Oorlog in Oekraïne #981: Drone Wars 3

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Op maandag 10 juni 2024 22:49 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Misschien is de superieure Russische luchtverdediging niet zo superieur?

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Canada’s Parliament rocked by allegations of treason
Foreign interference probe exposes links to “witting” lawmakers in Ottawa.

OTTAWA — The capital of one of the world’s most stable democracies is gripped by growing panic about foreign agents working in elected office. A bombshell report by Canadian lawmakers has unnerved Parliament Hill, alleging that unnamed politicians have been covertly working with foreign governments.

The revelation in heavily redacted findings released this week by an all-party national security committee adds intrigue to a separate and ongoing inquiry into foreign interference in Canada’s 2019 and 2021 elections.

The new report from the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians is the first to suggest that lawmakers in Canada’s parliament may have helped foreign actors meddle in political campaigns and leadership races. Heightened anxiety in Ottawa about foreign interference comes in the middle of historic global elections where factors such as artificial intelligence and emboldened foreign powers are testing the resilience of democratic systems.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been on the defensive since the allegations broke Monday. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the government to name names.

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Hungarian president to skip NATO's eastern flank summit -Latvia
VILNIUS (Reuters) - Hungary's President Tamas Sulyok will not attend the summit of the Bucharest Nine, a group of European countries on the eastern edge of NATO in Riga on Tuesday, Latvian president's office said.

Hungary and the other central European nations have been at odds over Prime Minister Viktor Orban's continued cultivation of close ties to Russia and refusal to give arms to Ukraine.

"Hungary will be represented by the Ambassador to Latvia", a spokesperson for Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics told Reuters on Monday.

She did not give reason for this, and referred to Sulyok's office "for questions related to the Hungarian president’s agenda".

The Hungarian president's office did not immediatelly reply to the request for comment, which was sent outside working hours.

The presidents of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia are usually represented at the annual summits of the Buharest Nine grouping. Thare countries are members of both NATO and the European Union.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who will be at the Riga summit, will visit Budapest the next day "to discuss Hungary's staying out from NATO's Ukraine mission", Orban told state media earlier on Monday.

Hungary signalled last week it had no plans to abandon natural gas imports from Russia and sought to deepen business ties with Moscow in non-sanctioned areas.

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Former Google CEO and Tech Titan Eric Schmidt is Testing AI-Powered Drones in Ukraine
Tech heavyweight Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, has been secretly building a drone company called White Stork, luring top talent from industry giants like Apple, SpaceX, and Google.

This startup’s AI-powered drones are now undergoing testing at Schmidt’s Hillspire estate in California and in Ukraine, as reported by Forbes.

News of White Stork became public in January, prompting Schmidt to reportedly rebrand and fast-track development. Sources familiar with the company say these drones boast advanced AI that assists with precision landing on designated targets.

Beyond California testing, Forbes reports that Schmidt’s team is collaborating with Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense. This collaboration involves testing drone prototypes and gathering feedback from Ukrainian personnel.

A recent test reportedly included the 14th Separate Brigade, a Ukrainian unit specializing in drone warfare. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense has not yet commented on this partnership.

A vocal advocate for Ukraine, Schmidt personally visited the frontlines in 2023 to witness drone warfare firsthand. This act earned him praise from Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, who commended Schmidt’s “bold and heroic” actions.

“He cares about Ukraine and helps us a lot,” Fedorov told Forbes. “He is a legend and has created a lot with his own hands.”

During a visit to Kyiv last summer, Schmidt and White Stork advisor Sebastian Thrun met with Ukrainian officials Oleksandr Kamyshyn, Minister of Strategic Industries, and Yuliia Svyrydenko, First Deputy Prime Minister.

Since the start of Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine, Schmidt has positioned himself as an expert on the question, writing columns about battlefield strategies and the new era of “network warfare.”

In a piece for the Wall Street Journal, he commented that kamikaze drones are dramatically changing the way wars are fought.

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Ukraine confirms attack on Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery, claims damage totalling $540 million
The General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces has confirmed it struck the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia's Rostov Oblast on June 5, claiming the attack destroyed 1.5 million tons of oil and oil products worth $540 million.

In a post on Telegram on June 10, the military said the attack had been carried out by "Ukrainian-made means," but did not elaborate.

At the time of the strike, Rostov Oblast Governor Vasily Golubev claimed the fire was caused by a drone attack.

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

"Attacks on Russian oil refineries significantly complicate the execution of tasks by the enemy's troops in the course of armed aggression against our country," the General Staff said.

Ukrainian troops had targeted the facility earlier in the spring. Military intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov said on March 13 that the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery partially shut down as a result of a drone strike.

Rostov Oblast borders Ukraine to the southeast. Reports of drone attacks against the region's oil industry have increased in spring 2024.

The CEO of Russia's state-controlled oil company, Rosneft, asked the Kremlin in May to approve tax breaks to offset the cost of preventing drone attacks on the company's oil refineries.

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Op maandag 10 juni 2024 23:53 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op dinsdag 11 juni 2024 00:58 schreef oheng het volgende:
Filmpje is van het begin van de oorlog. We hebben het er al eerder over gehad.

Zullen we anders weer eens een rondje zeurende horigen doen?

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‘Please Accept My Condolences on My Death’
Lera Burlakova writes of the death of a close friend, and about her final letter.

It is only a few months since my friend, the frontline medic Iryna Tsybukh, wrote: “If a new day comes, it must be lived.” In late May, a landmine exploded beneath her vehicle and she was killed, along with her paramedic comrades. There will be no new days for Iryna.

She seemed certain that she would die, as so many others had died around her. She had experienced so many near-misses that it seemed just a matter of time, Knowing this, she wrote a final letter to be opened in the event of her death. She was just 25 years old. The explosion denied her a 26th birthday on June 1.

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To Catch a Killer — Ukraine Needs Help on DNA
The invasion of Ukraine has underscored the critical role of DNA in the pursuit of justice. International aid is now vital to help expose Russia’s crimes.


Since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion, non-combatant casualties have mounted in Ukraine, with the United Nations reporting at least 10,000 civilian deaths, including over 500 children, and more than 18,500 injuries. The true numbers are much higher; many thousands of people are listed as missing.

The war crimes committed by Russian forces are not limited to attacks against the civilian population. Combatants have been tortured, and prisoners of war and wounded soldiers killed and grotesquely mistreated.

The brutality inflicted on the Ukrainian people presents a challenge to all legal systems to ensure justice is pursued and due process followed. One of the biggest obstacles is the collection of evidence; areas liberated to date have only highlighted the weaknesses of existing systems.

Some of the challenges relate to the circumstances of armed conflict and the lack of immediate access to the crime scene. Meanwhile, Russian servicemen have followed a pattern of destroying traces of their atrocities, frequently burning bodies, homes, and victims’ transport.

The massive volume of evidence also requires an extensive system of management as well as teams of people for its systematization and analysis.

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Russia has caused over US$56 billion worth of damage to Ukraine's energy sector – Kyiv School of Economics
As of May 2024, the damage caused to Ukraine’s energy sector in the full-scale Russian invasion is equal to US$56.2 billion.

Source: report by the Kyiv School of Economy

Quote: "As a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the energy sector suffered damage and losses of US$56.2 billion, while the recovery needs, which include the complete reconstruction of destroyed facilities on the principle of ‘Build Back Better’, amount to US$50.5 billion."

Details: KSE estimates that direct damage in Ukraine’s energy sector as of May 2024 amounted to more than US$16.1 billion.

Reportedly, the largest losses were caused by the destruction of electricity generation objects (US$8.5 billion), transmission facilities (US$2.1 billion), and oil and gas infrastructure (US$3.3 billion).

The indirect losses of Ukraine’s energy sector are estimated at almost US$40.1 billion, with US$39.6 billion being lost revenues of energy companies. The remaining US$0.5 billion is the costs of debris removal and disassembly of damaged facilities.

Background:
• The Ukrainian agrarian sector has suffered over US$80 billion of damage and direct losses as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
• On Thursday, 11 April, the Russians launched another attack on Kharkiv Oblast. A thermal power plant that supplied the city of Kharkiv with power was damaged in the attack, and a transformer substation was completely destroyed.
• On the afternoon of 11 April the Russians launched an airstrike with guided aerial bombs on a thermal plant in the city of Sumy.

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Orban's party is the EU leader in anti-Western advertising on social networks
The pro-government camp in Hungary spent 4.3 million euros on advertising on Meta and Google, according to the Political Capital analytical center.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz party and its allies have become the largest in the entire European Union in terms of the volume of anti-Western advertising on social networks. This is evidenced by the results of a study published on Saturday, June 8, conducted by the independent analytical center Political Capital .

Spending on political advertising in Hungary is very asymmetrical, as follows from the material. “While the pro-government camp spent ¤4.3 million on advertising on Meta and Google, all 14 opposition parties and their associated media spent less than a fifth of that amount, ¤839,000,” the study said.

Fidesz and its politicians alone spent ¤2 million - 2.6 times more than all 14 opposition parties combined, which spent ¤764,558. “This year, Fidesz was the largest advertiser on Google in the EU, paying for six of the 10 most promoted videos,” the material notes.

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Geography problem: Why Russia spreads misinformation about capture of Ryzhivka and reality in gray zone

Russian saboteurs attempted to capture the village of Ryzhivka in the border zone between the Sumy and Kursk regions. The story ended with an unconvincing video, the enemy flag was destroyed, and the village is under Ukrainian control now.

Read more about how the Russian forces captured Ryzhivka in three days, what is really happening in the gray zone, and whether there is a threat of a breakthrough in the Sumy region in the material by RBC-Ukraine.

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