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EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: Ukrainian Special Forces and Syrian Rebels Decimate Russian Mercenaries in Syria
An exclusive video obtained by Kyiv Post shows Ukrainian HUR special forces attacking enemy checkpoints, strongholds, foot patrols, and convoys of military equipment in the Golan Heights of Syria.

Exclusive videos obtained by Kyiv Post from sources within Ukraine’s Military Intelligence Directorate (HUR) show Ukrainian special forces and Syrian rebels destroying Russian mercenaries in Syria. The video is dated March 2024.

The HUR special squad “Khimik,” in collaboration with the Syrian opposition, is attacking Russian mercenaries fighting alongside the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria.

EXCLUSIVE: Ukrainian Special Forces and Syrian Rebels Strike Russian Mercenaries in Syria

Active combat is ongoing in the southern part of the country, particularly in the Golan Heights, where Russian forces are currently concentrated.

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According to a Kyiv Post source in HUR, since the beginning of the year, the rebels, supported by Ukrainian operatives, have inflicted numerous strikes on Russian military facilities represented in the region by the so-called “grouping of forces of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the Syrian Arab Republic.”

The source, who spoke to Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity, stated that constant attacks are being carried out on enemy checkpoints, strongholds, foot patrols, military vehicle columns, and other targets.

These attacks include the use of rocket-propelled grenades and improvised “Tarab” mortars to attack defensive positions and what appears to be command wire or radio-controlled improvised explosive devices (IEDs) attack vehicles, including a minibus traveling at high speed along a main road, as well as enemy foot patrols.

What are Ukrainian special forces doing in Syria?
Russia's intervention in Syria in 2015, initially aimed at supporting President Assad’s regime, during the civil war, has led to a permanent deployment of thousands of Russian troops there.

Moscow relocated some troops and equipment from Syria to the Ukrainian battlefield last autumn of 2022, potentially making their troops in Syria more vulnerable to Ukraine's attacks in the region.

At the same time, given a prolonged presence in the region, the Russians have created multiple recruitment centers for the deployment of Syrian mercenaries in Ukraine.

The recruitment of mercenaries is conducted under the supervision of the “Center for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides and Refugee Movement Control” from the Russian-occupied Khmeimim Air Base.

There, mercenaries are issued Russian passports and then mobilized into the Russian Armed Forces.

In May 2023, HUR Chief Kyrylo Budanov vowed to “destroy Russian war criminals anywhere in the world, wherever they are.”

In addition to Syria, Ukrainian HUR special forces continue their hunt for pro-Kremlin Wagner PMC mercenaries in Sudan.

The previous exclusive video, obtained by Kyiv Post in February, shows Ukrainian special forces interrogating captured Russian mercenaries from the Wagner PMC in the Republic of Sudan.

Further footage shows a Ukrainian operator interrogating a Russian-speaking prisoner. He confesses to being part of a group of Wagner PMC mercenaries that were sent to Sudan to overthrow the local government in the video.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 21:55 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Oorlogen stoppen altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel.

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In het voorstel dat nu wordt uitgewerkt, krijgen jongeren straks bij de dienstplichtbrief een enquête meegestuurd over het dienjaar en een uitnodiging voor een gesprek. In het lichtste scenario is zowel de enquête als het gesprek vrijwillig, maar er wordt ook gedacht aan varianten waarin het dienjaar een verplichtender karakter krijgt.

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Russia warns US of ‘fatal consequences’ over miscalculations in Ukraine
“They underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive,” Russian minister says.

The Kremlin on Monday said the U.S. could face “fatal consequences” if it ignores Moscow’s warnings that Ukraine should not use weapons provided by Washington to attack Russia.

“I would like to warn American leaders against miscalculations that could have fatal consequences," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said, Russian state news agency RIA reported. "For unknown reasons, they underestimate the seriousness of the rebuff they may receive.”

Last week, the Biden administration quietly gave Ukraine permission to use some U.S.-provided weapons to strike military targets in Russian territory. Some European governments recently gave similar permissions.

Kyiv has been calling for extra flexibility with the use of Western weapons as Russian President Vladimir Putin's forces push into the Kharkiv region of Ukraine.

U.S. President Joe Biden "recently directed his team to ensure that Ukraine is able to use U.S. weapons for counter-fire purposes in Kharkiv so Ukraine can hit back at Russian forces hitting them or preparing to hit them,” a U.S. official told POLITICO, adding that the policy of allowing long-range strikes inside Russia “has not changed.”

Putin last week warned the West against allowing its weapons to be used by Ukraine to strike Russia. "Constant escalation can lead to serious consequences," Putin said on May 29. "If these serious consequences occur in Europe, how will the United States behave, bearing in mind our parity in the field of strategic weapons?" the Russian leader added.

Ryabkov referred the U.S. administration to Putin's "very significant warning," adding that "it must be taken with the utmost seriousness" and U.S. officials should "spend some time studying what was said in detail."

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:39 schreef capricia het volgende:
Defensie kijkt of dienjaar minder vrijblijvend gaat worden.
[..]
Lijkt me wel iets voor een inburgering. Eerst een jaartje dienen of zo.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:39 schreef capricia het volgende:
Defensie kijkt of dienjaar minder vrijblijvend gaat worden.
[..]
Lijkt me wel iets voor een inburgering. Eerst een jaartje dienen of zo.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:41 schreef Mortaxx het volgende:

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Daar heeft Defensie helemaal de capaciteit niet voor. Welke instructeurs, barracken, materiaal gaan ze dat doen

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:39 schreef capricia het volgende:
Defensie kijkt of dienjaar minder vrijblijvend gaat worden.
[..]
Lijkt me wel iets voor een inburgering. Eerst een jaartje dienen of zo.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Ja, Napoleon na de vredesonderhandelingen bij Waterloo. De Golfoorlog eindigde met het akkoord dat Saddam zijn legers terugtrok uit Koeweit. De Amerikaanse burgeroorlog na de rondetafelgesprekken van de Appomattox campagne. Hitler besloot de oorlog te stoppen na de Berlijn gesprekken. Allemaal echt waar, ja. Elke oorlog stopt aan de onderhandelingstafel.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:41 schreef zalkc het volgende:

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Terug naar het Romeinse keizerrijk! Eerst 18-20 jaar dienen in de frontlegioenen voordat je je staatsburgerschap krijgt

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:42 schreef Barbusse het volgende:

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Maar we hebben erover gepraat aAn 3eN 0nDerhAnD3n9nGsTaf3lTje!

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:41 schreef Mortaxx het volgende:

[..]
Daar heeft Defensie helemaal de capaciteit niet voor. Welke instructeurs, barracken, materiaal gaan ze dat doen

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:42 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Hoe gooi je je leger vol met buitenlandse infiltranten? Nou zo.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:45 schreef zalkc het volgende:

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Eerlijk is eerlijk, over de Europese kant van de tweede wereldoorlog is er best veel onderhandeld, voornamelijk in Jalta over hoe de geallieerden Europa opnieuw gingen inrichten.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:39 schreef capricia het volgende:
Defensie kijkt of dienjaar minder vrijblijvend gaat worden.
[..]
Lijkt me wel iets voor een inburgering. Eerst een jaartje dienen of zo.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:44 schreef Barbusse het volgende:

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Krijg je daarna dan ook je eigen eigen stukje land dat je mag bewerken? En mag je dan ook slaven houden?

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:45 schreef capricia het volgende:

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Daar gaan ze ook mee bezig, staat in dat bericht van defensie. Materieel, vastgoed. Etc. Ook via commerciële partijen.

https://www.defensie.nl/a(...)lexibele-krijgsmacht

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:41 schreef zalkc het volgende:

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Terug naar het Romeinse keizerrijk! Eerst 18-20 jaar dienen in de frontlegioenen voordat je je staatsburgerschap krijgt

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:48 schreef zalkc het volgende:

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Als je de boeken van Cicero leest waren slaven wel een luxe, dagloners waren goedkoper want die kon je wegsturen als het werk was gedaan.

Volkstuintje en een Bulgaarse aspergesteker voor het oogstseizoen en je bent een heel eind denk ik

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Hungary's Orbán stages 'peace march' ahead of EU elections

^{People march during a rally in support of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his party in Budapest, Hungary, June 1, 2024. Orbán with 14 years in power is the European Union's longest serving leader.}

A crowd of tens of thousands gathered in Hungary’s capital Saturday in a show of strength behind Prime Minister Viktor Orbán a week ahead of European Parliament elections, a contest he has cast as an existential turning point between peace in Europe and a world war.

The demonstration, dubbed by organizers as a “peace march,” brought Orbán’s supporters from all over Hungary and neighboring countries, who marched along the Danube River in Budapest from the city's iconic Chain Bridge onto Margaret Island, waving flags and signs reading “No War.”

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Orbán, whose 14 years in power make him the European Union’s longest serving leader, has focused his campaign for the June 9 ballot on the war in Ukraine, portraying his domestic and international opponents as warmongers who seek to involve Hungary directly in the conflict. Critics say his appeals for an immediate cease-fire in Ukraine would allow Russia to retain territories it has occupied and embolden it further.

On Saturday, he told supporters it was time for his party to “occupy Brussels” — the European Union's de facto capital — and transform the continent's approach to support for Ukraine as it fends off Russia's invasion.

“We can only stay out of the war if Hungarian voters support the government,” he said during a speech on Margaret Island. "We must win the European elections in such a way that the Brussels bureaucrats in their fear will open the doors of the city to us and leave their offices in a hurry."

^{Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addresses people as they gather to support him and his party during a 'peace march' in Budapest, Hungary, June 1, 2024.}
Orbán and his Fidesz party have built a reputation as being among the friendliest in the EU to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Hungary has refused to supply neighboring Ukraine with weapons to assist in its fight against Russia’s invasion and has threatened to derail EU financial aid to Kyiv and to block sanctions against Moscow.

His party appears set to gain the most seats in the EU legislature in next week's election. But a series of scandals and a deep economic crisis has given room for one political newcomer, Péter Magyar, to seize on Orbán’s moment of weakness and build a major political movement in the last three months that looks poised to take a significant portion of votes.

Magyar, who has risen to prominence through publicly accusing Orbán’s party of corruption and turning Hungary's media into a pro-government propaganda machine, has himself held numerous large protests and called for “the largest political demonstration in Hungary’s history” on the eve of the elections.

^{People march during a rally in support of Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his party in Budapest, Hungary, June 1, 2024.}
But the crowd in Budapest on Saturday showed that Orbán's brand of right-wing populism — and threats that military support to Ukraine by the EU and United States is leading toward a new world war — still resonates among large parts of Hungarian society.

“I trust Viktor Orbán. Let our children have a livable country, not a bombed-out country," said Budapest resident József Fehér at the demonstration. "The weapons that Europe has given to the Ukrainians could be turned back against us. And we don’t want that.”

Orbán has condemned his EU and NATO partners who assist Ukraine as being “pro-war,” and advocated for an election victory for former U.S. President Donald Trump.

In his speech, he said a Trump victory in November would lead to he and the U.S. administration forming a “transatlantic peace coalition” that could bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:42 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Hoe gooi je je leger vol met buitenlandse infiltranten? Nou zo.

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Ukrainian troops hit three Russian tanks near Bilohorivka

^{A group of T-62M tanks of the Russian army with armor ‘cages’ on top of their turrets in the Kherson Region. June 2022. Ukraine. Photo credits: Russian media}

Ukrainian drone operators hit three Russian tanks near Bilohorivka.

The FPV Strike Group “90/81 Apachi” said that two of them were completely destroyed and one was damaged.

The T-62 tank was detected by soldiers of the Kometa control and artillery reconnaissance battery and destroyed by FPV drones.

The work of the FPV drones was observed by a Ukrainian reconnaissance drone, which took up a position above the tanks.

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У районі Білогорівки ЗСУ уразили три танки окупантів [Червень 2024]

During the approach, some FPV drones began to lose signal, but managed to reach and hit their targets.

This sector in the Luhansk region is currently being defended by the 81st Airmobile Brigade, which includes the FPV Strike Group “90/81 Apachi”.

Bilohorivka has been the front line of the Ukrainian Defense Forces for over a year and a half.

Dozens of destroyed vehicles in and around the village are the work of paratroopers of the 81st Brigade.

The village was constantly under pressure from the Russians with different dynamics.

^{Ukrainian FPV drones attack Russian T-62 tanks near Bilohorivka. June, 2024. Ukraine. Footage from the video of the FPV Strike Group “90/81 Apachi”}

Since 2022, soldiers of the Ukrainian Defense Forces have been holding back the Russians, who are spending a lot of energy on occupying the village.

It is very common to see footage of how infantry and vehicles repelling assault attempts in the area, looking for “weaknesses” in the defense.

^{Bilohorivka on the map of hostilities on the Deep State map}

As previously reported, the Russian military has begun using newly modernized T-62 tanks in the combat zone. The 2022 model has several differences from the base model. A new 1PN96MT-02 thermal imaging sight was installed on the tank to replace the old optics.

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Wives and mothers of mobilised Russian soldiers protest outside Defence Ministry

Russian advocacy group The Way Home held an unsanctioned protest outside the Ministry of Defence in Moscow on Monday to demand rapid demobilisation.

Calling on Russia’s new Defence Minister Andrey Belousov to address their concerns, the wives and mothers of conscripted Russian soldiers held up signs demanding that mobilised soldiers be allowed to return home from the front.

Police vans arrived outside the Defence Ministry shortly after the protest began, and officers warned participants that their demonstration constituted an “illegal action”. The women continued to hold up their signs, however. “We are putting the signs down because we were promised that a representative of the Defence Ministry would come out now,” Paulina, the wife of a mobilised soldier, said in a video posted to Telegram.

A Defence Ministry representative, Colonel-General Borisenko, whose first name is not stated, did eventually come out to speak with the group, apparently telling the women that a government decree would be required to demobilise conscripted soldiers.

Borisenko then accused the women of “rocking the boat”, told them that they had no right to call themselves “Russian citizens” after mounting such a protest, and urged the crowd to petition the Defence Ministry through official channels rather than protesting.

The Way Home is an informal grouping of the wives and mothers of mobilised soldiers that has become increasingly outspoken in its demands that their loved ones be allowed to return home from the front after being away for over a year in many cases. It was labelled a “foreign agent” by the Justice Ministry on Friday.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:37 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Ja, Napoleon na de vredesonderhandelingen bij Waterloo. De Golfoorlog eindigde met het akkoord dat Saddam zijn legers terugtrok uit Koeweit. De Amerikaanse burgeroorlog na de rondetafelgesprekken van de Appomattox campagne. Hitler besloot de oorlog te stoppen na de Berlijn gesprekken. Allemaal echt waar, ja. Elke oorlog stopt aan de onderhandelingstafel.

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Basic training in Ukraine is barely covering the basics, commanders say

^{Ukrainian civilians are shown how to operate an anti-tank weapon on a military training course run by the Azov Battalion. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

As Ukraine prepares to mobilize tens of thousands of men to address a critical shortage of soldiers amid intensified Russian attacks, Ukrainian commanders in the field say they are bracing for most of the new troops to arrive with poor training.

Ukrainian commanders have long griped about lackluster preparation for recruits at training centers. But with Russia on the offensive, the persistent complaints are a reminder that a newly adopted mobilization law intended to widen the pool of draft-eligible men is just one step in solving the military’s personnel problems.

An influx of conscripts under the new law is still months away. In the meantime, commanders are redeploying soldiers from rear positions to fighting units near the front. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last month also signed a law to allow some prison inmates to join the military in exchange for a chance of parole — copying a Russian tactic that provided thousands more fighters but is also releasing violent criminals back into society.

Wherever the new soldiers come from, Ukrainian field commanders said that because training is so deficient, they must often devote weeks to teaching them basic skills, such as how to shoot.

“We had guys that didn’t even know how to disassemble and assemble a gun,” said a 28-year-old deputy battalion commander from the 93d Mechanized Brigade, whom The Washington Post agreed to identify by his call sign, Schmidt, according to Ukrainian military protocol.

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^{More training from the 93rd Brigade. The prospect of being sent to dangerous front-line positions without adequate training is a main reason many Ukrainian men fear conscription. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

Schmidt said that he spent the first week with soldiers transferred from rear posts just making sure each one fire at least one box of bullets — some 1,500 shots — daily before moving on to more complex tasks. Within weeks, these soldiers could be fighting near the embattled town of Chasiv Yar, where Russian forces have been making advances.

“We are just wasting a lot of time here on basic training,” Schmidt said, adding: “If, God forbid, there will be a breakthrough near Chasiv Yar, and we get new infantry that doesn’t know basic things, they will be sent there to just die.”

With Kyiv’s forces critically understaffed and losing ground, the failure to provide adequate basic training for soldiers underscores the dire situation Kyiv is facing more than two years after Moscow’s invasion.

Russia has made gains this year in large part because Ukraine’s military doesn’t have enough troops to defend against relentless assaults, soldiers say, while the government has been slow to ramp up its mobilization efforts.

To get more troops to the battlefield immediately, Zelenskyy’s recently appointed military chief, Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrsky, has redeployed people who were previously serving in jobs such as guarding bridges and other infrastructure far from the combat zone to brigades engaged in some of the fiercest fighting.

The move was designed in part to reduce the number of men who would have to be drafted — an issue that is politically fraught for Zelenskyy. Syrsky’s predecessor, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, had proposed drafting close to 500,000 people — a figure Zelenskyy publicly rejected by saying he had not been shown evidence that it was necessary and that Ukraine would struggle financially to pay so many new soldiers’ salaries.

^{Soldiers from Ukraine’s 93rd Brigade train in May in the Donetsk region. Kyiv faces the challenge of boosting troop numbers amid a new Russian offensive threatening the second-largest city, Kharkiv. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

For front-line commanders, any new troops are welcome, given that some units have endured months without reinforcements. But many of these redeployed arrivals appear ill-prepared, commanders said, despite many having served in the military since the start of Russia’s invasion more than two years ago, albeit far from the battlefield.

Until about a month ago, a Ukrainian soldier, whose call sign is Val, had been standing guard on a bridge in the southern Odesa region — the same job he’d been doing every day since he enlisted at the start of the invasion.

On April 30, Val was told that he was being transferred to combat duty. Within 24 hours, he was assigned to the 93rd Brigade and instructed to deploy to the eastern Donetsk region. He didn’t even have time to pack his things — some had to be shipped later.

“It’s scary,” the 31-year-old said. “Nobody was really prepared.”

For a reconnaissance unit in the 42nd Mechanized Brigade, which was recently redirected to the northeast Kharkiv region to defend against a renewed Russian offensive, many of the scouts had just been reassigned from rear roles and were given just two weeks preparation before being sent into combat, to carry out tasks that at times require sneaking behind enemy lines.

What is taught in Ukrainian training centers “is complete nonsense,” said a 32-year-old soldier in the unit with the call sign Chirva. “Everything is learned on the spot.”

An officer who has spent more than a year instructing new soldiers at one of Ukraine’s facilities said the training centers are low on Soviet-caliber ammunition because it is being saved for troops on the battlefield. That means recruits get little experience firing live rounds. The officer said the training center received just 20 bullets per person.

^{Ukrainian soldiers eat lunch during a break in training. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

“There are no grenades for throwing in training centers, and there are no grenade launcher rounds in the training center,” said the officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to do so publicly. “This is the problem.”

“We don’t have a proper training system in place,” the officer continued, adding that Ukraine needs its instructors to be taught by NATO trainers to condense the standard two-month basic training into one month.

A current priority for Ukraine’s General Staff is securing more training for recruits abroad — at facilities that can’t be targeted by Russian bombardment, unlike those in Ukraine. Britain so far has provided the most basic training for Ukrainians. In a potential boost, France is considering sending instructors to Ukraine to help prepare draftees, Syrsky said in a post on social media this week.

The prospect of being sent to dangerous front-line positions without adequate training is a main reason many Ukrainian men fear conscription. As part of a recruitment effort, the National Guard’s Khartia Brigade has billboards across the country promising “60 days of preparation.”

But despite individual brigades investing in ads to attract recruits — an internal competition of sorts within the military — those who enlist might not end up with their preferred brigade.

The chief sergeant for a battalion fighting in the eastern Donetsk region described a process in which certain brigades, particularly assault brigades, often get first pick of new soldiers brought to training centers.

^{Soldiers from Ukraine’s 41st Brigade learn to fire rocket-propelled grenades in May in the Donetsk region. Kyiv’s forces are critically understaffed and losing ground. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

The sergeant, who is typically sent to training centers to select troops for his battalion, spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid and because he was not authorized to discuss the sensitive matter publicly.

Some assault brigades might devote personnel to live practically full time near training centers, the sergeant said, to quickly snatch up the youngest, fittest, most motivated men. The officer who was an instructor at a training center confirmed that some brigades indeed plot for first dibs.

“If they send us to recruit someone, all the good ones have already been taken by other brigades, and you have to choose from the crooked, lame, sick ones,” the sergeant said. “And so you choose from them, dammit.”

The sergeant said that he aims to communicate with soldiers to get a sense for who is more willing to fight versus those who were conscripted forcibly and might refuse orders on the battlefield. This is expected to become an issue of heightened importance, as most Ukrainians eager to serve have already volunteered to do so. Those who have not yet volunteered tend to be resistant to fighting.

Some recruits, the sergeant said, are deemed physically fit despite being over age 50 with knee and back issues, meaning they will struggle to walk miles with a pack of gear and weapons, as is often required. Some brigades are ordered to take those men anyway.

“There are guys whom you just look in the eye and understand he’s hesitating,” the sergeant said. “He needs a push. He needs confidence in his weapon, confidence that we won’t abandon him, and he will fight.”

“And there are those who immediately say, ‘I won’t fight,’” he added. “Of course, you try not to take them. But again, in our army, it’s set up so that the personnel department tells you, ‘No way, you have to take him, he’s healthy.’”

Anastacia Galouchka in Kyiv contributed to this report.

^{Ukraine’s 93rd Brigade trains. For front-line commanders, any new troops are welcome, given that some units have endured months without reinforcements. (Ed Ram for The Washington Post)}

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...effectively work in their area in the Avdeevsky direction also at night. In this video, our air bombers deprived the enemy of two T-72 tanks, one T-90 tank, two MT-LB and four Ural trucks."

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Translation: Pidars (said by one) have hit our tank. Looks like no survivors. Cant go any closer, because ammo is exploding.

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*A Ukrainian reconnaissance drone hovering over an assault group of Russian invaders captures in good quality an unsuccessful attempt to attack our positions in one of the districts of Vovchansk, Kharkov region. Two Russian attack aircraft ate lead peas in close combat while trying to enter the building; the enemy managed to drag away another heavy 300th.

Video of soldiers of the “Tsunami” assault regiment of the National Police “Lyut” brigade.*

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Chechen Special Forces Deployed in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Commander Says
Fighters from Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s Akhmat military unit have been deployed to northeastern Ukraine’s Kharkiv region amid Russia’s recent offensive, the unit’s commander Apti Alaudinov said Monday.

“The fighters have been transferred to different sites along the entire line of contact that had to be covered up,” the state-run news agency TASS quoted Major General Alaudinov as saying in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region near the Ukrainian border.

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Moscow launched a new land offensive in early May around the Kharkiv region, with Defense Minister Andrei Belousov saying Friday that Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian forces around 8-9 kilometers back.

Ukraine’s military said last week Russia was continuing to send additional regiments and brigades from other areas to bulk up its troops in northern Kharkiv.

“It’s very pleasant and flattering that we were transferred to these key sites,” TASS quoted Alaudinov as saying, adding that Akhmat troops are “also performing assault attacks.”

On his Telegram channel, Alaudinov claimed that the Russian military plans to “complete” combat operations in Ukraine in 2024.

“We’re preparing for actions that we call decisive,” he told the troops on a visit.

The exact number of Chechen troops who make up Kadyrov’s Akhmat special forces is unknown. Kadyrov has previously claimed that Akhamat is made up of three divisions.

After coming under the Russian Defense Ministry’s formal command last year, Akhmat fighters were deployed both in southwestern Russia’s Belgorod region and the captured eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut.

In April, Russian President Vladimir Putin appointed Alaudinov deputy head of the Defense Ministry's “military-political” department, essentially making him responsible for political obedience in the military.

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Japan hands over 20 medical vehicles to Kharkiv region

UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, June 3 — Japan has provided 20 vehicles for medical needs to the deoccupied communities of the Kharkiv region, said Oleh Syniehubov, Kharkiv Oblast Governor.

Syniehubov said the new vehicles were purchased at the expense of the Japan International Cooperation Agency and the Government of Japan.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, international partners have been helping to restore the medical infrastructure in Kharkiv and in the whole of Ukraine, which was damaged by Russian attacks.

Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhii Marchenko noted that Japan is one of the leaders in supporting Ukraine in all possible ways during the war.

During the full-scale war, Japan has provided $4.6 billion to Ukraine through projects of the World Bank and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In 2024, Ukraine expects to attract $37.3 billion from international partners. In the first months of this year, Japan was the largest international donor of financial assistance for humanitarian and social purposes.

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Fake Tom Cruise documentary is part of a Russian influence campaign aimed at the Paris Olympics, report finds
Pro-Russian propagandists are ramping up their efforts to denigrate next month’s Paris Summer Olympics and undermine Western support for Ukraine through a series of brazen online and offline stunts, private experts and Western officials told CNN.

The stunts have included using artificial intelligence to impersonate the actor Tom Cruise’s voice narrating a fake documentary attacking the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and placing coffins with an inscription invoking the Ukraine war near the Eiffel Tower, sources said.

The activity appears to be part of an increasingly frantic effort from Russian operatives to tarnish the Olympics and stall any momentum Ukraine is building to use Western-made weapons to attack Russian territory, experts who track Russian disinformation told CNN. The IOC has placed restrictions on Russian athletes’ participation in the Paris Olympics because of Russia’s war on Ukraine.

There is a mix of desperation and opportunism to the recent spate of propaganda, said Gavin Wilde, a former Russia expert at the National Security Council. “For the tech-savvy propagandists working in Russia, the alternative they’re hedging against isn’t irrelevance — it’s a one-way trip to the front lines,” Wilde told CNN.

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Campaign to undermine the West
The Russian operatives used the fake Cruise voice, the Netflix logo and even a fake New York Times review to try to lend the documentary legitimacy, according to analysts at Microsoft, who released a report on the activity on Sunday. The propaganda video, released on social media platform Telegram last year, was “the first glimpse of what would prove to be an extensive campaign” by the same Russian propaganda actor to smear the Paris Olympics, Microsoft said.

Russian propagandists have also been ginning up fake news stories claiming that Parisians are buying property insurance because of fears of terrorism around the Olympics, and fake press releases purporting to come from the CIA and French intelligence warning about terrorism, according to Microsoft.

CNN has requested comment from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.

Not all the recent subterfuge has been online.

On Saturday, French police discovered five coffins draped in the French flag, with the words “French soldiers in Ukraine,” near the Eiffel Tower. A French military official told CNN they suspect that Russia was involved in the stunt. French police are questioning three men in connection with the incident.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s refusal to rule out the possibility of sending French troops to Ukraine has infuriated the Russian government.

In recent days, pro-Russia social media accounts have also shared a doctored video of US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller commenting on Ukraine’s potential use of US-made weapons in Russia. The video appears to be compiled from two different press appearances by Miller, showing him wearing different ties.

It’s unclear who made the video. US officials and private experts have not publicly identified the source of the video.

“While this video is obviously fake, it is a step towards what counter-disinformation researchers have been warning about – the use of AI manipulated media to enhance foreign disinformation operations,” the State Department said in a statement to CNN.

The Russian Embassy in South Africa shared a version of the video on its X accounts, according to screenshots captured by a BBC journalist.

Hany Farid, a digital forensic expert and professor at UC Berkley, said the video had hallmarks of being manipulate using AI.

Farid ran the video through multiple deepfake detection systems and said they indicated that the voices in the video had been created using AI and that the lip movements of the State Department spokesperson in the video had been altered using lip-sync AI software.

“Even if the fake is not believed by everyone, the constant bombardment of deepfakes is leading to an overall skepticism of everything we see online,” Farid said.

But Lee Foster, another information operations expert, expressed skepticism that the imagery in the video was made using AI.

“Looking at it from an analytic standpoint, it doesn’t make sense to use AI to manipulate mouth movements such that they are basically identical to the original,” Foster told CNN. “AI manipulation of the video’s audio remains an unresolved question, however.”

Ghosts of Olympics past
Russian antagonism toward the IOC has been years in the making. The IOC has prohibited Russian athletes from competing officially under the Russian flag in Paris because of the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russian athletes have faced similar restrictions at past Olympic games because of Russia’s alleged doping program.

Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency was behind a destructive cyberattack on computers used at the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in South Korea in 2018, according to the US Justice Department.

Officials at the Paris Olympics are bracing for a similar threat next month.

“The GRU has reserved some its most serious cyberattacks for France and the Olympics, and they carried those out when the geopolitical situation was considerably less strained,” said John Hultquist, chief analyst at the Google-owned cybersecurity firm Mandiant.

The Olympic Games in Paris “will be an incredibly enticing target for these actors,” Hultquist added. “Any attack they cook up will be designed to undermine French prestige and the solidarity at the heart of the event.”

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Swiss upper house rejects $5.58bn aid plan for Ukraine
Switzerland's upper house of parliament has rejected a 5 billion Swiss franc ($5.58 billion) aid plan for Ukraine, over concerns it would breach the neutral country's borrowing restrictions, it was reported on June 3.

The aid was part of a wider 15 billion Swiss franc plan that also contained 10.1 billion francs for the Swiss military but had faced opposition from lawmakers on the right and was expected to be defeated, despite being backed by a Swiss parliamentary committee on April 25.

Twenty-eight lawmakers voted against and 15 voted in favor, Reuters reports.

Switzerland's Federal Council announced the plans in April, saying the funds would be allocated to support Ukraine's economic development and reconstruction.

The package was supported by lawmakers from both center-right and center-left parties.

While refusing to supply Kyiv with military aid on account of its long-term neutrality policy, Switzerland has provided economic and humanitarian support worth over $3 billion.

Switzerland also hosted the 2022 Ukraine Recovery Conference in Lugano, which laid down principles for Ukraine's reconstruction and recovery.

Switzerland is also set to host the global peace summit on June 16-17 in Lucerne.

The country is also reportedly ramping up efforts to prevent companies and individuals from using the country to circumvent sanctions imposed against Russia.

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Norway's top general says NATO has two to three years to prepare for confrontation with Russia
The head of the Norwegian Armed Forces, General Eirik Kristoffersen, believes that the North Atlantic Alliance's window of opportunities to prepare for a possible confrontation with Russia has shrunk to two to three years.

Source: European Pravda citing an interview with Bloomberg

Details: Christoffersen noted that NATO had previously given Russia up to ten years to restore its military capabilities, depleted by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Quote: "At one point someone said it’ll take 10 years but I think we’re back to less than 10 years because of the industrial base that is now running in Russia. It will take some time, which gives us a window now for the next two to three years to rebuild our forces, to rebuild our stocks at the same times as we are supporting Ukraine."

Details: The commander of the Norwegian Armed Forces noted that Russia's positions near his country's borders have not changed significantly over the past year, and this allows Oslo to fulfil the requirements for strengthening defence capabilities agreed upon within NATO.

"So we can fulfil those plans and those decisions with content in the next years but we need to speed up. We need to do it in two to three years to make sure that we are ready for whatever might happen," he stressed.

A number of European NATO countries have been raising concerns about the risk of Russian aggression in the near future.

For example, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said in January that the Alliance should prepare for a Russian attack on a NATO country within 5-8 years.

Polish President Andrzej Duda is also concerned that Russia may soon have the military capability to attack NATO as early as 2026-27.

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Organizers of pro-Kremlin rallies in Germany fled to Russia
A pro-Russian couple, who were connected to the Kremlin, fled Germany for Russia after the cases began. The couple's lawyer announced this on Monday. Source: Reuters

Read also: Putin’s agents in Germany raided with searches

Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Elena Kolbasnikova and her partner Max Schlund have been active in Germany, organizing pro-Kremlin rallies to undermine Berlin's support for Ukraine.

They were identified as key figures promoting Moscow's interests in Germany and were found to have received financial support from a Russian government agency.

Last August, German prosecutors raided the couple's home in northwestern Germany.

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Markus Beisicht, their lawyer, said that the couple left Germany and are currently in Kaliningrad. He noted that they lost their jobs, were evicted from their apartment and were the subject of “multiple” criminal investigations in Germany.

It was reported that Russian agents in Germany, including Kolbasnikova, organized a collection of money for the Russian Armed Forces to purchase walkie-talkies, headphones and walkie-talkies.

According to the Washington Post, the Russian government is trying to unite the far right and far left in Germany through its agents to create an “anti-war coalition” that would oppose aid to Ukraine and lead it to defeat.

Efforts to create "anti-war" sentiment in Germany are part of a hidden front in Russia's war against Ukraine, as the Kremlin tries to undermine Western unity and freeze the war on its terms. Using peaceful protests to divide the West echoes tactics that were first honed during Soviet times and returned to the fore after Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

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VP Kamala Harris to attend global peace summit, confirming Biden snub
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will attend the upcoming global peace summit to be held on June 15-16 in Switzerland, the White House said on June 3.

The announcement comes a few days after it was reported President Joe Biden would likely miss the event as it clashes with a campaign fundraiser he is set to attend alongside, among others, George Clooney, Julia Roberts, and Jimmy Kimmel.

"The Vice President will underscore the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to supporting Ukraine’s effort to secure a just and lasting peace, based on Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and the principles of the U.N. Charter," the White House said in a statement.

"The Vice President will reaffirm support for the people of Ukraine as they defend themselves against ongoing Russian aggression."

The statement also said U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan would be attending.

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Reports that Biden would not attend the event prompted President Volodymyr Zelensky on May 28 to say his absence would "only be met by an applause by Putin, a personal, standing applause by Putin."

"I believe that the peace summit needs President Biden, and other leaders need President Biden because they will look at the U.S.’s reaction," Zelensky said.

Saudi Arabia does not plan to be present at the event because Russia will not be there, it was reported on June 2, despite the country hosting an international summit on the peace formula in August 2023.

On June 2, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Hungary has not decided whether to take part in the peace summit as "not all sides of the war" will be present at the event.

Zelensky has accused Russia of "blackmailing some leaders and trying to block the participation of some countries."

The peace summit will be held on June 15-16 in the Burgenstock resort in Switzerland.

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.

Some 107 states and international organizations have confirmed their participation in Ukraine's global peace summit, President Volodymyr Zelensky's spokesperson, Serhii Nykyforov, said on June 3 on national television.

Elsewhere on June 3, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning responded to an accusation from Zelensky on June 3, pushing back on Zelensky's claims that China is trying to sabotage the upcoming global peace summit.

The previous day, Zelensky accused China of "working hard" to prevent countries from participating in the summit, which is scheduled to be held in Switzerland on June 15-16.

China has never "fanned fire or fueled the flames" of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine, Mao said.

"We believe that we can get the understanding and support of all parties," she added, saying that China's position on the summit has been "open and transparent."

China allegedly declined an invitation to participate in the summit as the terms it required to attend were not met, Reuters reported on May 31, citing several sources with direct knowledge of the matt

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:18 schreef oheng het volgende:

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Leuke tegeltjes wijsheid. Ten eerste is dit aantoonbaar niet waar. Zie alle verdragen die rusland afgesloten heeft met Georgië in 1993, Tsetenië na de 1e Tjetjeense Oorlog, en de tientallen verdragen met Oekraïne. Het Budapest Memorandum, Minsk 1 & 2 zijn maar het topje van de ijsberg van verdragen die geschonden zijn.

Komen we aan bij figuren zoals jij, die met simplistische, van de realiteit gespeende opmerkingen komen als " waarom gaan ze niet onderhandelen en vrede sluiten". Dat kan niet als de tegenpartij keer op keer bewezen heeft compleet onbetrouwbaar te zijn. Bovendien heeft rusland bewezen dat het een revanchistische imperialistische mogendheid is dat maar 1 doel heeft: zoveel mogelijk grondgebied veroveren.

Maar goed, dat is ook de reden waarom er geen enkele diepgang in je opmerking zit. Niveautje "let them eat cake", en "waarom ging Polen in 1939 niet onderhandelen met rusland en nazi Duitsland"
[..]
Mooi dat je het zelf even noemt, want de 1e Wereld oorlog is ook mede door rusland (en Hongarije) begonnen, aangezien rusland als eerste mobiliseerde.

Verder schijn je niet helemaal te begrijpen dat als je als land aangevallen wordt, dat je dan wettelijk gezien het leger in moet. Misschien denk je dat wetten en regels niet gelden voor jou?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 00:11 schreef oheng het volgende:

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Je moet het ook doen zoals de russen, allemaal in eenheden zoals de 39e of 177e, en dan al die buitenlanders zonder training op de vijand afsturen, zodat na een paar weken 90%+ dood of zwaargewond is. Ik stel voor dat we onze Friese broeders in Saterland (DE) gaan bevrijden. Ik heb gehoord dat de Duitsers ff zonder wapens zitten. Moet lukken in 3 dagen.

Fun fact: het was o.a. Scott Ritter die met de uitspraak "3 dagen om Kiev in te nemen" kwam.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:34 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ik vind de weerstand tegen mijn comments zeer bijzonder. Als je zo van oorlog houdt waarom vecht jij dan niet in Oekraïne? Waarom moeten mensen vechten die dat niet willen terwijl JIJ er voorstander van bent?

Verhalen over navo garanties zijn helemaal mooi, waarom dit soort verhalen terwijl wij helemaal niet bereid zijn boots on the ground te zetten?

Dan nog iemand die lacherig doet over nazi Duitsland en de onderhandelingstafel maar die is geëindigd in soortgelijk treinwagon als waar de 1e was uitonderhandelt (geloof ik, even niet 100% geverifieerd) Anyhow, die is ook wel degelijk gestopt aan de onderhandelingstafel net als de 1e wereldoorlog.

Mensen hebben in dit land ook het recht om vluchteling te zijn en te vluchten voor oorlog.

Mona Keijzer zou misschien mensen de oorlog in sturen maar alle linkse politici zouden dat niet aan de straatstenen kunnen verkopen.

En stuk voor stuk mochten zij niet vluchten van het land nee.

Wordt even vertelt door een ander dat jouw leven geofferd moet worden, mijn hoofd kan er niet bij dat je het normaal zou vinden.

Die mensen die denken "het kan niet anders" zien de kwaadaardigheid gelukkig nog. Maar geen mens heeft simpelweg het recht naar mijn mening (moreel, niet wettelijk) om te beslissen dat een ander zijn leven moet offeren voor een ander zijn zaak.

Daar ben ik inderdaad heilig van overtuigd dat het evil is.

Dus dan zal je alles moeten doen voor een vorm van vrede, punt.

Niet alles doen voor vrede en terugvallen in dogma's dat niks mogelijk is of x benut zou worden... Je waardeert het mensenleven onvoldoende. Waarom vecht je niet zelf als het leven je niks doet?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 01:01 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.stripes.com/t(...)aining-14056625.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Dat is wel heel triest. Dat de training van de troepen in de achterhoede zo slecht is dat zij niet eens met een wapen om kunnen gaan. En dat ze eerst een training van een week/twee weken moeten ondergaan voordat ze daadwerkelijk ingezet kunnen worden.

Daar heeft de legerleiding een flinke steek laten vallen. Elke soldaat, ongeacht zijn positie moet simpele basisvaardigheden van een soldaat onder de knie hebben. En als zij al een langere tijd in de achterhoede gestationeerd waren moeten ze meer dan alleen de basisvaardigheden kennen. Daar is meer dan genoeg tijd voor geweest tenslotte.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 07:29 schreef Idisrom het volgende:

[..]
Paul, de VS gevechtsveteraan (onder meer Afghanistan) weidde er gisteren op Youtube zijn video er ook aan.
De trainingstijden voor basisgevechtshandelingen zijn veel te kort.

En het scheelt ook uit welke oblast je komt. Kom je uit de westelijke oblasten dan krijg je langere training en een toezegging om niet aan het oostfront te hoeven vechten. Alleen wordt dat laatste ook vaak weer verbroken, en zit je alsnog onder het spervuur.

Het helpt inmiddels ook niet meer om transgender of non-binair te worden om aan de dienstplicht te ontkomen. De rivier overteken naar Roemenië wordt ook steeds gevaarlijker, want de Oekraïense grenswachten leggen daar steeds meer mijnen.
Steden als Odesa worden minder bevoorraad met basisgoederen, omdat vrachtwagenchauffeurs bang zijn om opgepakt te worden en dan naar het front gestuurd te worden. Het aantal achterhuizen met zich verstoppende mannen moet groot zijn in sommige regio's .

Ik snap het wel, "Im Osten Nicht Neues".

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 07:20 schreef Aether het volgende:
Drie mannen zijn maandag verhoord in Parijs omdat zij ervan worden verdacht dit weekend vijf doodskisten te hebben geplaatst aan de voet van de Eiffeltoren. Volgens inlichtingendiensten gaat het om een actie die is aangestuurd door Russische veiligheidsdiensten, schrijft de krant Le Monde. Het drietal is inmiddels weer vrijgelaten, in afwachting van verder onderzoek.

De kisten waren bedekt met de Franse vlag en er stond "Soldats Français de l'Ukraine" op, "Franse soldaten uit Oekraïne". De kisten waren verzwaard met zakken gips, daardoor woog de inhoud ongeveer hetzelfde als een menselijk lichaam.

https://nos.nl/l/2523054

[ afbeelding ]

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Three enemy ships are in Black Sea, including one Kalibr missile carrier
As of 06:30 on Sunday, 2 June, Russia deployed three ships to the Black Sea, including one Kalibr missile launcher.
According to Ukrinform, the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this on Facebook.

"There are three enemy ships in the Black Sea, including one Kalibr cruise missile carrier; there are no enemy ships in the Sea of Azov; there is one enemy ship in the Mediterranean Sea, which is a Kalibr cruise missile carrier with a total volley of up to 8 missiles," the statement said.

As Ukrinform reported, in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol, the Russian Navy ship Cyclone, which carries the Kalibr, was allegedly hit by a missile attack.

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NATO to unveil Ukraine security package as ‘bridge’ to membership
NATO plans to offer Ukraine a security package when the alliance convenes its annual summit this summer in Washington, though it’s expected to stop short of accepting the nation’s long-standing request for membership amid Russia’s invasion.

In addition to unveiling the package in July, an estimated 32 countries are finalizing a series of bilateral agreements to support Ukraine ahead of the summit, with 13 finalized so far, according to Julianne Smith, the U.S. ambassador to NATO.

“Allies will be putting forward a whole package of deliverables that will serve as a bridge to their membership inside the alliance,” Smith said at a Defense Writers Group roundtable on Monday. “Part of the package will be the language we use to describe Ukraine’s membership aspirations in the declaration itself.”

“Part of it will be an institutionalization of some of the bilateral support that’s currently being provided [to] Ukraine, and tucking it under NATO command. Part of it will be working to identify new resources for our friends in Ukraine, and ensuring that we send a signal to Moscow that the NATO alliance isn’t going anywhere,” Smith added.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked for fast-tracked accession into the alliance shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 — a request NATO rebuffed at last year’s summit in Lithuania. Instead, NATO offered Ukraine a multiyear assistance package meant to bolster its defenses and help it transition away from Soviet-era equipment.

Ukrainian entry into NATO would allow Kyiv to invoke the alliance’s collective defense clause, potentially triggering a broader regional conflict with Russia. U.S. President Joe Biden said last year that the war with Russia would have to end before Ukraine enters the alliance.

Still, during an April visit to Kyiv, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg vowed that “Ukraine will become a member of NATO.”

“The work we are undertaking now puts you on an irreversible path towards NATO membership, so that when the time is right, Ukraine can become a NATO member straightaway,” Stoltenberg said.

Some defense companies from the NATO bloc have expressed interest in co-producing certain military capabilities like unmanned systems. The U.S. in May announced a $2 billion Foreign Military Financing package largely geared toward helping Ukraine grow its defense-industrial base.

“This is coming from, in large part, European or Canadian or American companies that are looking at co-production opportunities,” Smith told Defense News.

Regional plans
Smith noted the July summit, which marks NATO’s 75th anniversary, will also focus on the regional defense and deterrence plans for northern, central and southern Europe, which the alliance formally agreed to during last year’s summit.

“It’s going to mean a major shift across the alliance in how countries invest, procure, work together to implement and execute those regional plans,” the diplomat said.

The plans are partially aimed at guiding NATO members when they make military procurement decisions to ensure they’re buying the right capabilities. For instance, a country could be responsible for three core tasks within a regional plan and would be expected to make procurement decisions accordingly.

“It’s ultimately up to them on how to spend the resources, but they have to answer to the regional plans,” Smith said.

She argued that the regional plans will also help reassure defense manufacturers that NATO intends to keep procuring larger amounts of ammunition and other materiel over the long term, encouraging them to ramp up production.

“It’s not a signed contract, but helping them see what the requirements will be across the alliance that’s tagged to these regional plans will certainly assure them that the demand signals will not just be over the next 12 months, but the demand signals to industry will be for the better part of a decade,” she said.

The summit will also focus on burden-sharing. Smith expects that slightly more than 20 countries will spend at least 2% of their respective gross domestic product on defense — a goal set by the alliance.

“We have to make sure that we keep pushing and get every member of the alliance to lay out a plan to get to the 2% within the next few years,” Smith said. “And I think 99% of the allies have a plan in place.”

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Pro-Russian activist Kreile faces several years in prison

During the debate, the prosecutor asked the court to sentence pro-Kremlin activist Elena Kreile, who placed Russian symbols and other symbols glorifying war in the windows of her place of residence, to three years and six months in prison, LETA found out.

The court will continue hearing this case on July 9 at 10 am.

The woman is accused of publicly glorifying and justifying crimes against peace and war crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine, as well as genocide, crimes against humanity, peace and war crimes committed by the USSR in Latvia, the prosecutor's office previously informed.

According to the indictment, from March 7, 2023 to June 15, 2023, in order to publicly express her support for Russia, the woman placed a homemade Russian flag with the inscription “God bless Latvia”, a homemade Russian flag without an inscription, and a homemade Russian flag with the inscription "Putin is my friend."

Pro-Kremlin activist Kreile communicates in court only in Russian and with an interpreter

Kreile also attached to the windows white, blue and red adhesive tapes imitating the colors of the Russian flag, a red ID with the coat of arms of Russia and the inscription “Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia”, a photograph of four women, one of whom is dressed in a red dress with the symbols of the USSR - a hammer and sickle, and a piece of fabric in the colors of the Russian flag in the background.

The defendant, knowing that Russia was carrying out a large-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine, publicly expressed support for the authorities of the aggressor state, and through her actions glorified and justified the crimes committed by the aggressor state.

The accused does not admit her guilt in committing the criminal offense charged against her.

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VIDEO ⟩ "Not prohibited!" - activist Kreile came to court with a Russian flag on her chest

At the end of May, another criminal case against Kreile was transferred to the Riga City Court. According to the indictment, the woman's home had fabric on the windows in the color of the US flag, and against the background of the fabric was a photograph of two people in uniforms similar to the USSR army uniform, as well as an image similar to the USSR and an image resembling the Soviet flag. The date for the consideration of the case has not yet been set, LETA has found out.

As reported, last fall, in another criminal case, the Riga City Court sentenced Kreile to one year of suspended imprisonment for justifying genocide, crimes against humanity, peace and war crimes.

The decision was appealed and will be considered in the Vidzeme District Court on September 11 at 10 am.

Kreile has been repeatedly seen in public places and at public events with a bag with the Z symbol, which is used in Russian propaganda resources as a symbol of support for Russian aggression in Ukraine.

Also, during an anti-war rally at the Russian embassy in Riga, the woman expressed support for the aggressor state and regularly committed other provocative actions aimed at glorifying and justifying Russian aggression.

As the portal Re:Baltica previously reported, Kreile is a housewife who was born and raised in Latvia, but knows only a few words of Latvian. Her first brushes with law enforcement came during the Covid-19 pandemic, when a vaccination certificate was required to enter a store. The woman’s clashes with law enforcement officers reached their climax after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kreile told reporters that she does not support either the war or Russian President Vladimir Putin, but could not get an answer from her regarding what was happening in Ukraine.

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Russia Has a New Hotspot For Ship-to-Ship Oil Transfers in the Mediterranean

Following a clampdown in Greece, ship-to-ship transfers of Russian oil have moved further west in the Mediterranean, just off the eastern end of Morocco’s coast on the Mediterranean, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

The newly discovered spot for ship-to-ship (STS) transfers highlights the fact that operators and traders continue to find ways to skirt sanctions and haul Russian crude oil and petroleum products to international markets.
Last month, the Greek Navy held exercises in the Laconian Gulf in southern Greece, and effectively banned all ship traffic there. The area has been a notorious spot for STS transfers of Russian crude and products since the EU slapped embargoes on these and the bloc, together with G7 and the United States, enacted a price cap on Russian oil if it is to use Western shipping, insurance, and financing services.

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Greece announced in May a naval exclusion zone in international waters in the Laconian Gulf, which has disrupted Russian oil transfers.

“This strategic area, notorious for ship-to-ship (STS) transfers of Russian oil, has become a critical battleground in the enforcement of global sanctions against Moscow,” MarineTraffic reported.

Greece issued three such advisories in May, suggesting that it seeks to disrupt the illicit STS activities, “although there has been no official statement that this is the intended purpose of the exclusion zone,”
Risk & Compliance Analyst Dimitris Ampatzidis wrote.

As a result, traders have moved the STS activity to the Moroccan coast, where at least three Aframax tankers, loaded with Urals from Russia’s Baltic port of Primorsk in May, have recently arrived to transfer the Russian flagship crude onto larger vessels, according to the data monitored by Bloomberg.

Spain and the EU have also clamped down on STS transfers near Ceuta, the Spanish enclave on the North African coast, over the past few months.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:34 schreef ludovico het volgende:
Niet alles doen voor vrede en terugvallen in dogma's dat niks mogelijk is of x benut zou worden... Je waardeert het mensenleven onvoldoende. Waarom vecht je niet zelf als het leven je niks doet?

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 22:49 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

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Ik vraag me af wie in dit topic voor een verplichting zijn?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

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Niet verrassend dat niemand hier op reageert. Maar men beweert hier wel dat het normaal is dat Oekraïeners verplicht naar de gehaktmolen worden gestuurd.

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Op maandag 3 juni 2024 23:41 schreef zalkc het volgende:

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Terug naar het Romeinse keizerrijk! Eerst 18-20 25 jaar dienen in de frontlegioenen voordat je je staatsburgerschap krijgt

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

[..]
Niet verrassend dat niemand hier op reageert. Maar men beweert hier wel dat het normaal is dat Oekraïeners verplicht naar de gehaktmolen worden gestuurd.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

[..]
Niet verrassend dat niemand hier op reageert. Maar men beweert hier wel dat het normaal is dat Oekraïeners verplicht naar de gehaktmolen worden gestuurd.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:45 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Vermeende foto van het moment supreme.

[ x ]

Maar hij kan natuurlijk altijd asiel aanvragen. Kan die voor de rest van z'n leven genieten van winkelwagentjes met munten en marmeren metro stations.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:34 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ik vind de weerstand tegen mijn comments zeer bijzonder. Als je zo van oorlog houdt waarom vecht jij dan niet in Oekraïne?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:40 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Dit is denk ik overwegend positief. Ik denk dat op den duur oekraine wel volledig los mag gaan op rus, van de VS.

[ x ]

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:34 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind de weerstand tegen mijn comments zeer bijzonder. Als je zo van oorlog houdt waarom vecht jij dan niet in Oekraïne? Waarom moeten mensen vechten die dat niet willen terwijl JIJ er voorstander van bent?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:53 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Meneer ludovico moet maar gewoon kumbaya gaan zingen op het rode plein.

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Doppelgängers and deepfakes: How Russian trolls are meddling with the European elections

If you believe everything you read, it would seem the European Union wants to ban drivers from getting their old cars repaired, or that it plans to limit the flights people can take by implementing “carbon passports.” It might even impose Covid-style “climate lockdowns.”

None of these things are true, but as 373 million eligible voters head to polls this week to elect a new EU parliament, a torrent of disinformation is flooding the continent.

The EU and several of its member countries have set up investigative agencies to counter disinformation ahead of the vote — and they are squarely focused on campaigns originating in Russia.

Allegations of Russian disinformation around elections are nothing new — they have been a feature in the run-up to votes in the United States, United Kingdom and the EU before, though Russia has always denied waging such campaigns. But the tactics are becoming more sophisticated, and are leaping from online platforms into parliaments and public discourse.

SPOILER

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Artificial intelligence and deepfakes are quickly becoming the tools of choice by those looking to spread false narratives, said Morgan Wright, chief security advisor for SentinelOne, an American cybersecurity company.

SentinelOne, alongside the independent research group EU DisinfoLab, has worked to uncover a Russia-based influence network operating in Europe since 2022 dubbed “Doppelgänger.”

The network puts out clone sites of prominent European media organizations, including major publications like the Guardian and Bild in Germany, as vehicles to spread misleading and false content. There is a focus on fake stories to influence attitudes on subjects like the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. But for the past year, the climate crisis has been the second-most targeted subject, according to the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO).

One such fake story, published on a website mimicking Bild, described how a teenage cyclist bled to death after streetlights were turned off to save electricity. The fake article claimed the German government cut the lights because of an energy crisis fueled by sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine. Before the war, Germany had relied heavily on Russian gas for energy. The story was debunked by numerous German media outlets, but continued spreading on Facebook.

Paula Gori, EDMO’s secretary general, said that spreading false climate narratives fits in with Russia’s geopolitical goals as the country’s lucrative oil and gas sector has been hit with sanctions and an EU ban on imports.

“It’s quite easy for Russians to spread disinformation that the EU is struggling because of the sanctions, and European citizens are struggling because there is no gas from Russia,” she said.

False narratives that renewables are doing little for the EU’s energy security have also emerged, Gori said. Official statistics, however, tell a different story: In 2022, renewables accounted for 23% of the energy consumed in the EU. Some European countries are now using more renewable energy than fossil fuels.

EU DisinfoLab found other stories falsely claiming wind turbines were causing toxic pollution.

The aim also appears to be to sow confusion and division, rather than to bring about a change in climate policy, Wright said.

“Russia has been very opportunistic. It’s looking for controversy and strife, and any current issues that they can exploit,” he said. “The goal is to get (people) fighting with each other. They don’t care about climate policy.”

Russia has another interest in undermining the EU’s messaging on climate. As it seeks to strengthen its relations in the Global South, particularly in Africa and Asia, where it is competing with the West for business and influence, it is trying to depict Europe’s climate policies to exploit poorer countries and stop them from industrializing, Gori said.

This idea of using disinformation to widen existing divisions is straight from Russia’s old disinformation handbook, according to Wright.

“If you go back to 1917, to the creation of Cheka, the first of Russia’s intelligence organization, they’ve been the masters at disinformation for over 100 years,” he said. “They’ve been using the same tactics for decades, it’s the tools that change — now it’s artificial intelligence and social media.”

Forced to eat insects?
Campaigns that begin online are seeping into Europe’s parliaments, where populist politicians are peddling some of the same false narratives.

Politicians in France and Italy have shared false news that climate policies to cut pollution from farming will force EU citizens to eat insects, while people in Croatia, Germany and Poland were told politicians in England were imposing “climate lockdowns” on their citizens and similar restrictions could be coming to their countries.

The campaigns are having real-life consequences, particularly for the EU’s Green Deal legislation, the bloc’s overarching vision for climate action.

The EU is considered a global leader in tackling planet-heating pollution, but climate disinformation could undermine the bloc’s ambitious goal to reduce carbon emissions by 90% by 2040, compared with 1990 levels.

That umbrella goal is already under threat. The“green wave” that brought many climate-focused politicians to power in the 2019 European elections looks to be over, with green parties predicted to suffer heavy losses this month, which would mean fewer progressive climate voices in parliament.

Other fake stories have targeted the EU’s agricultural policies, most notably through farmers protests that swept through a number of EU states, including France, Germany, Spain and Poland this year.

Gori said EDMO’s researchers found clear evidence of attempts to hijack the protests, which started as grassroots initiatives over genuine farmer concerns. She pointed to a widely shared false story claiming famers in France and Spain would be “booted off their land” to make way for solar plants.

There were many reasons farmers took to the streets, but some of the perceived negative impacts of green farming proposals led to the EU dropping or diluting a number of the policies.

The EU scrapped a plan to cut the use of pesticides in half by 2030, and it delayed new rules on soil health and biodiversity. It also dropped a requirement to cut non-carbon greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.

“The protests were legitimate, of course … but they were used and exploited by Russia to share disinformation that attacks the EU institutions and causes polarization,” Gori said.

Pallavi Sethi, a climate change misinformation policy fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at the London School of Economics, said climate is just the latest in a string of issue some far-right politicians have targeted to stoke division. Before climate, it was migration.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), for example, has weaponized the debate around heat pumps. When the ruling coalition government proposed phasing out home heating systems running on methane gas, the AfD branded them an “eco-dictatorship” and made the issue a key part of its campaign, despite scientific evidence showing the climate benefits of electrifying heating.

“Right-wing populism political ideology often emphasizes the rights of ordinary citizens and demonizes the ‘corrupt elite’ — the governments who want to do something about climate change, who are forming these climate policies, and the scientific community that is providing evidence,” she said.

The EU’s answer to the problem has been its Digital Services Act, which specifically targets illegal content, misleading advertising and disinformation. It has been using the new legislation to force big social media companies to clean up their platforms. Most recently, the European Commission — part of the EU’s executive government — opened formal proceedings against Facebook and Instagram over disinformation targeting the European election.

And last month, the EU imposed sanctions on the Prague-based Voice of Europe, an online media outlet that it accused of running a pro-Russian influence operation. Voice of Europe could not be reached as its contact page shows an error message.

But these efforts can only go so far to address what has become an enormous problem. Climate Action Against Disinformation, an international coalition of groups, said the response by social media companies and governments has been woefully inadequate.

CNN in February reported on a fake AI-generated audio recording of a top candidate in Slovakia “admitting” he would rig the parliamentary elections, which was published on Facebook just days before a key vote last fall.

A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, said in a statement at the time: “Our independent fact-checking network reviews and rates misinformation — including content that’s AI-generated — and we label it and down-rank it in feed so fewer people see it.”

While the statement said content that violates company policies is removed, it did not address why some posts containing the Slovak deepfake were not marked as false.

Facebook has removed content that breaches its policies for several years, but it does not automatically remove content just because it has been doctored or generated by AI. Instead, it aims to label altered content as such.

Its community standards policy in the past had only targeted video, but in April, it was expanded to include audio.

In Slovakia, however, the damage may have already been done. The candidate targeted — a pro-Western politician — was defeated by another with close ties Moscow.

“There was a flaw in how Meta — Facebook — looked at stuff. They would only take down things if it was a video that was doctored,” Wright said. “They had no policy on taking down doctored audio. That was a flaw, and they exploited it.”

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 07:12 schreef Idisrom het volgende:

[..]
Dat hoeft niet meer. Dat had in 1815 gemoeten met het Congres van Wenen.. In -plaats van om onze nieuwe koning Luxemburg als privé-bezit aan te bieden. Dat laatste had toen beter naar Pruisen gekund.

Onder Bismarck is Oost-Friesland compleet verduitst. Of men trok toen weg richting de VS voor vrijheid..

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:49 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Indien een oorlog in Nederland uitbreekt dan ben ik voor het verdedigen van ons grondgebied, van onze normen en waarden, van onze cultuur en van de zwakkeren in onze bevolking zoals kinderen, gehandicapten en bejaarden.
<knip>
Als ik opgeroepen zou worden zou ik ook verschijnen. Ik zou voor mijn land vechten voor alle bovengenoemde redenen. En als het echt zou moeten zou ik mij zelfs hiervoor vrijwillig aanmelden.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 10:58 schreef zalkc het volgende:

[..]
Het land betekend voor mij de politieke macht, daar vecht ik niet voor. Maar als mijn naasten gevaar lopen zal ik ze willen verdedigen. En verdediging van het grondgebied tegen een buitenlandse macht valt daar onder.

Ik denk dat de tijd van de vriendelijke bezetters wel voorbij is. Onze vijanden zijn niet meer zoals wij zijn.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:34 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ik vind de weerstand tegen mijn comments zeer bijzonder. Als je zo van oorlog houdt waarom vecht jij dan niet in Oekraïne? Waarom moeten mensen vechten die dat niet willen terwijl JIJ er voorstander van bent?

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Verhalen over navo garanties zijn helemaal mooi, waarom dit soort verhalen terwijl wij helemaal niet bereid zijn boots on the ground te zetten?

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Dan nog iemand die lacherig doet over nazi Duitsland en de onderhandelingstafel maar die is geëindigd in soortgelijk treinwagon als waar de 1e was uitonderhandelt (geloof ik, even niet 100% geverifieerd) Anyhow, die is ook wel degelijk gestopt aan de onderhandelingstafel net als de 1e wereldoorlog.

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Die mensen die denken "het kan niet anders" zien de kwaadaardigheid gelukkig nog. Maar geen mens heeft simpelweg het recht naar mijn mening (moreel, niet wettelijk) om te beslissen dat een ander zijn leven moet offeren voor een ander zijn zaak.

Daar ben ik inderdaad heilig van overtuigd dat het evil is.

Dus dan zal je alles moeten doen voor een vorm van vrede, punt.

Niet alles doen voor vrede en terugvallen in dogma's dat niks mogelijk is of x benut zou worden... Je waardeert het mensenleven onvoldoende. Waarom vecht je niet zelf als het leven je niks doet?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 12:41 schreef oheng het volgende:

Cherry picking, plus een gebrek aan historische kennis.
Oorlogen eindigen NIET altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel. Zie Litouwen in 1939 1940.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 12:44 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Rusland is weer begonnen met het blokkeren van de Pools- Oekraïense grens.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 13:47 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Vraag me wel af wat voor een vliegtuig dat is.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 13:50 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
F16 E/F Block 60

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 13:52 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Volgens de Galaxy AI van mijn telefoon althans.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 01:01 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.stripes.com/t(...)aining-14056625.html
[..]

SPOILER

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Dat is wel heel triest. Dat de training van de troepen in de achterhoede zo slecht is dat zij niet eens met een wapen om kunnen gaan. En dat ze eerst een training van een week/twee weken moeten ondergaan voordat ze daadwerkelijk ingezet kunnen worden.

Daar heeft de legerleiding een flinke steek laten vallen. Elke soldaat, ongeacht zijn positie moet simpele basisvaardigheden van een soldaat onder de knie hebben. En als zij al een langere tijd in de achterhoede gestationeerd waren moeten ze meer dan alleen de basisvaardigheden kennen. Daar is meer dan genoeg tijd voor geweest tenslotte.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

[..]
Niet verrassend dat niemand hier op reageert. Maar men beweert hier wel dat het normaal is dat Oekraïeners verplicht naar de gehaktmolen worden gestuurd.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 12:25 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Mooie foto's post Zelenskyy. Wat voor een vliegtuig zou dat zijn?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:20 schreef spicymchaggis het volgende:

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Zo te zien gewoon hun good old Mig-29.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:23 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Su-24.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:24 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

RUSSIA Seizes More Western Assets after Collapse of Russian LNG Deal - Russia Ukraine War

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:26 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
27

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:26 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Ze hadden ook zelf kunnen vertrekken.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 14:26 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
27

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 13:58 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Ziet er behoorlijk anders uit van boven, dat zijn de extra brandstoftanks?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 06:23 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
Ik vraag mij eigenlijk af. Zijn de prijs en productie afspraken die de OPEC landen keer op keer maken om de prijzen hoog te houden eigenlijk wel legaal volgens onze wet en die van de EU? Valt dat niet onder kartelvorming.

En als dat daar onder valt waarom hebben wij daar nog niks aan gedaan, of proberen te doen?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 18:59 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:
Geheel off topic, een mooi F35-B filmpje:

F - 35 B shocks the crowd over Miami Beach ...A Must See !!!

Blijft toch mooi speelgoed, dat VTOL

Ooit een jaren terug op Volkel een demo met een Harriër gezien

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 19:11 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

[..]
Zeer indrukwekkend, en baanbrekend. Ik snap dat prototype's die werden getest bij Area 51 in de avond mensen daar die stiekem keken naardat ze door de hekken kwamen het gevoel hadden getuige te zijn van alien technology. / offtopic

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Bijna 50% van Nederlanders is bereid om te vechten voor ons land
Uit een onderzoek van het Haagse instituut Clingendael blijkt dat steeds meer Nederlanders bereid zijn om in oorlogstijd voor het vaderland te vechten.

Nederland staat niet bekend om zijn dienstbaarheid, vooral als het gaat om het verdedigen van het vaderland. Echter, er lijkt een verandering op komst te zijn. Bijna de helft van de Nederlanders is volgens het onderzoek bereid om de wapens op te nemen wanneer dat nodig is. Ongeveer een derde is hier niet voor te motiveren en de rest heeft nog geen beslissing genomen.

Uit het onderzoek van Clingendael blijkt dat Nederlanders zich steeds meer zorgen maken over de veiligheid in Europa. De bereidheid om deel te nemen aan militaire acties is daardoor de afgelopen jaren aanzienlijk gegroeid.

Clingendael-directeur Monika Sie Dhian Ho plaatst wel een kanttekening bij het artikel in De Telegraaf. “Een vragenlijst invullen en zeggen dat je wilt vechten, is nog wel wat anders dan echt de wapens oppakken als de Russen daadwerkelijk komen.”

Bijna helft Nederlanders bereid te vechten voor het vaderland

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:24 schreef SillyWalks het volgende:

[..]
Niemand reageert omdat je aan het concern trollen bent.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:24 schreef SillyWalks het volgende:

[..]
Niemand reageert omdat je aan het concern trollen bent.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 12:44 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Rusland is weer begonnen met het blokkeren van de Pools- Oekraïense grens.

quote:

Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 19:39 schreef BEFEM het volgende:
Wel benieuwd hoeveel munitie er mee komt met de F16's. Zal me niks verbazen als dat nog een probleem is

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Man detained after setting military church in Russia’s Tyumen on fire
A 43-year-old man has been detained after setting a military church in the city of Tyumen in Russia’s Urals on fire on Monday evening, the Tyumen region’s Investigative Committee said on Tuesday.

The man threw several Molotov cocktails at the Dmitry Donskoy Сhurch before fleeing on a bike, the Investigative Committee said, adding that criminal cases had been opened against him for vandalism and intentional destruction of or damage to property.

Footage circulated on the Telegram messaging app appeared to show the incident, with Tyumen news outlet 72.ru saying that the fire had been extinguished before the emergency services arrived.

The Kremlin-affiliated Mash Telegram channel said that the man had been told to set fire to the church by “phone scammers” from Ukraine, while the Baza channel reported that he had carried out the arson attempt to “return stolen money” from scammers.

Mash Telegram channel later reported that the man apparently told police that he attacked the church because he considered Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, to be “too wealthy”.

The Dmitry Donskoy Church was opened in 2007 at the request of a group of mothers of soldiers who died during the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. According to the church’s website, it holds daily prayers for Russia’s protection “from enemy invasions, discord, and strife”.

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Russians are considering using e-bikes for their assaults in Ukraine?
Russians have been increasingly attacking Ukrainian positions on motorcycles. They believe that fast motorcycles will help avoid drone strikes, bypass anti-tank mines, and avoid getting stuck in mud pits. But this progress has a continuation. From infantry fighting vehicles to UTVs, from UTVs to motorcycles, from motorcycles to… bicycles?

The fact that Russians are lacking armoured vehicles is obvious. Even Ural trucks, which are not even armoured, sometimes go to assaults. In addition, so-called turtle tanks are sometimes being used as improvised infantry transporters, replacing normal infantry fighting vehicles that can accommodate at least 8 passengers.

Russians are increasingly using motorcycles for assaults now because they believe they can be faster than drones, driving on narrow paths, avoiding landmines and artillery craters. While sometimes these motorbike assaults reach Ukrainian positions, usually they come to a brutal end much sooner. Therefore, Russians came up with a solution.

Andrei Filatov, Russia Today’s war correspondent, advises replacing motorcycles with electric bicycles because they are quieter, easier to transport and cheaper. After all, motorcycles will end someday too.

SPOILER

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In fact, Ukrainians also use e-bikes too, but only for transportation behind the frontlines. Russians may start using them for assaults. Especially at night, when the greatest advantages of an electric bike – a small thermal and acoustic footprint – are most relevant. Also, a charged e-bike can be used as a power source itself to charge smartphones, cameras, flashlights, night vision and other electronic equipment.

Is this a smart idea? It is a Russian idea. An e-bike is slower than a motorcycle and cannot carry the same weight. Moreover, Ukrainians do not rely on sound to detect Russian motorcycles. But there is a reason why Filatov is such a big fan of electric bikes. He uses one himself. However, he does not need to go on an assault mission. One time his e-bike passed on top of an anti-tank mine and nothing happened, which probably solidified his love for e-bikes.

Bicycles have been used in warfare forever. There are plenty of WW2-era pictures of soldiers riding bicycles. However, those pictures are not from assault operations. The war in Ukraine is weird in a way, because high-tech weapons are being used alongside old machinery. But riding e-bikes near the frontlines has to be scary and it is difficult to imagine they would take such risks if they had alternatives.

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Scholz: Striking Military Targets on Russian Territory With Western Weapons Won’t Lead to Escalation
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz does not believe that striking military targets on Russian territory with German-supplied weapons will lead to escalation.

“We are convinced that this will not lead to escalation, because — as the US President also said — the question is only about being able to defend such large cities as, for example, Kharkiv,” Scholz said on Monday, June 3, according to German media Rheinische Post.

The Chancellor noted that the decision to grant Kyiv the right to use German weapons was carefully considered in cooperation with Germany’s “friends and allies.” At the same time, Scholz assured German citizens that he would never allow pressure on himself to make “wrong and untimely decisions.”

On may 31, Germany has officially authorized Ukraine to use German-supplied weapons against bordering Russian territory near Kharkiv. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit explained the change in Berlin’s position on this issue by the increase in attacks by the Russian army in the Kharkiv region, which were “prepared, coordinated and carried out” from positions directly adjacent to the Russian border. “We all agree that Ukraine has the right to defend itself from these attacks under international law,” Hebestreit said.

The United States and a number of other Western countries have granted Kyiv the same right.

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Russia presents Drakon TOS-3 MRL for the first time

The Russian Ministry of Defense has presented its new TOS-3 Drakon flamethrower system with an extended range for the first time.

Russian media published footage of the rocket launcher.

The new Russian flamethrower system was presented on June 3 during a solemn event dedicated to the formation of the 1st Mobile NBC Protection Brigade of the NBC Protection Troops.

The organizers presented the audience with the military equipment and weapons that this military formation is equipped with. This may indicate the beginning of TOS-3 deliveries to the Russian Armed Forces.

Judging by the images, the TOS-3 is a further development of the TOS-1 system, which is based on the same T-72 tank chassis. The platform has traditionally received the Kontakt-5 ERA.

In addition, for the first time, the TOS-3 artillery system and the nearby TOS-2 system were fitted with standard factory-made anti-drone grilles to protect the missile launcher. The grilles themselves are also equipped with antennas of the Volnorez electronic warfare system.

SPOILER

quote:

Compared to previous systems, the TOS-3 received a smaller launcher with 15 tubes for unguided thermobaric missiles. The probable reason for this decision could be the desire to compensate for the loosening of the heavy launcher, which affected accuracy.

However, with the decrease in the salvo, the system’s range should increase significantly due to the use of new TBS-M3 missiles with a range of up to 15 km.

Increasing the firing range of flamethrower systems is a major challenge for Russian designers. Currently, the extremely vulnerable systems are forced to approach the front lines and are often destroyed by Ukrainian attack drones.

At the same time, the decision to continue using a difficult-to-operate tank chassis remains unclear, given that the longer-range TOS-3 will be able to fire from the rear without the need to move over rough terrain.

Last month, the soldiers of the 14th Separate Mechanized Brigade destroyed a TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower system of the invaders.

The enemy equipment was destroyed using FPV drones that tracked it near the contact line when it was returning from a firing position.

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Russia Forcibly Sending Military Deserters to Front Line: Reports
Russia is forcibly sending its military deserters to the front line in Ukraine, according to an investigation.

Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet that was founded shortly after Ukraine war began, said in an investigation published on Monday that hundreds of Russians who refuse to fight in Ukraine are being forcibly deployed to the battlefield. Some are held at gunpoint and are physically abused or detained if they resist.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's Defense Ministry for comment by email.

Desertion has been an issue for Russia's military throughout President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In November 2022, the British Defense Ministry said Kremlin generals may have sanctioned the use of weapons against deserters, "including possibly authorizing shooting to kill such defaulters after a warning had been given."

SPOILER

quote:

Desertion from Moscow's army carries a 10-year prison sentence. In February, a Russian anti-war project named Get Lost, which was created to help Russia's men evade or escape conscription in Ukraine, said cases of desertion from the military increased tenfold this year.

Verstka's investigation said that Russian authorities may be pivoting away from prosecuting military deserters and canceling their trials to redeploy them to the front lines in Ukraine, in an attempt to boost the army's power in the war.

The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based independent think tank, commented on the findings in its latest analysis of the conflict in Ukraine on Monday.

"A Russian lawyer, who specializes in cases related to service members refusing to fight, reportedly stated that the Russian [Ministry of Defense] may be stopping criminal cases to send such service members to the front due to a shortage of forces needed to fight in northern Kharkiv Oblast," the ISW said.

The think tank said it previously assessed that Russian forces likely launched its offensive operation in the Kharkiv region on May 10 when its Northern Grouping of Forces faced a personnel shortage.

The ISW added that it assessed Russia "may be sending service members awaiting their trials to the front in Kharkiv Oblast to strengthen the limited forces in the area."

Verstka found that at least 170 men who deserted the Russian military were deprived of the right to trial and forcibly sent to Ukraine.

"On what basis these orders were issued, no one knows. People don't want to fight, they have already refused once and are ready to wind up behind bars for it. And they just cancel the criminal offense - and that's it, let's go," a family member of a military deserter told the outlet.

Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) said in April that more than 18,000 Russian servicemen of the Southern Military District had fled their posts since the war began. Around 12,000 of them belonged to the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army, a unit "which the enemy constantly engages in hostilities in the east of Ukraine," it said on Telegram.

Some 2,500 troops have deserted the Russian 58th Guards Combined Arms Army, the HUR added. Newsweek has yet to verify these figures.

quote:

Up to 4,000 soldiers to protect Peace Summit in Switzerland
The Swiss army began providing security on Monday, 3 June for the upcoming Global Peace Summit in Switzerland at the Bürgenstock mountain resort near the city of Lucerne.

Source: Swissinfo, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Up to 4,000 military personnel from the Swiss Armed Forces will assist in various tasks from 5 to 19 June, including security, surveillance, command support and logistics.

The authorities are also stepping up measures to protect the airspace. The government has implemented airspace restrictions at the request of the canton of Nidwalden.

The Peace Summit in Switzerland will take place on 15-16 June.

Background:
• John Kirby, ​​US National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications, stressed that the United States' support for Ukraine would remain unchanged, regardless of who represents the US at the planned Peace Summit in Switzerland.
• The White House announced that US Vice President Kamala Harris and US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan would represent the US at the Global Peace Summit in Switzerland on 15-16 June.
• The media reported that US President Joe Biden had scheduled pre-election events in California in mid-June, so neither he nor Vice President Kamala Harris would be able to participate in the conference in Switzerland.
• In total, 107 countries and organisations have confirmed their participation in the summit.

quote:

Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 20:54 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://mil.in.ua/en/news(...)-for-the-first-time/
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

quote:

Night drones destroyed a convoy of vehicles in the Russian rear

The Russians demonstrated a destroyed artillery convoy that had been hit by Ukrainian night drones in the rear behind the front line.

The video was posted by the Russia no context Telegram channel.

The footage captures three vehicles under fire that were hit behind the invaders’ lines while moving in a convoy. One of the trucks was loaded with unidentified boxes, and the third was towing a 152 mm 2A36 Giatsint-B gun.

According to the authors of the video, who were passing by the burning convoy, the night FPV drones hit the Russian equipment.

SPOILER

quote:

Уражена колона ро�і�н

With the advancement of technology, drones have become perhaps the main threat on the front line, having expanded their range by tens of kilometers into the enemy’s rear over the past year.

Both conventional FPV drones and longer-range aircraft-type drones are used for strikes. The best of them can cover up to 50 kilometers with the help of a network of repeaters.

In view of this and the increased activity of Ukrainian reconnaissance UAV operators, most movements of logistics equipment, artillery, and even infantry of the Russian invaders have shifted to the dark, when they are less noticeable.

However, the situation started changing at the end of 2023, when the first mass-produced FPV drones with thermal imaging optical devices began to appear at the front, allowing them to destroy equipment under any conditions.

In particular, recently, one of these drones operated by the 12th Azov Brigade destroyed a Russian TOS-1A Solntsepyok heavy flamethrower system in the Donetsk region.

Знищенн� ТОС-1� «Солнцепёк» на Донеччині.

The availability of night drones in the Ukrainian army has become sufficient to allow them to be used not only against important units of equipment on the front line but also against small groups of enemy infantry rotating under the cover of night.

The operators of the 82nd Air Assault Brigade of “Wild Division” Strike Unmanned Aerial Systems Company showed one of these episodes. They used a night FPV drone, Komar (Mosquito – ed.), that “crept up” on the invaders and hit them.

Since the beginning of the month, the Ukrainian Defense Forces have shot down a number of Russian reconnaissance drones using FPV drones.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 20:18 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
En omdat Nederland of de EU niet in een verdedigingsoorlog zitten.
[..]
waarom worden die niet weggeknuppeld?

quote:

Ukrainian government confirms allocation of US$2 billion of soft loans from South Korea for reconstruction
The Ukrainian government has adopted a draft bill On the Ratification of Framework Agreement between the Ukrainian Government and the Government of the Republic of Korea on the Loans from the Economic Development and Cooperation Fund (EDCF) for 2024-2029 on 4 June.

Source: Ministry of Economy of Ukraine

Details: The adoption of this draft bill is necessary for the Framework Agreement on the EDCF loans for 2024-2029 in the amount of US$2.1 billion, signed on 19 April 2024 in Washington (US), to enter into force.

"These funds will be directed at the procurement of equipment and reconstruction projects which will be implemented by the state or state companies with the state guarantee granted, as well as at financing the state budget. Receiving long-term and low-interest loans will facilitate Ukraine's restoration of production potential and create new workplaces," explains Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine.

SPOILER

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The framework agreement will enter into force the same day the parties receive through diplomatic channels the last written message about the finalisation of the domestic procedures necessary for the entry of this Framework Agreement into force.

The next stage will be the preparation for the implementation of the project, potentially selected by the Korean side, with a planned scope of funding of US$2 billion.

Separate agreements defining the amount, deadlines and conditions of providing soft loans will be signed for each separate project.

Under the agreement, such loans can be spent on equipment supply at the first stage. Infrastructure loans for rebuilding can be contracted starting 2025.

The agreement on the loans from EDCF was signed by Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine, and Kim Hyung Tae, South Korean Ambassador to Ukraine, on 13 September 2023.

The document was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (the Ukrainian Parliament) on 21 December 2023.

Background: The Economic Development and Cooperation Fund was founded by the government of the Republic of Korea in order to facilitate the economic cooperation between Korea and developing countries. The fund provides partner states with financial aid for their industrial development and economic stability.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:07 schreef oheng het volgende:
Nieuwe aanvalsvoertuigen van de russen gesignaleerd. Er moet nog wel een kippenhok omheen.

[ x ]

Vrachtwagens aan de linkerkant zijn al in productie sinds 1977.

quote:

Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:07 schreef oheng het volgende:
Nieuwe aanvalsvoertuigen van de russen gesignaleerd. Er moet nog wel een kippenhok omheen.

[ x ]

Vrachtwagens aan de linkerkant zijn al in productie sinds 1977.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:09 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Snap nooit dat jij al zo lang op FOK! zit en nog steeds altijd verkeerd aan het quoten bent.

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Kremlin welcomes Turkey's reported desire to join BRICS
MOSCOW/ANKARA (Reuters) - Russia welcomes Turkey's reported desire to become part of the BRICS group of nations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, saying the subject would be on the agenda of the organisation's next summit.

Peskov said there was heightened interest in BRICS - a group comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Ethiopia, Iran, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates - from various states, but said it was unlikely the grouping could completely satisfy all interested nations.

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On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan began a visit to Beijing, the highest-level visit by a Turkish official to BRICS member China since 2012. Fidan held talks with Chinese counterpart Wang Yi and other officials during the visit.

Asked whether Turkey would want to join BRICS during a talk at the Center for China and Globalization on Monday, Fidan said "we would like to of course, why would we not?". However, he did not elaborate further.

Fidan was cited by Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency as saying Ankara was also eyeing cooperation with BRICS members and that he would attend a planned meeting of the group next week in Russia.

It was not immediately clear whether Ankara would take steps to join the BRICS group, as Ankara has not previously stated its desire to formally join.

NATO member Turkey had come under fire by its Western allies in recent years over its ties with Russia, with some saying that its "axis" was shifting away from the Western military alliance.

Ankara has rejected this, saying it remained a committed member of the alliance and maintained its goal of full membership of the European Union.

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China eyes closer ties with Turkey to take on global 'power politics'
China is ready to strengthen strategic alignment with Turkey to counter "power politics" on the international stage, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, in Beijing on Tuesday.

"The two sides agreed on the need for close strategic communication ... to safeguard the common interests of developing countries," Wang said, according to a Chinese statement.

Wang said Beijing was willing to continuously expand cooperation with Ankara in economics, trade, energy, infrastructure, and the hi-tech and digital economy.

"China is willing to continue to strengthen coordination and cooperation with the Turkish side within the framework of the United Nations and the Group of 20, to oppose all forms of hegemony and power politics, and to maintain the stability of the global supply chain," he was quoted as saying.

The talks came on the second day of Fidan's three-day trip to China.

Earlier on Tuesday, Fidan met Vice-President Han Zheng, telling him that Ankara was ready to have close high-level exchanges with Beijing.

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According to a Chinese statement, Fidan told Han that Turkey adhered to the one-China principle and "will not allow activities in Turkey that undermine China's territorial integrity".

Fidan is expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region before wrapping up his trip on Wednesday, according to Turkish broadcaster TRT.

If the trip is confirmed, Fidan would be the most senior Turkish official to visit the region since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was there as prime minister in April 2012.

Fidan began the trip with talks with security chief Chen Wenqing and by attending a dialogue organised by the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG), a Beijing think tank.

During the dialogue, Fidan said the China-backed Brics grouping could offer Turkey a "good alternative" to the European Union to boost its economic prospects.

He said that while Turkey was in a customs union with Brussels, it was also exploring new opportunities for cooperation with several partners in different platforms such as Brics, an association of 10 emerging economies.

"Certainly, we would like to become a member of Brics. So we'll see how it goes this year," he said.

He said he looked forward to attending a meeting of the mechanism in Russia next week when foreign ministers from Brics countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates - will meet in the western Russian city of Nizhny Novgorod as part of the lead-up to the October summit in Kazan.

One of the topics on the agenda is expected to be the possibility of Turkey, a Nato ally, joining the Brics grouping.

Erdogan declared his country's intention to join six years ago at the Brics summit in Johannesburg but there has been little progress since then.

Speaking at the CCG event, Fidan said that one of the important pillars of Turkey's foreign policy was to form strong economic ties in an institutional form.

He said that due to "identity politics", Turkey has never been allowed in by some major EU nations to become a full member of the European bloc though it had been trying to join for a long time.

"So you have to look for other alternatives," Fidan said.

Although noting that Brics still "has a long way to go", "we cannot ignore the fact that Brics, as an important cooperation platform, offers some other countries a good alternative," he said.

"We see potential in Brics," he added.

Nearly four decades ago, Turkey applied to join what was then the European Economic Community, and in 1999 it was officially recognised as a candidate for full membership in the EU.

The negotiation on Ankara's accession bid began in 2005 but has long been stalled over a range of issues - from human rights to foreign policy - with several European capitals.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his country's intention to join six years ago but there has been little progress. Photo: dpa alt=Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared his country's intention to join six years ago but there has been little progress. Photo: dpa>

In Moscow on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the doors of Brics were "open to representatives of the most diverse economic and political systems and macro-regions".

"The only condition is that you must agree to work on the basis of the key principle of the sovereign equality of states," he said.

Fidan said investment and trade issues were parts of his agenda during his China trip, noting that the two countries were still "far behind" in making the most of their economic potential.

He said Turkey welcomed Chinese investment in the country, especially in key infrastructure projects, but in recent years, there had been a slowdown in joint investment projects.

"This is one of the things that I want to raise while I'm here in China, to really fix this slowdown, to try to speed it up, to identify what are the obstacles, what are the reasons that we are experiencing this slowdown," he said, adding that he would also discuss ways to balance bilateral trade.

In the first four months of this year, China's exports to Turkey fell 5.1 per cent from a year earlier in US dollar terms while imports were down 4.4 per cent, according to Chinese customs data.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:20 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Dat komt omdat op de mobiele versies hij de quote opslaat als je een pagina terug gaat.

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Bulgarian president says allowing Ukraine to strike Russia leads to "nuclear Armageddon"
Rumen Radev criticizes the idea of sending Western instructors to Ukraine

Allowing Ukraine to attack targets inside Russia with Western weapons threatens to escalate the conflict into "nuclear Armageddon," stated Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, as reported by the Bulgarian service of Radio Free Europe.

Radev's comments came after some NATO member countries authorized Ukraine to use their weapons for strikes on Russian territory. Some states indicated they had never imposed restrictions on this.

"With the decision to allow strikes with Western weapons deep into Russia and the formalization of sending advisors and instructors to the front, these red lines have already been crossed. Unfortunately, our politicians are becoming part of some of these inappropriate decisions, with all the consequences that follow," the Bulgarian president said.

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Almost $2 billion has been additionally allocated for the HIMARS production

Lockheed Martin was awarded a huge contract to manufacture additional HIMARS systems.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced that it was allocating $1.92 billion to the company that manufactures these systems.

The new funding is provided under the existing contract W31P4Q-24-D-0019.

All M142 HIMARS rocket systems within this contract are to be delivered by May 2028.

Nevertheless, the terms of the agreement may be supplemented by new orders.

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The HIMARS rocket system can launch various types of missiles and shells, providing the armed forces with a versatile and effective long-range attack capability.

The system can be quickly deployed and moved, making it suitable for use in a variety of combat scenarios.

The MLRS is capable of launching rockets and missiles, including the GMLRS and the ATACMS, which are used to engage various types of targets, from armored vehicles to fortified positions.

The system is also capable of launching GLSDBs – glide bombs crossed with a solid rocket booster/engine.

The contract will ensure the continued production and delivery of these advanced systems, which are critical to enhancing the operational capabilities of the U.S. military and its allies, including Ukraine.

For several years now, Ukraine has been effectively using American rocket systems on the battlefield, hitting Russian targets with GMLRS and ATACMS missiles.

Previously, a HIMARS maintenance center was launched in the city of Bacău in Romania. This is the first such facility in Europe designed to service the American-made M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 20:58 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:27 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://mil.in.ua/en/news(...)e-himars-production/
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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:15 schreef Starhopper het volgende:

[..]
Nieuw en nu al flinke scheuren in de doeken van de vrachtwagens

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:35 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Uiteraard, je koopt ze 2e hands in, en je zet ze als nieuw in de boekhouding. Het verschil mag je houden.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:22 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://uk.news.yahoo.com(...)28.html?guccounter=1
[..]

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https://uk.news.yahoo.com(...)52.html?guccounter=1
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Wtf, Turkije speelt weer een vies spelletje. Of zij will daadwerkelijk bij de BRICS, of zij willen dit gebruiken als chantage middel om bij de EU te komen als vast lid.

Of natuurlijk van beide walletjes snoepen.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 21:13 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Dronevlees.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:07 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Turkije mag toch zelf bepalen wat het doet, net als Oekraïne dat mag om NAVO lid te worden. Het valt me wel op in dit topic als iets iemand niet gezind is er zo'n toon aangeslagen wordt terwijl ze bij Oekraïne steeds schreeuwen "aaach, eigen keuze blabla".

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:12 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Op dit ogenblik is Rusland de vijand van de EU en van de NAVO. En China is ook niet één van onze beste vrienden.

De BRICS wordt door Rusland ingezet als pressie middel en ook als propaganda voertuig.

Als Oekraine bij de BRICS had gezeten was de kans ook kleiner geweest dat zij bij de EU en NAVO zouden komen. Net zoals zij onderdeel waren geweest van de Sovjet Unie nog (als die nog had bestaan). Dan hadden wij Oekraine nooit toegelaten.

Natuurlijk was in die gevallen er nu ook geen oorlog in Oekraine door Rusland. Tenminste niet op een grote schaal.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:10 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Dat niet alleen, ze gebruiken ook brommerts om munitie te vervoeren. 1 mortier aan beide kanten, en gaan.

Weinig efficient hoor ik je zeggen, aangezien je grote hoeveelheden mortiermunitie nodig hebt?
Een Kamaz vrachtwagen is niet veel beter.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:14 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Nogmaals, Turkije mag toch zelf weten wat ze willen.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:14 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Nogmaals, Turkije mag toch zelf weten wat ze willen.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:15 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Zouden er drones bestaan die antitankmijnen kunnen leggen op dit soort wegen?

quote:

The Russian military has deployed S-300 missile systems in the vicinity of private homes in occupied Crimea, causing concern and discontent among their residents.
The Russian-language Crimean Vetier Telegram channel, which opposes the Kremlin regime, broke the news on Tuesday, saying that the rockets were deployed “between private houses on the seventh kilometer of the route to Balaklava.”

They explained that previously, these launchers were deployed on a hill on the 10th kilometer of the same route.

“Now, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine began to destroy the air defense systems in Crimea one by one, people became afraid of such a neighborhood,” the channel said.

Sevastopol is the main base of the Russian Black Sea Fleet stationed in Crimea. Due to frequent attacks by Ukrainian forces, most of the formation’s ships have been moved to bases on Russian territory.

On Friday, Ukraine’s Security Service said its drones had destroyed a $100 million long-range radiolocation station in Crimea that was helping the invaders control a 380-kilometer section of the frontline.

Military successes
Last Thursday, the General Staff of Ukraine reported a successful attack using long-range ATACMS missiles on a ferry crossing of the Kerch Strait in Crimea.

Two ferries were damaged as a result of the strike. Russian authorities then closed the ferry crossing and the bridge across the Kerch Strait, leading from the peninsula to Russia.

On the same day, naval drones belonging to Ukraine’s military intelligence service (HUR) destroyed two Russian navy boats off the coast of Crimea.

quote:

Biden believes Ukraine does not need to join NATO to achieve peace
The U.S. President recalled the time when he was a Senator and visited Ukraine. According to him, "there was significant corruption"

Peace in Ukraine means ensuring that Russia will never be able to attack it again and for this, NATO membership is not a necessity, U.S. President Joe Biden said in an interview with Time.

"Peace looks like making sure Russia never, never, never, never occupies Ukraine. That's what peace looks like. And it doesn't mean NATO, they are part of NATO. It means we have a relationship with them like we do with other countries, where we supply weapons so they can defend themselves in the future," Biden said.

The American president recalled that he was one of those who did not support the "NATOization" of Ukraine. To substantiate his statements, Biden recalled the time when he was a Senator and was on a month-long visit to Ukraine: "There was significant corruption. There was a circumstance that was really difficult."

Biden also rejected the notion that NATO is on a slippery slope to war with Russia by helping Ukraine.

"No, we're on a slippery slope for war if we don't do something about Ukraine," he said.

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Russia’s only cystic fibrosis hospital to be repurposed for wounded Ukraine veterans
The only hospital in Russia that specialises in treating cystic fibrosis is to be redesignated for the treatment of Russian soldiers wounded in Ukraine, a source with knowledge of the situation has told Novaya Europe.

The Pletnev City Clinical Hospital in Moscow is to be “shut off so that only those who served in Ukraine can be treated”, Novaya Europe’s source said, adding: “After that they will shut the hospital down for good.”

Cystic fibrosis patients who are now being transferred to a different hospital in Moscow for treatment have confirmed this to be the case. The Pulmonology Research Institute at Moscow’s Sechenov University is expected to take over the lion’s share of outpatient care for cystic fibrosis patients in Russia.

Cystic fibrosis is a life-limiting genetic disease which causes the body to overproduce thick mucus, which particularly affects the lungs and digestive system. There are between 400–500 adults suffering from cystic fibrosis in Russia today.

Russians with cystic fibrosis currently only receive low-quality generic Russian versions of name brand medications that were originally developed abroad. These generic medications are often not tested and have not gone through rigorous purification processes and therefore can give unpredictable results when mixed with other medication.

Russian federal law stipulates that Russian pharmaceutical companies must be prioritised over foreign counterparts and therefore doctors can be dismissed for attempting to prescribe name brand medication. This is what happened with one of Russia’s leading pulmonologists Yelena Amelina, who was fired in 2023 after attempting to prescribe name brand drugs.

The lack of necessary treatment and medication in Russia leads Russians suffering from cystic fibrosis to look abroad for medical assistance. At least 20 cystic fibrosis patients and their families have left Russia due to a lack of necessary treatment, while others order medicine from countries such as Turkey, where no prescription is required to purchase cystic fibrosis medication.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:07 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Turkije mag toch zelf bepalen wat het doet, net als Oekraïne dat mag om NAVO lid te worden. Het valt me wel op in dit topic als iets iemand niet gezind is er zo'n toon aangeslagen wordt terwijl ze bij Oekraïne steeds schreeuwen "aaach, eigen keuze blabla".

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:15 schreef Perrin het volgende:

[..]
Zouden er drones bestaan die antitankmijnen kunnen leggen op dit soort wegen?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
De vorige keer dat zij iets zelf dachten te mogen weten, iets wat volstrekt tegen de belangen van de EU en NAVO inging, raakten zij hun kans op de F-16, Patriot en andere moderne Westerse materieel kwijt.

Hier hebben zij spijt van gehad, vooral nu deze oorlog heeft laten zien wat een rommel die S-300 (of S-400) wel niet is.

En dankzij chantage hebben zij de F-16 nu in elk geval terug gekregen. Maar ook daar hebben zij geen vrienden mee gemaakt.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:59 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
En Oekraïne bij de NAVO gaat tegen de belangen van Rusland in.

Dat is jouw logica namelijk, dus waarom nu wel en bij Oekraïne niet?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 23:20 schreef Pleun2011 het volgende:
Merkwaardig dat mensen blijven volharden in hun pro-Russische psychose, als je ziet hoe Rusland oorlogvoert. Dan moet je toch bijna van hetzelfde soort ongedierte zijn, zou je denken.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 23:20 schreef Pleun2011 het volgende:
Merkwaardig dat mensen blijven volharden in hun pro-Russische psychose, als je ziet hoe Rusland oorlogvoert. Dan moet je toch bijna van hetzelfde soort ongedierte zijn, zou je denken.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 23:20 schreef Pleun2011 het volgende:
Merkwaardig dat mensen blijven volharden in hun pro-Russische psychose, als je ziet hoe Rusland oorlogvoert. Dan moet je toch bijna van hetzelfde soort ongedierte zijn, zou je denken.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:59 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
En Oekraïne bij de NAVO gaat tegen de belangen van Rusland in.

Dat is jouw logica namelijk, dus waarom nu wel en bij Oekraïne niet?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
En als rus oekraine nou onder de voet loopt, en al die gebieden die ze hebben, hoe zit het met de mensenlevens die verloren gaan omdat rus ze in een martelkamer stopt?

Of is dat niet erg omdat jij het dan niet meer meekrijgt?

Voor de rest blijft wat je zegt nogal dom ahistorisch geklets.

Dat een individu in een tijd van oorlog opgeroepen wordt om zijn/haar land te verdedigen, is al zo oud als de mensheid zelf.

Entree figuren zoals jij, die het geluk hebben gehad opgegroeid te zijn in tijden van vrede, en de resp. beslisingen van westerse overheden om haar legers op vrijwillige basis te bemensen.

En figuren zoals jij denken anno nu dat het een door god gegeven recht is om er van verschoond te blijven.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:51 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]
Jammer dit. Als je met deze vermoeiende troep komt, kan de rest van je post gelijk overgeslagen worden.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:55 schreef zuchtje het volgende:

[..]
Niemand houd van oorlog. Maar de haat voor vijandige regimes overstijgt de haat voor oorlog. Putin/Rusland moet gestopt worden, anders blijft het maar doorgaan. Het liefst met onderhandelingen, maar daar zijn beide partijen nog niet aan toe. Ze denken allebei dat ze nog meer moeten en kunnen vechten. Het is aan ons om de niet-vijandige partij te steunen. En dat gaat maar mondjesmaat omdat we een land zijn met (sterk)verschillende meningen.

Ik denk niet dat die NAVO garanties werken als je niet bereid bent om zelf te investeren in je eigen verdediging. Waarom zouden de bondgenoten investeren in je verdediging als je inwoners het land massaal ontvluchten? Daarom zal het ook in Nederland moeilijk zijn om de dienstplicht te ontlopen.

Als je een mensenleven zoveel waard vind moet je alles op alles zetten om bloeddorstige regimes te stoppen. Dat doe je niet door te capituleren, vandaar dat je Oekraïne moet steunen in hun gevecht. Een Russische overwinning geeft ze een aanleiding en signaal om door te gaan met wat ze aan het doen zijn.

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 12:41 schreef oheng het volgende:

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Dit is ook weer super simplistisch, en een dooddoener.
[..]
Twee dingen:

1. Je geeft toe dat er geen security garanties zullen zijn. Dus bij onderhandelingen hebben we feitelijk alleen putin's erewoord als waarborg.

2. Je hebt fake concern over slachtoffers, want het is ineens geen probleem als er NAVO slachtoffers vallen.
[..]
Cherry picking, plus een gebrek aan historische kennis.
Oorlogen eindigen NIET altijd aan de onderhandelingstafel. Zie Litouwen in 1939 1940.

Niet alleen is dit een russisch talking point, maar het laat ook zien dat je 0,0 afweet van geschiedenis. Wat helemaal niet erg is, maar ga dan niet zo bijdehand doen met oneliners mbt geachiedenis.
[..]
Leuke hippie speech, maar in het echte leven zijn er mensen en landen die jou willen beroven, vernederen, verkrachten, vermoorden. Onderhandelen is in dat geval geen optie.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:31 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Ga zelf dan!?

Je reageert sowieso al niet inhoudelijk op mijn post. Vervolgens nog 5 man die op de like button aan het klikken is.

Als jullie zo graag willen vechten wat doen jullie dan op FOK?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 22:59 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
En Oekraïne bij de NAVO gaat tegen de belangen van Rusland in.

Dat is jouw logica namelijk, dus waarom nu wel en bij Oekraïne niet?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:31 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Ga zelf dan!?

Je reageert sowieso al niet inhoudelijk op mijn post. Vervolgens nog 5 man die op de like button aan het klikken is.

Als jullie zo graag willen vechten wat doen jullie dan op FOK?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:31 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Ga zelf dan!?

Je reageert sowieso al niet inhoudelijk op mijn post. Vervolgens nog 5 man die op de like button aan het klikken is.

Als jullie zo graag willen vechten wat doen jullie dan op FOK?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 08:33 schreef Aether het volgende:
Ukraine sent special forces to Syria to attack Russians there, revealing a new front to the war
https://www.businessinsid(...)nt-report-2024-6?amp

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:31 schreef ludovico het volgende:

[..]
Ga zelf dan!?

Je reageert sowieso al niet inhoudelijk op mijn post. Vervolgens nog 5 man die op de like button aan het klikken is.

Als jullie zo graag willen vechten wat doen jullie dan op FOK?

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Op dinsdag 4 juni 2024 09:19 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
En als rus oekraine nou onder de voet loopt, en al die gebieden die ze hebben, hoe zit het met de mensenlevens die verloren gaan omdat rus ze in een martelkamer stopt?

Of is dat niet erg omdat jij het dan niet meer meekrijgt?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:38 schreef ludovico het volgende:
Oekraïnse levens worden laag gewaardeerd. Die van ons hoger, maar wel moralistisch lullen over dat we de wereld moeten beschermen van barbarij, dan doen we toch echt te weinig.

En die oorlog moet asap kappen, daar mag nato wmb ook zeker een rol in spelen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:28 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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[poll=7317]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:37 schreef Simmertje het volgende:

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Hoeveel Amerikaanse nukes hebben wij? Misschien maar even de wachtwoorden opvragen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:38 schreef ludovico het volgende:
Oekraïnse levens worden laag gewaardeerd. Die van ons hoger

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:37 schreef Simmertje het volgende:

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Hoeveel Amerikaanse nukes hebben wij? Misschien maar even de wachtwoorden opvragen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:38 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

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Geen. Die zijn namelijk van de Amerikanen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:19 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:28 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

[poll=7317]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 08:33 schreef Aether het volgende:
Ukraine sent special forces to Syria to attack Russians there, revealing a new front to the war
https://www.businessinsid(...)nt-report-2024-6?amp

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 10:38 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
Geen. Die zijn namelijk van de Amerikanen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 11:17 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

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Is al langer dat Oekraïne de Russen op zoeken in andere landen. Eerder vooral in Afrika. Wel indrukwekkend hoeveel troepen Oekraïne heeft dat ze nu ook in de zandbak van Syrië meevechten.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:23 schreef oheng het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat niet om de hoeveelheid troepen, maar waar troepen de meeste schade kunnen doen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:36 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat ook om hoeveelheid. Blijkbaar heeft Oekraïne zoveel troepen, en dan gooi ik normale troepen en special forces even op één hoop. Dat ze naast het verdedigen van Oekraïne, nouja waar ze meer dan genoeg te doen hebben. Ook troepen kunnen los maken sturen naar een land als Syrië om daar ook nog even Rusland aan te pakken.

Deze troepen die nu dus in Syrië bezig zijn had Oekraïne ook in bijvoorbeeld Donetsk of Loehansk kunnen laten vechten.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:36 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

[..]
Het gaat ook om hoeveelheid. Blijkbaar heeft Oekraïne zoveel troepen, en dan gooi ik normale troepen en special forces even op één hoop. Dat ze naast het verdedigen van Oekraïne, nouja waar ze meer dan genoeg te doen hebben. Ook troepen kunnen los maken sturen naar een land als Syrië om daar ook nog even Rusland aan te pakken.

Deze troepen die nu dus in Syrië bezig zijn had Oekraïne ook in bijvoorbeeld Donetsk of Loehansk kunnen laten vechten.

quote:

Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:46 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:
Afhankelijk van de ingezette eenheid is er wellicht niet eens een reëele optie om deze in Oekraïne in te zetten.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:46 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Nee dat is een kosten baten en risico afweging. Afhankelijk van de ingezette eenheid is er wellicht niet eens een reëele optie om deze in Oekraïne in te zetten.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:49 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Je zegt het wat bondiger

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:48 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Nee, een van de allerdomste dingen die je kunt doen is speciale eenheden in loopgraven stoppen. Daar zijn ze niet (bijzonder) voor getrained, en komen ze zeer slecht tot hun recht.

Het zijn elite infanteristen, kunnen maar zeer basaal overweg met pantservoertuigen, drones, etc. Zijn niet goed in langdurige gevechten.

Je zet ook geen VS navy seals of delta force aan het front, die kun je nuttiger gebruiken.

Overigen heeft rus dat wel grootschalig gedaan met hun speciale eenheden, resp spetznas afdelingen en vdv, en daar is dus ook niets meer van over, die zijn alleen nog speciaal in name only, omdat alle institutionele kennis gewoon de gehaktmolen in is gegaan.

Dus; ja, tenzij ze leuke klusjes hebben a'la rus generaals in ver afgelegen bases in rus zelf omleggen, is ze op deze manier geopolitiek inzetten geen slecht idee.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:50 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

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Je kunt ook als Rusland een groot deel van je betere troepen inzetten als kanonnenvoer natuurlijk, maar dat hebben we gezien bij de slag om Kiev. Dat loopt niet goed af.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:51 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

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Zie wat hierboven heb gedeeld. In Oekraïne zouden ze btw ook niet persé aan het front hoeven vechten. Ze konden ook stiekem missies uitvoeren iets over de grens in Rusland om maar wat te noemen. Of juist ondersteuning ver achter het front in Oekraïne zelf.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:57 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Sure. Maar we komen af en toe berichten tegen dat ze dat ook doen. Kwam in deze topic een bericht tegen dat een groep tegen de lamp liep. Liepen bv met MP5's, liet rus plaatjes van zien, een lievelingswapen voor dat soort gasten.

Ik denk niet dat als die eenheden wezenlijk meer konden contribueren aan de oorlog in oekraine/rus dan nu in het MO, ze daar zaten.

Bv wat wagners varkens omleggen in afrika, zodat het geld van een lokale goudmijn niet meer naar het kremlin vloeit, is ook zinvol.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:54 schreef LethalNinja het volgende:

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Speciale troepen worden wel vaker in gezet niet ver van het front. Het gaat er dan om hoe je ze inzet. Je kan ze niet zomaar yolo ergens naartoe sturen van "dat komt wel goed" dat was door Rusland gedaan in de eerste paar dagen. Een totaal verkeerde inschatting van het verzet/ de reactie van Oekraïne. Rusland ging er ten onrechte van uit dat de verschijning van speciale troepen in de hoofdstad met gejuich zouden worden ontvangen en dat ze geen tot weinig verzet zouden krijgen. En dat is natuurlijk voor Rusland een flinke fout geweest, die inschatting en daar hebben ze door die verkeerde inschatting veel speciale troepen verloren.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 13:34 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Ze kunnen zich ook gewoon overgeven.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 13:34 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Ze kunnen zich ook gewoon overgeven.

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I'm already thinking about going out and meeting a quick death, because I can't do it anymore.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 07:31 schreef ludovico het volgende:
Ga zelf dan!?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 12:46 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:

[..]
Nee dat is een kosten baten en risico afweging. Afhankelijk van de ingezette eenheid is er wellicht niet eens een reëele optie om deze in Oekraïne in te zetten.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 14:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Accuraat gerapporteerd.

[ x ]

Nou ja, scheelt weer een kogel.

quote:

Russisch parlementslid dreigt met nucleaire aanval op Nederland: ’Daarna zal alles in Europa volkomen dood zijn’

AMSTERDAM - Een Russisch parlementslid heeft er op de Russische staatstelevisie voor gepleit om het Europese continent in één keer lam te leggen door een atoombom op Nederland te gooien. Toezeggingen van minister van Defensie Kajsa Ollongren dat Nederlandse F-16’s in het Russische luchtruim mogen worden gebruikt, zijn de aanleiding voor de dreigementen volgens de voormalige luitenant-generaal.

De gepensioneerde Russische generaal Andrej Gurulev doet wel vaker absurde uitspraken.

Het huiveringwekkende dreigement werd op de Russische staatstelevisie geuit door luitenant-generaal Andrej Gurulev – een parlementslid van de partij Verenigd Rusland – in een gesprek met de propagandist Vladimir Solovjov.


Oorlogsretoriek op Russische staats-tv: ’Atoombom gooien op Londen’
Volgens Gurulev zou een nucleaire aanval ervoor zorgen dat de dijken en dammen breken, waardoor het land overspoeld wordt door water. „De dammen daar zullen in één keer instorten, alles. Heel Nederland zal onder water komen te staan”, claimt het parlementslid. „Honderd procent zeker dat daarna alles in Europa volkomen dood zal zijn.”

Russisch kernwapen
„Ergens tussen de 50 en 60 procent van de Europese brandstofvoorraad bevindt zich in Nederland”, beweerde Gurulev in het televisie-interview. „Het leger noemt dit een dik doelwit.” Verder claimt Gurulev dat de aanval in één dag kan worden voltrokken met een minimale inzet van Russische kernwapens.

Het nucleaire wapengekletter van het parlementslid komt dagen nadat Nederland had gezegd dat het de Oekraïense luchtmacht zou toestaan zijn 24 F-16-straaljagers te gebruiken om aanvallen uit te voeren in Rusland.

Gurulev zei dat twee normale kernwapens Nederland zouden vernietigen. „Eén kan worden neergehaald, de tweede zal het doel halen. Dat zal genoeg zijn.” Hij maakte duidelijk dat een dergelijke aanval op Nederland tot de ’doelcatalogus’ van de Russische militaire machine behoorde.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 15:46 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

[..]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 15:48 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

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Is Groningen eindelijk dicht. Gooien ze er een bom op

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 15:46 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

[..]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 15:46 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

[..]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:26 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

Pieter Cobelens is niet zo'n bange poeperd als Rob de Wijk.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:32 schreef AchJa het volgende:

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Cobelens...

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:32 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Cobelens...

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:54 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:20 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Er is maar één antwoord mogelijk op zulke opmerkingen:

"Fuck you! De overige 18 F-16's die we nog hadden gaan nu ook naar Oekraïne. Nog een keer een grote bek en we doen er een zooi JASSMs bij. "

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 18:00 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Die moeten dan nog wel even vliegklaar gemaakt worden, en voorzien van een verse apk.

Wij hebben momenteel nog 24 vliegende exemplaren in dienst.

https://www.defensie.nl/o(...)/aantallen-materieel

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:36 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
Want?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:35 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:54 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:00 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Wat een onzin. Rusland kan niet veel meer na deze oorlog. We proberen het constant maar voor ons te verantwoorden om tóch met Rusland in conflict te komen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 18:48 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
AchJa in NWS / Oorlog in Oekraïne #648 Tribunalen!

AchJa in NWS / Baas Nederlandse landmacht waarschuwt voor oorlog met Rusland

Wat heb ik aan privacy als ik dood ben?

Een aan de lopende band aanschuiven bij VI en daar een beetje grappig lopen doen...

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:00 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Wat een onzin. Rusland kan niet veel meer na deze oorlog. We proberen het constant maar voor ons te verantwoorden om tóch met Rusland in conflict te komen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:02 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Wat is het ergste dat kan gebeuren als jij gelijk hebt en wat is het ergste dat kan gebeuren als Pistorius gelijk heeft?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:06 schreef havanagila het volgende:

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China zal zich er wel mee gaan bemoeien.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

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Daar gaat het niet om.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:07 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Dat wordt gewoon China versus de VS. Rusland kan allang niks meer tegen die tijd.

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Russia Destroys Over Half of Ukraine’s Power Generation – FT Reports

quote:

Before the invasion, Ukraine boasted one of Europe’s largest domestic energy production capacities, generating around 55 gigawatts of electricity. However, this capacity has plummeted to below 20GW due to Russian attacks and occupation, with power plants being targeted directly.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 18:48 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
AchJa in NWS / Oorlog in Oekraïne #648 Tribunalen!

AchJa in NWS / Baas Nederlandse landmacht waarschuwt voor oorlog met Rusland

Wat heb ik aan privacy als ik dood ben?

Een aan de lopende band aanschuiven bij VI en daar een beetje grappig lopen doen...

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Daar gaat het niet om. Zeggen leidt altijd tot doen. Is gewoon massapsychologie. We slaapwandelen zo een wereldconflict in.

Bovendien is de discrepantie ook wel echt gigantisch. "Oekraïne hakt Rusland in de pan dit dit, sus zo, duizenden doden per dag, tanks aan gort, etc." en ze kunnen ineens wel over een paar jaar een oorlog met de NAVO aangaan want oh wat zijn we bang.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:11 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Waarom zouden we Oekraïne dan niet helpen? Waarom zouden we onze eigen strijdkrachten dan niet herbouwen?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:25 schreef TwenteFC het volgende:
Waarom ben jij zo'n oorlogssupporter?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:28 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

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Ik vind juist dat de oorlog moet stoppen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:22 schreef kibo het volgende:
Dat laatste ja......
Ik verbaasde me er toen over dat die clown het ooit tot chef MIVD geschopt had.
Maar was hij toendertijd ook al zo, of is hij al aan het dementeren? (dat kan een excuus zijn natuurlijk).

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:28 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind juist dat de oorlog moet stoppen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 17:35 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:28 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik vind juist dat de oorlog moet stoppen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:39 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Dat weigert Rusland, en nu?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:45 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Geen idee, dat is niet aan mij. Genoeg diplomaten die er hun best voor willen doen. Maar wat we nu doen werkt natuurlijk averechts.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:46 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Hoezo? Rusland heeft een flink deel van wat ze hebben ingepikt al terug moeten geven. Dus het gaat toch de goede kant op?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 14:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:
Accuraat gerapporteerd.

[ x ]

Nou ja, scheelt weer een kogel.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:42 schreef oheng het volgende:
He he eindelijk! Nu nog in actie. Ik heb er 2 weken geleden nog eentje gezien in het Nat. Militair Museum in Soest.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 15:50 schreef Momo het volgende:

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Ik wens de heer Gurulev ongelooflijk hard de tyfus toe. En een raam.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:56 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Gaat de goede kant op zegt ie.

Het is al een jaar een patstelling.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]

Bovendien is de discrepantie ook wel echt gigantisch. "Oekraïne hakt Rusland in de pan dit dit,

quote:

Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Daar gaat het niet om. Zeggen leidt altijd tot doen. Is gewoon massapsychologie. We slaapwandelen zo een wereldconflict in.

Bovendien is de discrepantie ook wel echt gigantisch. "Oekraïne hakt Rusland in de pan dit dit, sus zo, duizenden doden per dag, tanks aan gort, etc." en ze kunnen ineens wel over een paar jaar een oorlog met de NAVO aangaan want oh wat zijn we bang.

quote:

Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:45 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Geen idee, dat is niet aan mij. Genoeg diplomaten die er hun best voor willen doen. Maar wat we nu doen werkt natuurlijk averechts.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:45 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Geen idee, dat is niet aan mij. Genoeg diplomaten die er hun best voor willen doen. Maar wat we nu doen werkt natuurlijk averechts.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:45 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Geen idee, dat is niet aan mij. Genoeg diplomaten die er hun best voor willen doen. Maar wat we nu doen werkt natuurlijk averechts.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 20:12 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]
Maar dat zegt dus niemand. Oekraïne blijft puur overeind door westerse steun.

Ik vind jou beeld sowieso wat apart. Een oorlog tussen Rusland en Navo zie je niet gebeuren, maar dat Rusland kernwapens gaat inzetten is wel denkbaar voor jou.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:00 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Wat een onzin. Rusland kan niet veel meer na deze oorlog. We proberen het constant maar voor ons te verantwoorden om tóch met Rusland in conflict te komen.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:14 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Hangt ervan af hoe deze oorlog eindig natuurlijk. Maar met wat Rusland nu al geïnvesteerd heeft in oorlog met zijn oorlogseconomie kunnen zij het zich niet permitteren om te stoppen met oorlogsvoeren. Want dan stort niet alleen hun economie in, maar mogelijk het gehele land.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:14 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

De NAVO zal ooit in een grootschalig conflict komen, dat is onvermijdelijk.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Dat mensen het überhaupt denkbaar vinden dat Rusland blijkbaar de capaciteiten heeft om de NAVO aan te vallen. Wij zijn vele malen sterker. Volgens mij is het gewoon puur de angst. Een prikactie hooguit, maar geen groot conflict.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:21 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Dit klopt natuurlijk niet. Anders zou elk land nog steeds oorlog aan het voeren zijn met een oorlogseconomie, aangezien elk land dat wel heeft gehad de afgelopen 100 jaar.

Je kan gewoon stoppen daarmee natuurlijk, met soms wat economische strubbelingen uiteraard. De baas van de Russische centrale bank is tot nu toe ook heel capabel gebleken.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:23 schreef Hatseflats22 het volgende:

[..]
Het is best aannemelijk, maar niet onvermijdelijk of anderzins een zekerheid dat dit zal gebeuren.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:44 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Klopt, de NAVO zou uit elkaar kunnen vallen voor die tijd. Maar als de NAVO blijft voort bestaan zal dit conflict er zeker een keer komen. Zo werkt te wereld nu eenmaal. De wereld is nooit zonder oorlogen geweest, en zal dat ook nooit zijn. Genoeg landen die een hekel aan de NAVO, en de landen erin hebben.

China, Rusland, het Midden Oosten, Afrika, Zuid Amerika zijn allemaal brandhaarden, kruitvaten die op ontploffen staan.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:36 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Bijna elk land die een volledige oorlogseconomie gevoerd heeft is daarna economisch ingestort. En het heeft een tijd gekost om dit weer goed te krijgen.

Landen die de oorlog verliezen voelen dit uiteraard erger dan landen die de oorlog winnen natuurlijk. Denk aan Duitsland na WW1, onder andere door de herstelbetalingen, die de economie drukten zag Hitler geen andere keus dan om WW2 te starten. (Al had hij natuurlijk ook nog andere redenen hiervoor).

En sommige economieën zullen beter bestand zijn tegen een volledige instorting ervan. Maar Rusland is dat niet verwacht ik. En ook Putin zijn macht is nu onlosmakelijk met deze oorlog verbonden.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:06 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
Dat mensen het überhaupt denkbaar vinden dat Rusland blijkbaar de capaciteiten heeft om de NAVO aan te vallen. Wij zijn vele malen sterker. Volgens mij is het gewoon puur de angst. Een prikactie hooguit, maar geen groot conflict.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:55 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Ehh, dit klopt niet hoor. De Duitse economie stortte niet in door herstelbetalingen. Dat kwam door de beurskrach die vanuit de VS over kwam waaien in 1929. Het ging juist goed in de jaren 20 economisch gezien, ook in Duitsland. The roaring twenties.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 08:32 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Op de bonnefooi naar Ukraine? Je bent niet goed wijs. Een betekenisvolle eenheid met een betekenisvolle training en ondersteuning en missie zou ik overwegen. In je eentje ben je niets.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 19:56 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Gaat de goede kant op zegt ie.

Het is al een jaar een patstelling.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 09:15 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Waarom geef je geen antwoord op de vraag?
[..]
En voor de rest begint je "ga zelf dan!!!!!111111EINZ" een beetje te vervelen. Zo werkt het niet. We hebben het immers over een situatie dat als je eigen land aangevallen wordt, je deze, al dan niet, zou verdedigen.

Je moet trouwens ook eens uitleggen hoe dat vluchten van jou dan precies werkt. Als een kakkerlak ren je snel weg als er gevochten moet gaan worden.

Waar naar toe? Naar een land waar er wel genoeg mensen zijn die de moeite nemen om hun eigen land te verdedigen? Het hippie gaat laf schuilen achter de rug van mensen die wel ruggegraat hebben?

Waarom zouden die mensen jou toelaten?

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:44 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Klopt, de NAVO zou uit elkaar kunnen vallen voor die tijd. Maar als de NAVO blijft voort bestaan zal dit conflict er zeker een keer komen. Zo werkt te wereld nu eenmaal. De wereld is nooit zonder oorlogen geweest, en zal dat ook nooit zijn. Genoeg landen die een hekel aan de NAVO, en de landen erin hebben.

China, Rusland, het Midden Oosten, Afrika, Zuid Amerika zijn allemaal brandhaarden, kruitvaten die op ontploffen staan.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 09:44 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

[..]
De rol die de Navo mag gaan spelen is boots on the ground in Oekraïne. Of Rusland moet opgeven en alle grondgebied teruggeven (incl. de Krim) aan Oekraïne.

De fout die we gemaakt hebben pre WOII met het opgeven van Tsjecho-Slowakije mag never nooit meer gemaakt worden.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 13:53 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

[..]
Dit is toch wel de meeste domme one liners die hier elke keer weer terug komt

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 22:02 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ja natuurlijk, wat kunnen ze anders? Lijkt me meer dan logisch.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 23:35 schreef Zwoerd het volgende:

[..]
Ik begrijp dat vanuit Poetin's positie terugtrekken uit Oekraïne geen optie is. Wat ze wel kunnen doen is puur richten op verdedigen van de gebieden die ze nu in handen hebben en hopen dat op den duur de oorlog doodbloedt. Nieuwe offensieven leveren vrijwel niks op.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 23:21 schreef kurk_droog het volgende:

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Je praat poep, Zuid Amerika staat helemaal niet op springen trouwens.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 23:41 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

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Verdedigen kost ook heel veel geld en Russische levens. Ook dat levert niets op. Rusland gaat kapot.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 09:44 schreef MatthijsDJ het volgende:

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De rol die de Navo mag gaan spelen is boots on the ground in Oekraïne. Of Rusland moet opgeven en alle grondgebied teruggeven (incl. de Krim) aan Oekraïne.

De fout die we gemaakt hebben pre WOII met het opgeven van Tsjecho-Slowakije mag never nooit meer gemaakt worden.

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Op woensdag 5 juni 2024 23:22 schreef ludovico het volgende:

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Nee, makkelijk lullen over andermans leven.

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Swarms of Ukrainian Kamikaze Drones Stop Russian Offensive in Kharkiv Region
The Kremlin maintains the line that everything is still going well and forcing Ukrainian forces to retreat, while most other sources tell of a Russian offensive out of steam amid crushing losses.

Fighting in Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv sector is continuing but Russian attacks are making no progress and often taking heavy casualties, spokesman for Ukraine’s Army General Staff (AGS) Andriy Kovalev said during a Monday evening news broadcast. Units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are repelling all attacks and the situation in the sector is tense but stable, he said.

Ukrainian milbloggers this week have widely echoed Kovalev’s statement that Russian forces are still attempting to attack around the town of Vovchansk and the village of Liptsy, in northeastern Ukraine, but gaining no ground. According to on-the-ground accounts, video, and independent news reports, recent assaults have frequently been weak, unsupported by heavy weapons, and almost always have been cut to pieces by Ukrainian mortar and artillery barrages, followed up by FPV drone swarms.

Moscow’s official position, a month into its Kharkiv offensive, has not changed, claiming Russian attacks backed by heavy air strikes are still relentlessly advancing. A June 3 Defense Ministry statement said Russian forces were “continuing to advance into the depths of the enemy’s defense” and had “defeated” Ukraine’s 57th Motorized Infantry and 82nd Air Assault Brigades in battles in the Kharkiv region. The report also claimed that Ukrainian forces had launched five unsuccessful counterattacks in the vicinity of Vovchansk.

SPOILER

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In one of his first announcements on the situation at the front, the newly-appointed Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov told a war council in the Kremlin on May 31: “Advances are taking place in all tactical directions. As a result of our active actions, in critical sectors, in the Kharkiv region, the enemy has retreated 5-8 kilometers. Just in this month, we have liberated 28 villages and towns... The armed forces of Russia are systematically reducing the combat capability of the AFU.” Credible accounts from the ground – some of them Russian – contradict the Kremlin narrative of powerful Russian assaults plowing through Ukrainian defenses. Aside from reports by Moscow-linked information platforms, the picture emerging from Ukraine’s northern Kharkiv region was of a stalled Russian offensive being picked apart by Ukrainian artillery and swarms of kamikaze drones.

Ukrainian milblogger and news reports have widely reported since late May about the redeployment of experienced attack drone units from elsewhere on the front to the Kharkiv sector. Transfer of sub-units from one AFU regional command to another is rare, and normally only authorized by the AFU’s top commander, General Oleksandr Syrsky.

Among the drone units recently deployed to the Kharkiv sector was a reconnaissance and strike formation led by Robert Brovdi, a junior officer and volunteer donations organizer with a massive social media presence. He announced on June 1 that his unit, called Ptakhky Brovdi (Brovdi’s Birds), left its positions in the southern Kherson sector in late May and is now operating in the Kharkiv region near the village of Liptsy.

The entire Ptakhky Brodvi strike group is now deployed to the new area of operations, he said. The unit, originally an all-volunteer section made up of a few drone enthusiasts, had metamorphosed into a battalion-sized formation capable of launching dozens of FPV strike drones supported by, its own jamming, reconnaissance, and technical support sections by late 2023. Like most Ukrainian drone units, the formation is largely crowdfunded.

Open sources identified at least five or more attack drone units, all drawn from elsewhere on the 1,500-kilometer-long front line, that have transferred to the Kharkiv sector in the past two weeks and are currently carrying out strikes interdicting Russian attacks in the north.

Video accounts from various groups tell of an almost completely free-fire environment in which Ukrainian drones have been able to hit attacking Russian columns undefended by jamming.

Video published on June 2 by the Perun drone group, an outfit attached to Ukraine’s 42nd Mechanized Infantry Brigade, showed drones homing in on the weak points of Russian tanks, and armored personnel carriers and striking individual soldiers.

The unit claimed its aircraft and pilots destroyed three T-62 tanks, one BMP infantry fighting vehicle, one self-propelled artillery piece, and killed or wounded 41 Russian soldiers in a single day of operations.

The Russian drone advocate group Project Arkhangel, citing frontline reports from Russian troops, in a June 1 editorial said that Ukrainian FPV (First Person View) drones are operating freely and in swarms over most battlefields, and that “enemy” drone units like Brovdi’s, once in sector, are able to stop almost any Russian attack, no matter its size.

It said: “How is the situation now? It sucks. From October to the present day, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been slowing down and stopping our offensive in one area or another with the help of special [separate] UAV detachments… The result is dozens of knocked out and destroyed tanks and infantry fighting vehicles/armored personnel carriers/MTLBs.”

It went on to say that Ukrainian drone operators appear to be supplied with hundreds of FPV drones per strike team and are able to launch as many as 10 explosive-carrying drones to attack and destroy a single Russian combat vehicle, and up to four to hunt down individual Russian soldiers.

Maksim Kalashnikov, a Russian drone unit volunteer supporter, wrote of the Ukrainian drone threat in a June 1 post: “I’m writing from the northern sector… I can with great confidence tell you that enemy [Ukrainian] drones and artillery in this sector are extremely powerful... The little birds [drones] are constantly flying from launch sites to our positions and back. With drones the situation is critical, you can only hide. We can jam the Mavics [a cheap Chinese quadcopter] easily, but against FPV drones we have almost nothing that works.”

Increasingly anecdotes of local Ukrainian counterattacks in the Kharkiv sector, in some cases made by Russian prisoners of war, are also undermining Kremlin claims that its assaults are effective, and casualties are low.

One Russian soldier identified as Valery Avchenkov told an interviewer that of his unit of more than 200 men, only nine survived a Ukrainian gauntlet of artillery and drone strikes in the Kharkiv sector, in a video posted on X by the prolific Ukrainian milblogger PSO1 on June 2.

Avchenkov did not identify the Ukrainian unit that took him prisoner but Ukrainian media reports, indicate that experienced Ukrainian ground units have also deployed to the Kharkiv sector and are participating in targeted counterattacks. Open-source intelligence has identified combat teams from the battle-tested 36th Marine Brigade and the Dozor border troops commando unit, among others, participating in the attacks.

The independent Russian news platform Astra published a video recorded by Russian army soldier Anton Andreev on July 2 that tells of being ordered into an assault in the Vovchansk sector on foot, without any supporting tanks or artillery, and coming under intense fire from Ukrainian artillery and drones. The attack failed and Andreev said only 12 of his 100-man unit were unhit. Both Avchenkov and Andreev criticized commanders for using them as cannon-fodder in “meat” assault

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Competition To Supply Ukraine With FPV Drones Gets Underway
As FPV drones rapidly redefined the battlefield, Ukraine’s appetite for them has exploded.

Amulti-national effort to provide Kyiv with additional first-person view (FPV) drones has officially begun, thanks to the launch of an industry competition. Led by the United Kingdom, the competition will dish out funds to successful bidders in hopes of delivering significant quantities FPV drones to Ukraine. These types of munitions have become critical on both sides of the front lines in the war in Ukraine; so much so that it has spurred an arms race for them.

The competition, led by the U.K. Ministry of Defense with assistance from the Latvian Ministry of Defense, was formally opened yesterday. The initiative is part of plans orchestrated by the Drone Capability Coalition, which was made public in February and is headed by the U.K. and Latvia. The Drone Capability Coalition has the aim of supplying Kyiv with over a million drones, predominately FPV types, by the end of the year.

SPOILER

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Companies from across the coalition are encouraged to apply, which includes the U.K., Latvia, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, and Ukraine. In order to have submissions assessed as part of the competition, entrants must submit their proposals by July 1, per the U.K. Ministry of Defense solicitation.

"The UK and Latvia have opened the bidding for companies to supply FPV drones to Ukraine, on behalf of the Drone Capability Coalition," the U.K. Ministry of Defense states. "This competition aims to produce these drones at scale and at an affordable price point, leveraging the strength of Western industry."

According to the U.K. Ministry of Defense, the coalition aims to "procure up to 15 batches of first-person view racing quadcopter style drones, consisting of 20 drones each [300 in total] and potential associated options." The total contract award for up to 300 FPV drones is valued at £300,000 (over $383,000 at current conversion rates.) This puts the cost at $1,000 ($1,277) per drone.

It also states that FPV drones "capable of carrying varying payloads depending on their propeller size" are desired. While specific payload requirements aren't specified in the solicitation, FPV-type kamikaze drones, with improvised warheads, have been used heavily by both sides during the war — including against air and sea targets. Other Western countries, including the U.S., are working to acquire and hone their skills on FPV and FPV-like loitering munitions/kamikaze drones.

"First-person view drones have proven highly effective on the battlefield since Russia’s full-scale invasion," the U.K. Ministry of Defense notes, "providing Ukrainian operators with situational awareness to target enemy positions, armored vehicles, and ships with explosive ordnance."

The solicitation notes that for the successful bidder(s), FPV drone proposals "must be produced and dispatched for testing within three weeks of a contract award (expected the week commencing 12 August 2024). ... Bidders are to ensure that their system meets all qualification questions & entry criteria prior to submitting their proposal."

From there, the entries will be subjected to testing and evaluation, which will last up to three months. The intent is that, following those tests, bidders whose entries meet the necessary requirements will be considered for potential future production contracts of many thousands of drones.

Failure to submit a proposal by July 1 does not preclude interested companies from throwing their hat in the ring further down the road. As the Ministry of Defense highlights, "additional FPV competitions are expected to take place through 2024, building on the lessons learned from this first competition."

Ukraine has no shortage of need for FPV drones. The relatively inexpensive, small, and highly maneuverable munitions have become something of a signature weapon during the conflict, both on and off the battlefield. In terms of their importance on the frontline, they are now talked about as being on par with artillery. They have also had major impacts on the use of heavy armored vehicles for both sides, including Russian turtle tanks and U.S.-supplied Abrams main battle tanks for Ukrainian forces.

Of course, the utility, and threat, of drones are by no means new, which The War Zone has pointed out for years. However, initiatives to field them at pace like those driven by the Drone Capability Coalition underscore how central they are to the current war in Ukraine, and will be in future conflicts.

The extent to which the drone types have been used by Ukrainian forces has increased supply needs; a demand which the Drone Capability Coalition, in part, aims to satisfy.

Ukraine itself has also vowed to up domestic production of FPV-type munitions. Last December, Kyiv announced that it plans to manufacture around one million FPV drones this year. Ukraine's desperate need for these types of munitions has led officials to encourage civilian production of them at home, as part of a so-called "People's Drone Project." Russia has also increased its production of them, spurring an arms race for FPV drone production supremacy between Moscow and Kyiv.

Of course, the largest question mark hanging over the Drone Capability Coalition is how quickly it can supply Kyiv with large quantities of FPV drones. Given that the country's own goal of producing a million FPV drones is highly ambitious, foreign-supplied examples will likely prove ever more critical as time goes on.

As the solicitation notes, the contract itself won't start until early August, and will end in early September. This would put the first drones into the hands of Ukrainian operators in the Fall, at best. So while it may be helpful down the line, it doesn't do much to help Ukraine's current need for the drones. A common theme has throughout the conflict has been how traditional procurement methods are not responsive enough to the pace of change driven on the battlefield.

Regardless, this is just one of a number of initiatives underway to help Ukraine compete in the FPV drone space. The demand is absolutely extreme and any influx of these hugely impactful but small vehicles certainly helps.