With this kind of funding, we could completely change the battlefield situation in Ukraine. Completely! But it is as it is.

Competition with the Russians
How do we find these shells?

It may sound like a comic book: as if President Pavel is playing Pokemon Go, flying around the world and finding artillery shells. But the reality is different. Finding a supplier takes much more time than finding a Pokemon. And secondly, you can't just find them somewhere by chance. These are always complex non-public agreements.

And very often we have to compete with the Russians.

The global arms market is a complex, regulated market, but it is still a market. The main thing is to have money and be faster than the Russians.

It works like this: you contact a partner who has ammunition or weapons that you want to send to Ukraine. And if you have enough money right now to make an advance payment faster than the Russian side does, the weapons go to the Ukrainian Armed Forces. If it's slower, sometimes you come back and hear the answer: "That's it, there are no more". And you realise that the shells have gone to the Russian side.

Unfortunately, there are countries that are ready to sell weapons to both Ukraine and Russia.

So this is a constant struggle. And I can say that, in general, we are not losing in this struggle.

Is there a role for Russia in the fact that only five countries have provided funding so far? The answer is no, this is not Russian sabotage or anything like that. The main reason is the speed of the processes in different countries. Parliamentary approvals and budget decisions take longer than we expected. But we expect this to happen.

And, of course, sometimes the lack of political will is an obstacle.

I would like to emphasise that we, the Czechs, do not underestimate the possibility of Russian sabotage. We have enough experience with the Russians. But in this initiative, the Russians are not the biggest obstacle. The main problem is that we lack money.

The role of Russia
Is there a role for Russia in the fact that only five countries have provided funding so far? It's not Russian sabotage or anything like this. The main reason is the speed of the processes of different countries and the political will. It's about parliamentary approvals, budgetary committees. It takes longer than we expected. But we expected this to be happening.

I emphasise that we, the Czechs, are definitely not underestimating the possibility of Russian sabotage in this country. What we are just seeing from the systemic process of the Czech ammunition initiative, this is not the biggest obstacle. The main problem is that we lack money.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 23:13 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.eurointegrati(...)/2024/05/31/7187138/
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Het is inderdaad een blamage dat slechts 5 landen, waaronder Nederland en Tsjechi� zelf natuurlijk, het geld hiervoor al hebben overgemaakt. En dat het zoveel moeite kost om de rest ook te financieren.

Als was er ook al langs gekomen dat zo'n 50 procent van al deze shells nog gerestaureerd/gerepareerd/geprepareerd moeten worden na aankoop. Wat dus zelfs nog meer tijd gaat kosten.

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Moscow Restoring Inactive Airfields in Crimea, Fearing New Missile Strikes, Partisans Report
Due to systematic and successful Ukrainian strikes on the Crimean peninsula, the Russian army is repairing inactive airfields and transferring its aviation there.

According to an Atesh movement partisan, the Russian forces on the Crimean peninsula are moving Kremlin aircraft to inactive airfields, fearing future strikes by the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU).

A servicemember from Russia’s 27th Aviation Division reported work to reopen the Zavodskoye airport in Simferopol with repairs underway on runways, taxiways, and building structures. Additionally, the Russians are transferring military equipment and personnel to the airfield.

After the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, the airport was only used for flights to and from Russia.

In response to the success of AFU attacks on the peninsula, the Russians are feverishly working to reopen abandoned airfields at Kirovskoye (near Feodosia) and Bagerovo (near Kerch), reported the Atesh partisans.

Kyiv Post sources in the Ukrainian Special Service (SBU) reported that, on the night of May 29-30, “the Russians lost one Nebo-SVU long-range radar detection system worth about $100 million,” which monitored a 380 kilometer section of the front.

According to the sources, it was hit by drones developed by SBU military counterintelligence. This radar system near Armyansk monitored a section of the front, ensuring the protection of enemy targets in Crimea. Additionally, ATACMS targeted the ferry crossing in Crimea, which Kremlin forces were using as a logistics facility.

Atesh “joining the fighters for truth to do a good deed together!”

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 23:16 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/33596
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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 23:15 schreef QWARQTAARTJE het volgende:

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Zijn toch veel landen bang dat het geld verkeerd gespendeerd zal gaan worden?

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 23:20 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Nee, het is vooral de politieke rompslomp die alles aan het vertragen is. De vele procedures en regels die aan dit soort dingen verbonden zijn in veel landen.

Net zoals het vrijmaken van geld in het budget van een land ook tijd en moeite kost. Daar budgetten vaak vastgesteld worden voor een jaar en er weinig speelruimte mogelijk is.

Gelukkig zijn wij hier redelijk flexibel in gebleken in de laatste 2 jaar. Al ben ik niet zo bekend met het defensiebudget/buitenlandse zaken budget/welk budget wij hier ook maar voor gebruiken.

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Ukraine Gets Draft Approval for $2.2 Billion IMF Payout
Part of a much-needed $122 billion international support package designed to help Ukraine’s war-torn economy has passed another hurdle in the approval process.

Ukraine is set to receive a $2.2 billion payout from the IMF after successfully meeting the terms of an existing loan program, the Washington-based financial institution said Friday at the end of a five-day staff mission to the country.

The much-needed funds, which are still subject to approval by the International Monetary Fund’s executive board, follow Ukraine’s completion of the fourth review of its existing four-year IMF loan program, worth roughly $15.4 billion.

The agreement forms part of a $122 billion international support package designed to help Ukraine’s economy amid the ongoing full-scale Russian invasion of the country, now well into its third year.

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“Performance under the program has remained strong despite the challenges of the war, with all quantitative performance criteria met, and one structural benchmark met and another implemented with a short delay,” IMF Ukraine mission chief Gavin Gray said in a statement.

After taking a significant hit at the onset of the Russian invasion in 2022, Ukraine’s economy has recovered somewhat, and is on track to grow by 3.2 percent this year, while inflation has continued to ease, according to a recent IMF estimate.

The IMF staff level agreement comes just over a month after the US Congress passed a stalled foreign aid package that included $61 billion meant to help Kyiv’s forces push back against Russia.

“After a challenging period of liquidity strains earlier in the year due to external financing delays, external budget support for 2024 resumed and should continue to be disbursed on a timely basis to help maintain economic stability,” Gray said.

“Fiscal financing needs remain very high in 2024,” he continued, adding that the authorities were making progress on restructuring commercial external debt, which forms part of the IMF-backed reform program.

These reforms are "essential to create space for high priority expenditures and to help bring debt back to sustainable levels," he said.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 23:22 schreef QWARQTAARTJE het volgende:

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Zal wel misschien ook wel deels van het ontwikkelingspotje daarnaar toe gaan? Aangezien wij niet alleen maar wapens leveren maar ook hulpgoederen

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‘A ceasefire is a trap:’ Forcing Ukraine to compromise with Russia would weaken US, Zelensky warns Trump
President Volodymyr Zelensky warned former U.S. President Donald Trump against forcing Ukraine into a ceasefire with Russia in an interview with the Guardian, saying it would be a “trap.”

Trump has said he could end Russia’s war within 24 hours if elected president, without specifying the steps for reaching a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

The presumptive Republican nominee has also said he thinks both Moscow and Kyiv “want to save face, they want a way out,” claiming that Ukrainians in Russian-occupied territories would be okay being part of Russia, the Washington Post reported in April, citing an unnamed person who has discussed the matter with Trump.

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“When (Putin) gains strength, he might issue an ultimatum – to recognize all occupied territories, to stay out of NATO, to forget about European integration,” Zelensky said in clip from the Guardian interview published by his office on June 1.

“And there will be many such conditions, depending on how strong he is at that moment. Therefore, a ceasefire is a trap.”

Zelensky said he doesn't believe Trump would want to be remembered as the "loser" to Russia in the war.

He asked the Guardian reporters to imagine a scenario where Trump, as president, decided to end the war at Ukraine's expense.

“Somehow, in dialogue, he might get confirmation from Putin that this is the end, that this is it. Ukrainians will not accept this, but he might then say: 'Well, that’s it, I am giving you no support, no weapons, no finances.' He might negotiate with some partners, and they might also stop,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is open to a ceasefire that recognizes the current front lines on the battlefield but will fight on if Ukraine and its allies do not agree, Reuters reported on May 24, citing undisclosed Russian sources.

Except for unsuccessful talks during the early spring of 2022, there have been no direct peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. Zelensky has repeatedly said Kyiv would not cede territories in exchange for peace.

Trump said in May that he would not commit to providing Ukraine with defense assistance if he won the 2024 election.

“Of course, Ukraine, without weapons, barehanded, cannot fight against a multi-million-strong army. Let’s imagine that,” said Zelensky.

Trump has privately said he could end Russia’s war by pressuring Ukraine to cede Crimea and Donbas to Moscow, the Washington Post reported on April 7, citing sources.

Zelensky believes such an approach would green light further attacks, “reducing to zero” the U.S.’s global influence.

“That would be the end of any ceasefire, the beginning of exactly what everyone is so afraid to talk about out loud, the real World War III,” said Zelensky.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:55 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://global.espreso.tv(...)wo-saab-340-aircraft
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Op zondag 2 juni 2024 00:01 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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Samen met maritieme patrouille vliegtuigen mag Nederland deze ook wel een paar aanschaffen. Al hebben we natuurlijk ook gedeelde awacs.

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Op zondag 2 juni 2024 00:33 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

https://www.reddit.com/r/(...)russian_motorcycles/
Anti drone cages on Russian motorcycles. Zaporizhzhia front, Robotyne direction.
Meer foto's van de motor met zijspan die Perrin eerder al gepost had.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 18:34 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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Waarom zou Reisner een Russische spion zijn? Dit is waarschijnlijk de best beschikbare bron met informatie over het conflict, we zien helaas maar weinig bronnen van academisch niveau.

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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 22:55 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://global.espreso.tv(...)wo-saab-340-aircraft
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Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 19:09 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Omdat een bepaald figuur in dit topic vindt dat heel Oostenrijk lid van de FSB is...

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Governor: Ukraine's largest hydroelectric power plant in critical state following Russian strike

^{The Dnipro hydroelectric power plant after the Dnipro River's water level dropped following the Kakhovka dam breach, on July 9, 2023. (Elena Tita/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)}

Zaporizhzhia's Dnipro Hydroelectric Station, Ukraine's largest hydroelectric power plant, is in critical condition after Russian forces struck it overnight on June 1, Zaporizhzhia Oblast Governor Ivan Fedorov said on national television.

He said the power plant, known as the Dnipro Dam, halted electricity production.

“Currently, the Dnipro Hydroelectric Station is in a critical condition. We are not even talking about electricity generation,” Fedorov said.

Traffic across the Dnipro Dam was blocked following the Russian attack, “so residents are limited in traffic,” according to the official.

“Two bridges are being used for detour, with logistics in both directions. This will be the case for the weekend,” Fedorov said.

The regional governor did not provide other details of the damages caused.

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Russia launched a large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukraine overnight on June 1, damaging energy infrastructure in various regions across the country. At least 20 people, including children, were injured in the attacks.

The Dnipro Hydroelectric Station was earlier hit with eight Russian missiles on March 22 during one of the biggest attacks on the country's energy infrastructure, which reportedly led to the loss of a third of its capacity.

According to Ihor Syrota, the head of the Ukrainian state-owned energy company Ukrhydroenergo, the power plant sustained critical damage to one of its stations on March 22.

The dam raises the Dnipro River by 37 meters (121 ft) and regulates the water level of the Dnipro Reservoir, extending 129 kilometers (80 mi) upstream to the neighboring city of Dnipro.

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Minister Ollongren: ‘Ik vind dat Oekra�ne het recht heeft militaire doelen over de grens aan te vallen’
Kajsa Ollongren denkt dat Nederland meer geld in de krijgsmacht moet steken dan de �2,4 mrd extra die de vier formerende partijen vrijmaken. ‘Dat had ik ook gezegd als ik zelf was aangebleven’, zegt de demissionaire defensieminister, die spoedig afzwaait. ‘Tot de laatste dag werk ik door voor Oekra�ne.’

^{Minister Kajsa Ollongren van defensie sluit niet uit dat Nederland op termijn militaire trainers naar Oekra�ne stuurt. Foto: Ren� van der Hulst voor het Financieele Dagblad}

In het kort
• Kajsa Ollongren wil zich ‘tot haar laatste dag als minister’ inzetten voor meer wapenhulp aan Oekra�ne.
• Kiev raakt volgens de defensieminister verder op achterstand door het ‘enorm lange wachten’ op steun.
• Intussen herstelt Rusland onverwacht snel en moet de Nederlandse krijgsmacht dus ook flink aan de bak.

Kajsa Ollongren (57) mag dan al bijna een jaar demissionair zijn, zo voelt het niet voor de D66-bewindsvrouw van Defensie. Al sinds dag ��n na de val van het kabinet-Rutte IV in juli 2023 hebben zij en haar ministerie keihard doorgewerkt op onder meer het dossier Oekra�ne en het veiligheidsbeleid. Dat deed ze, zo benadrukt ze in een gesprek met het FD, met uitdrukkelijke toestemming van een ruime meerderheid van de Tweede Kamer.

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Vanwege de grote onrust op het wereldtoneel, met de oorlogen in onder meer Oekra�ne en Gaza, kan Nederland immers geen defensieminister gebruiken die achterover leunt en louter op de winkel past. Kiev moet hulp blijven krijgen om de Russische invasiemacht van zich af te slaan, en de door jarenlange bezuinigingen geplaagde krijgsmacht en defensie-industrie verdienen een fikse hersteloperatie.

Haast is geboden, want Rusland pakt volgens Ollongren ongekend hard door. De sociaalliberaal is er, net als talloze militaire experts, van overtuigd dat Vladimir Poetin niet ophoudt als hij Oekra�ne heeft veroverd. Schrikbarend snel heeft Rusland zich volgens haar hersteld van de aanvankelijke verliezen op de Oekra�ense slagvelden in het eerste jaar van de oorlog. Het land is inmiddels overgestapt op een oorlogseconomie en produceert in rap tempo wapens en materieel. Bovendien weet het Kremlin steeds weer nieuwe soldaten te rekruteren.

Oekra�ne, dat kampt met een groot tekort aan militairen en munitie, raakt zo steeds verder op achterstand, vreest Ollongren. Samen met demissionair premier Mark Rutte en CDA-buitenlandminister Hanke Bruins Slot tracht ze Nederland dan ook een voortrekkersrol te laten spelen om de steun voor Kiev hoog op de internationale politieke agenda te houden. ‘Het is echt heel dringend. Iedere dag vertraging kost mensenlevens.’

Na eerdere bekendmakingen over onder meer de levering van F-16’s aan Oekra�ne, het trainen van Oekra�ense militairen en het deelnemen aan drone- en munitie-initiatieven, lanceerde Ollongren deze week tijdens een vergadering met haar EU-defensiecollega’s in Brussel een nieuw voorstel. Ze is bereid kernonderdelen van het ultra-effectieve en zeer schaarse luchtverdedigingssysteem Patriot uit de eigen voorraad beschikbaar te stellen, mits ook andere landen over de brug komen.

Tezamen kunnen zij op die manier ��n compleet Patriot-systeem assembleren en aan Oekra�ne geven. Kiev heeft er naar eigen zeggen zeven nodig om de verwoestende bombardementen op woonwijken en energiecentrales te kunnen pareren.

Tegelijkertijd kondigde Ollongren aan ‘niet uit te sluiten’ dat Nederland op termijn militaire trainers naar Oekra�ne stuurt om (nieuwe) soldaten ter plekke op te leiden. Nu gebeurt dit nog alleen in onder meer Nederland, Duitsland, Polen en het Verenigd Koninkrijk, maar dat is — hoewel minder gevaarlijk — wel duur en tijdrovend. De Oekra�ense president Volodymyr Zelensky heeft daarom gevraagd om trainingsmissies op eigen bodem en Ollongren wil hier ‘serieus’ naar kijken.


^{Ollongren denkt dat Nederland zich op defensiegebied moet specialiseren in hightech. Foto: Ren� van der Hulst voor het FD}

Zelensky dringt al maanden aan op meer Patriots vanwege alle Russische raketaanvallen. Eerder zei u nog hierbij niet vooraan te willen staan omdat Nederland al zoveel doet en het al een Patriot-batterij aan Kiev heeft gegeven. Baalt u dat landen als Spanje toch niet de handschoen hebben opgepakt?
‘Als het helpt dat Nederland als eerste een stap naar voren zet om anderen mee te krijgen, dan doen we dat graag. Zo moet het gewoon, heeft ons kabinet al eerder geconstateerd. Ons voorstel is ook een beetje het resultaat van wat er is gebeurd n� de indringende oproep van Zelensky. Alleen de Duitsers zijn daar toen op ingegaan en hebben een heel extra Patriot-systeem geleverd, dus complimenten aan hen. Maar wij constateren dat Oekra�ne meer nodig heeft en d� manier om dat voor elkaar te krijgen, is om samen te werken. Als wij bepaalde belangrijke Patriot-onderdelen beloven te leveren, heb ik het vertrouwen dat anderen zullen aansluiten.’

Vertrouwen? U heeft vooral hoop en weinig tot geen zekerheid?
‘Op basis van de gesprekken die ik heb gevoerd, durf ik te zeggen dat het gaat lukken. Wat mij betreft had ons gezamenlijke Patriot-systeem al in Oekra�ne moeten zijn, maar dit kost nog even tijd. Ik hoop dat de besluitvorming er binnenkort ligt. Dan kunnen we snel beginnen met de training op dit systeem en daarna moeten we zo snel mogelijk leveren.’

Zelensky vraagt daarnaast met klem om ook doelen in Rusland te mogen aanvallen. Onder meer de Verenigde Staten wilden lange tijd niet dat dit met ‘hun’ wapens gebeurde.
‘Als je wapens doneert, mag je eisen stellen. Dat is een nationale afweging en landen kijken hier verschillend tegenaan, bijvoorbeeld uit angst voor verdere escalatie. Maar Oekra�ne heeft volgens internationale verdragen het recht zichzelf te verdedigen en daar hoort, vind ik, bij dat het aanvallen mag plegen op militaire doelen die over de grens liggen. Dat zeg ik secretaris-generaal Jens Stoltenberg van de Navo na. Ik roep andere landen op nog eens heel goed naar hun begrenzingen aan wapenleveringen te kijken, want zo laat je Oekra�ne met ��n hand op de rug vechten. De stad Charkov wordt vlak bij de Russisch-Oekra�ense grens aangevallen en de luchtafweer daar heeft amper tijd te reageren. Het is logisch dat Zelensky de bron van het geweld wil aanpakken.’

Nederland heeft beloofd Kiev zijn F-16’s te geven. Dat zijn Amerikaanse jachtvliegtuigen waarvoor dus ook de Amerikaanse beperkingen op het gebruik boven Russisch grondgebied gelden?
'De Denen willen deze zomer beginnen hun F-16's te leveren, wij volgen hopelijk dit najaar. Er zijn geen restricties op het gebruik van door Nederland geleverde F-16's. Zolang Oekra�ne zich houdt aan Artikel 51 van het VN-handvest en het humanitair oorlogsrecht, mogen door Nederland geleverde militaire goederen gebruikt worden boven of op Russisch grondgebied.'

Heeft Oekra�ne nog wel tijd? Duurt het allemaal niet veel te lang?
‘Kiev heeft enorm lang moeten wachten op het Amerikaanse steunpakket van $61 mrd doordat de Republikeinen in het Congres dit verknoopten met binnenlands-politieke thema’s. Ik vind dat heel pijnlijk: dit bracht Oekra�ne enorm in het nadeel en kostte veel mensenlevens. Kiev verloor daardoor het momentum en we moeten samen proberen dit terug te winnen. Het Tsjechische munitie-initiatief, waaraan onder meer Nederland financieel flink bijdraagt, helpt daarbij. Maar ook hier gaat tijd overheen. Het heeft geen zin daarover te klagen. Deze week kondigde Belgi� aan dertig F-16’s aan Oekra�ne te geven. Dan denk ik ook niet: had dat wat eerder gedaan! Ik ben er juist hartstikke blij mee. We moeten blijven aanjagen en de druk erop houden. Dat doe ik iedere dag, tot aan de laatste dag waarop ik nog minister ben.’

Doet Nederland zelf intussen genoeg om zijn krijgsmacht op orde te brengen? Volgens de voorjaarsnota kreeg uw ministerie er �500 mln incidenteel bij en de vier formerende partijen regelden in hun hoofdlijnenakkoord nog eens �2,4 mrd. Kan defensie daarmee toe?
‘Het is goed dat dit in het hoofdlijnenakkoord staat, want zo komt Nederland precies uit op de Navo-afspraak om 2% van het bbp aan defensie uit te geven. Maar in alle oprechtheid denk ik dat �2,4 mrd niet genoeg is en dit had ik ook gezegd als ons demissionaire kabinet w�l was doorgegaan. De wereld is instabiel, er komt veel meer focus te liggen op onze hoofdtaak nummer ��n om het eigen grondgebied te kunnen verdedigen, en de krijgsmacht is — behalve met investeringen en uitbreiding — nog heel erg bezig met herstel. Dan gaat het niet alleen om de aankoop van nieuwe fregatten, F35’s en de doorontwikkelingen van nieuwe technologie�n als drones, maar ook om de logistiek, medische keten, transport en personeelswerving. Dit alles is heel prijzig.’

De Algemene Rekenkamer constateerde onlangs dat de krijgsmacht er vanaf 2018 al fors meer middelen bij krijgt, maar moeite heeft dit geld uit te geven. De defensie-industrie kan extra orders niet aan.
‘Dat is een feit. Niet alleen wij, maar ook onze partners investeren meer in defensie terwijl de industrie jarenlang te maken had met krimpende budgetten en minder vraag. We vragen bedrijven nu in ��n keer op te schalen en zeggen vervolgens: waarom krijgen jullie dat niet meteen voor elkaar? Toch ben ik onder de indruk. Ik was laatst in een fabriek in Noorwegen die nu het klokje rond 155 mm-granaten produceert en alle productielijnen heeft afgestoft. De volgende stap is dat dit bedrijf nieuwe fabrieken bouwt. In Noorwegen is geen stikstofprobleem en er liggen vergunningsmogelijkheden: anders dan het dichtbevolkte Nederland is daar immers wel ruimte voor explosievenproductie. Maar ook de Noren hebben personeelstekorten �n ze willen de zekerheid dat er over vijf � tien jaar nog vraag is naar hun munitie, als dan de Oekra�neoorlog is afgelopen en onze wapendepots weer zijn aangevuld.’

Hoe kun je bedrijven toch enige garanties bieden, zodat de schop de grond in gaat?
‘Dat is een vraagstuk waar natuurlijk een prijskaartje aan hangt. We zijn erover in gesprek met de industrie in Europa, maar ook in Nederland, hoe je die op- en afschaling organiseert. We willen geen oorlogseconomie (waarbij de overheid fabrikanten die consumentenproducten maken, dwingt over te stappen op militaire goederen, red.), want dat heeft op de langere termijn een grote weerslag op de gewone economie. Het is geen slimme strategie. Maar het kabinet werkt wel aan een wet op de defensie-industrie waarin een component van marktordening en bescherming tegen vijandige buitenlandse overnames zit. Dan merk je vooraf een beperkt aantal, echt belangrijke defensiebedrijven in Nederland aan waarmee je als overheid afspraken maakt. Die luiden dan dat zo’n bedrijf in een crisis of oorlog exclusief voor Nederland beschikbaar is.’

Maar die bedrijven willen daar wat voor terug, bijvoorbeeld minimale afname of overheidssubsidies.
‘Natuurlijk. Maar hoe we dit precies doen, is nog onderwerp van gesprek. We zijn, samen met Economische Zaken en Klimaat, wel in de afrondende fase. We hopen dat het kabinet nog lang genoeg aanblijft om met het wetsvoorstel de internetconsultatie in te gaan. Dit moet niet blijven liggen, want het is belangrijk voor ons allemaal. Idealiter werk je ook samen met andere Europese landen, zodat we weten hoe we samen taken verdelen bij bijvoorbeeld de munitieproductie. Dan versterken we elkaar en doen we niet allemaal hetzelfde.’

Wat moet dan de Nederlandse specialisatie worden?
‘Laten we ons richten op hightech. Die Noorse fabriek maakt bijvoorbeeld heel ingewikkelde, geavanceerde raketmotoren. Daar hebben we hier ook de kennis en technologie voor. We werken al veel samen met VDL en zijn ook in gesprek over de leegstaande hallen van VDL Nedcar in Born. Of je daar nu drones of iets anders produceert, maakt mij niets uit. Dat moet je aan de bedrijven zelf overlaten, die hebben verstand van hun logistiek en welke productielijnen daarbij passen.’

De Britse premier Rishi Sunak broedt op een terugkeer van de dienstplicht om personeelstekorten aan te pakken, zei hij vorig weekend. Moet Nederland iets soortgelijks overwegen?
‘Nee, dit kabinet kiest voor wat past bij onze krijgsmacht. Die zegt zelf: als we de dienstplicht weer activeren en ieder jaar duizenden mensen door het systeem moeten halen, gaat daar heel veel energie en geld in zitten. De infrastructuur rond de vroegere dienstplicht is weg en we hebben nu een hooggekwalificeerd beroepsleger dat topkwaliteit levert. Daar horen andere mensen bij.’


^{Ollongren ziet geen heil in herinvoering van de dienstplicht. ‘Die infrastructuur is weg.’ Foto: Ren� van der Hulst voor het FD}

‘Daarom heeft het kabinet ingezet op het dienjaar. Alle zeventienjarigen krijgen een brief, zodat ze weten dat het dienjaar bestaat. Er is veel interesse voor. De eerste lichting bestond vorig jaar uit 100 jongeren, dit jaar worden het er 650 en volgend jaar moeten het 1000 mensen worden. In de toekomst zou je dat nog fors kunnen opschalen. We baseren ons op Zweden, dat in 2011 begon met het dienjaar en nu jaarlijks op 6000 jongeren zit. Het idee is dat een deel bij ons blijft en een deel reservist wordt. De anderen nemen hun ervaringen mee in hun vervolgcarri�re.’

Over vervolgcarri�res gesproken: wat gaat u zelf eigenlijk doen?
‘Daar denk ik pas over na als mijn ministerschap erop zit. Dat zal vast niet heel lang meer duren, nu er met Dick Schoof een premierskandidaat is gevonden. Ik ken hem goed, hij loopt langer mee in Den Haag dan ik. Ik was ook een secretaris-generaal (van Algemene Zaken; Schoof is secretaris-generaal bij Justitie en Veiligheid, red.) die naar een kabinet ging. Dat kan dus goed gaan.’

quote:

Op zaterdag 1 juni 2024 14:56 schreef oheng het volgende:
Reisner van het Oostenrijkse leger heeft een nieuwe video gemaakt. Het is nog onzeker of hij een russische spion is, dus neem het met een korreltje zout.

The Russian Momentum is back

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 08:40 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
Over het laatste jaar heeft Rusland ongeveer 130km2 netto ingenomen. Wat reuze meevalt. Alleen als je naar de laatste 6 maanden kijkt is het minder rooskleurig. En niet geheel verrassend valt dit grotendeels samen met de periode dat de hulp vanuit Amerika stil lag in het Huis.

Behalve de laatste maand natuurlijk. Dat is te wijten aan het nieuwe front wat ten noorden van Kharkiv geopend is.

Uiteraard houden deze cijfers geen rekening met het verschil in Russische en Oekra�ense verliezen met betrekking tot manschappen en materieel. Wat zelfs in de maanden dat de hulp stil lag flink in het voordeel van Oekra�ne is geweest. Daar Oekra�ne vooral bezig is geweest met verdedigen.

quote:

Uiteindelijk gaat het niet om stukjes land veroveren, maar doelen halen.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 11:42 schreef Opnaarutrecht het volgende:
Ons getreuzel met wapenleverancies is de enige reden dat Rusland stukjes land kan veroveren. Het Russische leger stelt niks voor, behalve de pure aantallen soldaten.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 12:56 schreef capricia het volgende:
Er is weer een update van de Oostenrijkse Heer uitgekomen. Ik vind ze inhoudelijk altijd heel goed. Oostenrijk is overigens geen Navo lid (niet dat dat wat uitmaakt).

Deze keer:
Rusland heeft het momentum in de uitputtingsoorlog.
Wanneer wordt het culminatiepunt bereikt?

The Russian Momentum is back

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 12:56 schreef capricia het volgende:
Er is weer een update van de Oostenrijkse Heer uitgekomen. Ik vind ze inhoudelijk altijd heel goed. Oostenrijk is overigens geen Navo lid (niet dat dat wat uitmaakt).

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:08 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Hij zal wel iets objectiever zijn denk ik.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:10 schreef capricia het volgende:

[..]
Ja.
En vooral heldere uitleg en geen doekjes eromheen winden. Ik vind het allemaal niet zo positief.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:36 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Russen die genocidale Russische kindermoordenaars steunen vallen Oekra�ners aan die spullen verkopen op straat.

[ x ]

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:19 schreef polderturk het volgende:
De Russische gevangenis is ideaal als je wil afvallen.

[ x ]

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:10 schreef capricia het volgende:

[..]
Ja.
En vooral heldere uitleg en geen doekjes eromheen winden. Ik vind het allemaal niet zo positief.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:43 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Een groot aantal zal wel kort na terugkomst overlijden door orgaanfalen oid. Zo’n aanslag op je lichaam laat zijn nodige (fatale) sporen na.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:56 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Dat zal dan ook wel hun doel zijn.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:53 schreef Nyamuk het volgende:
[ x ]
[..]
Hoezo? Niets aan de hand toch

Russia's conscript catchers snatch men off the streets to send them to war

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 14:41 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]
🤔

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 14:48 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Maar we hebben nu ook al bromers met cope cages h�.

[ x ]

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 14:53 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Mad Max

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 14:41 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]
🤔

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:36 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Russen die genocidale Russische kindermoordenaars steunen vallen Oekra�ners aan die spullen verkopen op straat.

[ x ]

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:43 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Een groot aantal zal wel kort na terugkomst overlijden door orgaanfalen oid. Zo’n aanslag op je lichaam laat zijn nodige (fatale) sporen na.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 15:56 schreef RamboDirk het volgende:

[..]
Hopelijk kijkt de Duitse veiligheidsdienst mee om dit soort types naar moeder Rusland uit te zetten.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:09 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Speelt in Praag h�

SPOILER

The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched active counterattacks by our troops in the Volchansky and Lipchansky directions. The Kiev junta set the task for the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to knock out the Russian Armed Forces at all costs from positions in the Kharkov region, which were lost by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a result of the offensive of the Russian Army after May 10th.

Subtotal. It can be stated that our offensive in the northern direction has stopped. It is a fact. Volchansk has been turned into a battlefield, His Majesty’s positional impasse dominates along the entire front line. Causes:
1. The inability for Russian troops to efficiently complete the tasks of isolating the field
battle;
2. The work of the Ukrainian RUBPAK - companies of attack unmanned aerial systems and battalions of similar purposes that are currently being formed. Their drones prevent our infantry from moving forward.
3. The inability of the RF Armed Forces to conduct effective counter-battery warfare. It’s a paradox, but as it turns out, this does not contradict the infliction of losses on the Ukrainian artillery - we hit their guns, we kill their crews, but in general we cannot stop the enemy’s use of artillery.

Kharkov direction
The enemy began attempting to launch active assault operations. The enemy is trying to strike our warehouses, headquarters, and air defense systems.
At these moments, in the Liptsov area, as well as in the Vilcha and Grafskoye areas, the enemy is creating strike fists. Our army works on them in the same way. In the next 24 hours, we expect an enemy counterattack.
Working

According to the situation at the front. The crests began their counter-offensive in the Kharkov region. The goal is to drive our troops abroad again. They are advancing on Volchansk and Liptsy. This is a full-fledged offensive, and not a defense with the aim of holding positions. Highmars are actively used for work in the border territory of the Russian Federation and are used successfully. There are effective arrivals along the columns. Fools don’t teach anything, and they won’t teach anything anymore
never.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 14:45 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
[ x ]

[ x ]

[ x ]

Russia's conscript catchers snatch men off the streets to send them to war

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:34 schreef ExTec het volgende:
[ x ]

Volledige tekst voor de twitter/x-lozen:

SPOILER

The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched active counterattacks by our troops in the Volchansky and Lipchansky directions. The Kiev junta set the task for the command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to knock out the Russian Armed Forces at all costs from positions in the Kharkov region, which were lost by the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a result of the offensive of the Russian Army after May 10th.

Subtotal. It can be stated that our offensive in the northern direction has stopped. It is a fact. Volchansk has been turned into a battlefield, His Majesty’s positional impasse dominates along the entire front line. Causes:
1. The inability for Russian troops to efficiently complete the tasks of isolating the field
battle;
2. The work of the Ukrainian RUBPAK - companies of attack unmanned aerial systems and battalions of similar purposes that are currently being formed. Their drones prevent our infantry from moving forward.
3. The inability of the RF Armed Forces to conduct effective counter-battery warfare. It’s a paradox, but as it turns out, this does not contradict the infliction of losses on the Ukrainian artillery - we hit their guns, we kill their crews, but in general we cannot stop the enemy’s use of artillery.

Kharkov direction
The enemy began attempting to launch active assault operations. The enemy is trying to strike our warehouses, headquarters, and air defense systems.
At these moments, in the Liptsov area, as well as in the Vilcha and Grafskoye areas, the enemy is creating strike fists. Our army works on them in the same way. In the next 24 hours, we expect an enemy counterattack.
Working

According to the situation at the front. The crests began their counter-offensive in the Kharkov region. The goal is to drive our troops abroad again. They are advancing on Volchansk and Liptsy. This is a full-fledged offensive, and not a defense with the aim of holding positions. Highmars are actively used for work in the border territory of the Russian Federation and are used successfully. There are effective arrivals along the columns. Fools don’t teach anything, and they won’t teach anything anymore
never.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:54 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Ontzettend tof van jou dat je dat voor ons hebt uitgetypt.

Dank je wel.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
30,000 recruten per maand?

Stel er worden zoveel gerecruteerd om het leger in stand te houden.

Dan gaan er per maand 30,000 Russische soldaten dood of ze raken gewond.

Dat betekent dat er nu ongeveer 800,000 Russische soldaten dood zijn of gewond zijn geraakt.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:53 schreef Nyamuk het volgende:
[ x ]
[..]
Hoezo? Niets aan de hand toch

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:57 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Denk je dat dat netjes lineair gaat?

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
30,000 recruten per maand?

Stel er worden zoveel gerecruteerd om het leger in stand te houden.

Dan gaan er per maand 30,000 Russische soldaten dood of ze raken gewond.

Dat betekent dat er nu ongeveer 800,000 Russische soldaten dood zijn of gewond zijn geraakt.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 16:58 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Beetje door de gehaktmolen gaan voor wat corrupte boeven. Zelensky �n Poetin.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 17:02 schreef polderturk het volgende:

[..]
Volgens Oekra�ne zijn er 500.000 Russische soldaten omgekomen of gewond geraakt.

Ligt er niet heel ver vanaf.

De cijfers die Rusland opgeeft zijn totale onzin.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 17:05 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Misschien moet je ook nog ff met nazi's op de proppen komen.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 17:04 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Het is of dat, idd ongeveer 800K doden,

En dat valt niet uit te sluiten, omdat wat oekraine rapporteert duidelijk doden zijn. Dat yuri zwaargewond is, maar wel wegstrompeld, en bagger medische zorg krijgt en niet al te rap na de offensieve actie alsnog het loodje legt, tellen ze niet al dode,

OF rus haalt die 30K per maand niet,

OF er zitten nu al met > ~ miljoen rus troepen in oekraine. In welk geval het uberhaupt bijzonder is dat oekraine sowieso stand houd.

Dus wat is het.

Counting the Dead... Again: How Many Have Really Died in Ukraine?

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 15:58 schreef quirina het volgende:

[..]
En HIV besmettingen. Russische mannen verkrachten Oekra�ense soldaten als marteling.
Rusland heeft het hoogste aantal HIV ge�nfecteerden ter wereld.

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 20:57 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Daar geloof ik niks van. De landen met de hoogst aantal HIV ge�nfecteerden, maar ook met het hoogst percentage HIV/AIDS geinfecteerden bevinden zich allemaal in Afrika als ik de cijfers opzoek.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV_adult_prevalence_rate
Rusland: 1,1 miljoen geinfecteerden op 140 miljoen mensen - (0,8 procent bevolking)
Zuid afrika: 9 miljoen geinfecteerden op 60 miljoen mensen - hoogst aantal (15 procent bevolking)
Eswatini: 240.000 geinfecteerden op 1,2 miljoen mensen - hoogst percentage (22 procent bevolking)

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 17:58 schreef inslagenreuring het volgende:
800k russische doden is natuurlijk een enorme sugarcoat. Dat is werkelijk nergens op gebaseerd.

Bijna een trol.

quote:

George Clooney Foundation to seek arrest of Russian propagandists
Unlike the military, they travel freely in Western countries and even have residence permits

The Foundation of American actor George Clooney will ask for arrest warrants for Russian propagandists working in Europe.

Source. This was stated in an interview with the Voice of America by Anna Neistat, Director of Legal Affairs at the Clooney Foundation for Justice's Docket project.

‘We are focused on bringing to justice the most obvious Russian propagandists, the most visible ones, but I will deliberately not name them because we ask prosecutors to issue gag orders,’ she said.

SPOILER

quote:

According to Neistat, unlike the Russian military and their commanders, many propagandists like to travel around Europe, have residence permits, relatives and property in different countries, and can be detained on the basis of a warrant in Europol member states.

‘That is, in any European country, in theory, they can be arrested and extradited to a country that is investigating a criminal case against them under the same universal jurisdiction,’ the lawyer said.

She explained that the Docket project collects evidence of ‘war crimes and genocide’ and then passes this information on to European prosecutors and the International Criminal Court (ICC). The project operates in Ukraine, Iraq and Venezuela.

‘At the same time, a more practical way is to bring charges of war propaganda. This is a crime that still exists in the criminal codes of several European countries. The construction of the articles there is quite interesting, but the crime itself is very simple, simpler than incitement to genocide: it is literally war propaganda,’ Neistat said.

According to her, the article on ‘propaganda of war’ is included in the criminal codes of Poland, Moldova, Slovakia and several other countries. However, it has never been applied. Neistat added that she has not yet filed a complaint with the competent authorities against Russian propagandists.

Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov called the foundation's statement ‘unacceptable’: ‘Threats against journalists, let alone reprisals against our colleagues, are absolutely unacceptable. Clooney and his wife can invent all sorts of nasty things, but their dreams are unlikely to come true,’ Solovyov said.

The Clooney Foundation for Justice was founded in 2016 by Hollywood actor George Clooney and his wife, lawyer Amal Clooney. The organisation's goal is to fight for human rights. The Foundation works in more than 40 countries.

Background. Earlier it was reported that the European Commissioner confirmed the decision to ban four Russian media outlets in the EU amid the European Parliament elections. Russian funding of NGOs, political parties and media will also be banned.

quote:

Crimean students’ grades lowered for not writing 'thank you letters' to Russian soldiers invading Ukraine
Russia has been forcing children and their teachers to produce letters to the soldiers committing war crimes since soon after its full-scale invasion of Ukraine

^{From left, clockwise Letters of ’gratitude’ Crimean children are supposed to send to the perpetrators of crimes like those that led to the mass graves in Mariupol, the bombing of an apartment block in Chasiv Yar and the desperate flight under Russian fire from Irpin}

The Crimean Discourse initiative has learned of school students in Russian-occupied Crimea having their end-of-year grades reduced because they did not write letters ‘thanking’ the soldiers fighting Russia’s war against Ukraine. In at least three cases, they report, teachers openly told the students why they were being so penalized.

It is impossible to independently verify such information as the students or their parents would be in danger if their names were published, and the teachers would clearly deny any link. Such reprisals would, however, be typical given the measures used since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine to force Ukrainian children on occupied territory to ‘thank’ the soldiers killing other Ukrainians.

SPOILER

quote:

Such compulsory letter-writing was first reported by the Crimean Human Rights Group in April 2022. They were told by a teacher in one Crimean school that an entire lesson was to be devoted to such ‘letter to a soldier’ activities in each class. Each school had been sent the required numbers of such letters, in accordance with the number of students. Furthermore, parents were being grilled on school chats about whether any of the children had not written such letters.

Similar letters, written by children recruited into Russia’s militaristic ‘Youth Army’ [Yunarmia], were displayed on Russian-occupation propaganda websites. The latter say nothing, of course, about the methods of coercion applied to obtain the letters, nor to obtain the engagement of children in an ‘army’ which has, with cause, been compared with the Nazis’ HitlerJugend. By September 2022, the propaganda newspaper Crimean Izvestia was boasting of over 600 letters “in support of the armed forces of the Russian Federation ‘to the defenders of the fatherland’” in one district. The newspaper claimed that “school children and their parents, teachers and staff of educational institutions are writing to the soldiers with words of gratitude and support”.

In February 2023, the Crimean Tatar Resource Centre posted a copy of a letter sent around to teachers which called on them to get students to draw pictures and write letters to Russians taking part in what the aggressor state insists on referring to euphemistically as its “special military operation’. These were to be published by Krymskaya Pravda and were supposed to be the letters and pictures of children whose fathers had been mobilized. Such mobilization is yet another of Russia’s war crimes on occupied Ukrainian territory. The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre warns teachers that by taking part in such campaigns, they “become accomplices in a crime against humanity and will bear criminal liability”.

Russia is committing appalling crimes in brainwashing children on occupied territory and trying to get them to support, and even want to fight for, a country that has invaded and is occupying Ukrainian territory. It must, however, be noted that, since the full-scale invasion, any expression of support for Ukraine or opposition to Russia’s aggression, is likely to lead to, at very least, dismissal from ones job and administrative prosecution, and quite possibly criminal prosecution and imprisonment. Lecturer Andriy Bielozierov was dismissed from his institute and then prosecuted and sentenced, first under administrative legislation, then on a criminal charge of “repeated public actions aimed at discrediting Russia’s armed forces’. He had, for example, played (patriotic) Ukrainian songs and posted entirely correct information on social media about Russia’s bombing and killing of civilians (details here).

Crimean Discourse also documented five cases where school students had been banned from bringing balloons in the colours of the Ukrainian flag to the ‘last bell’ events at the end of the school year. They had also been prohibited from bringing ribbons with words written in Crimean Tatar and with the colours of the Crimean Tatar flag, purportedly because of the similarity of the combination of yellow and blue with Ukraine’s national flag. There had, however, been two occasions where children were prohibited from waving the Crimean Tatar flag with the excuse given being that this was not “a state symbol of the Russian Federation”. While the number of possible charges has increased since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a Ukrainian flag in the window can result in charges of ‘discrediting the Russian army’, there has been an effective, if not official, ban on public displays of both the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar flags since almost immediately after Russia’s invasion and annexation of Crimea.

quote:

British FV432 APCs are being prepared for the 114th Territorial Defense Brigade

Donors are preparing to transfer refurbished British FV432 armored personnel carriers to the Territorial Defense Brigade.

Volunteer Serhii Prytula reported that there are two more FV432s that they purchased thanks to the Foundation’s partners.

The armored vehicles are currently being restored in a workshop. Then, the FV432 APCs will be transferred to the 114th Territorial Defense Brigade.

At one time, FV432s were the most common armored vehicle used to transport British infantry.

The APC can be called the British equivalent of the American M113 armored personnel carrier.

SPOILER

quote:

GKN Sankey started producing them in 1962 and ended in 1971 after about 3,000 vehicles were produced.

Volunteers are actively digging up the decommissioned armored personnel carriers from private owners and sending them to Ukraine.

The fact is that many APCs were purchased by private British buyers because of their low price.

The APC has a steel construction. The chassis has a classic tracked design with the engine in the front and the driver’s seat on the right. Behind the driver’s seat is the commander’s hatch.

The landing compartment’s roof has a large opening, which is covered by a double-hinged hatch. There is also a door in the rear that can be tilted to the side for boarding and exiting.

Like many APCs of the time, there were no loopholes in the sides for troops to fire – according to British army doctrine, infantry was to fire only after leaving the APC.

The UK is preparing 17 British tracked armored vehicles for the Azov Brigade. The Brigade is to receive 15 FV432 tracked APCs and 2 FV434 armored repair vehicles.

quote:

Mock-ups of the Avenger SAM and IFV were developed in Ukraine

^{Ukrainian mock-up of the Avenger air defense system. Photo credits: On Time Foundation}

Ukrainian donors are supplying the military with Avenger anti-aircraft missile system and IFV mock-ups.

Masters from the Na Chasi (On Time – ed.) charitable organization reported on this.

The task of the military equipment mock-ups is to mislead the enemy and force them to spend as many missiles and ammunition as possible to destroy false targets.

The Foundation presented a wide range of mock-ups made for the military.

SPOILER

quote:

^{Ukrainian mock-ups of the M777 howitzer and HIMARS. Photo credits: On Time Foundation}

Making the BMP-2 mockup turned out to be the most difficult job, requiring many details.

Trench candles are placed in the BMP, which heat the metal parts of the BMP, creating the effect of a working engine.

В Україні розробили макет БМП

The Foundation also produces models of HIMARS missile systems, Avenger air defense systems, HMMWV and Oshkosh off-road vehicles, howitzers, and much more.

The Foundation’s mock-ups are made of wood with large-node elements, which allows them to be transported disassembled.

^{Production of mock-ups of the M777 howitzer. Photo credits: On Time Foundation}

They can be assembled and disassembled multiple times without losing structural reliability and without the use of any tools.

“Our models have a special undercarriage designed and manufactured that allows them to be towed along roads for several kilometers to move them to their positions,” the donors say.

^{A model of the Ukrainian M777 howitzer destroyed by a Russian strike drone. Photo credits: On Time Foundation}

From a distance of several kilometers, from a drone, it is difficult to distinguish the model from real equipment.

In April, the military ordered mock-ups of the American Patriot air defense system from an unnamed Ukrainian model manufacturer.

quote:

Corvette “Hetman Ivan Mazepa” is 70% ready

^{Hetman Ivan Mazepa Corvette (F211). Source: en_balci}

The Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette (F211), currently under construction for the Ukrainian Navy in Turkey, is 70% complete.

Volodymyr Uhlinsky, the ship’s captain, shared this in an interview with TSN.Tyzhden.

According to him, the future flagship of the Ukrainian Navy is being built ahead of schedule. Equipment and weapons are currently being installed on it.

“The Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette is very modern, and the capabilities of this corvette far exceed those of the Hetman Sahaidachny frigate,” Uhlinsky says.

The new corvette does not yet have an anti-ship missile system. The captain explains this: “The corvette will be able to hit targets at a distance between 180 and 240 kilometers.”

SPOILER

quote:

^{Volodymyr Uhlinsky, the captain of the Hetman Ivan Mazepa Corvette (F-211). May 2024. Image: TSN.Tyzhden}

Such different data on the range of destruction indicate that it has not yet been decided exactly what kind of anti-ship missiles the Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette will be armed with.

It was previously reported that the Neptune, Harpoon, NSM, or Atmaca anti-ship missiles are being considered as anti-ship weapons.

On May 29, the Hetman Ivan Mazepa corvette left the RMK Marine shipyard for its first sea trials. The published photos show that the ship is already armed with a 76-millimeter Super Rapid naval artillery system manufactured by the Italian company OTO Melara.

^{Corvette Hetman Ivan Mazepa (F211). Source: en_balci}

Above the helicopter hangar is a marine version of the Turkish 35-mm Korkut anti-aircraft gun from Aselsan. The company’s other products on board the Mazepa are 12.7 mm STAMP remote-controlled weapon stations, which are installed on the port and starboard sides of the ship.

^{Corvette Hetman Ivan Mazepa (F211). Source: en_balci}

For air defense, the corvette was to be armed with the MICA VL air defense system. The Murene 90 Impact was considered the main torpedo.

The ship is equipped with a Thales Sting EO MK2 fire control radar, an Aselsan satellite communications system, an ARES-2N electronic warfare system, and a Mk 36 SRBOC decoy launching system.

У Туреччині спустили на воду український корвет "Гетьман Іван Мазепа" [02.10.2022]

The Hetman Ivan Mazepa Corvette was launched in October 2022. The laying ceremony was held in September 2021, and the hull was assembled at the end of December of the same year.

quote:

Zelensky accuses China of 'working hard' to stop countries attending global peace summit
President Volodymyr Zelensky has accused China of "working hard" to prevent countries from attending Ukraine's global peace summit later this month.

Speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue security forum in Singapore on June 2, Zelensky also expressed disappointment that "some world leaders" would not be present at the event to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16.

Ukraine hopes the summit will address several key areas, such as energy security, the exchange of captives, the return of deported children, global food security, and other topics.

"China, unfortunately, is working hard today to prevent countries from coming to the peace summit," Zelensky said on June 2.

SPOILER

quote:

While he said more than 100 countries and international organizations were set to attend, Bloomberg reported on May 23 that U.S. President Joe Biden is likely to miss the peace conference as it clashes with a campaign fundraiser.

China is also reported to have declined an invitation as the terms they required to attend were not met, Reuters reported on May 31, citing several sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

One source said China had insisted the summit should be recognised by both Russia and Ukraine and both countries should participate.

Publicly, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that attending would be "difficult."

"The arrangement of the meeting still falls short of China's requirements and the expectations of the international community, making it difficult for China to attend," said Mao Ning, the ministry's spokesperson.

"We are very sorry that the Chinese side does not use the opportunity to present its position on the platform of the summit in Switzerland," a spokesperson of the Ukrainian embassy in Beijing told Reuters.

Russia was not invited to the talks, but the Swiss hosts said that Moscow's representatives will have to take part in the process "sooner or later."

Kyiv has warned that Russia is attempting to disrupt the summit.

Speaking on May 16 at a press conference during Russian President Vladimir Putin's two-day visit to China, Chinese President Xi Jinping claimed both leaders agreed that a "political solution" to the war in Ukraine is "the correct direction."

quote:

Vladimir Putin is testing Nato borders for weak spots, security chiefs warn
Frontier disputes with Estonia and Finland could be prelude to Russian bid to seize control in Baltic after overcoming Ukraine

Russia has begun probing the borders of Finland and Estonia for weaknesses as it draws up what Western security chiefs suspect is a long-term plan to capture parts of the Baltic region after the war in Ukraine.

In the space of just a week, Moscow has ignited border disputes with both Nato member states, issuing a draft proposal to revise its sea border with Finland and removing a series of buoys in Estonian waters used to mark a river frontier with Russia.

The moves followed a warning last week by Micael Byd�n, Sweden’s chief of defence, that Vladimir Putin aims to eventually seize control of the Baltic and use it as a “playground” to “terrorise” Nato members.

Diplomats from the Baltic states and security experts have told The Telegraph the provocations were part of a wider strategy by Moscow to test the West’s resolve and potentially to seek out weak spots for a future incursion.

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“This is part of this ongoing hybrid warfare: Russia is aggressively trying to destabilise our society and also our support for Ukraine,” said Viljar Lubi, the Estonian ambassador to London.

“We need to be well prepared. It is not always easy, because you don’t know exactly what the next move is. They go into the so-called grey area, where we don’t know exactly what is next.”

Finland, and the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which won independence from the former USSR in 1991, are all Nato members committed to defending their land borders from Russia.

Since the invasion of Ukraine, and a surge in imperialist rhetoric from Putin, concerns have grown that the Russian leader could be plotting land grabs in that region within the next five to seven years, if he manages to defeat Ukraine and resupply his army.

Pattern of provocative behaviour
On May 23, Russian border guards removed buoys floating in the Narva river between Estonia and Russia, in what Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, said was an “unacceptable” part of a “broader pattern of provocative behaviour”.

The guards took the buoys in the middle of the night, Mr Lubi said, and Estonian requests for a full explanation have so far gone unanswered: “It was surprising for us, especially because it came without warning.”

The Narva region is mostly Russian-speaking and there is currently no formal border agreement between Tallinn and Moscow, which potentially makes it an attractive target for a future Russian incursion.

Also last week, Russia’s defence ministry issued – then quickly deleted – a decree which appeared to adjust sea borders around the Gulf of Finland and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. Lithuania said the move was a “deliberate, targeted escalatory provocation”.

Kai Sauer, the Finnish ambassador to Germany, said the recent accession of Finland to Nato was clearly a factor in the manoeuvres by Russia.

“In military terms, our threat perception has not changed, but it seems quite clear that we are facing certain hybrid activities,” he said.

“It is clear that with the Finnish and Swedish Nato membership the geopolitical situation in the Baltic sea has changed. I think it’s also quite predictable that Russia is adapting to that change but how that will manifest itself is less clear.”

Another potential flashpoint is the Swedish island of Gotland, located in the middle of the Baltic Sea between Stockholm and Kaliningrad.

“I’m sure that Putin even has both eyes on Gotland. Putin’s goal is to gain control of the Baltic Sea,” Mr Byd�n, the Swedish defence chief, told German news outlet RND.

“If Russia takes control and seals off the Baltic Sea, it would have an enormous impact on our lives, in Sweden and all other countries bordering the Baltic Sea. We can’t allow that... the Baltic Sea must not become Putin’s playground where he terrifies Nato members,” he added.

On Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, referred to the Estonian incident and warned that Russia was evidently “preparing for provocations in the Baltic region against borders”.

Baltic is Nato’s ‘most fragile’ border
Aliona Hlivco, a former Ukrainian MP and the managing director of the Henry Jackson Society, a security think tank, said she saw disturbing parallels between the latest Baltic dispute and the prelude to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“It is all a means of probing to see how far they [Russia] can go, though they do not currently have the military capacity to go for an actual war with the Baltics,” she said.

The Baltic region, she explained, was “the most fragile border of Nato” not just because it was porous but due to its contingency of “Russian diaspora which they can mobilise through Russian propaganda and TV … we had all these factors in Ukraine”.

Russia is currently rearming its forces as it continues its latest offensive in north-east Ukraine.

But Western leaders such as Boris Pistorius, the German defence minister, have warned that Moscow’s rearmament could also make it ready to attack a Nato state within the next five to seven years.

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The Ukraine war is a huge opportunity for US intel to recruit Russian spies

Russia’s brutal ongoing invasion of Ukraine has provided US intelligence services with a rare opening to recruit Kremlin insiders furious with the handling of the war.

“Disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us,” said CIA Director Bill Burns last year during a speech in the United Kingdom. “We’re very much open for business.”

“That business is the exchange of information that the asset or agent would provide for something that they want,” said David McCloskey, former CIA officer and author of Moscow X. “We want people who have some sense of what [Russian] leaders’ priorities are – what they’re trying to accomplish.”

The ongoing recruitment effort is far from a state secret. The CIA has released Russian-language videos on social media appealing to the patriotism of disaffected Russians with access to information that could be helpful to the US.

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The effort highlights the evolution of an intelligence service that has historically conducted its essential mission of countering national security threats and informing policymakers under a shroud of secrecy.

Indeed, until the CIA’s internally unpopular and short-lived director, James Schlesinger, finally posted a sign on a highway marking the site of the ultra-secret organization’s Virginia headquarters in 1973, its very location had been shielded from the public.

Fast forward to today, when the spy agency is not only ubiquitous across social media platforms, it is actively using its newfound public-facing presence to accomplish one of CIA’s primary objectives: recruiting foreign spies to steal secrets.

Posts have included step-by-step instructions for would-be Russian informants on how to avoid detection by Russia’s security services by using virtual private networks, or VPNs, and the Tor web browser to anonymously and through encryption contact the agency on the so-called Dark Web.

The FBI launched a similar effort aimed at recruiting Russian government sources in the US, including geo-targeting social media ads to phones located near Russia’s embassy in Washington.

“This direct appeal is an unusual approach, but one which could prove effective in reaching a Russian populace with few options to express their discontent,” said Douglas London, a former CIA station chief posted abroad. “Russians angry with the Kremlin’s state-sanctioned corruption and abuse, with no way to act openly, are left with few alternatives other than finding external support.”

But while the technology is new, espionage has underpinned, and often undermined, US-Russian relations for decades.

That secret battle between intelligence services is the focus of a new CNN-BBC documentary – “Secrets and Spies” – which premieres Sunday at 10 p.m. ET.

With never before heard interviews from Cold War spies and the traitors who sealed their fate, “Secrets and Spies” tracks the operatives who worked behind the scenes to steal and share vital intelligence as the world stood on the brink of nuclear war.

Over 30 years since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the world has returned to a period of great power conflict. In his latest book, CNN chief national security analyst Jim Sciutto describes it as “a definitive break between the post-Cold War era and an entirely new and uncertain one.”

Like the Cold War of the past, espionage remains a vital tool for both sides of the latest conflict, as evidenced by tech-savvy US intelligence officers attempting to recruit new assets in plain sight, and Russian-linked operatives reportedly increasing operations across Europe.

While espionage is illegal in every nation in the world, and undercover operatives have certainly been used for nefarious purposes such as sabotage, assassination, and election interference, “Secrets and Spies” pulls back the veil on a lesser-known, historically critical function of spying: to reduce uncertainty and miscalculation among nuclear-armed adversaries.

As the documentary underscores, the espionage lessons of the Cold War could very well determine future global stability.

“You have to know your enemy,” said CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali. “If you don’t, you can scare your enemy into doing something that neither of you wants to see happen.”

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De levering van de vurig gewenste Taurus-langeafstandsraketten wordt door Scholz nog altijd tegengehouden.

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Ukrainian Strike Hits Russian 200th Motorized Rifle Brigade Deployment Point

^{The factory building after the strike. Source: Russia no context}

The Armed Forces of Ukraine launched a missile attack on the deployment point of the 200th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces.

This was reported by the Telegram channel Dosye Shpyona.

It is reported that the fire damage was inflicted on June 1, 2024, at about 9 a.m. on the territory of the Knauf plant in the temporarily occupied Soledar, in the Donetsk region.

As a result of the strike, four invaders from the tank and repair companies died, with seven more Russians from a repair company and military police injured.

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^{The territory of the Knauf plant in temporarily occupied Soledar. Source: Google Earth}

In addition, the KT-L (TK6AM) tow truck was destroyed, and the TRM-80 mobile tank-repair workshop and armored repair and evacuation vehicle were damaged.

A video shot by the Russian invaders after the strike appeared on the web, revealing that a fire had broken out inside.

Відео з території заводу

HIMARS Combat Missions
Militarnyi reported on May 24, 2024, that the Ukrainian military discovered and destroyed the enemy R-330Zh Zhitel electronic warfare system in the Donetsk region.

The Russian invaders placed their EW system near the occupied settlement of Yasynuvata, located near Donetsk.

To strike the enemy electronic warfare system, Ukrainian defenders used the American M142 HIMARS rocket launcher.

^{Hit of the Russian R-330Zh Zhitel EW system in the Donetsk region. Spring, 2024. A frame from the video of the Come Back Alive Foundation}

Previously, on May 23, it was reported that the Armed Forces destroyed the Russian Zoopark-1 counter-battery radar.

After identifying the target, the unit transmitted the coordinates of the detected target to the operators of the HIMARS rocket system, which struck and destroyed the radar with a GMLRS guided missile.

The site of the strike of the Russian counter-battery radar was geolocated to the south-west of the village of Vidrodzhennya, Donetsk region.

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Latest Russian 2S43 Malva SPG Spotted on Battlefield for First Time

^{2S43 Malva SPG. Photo credits: @OSINTua}

The latest Russian 2S43 Malva 152mm self-propelled gun was spotted on the battlefield for the first time.

The corresponding photo was released by Kriegsforscher, the Marine and OSINT researcher, on his X page.

It is reported that Malva, which belongs to the 9th Artillery Brigade of the Russian Armed Forces, was discovered by a long-range reconnaissance drone in the Belgorod oblast.

Recall that the Russian army received the first batch of these self-propelled guns in October 2023, and earlier, in July, Malva completed a three-year cycle of state tests.

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^{2S43 Malva wheeled artillery system. Photo credits: Russian media}

2S43 Malva
It is known that the development of self-propelled guns began to be carried out at the Central Research Institute “Burevestnik” in the 2010s as part of the “Nabrosok” R&D project. Testing of the SPG began in 2020.

2S43 is armed with a 2A64 152mm rifled gun with a 47 calibers barrel length. It is also used in the design of the Msta-S self-propelled howitzers and its towed Msta-B variant.

The maximum range of howitzer fire with conventional high-explosive projectiles is 24.7 km and about 29 km with rocket-assisted shells.

^{Prototype of the Russian 2S43 Malva wheeled self-propelled gun. Photo from open sources}

Similar weapons, for example, the French Caesar or the Ukrainian Bohdana self-propelled guns, thanks to their longer barrels, are able to fire at a distance of up to 40 kilometers.

The open installation of the howitzer without additional armor protection or turret made it possible to facilitate the system. With 30 shells of ammunition, its weight is 32 tons. This is a quarter lighter than the tracked Msta-S.

Self-propelled guns are built on the chassis of a BAZ-6010-027 truck, which reduces the cost and accelerates the pace of its production.

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Ukraine recognizes Israel and Palestine, seeks to end conflict, says Ukrainian President
Kyiv recognizes both Israel and Palestine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual Asian security summit focused on the Pacific region in Singapore, and called for an end to the conflict in Gaza, Ukrinform reported on June 2.

Ukraine is a just country that respects international law and the UN Charter.

“Ukraine said that if Hamas terrorists attacked civilians on the first day of the attack on Israeli civilians, Israel has the right to defend itself,” he said.

“And after that, when Israel was in Gaza and there was a humanitarian crisis, Ukraine said: First, we are ready to provide humanitarian aid to Gaza; second, we must respect international law; third, Ukraine recognizes two states, both Israel and Palestine, and will do everything to make Israel stop, to end this conflict, and to prevent civilians from suffering.”

Zelenskyy also stressed the need to distinguish between the two periods and “not to mix them into one.”

Earlier in the day, he met with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the sidelines of the summit to discuss Ukraine's immediate defense needs, enhancement of its air defense systems, cooperation within the F-16 coalition, and the drafting of a new bilateral security agreement.

The Ukrainian President arrived in Singapore on June 1, where he is scheduled to meet with President Tharman Shanmugaratnam and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong, as well as East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta.

Zelenskyy arrived in Singapore from Sweden, where he attended the third Ukraine-Northern Europe Summit and signed a bilateral security agreement with Norway.

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russians post an 18+ video of them mistreating Ukrainian PoWs. Including a mock execution.

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Op zondag 2 juni 2024 17:19 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ik hoop van harte dat het hele zooitje snel kapt met megalomane krankzinnigen te spelen.

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Translation.
Im sister of temporarily alive invader, (unclear) vasilij alexandrovich, who is serving on contract in svo, on Zaporizhzhya direction. Those are 2 pictures of computer tomography, that were made jan 15th. He have plantar fasciutis. It should be operated of treated by laser. He were refused to be treated in his unit. As of today, have has fever, is working, is doing physical labor. He is preparing wood for dugouts. Also, he were sent in combat in such shape. Id like to appeal to head of medicine in 5th army in ussurijsk, about why, by which law he were crossed out from sick list, and he cant be treated in his unit 24776. Also, i want to appeal to commander of unit 24776, gayfubin, so that he will control that commanding officers that are on line of contact, why is he being treated like that. And he isnt only one who is sick. That he isnt being sent to recovery, this isnt one case. Why is it happening so? You understand thats war crime, overstepping of obligations(?). It shouldnt be like that. Talk to your subordinates, why this is happening. Guys are waiting (2x) that day when theyll be sent to recovery. They dont have vacation, no recovery. While others are going twice. Healthy guys are going on vacation, while sick ones are waiting their day. Also, i demand that he will be sent to recovery immediately, to his unit 24776. To find his medical documents, prescriptions. To give him document about his injury. Why after 9 months of service he werent given veteran identification. He were photographed 3 times. Give him immediately everything what he should have.

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If only it wasn’t so deadly, it would almost be beautiful.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 01:05 schreef SymbolicFrank het volgende:

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Jij laat altijd over je heen lopen en hebt geen overlevingsinstinct? Als iemand op je af komt en je hard begint te slaan, dan ga je je niet verweren? En als hij een mes trekt, til jij je hoofd op, zodat hij makkelijker je keel door kan snijden? En als iemand anders niet hetzelfde doet, is het een megalomane krankzinnige?

Je begrijpt het verschil tussen aanvallen en zelfverdediging niet. Als Oekra�ne het opgeeft, wordt het een strafkolonie en dan is een jaar later het volgende land aan de beurt.

Maar ik denk dat het voornamelijk is, dat je dat allemaal maar eng vind en het je niet interesseert wat er gebeurt met die mensen, zolang jij maar veilig in je bubbel kan blijven. "Ga weg! Laat me met rust!"

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 06:14 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ga jij vooral vechten. Het zou mooi zijn als die zelfverdediging kan worden gehandhaafd met mensen die er vrijwillig voor kiezen de meat grinder in te lopen.

Als politicus heb je er alle verantwoordelijkheid voor die destructie asap te stoppen, wij horen er geen reet over maar er zijn nogal wat hints geweest dat een staakt het vuren mogelijk was.

Maar mensen met dwang laten sterven voor het land is belangrijker.

Wij geven ook onvoldoende neuk, no boots on the ground (vrijwillig, met soldaten die voor hun beroep hebben gekozen). Nee, Oekra�ne moet met dwang eigen mensen de dood in sturen.

Niks ethisch aan dat hele gezeik.

En in 2016 voorspeld overigens, men is bewust een rode lijn over gegaan met Rusland. Hoor je niks over.

Proxy war met "goedkoop Oekra�ns vlees."

Oorlog is extreem kwaadaardig geen Rus of Oekrainer zit er op te wachten behalve Poetin en Zelensky.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 06:14 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Als politicus heb je er alle verantwoordelijkheid voor die destructie asap te stoppen, wij horen er geen reet over maar er zijn nogal wat hints geweest dat een staakt het vuren mogelijk was.

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Niks ethisch aan dat hele gezeik.

En in 2016 voorspeld overigens, men is bewust een rode lijn over gegaan met Rusland. Hoor je niks over.

Proxy war met "goedkoop Oekra�ns vlees."

Oorlog is extreem kwaadaardig geen Rus of Oekrainer zit er op te wachten behalve Poetin en Zelensky.

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‘A new life’: Ukrainian war amputees travel to Germany for custom-made limbs

^{Pavlo Kushnirov is among the Ukrainian soldiers being brought to Berlin by an NGO for custom-made artificial limbs. Ukrainian orthopedic technicians are also being trained in making and fitting prostheses. Heiko Laschitzki}

Pavlo Kushnirov was among Ukrainian soldiers fighting in the eastern city of Bakhmut with114th territorial defence brigade on a sunny day last winter when Russian shelling changed his life forever.

“For two days our unit was under heavy bombardment from Russian artillery and drones. That morning – on 5 December – the shells found me,” the 43-year-old bearded soldier, who now uses a wheelchair, told CNN in Berlin, as he pointed to where his legs should be. Instead, there are two stumps: One of his legs is amputated just below the knee joint, the other is amputated above the knee.

Fellow Ukrainian soldier Vitaliy Sayko-Kazakov, 42, served in the 19th Separate Rifle Battalion in Chervonopopivka, on the front line where Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk regions meet. His left leg was torn off during a battle with Russian forces on July 1 last year. “I immediately put a tourniquet on myself and luckily remained conscious. On adrenaline, I guess, I saved myself,” he said. His right leg sustained serious injuries with an open fracture and eventually had to be amputated in Lviv, he told CNN earlier this month in Berlin. For three months he was confined to his hospital bed.

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Russia’s war against Ukraine has killed tens of thousands and left even more with lost limbs and other life-altering injuries since the full-scale invasion began in February 2022. German officials estimate there are between 30,000 and 50,000 Ukrainian amputees as a result of the conflict.

Obtaining adequate prosthetic limbs and care is tough inside Ukraine. Now a German non-governmental organization is working to bring wounded Ukrainian soldiers to Berlin so they can be fitted with custom-made artificial limbs and given treatment that will allow them to lead as normal a life as possible.

Kushnirov and Sayko-Kazakov are among the first of 60 severely wounded Ukrainian soldiers who will receive treatment in Germany, thanks to the Berlin-based NGO “Life Bridge Ukraine.” They hope to start what they see as a new life soon. “My doctor called and said there was an opportunity to go abroad for me to receive prosthetics. So, I said OK,” Vitaliy said. “Once there were hundreds of us, now there are thousands of people like me.”

^{Orthopedic technicians work with Vitaliy Sayko-Kazakov, seated center, and Pavlo Kushnirov, right, who are among the first of 60 injured Ukrainian soldiers who will receive specialist treatment in Berlin.}

Limbs amputated quickly to save lives
Marko G�nsl, from German health care company Seeger, is among five orthopedic technicians in Berlin who build custom-made prostheses for the soldiers. When CNN visited the wounded soldiers in their accommodation center for the first time, G�nsl was assessing the new patients.

Bending over Kushnirov’s leg stumps, he softly felt along them. “Are you in pain?” he asked. Kushnirov shook his head as a translator relayed the question. “Let me know if anything hurts,” G�nsl said, taking out a tape to measure the stumps. He and other orthopedic technicians assessed the condition of Kushnirov’s limbs.

Battlefield conditions in Ukraine mean limbs must often be amputated quickly to save soldiers’ lives. “The severity of the amputations often leave the survivors with stumps that won’t allow for the fitting of regular-sized prosthetics,” said G�nsl. “And of course we are dealing here with completely different requirements (than what orthopedic technicians are used to in Germany).”

It will be relatively easy to provide a prosthesis for Kushnirov’s right leg, G�nsl said. However, his left leg will be more difficult to treat because it was amputated above the knee.

^{Pavlo Kushnirov, left, is seen while serving in the Ukrainian military before losing his legs in a Russian attack last December. Pavlo Kushnirov}

G�nsl moved on to inspect the next patient: 27-year-old Valerii Omelchenko, who was drafted into the war three months after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. “I was on duty defending my country on November 23 last year when a Russian drone flew over me and a grenade exploded right in front of me,” he told CNN.

“I jumped away and pulled my legs into my chest to protect myself from the explosion which I knew was coming. But look at my legs, they are injured badly.”

Sitting in a wheelchair with his left leg amputated and the other one badly bruised and shattered, Omelchenko added: “But at least I am still alive.”

Keen to save his damaged leg, doctors in Germany kept it in a metal frame, or external fixator, at first while it healed. That has just been removed and he will be fitted with a prosthesis on the other leg soon.

^{Valerii Omelchenko, pictured during his time serving in the Donetsk area of Ukraine, was badly injured by a Russian grenade in November. Valerii Omelchenko}

A bridge between two capitals
Janine von Wolfersdorff, a Berlin-based financial expert who became involved in humanitarian aid work in Ukraine after Russia’s full-scale invasion, is the initiator of Life Bridge Ukraine, a project which is being run in partnership between the German and Ukrainian capitals. Under its auspices, experts in workshops in Berlin will make new limbs and teach the 60 patients chosen for treatment how to walk and move again.

Von Wolfersdorff traveled to Ukraine herself with a medical team to assess some of the most seriously injured soldiers. “It’s a challenge to find the right patients in Ukraine. There are so many complex cases. At the same time, there are too few orthopedic technicians in Ukraine to provide all war victims with fast, adequate and good care,” she told CNN.

“We want to give Ukrainian war-wounded soldiers a new life – and simultaneously want to train six Ukrainians for three months here in Berlin, who will learn to build very good quality prosthetics so that they can do it themselves in Kyiv.”

Von Wolfersdorff is collaborating closely with Kyiv’s Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Berlin’s Governing Mayor Kai Wegner on the project, hoping that a prosthetics center will be opened in Kyiv later this year. Ultimately, her group wants to open further prosthetics centres in other Ukrainian cities as well. “The trainees learn here first-hand when a stump may need another amputation, another surgery, when a scar needs to be attended to again, and other issues that arise during this very complex process,” Von Wolfersdorff said.

^{Orthopedic technician Marko G�nsl examines Valerii Omelchenko for a prosthetic fitting on his left leg. His right leg was kept in a metal frame while it healed. Chris Stern/CNN}

CNN met with Ukrainian trainee Volodymyr Havrylov in the Seeger workshop. “It takes time to train to do it correctly and get every detail right,” he said. In the past few weeks, he has learnt that “surgeons need to make a good stump. The better the stump is, the easier for us to make a stump receiver.” Each patient requires a different treatment, Havrylov said, explaining that “sometimes the limb is too short, sometimes it is long – sometimes there is not enough space for the fitting. Sometimes patients still have pain somewhere.” Oftentimes there are other medical conditions that could influence the fitting of prosthetic limbs.

Havrylov said he wants to learn “as much as possible from the Germans and maybe even get better at it so that we can open our center in Kyiv and help there. Unfortunately, there will be more people with injuries. We need good workshops to provide our Ukrainians with a good life. We need to bring them back into society.”

Life Bridge Ukraine has collected around $600,000 in donations for the project, including for the care of the soldiers in Berlin. “It is a long process of recuperation,” Von Wolfersdorff said. “We seek a holistic treatment approach: In addition to a lot of physiotherapy, patients are offered psychological help, as well as nutritional advice, to reintegrate themselves into as normal as possible a life.”

‘Completely new way of learning to walk’
A few weeks later, CNN joined Kushnirov and Sayko-Kazakov for their first fittings in Seeger’s Berlin workshop. Vitaliy looked at his new artificial limbs and smiled. “These are my two legs,” he said, pointing at his new prosthetic limbs. “One and two. We are going to fit them today.”

With the help of the medical and orthopedic technician teams Sayko-Kazakov took his first steps using them. “These are cool feet. Really fine work.”

For Kushnirov, the initial fitting was trickier because of the artificial knee joint on one limb. “Unfortunately walking will be more difficult for him,” G�nsl explained. “It is a completely new way of learning how to walk.”

Kushnirov knows his rehabilitation process will take time, but he is determined to keep trying. “It’s a shame I am losing so much time getting rehabilitated and I know it will still take me a lot of time. But of course, my life will improve,” he said. “But it’s hard to say what life will be like after my prosthetics fittings. I know it will be different.”

Vitaliy Sayko-Kazakov intends to help the war effort however he can when he returns to Ukraine. "The war is not yet over. Our work is not yet finished," he said. Heiko Laschitzki
Sayko-Kazakov, Kushnirov and the other soldiers with new artificial limbs will receive a lot of training on how to move again in the coming weeks in Berlin. Any final adjustments that are needed will be made before they receive their permanent prosthetic fittings and leave to be cared for back home in Ukraine.

“It is a lot of fun working together with our highly motivated patients and Ukrainian trainees, we see so much progress,” G�nsl said. However, there will be challenges ahead for these soldiers even with their final artificial limbs. “Prosthetic fittings need to be adjusted again and again. It is a lifelong process,” he said. “After all, bodies change. Just as we occasionally put on weight over Christmas or lose weight when exercising, a stump does not grow with you.”

Both Sayko-Kazakov and Kushnirov are determined to return to Ukraine soon, walking comfortably with their new artificial limbs. They say they are ready to support their units back home as they fight to fend off Russian forces.

“The war is not yet over. Our work is not yet finished,” Sayko-Kazakov said. “I often think of the guys who worked with me at the front line. So many lost their lives. So many I carried out on my shoulders. It hurts. When we go back, we can be useful on the home front, for example assembling drones.”

Kushnirov acknowledges his limitations. “I know I won’t be able to walk again just like others do. I won’t be able to fight at the front line anymore,” he said, “but there are a lot of other things I can do: I could operate a drone or take care of repair and maintenance works. Wherever I can help, I will do so. I will continue to fight for Ukraine.”

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 09:16 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Het rus een poot uitdraaien gaat onverdroten voort.

[ x ]

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Op zondag 2 juni 2024 23:53 schreef W.H.I.S.T.L.E het volgende:

[..]

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 00:09 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://x.com/olex_scherba/status/1797353815642923387
[..]

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Op zondag 2 juni 2024 21:14 schreef Opnaarutrecht het volgende:

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Klopt. We moeten niet dezelfde kant opgaan als de Russen. Waarschijnlijk zijn er 500k dode en gewonde Russische soldaten.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 06:14 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Ga jij vooral vechten. Het zou mooi zijn als die zelfverdediging kan worden gehandhaafd met mensen die er vrijwillig voor kiezen de meat grinder in te lopen.

Als politicus heb je er alle verantwoordelijkheid voor die destructie asap te stoppen, wij horen er geen reet over maar er zijn nogal wat hints geweest dat een staakt het vuren mogelijk was.

Maar mensen met dwang laten sterven voor het land is belangrijker.

Wij geven ook onvoldoende neuk, no boots on the ground (vrijwillig, met soldaten die voor hun beroep hebben gekozen). Nee, Oekra�ne moet met dwang eigen mensen de dood in sturen.

Niks ethisch aan dat hele gezeik.

En in 2016 voorspeld overigens, men is bewust een rode lijn over gegaan met Rusland. Hoor je niks over.

Proxy war met "goedkoop Oekra�ns vlees."

Oorlog is extreem kwaadaardig geen Rus of Oekrainer zit er op te wachten behalve Poetin en Zelensky.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:16 schreef TweedeKlum het volgende:

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Je laatste zin, achachach.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:28 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Je vraagt je ook af waar dat idee vandaan komt dat je land verdedigen in geval van oorlog een vrijblijvende aangelegenheid is.

Ow, het is oorlog, en een genocidale maniak wil ons uitmoorden, maar jij wil niet vechten? No biggie hoor.

Historisch besef van een aardappel.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 09:52 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Dat is de Engelse schatting, dit zijn de overige:

409,820 losses (180,000 killed) 24 February 2022 – 25 February 2024 Armed Forces of Ukraine[117][118]
350,000 killed and wounded 24 February 2022 – 7 March 2024 US estimate[119]
127,000 killed 24 February 2022 – 2 May 2024 BBC News Russian estimate[120]
150,000 killed, 350,000 wounded 24 February 2022 – 3 May 2024 French estimate[121]
500,000 killed and wounded 24 February 2022 – 31 May 2024 UK estimate[122]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:34 schreef phpmystyle het volgende:
Raar dat men het niet beter kan inschatten

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:33 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Mensen vergeten dat als onverhoopt de shit hier de fan zou raken, de opkomstplicht ook weer wordt ingevoerd.

En als jij je dan niet komt melden als hij aan de beurt bent, dan komen ze je ook opzoeken en ophalen, of je wil of niet.

Daar kun je natuurlijk van alles van vinden, maar dat is wel hoe het werkt.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:34 schreef phpmystyle het volgende:

[..]
Raar dat men het niet beter kan inschatten en zulke grote standaardafwijkingen moet hanteren. Maar misschien weten ze het wel preciezer..

En wat zijn de statistieken aan Oekraiense kant?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:42 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Nog minder precies:

~70,000 killed,
100,000–120,000 wounded 24 February 2022 – 18 August 2023 US estimate[109][110]
35,000 killed (24,500 conf. by names),
15,000 missing, 3,400 captured,
90,000–100,000 wounded 24 February 2022 – 14 November 2023 Museum of Military History[111]
(Book of Remembrance)
444,000 killed and wounded
(5,962 foreign volunteers killed) 24 February 2022 – 27 February 2024 Russian Ministry of Defense[68][112]
46,450 killed (incl. non-combat,[88]
confirmed by names) 24 February 2022 – 17 April 2024 UALosses project[12]

Het is ook niet zo makkelijk om precies bij te houden wat er op een dergelijk breed front gebeurt. De precieze cijfers zullen de Russische en Oekra�nse strijdkrachten enkel van eigen zijde weten en ik denk dat deze voorlopig niet vrijgegeven worden.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:52 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Oekraine en zeker Rusland zullen het van hun eigen leger ook niet precies weten.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:42 schreef BlaZ het volgende:
90,000–100,000 wounded 24 February 2022 – 14 November 2023 Museum of Military History[111]
(Book of Remembrance)

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:53 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

[..]
Nee, maar de foutmarges zullen allicht lager zijn. Je hebt altijd een deel vermisten of deserteurs.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:53 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 11:14 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
NUKES

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:57 schreef phpmystyle het volgende:

[..]
Hoe stel je dat �berhaupt vast? Als de centrale cooordinatie na 2 weken nog geen contact maken met een individuele soldaat? Of zijn het de commandanten van de regimenten die dat moeten doorgeven?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 11:22 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

[..]
Onze Vlad is zich er terdege van bewust dat de F16 een platform is waarmee UA in potentie met Nukes terug kan gooien.

En was het niet zo dat de Amerikanen hebben gemeld dat zodra de Russen tactische nukes gebruiken in UA dat ze dan hoogstpersoonlijk alle Russische stellingen de moeder bombarderen?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:01 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
De US zei (meen ik) er wel bij "met conventionele bommen & raketten".

Om Rusland de moeder te bombarderen zijn geen nucleaire wapens nodig .

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:01 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
De US zei (meen ik) er wel bij "met conventionele bommen & raketten".

Om Rusland de moeder te bombarderen zijn geen nucleaire wapens nodig .

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:01 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
De US zei (meen ik) er wel bij "met conventionele bommen & raketten".

Om Rusland de moeder te bombarderen zijn geen nucleaire wapens nodig .

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:21 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

[..]
Da's waar, maar dat neemt niet weg dat onder de F16 de B61 kan hangen. Daarmee wordt "we zullen UA weer de mogelijkheid geven zichzelf nucleair te verdedigen" ook een diplomatieke optie.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:14 schreef quirina het volgende:

[..]
Maar daar denkt de Terroristische Russische Federatie onder leiding van Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin anders over.
En dat laat hij steeds meer merken.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:25 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Dan kun je ook een ready made warhead geven, en ze die zelf op 1 van hun raketten laten zetten.

De link F-16 > Nukes is niks meer dan een kremlin talkingpoint.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:32 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

[..]
Dat is het ook, maar dat is ook de bedoeling natuurlijk. En het is niet helemaal onwaar, ik bedoel, ze liggen niet voor niks ook op Volkel.

Het is deterence..

quote:

The Netherlands has become the first nation to declare that its F-35 stealth fighters are now fully responsible for the nuclear strike role, something that had been expected since the aircraft was fully certified to carry the B61-12 thermonuclear bomb earlier this year. Coming amid repeated nuclear saber-rattling from Russia, the development is an important one in the context of NATO’s nuclear deterrence posture in Europe.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:37 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:
U hoorde het hier voor het eerst:

Dutch F-35s Take On A Full Nuclear Role

[..]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:49 schreef NeeOfTochJA het volgende:
Wat een oorlogshitserij weer.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:49 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[poll=7305]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:55 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:
Nukes for Dummies

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:51 schreef TheFreshPrince het volgende:
Het wordt hoog tijd dat we in Nederland ook een nucleaire test uitvoeren om wat druk te zetten op Rusland.

"Had u ooit van Schijndel gehoord?"

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 13:02 schreef zuchtje het volgende:

[..]
Ik weet niet of we daar toestemming voor krijgen. Met een beetje pech zit Volkel zelf met een probleem..

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 13:58 schreef oheng het volgende:
We hebben beeld van de vernietiging (?) van de russische colonne in Belgrado gisteren. Blijkt geen HIMARS aan te pas te zijn gekomen, maar gewoon FPV drones + observatie drone.

Directe link, want het is een besloten tweet.

https://twitter.com/Maks_(...)User=Maks_NAFO_FELLA

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 13:58 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
Die hebben flink doorgereden dan

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:01 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
De US zei (meen ik) er wel bij "met conventionele bommen & raketten".

Om Rusland de moeder te bombarderen zijn geen nucleaire wapens nodig .

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 14:16 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
De moeder van Rusland is zo groot dat je je F16's drie keer moet bijtanken als je het helemaal wilt bombarderen

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 14:16 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
De moeder van Rusland is zo groot dat je je F16's drie keer moet bijtanken als je het helemaal wilt bombarderen

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 12:54 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Al prefereer ik Amsterdam als testgebied

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 16:48 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
Dan Rotterdam want fucking lelijke stad.. Maar iets te dichtbij voor waar ik woon dus dan blijft Urk over.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 17:02 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Hey. Ik vond 1x wel genoeg

quote:

Op zondag 2 juni 2024 13:36 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Russen die genocidale Russische kindermoordenaars steunen vallen Oekra�ners aan die spullen verkopen op straat.

[ x ]

quote:

Orb�n, considered Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest partner in the EU,

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 13:02 schreef zuchtje het volgende:

[..]
Ik weet niet of we daar toestemming voor krijgen. Met een beetje pech zit Volkel zelf met een probleem..

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 14:16 schreef sp3c het volgende:

[..]
De moeder van Rusland is zo groot dat je je F16's drie keer moet bijtanken als je het helemaal wilt bombarderen

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 18:28 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Ok, niet DE maar CZ zelf liet er geen gras over groeien.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 18:28 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Ok, niet DE maar CZ zelf liet er geen gras over groeien.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:07 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
Ah, de US heeft alleen F16's. Goed om te weten (ja, want de hele post lezen en begrijpen blijft natuurlijk bijzonder moeilijk ).

Overigens hoef je van Rusland maar 2 steden te reduceren tot een hoopje as als je ze de moeder wil bombarderen .

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:22 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Tering....

Speltip: als er een bom ligt die niet is afgegaan, niet met een stok erop slaan.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:22 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Tering....

Speltip: als er een bom ligt die niet is afgegaan, niet met een stok erop slaan.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:33 schreef havanagila het volgende:

[..]
Al die buitentoiletten, kapotte wegen en sovjetflats storten van zelf wel in elkaar. Ga voor de gein maar naar google maps en drop dat streetview poppetje op een willekeurige straat buiten de grote stad. Bah bah.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:39 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Stukje derdewereld.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 09:52 schreef Red_85 het volgende:

[..]
link dood.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 11:22 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

[..]
Onze Vlad is zich er terdege van bewust dat de F16 een platform is waarmee UA in potentie met Nukes terug kan gooien.

En was het niet zo dat de Amerikanen hebben gemeld dat zodra de Russen tactische nukes gebruiken in UA dat ze dan hoogstpersoonlijk alle Russische stellingen de moeder bombarderen?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 20:03 schreef oheng het volgende:
Bovendien hebben we gezien dat rusland niet in staat is tot een offensief, er zijn inmiddels tientallen bewijzen voor verliezen van meer dan 90% onder infanterie eenheden, en de voertuigen worden telkens ouder en ongeschikter. Vandaag zagen we zelfs een T-62 in de aanval gaan.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 19:07 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

[..]
(ja, want de hele post lezen en begrijpen blijft natuurlijk bijzonder moeilijk ).

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:18 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Het lijkt me dat China nog duidelijker een kant heeft gekozen.

Ik vrees dat de genocidale Chinezen nog meer steun gaan leveren aan de genocidale Russen.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:18 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Het lijkt me dat China nog duidelijker een kant heeft gekozen.

Ik vrees dat de genocidale Chinezen nog meer steun gaan leveren aan de genocidale Russen.

[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 08:10 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Poetin heeft in ieder geval de mogelijkheid de oorlog en dus het leed per direct te stoppen. Zelensky niet. Dan is het game over Oekra�ne.

Tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog werden ook veel mensen de meatgrinder ingestuurd door het westen. Ben je daar ook boos over?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 08:10 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

[..]
Poetin heeft in ieder geval de mogelijkheid de oorlog en dus het leed per direct te stoppen. Zelensky niet. Dan is het game over Oekra�ne.

Tijdens de tweede wereldoorlog werden ook veel mensen de meatgrinder ingestuurd door het westen. Ben je daar ook boos over?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 08:29 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Een staakt het vuren met een imperialistsch regime die sinds 1991 nonstop bezig is met annexatie oorlogen is onmogelijk.
Er waren al tientallen verdragen met rusland, en die heeft ze allemaal aan de laars gelapt. Al in 2003 begin rusland met hun agressie richting Oekraine.
Je leeft in een simplistische droomwereld.
[..]
In 2016 was rusland al 2 jaar bezig met een proxy oorlog.
Net als in Moldavie, Georgie, Tsetjenie, Tartarstan.
Hetzelfde trucje wat ze in 1939 flikten met Polen.

En waarschijnlijk weet je het niet, maar rusland is Oekraine ingevallen, niet andersom.

Weet je wat pas echt kwaadaardig is? Victim blaming.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:28 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Je vraagt je ook af waar dat idee vandaan komt dat je land verdedigen in geval van oorlog een vrijblijvende aangelegenheid is.

Ow, het is oorlog, en een genocidale maniak wil ons uitmoorden, maar jij wil niet vechten? No biggie hoor.

Historisch besef van een aardappel.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:33 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Mensen vergeten dat als onverhoopt de shit hier de fan zou raken, de opkomstplicht ook weer wordt ingevoerd.

En als jij je dan niet komt melden als hij aan de beurt bent, dan komen ze je ook opzoeken en ophalen, of je wil of niet.

Daar kun je natuurlijk van alles van vinden, maar dat is wel hoe het werkt.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 10:16 schreef TweedeKlum het volgende:

[..]
Je laatste zin, achachach.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:55 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Oorlogen stoppen altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel.

A 70-year-old Soviet tank was destroyed in Robotyne

quote:

A 70-year-old Soviet tank was destroyed in Robotyne. The T-54 was used in an attack on southern Ukraine. Drone footage shows the ancient war machine rolling into battle. It is met by drones of the Omega special forces group. And of the 1st Presidential Brigade of Ukraine. The vehicle is quickly disabled and then blown up. The T-54 was the first Soviet tank to be produced post-war. Dozens of them have been taken out of storage and into Ukraine. The Russians insisted they would not be used on the frontline. But it appears that is no longer the case.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:03 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]

En de Amerikanen hebben inderdaad aangegeven alle Russische doelen in Oekra�ne van de kaart te zullen vegen indien Rusland een nucleaire wapen gebruikt op Oekra�ens grondgebied, ongeacht of het schade toebrengt/er slachtoffers vallen of niet.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:55 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Oorlogen stoppen altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:11 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ongeacht? Dat is helemaal niet zeker. Het is gewoon deterrence.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:12 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Maar niet altijd met onderhandelingen. Japan gaf zich onvoorwaardelijk over. En de Russische Federatie gaat kapot aan Ukraine. En jij doet aan victim blaming.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:21 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Zelensky is geen victem.
Die stuurt ook mensen die het niet willen de dood in, niks hero�sch aan.

quote:

Revealed: Russian legal foundation linked to Kremlin activities in Europe
Exclusive: Leaked internal documents show Pravfond has spent millions of euros to finance propaganda and legal campaigns

Leaked internal documents have exposed the activities of a Russian state-backed legal defence foundation that European intelligence agencies and analysts say is in fact a Kremlin influence operation active in 48 countries across Europe and around the world.

Internal documents from the Fund for Support and Protection of the Rights of Compatriots Living Abroad (Pravfond) indicate that the foundation finances propaganda websites targeted at Europeans, helped pay for the legal defence of the convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout and the assassin Vadim Krasikov, and has employed a number of former intelligence officers as the directors of its operations in European countries.

The documents show that the group has spent millions of euros to finance propaganda and legal campaigns. Public data also shows that Pravfond’s local partners have received millions in state subsidies from a number of the European states where the foundation operates local branches, raising questions about the use of public funds and national security concerns just days before elections to the European parliament.

SPOILER

quote:

More than 40 Pravfond documents, obtained by the Danish public broadcaster DR from a European intelligence source and shared with a consortium of European journalists including the Guardian, show that the organisation has had a number of documented former intelligence agents among its leadership. They include Vladimir Pozdorovkin, who has been identified by European intelligence sources as an agent for the SVR, Russia’s foreign intelligence service, and in public records as Pravfond’s curator for its operations in the Nordic and Baltic countries; and Anatoly Sorokin, who the documents show is a member of the SVR and curates Pravfond’s Middle East, Moldova, and Transnistria division.

The head of the Institute of the Russian Diaspora, which is listed on official documents as Pravfond’s “project implementer”, is Sergey Panteleyev, who has been subject to sanctions in EU countries as a member of a Russian military intelligence unit that specialises in psychological-warfare operations.

Andrei Soldatov, an expert on the Russian intelligence services and co-author of The Compatriots, said Pravfond appeared to be a “classic soft-power effort” and that the ties between intelligence and compatriot organisations were “well documented”. He noted that Andrey Milyutin, the deputy head of the department of operative information of the fifth service of Russia’s security agency, the FSB, was a member of the government’s committee on “compatriots living abroad”, indicating the link between intelligence activity and outreach to the Russian diaspora.

In a 2020 national security report, the Estonian security services called Pravfond a “pseudo legal protection system” that “in reality is an influence operations fund”, and they have said the FSB uses the groups to recruit collaborators abroad, including among supporters of the 2014 annexation of Crimea, many of whom had ties to the group.

Pravfond was founded in 2012 by presidential decree and was backed by the Russian ministry of foreign affairs and the federal agency Rossotrudnichestvo, which administers foreign aid and has been described by the head of Pravfond, Alexander Udaltsov, as a “unique element of Russian soft power”. Udaltsov has been subject to sanctions by the European Union since 2023 for “supporting and implementing actions and policies which undermine and threaten the territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Ukraine”.

Pravfond did not reply to questions sent by the Guardian and by its reporting partners in the week before this publication, although some of the recipients of its local grants did.

The documents show that Pravfond sponsored the legal defence of Krasikov, an alleged FSB agent who was given a life sentence for the murder of the former Chechen field commander Zelimkhan Khangoshvili in Berlin’s Tiergarten in 2019. The documents indicate that the lawyer Robert Unger received �60,000 in legal fees paid out by Pravfond’s budget in 2021 as approved by Udaltsov. A European intelligence source said it possessed documents showing that Unger had received a larger sum of money for representing Krasikov in previous sessions, but could not provide documentation.

Asked about the payments, Unger confirmed he had received a request from the journalist consortium but said his mandate for Krasikov ended in 2021 after the life sentence and that because he was “still subject to legal professional confidentiality even after the end of the mandate and have not been released from it, I am unfortunately prevented from answering your questions”.

A Pravfond budget document from 2014 also showed that the organisation had provided significant sums to fund the legal defences of Bout and the convicted drug trafficker Konstantin Yaroshenko, both of whom later returned to Russia as part of prisoner exchanges negotiated between Moscow and Washington.

The documents also indicated that Pravfond had spent hundreds of thousands of euros to maintain several websites that purported to fight against “Russophobia” and promote the “defence of the Russian language” in Europe. It has also funnelled money to a number of fringe publications throughout Europe.

Documents obtained by the consortium showed that Pravfond funded the activities of golos.eu, an online portal that operates out of a post-office box in Brussels and mainly provides a vehicle for commentators to voice criticism of the Ukrainian government, particularly the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and his top aides and military advisers.

Reached for comment by the Guardian, the Golos deputy editor Yuri Andriychenko denied that the site received money from Pravfond or had any links to the Russian state. He suggested that someone else had applied for grant funding using the site’s name, writing: “We are not surprised that someone in Russia is trying to make money on our name, because it is much easier than creating your own project.”

According to the internal documents, Pravfond also funds the activities of Euromore, another online portal that focuses heavily on purported threats to Russians in Europe. Euromore was “designed to take into account the closure of international platforms” such as RT and Sputnik by the EU authorities and “create its own significant alternative”, the documents said. Those sites were largely blacklisted in the west after the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:21 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Zelensky is geen victem.
Die stuurt ook mensen die het niet willen de dood in, niks hero�sch aan.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:38 schreef Cilantro het volgende:

[..]
Dat is vrij normaal. Zodra wij in oorlog zijn met de ruzzen wordt jij ook naar het front gestuurd.

quote:

Verder onderzoekt Defensie verschillende scenario’s met verplichtingen in toenemende mate.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:21 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Zelensky is geen victem.
Die stuurt ook mensen die het niet willen de dood in, niks hero�sch aan.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:21 schreef sp3c het volgende:
als je een jemoeder grapje maakt en dit de reactie is
[..]
is het dan geslaagd of mislukt?

ik zeg een beetje van beiden

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:44 schreef capricia het volgende:

[..]
Beetje opschalen kan geen kwaad.

[ x ]

Maar dit vind ik serieus klinken:
[..]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:25 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Ze moeten wel, als Rusland verliest kunnen ze zelf Taiwan vergeten.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:44 schreef capricia het volgende:

Maar dit vind ik serieus klinken:
[..]

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:18 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Nee, het gebruik van een nucleaire wapen in Oekra�ne door Rusland is daadwerkelijk een rode lijn waar Rusland niet over mag gaan. Als het westen dan niks doet, of een slappe reactie geeft dan zal Rusland dat als toestemming zien om er mee door te gaan.

De enige juiste manier om daar op te reageren, en daarmee maakt het niet uit of er slachtoffers zijn gevallen of niet, is met de harde hand.

Persoonlijk zou ik zeggen niet alleen in Oekra�ne maar ook in Rusland zelf. De hele oorlogsmachine van Rusland vernietigen als reactie. Maar op het ogenblik is er alleen sprake van zijn oorlogsmachine in Oekra�ne. En niet alleen materieel en soldaten maar ook de gehele oorlogsinfrastructuur en alles wat er nog meer bij komt kijken.

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:49 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

[..]
Ik vraag me af wie in dit topic voor een verplichting zijn?

quote:

Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:50 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Weet niet of de VS een kernoorlog wil riskeren. Dat hele gedoe van de VS is gewoon deterrence net zoals Rusland dat doet. We zien pas wat er gebeurd als het daadwerkelijk ook gebeurd. Het is compleet nieuw terein in de geschiedenis. Niemand weet wat er gebeurd als Rusland kernwapens gebruikt.

quote:

Belgian EU presidency urges governments to move toward muzzling Hungary
European countries are getting increasingly frustrated with Budapest’s obstructions on Ukraine military aid and Russia sanctions.

Belgium, current holder of the rotating Council of the EU presidency, is taking the extraordinary step of urging EU governments to consider moving ahead with the procedure to deprive Hungary — which takes over the presidency next month — of voting rights.

“We have a Europe that is making difficult headway, with unfortunately some states — one state in particular — increasingly adopting a transactional, blocking and veto attitude,” Belgian Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib told POLITICO in an interview.

She advocated advancing the EU’s Article 7 censure procedure against Budapest — an extreme move that can result in a country having its voting rights suspended.

“I think we need to have the courage to make decisions: go right to the end of Article 7, activate Article 7 right to the end, which provides for the end of the right of veto,” she said.

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The European Parliament triggered the first phase of the Article 7 procedure against Hungary in 2018, but the process has stalled. The next step of that procedure, used when a country is considered at risk of breaching the bloc’s core values, is often called the “nuclear option” because it provides for the most serious political sanctions the bloc can impose on a member country — the suspension of the right to vote on EU decisions.

Hungary is set to take over the presidency of the Council of the EU in July, giving Budapest more power to set the EU agenda and priorities for six months, even as Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orb�n continues to obstruct EU decision-making on important matters from military aid to Ukraine, to sanctions against Russia, to taking the next step to welcome Kyiv into the bloc.

“This is a moment of truth,” Lahbib said. “Either we face up to our responsibilities, which requires political courage and willpower. Or we put in place mechanisms that don’t work. And so we have to choose.”

“If we go all the way with this mechanism, it must work. If it doesn’t work, we have to reform it. That’s the future of the European Union,” Lahbib said.

Frustrated over Budapest’s blocking moves, other European countries are considering creative ways to get around Budapest on important EU decisions, such as targeting Russian exports without requiring unanimity. Some EU leaders are also suggesting giving Hungary a weak portfolio in the next European Commission, despite Budapest’s wish to keep the prestigious enlargement job.

Since coming into power two decades ago, Orb�n’s government has given the ruling Fidesz party more influence into the judiciary and state media system. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Budapest has continuously slowed down aid to Ukraine or refused to help altogether.

The European Parliament and EU heavyweight Germany have questioned Budapest’s ability to helm the Council of the EU starting July 1 — but Lahbib said Belgium insisted that Hungary should take its scheduled term.

“It’s also a reminder that being a member of the European Union means respecting values, having rights, having access to funds, being part of the single market, respecting the values of freedom, freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary,” she said.

“That is why Hungary is now under the Article 7 procedure and increasingly isolated,” she added.

After Brussels dropped a similar case against Poland last month, Hungary is the only EU country facing this type of sanction.

A spokesperson for Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the EU said: “Hungary’s main concern now is to keep the EU out of the war in our neighbourhood. If war reaches the EU, then Article 7 will be the least of our problems.”

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Ukraine may use German Patriot systems to down planes over Russia – Bundeswehr general
After Berlin gave permission to strike Russia, German General Christian Freudig stressed that this is the exclusive responsibility of the Ukrainian army

Within the limits of Berlin's permission to strike the Russian Federation, Ukraine can theoretically shoot down enemy aircraft in Russian airspace with German Patriot air defense systems, said the head of the special staff for assistance to Ukraine at the German Ministry of Defense, Major General Christian Freudig, Tagesschau reports.

Since Friday, it has become clear that Ukraine is allowed to use Berlin's weapons to a limited extent on the territory of Russia. As Freudig pointed out, this is possible for the Patriot system, for example, but it remains unclear whether this has already happened.

"It is quite possible that Patriot systems will now also be used in the Kharkiv area, and they are excellent for combating Russian aircraft that can deploy fearsome barrage bombs," he said.

However, Freudig stressed that the tactical use of the systems is the exclusive responsibility of the Ukrainian military: "You can use them within the limits of international law. We have great confidence that the Ukrainians will not only comply with it, but will also do it with great tactical skill and achieve success."

On Friday, it became known that Germany officially allowed Ukraine to use its weapons against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation.

As German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius explained, Berlin changed its rhetoric due to "adaptation" to the Russo-Ukrainian war.

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Russia destroys 9.2 GW of energy generation in Ukraine in three months
Six attacks on Ukraine's energy system disabled the power generation, which is equal to the capacity of one and a half nuclear power plants

During the Russian attacks this spring, Ukraine lost 9.2 GW of power generation capacity, European Union Ambassador to Ukraine Katar�na Mathernov� reported.

"We discussed key priorities of Ukraine for the next months, including the urgent energy equipment needs to help alleviate the impact of continuous Russian missile attacks on energy infrastructure. Including the attack from two nights ago, Russia has destroyed whooping 9.2GW of Ukraine's energy generation," she wrote on Facebook, reporting on the week's work.

Since March 2024, Russia has carried out six massive attacks on Ukraine's energy system.

Ukrenergo began limiting energy supplies to industry and businesses on May 8, after Russia's fifth mass missile and drone attack.

In the early hours of Saturday, Russia launched the sixth attack, with Russian missiles damaging five energy facilities in different regions of Ukraine at once.

The attack coincided with the withdrawal of nuclear power units for repair (at least they were announced by the NPP operator Energoatom), as a result of which there was a critical shortage of electricity, and Ukrenergo had to introduce emergency blackouts, despite the weekend.

Ukrenergo warned that the beginning of June will be more difficult in terms of blackouts than the end of May.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:21 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Zelensky is geen victem.
Die stuurt ook mensen die het niet willen de dood in, niks hero�sch aan.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:55 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Oorlogen stoppen altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:49 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Als dat allemaal tegen de wens van de slachtoffers was om mee te vechten. Jazeker.

De eerste wereldoorlog was helemaal zielloos. De 2e was de vijand nog daadwerkelijk evil.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:48 schreef oheng het volgende:

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Ik denk dat ze Taiwan sowieso kunnen vergeten.

China heeft 0 ervaring met oorlogen, en dan moeten ze ook nog een ultra ingewikkelde amfibische landing uitvoeren. En dan komt het ergste: Oekra�ne heeft laten zien wat zeedrones doen met een numeriek superieure marine.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:23 schreef Barbusse het volgende:

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Daarnaast is Taiwan geografisch alleen al een fort met alle bergen en bossen. Er is een reden dat China het nooit heeft geprobeerd sinds 1949. Met een luchtmacht en marine alleen verover je geen land.