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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 03:04 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.telegraph.co.(...)eployt-russia-china/
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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:07 schreef NeeOfTochJA het volgende:
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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:11 schreef ExTec het volgende:
En op het NAVO hoofdkwartier kunnen ze niet wachten tot ze dit staaltje hi-tech eindelijk kunnen onderzoeken.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:55 schreef Ulx het volgende:
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Er is sprake van het monteren van een skyranger module op de Leo1 chassis, maar ik vraag me af of de Boxer variant niet sneller te leveren is. Die is tenslotte al beschikbaar.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:21 schreef ExTec het volgende:
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Hilarisch, hoe we dat vooruitzicht blijkbaar erg moeten vinden.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 13:59 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Heel eerlijk. Ik zit niet te wachten op 33 deelrepublieken met allemaal eigen kernwapens en eventuele mafkezen aan de macht.

Het heeft een reden dat het Westen Rusland overeind hielt in de jaren 90. Dat vergeten veel Russen gemakshalve maar anders had het halve land een hongerdood gehad.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 14:06 schreef Joppiez het volgende:

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Ah vandaar dat ze zo vriendelijk en dankbaar zijn tegenover "het Westen".

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 13:59 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:
Heel eerlijk. Ik zit niet te wachten op 33 deelrepublieken met allemaal eigen kernwapens en eventuele mafkezen aan de macht.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 13:59 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Heel eerlijk. Ik zit niet te wachten op 33 deelrepublieken met allemaal eigen kernwapens en eventuele mafkezen aan de macht.

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"At the invitation of the Chairman of State Affairs of the DPRK, Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin will pay a friendly state visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on June 18-19," the Kremlin said.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 15:14 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Oef, dat is wel weer heel slecht.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 15:32 schreef Ulx het volgende:

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Dat Oekraine de sovjet nukes niet kon gebruiken want de codes lagen in Moskou was een argument dat ze die maar aan Rusland zouden moeten geven.
Waarom zou het bij uiteenvallen van Rusland anders zijn?

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:11 schreef ExTec het volgende:
En op het NAVO hoofdkwartier kunnen ze niet wachten tot ze dit staaltje hi-tech eindelijk kunnen onderzoeken.

[ x ]

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Oekra�ne bereidt zich voor op luchtaanvallen met F-16's: “Dit kan einde van oorlog inluiden”
Oekra�ne is volop bezig met het voorbereiden van een luchtoffensief met F-16's op de bezette Krim, dat moet starten als de door het Westen beloofde gevechtsvliegtuigen eindelijk arriveren. Dat heeft strategisch analist Frederik Mertens van het ‘The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies’ (HCSS) gezegd aan nieuwssite ‘Business Insider’. Volgens Elina Beketova van het ‘Center for European Policy Analysis’ (CEPA) kan een herovering van het schiereiland en de Zwart Zee de oorlog in een beslissende plooi leggen.
https://www.hln.be/buiten(...)g-inluiden~a351b17e/

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The number of powerful Russian glide bombs hitting Ukraine's Dnipro salient falls from 80 a day to 4 thanks to US aid, officer says
• Successful Russian glide bomb attacks on a village in the Kherson region have fallen from 80 a day to four, an officer said.
• Russia has increasingly targeted Ukraine with glide bombs, some weighing over 3,000 pounds.
• Newly supplied US weapons, like ATACMS and Patriot missiles, are aiding Ukraine's defense.

An officer fighting to defend the strip of land Ukraine has occupied on the left bank of the Dnipro River said that US aid has helped reduce the number of successful Russian glide bomb attacks on his squad's position.

Speaking to The Times of London, Major Serhiy Pedenko, the deputy commander of 503 Battalion of Ukraine's 38th Marine Brigade, said that the number of glide bombs hitting their position on the banks of the river had fallen from 80 a day to four.

Over the last six months, Russia has continually pounded Ukrainian targets with glide bombs — some weighing more than 3,000 pounds — from Russian fighter-bombers such as the Su-34.

The relatively cheap projectiles are crafted by attaching wings and satellite navigation systems to Soviet-era bombs.

This allows Russian bombers to release them from safer distances, making it hard for Ukraine to defend against such attacks.

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Ukraine's foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, said in March that Russia's use of the bombs was its "main advantage on the battlefield," allowing its forces "to destroy the targets of the strikes and advance through the ruins."

But new US-supplied military equipment is finally reaching the front lines — and it appears to be making a difference.

Ukraine is using ATACMS missiles to strike Russian airbases in occupied Crimea and Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to protect the south of Ukraine.

"We've destroyed two Russian divisions here. They need to drive us out, so they attack with armoured personnel carriers, which our drones destroy. We kill maybe 30 Russians here for every one of our dead," Pedenko told The Times.

"The Russians don't understand how we're holding this shoreline," he added. "They bomb and then go in, but our guys are still holding on there, they are fighting, they're pushing them back and they can't figure it out. But it's really hard there."

After gaining a bridgehead on the far bank of the Dnipro at Krynky in October of last year, Ukrainian forces may have hoped to push deeper into Russian-occupied territory.

However, severe ammunition and equipment shortages allowed Russia to fight back.

Earlier this year, a former spokesperson for Ukraine's Southern Defense Forces, Natalia Humeniuk, said that Russians were conducting "human wave" assaults as they attempted to retake the village.

The situation at Krynky remains tense, with Ukraine suppressing four Russian attacks on the left bank of the Dnipro River near the village earlier this week, the Southern Defense Forces of Ukraine said on Telegram.

"The occupiers are putting pressure with artillery shelling, air strikes, using a large number of attack drones of various types, and continue aerial reconnaissance," the post said.

"Our soldiers continue to take comprehensive measures to hold their positions," it added.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 16:57 schreef voetbalmanager2 het volgende:

[..]

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Russia Overtakes US as Europe's Top Gas Supplier in May, for the First Time in Two Years
In May 2024, Europe's gas imports from Russia surpassed supplies from the US for the first time in nearly two years, despite ongoing efforts in the region to reduce dependency on Russian fuel following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU countries were striving to replace Russia’s liquefied natural gas. Already in September 2022, the USA became the largest supplier of gas to Europe.

However, in May 2024, pipeline deliveries of Russian gas and liquefied natural gas overtook US imports for the first time since 2022, accounting for 15% of total deliveries to the EU and other European countries, while US liquefied natural gas deliveries accounted for only 14% of total volumes.

This can be explained by the temporary short-term issues at a major US liquefied natural gas export facility.

Since 2022, Russia has been supplying gas to Europe exclusively through pipelines passing via Turkey and Ukraine. The transit agreement between Ukraine and Russia, set to expire this year, is expected to cease flows through this route.

According to the Independent Commodity Intelligence Service (ICIS) representative Marzec-Manser, the change is unlikely to be long-lasting as Russia will be able to ship liquefied natural gas to Asia via the northern sea route in the summer, which is likely to reduce supplies to Europe, while liquefied natural gas production in the USA is growing again.

On Friday, June 14, EU countries were unable to reach a consensus on imposing new sanctions on Russia’s liquefied natural gas sector, where Germany's opposition thwarted a potential agreement.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 11:16 schreef bleiblei het volgende:

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Mooi volk, die Servi�rs .
Die hebben inderdaad geen recente geschiedenis van discutabele aard.

Als je keer op keer ziet dat onderhandelen met een onbetrouwbaar volk er tot leidt dat je 4 jaar later in dezelfde shit zit met de consequentie dat je elke ronde een stuk land inlevert. Zou je wakker moeten worden uit je unicorn land en op je strepen moeten staan. Geen enkele Nederlander accepteert dit gedrag van z'n buren. Wie zijn we om dit te accepteren op zo eenmgrote schaal. Dit is de enige weg naar een uitkomst. En het maakt bar weinig uit of Poetin wel of niet het veld ruimt. Wat wel telt is dat hij en/of zijn opvolgers wel 10keer nadenkt voordat ze richting het Westen optrekken.

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Almost 130,000 Russian war crimes recorded in Ukraine, one every 10 minutes – Prosecutor General
On average, the Russians commit 150 crimes per day

Law enforcement officers have already documented almost 130,000 Russian war crimes in Ukraine, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin announced during the Global Peace Summit.

"The world needs to hear such stories in order to understand the severity of the crimes that the aggressor commits every day on Ukrainian soil. To date, we have documented almost 130,000 war crimes," he said.

According to Kostin, on average, this means that the Russians are committing 150 war crimes per day – one every 10 minutes.

The official expressed hope that the Summit "will strengthen the efforts of the international community aimed at stopping these crimes", in particular, regarding the return of Ukrainian civilian adults and children from Russia.

The Prosecutor General reported that during the full-scale war, the Russian troops executed at least 61 Ukrainian prisoners of war, four Russians were indicted, and one court verdict was issued.

The interior minister informed that in Vovchansk, Kharkiv Oblast, the Russian military captured civilians, and the first executions of civilians by the invaders have already been reported.

The Prosecutor General's Office told LIGA.net that the former member of the terrorist group Wagner, who fled to Norway, was never charged by Ukrainian law enforcement officers.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 13:59 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

[..]
Heel eerlijk. Ik zit niet te wachten op 33 deelrepublieken met allemaal eigen kernwapens en eventuele mafkezen aan de macht.

Het heeft een reden dat het Westen Rusland overeind hielt in de jaren 90. Dat vergeten veel Russen gemakshalve maar anders had het halve land een hongerdood gehad.

Wil niet zeggen dat die kliek uit het Kremlin moet en er verregaande hervormingen doorgevoerd moeten worden.

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Iraq and Jordan withdraw signatures under Global Peace Summit communiqu�
In total, 78 countries and four international organizations have now signed the document

Signatures under the joint communiqu� of the Global Peace Summit were withdrawn by two countries – Iraq and Jordan, according to the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Switzerland.

On Sunday, during the event, a list of countries and international organizations (80 and 4, respectively) that had signed the final document was displayed on the screen. At that time, Iraq and Jordan were among them:

Now, on the website of the federal department of Switzerland, these two countries are not in the list of signatories.

Both countries have not yet commented on the situation. Both Jordan and Iraq were full participants at the Summit, not observers.

On June 13, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba had a telephone conversation with the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates of Jordan Ayman Safadi. They discussed the peace formula and the country was invited to take part in its implementation.

On Saturday, during the Summit, Kuleba met with the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Iraq Fuad Hussein. The top Ukrainian diplomat wrote that the parties agreed: "The summit is the first step on the way to achieving a just peace in Ukraine based on the principles of the UN Charter."

Armenia, Bahrain, Colombia, Qatar, India, Indonesia, Libya, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Thailand, United Arab Emirates also did not sign the communiqu�. Brazil and the Vatican did not sign either, but they were observers at the event.

Later, the full text of the communiqu� appeared: on nuclear and food security, release of prisoners. The text also talks about "engagement and dialogue between all parties" to achieve peace.

India said it did not associate itself with any communiqu� or document emerging from the summit, asserting "only those options acceptable to both parties can lead to abiding peace".

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Drones attacked four regions of the Russian Federation

^{Drone over the Russian Federation. The photo is illustrative.}

On the night of June 17, drones attacked four Russian regions.

Local authorities and eyewitnesses stated this.

The Russian Federation stated that UAVs had been spotted in the Belgorod, Voronezh, and Lipetsk regions, as well as in the Krasnodar Krai.

The governor of Lipetsk region, Igor Artamonov, said that Russian air defense had allegedly shot down four drones over the industrial area of Lipetsk at night. He added that special services had been working at the crash site. No casualties reported.

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Сирена після атаки БПЛА у Липецьку в � Ф. [17 червня 2024]

The Astra Telegram channel writes that local residents reported nighttime explosions and smoke over the tractor plant. There are also reports of a UAV attack on the Novolipetsk Metallurgical Plant. There was a siren in the city, the sounds of which were captured on eyewitness footage.

In addition, the governor of the Voronezh region, Alexander Gusev, said that on Monday night, Russian air defense had allegedly detected and intercepted two UAVs in the region. According to him, there were no casualties or damage.

Політ безпілотника над Воронезькою областю � Ф. [17 червня 2024]

In the morning, a video from local residents of one of the region’s settlements was posted online, showing a drone flying overhead.

Subsequently, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation announced the alleged downing of drones over three regions. The Belgorod region was added to the list, where one drone was allegedly shot down.

Also, on the evening of June 16, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the alleged interception of an UAV over the territory of the Krasnodar Krai.

Recently, the Rostov region of Russia was also massively attacked by drones.

^{A fire in Morozovsk in the Russian Federation after a UAV attack. June 14, 2024. Photo from open sources}

Explosions were heard, in particular, in the city of Morozovsk, where a military air base is located.

^{A fire in Morozovsk in the Russian Federation after a UAV attack. June 14, 2024. Photo from open sources}

Subsequently, satellite images emerged showing a damaged hangar, which was probably housing one or more Su-34s.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:09 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://united24media.com(...)ime-in-two-years-774
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UEFA wants to keep Russian flags out of stadium for Ukraine’s opening game at Euro 2024
MUNICH, Germany (AP) — UEFA wants to keep Russian flags out of the stadium when Ukraine plays its first European Championship game Monday after some were displayed in the stands at other matches.

UEFA said security staff will try to intercept and remove Russian flags from being displayed at the Munich stadium where Ukraine plays Romania on Monday afternoon in the Euro 2024 group stage.

Russian teams were banned by UEFA from international competitions within days of the full military invasion of Ukraine starting in February 2022.

Still, Russian citizens could try to buy tickets for Euro 2024 games. The national flag of white, red and blue horizontal bands has been displayed at some of the first group-stage matches, including in Munich last Friday next to Scotland flags at the opening game against Germany.

Several Russian flags also were seen among Serbia fans during their team’s game against England on Sunday in Gelsenkirchen. Serbia is one of Russia’s strongest traditional allies in Europe.

Many images of Jude Bellingham celebrating scoring the only goal of the game for England had Russian flags that could be clearly seen behind him in the Serbian end of the stadium.

German authorities previously said they only wanted to allow flags of the participating teams to be brought to stadiums and official fan zones broadcasting games on big screens in the 10 host cities. That was seen also as a protective measure to avoid likely provocations if Israeli and Palestinian flags were displayed.

UEFA also has disciplinary rules against political messages at stadiums and can punish teams if such are displayed by their fans.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:20 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://news.liga.net/en/(...)mmit-communiqu%C3%A9
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Vast door druk vanuit Rusland of China ofzo. Of andere landen die beste vrienden met deze landen zijn. Erg kinderachtig.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:38 schreef BlaZ het volgende:

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Gezien de landen lijkt me een relatie met het Israel-Palestijnse conflict hier not onaannemelijk, zie ook de positie van Qatar, Bahrain, Libi�, Saudi Arabi� en de Verenigde Arabische Emiraten.

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Denmark developing measures to curb oil transport by Russia's shadow fleet
Danish Foreign Minister Lars L�kke Rasmussen has announced that Denmark has started negotiations on putting an end to the transportation of Russian oil by its shadow fleet of tankers across the Baltic Sea.

Source: European Pravda, citing the minister's interview with Danish news outlet Information and Danwatch

Quote: "Denmark has gathered a group of countries to consider further measures against the shadow fleet. It is important that all new measures can be implemented in practice and are legally sustainable."

Details: Rasmussen did not elaborate on what the new measures would entail but added that he "takes the problem of the shadow fleet very seriously".

Outdated oil tankers make up Russia's so-called shadow fleet, which it uses to circumvent sanctions on oil exports.

The foreign minister noted that Denmark is engaged in a "confidential dialogue" with other Baltic Sea nations and the EU. Rasmussen did not disclose what countries would try to curb the shadow fleet.

Background:
• Earlier, the Group of Seven (G7) countries promised further restrictions to combat Russia's use of shadow fleets to circumvent their sanctions.
• Last week, the United Kingdom announced new sanctions against Russia, seeking to hamper its ability to wage war against Ukraine.
• Prior to that, media reports indicated that there were still disagreements among EU countries over measures targeting Russia's so-called "shadow fleet", which consists of semi-legal oil tankers.

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Destruction of Kerch Bridge won't be as effective anymore, military says
Destroying the Kerch Bridge in occupied Crimea now would not have the same effect now because Russia barely uses it for military purposes anymore, Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine published on June 17.

The bridge connects the Russian mainland with the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula and has long been a crucial supply route for the Russian military in Ukraine.

Construction on the 19-kilometer-long bridge began after the illegal 2014 annexation of Crimea and was completed in 2018.

It was heavily damaged in Ukrainian strikes in October 2022 and July 2023.

The bridge accounts for less than a quarter of the total transiting cargo, and for the rest, Russia uses a ferry crossing in Kerch, which the Ukrainian military struck in late May, Pletenchuk said.

"Therefore, this bridge is no longer of such tactical and strategic importance after the damage it sustained as a result of a joint operation by the SBU (Ukraine's Security Service) and the Navy with a drone attack," the spokesperson said.

The Ukrainian military has repeatedly said that the Kerch Bridge is a legitimate target and that Ukraine aims to destroy it.

An analysis of satellite imagery by investigative group Molfar, shared with The Independent in May, showed that over a three-month period this year, only one military freight train carrying around 55 fuel cars crossed the bridge.

Ukraine's military reported on a number of attacks against the peninsula in recent days, allegedly scoring successful hits against Russian S-300 and S-400 air defense systems.

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Ukrainian pilots train on French Alphajet jets

^{Ukrainian pilot in the Alphajet plane, June 14. Photo credits: Adrien Vautier}

Future Ukrainian F-16 pilots are taking an intensified training course in France on Alphajet jet trainers.

Details of the training of Ukrainian pilots were published in the report of the French edition of Le Monde.

Journalists of the publication became the first to be admitted to an unnamed air base located in southwestern France. It is there that a group of young Ukrainian pilots trains.

The French Air Force pledged to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. However, according to the publication, there are currently only ten of them. Some of them have never flown, others have experience in piloting L-39 Albatros training aircraft.

After several months of preparation in the UK, in particular for learning English, in March this year a group of pilots arrived in France, where they began theoretical and practical training. Immediately upon arrival, they “were placed under the cap,” as the French officer put it. Even while reporting, they were barred from speaking to the press. Only their age was reported: from 21 to 23 years.

“Recruits are busy. Some, in the middle of the maps, are preparing to fly in a simulator, while a second group elsewhere, in the middle of the airfield, is preparing to take off on a two-seat plane with an instructor,” says a reporter at Le Monde.

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^{A monitor with the displayed program of the flight simulator on which Ukrainian pilots train, June 14, 2024. Photo credits: Adrien Vautier}

The training of the Ukrainian military is carried out under a reduced program at an accelerated pace. The training will last only six months, compared to the usual course of eighteen months.

For pilot flight training, Belgian-transferred modified Alphajet jet trainers are used. They are equipped with an instrument panel that simulates a similar F-16 in fighters.

To ensure the proper operation of these aircraft and the start of training flights, the French Aerospace Forces had to stop the process of decommissioning them at the last moment.

^{A Ukrainian pilot (at the left) and his instructor against the background of an Alphajet aircraft, June 14. Photo credits: Adrien Vautier}

There are no F-16 fighters at the airbase, which should be the culmination of the training of Ukrainian pilots. Therefore, after completing the training, Ukrainian pilots will go to the training center in Romania.

As previously reported, now in Romania there is a European training center for training pilots of F-16 fighters, which was opened at the end of last year. Ukrainian pilots will enter the first wave of training on fighters F-16 in the new center.

The Netherlands, within the framework of the aviation coalition, provides its aircraft for the preparation of Ukrainians. By the end of the year, the country aims to transfer up to 18 F-16 fighters to the Romanian air base. The increase in the number of these aircraft should positively affect the quality and speed of training of Ukrainian pilots.

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Putin sacks four Russian deputy defence ministers - decree
Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has sacked four deputy defence ministers and appointed his cousin, Anna Tsivileva, to fill one of the vacancies, according to Kremlin decrees. We will bring you more information on this as soon as we get it.

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Ukraine hits 15 Russian air defense systems in occupied Crimea over past 2 months, military says
Ukrainian forces struck around 15 air defense systems in Russian-occupied Crimea over the past two months, Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications (Stratcom) reported on June 17.

The Ukrainian military recently hit several S-300, S-350, and S-400 air defense systems, according to the statement. Ukraine also struck more than 15 radar stations and over 10 control centers stationed in Russian-occupied peninsula.

The military sites were located in Crimean settlements – Chornomorske, Tarkhankut, Yevpatoria, Saky, Donske, Belbek, Sevastopol, Alushta, Dzankoi, Mysove, and near Ai-Petri peak, according to the map published by Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications.

Ukraine has carried out several successful attacks against Russian targets in occupied Crimea and its vicinity, heavily degrading the Russian Black Sea Fleet.

Air defense losses apparently made Moscow nervous enough to move the latest S-500 systems to the peninsula, Ukraine's Military Intelligence Chief Kyrylo Budanov said.

Russian officials have not commented on the claim.

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Drone Coalition raised �549 million for Ukraine
The Drone Coalition raised �549 million for unmanned aerial vehicles in Ukraine.

Latvian Defense Minister Andris Sprūds said that 14 countries were officially included in the unmanned coalition.

“Latvia, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Italy, France, Canada, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Germany and Sweden, and the Czech Republic are in the process of joining,” said Andris Sprūds.

At the same time, other countries can join the drone coalition. So far, members of the unmanned coalition have raised �549 million to transfer drones to Ukraine.

“This is more than 500 million, more precisely, �549 million, already promised by member states, partners within the framework of the drone coalition,” the minister said.

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Latvia announced a plan and commitment to contribute �20 million this year.

Latvia has already purchased drones from the national manufacturer, and they have already been sent. Now the country is already collecting a second batch of drones, which will soon go to Ukraine.

“At the same time, we are already starting to implement joint international purchases. We do see huge interest. So far, this is a modest amount of funds, �350 thousand, but this is the first step,” said Andris Sprūds.

The initiative to create a coalition of drones was announced during a meeting of its Minister of Defense of Latvia with the Minister of Defense of Ukraine in December 2023.

On February 17, 2024, a coalition of 8 countries was formed, in March Canada and Australia joined it, increasing it to 10 participants, now 14 countries. In general, plans to attract 20 countries to the coalition.

In April 2024, it became known about the creation of the Coalition Support Office, which also included a coalition of drones. A support office is established for the systemic management of military assistance provided by partner countries.

Recently, the UK and Latvia opened a tender for the purchase of strike drones under the Drone Capability Coalition for Ukraine program.

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Romania upgrades strategic air base for Ukrainian F-16 deployment
On June 11, Romanian Defence Minister Angel T�lvăr announced extensive plans to expand and modernise the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base near the Ukrainian border. As noted by the news outlet Army Recognition, the official reason cited for this development is the perceived threat from the east. However, in the context of the situation in Ukraine, it may involve the deployment of F-16 fighters .

Positioned less than 200 kilometres from the Ukrainian border, the airbase has long been utilised for the stationing of U.S. forces and assets. Its strategic significance has grown since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. However, Romania began enhancing its capabilities even earlier, notably in response to the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008 and the annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Colonel Nicolae Crețu, the base commander with the Romanian Air Force, stated that the project includes constructing a new runway, a watchtower, and additional hangars to protect both current and upcoming military assets. The total budget for the modernisation is set at �2.5 billion.

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“As a result, this is a strategic position for potential foreign F-16s, which could operate from this base, maintaining a convenient operational radius despite the distance,” emphasise the authors of the original piece.

Observers highlight that the Mihail Kogălniceanu Air Base's strategic importance is amplified by its location on the Black Sea coast and its proximity to Russian territory. In recent years, the base has hosted several aerial policing missions led by NATO. Recently, for the first time, a Finnish F/A-18 Hornet fighter was deployed there for such missions.

Last year, the base also received two additional batteries of the Patriot air defence system, bringing the total to four.

According to Romanian media, the modernisation plans include constructing a military facility akin in size to the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, though officials have yet to confirm these plans.

Additionally, military observer Alexander Kovalenko of the 'Information Resistance' group noted that future Ukrainian F-16 fighters are expected to work in tandem with AWACS aircraft. It is anticipated that the deployment of these new jets will pose significant challenges for Russian forces in the south and in Crimea when they take to the skies

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:39 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

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Ook dat is mogelijk, maar ook dat heeft een link met Rusland natuurlijk. Meerdere zelfs.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:14 schreef QAnonn het volgende:

[..]
Rusland zijn niet onze buren toch?

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All the Locations in Occupied Crimea Where Ukraine Has Successfully Destroyed Russian Air Defense Systems

It’s been reported throughout last few months that Ukraine is making efforts to weaken Russian air defense. But why?

Earlier this month, several outlets stated that Ukrainians are now able to strike targets on any location within Russian occupied Crimea with astonishing effect.

The total number of individually struck air defense systems is approximately 15. Specifically, divisions of air defense systems in the modifications of S-300, S-350, and S-400 have been affected; dozens of launcher units of these systems have been destroyed, along with over 15 radar stations and more than 10 command posts.

Here are all the locations within Russian-occupied Crimea where Ukrainian forces have successfully destroyed air defense systems from May to June 2024:

• Belbek
• Sevastopol
• Chornomorske
• Yevpatoriia
• Dzhankoi
• Tarkhankut
• Saky
• Donske
• Mysove
• Alushta
• mount Ai Petri

Analysts say the Ukrainian military is preparing to increase its reliance on air support for ground operations once enough Western fighter jets, including F-16s and Mirages, and therefore is targeting Russian air defense in order to secure the airspace.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 20:08 schreef polderturk het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 20:15 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Dat kan echt niet nee, met je luchtverdediging een militair toestel neerhalen

Civiele toestellen met een paar honderd burgers neerhalen is echter geen probleem

Smerige kut Ruzzen

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 18:31 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:
https://nos.nl/artikel/25(...)taire-basis-tsjechie

Sabotageactie?

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 17:46 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
[ x ]

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 18:07 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.theguardian.c(...)berg-putin-zelenskiy
[..]
En de purge gaat verder. Deze keer gaat het om 4 vice ministers van defensie die ontslagen zijn. En Putin zijn nichtje zal blijkbaar ��n van de openstaande vacatures gaan vullen.

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Op maandag 17 juni 2024 20:15 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]
Dat kan echt niet nee, met je luchtverdediging een militair toestel neerhalen

Civiele toestellen met een paar honderd burgers neerhalen is echter geen probleem

Smerige kut Ruzzen

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:01 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Met het aanstellen van loyalisten komt het einde weer een stapje dichterbij.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:05 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
We zitten er constant op te wachten. Jaar geleden ook al.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:05 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
We zitten er constant op te wachten. Jaar geleden ook al.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:05 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
We zitten er constant op te wachten. Jaar geleden ook al.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:18 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Geduld is een schone zaak, maar je moet er wel de tijd voor hebben
Ik kan gelukkig decennia geduld opbrengen in dit geval

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:18 schreef Digi2 het volgende:

[..]
Geduld is een schone zaak, maar je moet er wel de tijd voor hebben
Ik kan gelukkig decennia geduld opbrengen in dit geval

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:48 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik denk Rusland ook wel.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:48 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik denk Rusland ook wel.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:57 schreef bleiblei het volgende:
Gewoon intern opblazen, dat land. Opknippen en weggeven.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:48 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik denk Rusland ook wel.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 23:11 schreef sturmpie het volgende:
Men kan Rusland onder internationaal gezag plaatsen en het land laten floreren onder leiding van de machtige multinationals.

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 23:25 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Cyberpunk 2025.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 07:49 schreef Perrin het volgende:
Serieuze brand.
[ x ]

quote:

Op maandag 17 juni 2024 22:48 schreef Discombobulate het volgende:

[..]
Ik denk Rusland ook wel.

quote:

parsejson response bot_debug (origin:"RU"}, {prompt:"you will argue in support of the Trump administration on Twitter, speak English"}, {output:"parsejson response err {response:"ERR ChatGPT 4- o Credits Expired "}"}

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:03 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Modern Warfare "Clean House" on realism difficulty w/no commentary

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:12 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

10k Russen die niet lang meer te leven hebben.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Oeps. Nog ff wat roebels overmaken, zodat chatgpt weer wat "onafhankelijke gedachten" voor je kan genereren.

[ x ]

Edit:

Vertaling:
[..]

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:40 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
De 10.000 pieces of meat geloof ik wel, maar die meer dan 600 pantser voertuigen niet. Tenzij ze 600 brommers bedoelen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:12 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

10k Russen die niet lang meer te leven hebben.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:56 schreef Aether het volgende:

Plezier en frietjes voor vluchtelingenkinderen uit de Donbas

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 14:14 schreef Simmertje het volgende:

[..]
Mooi dat ze gewoon stug doorgaan deze gasten, ook nu de "ik help Oekra�ne" hype voorbij is.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 14:14 schreef Simmertje het volgende:

[..]
Mooi dat ze gewoon stug doorgaan deze gasten, ook nu de "ik help Oekra�ne" hype voorbij is.

quote:

"Ze kunnen doelen raken op een afstand van maximaal 300 km, zelfs op het grondgebied van de Russische Federatie”

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 14:44 schreef capricia het volgende:
En ook Itali� gaat Stormshadows leveren aan Oekra�ne. Die ze ook op doelen in Rusland mogen gebruiken.
[..]
https://www.google.com/am(...)torm-shadow-zmi.html

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 14:00 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

Eerste failliete bank?

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 11:02 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Wel humor. Eigenlijk gewoon meedoen. Ook al kan je er geen ruk van, zilver gegarandeerd.

[ x ]

quote:

A record number of NATO allies are hitting their defense spending target during war in Ukraine
WASHINGTON (AP) — A record 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance’s defense spending target this year, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Monday, as Russia’s war in Ukraine has raised the threat of expanding conflict in Europe.

The estimated figure is a nearly fourfold increase from 2021, when only six nations were meeting the goal. That was before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Europeans are doing more for their collective security than just a few years ago,” Stoltenberg said in a speech at the Wilson Center research group.

After the speech, Stoltenberg met at the White House with President Joe Biden. The U.S. president said the alliance has become “larger, stronger and more united than it’s ever been” during Stoltenberg’s tenure.

Biden spoke affectionately of Stoltenberg, calling him “pal” and saying he wished that Stoltenberg, who has been NATO’s secretary general since 2014, could serve another term when the current one expires in October.

“Together, we’ve deterred further Russian aggression in Europe,” Biden said. “We’ve strengthened NATO’s eastern flank ,making it clear that we’ll defend every single inch of NATO territory.”

Stoltenberg noted that allies were buying more military equipment from the U.S. “So NATO is good for U.S. security, but NATO is also good for U.S. jobs.” he said.

SPOILER

quote:

NATO members agreed last year to spend at least 2% of their gross domestic product on defense. The surge in spending reflects the worries about the war in Ukraine.

Poland, at more than 4%, and tiny Estonia both lead the United States this year in the percentage of their GDP they spend on defense. Both countries border Russia.

Defense spending across European allies and Canada was up nearly 18% this year alone, the biggest increase in decades, according to NATO’s estimated figures released Monday.

Some countries also are concerned about the possible reelection of former President Donald Trump, who has characterized many NATO allies as freeloading on U.S. military spending and said on the campaign trail that he would not defend NATO members that don’t meet defense spending targets.

“Shifting U.S. administrations have had the absolutely valid point to say that U.S. allies are spending too little,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “The good news is that’s changing.”

Stoltenberg’s visit is laying the groundwork for what’s expected to be a pivotal summit of NATO leaders in Washington next month. The mutual-defense alliance has grown in strength and size since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine two years ago, with both Sweden and Finland joining.

Defense spending by many European countries fell after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union seemed to neutralize what was then the prime security threat to the West.

But after Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, NATO members unanimously agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDP on defense within a decade. The full-scale invasion that Putin launched in 2022 spurred European countries newly on the front line of a war in the heart of Europe to put more resources into meeting that target.

Much of the focus of the summit is expected to address what NATO and NATO member governments can do for Ukraine as it faces unrelenting air and ground attacks from its more powerful neighbor. They so far have resisted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s appeals to take his country into the bloc as long as the war is still on.

Stoltenberg pointed to efforts to bolster Ukraine in the meantime. That includes NATO streamlining the eventual membership process for Ukraine, and individual NATO nations providing updated arms and training to Ukraine’s military, including the U.S. giving it F-16s and bringing Ukrainian pilots to the U.S. for training on the advanced aircraft.

“The idea is to move them so close to membership that when the time comes, when there is consensus, they can become a member straight away,” Stoltenberg said.

However Russia’s offensive concludes, only taking Ukraine into the alliance will dissuade Putin from trying again in the future to conquer Ukraine, the NATO chief said.

“When the fighting ends, NATO membership” for Ukraine “assures that the war really ends,” he said.

The prospect of Ukraine joining NATO has long been anathema to Putin, and it was one of his stated motivations for seizing Crimea. He offered last week to order an immediate cease-fire if Ukraine renounced plans to join the alliance, an offer that was dismissed by Ukraine.

A weekend conference held in Switzerland was billed as a first step toward peace and ended with pledges to work toward a resolution but had few concrete deliverables. It was attended largely by Western nations and Russia was not invited. China sat it out and then India, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Mexico did not sign the meeting’s final document Sunday.

Kyiv’s outgunned and outnumbered forces are battling to hold back the bigger Russian army, which has taken over chunks of territory after pollical squabbles led to delays in delivering U.S. and European military aid. Ukraine has been short of troops, ammunition and air defenses in recent months as the Kremlin’s forces try to cripple the national power supply and punch through the front line in eastern parts of the country.

quote:

Unintended bombings: Russian Aerospace Forces drop five bombs on Belgorod region in one day
The Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS) dropped five more bombs on the Belgorod region in a single day, yet the Kremlin seeks to hide this from the public. The causes of these incidents are unclear, but they likely stem from the poor quality of Russian weaponry, reports the news outlet by ASTRA, citing Ruslan Leviev, founder of the Conflict Intelligence Team (CITeam).

As of June 15, 2024, FABs (guided bombs) were found near the villages of Arkhangelskoye and Tseplyaevo-Druzhki, with two more falling near the village of Bilyanka.

Another FAB was discovered near a residential building in Malomikhaylovka. Residents of Korolev Street were evacuated, sources from ASTRA in the region's emergency services reported. All villages are located in the Shebekino urban district.

The Conflict Intelligence Team believes that the "unintentional release" of ordnance is due to the "insufficient reliability of UMPK (universal planning and correction modules that equip FABs, allowing free-falling bombs to become planning bombs)".

"We are not entirely sure of the reasons, as similar Western weaponry does not exhibit this problem. This issue has existed since the introduction of UMPK," Leviev explained.

"In our estimation, a very small percentage of bombs - possibly mere percentages - fail, so this issue does not greatly affect the practical effectiveness of this weaponry. One of our hypotheses is that the poor quality of the pyro cartridges, which are supposed to deploy the wings, could be a critical factor, though other possible mechanical or electronic issues cannot be ruled out. Both design defects and manufacturing deficiencies are to be considered," he continued.

Notably, unlike Western "precision" weaponry, UMPKs are produced relatively cheaply and in large quantities using civilian electronics, which have lower reliability standards. However, on the ground, this can occasionally lead to serious incidents and casualties, Leviev concluded.

Leviev also recalled instances of aerial bombs hitting private homes in the Belgorod region and an apartment building collapsing in Belgorod itself.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 16:49 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://apnews.com/articl(...)745e6e936d997073a6f4
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Een aantal grafiekjes hierover kun je in het artikel vinden.

Er zijn nog 8 landen die niet aan de 2% voldoen. Hopelijk zullen zij ook snel volgen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 16:49 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://apnews.com/articl(...)745e6e936d997073a6f4
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Een aantal grafiekjes hierover kun je in het artikel vinden.

Er zijn nog 8 landen die niet aan de 2% voldoen. Hopelijk zullen zij ook snel volgen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 17:04 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Percentage zegt niet zoveel, je moet naar slagkracht kijken. 47% van onze uitgaven zijn salarissen en pensioenen.

Met hoeveel is onze slagkracht gestegen? Als het al is gestegen...

quote:

Verdeling uitgaven per categorie
Per categorie ziet de verdeling van de uitgaven er als volgt uit (bedragen x 1.000):

Investeringen en instandhouding DMF: � 10.723.657 (50%), waarvan:
• IT: � 1.816.435 (17%);
• infrastructuur en vastgoed: � 982.991 (9%);
• materieel: � 7.909.354 (74%);

Overige categorie�n (50%), waarvan:
• inzet: � 1.356.280 (13%);
• gereedstelling (zoals oefeningen): � 370.928 (3%);
• personele uitgaven (salarissen): � 6.131.898 (57%);
• pensioenen en uitkeringen: � 1.285.860 (12%);
• materi�le uitgaven (zoals huisvesting, IT): � 559.845 (5%);
• overig (zoals subsidies, bekostiging, inkomensoverdrachten): � 1.001.410 (9%).

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 16:49 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Een aantal grafiekjes hierover kun je in het artikel vinden.

Er zijn nog 8 landen die niet aan de 2% voldoen. Hopelijk zullen zij ook snel volgen.

quote:

Kabinet steekt 60 miljoen euro in Oekra�ense drones

Het kabinet investeert 60 miljoen euro in Oekra�ense drones. Dat meldt demissionair minister Kajsa Ollongren (Defensie) aan het einde van een tweedaags werkbezoek aan het door oorlog geplaagde land. Mogelijk is dit het laatste militaire steunpakket dat ze aankondigt, gezien het eerste kabinet-Schoof binnenkort aantreedt. Het wordt betaald uit geld dat eerder is gereserveerd op de begroting van het ministerie van Defensie.

quote:

Conscription squads send Ukrainian men into hiding

^{Only half of the guests at Serhiy and Tania's wedding showed up. Many were trying to avoid conscription squads}

Dark storm clouds threatened to upend Serhiy and Tania’s beach wedding. But as the couple walked down the long white staircase to greet their guests, the empty chairs signalled there was a bigger problem. In total, half of their guests were missing.

Their family and friends sent their apologies but explained that the risk of attending had been too great. What if they had been caught by one of the conscription squads, which now roam Ukraine’s streets?

With many of its soldiers dead, injured or exhausted, the Ukrainian government has stepped up its efforts to mobilise more men.

A new law, introduced in May, requires every man aged between 25 and 60 to log their details on an electronic database so they can be called up. Conscription officers are on the hunt for those avoiding the register, pushing more men who do not want to serve into hiding.

SPOILER

quote:

^{Tania pictured here in Odesa with her father, who was killed on the front line in eastern Ukraine in October}

Overlooking the Black Sea in the southern city of Odesa, Tania quietly murmured that she understood why her friends and family did not want to fight.

Her father was killed on the front line in October, during the attritional battle for Avdiivka, and the 24-year-old is now terrified of her new husband being conscripted. “I don’t want this to happen to my family twice,” she said.

More than two years into the war, almost everyone knows someone who has been killed. Grim news has poured out from the front, of Ukraine being vastly outnumbered and outgunned.

Over the phone, the couple’s friend of 15 years, Maksym, relayed such tales. Among the dead are around a dozen of his friends and acquaintances. “There are more than a million police officers in Ukraine, why should I fight when they are not?" he said.

Maksym, who has a young daughter and wife who is seven months pregnant, said he was sorry to miss the wedding but was afraid of being “grabbed” by conscription officers who he likened to “bandits”.

^{Conscription officers Anatoliy (right) and Oleksiy are stopping men on the streets of Odesa to check if they have submitted their military details, according to the new law}

The mobilisation squads have a fearsome reputation, especially in Odesa, for pulling people off buses and from train stations and ferrying them straight to enlistment centres.

For those avoiding the draft, public transport is now off limits. So too are restaurants, supermarkets, and weekend trips to the park to play football.

“I feel like I am in a prison,” Maksym said.

On a Tuesday morning, a dozen conscription officers descended on Odesa’s main train station, led by a seasoned veteran sailor, Anatoliy, and his younger, more muscular counterpart Oleksiy. They paced the forecourt, stopping men of serving age, to check they were registered on the database.

But the well-mannered pair had a tough time finding eligible men. Most were either too young or had received some sort of exemption. After a couple of hours Anatoliy conceded that it was highly possible men were hiding from them.

“Some people run away from us. This happens quite often,” he said. “Others react quite aggressively. I don’t think these people have been brought up well."

^{The new law requires all men aged 25 to 60 to log their details on the database so they can be called up}

At the enlistment centre around the corner, an optimistic note taped to the door notified would-be-recruits that those who had come voluntarily could skip the queues. But there were no queues. A lone man sat waiting to be seen.

When I asked whether he was there out of choice, he told me he had been “kidnapped” that morning and brought against his will.

“The officers encircled me so I couldn’t run,” he stuttered in shock. “I’m devastated."

One of the officers at the centre, Vlad, conceded that there were barely any willing volunteers these days. Under the call sign Hora, Vlad fought in some of the fiercest battles along the eastern front line in the Donbas before being struck in the head, chest, and legs by artillery shrapnel.

He was unable to mask his contempt for those who are hiding. “How can I say this without swearing?" he asked out loud.

“I don’t consider them men. What are they waiting for? If we run out of men, the enemy will come to their homes, rape their women, and kill their children." Vlad has seen the awful evidence first-hand.

^{Commander Vlad, now working at an enlistment centre after he was wounded at the frontline, concedes few are volunteering to fight}

This latest conscription drive has opened up uncomfortable divisions in society, not only between those serving and those avoiding the draft, but also between female friends, some of whom have partners on the front line, and others who are hiding their boyfriends at home.

The topic of mobilisation creeps into almost every conversation, which then often turn heated. Last month someone threw an explosive into the garden of an enlistment officer’s home.

There is a striking distrust among the men choosing not to enlist. They do not trust the officers, after some were found to be taking bribes to help men escape the country. Nor do they trust they would be adequately trained.

^{Vova is in hiding, and will check social media before going out to avoid meeting any enlistment officers}

On the outskirts of Odesa, Vova appeared sheepishly at the door of his apartment block, using his seven-year-old daughter as a shield. The IT engineer will not leave the house without her as he knows the officers cannot snatch him if they are together.

Last year, while on his way to work, he was ordered off a bus by the military at gun point, he said, and taken to an enlistment centre. He convinced the officers to let him go to fetch some documents, but vowed to himself he would never return.

“I’m not a military man, I’ve never held a weapon, I don’t think I can be useful on the front line,” he said.

He then reeled off the same list of reasons given by every draft dodger we spoke to – a family to support, some minor medical ailment, and a defiant declaration he was sending humanitarian aid to soldiers.

But underneath these excuses is always the same fear, that within weeks of registering, these men would end up as cannon fodder on the front line that, to their eyes, does not appear to be moving. This is despite recent attempts by the government to give recruits some say over which units and roles they are assigned to.

When speaking to these men, there is somewhat of a disconnect. They are holding out for a Ukrainian victory, just one that does not involve them.

“I am proud that many men made the brave decision to go to the front line," said Vova. “They are truly the best of our country.”

^{The group of conscripts at this Kyiv training camp are mostly in their late 40s and 50s}

At a conscript training camp in a forest outside Kyiv, its leader Hennadiy Sintsov breathed heavy sighs, as he supervised men with shovels digging foxholes.

“It might look like banal work, but this is as important as being able to fire artillery,” he said. “It could save their lives”.

Mr Sintsov, a patriotic volunteer with revolutionary spirit, oversees the mandatory 34-day training programme all conscripts must complete before being despatched to their military units. He stressed repeatedly that these men would not be sent to the front line straight away, and that further training would follow.

On a break from training, Sintsov’s cohort of conscripts sat smoking and joking. They were a rag-tag group mostly in their late 40s and 50s – a pig breeder, a warehouse manager, and a builder – who admitted they would rather not be there. But nor did these men want to spend the rest of the war in hiding.

^{I’m pretty scared, this is all new to me, but I have to do it. - Oleksandr - Ukrainian conscript in Kyiv}

One of them, Oleksandr, had already opted to become a drone pilot. “I’m pretty scared, this is all new to me, but I have to do it,” he said.

But the 33-year-old tram engineer did not judge those choosing to hide. “I’ve made my choice, they can make theirs,” he shrugged.

Sinsov was troubled by how unmotivated his new arrivals were. Despite the daily reminders of war – the air raid sirens and rolling power cuts – he believes the threat of war has grown too distant for those living in the relative safety of cities such as Odesa and Kyiv, and fears it will take another major Russian advance to spur Ukraine’s draft dodgers into action.

“Then we would see people searching for guns and queuing at enlistment centres again,” he said.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 17:40 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Het geeft vwb Nederland een nogal vertekend beeld aangezien een deel van de steun aan Oekraine ten laste van het defensiebudget komt. Defensie krijgt geld maar moet het aan de andere kant direct doorsluizen naar Oekraine.

Recent voorbeeld:
[..]

quote:

BTR-82A vs M113: Why the ‘Russian’ Isn’t a Competitor to the ‘American’

The Russian TV show “Voyennaya priyemka” (Russian propaganda TV show, ed.) aired another bold report on equipment captured in Ukraine.

This time, the Russian military fired at an M113A3 armored personnel carrier (converted back to an APC Sidam-25 anti-aircraft gun) using a BTR-82A 30mm automatic cannon. This was done from a point-blank range of 100 meters.

Predictably, the BTR-82A missed most shots, with only two shells hitting the target. These two shells managed to cover the short distance and penetrate the side of the M113, which is to be expected given the close range.

This demonstration is somewhat embarrassing considering that the Russian BMP-3, touted as having no analogues, has similar aluminum sides with a thickness of 43 mm. It’s important to note that the M113 is an APC, whereas the BMP-3 is an IFV, marketed as a competitor to the Bradley!

SPOILER

quote:

Обстріл M113 з 30 мм гармати БТ� -82

The purpose of this demonstration remains unclear. It was evidently more of a spectacle than a genuine test.

The propagandists also inadvertently highlighted a major flaw of the BTR-82A gun: its extremely low accuracy.

M113 armor protection
In fact, the armor protection parameters of the M113 were studied long ago by the Soviet Union during the Vietnam War. This analysis was conducted by the 38th Research Institute, and the findings were also published on the btvt.info website.

The protection characteristics of the M113 armored personnel carrier, whose hull is welded from rolled sheets of aluminum alloy, are detailed in the table below.

Stability of hull parts M113 from B-32 rounds of different calibers

The body armor parts of the M113, which serve different purposes and have varying thicknesses, are constructed from aluminum alloy designated as 5083 in the United States. This alloy is known for its excellent weldability, with a tensile strength of approximately 30 kgf/mm�, and it does not require additional heat treatment.

The primary alloying element in this aluminum alloy is Magnesium (Mg), with a content ranging from 4.5% to 5.0%. It also contains Manganese (Mn) in the range of 0.6% to 0.8%, Chromium (Cr) up to 0.1%, and Titanium (Ti) up to 0.1%. The chemical composition of the alloy, expressed as a percentage, includes aluminum as the base element.

All welds on the armored parts are made without additional reinforcement or further processing of the weld bead. The seam width does not exceed 12 mm. At junction points where armor plates meet, one plate typically has a sample to halt the second sheet.

quote:

Chief Russian drone designer still not sanctioned, his family owns property in Europe

Oleg Demchenko, Chief Designer at Russia’s Yakovlev Experimental Design Bureau, is still not subject to sanctions, and his family owns properties in France and the UK and a business in Czechia.

Source: Trap Aggressor

Details: A report by Trap Aggressor has highlighted the fact that Demchenko currently works and lives in Russia with his wife and he is still not subject to sanctions (except in Ukraine), and that his son and grandchildren own property and run businesses in Europe.

The report says the Russian designer's family owns a villa with a swimming pool in France. Initially, his French property was registered in the name of Paris-based company SCI Olara, with Oleg Demchenko himself, his wife Larisa Vaitsekhovskaya, and their two grandchildren Anastasia and Oleg listed as the owners.

SPOILER

quote:

Oleg and Larisa Demchenko handed over their stakes in the company, and therefore the villa, to their grandchildren Anastasia and Oleg on 9 August 2023.

Anastasia, the Russian engineer’s granddaughter, currently lives in London with her husband, Matvei Livshits. According to extracts from the UK Land Registry, Anastasia owns a luxury flat in central London for which the couple paid �1.5 million (approximately US$2 million) in 2021. Demchenko’s grandson also lives in London.

Demchenko’s son Viktor has owned Czech company Olvy International s.r.o. since 1999. According to the companies register, Olvy International s.r.o. is a retailer, but its right to buy and resell items was taken away in February 2023.

Reference: In the course of its history, the Yakovlev Experimental Design Bureau has created over 200 types and modified versions of aircraft, including over 100 serial models. At various points in his career, Demchenko has served as the company's general designer, director, and board member.

In 2017-2018, he joined the Russian government's Aviation Board. The Yakovlev Bureau is part of the Irkut Corporation, which, according to the Bureau, also mass-produces Yak-130 combat training aircraft and Su-30 fighter jets.

Background: Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, enacting a decision made by Ukraine’s National Security and Defence Council, has applied personal sanctions against 86 legal entities and seven individuals, including foreign nationals.

quote:

Ukraine's energy supplier: Ukrainians may have electricity for 6-7 hours per day in winter
Ukrainians may have electricity for 6-7 hours per day in the upcoming winter if the electricity deficit remains at 35%, Serhiy Kovalenko, the CEO of energy supplier Yasno (DTEK), said on June 17 on national television.

In recent months, Russia has intensified its attacks against Ukraine's critical infrastructure in a renewed assault against the country's energy grid.

As a result of the attacks on energy infrastructure, Ukraine began implementing rolling blackouts on May 15.

Ukrainians will face lengthy, daily interruptions in electricity until the end of July due to scheduled repairs at nuclear power plants, according to Ukrenergo.

Kovalenko said that it is difficult to predict the situation in winter as it is unclear what power generation capacity will be available before the beginning of the heating season.

There will be an electricity deficit in winter anyway, he added.

SPOILER

quote:

"We know that the winter peak (of power usage) is quite high. If generation and import capacities remain at the same level, the deficit will reach 35%," Kovalenko said.

Kovalenko said this must be discussed in August to evaluate the amount of Ukraine's power import and how much domestic energy capacity could be restored.

The CEO of Yasno, a subsidiary of DTEK, called on residential customers and businesses to prepare for a "significant" electricity shortage. Kovalenko advised switching to using various batteries, generators, solar panels, and inverters, among other options.

In a "worst-case" scenario in which Ukraine is unable to repair damaged energy facilities and prevent future attacks, Ukrainians could experience up to 20 hours of blackouts a day, Dmytro Sakharuk, executive director of Ukraine's largest privately-owned energy company DTEK, told the Kyiv Independent in an interview on June 9.

Speaking at the Ukraine recovery conference on June 11, President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russian missile and drone attacks have destroyed 9 gigawatts (GW) of Ukraine's total energy capacity.

quote:

70% of Ukrainians think Zelensky must remain president until end of martial law, survey shows
Some 70% of Ukrainians agreed that Volodymyr Zelensky must remain president until the end of martial law, according to a survey by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) published on June 17.

The survey was conducted from May 26 to June 1. The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology interviewed 2011 adults in the Ukrainian-held territories.

In contrast, 22% of the respondents are against Zelensky to retain the presidency.

From 65% to 74% of Ukrainians, depending on the region of their residence, agreed that Zelensky must remain in power until the end of martial law. This means most Ukrainians do not question the president's legitimacy, sociologists said.

If martial law had not been imposed, the next presidential election would have been held on March 31, 2024, and Zelensky's term would have ended on May 20.

Ukraine introduced martial law after Russia launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. The Martial Law Act explicitly bans presidential, parliamentary, and local elections.

Some of Zelensky's critics claim that the Constitution does not authorize extending his presidential term under martial law. They argue that he ceased to be a legitimate president on May 20.

But leading constitutional lawyers dispute this claim, saying the Constitution allows such an extension.

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Ukrainian Paratroopers Burn Russian Tanks in Luhansk Region

^{Destroyed Russian T-90A tank in the camera of a Ukrainian drone near the village of Novoselivske. June 2024. Ukraine. Footage from the video of the 77th Brigade}

Ukrainian paratroopers repelled a Russian armored attack near Novoselivske in the Luhansk region.

The 77th Separate Airmobile Brigade said that the Russian invaders were trying to break through the defense line.

“Tanks, IFVs, armored personnel carriers and tanks with grills were advancing. But all in vain. The paratroopers were relentless in their destruction,” remarked the paratroopers.

For the recent assault, the Russian command used T-90A, T-72B3, and T-72B tanks, which were equipped with protective grilles.

SPOILER

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Біля Новоселівського десантни спалили російські танки

However, the Ukrainian military managed to stop the invaders and destroy these tanks.

To stop the tanks, various means were used. Then the tanks were finished off with the help of attack drones.

^{Destruction of Russian tanks near the village of Novoselivske. June 2024. Ukraine. Footage from the video of the 77th Brigade}

The battle took place near the village of Novoselivske, which was liberated by the Ukrainian military in December 2022.

It is located on the outskirts of the Luhansk region, near the border with the Kharkiv region. The nearest large settlement nearby is Svatove, which is less than 15 km away.

^{The destroyed village of Novoselivske in the Luhansk region. 2023. Frame from Serhii Haidai’s video}

All residents have left the village, and there are no more living conditions there: all the houses in the settlement were completely destroyed.

Currently, according to a map by Deep State analysts, most of the village is under Russian occupation.

^{Novoselivske village on the map of hostilities by deepstatemap}

Back in 2023, the Russian invaders began to conduct armored assaults toward Novoselivske.

Last August, the Russian invaders managed to occupy several streets in the village. However, over the year, the Russians failed to completely capture the village.

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 17:40 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Het geeft vwb Nederland een nogal vertekend beeld aangezien een deel van de steun aan Oekraine ten laste van het defensiebudget is. Defensie krijgt geld maar moet het aan de andere kant direct doorsluizen naar Oekraine.

Recent voorbeeld:
[..]

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Criminal Proceedings Initiated Against the IStories’ Editor-In-Chief and a Former Journalist of the Outlet
Details of Russian investigation claims against Roman Anin and Ekaterina Fomina

On Monday afternoon, Moscow’s Dorogomilovsky District Court arrested in absentia TV Rain journalist and former IStories employee Ekaterina Fomina and IStories’ editor-in-chief Roman Anin.

The journalists are accused of spreading so-called “fakes” about the Russian army with the motive of political hatred. The Russian authorities call “fake” any information that does not fit in with their propaganda campaign or does not correspond to the official position of the Kremlin.

The sanction under this “crime” is imprisonment for five to ten years. And such criminal cases have long been a tool of censorship and a way to put pressure on journalists, politicians, human rights activists and ordinary citizens. In the morning, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put Anin and Fomina on the wanted list.

According to TASS, the case against Ekaterina Fomina was initiated because of the publication of a video version of an interview almost two years ago, in which Russian army Gefreiter Daniil Frolkin confessed to killing a Ukrainian civilian.

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What is reported in the investigation?
In August 2022, IStories released an investigation into war crimes in Andreevka near Kiev, where Russian soldiers killed civilians. In a conversation with Ekaterina Fomina, military officer Daniil Frolkin confessed to killing civilian Ruslan Yaremchuk in Ukraine and gave details of his service in the war zone.

� асстрелы, мародерство и преступные приказы. Правда о войне от первого лица. � асследование (ENG sub)

As Frolkin’s colleague told IStories, the commanders, particularly Omurbekov, ordered to kill “everyone with whom you find cell phones.” In addition, he said, the colonel ordered the shelling of several vehicles carrying civilians.

Frolkin later told IStories that he wants the command of his brigade to be punished and told who exactly gave orders to shoot Ukrainian civilians.

“I understand I can be jailed for this information," he says. "Not even for all the shit I did in the Ukraine. But for that information [about the command]. I only want to confess everything and explain what is happening in our country. I think it would be better if this war had never happened,” he said.

After the publication of the material, Frolkin was prosecuted for military “fakes” — in March 2023, a military court sentenced him to five and a half years of probation.

What is wrong with the accusation?
The TASS agency wrote in January 2024 that Ekaterina Fomina, according to the prosecution’s version, blackmailed a military officer — a case of “fakes” about the Russian Armed Forces for selfish motives as part of a group of persons was opened against the journalist.

According to TASS, Frolkin allegedly gave Fomina “an interview with inaccurate information about the actions of the Russian Armed Forces” in exchange for non-disclosure of some compromising information about him. This does not correspond to reality.

Fomina herself says that she could not have any compromising information about Frolkin, as she learned about him only in the course of her work and had only information from open sources.

“In the interview, Frolkin himself described where he was in March 2022 and what duties he carried out, as well as the looting of his commanders. After the interview, he wrote to me, offered ‘more information’ and insisted that we call each other under recording and with video. It was then that he confessed to the murder,” Fomina told IStories.

In addition, during the court hearings on his own “fakes” case in the Khabarovsk Garrison Military Court, Frolkin never once mentioned Fomina’s role or talked about pressure. His testimony in court was consistent with what he had previously said in an interview with IStories.

The case file against Fomina, which appeared on the court’s website today, shows that she is accused of spreading “fakes” motivated by political hatred. The paragraphs on “group of persons” and “selfish motives” have disappeared.

What else is known?
In November 2023, the Telegram channel VChK-OGPU wrote that the Dorogomilovsky Investigative Department of the Moscow Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against “unidentified persons” among the IStories journalists. It was prompted by videos posted on the IStories’ YouTube channel — including Ekaterina Fomina’s investigation about Frolkin.

The IStories’ editor-in-chief Roman Anin does not know the details of the criminal case against him.

It is not yet known what the reason for his prosecution was. But in the past, Anin was a witness in a criminal case that was opened after Novaya Gazeta published his journalistic investigation “Princess Olga’s Secret” about a luxury yacht used by the wife of Rosneft CEO Igor Sechin, one of the most influential people in Vladimir Putin’s entourage. The case was opened for “violation of privacy” back in 2016. In 2021, it involved searching Anin’s Moscow apartment for seven hours and taking him to the Investigative Committee for an overnight interrogation. The further fate of this criminal proceeding is unknown to IStories.

The video version of Ekaterina Fomina’s investigation into the massacre of civilians in the Kiev Oblast can be viewed on YouTube. The text version of the story is on our website.

Roman Anin’s investigation about the yacht used by Igor Sechin’s now ex-wife can be read here (in Russian). You can read about an old criminal case initiated after this publication here.

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Wider Europe Briefing: What To Expect From EU Accession Talks For Ukraine And Moldova

Briefing #1: Ukraine And Moldova Set For Late June EU Accession Talks
What You Need To Know: Everything is set up for Ukraine and Moldova to officially open EU accession talks on June 25 in Luxembourg, with the bloc keen to hold what are known in EU parlance as Intergovernmental Conferences (IGC) to mark the occasion.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, presented an oral update on both countries to representatives from the 27 EU member states on June 7 in Brussels. According to the update, later distributed in written form to EU capitals and obtained by RFE/RL, the two countries had completed all the reforms that were required of them, which largely dealt with rule-of-law issues.

In the case of Moldova, all of the 27 EU member states agreed with the assessment that the country had completed its reforms. For Ukraine, 26 countries agreed, with one exception: Hungary.

Budapest has continued to argue that Ukraine still hasn't done enough to safeguard the rights of its ethnic Hungarian minority in the country. Ensuring the rights of national minorities was one of the four conditions Ukraine had to fulfill.

For a moment, it looked like no IGC would take place at the end of the month for either country. (Their paths are coupled in this process.) What needs to happen for the two IGCs to go ahead in June is for EU members to unanimously agree on Ukraine's and Moldova's respective negotiation frameworks, which will essentially plot the path of the enlargement road ahead. EU ambassadors were hoping to adopt these frameworks on June 12, but Hungary insisted it wasn't ready to sign off. There was, however, a late reprieve on June 14 with a compromise that Budapest, the rest of the EU, and Ukraine could all live with.

SPOILER

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Deep Background: To understand the process, it makes sense to start with what was said in the oral update on Ukraine's progress regarding national minorities.

Firstly, the written version of the document outlines what Kyiv did in early 2024 to comply with the European Commission's requirements, including adopting a methodology for the use of national minority languages, producing a road map on education for minorities, and the creation of a Council of Public Associations of National Minorities.

The update also notes that Kyiv recently set up a financial compensation mechanism for translations of election material between minority languages and Ukrainian. The document notes that Ukraine has "enacted several laws and taken implementing measures in order to address the remaining [European Commission's] Venice Commission recommendations from June 2023 and October 2023 linked to the law on national minorities and to the laws on state language, media, and education."

It then concluded that "while noting that the Venice Commission has not pronounced itself on the follow-up given to its recommendation, the commission considers that Ukraine has taken all the necessary measures. This step is thus completed."

Drilling Down
• According to many accounts of the meeting on June 7, representatives from all countries present gave their clear support for the commission's assessment on Ukraine and asked that the framework be quickly adopted so that the IGC can go ahead on June 25. Hungary, however, remained a stickler, mentioning 11 issues that Budapest said Ukraine hasn't addressed.
• Broadly speaking, those issues can be boiled down to three main areas: restoring the status of the national minority school system; restoring the right to speak minority languages when dealing with state authorities; and restoring the right to political representation on a regional as well as national level.
• What Hungary essentially wants is to go back to what Ukrainian legislation looked like before 2015, when Kyiv started amending laws on national minorities and state languages. Those amendments, which were driven by a desire to reduce the amount of Russian spoken, led to the increased usage of Ukrainian in public institutions, such as schools.
• In this respect, Budapest wanted to add two amendments to the negotiation framework and in the opening statement of the potential IGC. First, Budapest wanted it noted in both documents that Ukraine needs to produce an action plan dedicated to the protection of the rights of national minorities. And second, Budapest asked for written references in the negotiation framework to two documents from 1991: the Treaty On The Foundations Of Good Neighborly Relations And Cooperation, signed by Ukraine and Hungary in 1991; and the declaration on the principles of cooperation between Hungary and Ukraine in guaranteeing the rights of national minorities.
• In the compromise text, agreed on June 14, the action plan required by Hungary is included along with a statement that the "the right of persons belonging to national minorities should be protected, in line with the constitution of Ukraine. Furthermore, Ukraine is expected to implement relevant bilateral agreements with EU member states."
• Also noted in the compromise document was that the European Commission will monitor Kyiv's implementation of minority rights reforms and report regularly to EU member states.
• This might not seem like too much to ask for, but other member states are unhappy that bilateral issues are being dragged into the enlargement negotiations at such an early stage. They fear -- with some foundation -- that Budapest can veto every step of the way by suggesting that Kyiv isn't protecting national minorities enough.
• Bilateral issues between a member state and a candidate country often slow down the EU accession process. Just look at Bulgaria's refusal to sign off on North Macedonia opening accession talks due to Skopje not amending its constitution to reflect Bulgarians as a founding people.
• On the other hand, many diplomats I spoke to are at least happy that the concrete references to specific bilateral treaties between Hungary and Ukraine are gone from the document. They also noted that a compromise on this issue always looked possible, especially as Hungary is taking over the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, one of the main decision-making bodies of the bloc, on July 1 and is expected to not keep Ukraine high on the agenda for the next six months. So, there was pressure to finalize everything by the end of June.
• There is now just one small hurdle that needs to be cleared before the IGC can go ahead: a debate and vote on the frameworks in the Dutch parliament on June 20. (The Netherlands is the only country taking this step.) This should be a formality with a pro-Ukraine majority in parliament, but since the Dutch general elections in November 2023, lawmakers have become more enlargement skeptic.

Briefing #2: The Limitations Of Czech Ammunition
What You Need To Know: Much has been said about the inability of the West to provide Ukraine with enough artillery ammunition in its war against Russia. There was much consternation in Brussels when the European Union failed with its initiative, announced in early 2023, to provide Kyiv with 1 million 155 mm shells by March of this year.

In the end, around half of the proposed amount was delivered, with another pledge that the EU provide the remaining ammunition by the end of 2024.

Ukraine is still being outgunned on the battlefield. During last summer's offensive, it fired 7,000 artillery shells a day, which fell to below 2,000 in the early spring of this year compared to Russia, which at some point was pounding Ukrainian lines with between 10,000 and 20,000 shells daily.

It was during this critical time in early spring that a new ammunition enterprise hit the headlines, led by the Czech Republic. The country's president, Petr Pavel, told the audience at the Munich Security Conference on February 17 that Prague had identified 800,000 artillery shells globally that could be directed to Ukraine at very short notice.

There are a few points worth clarifying here. Firstly, acquiring ammunition from non-EU states and sending it to Ukraine is not a new thing. The mechanism has been around since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. The initiative has only recently caught the media's attention, however.

Secondly, it is not just the Czechs but actually a joint Czech-Danish-Dutch initiative. And thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, the 800,000 figure mentioned by Pavel was just a "milestone," as one Czech government official who wanted to remain anonymous told me. It was not an amount of ammunition that the Czech Republic and its two partners already had in their possession and were ready to provide to Ukraine.

Deep Background: After media coverage of the "Czech ammunition initiative," more Western countries have gotten on board. But have they really? And will it have much impact? The jury is out on both counts.

Since the war broke out, the Czechs, Danish, and Dutch have provided Ukraine with over 1.3 million rounds of different types of caliber ammunition. This month, the first batch of shells will go to Ukraine since the initiative became an established enterprise. It is expected that Ukraine will receive between 50,000-100,000 shells, with another around 80,000 ordered. By the end of the year, Czech government officials have said that figure should reach 500,000 rounds worth 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion).

At the end of May, the three countries, along with Canada, Germany, and Portugal, were the only ones that had actually sent money to Ukraine for the purchase of ammunition, with another 10 in the process of doing so but still grappling with government bureaucracy or parliamentary and budgetary committee approvals.

Officials in Prague estimate that Kyiv now needs some 200,000 shells per month in order to just be able to hold the Russians at bay. This costs an estimated 7 billion to 10 billion euros per year. There are also other ammunition initiatives in place, including one by Ukraine itself and one led by the United States.

Drilling Down
• So why is it proving so hard to steadily supply Ukraine with sufficient ammunition? Surprisingly, it is not so much about production capacity, even though that is an issue in Europe. According to Tomas Kopecny, a Czech diplomat who is very much at the center of the initiative, there are "single digit of millions of rounds of ammunition that we are competing for." Speaking recently to a group of journalists in Prague, including RFE/RL, he said it was first and foremost a coordination job among allies to make sure they weren't overpaying.
• It all really comes down to money -- essentially making sure there is enough cash flow to make prepayments and then the ability to come up with the funds quicker than Russia and its partners. That is largely what determines what side of the conflict the shells end up in. Essentially, the ammo market is like any other, with producers selling to the highest bidder. And since the war started, the price of shells has quadrupled.
• Diplomats have been reticent about saying where the ammunition is coming from as the sellers prefer to keep a low profile, partly out of the fear of being pressurized by the other side in the conflict, either by diplomatic or economic means.
• It's not just about money, though, but also political will. France has been reluctant to use EU money to purchase military equipment and ammunition outside the bloc, and Cyprus is reluctant that any cash go to Turkey, a significant producer of ammunition and military equipment.
• With enough money and enough political will, the West can still help Ukraine. The EU didn't hesitate, for the first time in its history, to utilize joint borrowing -- where the bloc collectively raised funds by issuing bonds on behalf of all its member states -- to the tune of 800 billion euros to counter the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Kopecny noted that just a fraction of such a figure, meaning contributions in tens of billions of euros or dollars, would "totally change the landscape in Ukraine's favor in the war."

Looking Ahead
This evening, on June 17, there will be an informal meeting of EU leaders. This is the first time the 27 heads of state and government will assemble in Brussels after the European Parliament elections on June 6-9 to assess the results. There will also be an initial discussion on who should be the next European Commission president, European Council president, and EU foreign policy chief, although it is expected that the leaders will take the final decision on those key posts at another EU summit in Brussels next week.

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:03 schreef Starhopper het volgende:
Ik heb net mijn preorder van het boek Saints ontvangen! Wat een prachtige foto's Op een later moment rustig alle verhalen van de dappere mannen en vrouwen lezen

[ afbeelding ]

[ afbeelding ]

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 18:21 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://kyivindependent.c(...)al-law-survey-shows/
[..]
Het volk staat gewoon nog achter Zelenski als president gelukkig. En vinden dat hij aan moet blijven tot "martial law" eindigt en er nieuwe verkiezingen kunnen komen. Daar gaat dus ook dat argument van Putin de deur uit.

En als de "martial law" eindigt met een overwinning voor Oekra�ne zal hij ongetwijfeld herkozen worden voor een tweede termijn. Al zou ik mij ook kunnen voorstellen dat hij liever een stap terug neemt wanneer de oorlog voorbij is.

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:14 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Dat ziet er inderdaad indrukwekkend en mooi uit. Laat ons even weten hoe het boek is wanneer je hem uit hebt.

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Ukrainian FPV Drones Destroys Russian BRDM-2

Ukrainian airborne troops destroyed a Russian BRDM-2 with nighttime FPV drones.

The video was published by the Shadow unit.

The released footage shows the drone catching up with a Russian reconnaissance armored vehicle with troops on its armor.

After hitting a cluster of Russian soldiers, the BRDM-2 continued to move, but was finished off by other FPV drones.

As a result of the attack, the enemy combat vehicle was completely destroyed.

SPOILER

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Б� ДМ-2 з піхотою

It can be seen that the front wheels of the combat vehicle were covered with handmade ‘skirts’, and additional elements cover the sides of the vehicle.

In addition, the Russian BRDM-2 was not covered by anti-drone “grills,” which is not typical for a modern battlefield.

Despite the large number of BRDM-2s in the Russian Armed Forces, few of these combat vehicles were destroyed during the full-scale Russian-Ukrainian war.

In total, according to the OSINT resource Oryx, the Russians have lost about 12 combat vehicles of this type in various modifications, but it should be noted that not all cases have been recorded.

Militarnyi previously reported that one BRDM-2 was destroyed during a HIMARS strike on a Russian troop position in the southern sector.

According to The Military Balance, as of 2021, the Russian army had about 1,000 BRDM-2/BRDM-2A vehicles in service and up to 1,000 more BRDM-2s in storage.

It is also known that, in addition to the standard BRDM-2MS, the Russians use an upgraded version.

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:12 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.rferl.org/a/w(...)ession/32996497.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Het wachten is nu op een debat en stemming in ons parlement op de 20ste voor deze toelatingsgesprekken (of in elk geval een stap dichter erbij). Wij zijn het enige land die hierover stemmen. Maar dit zal natuurlijk geen probleem moeten zijn daar het parlement gewoon grotendeels pro Oekra�ens is.

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Russian ex-deputy from Putin's party eliminated in war in Ukraine - Media

A Russian former deputy from Chuvashia, Vladimir Dmitriev, was killed in the war in Ukraine. He was a member of Vladimir Putin's party, according to ASTRA.

It is noted that Dmitriev was previously a deputy from the Tsivilsky district in Chuvashia. He was elected from Putin's United Russia party.

The media reports that Dmitriev was first engaged in collecting humanitarian aid and then went to war as a volunteer.

SPOILER

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It is reported that Dmitriev was allegedly lightly wounded and taken to a hospital, which was later attacked by a drone.

Not the first MP to die on the side of Russia
The Russian Federation is recruiting a large number of people, including former and current MPs, to fight against Ukraine.

Some of them died in the territory of Ukraine. Last year, the media outlet We Can Explain reported on dozens of MPs whom they managed to identify as having died on the side of the Russian army.

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Illness and involvement with political assassinations: Russia releases investigation on Chechen leader Kadyrov

Russian investigators have reported that Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov's circle of associates may be involved in high-profile political assassinations, and that Kadyrov himself is preparing his successors due to illness.

Source: investigation by the Russian media outlet Proekt

Details: The media outlet recalls that the Kadyrov family came to power in Chechnya in 1999. At that time, Akhmat Kadyrov, who had previously declared war on Russia, agreed to take up the post of head of Chechnya's administration.

The investigators write that in exchange for loyalty to the Kremlin, the Russian authorities offered candidates for the head of Chechnya five million dollars in cash, a house in Sochi, and permission to "hand over" a large Russian city, such as Novorossiysk.

Akhmat Kadyrov then received not only all of Chechnya as a gift from Putin, but also a prayer rug, which he was particularly proud of, a family friend said.

SPOILER

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Ramzan Kadyrov, Akhmat Kadyrov's youngest and favourite son, has been serving as commander of an armed detachment under his father since 2000, helping the FSB (Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation) search for separatist supporters in Chechnya.

Akhmat Kadyrov, who had begun to have disagreements with the Kremlin, was killed in an explosion during a parade at the Dynamo Stadium in Grozny on 9 May 2004. The bomb was planted right under the seat that Kadyrov senior was sitting in.

Ramzan Kadyrov was not with his father that day, but in Moscow. Putin immediately welcomed him and made it clear that he would be the next head of Chechnya.

As a result, the media outlet writes, "Under Kadyrov, Chechnya has effectively withdrawn from the Russian legal framework, becoming a unique region with its own army and its own essentially Sharia law, where, unlike the rest of the country, the death penalty is actually in force, where colossal sums of money are stolen and no one is punished for it".

Proekt believes that the Chechen leader's circle may be involved in many high-profile political murders. In particular, there is a Chechen mark in the murders of politician Boris Nemtsov, former Chechen deputy prime minister Yakov Sergunin, Forbes magazine editor-in-chief Paul Khlebnikov, Novaya Gazeta journalist Anna Politkovskaya, and Natalia Estemirova, a member of the Memorial Human Rights Centre.

Regarding Kadyrov's illness, which has been repeatedly reported by the media, the newspaper, citing sources, writes that Kadyrov did have kidney problems which had been cured, at least for a while. He began to prepare his successors – he put members of his family in almost the entire vertical of Chechen power.

Officially, Ramzan Kadyrov has one wife, Medni Kadyrova, who gave birth to 14 children by the age of 42. In fact, the investigation claims, the head of Chechnya has a harem of concubines (not always adults) and his children were born by at least four women.

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Ukraine's international bond rework derailed as deadline nears

Summary
• Ukraine will continue talks with group, other investors
• Bondholder group says Kyiv plan risks "substantial damage" to investor base
• Bonds slip more than 1 cent after the announcement

Ukraine has not been able to reach an agreement with a group of bondholders over restructuring some $20 billion of international debt during formal talks, it said on Monday, raising the spectre that the war-torn country might slip into default.

An agreement with holders of international bonds that allowed Ukraine to suspend payments after Russia's invasion of the country in 2022 ends in August.

Ukraine's Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko said talks would continue and he expected the government to reach an agreement by Aug. 1.

SPOILER

quote:

The country's dollar-denominated eurobonds fell by more than 2.0 cents with near-term maturities trading at deeply distressed levels between 26-30 cents on the dollar.

Formal talks with the ad-hoc bondholder committee had been underway for nearly two weeks, as Ukraine seeks to rework its debt in order to retain access to international markets while meeting International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands to restructure.

However, the government's proposal and a counter proposal by bondholders showed how far apart the parties are and the uphill struggle Ukraine will face to get the debt restructuring over the line in the coming weeks.

"Although Ukraine and the Ad Hoc Creditor Committee did not come to an agreement on restructuring terms during the consultation period, (they) will continue engagement and constructive discussions through their respective advisors," the government said in a statement. It added the ad-hoc group controlled roughly 20% of outstanding bonds and authorities would also continue bilateral discussions with other investors.

Finance Minister Marchenko said the country's economy was a "fragile balance" that hinged on consistent and substantial support from its partners.

"Timely debt restructuring is a critical part of this support," he said. "Strong armies must be underpinned by strong economies to win wars."

Bondholders said the government's proposal had demanded a writedown that was "significantly in excess" of the 20% expected by markets.

The proposal would "risk substantial damage to Ukraine's future investor base and core objective of re-accessing capital markets at the earliest opportunity", they added.

Analysts at JPMorgan had estimated a "haircut", or writedown, of 30% on the outstanding bonds as well as past due interest along with coupon relief would allow Ukraine to hit its IMF targets.

Ukraine could seek to extend the payment suspension beyond August, but prefers the more lasting solution of a full debt rework.

Ukraine in reality already does not have access to international capital markets, but going into default could complicate potential funding avenues, including some multilateral and commercial lending.

Sources have also stressed that Ukraine is keen to avoid investors selling off its bonds to hedge funds and others less amenable to cooperative debt rework deals.

A default now would be Ukraine's second in a decade prompted by a Russian invasion - a symbolic setback the country wants to avoid. The first was after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014.

THE PROPOSAL
Undertaking a debt restructuring in the middle of a raging conflict that makes its economic and fiscal situation highly uncertain was always seen as an unprecedented and monumental task for Ukraine.

The IMF is also due to release its next review of Ukraine's financial state within weeks - key figures that determine how much debt relief it thinks the country needs.

Kyiv's bilateral allies, which are ploughing billions into the country to shore up its war effort and economy, are reluctant to see Ukraine funnelling money to debt payments.

The Group of Seven rich democracies agreed on Thursday to use proceeds from frozen Russian assets to give Ukraine $50 billion in loans. Since the start of the war, international partners such as the World Bank and IMF have also provided more than $85 billion, opens new tab in state budget financing to Kyiv.

Ukraine offered to swap bondholders' existing debt for five sovereign bonds maturing between 2034 and 2040, as well as a so-called state-contingent debt instrument (SCDI) linked to tax revenue performance, Monday's statement showed. The value of that instrument would be determined in 2027 when it transforms into a bond coinciding with the expiration of the country's current IMF programme.

Investors had asked for instruments that would generate a steady cashflow from the outset and the new bonds would have paid interest at a symbolic amount of 1% for the first 18 months, rising to 3% for 2026 and 2027 and then 6%, for a total coupon payment of $700 million over the course of the IMF programme.

The offer translated into a haircut of between 25% and 60%, depending on the performance of the SCDI. Ukraine also offered investors an option including only conventional bonds.

Bondholders put forward two counter proposals, both of which would have carried a nominal haircut of 20%, according to the government statement, and allowed for the potential full recovery of the concessions.
The government said neither bondholder proposal met IMF requirements.

The two proposals consisted of a package of two types of instruments - a series of two bonds paying a coupon in excess of 7% as well as a "recovery bond" that featured variable, step-up payments.

Ukraine also proposed removing a cross default clause between its international bonds and its GDP warrants, which are linked to economic growth and on which it owes investors $2.6 billion.

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Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 18:03 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://mil.in.ua/en/blog(...)tor-to-the-american/

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 17:48 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

De hulp aan Oekra�ne is ook voor onze veiligheid. Het zal inderdaad niet onze eigen slagkracht verhogen maar zal wel aan onze veiligheid bijdragen. Wanneer deze oorlog ophoudt zullen wij hopelijk een andere manier vinden om toch aan deze 2 procent te blijven voldoen, hier moeten wij nooit meer onder willen komen. En ook zal Oekra�ne dan waarschijnlijk ook vrij snel volwaardig NAVO lid worden. Wat ook weer aan onze veiligheid zal bijdragen.

quote:

France will train 26 Ukrainian military pilots for the F-16 in two years, - Le Monde
The Air and Space Forces of France undertook to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. Currently, 10 Ukrainian pilots are undergoing training in France.

This is reported by the French newspaper Le Monde, whose journalists visited the airbase where a group of Ukrainian pilots are training, Censor.NET informs .

For security reasons, journalists do not disclose the name of the air base, but it is noted that it is located in the southwest of France . They were also forbidden to communicate with Ukrainian pilots, probably also for security reasons.

The newspaper article states that the French Air Force has committed to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. According to the publication, there are currently only ten of them. These are young men - aged from 21 to 23 years.

It is noted that some of them have never flown, while others have experience flying on the Czech-made L-39 Albatros training aircraft.

The French have been training a group of Ukrainian pilots since March of this year. Before that, the pilots of the Armed Forces studied English for several months.

Training of the Ukrainian military takes place according to a shortened program. The training will last only six months, compared to the usual course of eighteen months.

The intensive program includes 80 hours of flying and 50 hours in the simulator with instructors. For the flight training of pilots, modified Alphajet jet training aircraft transferred by Belgium are used. They are equipped with an instrument panel that imitates the one in the F-16 fighters.

After completing training in France, Ukrainian pilots will go to a training center in Romania, where they will master F-16 fighters.

We will remind that recently the spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ilya Yevlash, said that Ukrainian pilots have already worked the required number of hours as part of military exercises on F-16 fighters.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:50 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Ik zag deze een paar dagen geleden al eens voorbijkomen, het is toch al jaren bekend dat de M113 zelfs een 7.62 niet tegenhoudt?

Maar goed, de YPR is van hetzelfde laken een pak, aluminium en purschuim want hij zou en moest blijven drijven en dat is wel een IFV en de M113 C&V is dat feitelijk ook natuurlijk.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 16:38 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
[ x ]
Vast de reden waarom Scott Ritter en Kadyrov zulke goede vrienden zijn. Hij heeft een hele harem met minderjarige meisjes.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:52 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Het is gewoon een kunstgreep om je defensiebudget op 2% te krijgen. Ik zie Nederland er zelfs voor aan om het defensiepersoneel een eenmalige uitkering te geven om zo op 2% uit te komen....

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 19:52 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Het is gewoon een kunstgreep om je defensiebudget op 2% te krijgen. Ik zie Nederland er zelfs voor aan om het defensiepersoneel een eenmalige uitkering te geven om zo op 2% uit te komen....

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:10 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
Iedere zandhaas een RangeRover.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:05 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Gewoon de nieuwe schepen vooruitbetalen.

Maar als je personeel wilt werven, en dat willen we, is het aantrekkelijker maken van de arbeidsvoorwaarden natuurlijk wel zo handig.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:13 schreef BEFEM het volgende:

[..]
Je moet ook goed betalen maar het vertekend wel. Je moet naar slagkracht kijken, niet naar euro's.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:10 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
Iedere zandhaas een RangeRover.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:10 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:
Iedere zandhaas een RangeRover.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:15 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Maar over taken en slagkracht zijn ook gewoon afspraken gemaakt.

Overigens: Wat als je daar niet meer aan voldoet omdat je veel aan Oekra�ne hebt gegeven?

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:11 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
We willen toch rupsbanden?

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:18 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
Meer spul kopen.

quote:

Russia intensified aircraft activity over Baltic region due to NATO drills – MoD
Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence says the recent increase in Russian aircraft activity in the Baltic region is linked to NATO military exercises in Lithuania and the Baltic Sea.

“The Russian aircraft activity in the region may have to do with the international exercises BALTOPS, Iron Wolf 2024-1, which are currently taking place in the Baltic region,” the ministry told BNS on Monday.

Earlier in the day, it said NATO fighter jets stationed in the Baltic states as part of NATO’s Baltic Air mission were scrambled 11 times last week to identify and escort Russian aircraft that violated the rules when flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.

In total, seven SU-24 tactical bombers, five SU-27 fighter jets, four SU-30 fighter jets, two SU-34 fighter-bombers, four IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft, two AN-30 reconnaissance and aerial mapping aircraft, and once an IL-96 passenger plane were identified and escorted.

SPOILER

quote:

Most of these aircraft were flying without flight plans, had their onboard transponder off and were not in contact with the regional flight control centre.

Most of them took off in the Kaliningrad region and returned there after flying in international airspace, while some of them flew from Kaliningrad to mainland Russia or flew above mainland Russia by entering international airspace.

During the previous week, NATO jets in Lithuania were also scrambled 11 times to identify and escort Russian aircraft flying in international airspace.

Normally, only a few such cases are recorded per week.

In the first week of June, NATO fighters patrolled airspace above the Baltic Sea twice.

BALTOPS’24, the largest military exercise to date, is currently taking place in the Baltic Sea, involving around 9,000 troops and other personnel, more than 50 ships and over 80 aircraft from 20 NATO countries.

In addition, Lithuania hosted the international Exercise Iron Wolf 2024-1 with more than 3,700 troops and more than 30,000 aircraft, Lithuanian and allied troops and over 500 pieces of military equipment between June 7-17.

The NATO Baltic Air Policing mission is being carried out from Lithuania and temporarily from Latvia as Estonia’s Amari air base is undergoing reconstruction and infrastructure upgrades.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:18 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:

[..]
Doen we die er bij.

[ afbeelding ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:21 schreef xpompompomx het volgende:

[..]
Die nieuwe Defenders zijn echt afzichtelijk Het oude utilitaire ontwerp was meer da 9000x mooier.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:19 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Met een levertijd van lang, en Oekra�ne dat voorrang krijgt.

Wat dan?

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:22 schreef Hyperdude het volgende:

[..]
�Que

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:03 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Ik had deze dan gemist. Maar ja het zijn inderdaad geen tanks qua bepantsering. Maar er blijkt ook uit uit dat die YPR nauwelijks raak kan schieten. Ondanks dat hij stil staat en zich er in een rechte lijn erg dichtbij bevindt.

quote:

Ukrainian woman sentenced to 12 years in Moscow for protesting against the war

A military court in Russian Federation has sentenced a Ukrainian woman who was forced to travel from Switzerland to Moscow and hold a protest.
A court in Moscow sentenced Ukrainian Christina Lyubashenko to 12 years for anti-war action. She came to Moscow from Switzerland, where she was a refugee. This was reported by Mediazona on 17 June.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kiev resident Kristina Lyubashenko fled to Switzerland with her family. There she succumbed to threats and persuasions of a casual acquaintance to go to the Russian Federation and launch balloons with the white-blue-white flag in Moscow for a fee.

Lyubashenko was detained by Russian security forces on 8 May 2023; they were waiting for her at the balloon launch site.

on 17 June 2024, the 2nd Western District Military Court in Moscow sentenced the 35-year-old Ukrainian to 12 years in prison for "spreading fakes about the war and participation in a terrorist organisation".

SPOILER

quote:

According to the investigation, on 8 May 2023, Lyubashenko put sound speakers on the window of a flat in Dolgoprudny and loudly played an anti-war speech and the Ukrainian anthem. On the same day, she went to Vorobyovy Gory in Moscow and launched balloons into the sky with a white-blue-white flag tied to them.

The investigation regarded this as participation in a terrorist organisation. It is noted that the Russian authorities consider the white-blue-white flag to be the flag of the legion "Freedom of Russia", recognised in Russia as a terrorist organisation.

It is noted that the court consideration of the case of Lyubashenko was held only two days.

The lawyer said that Christina Lyubashenko lived in Kiev with her mother sick with cancer, grandfather with dementia and two daughters. After 24 February 2022, the family fled to Switzerland.

It is reported that the family barely had enough money to live on. One day Lyubashenko met a neighbour, one Vitaliy Yurchenko, who posed as a refugee from Ukraine.

The man first lent Lyubashenko money, and then asked her to go to Moscow and hold a "peaceful action against war" there for money.

The said Yurchenko bought Lyubashenko a ticket to the Russian Federation and rented a flat in Dolgoprudny. He also controlled the Ukrainian woman's movements and gave her instructions.

Lyubashenko arrived in Moscow on 5 May 2023. Yurchenko demanded that she put anti-war speakers in the flat window. He threatened that he would inform the guardianship authorities about the daughters she left behind in Switzerland and they would be taken to an orphanage.

The Ukrainian was forced to agree. on 8 May, she put up speakers in the window with anti-war notes and then went to Vorobyovy Gory to launch balloons.

According to the lawyer, Yurchenko was well-versed in Moscow and the Moscow suburbs. Lyubashenko launched white balloons with a piece of cloth and was immediately detained.

According to the policeman who detained the Ukrainian, he received information from his superiors in advance that "a certain person would organise a protest action" in Moscow.

The lawyer asked the court to close the case because there were no signs of corpus delicti. Krystyna Lyubashenko spoke in Ukrainian in court. She did not plead guilty.

Earlier Socialportal reported that in the Russian Rostov-on-Don the court announced the verdict of the civilian prisoner from Zaporozhye region. He was sentenced to 18 years in a strict regime colony.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:30 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
BTR bedoel je. Zo te zien aan de beweging van het onderstel hadden ze hem ook niet op de rem staan en ik heb gezien het op en neer gaan van het kanon ook niet het idee dat er iemand in zat die wist waar die mee bezig was. Dat het tweede schot er vlak overheen ging zal meer met de skills van de schutter en het bewegen van het onderstel te maken hebben gehad dan met wat anders. Dus ik vind de conlusie wel weer lekker kort door de bocht.

quote:

Russia has developed a ground drone to suppress FPV drones

^{Russian Rebovets WALL-E ground drone with the Fumigator EW system. 2024, Russia. Frame from the video "RIA NOVOSTI"}

Russia has developed the Rebovets WALL-E ground-based unmanned system, which is equipped with an electronic warfare system.

The company Laboratoriya PPS said that the system allegedly successfully passed the entire test cycle.

The Rebovets WALL-E unmanned tracked platform received Fumigator modules.

The Fumigator electronic warfare system is designed to suppress communication channels between the operator and the drone.

At the same time, secure control channels allow the platform to be operated despite the signal suppression systems installed on it.

SPOILER

quote:

Наземний дрон "� эбовец WALL-E" з � ЕБ "Фумигатор"

“The communication is our key, it is video secure. And the installation of electronic warfare, that is, the same Fumigator that has already passed all kinds of tests for three days,” the developers said.

The developers claim that they have managed to solve the problem of ensuring that the installed batteries are sufficient for the platform to operate and to charge the batteries of the suppression system.

The ground drone with the electronic warfare system was developed primarily to cover infantry assault groups.

The Fumigator electronic warfare system was originally designed as a portable vehicle for infantry.

^{Russian Rebovets WALL-E ground drone with the Fumigator EW system. 2024, Russia. Frame from the video “RIA NOVOSTI”}

The overall electronic warfare modules of this system were installed on a frame that was worn by a soldier.

According to the company, the Fumigator is capable of creating a dome within a radius of 250-300 meters, where enemy drones will not operate.

^{Russian fighters with the Fumigator EW system. 2024, Russia. Photo credits: Laboratoriya PPS}

Recently, Ukrainian specialists have developed the PARASOL trench electronic warfare system. The developer has two modifications of the electronic warfare system: one protects positions from Russian drones, and the other protects equipment.

quote:

Russian Troops Behead a Ukrainian Soldier in Donetsk Region
Russian forces in the Volnovakha district of Donetsk region have beheaded a Ukrainian soldier, Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said.

^{Ukrainian aerial reconnaissance found a damaged armored car of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a human head on the hood. (Source: X / Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin)}

According to him, yesterday the Ukrainian military received information that one of the units of the Russian Federation in the Volnovakha district was ordered not to capture Ukrainian soldiers and instead behead them. After that, aerial reconnaissance found a damaged armored car of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with a human head on the hood.

SPOILER

quote:

“New horrifying evidence of Russia’s criminal policy aimed at the extermination of Ukrainians: we have received information that Russian commanders have ordered not to take Ukrainian soldiers as prisoners but to kill them with inhumane cruelty—by decapitation,” Prosecutor General wrote.

“This terrible barbarism must have no place in the 21st century. This is yet another proof that the war crimes committed by the aggressor are not isolated incidents but a planned strategy of the Russian regime. These criminal orders were given at the command level of the battalion and the company of the occupation forces. We will not let these crimes go unpunished. I call on the entire civilized world to isolate the terrorist state and bring it to justice,” Kostin added.

Read more: Russian Soldiers Have Repeatedly Filmed Torture and Executions of Ukrainian Prisoners of War.

This is not the first time Russia has shot Ukrainian POWs. The killing of prisoners of war is a gross violation of the Geneva Conventions and is a serious international crime.

On March 6 2023, a graphic video started circulating on the internet, where the later identified Ukrainian soldier Oleksandr Matsievskyi, unarmed, was standing calmly smoking a cigarette. When Oleksandr says "Slava Ukraini" ("Glory to Ukraine"), Russian soldiers start shooting at him.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:41 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Tja, ik heb niet de technische kennis die jij hebt van oorlogsmaterieel. Maar meestal zijn deze al rijdend aan het schieten, en niet vanuit geparkeerde positie natuurlijk. Dus die rem staat er waarschijnlijk bijna nooit op in een gevechtssituatie. Ook is er meestal een grotere afstand tussen het doelwit en de IFV.

Wanneer je dit vergelijkt met beelden van de Bradley die hier langsgekomen zijn, dan kan ik alleen maar concluderen dat die BTR veel minder secuur is.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:57 schreef Adrie072 het volgende:
[ x ]
Is het echt, wel, niet?

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:57 schreef AchJa het volgende:

[..]
Voordeel van een Bradley is dat het een zwaarder en tracked voertuig is, dus de basis is veel stabieler. Maar ik zou op bais van twee schoten niet direct zover willen gaan dat die BTR waardeloos schiet. Als je een kneus op een Bradley zet schiet die ook mis.

Maar goed, bottomline, dat het pantser van de M113 niks voorstelt was natuurlijk algemeen bekend. Heb ik ook wel vaker gezegd.

quote:

Fighter Jets Now Escort Putin's Plane on Russia Travels: Report
Russian fighter jets now escort President Vladimir Putin on his travels within his own country, according to an independent Russian investigative site.

The Russian leader was escorted to Yakutsk, a port city and the capital of Sakha in east Siberia by at least one Sukhoi Su-30SM multi-role fighter jet on Tuesday, independent Russian publication Agentstvo reported.

It marks the first visually confirmed case since the beginning of the war in Ukraine of Putin traveling to Russian regions escorted by military aircraft, the news outlet reported, noting that fighter jets had previously only accompanied the president on trips overseas.

The development comes at a time of heightened tensions between Russia and the West amid his ongoing war in Ukraine. Many of Ukraine's NATO allies have granted Kyiv permission to use weapons they have supplied to strike targets on Russian soil.

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

SPOILER

quote:

Agentstvo said Yakutsk residents published several videos and photos of the fighter jet accompanying Putin's presidential plane. The publication cited Russian military analyst Ian Matveev who said the footage shows an Su-30SM. The aircraft was developed by JSC Sukhoi Design Bureau for the Russian Air Force, and had its maiden flight in 2012.

The publication said it analyzed the feeds of state-run news agencies and Telegram channels and found no indication that Putin has been escorted by fighter jets during his travels within Russia during the war before Tuesday.

In December, the Kremlin said Putin's Ilyushin-96 aircraft was escorted on his rare trip abroad to the Middle East by four Russian Sukhoi-35S fighter jets for security reasons.

"The region is turbulent, and if the UAE and Saudi Arabia are stable, safe countries, then the environment, the adjacent region, is certainly full of danger and unpredictability," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters at the time.

Putin has decried decisions by numerous NATO member states to allow Ukraine to strike targets inside Russia. He has warned that he could arm the West's adversaries with long-range missiles.

"If someone thinks it is possible to supply such weapons to a war zone to attack our territory and create problems for us, why don't we have the right to supply weapons of the same class to regions of the world where there will be strikes on sensitive facilities of those countries?" Putin told reporters on June 6.

"That is, the response can be asymmetric. We will think about it," he added.

quote:

Putin began flying to Russian regions, accompanied by fighter jets.

▪️Vladimir Putin flew to Yakutsk on Tuesday. Residents of the city filmed at least one Su-30SM fighter accompanying Air Force One. According to SakhaLife, the fighter landed behind Putin.

▪️According to the Agency’s analysis, this is the first visually confirmed case since the beginning of the war when Putin’s board was escorted by military aircraft during a visit to the Russian region.

▪️Before this, fighter jets accompanied the president only abroad; Dmitry Peskov explained one of such cases for security reasons.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 21:02 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
Dat de pantser van de M113 niet veel voorstelt betwist ik ook niet natuurlijk. Het zijn geen tanks tenslotte.

quote:

Russian fencer curses out Ukrainian opponent refusing to shake hands – video
A controversial event occurred during the European Fencing Championships in Basel, involving Ukrainian Olena Kryvytska and Russian Maya Guchmazova, who represented Georgia.

Source: Champion

After the fight, which Kryvytska won with the score of 15:9, the Ukrainian refused to shake hands with her Russian opponent. Guchmazova cursed in response: "Fu**, why are they allowed sh** like this, who the fu** do they think they are?"

Video of the incident is below.

quote:

🇺🇦 Ukrainian fencer Olena Kryvytska refused to shake hands with Maia Guchmazova, a Russian fencer with a Georgian passport, after the European Championship match.

The Russian woman reacted to the act of the Ukrainian woman with obscene language.

Video: Anastasia Samko

quote:

KNDS: Ukraine to receive 54 RCH 155 self-propelled howitzers

^{Boxer RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled gun. Photo credits: Nicholas Drummond}

The Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive 54 of the latest RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzers.

The press service of the French-German defense giant KNDS (KMW+Nexter Defense Systems) reported on this.

At the same time, the company did not disclose any other details of the agreement to supply these self-propelled howitzers.

In February of this year, the German government announced that by 2027, the Armed Forces of Ukraine would receive a total of 36 RCH 155s as part of German military assistance.

Therefore, it is currently unclear who will pay for the purchase of 18 more units. Perhaps the German government will also fund them.

SPOILER

quote:

^{RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzer. Photo by the manufacturer}

It is also not known when these self-propelled howitzers will be transferred to the Ukrainian army.

KNDS is currently preparing its 155-mm RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzers for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukraine is the first country to receive these state-of-the-art howitzers.

The first batch of 18 units was ordered at the end of 2022. The German Federal Government funded the purchase, worth �216 million.

^{RCH 155 self-propelled howitzer. Photo credits: KNDS}

The German government announced in February 2024 that Ukraine would receive a second batch of 18 RCH 155 self-propelled howitzers as part of military aid.

RCH 155 (Remote Controlled Howitzer 155) was developed by the German company Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).

^{The Boxer RCH 155 wheeled self-propelled howitzer. Photo credits: Nicholas Drummond}

The system has an automated AGM (Artillerie-Gesch�tz-Modul) turret artillery module with a German PzH 2000 self-propelled howitzer artillery unit. The length of the gun barrel is 52 caliber.

The weight of the AGM module is 12.5 tons. Since the AGM module is autonomous, the RCH 155 combat crew consists of only two operators. The ammunition of the AGM module is 30 rounds.

quote:

Rutte wordt topman NAVO, Roemeense tegenkandidaat gaat zich terugtrekken

Mark Rutte wordt de nieuwe secretaris-generaal van de NAVO. Nu ook Hongarije de kandidatuur van Rutte volledig steunt, is alleen nog het wachten op de terugtrekking van de enige tegenkandidaat, de Roemeense president Iohannis. Ingewijden bevestigen aan de NOS dat Iohannis dat op korte termijn gaat doen.

In een eerste reactie zegt de huidige secretaris-generaal van de NAVO Jens Stoltenberg dat de selectie van de nieuwe topman bijna rond is en hij noemt Rutte "een sterke kandidaat".

Een formele procedure om te worden aangenomen voor de NAVO-topfunctie is er niet, maar voor de benoeming moeten wel alle 32 leden van het militair bondgenootschap akkoord gaan. Dat betekent dat een kandidaat geconfronteerd kan worden met allerlei wensenlijstjes vanuit de lidstaten in ruil voor hun steun.

Rutte wist al snel veel steun te verkrijgen en hij was vanaf het begin de favoriete kandidaat van de Verenigde Staten, de belangrijkste partner in de NAVO.

Wel lagen enkele landen dwars. Zo moest er een priv�bezoek van demissionair premier Rutte aan de Turkse president Erdogan aan te pas komen om een aantal zorgen bij hem weg te nemen.

SPOILER

quote:

Eisen van Orb�n
Een andere dwarsligger was Hongarije. Premier Orb�n liet weten dat hij twee eisen had voordat hij zou instemmen met Ruttes kandidatuur. Allereerst wilde hij de garantie dat Hongarije Oekra�ne niet hoeft bij te staan in de oorlog tegen Rusland. Die garantie gaf Stoltenberg, de huidige secretaris-generaal vorige week.

De tweede eis was excuses van Rutte voor uitspraken die hij in 2021 deed over Hongaarse anti-lhbti-wetgeving. "Mijn doel is Hongarije op dit punt op de knie�n te krijgen", zei Rutte toen. Volgens hem was er geen plek voor Hongarije in de EU als het land zo'n wet in zouden voeren. Dat viel verkeerd bij Orb�n.

Gisteren voerden de twee een gesprek waarbij Rutte de bezwaren bij Orb�n weg moest nemen. In het gesprek is niet om excuses gevraagd, zei Rutte na afloop.

Brief van Rutte
Ook Orb�n ging daar verder niet op in. "Waarvoor? Omdat hij geboren is?", grapte de Hongaarse premier, gevraagd werd naar excuses van Rutte. "Ik heb geen excuses nodig van mensen", vervolgde hij.

Orb�n nam genoegen met de belofte van Rutte dat hij een brief zou schrijven waarin hij zegt dat hij zich realiseert dat zijn woorden "pijn hebben gedaan."

Vandaag publiceerde Orb�n op X de bewuste brief van Rutte. Daarin zegt Rutte dat hij er kennis van heeft genomen dat sommige van zijn uitspraken als premier van Nederland in 2021 tot onvrede hebben geleid in Hongarije. Hij uit in de brief geen excuses, maar zegt slechts dat het zijn prioriteit zal zijn als secretaris-generaal van de NAVO om de eenheid te bewaren en alle bondgenoten met evenveel begrip en respect te behandelen.

Ook zegt hij uitkomst van de gesprekken tussen Stoltenberg en Orb�n te steunen, waarin is afgesproken dat Hongarije Oekra�ne niet met financi�le steun of personeel hoeft bij te staan.

Nu rest dus alleen nog de tegenkandidatuur van Iohannis. Roemeni� schoof enkele maanden na Ruttes aankondiging de huidige Roemeense president naar voren. Iohannis pleitte eerder al openlijk voor meer geografische diversiteit voor Europese topfuncties. Hij noemde het een fout dat er na de Europese Parlementsverkiezingen in 2019 niet of nauwelijks benoemingen gingen naar functionarissen uit Oost- en Centraal-Europa.

De kandidatuur van Iohannis werd dan ook gezien als een manier om daar aandacht voor te vragen. De NAVO heeft de afgelopen jaren veel troepen in Oost-Europa gestationeerd omdat de landen zich ook meer bedreigd voelen door de Russische agressie, zeker na de inval van Rusland in Oekra�ne.

Steun Slowakije
Ook de Slowaakse president, die vanochtend zijn steun voor Rutte uitsprak, liet eerder weten dat hij liever een kandidaat uit Oost- of Centraal-Europa op de post zag.

Slowakije wil in ruil voor de steun aan Rutte ook dat Rutte zich als NAVO-topman inzet voor het versterken van de Slowaakse luchtverdediging, schrijft persbureau TASR. Het land heeft nu geen enkel luchtverdedingssysteem.

Rutte wordt de vierde Nederlandse secretaris-generaal van de NAVO. Dirk Stikker, Joseph Luns en Jaap de Hoop Scheffer gingen hem voor. De Hoop Scheffer was van 2004 tot 2009 secretaris-generaal.

De termijn van een secretaris-generaal is vier jaar, waarna een herbenoeming kan volgen. De termijn van Stoltenberg werd vier keer verlengd, waardoor hij tot 1 oktober in functie zal blijven.

Vanaf dan zal Rutte het stokje overnemen. Zijn grootste uitdagingen als NAVO-chef worden de oorlog in Oekra�ne, Poetins dreiging richting de NAVO, het op een lijn houden van alle 32 lidstaten en de mogelijke herverkiezing van Trump in de VS.

quote:

Russia offers thousands of dollars to Ukrainian children for setting fire to AFU cars
Instances of military vehicle arson have been recorded in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro, according to the Ombudsman of Ukraine

Russia is recruiting Ukrainian children to set fire to the vehicles of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel, offering them several thousand dollars in return, the Ombudsman of Ukraine Dmytro Lubinets reported.

The aggressor country offers "earnings" through social networks. Cases of arson attacks on military vehicles have been reported in Kyiv, Odesa, and Dnipro.

"This situation and the recruitment of children by Russia is another way for Russia to destabilize the situation in Ukraine," Lubinets wrote.

The Ombudsman reminded the public that arson is a criminal offense and urged parents to communicate this to their children.

quote:

Swiss weapons for Ukraine: National Council Commission gives green light
In the future, Ukraine should be able to obtain Swiss military equipment indirectly. The relevant National Council committee has approved its proposals for an amendment to the War Material Act for consultation, with a very narrow majority.

The National Council's Security Policy Committee (SIK-N) approved the draft law by 10 votes to 10, with four abstentions and a casting vote by President Priska Seiler Graf (SP/ZH). Seiler Graf announced this to the media in Bern on Tuesday.

SPOILER

quote:

Discussions and proposals
Today, the War Material Act prohibits the transfer of exported Swiss military equipment to Ukraine. Requests from European countries, including Germany, which were rejected by the Federal Council, led to discussions about relaxing the non-re-export ban and triggered motions in parliament.

The majority of the commission considers the relaxation of the War Material Act to be appropriate , said Seiler Graf. The current regulation, with which Switzerland prevents countries that purchase war material from helping in Ukraine, is met with great incomprehension.

The minority, however, thinks the timing - a change in the rules in the middle of a war - is bad. They also have concerns about neutrality, explained Seiler Graf.

Relaxation for certain states
The majority of the Commission proposes relaxing the non-re-export ban for countries that have similar export control mechanisms to Switzerland and share similar values ​​with Switzerland. Specifically, these are the states listed in Annex 2 to the War Material Ordinance.

The non-re-export declaration for exports is to be limited to five years for these selected countries. The majority rejected proposals for a ten-year limitation or a general five-year limitation for all countries. A defeated minority also did not want retroactive effect, but was defeated.

The material may only be passed on from the receiving country to a third country if the latter meets certain conditions. In particular, it must not seriously and systematically violate human rights. There must also be no risk that the military equipment from Switzerland will be used against the civilian population in the third country.

If the third country is involved in an armed conflict, re-export is permitted if the country exercises its right to self-defence under international law and the UN Security Council has found a violation of the international prohibition of the use of force under the UN Charter.

Buyer countries decide
According to the SIK-N, the purchasing countries should decide whether war material is passed on. A political decision by the Federal Council based on a request is not possible under neutrality law , said Seiler Graf. The country passing on the material must decide for itself whether the conditions for passing it on are met.

The SIK-N itself initiated the amendment to the law with a parliamentary initiative. In May 2023, the Security Policy Commission of the Council of States gave the green light for the drafting of a legislative proposal.

The draft of the SIK-N, which is controversial in many respects, will be put out for consultation in the coming weeks. The Federal Council can also comment on it. Only then will the councils decide on it. The message will not be ready until spring 2025 at the earliest, said Seiler Graf. "So it will take time, but we are not discouraged and are proceeding step by step." (rbu/sda)

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 17:19 schreef Delenlill het volgende:

[..]
Wij zijn in bezig met het verkrijgen van 6 nieuwe fregatten (volgens mij), 6 nieuwe mijnenbestrijdingsvaartuigen, 4 nieuwe onderzeeboten. Wij hebben de productie van de CV90 hierheen gehaald, en diegene die wij nu hebben krijgen een nieuwe upgrade. Ook heeft defensie 500 miljoen uitgetrokken voor extra ammunitie. En tevens worden onze apache helikopters gemoderniseerd.

Dat is slechts een deel van waar onze defensie uitgaven naar toe zullen gaan. Dus ja onze slagkracht zal flink verbeterd worden.

https://www.defensie.nl/o(...)n-defensie/financien
[..]
En de uitgaven aan salarissen is inderdaad flink hoog zien ik, maar is 28,5 procent van het geheel. En pensioenen is 6 procent. Zonder het personeel is er natuurlijk geen defensie. En wij staan internationaal gezien erg goed in aanzien.

Al mag van mij de verhouding ook wel wat minder inderdaad. Dus een kleinere percentage aan salaris. Maar dit valt op meerdere manieren te bereiken.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:22 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Wat een verkwisting van geld zeg.
Moet je eens kijken hoe ongelofelijk veel goede en mooie dingen je daarvan kan doen.

Kum Ba Yah (Kumbaya My Lord) | Family Sing Along - Muffin Songs

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 20:57 schreef Adrie072 het volgende:
[ x ]
Is het echt, wel, niet?

SPOILER

quote:

Translation:
"I wanna show you a buggy that we are forced to use to bring food, ammo, and other supplies to the front line... There is a fight going on over there, so it is impossible to make these deliveries by KAMAZ or other equipment... Everything of size is gonna get burned over there... We literally got six BMP-2s burned on the first day of the assault... That's why we are not even thinking of bringing KAMAZ trucks over there... Even UAZ cars are burning like matches... So we are being forced to use these buggies... In this very one, three officers died... Two from our battalion, and one from the regiment's command... It's all pierced here..."

SPOILER

SPOILER

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 21:10 schreef polderturk het volgende:
Dit is zo bizar he.

Er is niemand op de weg behalve Putin en zijn club.

[ x ]

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:33 schreef Anton91 het volgende:

[..]
Alle wegen zijn wel erg leeg... Maar ziet er zeker niet verkeerd uit

quote:

Ukrainian General Staff reports Russian push in Chasiv Yar: Front situation revealed
Since the start of the day on June 18, 33 clashes have been recorded on the front line. The Russians are attempting to advance towards the Novyi neighborhood in Chasiv Yar, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"Since the beginning of this day, 33 clashes have already occurred along the entire front line. The Russian aggressor launched two airstrikes using four guided bombs, deployed 20 kamikaze drones, and conducted around 600 shelling attacks on our troops' positions and populated areas," writes the General Staff.

SPOILER

quote:

Situation on the Front Lines
In the Kharkiv direction, two enemy attacks continue in the Vovchansk area.

In the Kupiansk direction, four clashes occurred near Stepova Novoselivka, Pishchane, and Berestove.

In the Lyman direction, two Russian attacks were repelled near Makiivka and Terny. Two more battles continue in the Hrekivka area.

Siversk direction is the hottest spot, with nine clashes recorded. The Russian military's eight attempts to advance near Verkhnokamianske, Vyiimka, and Rozdolivka were successfully repelled. A battle continues near the settlement of Vyiimka.

In the Kramatorsk direction, Russian troops persist in trying to advance towards the Novyi neighborhood in the city of Chasiv Yar. A battle is currently ongoing there.

In the Pokrovsk direction, the situation is tense. The enemy is attempting to penetrate the defenses of Novooleksandrivka, Yevhenivka, and Novoselivka Persha. Seven clashes have been recorded, with three still ongoing.

In the Vremivka direction, assault actions by the enemy near Novodarivka have been repelled. A battle is ongoing near Urozhaine.

In the Orikhiv direction, defense forces repelled a Russian attack near Novodanilivka.

Russian losses in the war
According to the General Staff, during the past day, June 17, Ukrainian soldiers eliminated another 1,230 Russian terrorists. Since the beginning of the invasion, the enemy has lost a total of 528,620 personnel. Additionally, yesterday, the following were destroyed:
• 16 tanks
• 20 armored fighting vehicles
• 32 artillery systems

quote:

ISW: Russian military deploys troops from Donetsk region to Kharkiv direction
UKRAINE, KHARKIV OBLAST, June 18 — The Russian military is redeploying units from the Donetsk region to the Kharkiv direction due to counterattacks by the Ukrainian army, reported the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) on June 17.

The Ukrainian military has stabilized the frontline north and northeast of the Kharkiv region, where Russia launched a new ground offensive in May. Currently, heavy fighting is ongoing in and around Vovchansk and on the Lyptsi axis.

Ukrainian military official, Yurii Povkh, confirmed that the Russian army is redeploying elements of the Russian 155th Naval Infantry Brigade to the Lyptsi direction, likely from west and southwest of Donetsk, reports ISW.

A Russian source also claimed that elements of the 155th Naval Infantry Brigade were operating near Vovchansk.

“The reported appearance of these elements in the Vovchansk area indicates a possible redeployment from the Donetsk direction to the Kharkiv direction to bolster the Russian grouping in Kharkiv Oblast,” ISW analysts said.

On June 16, Russian sources published geolocated footage showing Russian forces repelling a Ukrainian counterattack in northwestern Hlyboke.

Russian milbloggers claimed that Ukrainian forces launched mechanized counterattacks near Hlyboke and counterattacked from the direction of Tykhe and near the Aggregate Plant within Vovchansk, the ISW reports.

Analysts noted that the Russian forces also continued offensive operations north of Kharkiv near Lyptsi and northeast of Kharkiv near central Vovchansk and Vovchanski Khutory.

Oleksandr Syrskyi, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said on June 12 that in the Kharkiv direction, the Russian army is conducting unsuccessful offensives, trying to advance deep into Ukrainian positions and create a “safety belt” for their forces.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:22 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Wat een verkwisting van geld zeg.
Moet je eens kijken hoe ongelofelijk veel goede en mooie dingen je daarvan kan doen.

quote:

Russian MoD caught lying about "victories" on frontline - ISW
Russian military bloggers have criticised the Russian Ministry of Defence's report of 16 June that Russian troops had captured Zahirne, a village southwest of Huliaypol in Zaporizhzhia region.
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by ISW.

According to one Russian observer, Ukrainian troops withdrew from Zahirne back in 2023.

The interactive maps updated by the Ukrainian information resource DeepState yesterday, 16 June, at 23.37, show that Zahirne is indeed in the occupied territories. The only question is since when.

The meaning of the latest statement by the Russian Ministry of Defence may be that the terrain in the area did not allow Russian troops to establish a reliable foothold in this settlement until recently.

Read also: Over 700 combat engagements took place in frontline over last week - General Staff

However, not all Russian bloggers were satisfied with this explanation. One of them criticised the Russian defence ministry and the new defence minister, Andrei Belousov, for inventing success stories at the front to cover up the real lack of significant victories.

As reported, according to ISW analysts, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is not interested and is unlikely to be interested in genuine peace talks in Ukraine in the near future.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:29 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]

Kum Ba Yah (Kumbaya My Lord) | Family Sing Along - Muffin Songs

Ook een versie van dat nummer die meer op je belevingswereld aansluit.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:22 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Wat een verkwisting van geld zeg.
Moet je eens kijken hoe ongelofelijk veel goede en mooie dingen je daarvan kan doen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 22:50 schreef Papierversnipperaar het volgende:

[..]
Putin heeft al meer dan 200 miljard uitgegeven aan zijn oorlog.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 23:00 schreef spicymchaggis het volgende:

[..]
Nog meer kunstnagels en tattoo's voor bijstandsmoedertjes en playstations voor wajongers.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 23:00 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Ach ja sorry hoor dat niet iedereen het normaal vindt dat er miljarden aan zinloze (gelukkig) niet gebruikte moordwapens besteed worden ipv aan nuttige dingen.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 23:01 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Zelfs dat is nuttiger dan dit.

quote:

Op dinsdag 18 juni 2024 23:00 schreef bianconeri het volgende:

[..]
Dus omdat een gek geld verkwist moeten wij dat ook doen?

quote:

‘Make Europe Great Again’: Hungary’s new motto for EU presidency has a familiar ring to it

^{Hungary has unveiled the official motto for its upcoming turn at the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union. From @HungaryintheEU}

“Make Europe Great Again” is Hungary’s official motto for its upcoming turn at the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The country announced the motto and a new logo in a video posted on X on Tuesday.

The motto is a near-exact copy of the slogan adopted by former US President Donald Trump, who has previously heaped praise on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb�n.

Trump hosted the Hungarian strongman at Mar-a-Lago in March, and seemed to reference the pair staying in contact after he left White House in 2021, saying they “kept in touch.”

“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orb�n. He’s fantastic,” the former president told a crowd gathered for a concert at the Florida resort, as shown in a series of videos posted to Orb�n’s Instagram account.

SPOILER

quote:

According to a statement from the Hungarian Presidency, the cube logo presented alongside the “MEGA” slogan was inspired by the “world-famous Hungarian invention, the Rubik’s cube,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.

The cube features the Hungarian flag on one face and the EU flag on another.

It’s not the first time that Hungary has echoed Trump’s language.

In May, Orb�n held the third annual American-style CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference) in Hungary.

In his opening speech at the CPAC conference in Budapest, Orb�n endorsed Trump’s reelection bid and used the MAGA slogan in his remarks, saying, “Make America great again, make Europe great again!”

^{Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on June 12, 2024. Marton Monus/Reuters}

Trump sent a pre-recorded video message to the conference, in which he called Orb�n “a great man” and hailed “so many patriots in Hungary who are proudly fighting on the front lines of the battle to rescue Western civilization.”

quote:

EPP’s new Hungarian members oppose sending weapons to Ukraine
MEP-elect P�ter Magyar says while he supports Ukraine’s right to defend its territory, Hungary won’t be sending “troops or weapons.”

Rising Hungarian opposition figure P�ter Magyar said he doesn't support sending weapons to Ukraine, moments after bringing his delegation of seven MEPs into the European People's Party group in the European Parliament.

"We share the position of the [Budapest] government: We will not send troops or weapons to the Ukraine from Hungary. You know the sensitive situation of Hungary in that war," Magyar told journalists after the EPP voted to accept the MEPs, who hail from Magyar's Tisza party, as members.

The admission of Magyar's MEPs prompted Hungarian Christian Democratic People's Party MEP Gy�rgy H�lv�nyi, who ran on a joint list of candidates with MEPs from Hungarian PM Viktor Orb�n's Fidesz in the EU election, to quit the EPP, citing what he called the EPP's "war doctrine."

Senior EPP figures, such as Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and party chief Manfred Weber, have made the acceptance of any new MEPs into the EPP conditional on their support for Ukraine. Weber negotiated directly with Magyar in Hungary last week.

"I think the EPP understood the special, sensitive Hungarian situation in that war. But we will support with all other manner and tools of course [the] Ukrainian people," said Magyar, who has yet to announce whether he intends to take up his seat in Brussels or remain in national politics.

Magyar also supported Ukraine's right to defend itself, described Russian President Vladimir Putin as an aggressor, and said Ukraine's "independence and sovereignty" are internationally protected.

An EPP spokesperson said: "Everything he says in relation to Ukraine and the war, the Orb�n propaganda machine uses against him. So it is very clear why he is prudent about that."

quote:

Xi signs rail corridor deal Moscow didn't want
Bishkek and Tashkent ink a memorandum to connect Kashgar to Andijon. This will cut the freight journey to Europe and the Persian Gulf, while bypassing Russia. For the Chinese president, the agreement is "a show of determination,” part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

China, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have officially signed an agreement in Beijing to build of a key railway corridor as part of China’s Belt on Road Initiative.

The 525-kilometre line would run from the city of Kashgar, in Xinjiang, through southwestern Kyrgyzstan, until Andijon, in eastern Uzbekistan.

Talked about since the 1990s, the US$ 8 billion-project is of strategic importance for China since it would significantly shorten the freight journey for goods from China to Europe and the Persian Gulf.

The three countries had signed a memorandum on the railway back in 1997, but technical and especially geopolitical issues stalled it.

SPOILER

quote:

Russia, which considers Central Asia as its backyard, was not at all enthusiastic about the railway since it was not a party.

With the war in Ukraine, however, the balance of power with China has changed. Due to Western sanctions, Russia is increasingly reliant on China for trade, and so the Kremlin gave the green light.

At the signing ceremony in Beijing, with the three presidents linked via videoconference, Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed the agreement as "a show of determination".

“The China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway is a strategic project for China’s connectivity with Central Asia and a landmark project for [our] three countries to jointly build the Belt and Road Initiative,” Xi said.

For the Chinese leader, such a project will benefit the three countries and their peoples and boost the economic and social development of the region.

quote:

Northrop planning to build munitions inside Ukraine
Northrop’s coproduction agreement is the first publicly acknowledged deal between a US defense prime and the Ukrainian government for a manufacturing project inside Ukraine.

Northrop Grumman plans to produce medium caliber ammunition inside Ukraine under a project bankrolled by Ukrainian dollars, a company official said today.

Although several European defense firms have committed to large-scale manufacturing programs inside Ukraine’s borders, Northrop’s coproduction agreement is the first publicly acknowledged deal between a US defense prime and the Ukrainian government for a manufacturing project inside Ukraine.

“We’ve been working, as you know, in Ukraine to produce medium [caliber munitions]. That’s our first project that’s paid for with Ukrainian dollars. We are looking to expand that into tank ammo, 155 mm, others as we find innovative processes,” said Dave Bartell, director of international business for Northrop’s defense systems sector.

SPOILER

quote:

The acknowledgment of the agreement occurred during an exchange between Bartell and Stanley Brown, the State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for the bureau of political-military affairs, during Brown’s speech at the Eurosatory arms show in Paris.

Bartell did not elaborate on the coproduction plan, and Northrop declined to comment for this story.

In his remarks, Brown highlighted the State Department’s new Ukraine Defense Enterprise Program, which invests $2 billion in Ukraine’s defense industrial base and could open the door to US-Ukrainian coproduction.

“What would incentivize your company to partner with Ukraine on defense coproduction?” Brown asked the industry crowd gathered at the conference. “As we look to build a more robust defense industrial base, American industry is essential. So how do we set the conditions for help to help you be successful?”

In response, Bartell grabbed the microphone to describe Northrop’s efforts to produce munitions inside Ukraine. He then added that while the company understands the importance of reconstituting Ukraine’s defense industrial base, it has encountered barriers when it has tried to offer the latest version of certain weapons, which are typically cheaper and easier to produce.

“As we answered US Army and DoD contracts for 155mm rounds, for example, there are very specific TDPs [technical data packages],” he said. “Right now, my company has built a better mousetrap, we would prefer to take that generational leap in technology and put that in there. But if we work under US Army regulations and qualifications, we’re going to be doing legacy systems that are expensive, and take a long time to produce.”

Brown deferred to the Army on specific technical requirements, but responded that the US government is open to outside-the-box approaches to meeting Ukraine’s needs.

“We are way more open minded than probably we have been,” he said. “Sometimes it doesn’t look that way because of the bureaucratic problems, but we’re happy to have those discussions on the entrepreneur-like and innovative approaches.”

Building Production Inside Ukraine
US defense firms have lagged behind their European counterparts in forging coproduction agreements inside Ukraine. Earlier this month, Germany’s Rheinmetall acknowledged plans to open a Lynx Infantry Fighting Vehicle manufacturing plant in Ukraine “in the near future” and said it is in talks with Ukrainian suppliers on a new joint venture for in-country production of artillery ammunition.

Also this month, Franco-German manufacturer KNDS and Ukrainian firm KZVV signed a contract for production in Ukraine of 155mm artillery shells.

Earlier US coproduction efforts to support Ukrainian needs typically centered on efforts to produce US weaponry within the borders of NATO allies in Eastern Europe — such as a 2023 deal between Lockheed Martin and Raytheon to build Javelin anti-tank missiles in Poland — and stopped short of manufacturing arms inside Ukraine, which would be considerably more vulnerable to attack by Russia.

However, in recent months, the US government has stepped up efforts to work directly with Ukraine’s defense sector. In December, the White House held a Ukraine Defense Industrial Base Conference that included 350 representatives from the US and Ukrainian governments along with their respective defense industries, which resulted in the countries signing a Statement of Intent on Co-production and Technical Data Exchange to address Ukraine’s urgent needs on munitions production, air defense systems, and repair and sustainment.

The Ukraine Defense Enterprise Program program, which was announced in May, will draw from Foreign Military Financing dollars in the $60.8 billion Ukraine supplemental funding bill passed in April, as well as funding from previous defense budgets, Inside Defense reported.

And last week, President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a bilateral agreement espousing the need for “defense industrial cooperation, including codevelopment, coproduction, and supply of Ukraine’s defense industrial base requirements.”

quote:

Media: More than 10,000 Russian soldiers prosecuted for refusing to fight in Ukraine
More than 10,000 Russian soldiers have been prosecuted for refusing to fight in Ukraine, an investigation by Mediazona revealed on June 18.

Using online data from military courts, the outlet documented 10,025 such cases since September 2022 when the Kremlin announced a first wave of mobilization.

Of these, 9,059 were cases of unauthorized abandonment of a unit, 627 cases of failure to comply with an order, and 339 cases of desertion.

According to Mediazona, 8,594 of the accused have already been sentenced.

SPOILER

quote:

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on March 31 to conscript 150,000 citizens as part of the regularly occurring spring conscription campaign.

According to the U.K. Defense Ministry, Russia is likely recruiting around 30,000 people a month to help bolster its war effort.

On June 18, Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade said Russian troops are intensifying attacks in the border areas of Luhansk Oblast, noting they appeared to have no problems with replenishing the large number being killed by Ukrainian forces.

According to the crowd-sourced DeepState monitoring service, Russia has amassed 10,000 troops as part of a "shock fist" to capture the village of Borova.

Borova had been occupied by Russian forces in March 2022 but was liberated later that year during Ukraine's sweeping counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast.

"The enemy is throwing entire platoons and companies of personnel at the assaults of our positions," the 3rd Assault Brigade wrote.

"Their rapid liquidation is compensated by the replenishment of manpower in the amount of 250-400 soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation every week."

quote:

Kazakh Opposition Journalist Sadikov Shot in Kyiv
The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office has launched an investigation into the attack on a Kazakh opposition journalist Aidos Sadikov. He was hospitalized and in serious condition after the attack.

Kazakh opposition journalist, Aidos Sadikov, 56, was shot by an unknown assailant in Kyiv on Tuesday, June 18, RBC-Ukraine media outlet and the Ukrainian agency “Interfax” reported.

The assassination attempt occurred in the Shevchenkivsky district of Kyiv, near the journalist’s residence.

Ukrainian National Police were the first to report the incident. According to their press service, a call was received on the 102 line (equivalent to the 911 emergency call service in the US) about gunshots heard on V. Yarmoly Street in the Shevchenkivsky district. Police officers were dispatched to the scene.

Preliminary investigation found that an unknown assailant approached a parked car with a man and a woman inside. The attacker fired at the man and then fled the scene. The woman was unharmed.

Ukrainian media later identified the victim as Sadikov. His wife, Nataliya Sadikova, confirmed the attack.

“Today in Kyiv, near his own house, an attempt was made on [the life of] Aidos Sadikov,” she wrote on Facebook.

Emergency services were still working at the scene Tuesday evening. The search for the shooter was ongoing. Sadikov was in the hospital in serious condition.

The Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office has started a pre-trial investigation into the attempted murder it said in Telegram post.

SPOILER

quote:

What is known about Aidos Sadikov?
Sadikov was born in the village of Karabutak in the Aktobe region of Kazakhstan, near the Russian border.

He faced criminal prosecution in his homeland. In 2010, Sadikov was sentenced to two years in prison on charges of “hooliganism” and was released in 2012. He and his supporters said the charges were fabricated.

Sadikov was active in civic activities and organized protests.

He headed the Aktobe regional branch of the opposition Nationwide Social Democratic Party (OSDP) Azat. After leaving the party, he attempted to create the opposition civic movement Gastat.

The Sadikovs moved to Kyiv from the Kazakh city of Aktobe in 2014 after a criminal case was opened against Nataliya. In Ukraine, they acquired refugee status.

Last fall, Aidos and Nataliya hosted the BASE YouTube channel critical of the Kazakh government and oligarchs.

Sadikov supported the protests in Kazakhstan in January 2022, during which troops of the Collective Security Treaty Organization were deployed to suppress them.

In October 2023, Sadikov was put on the wanted list in Kazakhstan for allegedly “inciting enmity.”

Sadikov’s latest video, titled “The President of Kazakhstan has become a puppet of Russian influence agents,” was published on the day he was shot.

quote:

'Oekra�ense vluchtelingen dagen in de cel bij aankomst per vliegtuig'
https://nos.nl/artikel/25(...)nkomst-per-vliegtuig

Oekra�ense vluchtelingen die met het vliegtuig naar Nederland komen, worden tegenwoordig bij aankomst op Schiphol vastgezet. NRC schrijft dat ze dagenlang in een cel zitten terwijl immigratiedienst IND onderzoekt of de Oekra�ners recht hebben op opvang. Volgens Europese afspraken mogen zij vrij door Europa reizen.

Sinds de Russische invasie hebben Oekra�ners hier recht op opvang, zorg en mogen ze werken. Maar volgens de krant komen sinds een aantal maanden Oekra�ners die per vliegtuig inreizen in grensdetentie terecht. Juristen noemen die maatregel disproportioneel.

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urals-oil
Urals Crude Oil (USD/Bbl) 77.850 +2.340 (+3.10%)

quote:

Crude Oil 81.376
Brent 85.113

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 02:17 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://edition.cnn.com/2(...)ntl-latam/index.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Ongelofelijk, dit geloof je toch niet. Orban is van plan om ons de afgrond in te helpen en zijn eigen cult te starten. Hij wil een MEGA beweging starten lijkt het wel op. "Make Europe Great Again". Naar zijn grote voorbeeld Trump.

Gelukkig zal zijn macht beperkt zijn, maar ik voorzie een hoop gedoe en tegenwerking vanuit zijn kant als Voorzitter van de Europese Commissie

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:22 schreef Digi2 het volgende:
De prijs van Urals Crude stijgt en het verschil met Brent en WTI crude is flink teruggelopen. Men lijkt erin te slagen de aardolie price-cap grootdeels te ontwijken.
[..]
[..]

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:36 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:36 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:36 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Is dit weer een brainfart van ons aller rob de wijk ofzo?

Kans dat die uitgemergelde NK soldaten zich instant overgeven om ze te kunnen leven in het westen, of eigenlijk: buiten NK is best groot.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:14 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:
Eens kijken hoe de "escalatie, onderhandelen en geef Poetin een way out roepers" hier mee om gaan.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Is dit weer een brainfart van ons aller rob de wijk ofzo?

Kans dat die uitgemergelde NK soldaten zich instant overgeven om ze te kunnen leven in het westen, of eigenlijk: buiten NK is best groot.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:

[..]
Is dit weer een brainfart van ons aller rob de wijk ofzo?

Kans dat die uitgemergelde NK soldaten zich instant overgeven om ze te kunnen leven in het westen, of eigenlijk: buiten NK is best groot.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:21 schreef Arnhemunited het volgende:

[..]
Neem aan dat NK de soldaten heeft ge�nstrueerd dat elke vorm van desertie betekend dat je hele familie in een concentratie kamp wordt gegooid?

De Oekra�ense drone operators zullen wel een field day hebben met een NK leger die nog slechter is uitgerust dan de russen.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:14 schreef Straatcommando. het volgende:
Eens kijken hoe de "escalatie, onderhandelen en geef Poetin een way out roepers" hier mee om gaan.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ik acht de kans niet zo groot. Want dat komt gewoon neer op een de facto oorlog tussen NK en oekraine. En daar zal de rest van de wereld wat mee moeten.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ik acht de kans niet zo groot. Want dat komt gewoon neer op een de facto oorlog tussen NK en oekraine. En daar zal de rest van de wereld wat mee moeten.

quote:

Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:36 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:42 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

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Ik denk dat de Amerikanen het wel interessant vinden om te kijken hier Noord-Koreaanse militairen het dien in de praktijk.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:42 schreef AgLarrr het volgende:

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NK bestaat bij de gratie van China. Dus de vraag is even of die dit zien zitten / het hun agenda dient.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:52 schreef Eyjafjallajoekull het volgende:
Ik kan me idd niet voorstellen dat Noord-Koreaanse soldaten het slachtveld opgaan.

Kijk naar satellietbeelden en je ziet dat alleen de hoofdstad stroom heeft. Soms vluchten soldaten de grens over. Blijkt altijd dat ze vreselijk ondervoed zijn, en vol met parasieten.

Zal voor Zuid-Korea wel een kadootje zijn trouwens, als duizenden Noord-Koreaanse soldaten ergens ver weg het slachtveld opgestuurd worden...

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 13:07 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Dat is idd de hamvraag, maar omgekeerd weet ook every man+dog dat china het daar voor het zeggen heeft.

Dus als ze dat zouden doen, wordt ook china daar op aangekeken.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 13:07 schreef skrn het volgende:

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Alles kan. Rusland stuurt ook Nepalezen, Indi�rs of Afrikanen het slagveld op. Wat is dan het verschil met Noord-Koreanen?

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 13:07 schreef skrn het volgende:

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Alles kan. Rusland stuurt ook Nepalezen, Indi�rs of Afrikanen het slagveld op. Wat is dan het verschil met Noord-Koreanen?

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 13:07 schreef skrn het volgende:

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Alles kan. Rusland stuurt ook Nepalezen, Indi�rs of Afrikanen het slagveld op. Wat is dan het verschil met Noord-Koreanen?

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 11:40 schreef over_hedge het volgende:

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Maar van de rest gaat het best prima met het leger van rusland

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 12:27 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Ik acht de kans niet zo groot. Want dat komt gewoon neer op een de facto oorlog tussen NK en oekraine. En daar zal de rest van de wereld wat mee moeten.

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Putin says Russia and North Korea will help each other if attacked, taking ties to a ‘new level’
Vladimir Putin said Russia and North Korea have ramped up ties to a “new level,” pledging to help each other if either nation is attacked in a “breakthrough” new partnership announced during the Russian president’s rare visit to the reclusive state.

Thousands of North Koreans chanting “welcome Putin” lined the city’s wide boulevards brandishing Russian and North Korean flags and bouquets of flowers, as Putin kicked off his first visit to North Korea in 24 years with a finely choreographed display of influence in the dictatorship.

The pair then signed the new strategic partnership to replace previous deals signed in 1961, 2000 and 2001, according to Russian state news agency TASS. “The comprehensive partnership agreement signed today includes, among other things, the provision of mutual assistance in the event of aggression against one of the parties to this agreement,” Putin said after the meeting.

^{North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin exit a welcome ceremony at Kim Il Sung square in Pyongyang on June 19. Gavriil Grigorov/Pool/AFP/Sputnik/Getty Images}

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He said the deal encompasses the “political, trade, investment, cultural spheres, and the security sphere as well,” calling the pact “truly a breakthrough document.”

Putin said joint drills involving the United States, South Korea and Japan were “hostile” toward North Korea,” characterizing the US policy as “confrontational.” Kim, meanwhile, called the new “alliance” a “watershed moment in the development of the bilateral relations.”

But the deal between the two autocrats raised many questions, too – including whether Russia’s nuclear deterrent now extends to North Korea, and vice versa, or whether the two nations will now hold joint military drills.

Putin greeted with fanfare
Putin was met with exuberant celebrations at a welcome ceremony with his counterpart at Kim Il Sung Square in the heart of the North Korean capital, where mounted soldiers, military personnel and children holding balloons cheered against the backdrop of large portraits of the each leader.

The two leaders presented their respective officials and stood together as the Russian national anthem played before riding off standing shoulder to shoulder in an open-top limousine as they smiled and waved to the crowds.

The staging reflected North Korea’s reliance on Moscow and was likely intended as a reminder to the West that Putin still holds considerable influence in at least some corners of the world, after his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

The relationship is important to Russia, too. Multiple governments have accused Pyongyang of supplying arms to Moscow for its grinding war in Ukraine, a charge both countries have denied, despite significant evidence of such transfers.

^{Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un attend a welcoming ceremony on June 19, 2024 in Pyongyang, North Korea. Stringer/Getty Images}

On Wednesday Putin gave Kim an Aurus car when the two leaders exchanged gifts, according to Russian state media – the second time Putin has given his counterpart this car model. According to Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov, the Russian leader also presented Kim with a tea set. Ushakov did not specify what Putin received, but said they were “also good gifts.”

Putin landed in North Korea in the early hours of Wednesday local time, exactly 24 years to the day he was last in Pyongyang, for a visit heralding the countries’ deepening alignment in the face of shared animosity toward the West and international concerns over their growing military cooperation.

In remarks ahead of talks between the two, Kim voiced his “full support and solidarity with the struggles of the Russian government, military and the people,” pointing specifically to Moscow’s war in Ukraine “to protect its own sovereignty, safety and territorial stability.”

“Situations continue to be complicated and ever-changing, but I would like to take this opportunity to reiterate that we will continue to strengthen and closely engage in strategic communication with the (Russian) leadership,” Kim added.

Putin hailed the countries’ ties as based on “equality and mutual respect,” and said an expected new bilateral agreement would “form the basis of relations between the two states for many years to come,” according to Russian state agency TASS. He also added that he hoped Kim would visit Moscow for their next meeting.

The burgeoning relationship has sparked concern in both Seoul and Washington, not only over North Korea’s arms transfers to Russia, but also the prospect of Moscow transferring its superior military technology to aid Pyongyang’s heavily sanctioned weapons program.

^{Russia's President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attend an official welcoming ceremony at Kim Il Sung Square in Pyongyang, North Korea June 19, 2024. Vladimir Smirnov/Sputnik/Pool/Reuters}

‘Unwavering support’
Kim, the third generation leader of a dynasty that has ruled North Korea with an iron fist, beamed visibly as he greeted Putin at the airport in the early hours of Wednesday morning, video footage of the Russian leader’s arrival showed.

The landmark visit marks a significant boost for Kim, who remains isolated on the world stage and has not hosted another world leader in his capital since the pandemic.

It comes as tensions remain elevated on the Korean Peninsula, where Kim in recent months has ramped up bellicose language and scrapped a longstanding policy of seeking peaceful reunification with South Korea amid alarm in Pyongyang over tightening coordination between the US, South Korea and Japan.

North Korea state media appeared to play heavily into the close rapport between Kim and Putin, describing them as “exchanging their pent-up innermost thoughts and opened their minds to more surely develop (North Korea-Russia) relations,” as rode together from the airport to the Kumsusan State Guest House where Putin is staying.

Putin’s trip follows Kim’s landmark visit to Russia last year, where the two leaders were widely seen as opening this new chapter in their relations predicated on Putin’s need for North Korean arms for its ongoing offensive.

Russia has received more than 10,000 shipping containers – the equivalent of 260,000 metric tons of munitions or munitions-related material – from North Korea since September, according to a US statement in February. Russian forces have also launched at least 10 North Korea-made missiles on Ukraine since September, a US official also said in March.

The Russian leader is widely seen as looking to ensure this continued support, which may be especially urgent as delayed American military aid to Ukraine comes online.

Putin also sought to link today’s meeting to Moscow and Pyongyang’s historic ties. The “exploits of previous generations” were a “good basis for the development of relations” between the two nations, he told Kim, according to Russian state media TASS.

^{Russian President Vladimir Putin, right shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, on his arrival in Pyongyang, Wednesday, July 19, 2000. ITAR-TASS/AP}

A long history
Putin made his last visit to Pyongyang in 2000 for a meeting with Kim’s late father and predecessor Kim Jong Il. That trip, weeks after Putin’s inauguration for his first term as president, made him the first Russian head of state to visit North Korea.

The elder Kim then visited Moscow in 2001, taking a marathon nine-day rail trip across Russia for the meeting, in what was only his second overseas trip after an earlier visit to China.

The two countries in 2000 also inked a new cooperation agreement. Unlike a 1961 document between the Soviet Union and North Korea, that new iteration did not include reference to mutual military defense assistance, but was seen as an important step in reviving a fraught and closely linked relationship.

The two neighbors have deep ties on the Korean Peninsula. Kim’s grandfather Kim Il Sung rose to power in the late 1940s as part of Soviet efforts to install a communist-controlled government in the north to rival a US-backed government in the south following the defeat of the Japanese imperial army during World War II.

But tightly integrated relations frayed and transformed in the intervening decades, as the Soviet Union collapsed and the new state of Russia established diplomatic relations with Seoul and supported multiple United Nations sanctions on North Korea’s weapons program.

The latest raft of diplomacy comes as shared frustrations with the West have driven the two countries closer – a trend observers say has now been accelerated by the war in Ukraine and has seen North Korea gain a powerful friend in the UN Security Council.

In March, Moscow vetoed a UN resolution to renew independent monitoring of North Korea’s violations of Security Council sanctions – raising concerns about the relationship weakening controls on Kim’s illegal weapons program.

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US soldier sentenced to nearly four years in Russian penal colony, state media reports

^{US Army soldier Gordon Black appears in court in the far eastern city of Vladivostok on June 6, 2024. Pavel Korolyov/AFP/Getty Images}

A Russian court on Wednesday sentenced a US soldier to three years and nine months in a penal colony on charges of theft and threatening murder, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.

Staff Sgt. Gordon Black was arrested in May on charges of theft in the far eastern city of Vladivostok, where he had traveled to visit a woman, believed to be his girlfriend. He was accused of stealing 10,000 rubles (roughly $112) from her when he visited Russia in April after meeting her in South Korea, state news agency TASS previously reported.

Black was also accused of assaulting the woman during a quarrel.

The US soldier did not admit to charges of threatening to kill the woman, but partially admitted guilt to theft charges, RIA Novosti previously reported.

Black will appeal the sentence handed down by the court in Vladivostok, his lawyer said Wednesday, according to TASS.

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Speaking to the Pervomaisky District Court on Monday, Black said he took the money from the woman’s purse, but the next day transferred $125 to her. He said he spent the money on food and three nights in a hotel, according to RIA.

He also said the woman was to collect a deposit of 10,000 rubles from the landlord after the end of the lease of the apartment for which he was paying, RIA said.

The woman also spoke in court on Monday, saying she was not yet ready to reconcile with Black since the damage had not yet been compensated.

Black’s sentencing comes against the backdrop of heightened tensions between Washington and Moscow, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine rages on. A number of Americans are being held in Russia, including two who have been declared as wrongfully detained by the US State Department – former Marine Paul Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich.

Gershkovich, 32, will stand trial behind closed doors in the city of Yekaterinburg from June 26, TASS reported Monday, citing the court’s press service.

The journalist has been imprisoned since he was arrested while on a reporting trip in March last year by the FSB, Russia’s federal security service, which accused him of trying to obtain state secrets. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.

Gershkovich, the US government and the Wall Street Journal have vehemently denied the charges against him.

The White House has previously alleged the Kremlin is using Gershkovich, the first American reporter detained in Russia on allegations of spying since the Cold War, as a geopolitical hostage.

The US government has repeatedly warned American citizens not to travel to Russia.

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US and key allies debating what commitment to give on Ukraine joining NATO at upcoming summit
The United States and several key allies, including the United Kingdom, are actively debating how strongly to commit to Ukraine’s NATO membership at the alliance’s upcoming 75th anniversary summit in Washington, with the US facing criticism from a variety of European countries for not being willing to go as far as several – especially those close to Russia’s border – would like, according to multiple US and European sources familiar with the discussions.

US and German officials have proposed that the alliance pledge during next month’s summit that Ukraine has a “bridge” to NATO membership, rather than an “irreversible path” as NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in April in language that is favored by the UK and several Eastern and Central European nations, multiple sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

The eventual language issued by the alliance about Ukraine during July’s summit in Washington is critical. It will be painstakingly debated by the allies in the days leading up and then heavily scrutinized, as it will outline to the world – Russia in particular – what the goals are for Ukraine within NATO.

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“At the (Washington) Summit, we’ll be taking concrete steps to bring Ukraine closer to NATO and ensure that there’s a bridge to membership, a bridge that’s strong and well-lit,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a NATO Foreign Ministerial in Prague in late May.

A senior US official said that Biden administration officials do not think the word “irreversible” would get the support of the entire alliance, pointing in particular to Hungary as a likely holdout. The official said the US believes they are close to a resolution with all allies on the language but declined to preview the decision.

Some NATO members are also reluctant to use the word because Ukraine has yet to implement all of the necessary democratic and anti-corruption reforms necessary for membership, a separate US official said.

With the summit about a month away, the topic remains a central point of tension in ongoing conversations.

“Most Central European countries are disappointed by the Biden administration’s ambiguity and procrastination” when it comes to outlining a concrete pathway forward for Ukraine, a Central European diplomat told CNN.

A second European official whose country is more aggressive on Ukraine’s membership than the US said that European allies have been directly lobbying the White House to make Ukraine’s pathway as clear as possible.

“We instinctively feel a new path should be laid out,” the second official said. “Fast tracking [Ukraine’s membership] should be looked at.”

In April, Stoltenberg told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv that “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.”

Still, there is a general recognition that NATO’s position out of the summit needs to have advanced from last year’s meeting in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, when the allies declared that “Ukraine’s future is in NATO” but didn’t offer a timeline. Members of the alliance announced at the time that they would remove the requirement for a Membership Action Plan for Ukraine, making it easier for the country to join the alliance, but still declined to offer a timeline on how long that might take.

That was met with fury by Zelensky who posted on X that it was “unprecedented and absurd” not to have been offered a timeline for membership.

Vague commitment in 2008
It was back in 2008 at a NATO summit in Budapest that Ukraine was first offered a vague commitment of an invitation to join in the future. Ukrainians often invoke the lack of clarity dating back 16 years as an argument for deserving more, particularly when under attack by Russia.

“I’m certain that we will also have language expressing that Ukraine will become a member of the alliance,” Stoltenberg said Tuesday at a news conference at the US State Department. “The exact language, exactly what we will agree … are now discussed among allies. But I’m confident we have a good solution, agreement by the summit.”

The Biden administration has trumpeted its newly signed ten-year defense pact with Ukraine, which calls itself “a bridge to Ukraine’s eventual membership in the NATO Alliance.”

But for many Europeans that doesn’t go far enough.

“Of course we’d be for ‘irreversible,’” a third Eastern European official said.

It’s “not a big secret we are eager to get more” than the US, the official added, adding they hope the US administration can remain “flexible” ahead of the formal meetings next month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that peace talks would only begin with Ukraine if Kyiv officially gives up on its NATO aspirations.

“As soon as Kyiv declares that it is ready for such a decision,” Putin said on Friday, “an order to cease fire and begin negotiations will immediately follow from our side, literally at the same minute.”

A key component of NATO membership is a mutual defense pact known as Article V that commits NATO allies to defend any member that is attacked. Ukraine has been intensifying its push to join NATO since it was first attacked by Russia in 2014.

Since the war in Ukraine began in 2022, Ukrainian and European officials have accused the US of being too afraid of provoking Putin and escalating the conflict. Ukraine has both been grateful and frustrated as it watched the US offer bigger and bigger weapons packages, but at a slower pace than it has needed.

Last month Stoltenberg indirectly criticized the Biden administration for not allowing Ukraine to use US weapons to fire into Russia, which Ukrainians have said amounts to them fighting with one hand tied behind their back.

“This is a war of aggression by Russia against Ukraine,” Stoltenberg told The Economist. “Ukraine has the right to defend themselves. And that includes striking targets on Russian territory.”

On May 30 the Biden administration announced that Ukraine could fire into Russia but only in a limited way: at military targets across the border from the city of Kharkiv and not with the most formidable US weapons, the long-range ATACMS missile.

London has often been much more forward-leaning than Washington on weaponry for Ukraine and how it’s used. Generally, throughout the conflict, British officials, the closest US allies in NATO, have consistently hoped the White House would take a more aggressive stance.

Officials who CNN spoke with emphasized that when it comes to the NATO communique that no decisions have been made yet and the language is still actively under discussion ahead of the summit.

“When the text is on the table and the countries start to negotiate we can see the full picture,” the Eastern European official said. “We are ready to negotiate; of course we would like to have it be as ambitious as possible.”

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Kharkiv regional governor awaiting end of probe before commenting on possible lack of fortifications
The Kharkiv Oblast Military Administration is awaiting the conclusions of the investigation into the breach of the border by Russian troops

The Kharkiv regional military administration is waiting for the conclusions of the investigation into the fact that Russian troops breached the state border in Kharkiv Oblast.

This is how regional governor Oleg Synegubov answered the question from Ukrinform about whether Vovchansk was sufficiently fortified.

The journalist noted that, according to the information spread online, since the liberation in 2022, Vovchansk was not sufficiently fortified or had no defense structures at all, and therefore the Russians seemingly easily entered it a second time. He asked Synegubov to comment on this.

"Let's not connect what was done with regard to the fortifications in particular, and why the Russians entered relatively easily or not easily. All the same, our soldiers met them with a fight," answered the governor.

He added that the State Bureau of Investigation is already probing this and the administration is waiting for its conclusions.

On the night of May 10, 2024, the Russians launched a new wave of offensive in Kharkiv Oblast. The Russian invasion forces tried to break through the Ukrainian defense line under the cover of armored vehicles. The Ukrainian Armed Forces sent reserve units there.

On May 22, the Verkhovna Rada voted for the creation of a temporary special commission regarding the use of budget funds for the construction of fortifications and the production of drones. The purpose of the TSC is to find out whether the works on the construction of fortifications were completed, to what extent, by whom and how budget funds were used.

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Denmark announces new aid package for Ukraine focused on F-16s, defense industry
Denmark on June 18 announced its 19th assistance package for Ukraine, including financial support for Ukraine's defense industry, equipment for F-16 fighter jets, and donations from Danish military stocks.

The first Danish F-16s are scheduled to arrive in Ukraine this summer. Kyiv expects to receive the aircraft also from the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway.

As part of Copenhagen's commitment to supporting Ukraine for the next 10 years, the country has developed a donation model via the Ukrainian defense industry to help directly develop Ukraine's military production.

The 19th package will allow the use of the sum of 1.2 billion Danish kroner (over $170 million) allocated under the two most recent packages to quickly meet Ukraine's needs. The first donations should begin this summer.

"Europe is at a fateful moment. Russia's war against Ukraine has been going on for over two years, and the situation on the battlefield is dire," Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen said.

"Investing in the Ukrainian defense industry is an effective and sustainable way to support Ukrainian combat capability, both here and now and in the long term."

Denmark has already allocated 64.8 billion Danish kroner (over $9 billion) in military aid under its Ukraine fund for the period of 2023-2028.

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Air Force: Ukraine downs 19 of 21 Russian drones overnight
Ukrainian air defense shot down 19 of the 21 Shahed-type attack drones launched by Russia overnight on June 19, Ukraine's Air Force reported.

Russia reportedly launched the drones from Prymorsko-Akhtarsk in Russia's Krasnodar Krai and occupied Crimea.

Ukraine intercepted the drones over Kherson, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Khmelnytskyi, and Lviv oblasts. Mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Air Force were involved in repelling the air attacks.

Earlier in the night, the drones targeted the regions over western Ukraine.

In the Malehiv neighborhood of the city of Lviv, a 70-year-old man was hospitalized as a result of falling drone debris around 4 a.m. local time. A multi-story building and an office building were damaged in the drone attacks, Lviv Mayor Andrii Sadovyi reported on Telegram.

Drone attacks are a daily occurrence in Ukraine, affecting various regions across the country.

In recent months, Russian attacks on critical infrastructure have increasingly targeted Ukrainian energy facilities.

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Russia and North Korea Sign a Strategic Partnership Agreement During Putin’s Landmark Visit
On June 19, Vladimir Putin announced that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) and the Russian Federation have signed an agreement for a “comprehensive strategic partnership,” which includes provisions for mutual assistance in the event of aggression against either party.

Putin also announced a new “fundamental document” that will form the basis of long-term relationships”, as well as the countries’ joint struggle against the “hegemonic imperialist policy of the United States and its satellites imposed for decades.”

Kim Jong-Un met the Russian leader with a parade and billboard portraits of Putin along the roads.

“Putin is the dearest friend of the Korean people, and Russia is the most honest ally,” Kim Jong-Un.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has confirmed the agreement signed between Russia and North Korea contains a mutual defense clause, commenting to Russian media: “In accordance with article four of the treaty, there is an agreement to provide assistance to each other in the event of aggression against any contracting country.”

The agreement was signed during Putin’s first official visit to North Korea in 24 years.

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80% of the Russian troops from the border with Finland were transferred to Ukraine

^{Changes at Russian bases near the border with Finland. Photos by: Yle magazine}

Russia has deployed most of its military and equipment, which was concentrated at the border with Finland, to Ukraine.

A high-ranking source in Finnish intelligence shared this with the Finnish newspaper Yle.

“Russia is scaring NATO countries with World War III, but at least near Finland, it does not seem to be preparing for war,” the newspaper said.

The released satellite images show that the garrisons and military bases of the Russian ground forces near the Finnish border are basically empty.

“On average, 80 percent of the equipment and soldiers have been redeployed to the war in Ukraine,” the Finnish intelligence officers said.

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80% військ � Ф з кордону з Фінляндією перекинуті в Україну

At some bases, outdated equipment was mostly left around the premises.

Now, in some garrisons, a fifth of the personnel is left, in others even less.

“Sometimes exercises are conducted, so the number of personnel varies depending on the situation,” the intelligence source said.

At the same time, almost all military equipment has already been removed from the bases located near the border with Finland.

<sup>Changes at Russian bases near the border with Finland. Photos by: Yle magazine


Changes at Russian bases near the border with Finland. Photos by: Yle magazine


Changes at Russian bases near the border with Finland. Photos by: Yle magazine


Changes at Russian bases near the border with Finland. Photos by: Yle magazine</sup>

“By our standards, it’s pretty bad equipment, but by Russian standards, it may still be suitable,” they say in Finland.

At the same time, former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recently announced the strengthening of the newly formed Leningrad Military District by introducing new formations. A separate missile brigade equipped with Iskander-M systems was created in Karelia.

^{The new military-administrative division of the Russian Federation (together with the occupied territories of
Ukraine), which includes the Leningrad Military District on the border with Finland}

Russia has also deployed stationary balloons in Karelia with special equipment to monitor the border with Finland.

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US Confirms Plans to Station F-16 Jets on the Territory of Ukraine
US-supplied F-16 fighter jets will be stationed within Ukrainian territory, according to the White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in an interview on PBS on June 19.

He noted that the bilateral security agreement between the United States and Ukraine reinforces that the provided F-16 aircraft will be located on Ukrainian soil.

“The plan is to put the F-16s in Ukraine. And the bilateral security agreement that the president and President Zelenskyy signed reinforced this point, that we want to help Ukraine have this capability. It should be a capability based in Ukraine,” Sullivan said.

He further emphasized that Ukraine can, in the event of a threat, use the provided air defense systems, including those recently delivered by the US to target Russian aircraft, even if they’re within Russian airspace.

“Well, first, we are permitting Ukrainian forces to attack Russian forces using Russia as a sanctuary in the areas where on the battlefield they are attacking from inside Russia with artillery, with other ground-based munitions.” Sullivan then expands, saying, that “they can use air defense systems, including those supplied by the United States, to take Russian planes out of the sky, even if those Russian planes are in Russian airspace, if they’re about to fire into Ukrainian airspace.”

On June 13, during the Summit on Peace for Ukraine in Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States signed a 10-year bilateral security agreement to share weapons, intelligence, long-term training, and joint weapons production.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 17:20 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://mil.in.ua/en/news(...)nsferred-to-ukraine/
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Misschien tijd voor Finland om ook een invasie te beginnen lol. Gewoon het gestolen grondgebied terug veroveren en the aanvoerweg naar die noordelijke militaire basissen/raket installaties etc blokkeren.

En ja, ik weet dat dit niet gaat gebeuren. Maar het zou wel een goede actie zijn.

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French far-right leader Bardella says he backs Ukraine, but rules out sending troops or long-range weapons

Jordan Bardella, the leader of the far-right French National Rally party, said on June 19 that he would continue supporting Ukraine if elected prime minister, but ruled out sending French troops or supplying the country with long-range weapons.

Following a bruising defeat in the elections for the European Parliament earlier in June, French President Emmanuel Macron called for snap elections to be held on June 30 and July 7.

National Rally is ahead in current polls, and Bardella could be the next prime minister if the party is able to form a governing coalition. Macron would nonetheless remain president and retain control of most of France's foreign policy decisions.

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"My position has not changed, and that is to support Ukraine by providing defense equipment, ammunition, operational logistical support, and defensive weaponry to enable Ukraine to protect itself to hold the front," Bardella told reporters at the Eurosatory arms show outside of Paris.

"I don't plan to send, especially, long-range missiles or other weapons that will allow Ukraine to strike the Russian territory," Bardella added.

France has sent Ukraine long-range SCALP missiles, which can hit targets up to 250 (155 miles) kilometers away. SCALP missiles have been put to use to hit valuable Russian military targets in occupied Crimea.

After months of discussion, Macron said earlier in June that France was finalizing a coalition of countries to send military instructors to Ukraine.

Bardella's election may complicate that plan, as he said he is "opposed to sending French troops and soldiers to Ukraine" and characterized it as a "red line."

At the same time, Bardella walked back some of the National Rally's previous foreign policy positions, including some controversial proposals that suggested a rapprochement with Russia.

"I don't intend to weaken France's voice and commitment on the international stage, and I'll be extremely respectful of that," he said.

Bardella also reiterated that he condemned Russia's "violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity" but cautioned that he wanted to "avoid any risk of escalation with Russia because Russia is a nuclear power, and I am committed to the return of peace and political stability in this region."

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Major Reshuffles in Russian Defense Ministry: Shoigu’s Allies Out, Putin’s Relatives In
ISW suggests that these personnel shifts indicate Putin’s strategy to fortify his power base by positioning loyalists and relatives in key roles.

^{In this pool photograph distributed by Russian state agency Sputnik, Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) attends a meeting with Chairwoman of Defenders of the Fatherland Foundation Anna Tsivileva (L) in Moscow on June 1, 2024. (Photo by Alexander KAZAKOV / POOL / AFP)}

The Russian Defense Ministry has undergone significant personnel changes, with President Vladimir Putin on Monday, June 17, dismissing four long-time deputies of former Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.

The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) assesses that these personnel shifts indicate Putin’s strategy to fortify his power base by positioning loyalists and relatives in key roles.

One of four dismissed officials is Ruslan Tsalikov, Shoigu’s closest ally and chief deputy who managed media and PR. This marks the final exit of Shoigu’s team from the ministry.

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In their place, Leonid Gornin, former Deputy Finance Minister overseeing military spending, steps in as new Defense Minister Belousov’s main deputy.

Pavel Fradkov, son of ex-Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, has also taken on a role in the Ministry, focusing on property management and military construction.

Additionally, Anna Tsivileva, widely referred to in the media as Putin’s niece, has been appointed to address social and housing issues.

According to the newspaper Project, her maiden name is Putin, and her father is the President’s cousin.

Tsivileva leads the Defenders of the Fatherland Veterans Support Fund, which supports veterans from Russia’s “special military operation.” In 2018, she acquired a 70% stake in Kolmar, one of Russia’s largest coal mining companies.

Her husband, Sergey Tsivilev, recently advanced from governor of the Kemerovo Region to Minister of Energy.

Oleg Saveliev, who once served as Minister of Affairs for annexed Crimea, will now head the office of the Minister of Defense.

These changes follow the appointment of Andrey Belousov, a former adviser to Putin and first deputy prime minister, as the new defense minister in May.

Belousov, an economist, replaced Sergei Shoigu amid a series of criminal investigations targeting high-ranking military officials, including Deputy Minister Timur Ivanov.

ISW noted that Putin appears to be grooming potential successors from among his family and the children of Kremlin elites. This move comes as Putin seeks to consolidate his control under the conditions of a totalitarian regime.

The ISW also highlighted the increasing appointment of economists to senior positions within the Ministry of Defense, reflecting Putin’s focus on enhancing Russia’s defense industrial base.

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Russian ex-convict returning from war suspected of murdering 12-year-old

^{Andrey Bykov being interviewed by the YouTube channel Ne zhdi menya iz Ukraini. Photo: YouTube screenshot}

A man was detained in the Siberian city of Topki in Russia’s Kemerovo region on Wednesday on suspicion of murdering a 12-year-old girl who went missing a day earlier, the regional Investigative Committee announced.

“The individual involved in the crime has been identified — a 49-year-old local resident previously convicted of murder,” said Kristina Ivanova, a senior assistant to the head of the Kemerovo regional Investigative Committee.

Ivanova added that murder charges were being prepared, after which investigators would petition a court for his arrest.

^{Karina Kabikova. Photo: Kemerovo regional Investigative Committee}

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Karina Kabikova was reported missing in the city of Topki on Tuesday night. She was found dead in an abandoned building in the city centre the following day.

The Siberian Express Telegram channel reported the suspect’s name as Andrey Bykov, a prisoner who was given early release from jail to fight in a so-called Storm Z unit made up of ex-convicts in Ukraine. State-owned news agency RIA Novosti confirmed that Bykov had been captured by Ukrainian forces and was returned to Russia as part of a prisoner exchange in February.

Bykov had already been convicted at least six times on charges of theft, making death threats, crime involving minors, and murder, according to Siberian Express. Before he was deployed to fight in Ukraine, Bykov had been serving a 13-and-a-half year sentence for strangling his neighbour to death.

In a recent data investigation, Novaya Gazeta Europe estimated that in 2023 Russian soldiers serving in occupied Ukraine were charged with at least 190 violent crimes, 70% of which were murders.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 17:56 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://novayagazeta.eu/a(...)-12-year-old-en-news
[..]

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[..]

Weer een onschuldig slachtoffer waarvan de dood direct te wijten is aan Putin, het Kremlin en hun beleid.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 18:20 schreef Ulx het volgende:

[..]
Misschien kan de man boete doen door zes maanden te vechten aan het front. In ruil voor gratie daarna.

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“We were sent to the slaughter. There was no water, no food. The commanders told us that there was no way back. Our guys were all killed,” — the surviving orc complains. At the end of the video he cries.

A contract soldier from the 83rd Airborne Assault Brigade, which was sent to the front lines in Volchansk, was captured there.

He says they were given the task of taking positions where their own forces were supposed to be, but in the end, there were no friendly forces there.

He says that all these contracts are a complete fraud and deception, which he himself fell for.

He also urges others who have been deceived like him to record videos about their problems, not to be afraid, and to surrender, as it is the only way to survive.

He sincerely regrets his actions and says that he does not believe in Russia's victory, considering that he has been through hell, which they themselves created.

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❗️ In the second half of May 2024, near the village of Robotyne in the Zaporizhzhia region, military personnel of the aggressor state of Russia committed another war crime - they shot Ukrainian prisoners of war.

▪️ The episode of the execution was captured on video: four Ukrainian soldiers with their hands raised without weapons surrendered, the Russians forced them to lie face down and shot them at close range.

▪️ Specialists of the GUR of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine identified those involved in the war crime - they turned out to be Russian invaders who were part of the assault group of the 70th motorized rifle regiment (military unit 71718) of the 42nd motorized rifle division of the 58th army of the southern district of the Russian Federation.

📍 The point of permanent deployment of the specified military unit is located in the city of Shali (Chechnya, Russia).

👤 At the time of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war under Robotyn, the 70th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the USSR was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Abaev Yury Mairbekovich (Russian: Abaev Yury Mairbekovich), born on December 10, 1990, call sign "buffalo".

👥 Servicemen of the 70th motorized rifle regiment of the Russian occupation army are also involved in the war crime:

✔️ captain Dmitriy Olegovich Nagornyi (Russian: Nagornyi Dmitriy Olegovich), born on November 21, 1995 ― commander of the 2nd battalion;

✔️ Senior Lieutenant Abutalimov Temirlan Umarovich (Russian: Abutalimov Temirlan Umarovich), born on May 2, 1997 ― commander of the 1st assault company;

✔️ Lieutenant Bekov Zaur Sergeevich (Russian: Bekov Zaur Sergeevich), born on July 16, 1997 ― commander of the 3rd assault company;

✔️ Senior Lieutenant Imagazaliyev Yusup Paizulaevich (Russian: Imagazaliyev Yusup Paizulaevich), born on July 18, 1999. ― the commander of the 6th assault company.

❗️ The specified Russian war criminals may also be involved in the murder of several more Ukrainian prisoners of war later in May 2024.

☑️ This, in particular, is evidenced by the received radio intercepts of the conversation of the occupiers from the 70th regiment of the Russian Armed Forces, during which one of the Russian commanders of the assault company orders his subordinates to shoot Ukrainian soldiers.

💀 There will be a fair retribution for every war crime committed against Ukraine!

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White House ‘comfortable’ with its nuclear position after Nato chief suggests increase in deployed weapons
The White House has said it is “comfortable” how its nuclear weapons are placed in the wake of comments from Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg suggesting members of Nato are considering increasing the number of nuclear weapons deployed to counter an increased threat from Russia and China.

Addressing reports at a White House Briefing, spokesperson John Kirby declared that the US are “comfortable” with their “strategic deterrent posture”.

Asked about Mr Stoltenberg’s comments, Mr Kirby said: “We don’t talk about nuclear posture with any specificity - and I’m certainly not going to start doing that here from the podium.

“I’ll just tell you that we’re comfortable as we have been comfortable with our strategic deterrent posture not only on the European continent but around the world.”

Pressed on whether such a move was provocative, he added: “Who would perceive it as a provocation or an escalation? Russia. Oh, Russia, the same country that invaded Ukraine, which posed absolutely no threat to them.” He added that “Nato is a defensive alliance.”

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In an interview published by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Stoltenberg revealed that defence ministers from the bloc’s member states had discussed deploying more nuclear weapons in the face of a growing threat from Russia and China.

He said there were live consultations between members on taking missiles out of storage and placing them on standby as he called for transparency to be used as a deterrent.

“I won’t go into operational details about how many nuclear warheads should be operational and which should be stored, but we need to consult on these issues,” Mr Stoltenberg said.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing at Nato, for instance at meetings in Nato, a nuclear planning group as we had during the defence ministerial meeting this [last] week.”

The Nato secretary-general made his comments ahead of his visit to Washington on Monday. Next month, Nato hosts its annual summit in Washington.

Mr Stoltenberg said on Sunday that China’s nuclear arsenal could grow to 1,000 warheads by 2030, adding that this meant Nato was potentially facing “two nuclear-powered potential adversaries” in the “not-very-distant future”.

The Federation of American Scientists (FAS) estimates that Russia’s military stockpile consists of approximately 4,380 nuclear warheads, with 1,200 additional retired warheads awaiting dismantlement, as of March 2024.

The number of operational nuclear weapons is top secret but estimates suggest the UK has about 40 of 225 deployed at any one time. The US has about 1,700 of 3,700. France, another Nato nation with nuclear weapons, does not declare openly the extent of its arsenal.

Earlier this month, Pranay Vaddi, the top US national security council arms control official, said the world “may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required”.

Experts suggest Mr Stoltenberg’s comments simply reflect a heightened security threat in Europe as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its hybrid warfare activities against other European nations, including the use of cyber warfare - as opposed to an offensive threat.

Sebastian Brixey-Williams, the executive director of the Basic security think tank, told The Guardian: “I read it at this stage as a form of signalling intended to sober up Russia and China in order to try to avert an arms race. But we should not assume it is a bluff, and it may in fact make an arms race more likely.”

The Kremlin labelled the remarks by Mr Stoltenberg that the military alliance was holding talks on deploying more nuclear weapons an “escalation of tension”.

"This is nothing but another escalation of tension,” Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, said on Monday.

However, Russia regularly resorts to claiming that Nato and Ukraine’s western allies are escalating tensions, often when they merely respond to Russian aggression.

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Ukraine Showcases New “Bulava” Loitering Drone at Eurosatory 2024 Expo in Paris

On Jun 18 in Paris, at Eurosatory 2024, one of the world’s biggest international defense exhibitions, Ukraine showcased a kamikaze drone named “Mace” for export. This drone is often compared to the “Lancet” due to its designated tasks and its X-shaped tail design, suggesting a similar aerodynamic approach.

The drone was presented by a Ukrainian-Czech firm UAC at the National Association of Defense Industry Enterprises of Ukraine (NAUDI) stand. The original Ukrainian name indicated on the wings is “Bulava”.

Mace exhibited having total takeoff weight of 11 kg, with a potent 3.6 kg warhead featuring a combined cumulative, penetrating, and thermobaric effect. Its electric motor allows for a cruising speed of 100 km/h and an endurance of over 50 minutes. The drone itself measures approximately 1.5 meters in length with a wingspan of 1.6 meters.

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The developers introduced advanced features, that include capabilities of day and night operations, employing machine vision for automatic target detection and tracking.

Additionally, Mace has high resistance to electronic warfare due to spoofing detection, encrypted data transmission, and MESH technology (retransmission) enabling a strike range exceeding 60 km.

The technology is considered to have a great advantage on the battlefield, having a system of integration with reconnaissance drones for enhanced situational awareness.

Additionally, Ukraine showcased other developments at Eurosatory 2024, including the Magura V5 drone and the Raybird drone from Skyeton.

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Ukrainian army hits oil depot in Krasnodar Krai with Neptune missiles - ISW
On the night of June 17-18, the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck Russian oil bases in the Rostov region and Krasnodar Krai with domestically produced Neptune missiles, according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

As reported, sources in the Ukrainian Navy told Suspilne that the military has used domestically produced Neptune anti-ship missiles for the second time against a ground target in the territory of the aggressor state.

ISW analysts suggest that the Defense Forces targeted the oil terminal of Yugneftekhimtransit LLC in the port town of Chushka in Krasnodar Krai and likely used modified missiles to strike ground targets. According to residents, the fire damaged pipelines and areas with engineering or technical equipment.

The Russian authorities have not confirmed the strike, but the Russian Ministry of Defense stated on June 18 that the Russian military intercepted a Ukrainian Neptune missile in an unspecified area on June 17.

Sources in the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) informed Ukrainian media that Ukrainian forces struck the oil terminals Azovska and Azovnaftoprodukt in Azov, Rostov region, with drones, and geolocation videos show that the resulting fire lasted from the night of June 17 to June 18.

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The Rostov region administration reported that oil tanks caught fire as a result of the strikes.

Sources in the SSU stated that these oil bases have a total of 22 tanks, and the Crimean Service of Radio Vilna Yevropa/Radio Svoboda (RFE/RL) reported that up to 60 tons of oil products pass through these bases per month, and the tanks can simultaneously hold up to 30,000 cubic meters of oil products.

Attacks on Russian oil depots
On the night of Tuesday, June 18, explosions were heard in the village of Chushka in the Temryuk district of the Krasnodar Krai, and a fire broke out at a local oil base.

Additionally, on the night of June 18, drones attacked an oil base in the city of Azov in the Rostov region of the Russian Federation. The fire raged over an area of 5,000 cubic meters.

According to sources, the attacks on the oil bases in the Russian Federation were organized by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

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New Corvette “Provorny” Launched in Russia

In Russian St. Petersburg, a launch ceremony was held for the new multipurpose corvette Provorny.

The ship, built at the Northern Shipyards, became the second in the Gremyashchiy class.

The Gremyashchiy lead vessel of the class was included in the Russian fleet in December 2020.

The new corvette will soon be commissioned by the Navy of the Russian Federation to strengthen the grouping of the Pacific Fleet.

The ship was laid down at the enterprise in July 2013. It was planned to transfer it to the fleet by the end of 2022.

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However, in December 2021, a fire broke out on the corvette. It took more than four hours to contain the blaze, which spread over an area of 400 square meters.

The upper deck, the wheelhouse of the main command post and the integrated mast were damaged.

In September 2023, the general director of the shipbuilding enterprise said that the restoration of the hull was completed.

Multipurpose corvettes of this project are designed to detect and destroy submarines and surface ships in the littoral zone, provide landing, protect the coastal zone, and escort other ships.

Project 20385
The Project 20385 corvette was developed based on the ships of Project 20380. It differs from them with its elongated hull and 3S14 vertical launching system.

The displacement of the corvette of the project is 20385-2500 tons, with a length – 104 meters and a width – 13 meters. Speed – up to 27 knots, range – 3500 nautical miles.

The crew consists of 99 sailors and officers. The armament includes a vertical launching system with the possibility of using the entire family of Kalibr and Onix missiles. In addition, the ship has a Redut air defense system, an A-190-01 100mm gun, two AK-630M 30mm anti-aircraft artillery systems, as well as the Packet anti-submarine system. The corvette’s air group includes the Ka-27PL anti-submarine helicopter.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 19:05 schreef Ulx het volgende:
[ x ]

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Small drones will soon lose combat advantage, French Army chief says

^{French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill inspecting a Rapid Eagle anti-drone system at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris on June 19, 2024 (RUDY RUITENBERG/DEFENSE NEWS)}

The advantage now enjoyed by small aerial drones on battlefields including in Ukraine is but “a moment in history,” French Army Chief of Staff Gen. Pierre Schill said at the Eurosatory defense show in Paris.

While anti-drone systems are lagging and “leave the sky open to things that are cobbled together but which are extremely fragile,” countermeasures are being developed, Schill told reporters during a tour of the French Army stand at the show June 19. Already today, 75% of drones on the battlefield in Ukraine are lost to electronic warfare, the general said.

”The life of impunity of small, very simple drones over the battlefield is a snapshot in time,” Schill said. “Right now it’s being exploited, that’s clear, and we have to protect ourselves. Today, the sword, in the sense of the aerial drone, is powerful, more powerful than the shield. The shield is going to grow.”

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This year’s edition of Eurosatory featured dozens of anti-drone systems, including shotguns, cannons and missiles, while companies including Safran, Thales and Hensoldt presented soft-kill solutions to eliminate drones by electronic means. Schill said vehicles in France’s Scorpion collaborative combat program will all be anti-drone systems in two years time, linking their detection capability with turrets that can fire a missile or a 40mm airburst grenade.

First-person view drones currently carry out about 80% of the destruction on the front line in Ukraine, when eight months ago those systems weren’t present, according to Schill. The general said that situation won’t exist 10 years from now, and the question could be asked whether that might already end in one or two years. Schill cited the example of the Bayraktar drone, “the king of the war” at the start of the conflict in Ukraine but no longer being used because it’s too easy to scramble.

The general said he doesn’t consider that the war in Ukraine calls into question the French choice of a maneuvering army built around medium armor, with a focus on speed and mobility. The vehicles that the Army is introducing as part of the Scorpion program -- the Griffon, Serval and Jaguar – can be equipped with either active or passive protection, even if a strong emphasis of mine protection means they’re “quite massive.”

Griffons, Servals
The French Army is receiving around 120 Griffons and 120 Servals every year as part of Scorpion, as well as more than 20 Jaguars. The vehicles are equipped with “extremely powerful” information systems, and a vehicle such as the Griffon may contain more lines of code than a Rafale fighter jet, according to Schill.

Vehicles developed before the Scorpion program, such as the Leclerc main battle tank, are being reconfigured to become part of the collaborative combat system, which for example allows a target detected by one vehicle to be attacked by another. Scorpion was “extremely ambitious,” works, and has met expectations, according to Schill.

“Everything we had planned is perfectly in place, but it’s just a question of cost effectiveness on certain capabilities,” the general said.Something not considered five years ago is the rapid development of microprocessors, which means the gathered data can now be analyzed within the vehicle rather than externally. In combination with on-board artificial intelligence, that will allow for capabilities such as immediate threat detection, including of drones.

When looking to draw lessons from Ukraine, there needs to be a distinction between what is situational and related the type of terrain and battles being fought, and what is structural, the general said. The war in eastern Europe doesn’t mean the issues of the past 30 years around risk and crisis management will disappear. “We must remain a versatile army.”

The French choice has been to not separate the army into distinct parts suited for different theaters, for example an intervention army that is agile and mobile and a mechanized armor army prepared to fight a war like the one in Ukraine today, with “perhaps more rugged, lowered vehicles, but which, when they hit a mine will kill crews.”

Schill said he wants to preserve the “warrior aspect” of the French army, in which every soldier is aware they can be deployed in operation, rather than a soldier in a territorial defense army “who will never do anything.”

The pace of military drone development means that Army can’t commit to large buying programs, because an acquired capability can become obsolete in five months, according to the general. Schill said today’s drones fly better than those two or three years ago, with more computing power onboard that is capable of terrain-based navigation or switching frequencies to escape jamming.

Drones can’t be compared to 155mm shells, which can be stocked and will remain relevant in 10 years time, and the Army needs to find “the right system in this fast-moving world of new technology,” Schill said. The challenge is creating an industrial model that can produce in mass if necessary, and sufficiently standardized.

Future buying of electronic gear such as drones but also small radios and smart phones may be done in batches to allow for technology evolution, for example renewing equipment at the brigade level rather than multiple-year programs to equip the entire Army with a new piece of equipment, Schill said.

‘Just not possible’
The general also commented on the future French-German Main Ground Combat System, which will consist of several vehicles, some of them manned and others automated, combining anti-drone weapons, close-defense anti-aircraft capabilities, missiles and a canon. Putting all of that on a single tank would create a vehicle weighing 80 metric tons, which “is just not possible.”

Development of the system is going to 10 to 15 years because the land-based robotics are “not completely mature yet,” according to Schill.Schill said he doesn’t know whether the right main gun for the future tank system will be 120mm, 130mm or 140mm, saying that will depend on issues such as stealth and mobility requirements, as well as what the gun bore would add in terms of penetration. KNDS, which is involved in the MGCS program, presented a gun that can swap its barrel to fire either 120mm or 140mm shells.

The French Leclerc tank probably won’t get a second upgrade beyond the current XLR version being rolled out, according to the general. He said the French-German agreement is for the next-generation system in 2040, making the Leclerc question a secondary issue.

It’ll be in France’s interest to piggyback on any capability additions made by the United Arab Emirates, another Leclerc user, between now and 2040 as a way to finance intermediate innovations, Schill said. The introduction of the MGCS won’t immediately mean the end of the Leclerc, which the general expects to be in service in the French Army until 2045.

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Op woensdag 19 juni 2024 18:37 schreef SillyWalks het volgende:

[..]
Wat Russen niet schijnen te snappen, is dat dit soort psychopaten een grotere kans hebben te overleven aan het front. Ze zijn daar in hun element.
Van de mensen die terugkomen van het front, is een hoger percentage dit soort moordenaars. Maar nu hebben ze dan ook nog training ontvangen om effici�nter te moorden.

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Moscow Acquires Used CNC Machines from China for Arms Production

^{2001 Tsugami MB-38SY machine sold by ELE Technology. Photo credits: ele-tech.com.cn}

Russia is buying second-hand Japanese Tsugami equipment from China for the production of weapons at its enterprises.

The analysis of these purchases was released by the Washington-based Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS).

According to C4ADS, Moscow is trying to avoid Western sanctions and export control aimed at deterring the Russian military industry.

It is noted that Russian arms manufacturers are “struggling to expand their production capabilities using everything they can get.”

“Moscow even buys old Western-made machines from China, delivered to local factories decades ago,” said C4ADS analyst Allen Maggard.

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^{Dmitry Medvedev at the Uralvagonzavod enterprise near the T-72B3 building. 2022. Photo credits: Russian government}

A key element of one of the Russian shadow procurement networks identified by the C4ADS was the Moscow company AMG, which has been under sanctions since 2022.

After the outbreak of a full-scale war, this company increased the import of numerical software control (CNC) machine tools from the Japanese manufacturer Tsugami to Russia.

CNC equipment is required for high-precision and high-speed metal processing. AMG purchased machines were received by Comet Corporation, which develops missile systems.

In 2021, AMG bought Tsugami equipment from an official Japanese supplier. The company paid the manufacturer about $600,000.

After the invasion, the volume of purchases rose to $50 million in 2023, with the entire increase coming from two shadow intermediaries.

Intermediaries
The first AMG intermediary is Amegino from the UAE, which is under U.S. sanctions, the site of which was originally located on Russian servers.

The owner of Amegino, according to corporate intelligence company Diligencia, is Andrei Mironov.

The second intermediary is ELE Technology, which bills itself as “a division of [American machine tool distributor] Grey Machinery Company.”

In fact, according to analysts, ELE Technology is based in the Chinese city of Shenzhen. The company currently sells two models of Tsugami machines from 2001 and 2005.

^{2001 Tsugami MB-38SY machine sold by ELE Technology. Photo credits: ele-tech.com.cn}

An expert associated with Tsugami estimated that more than 100,000 machines from the 200,000 machines delivered worldwide were supplied to Chinese enterprises.

Moscow became interested in old Tsugami machines after this Japanese company officially left Russia in 2022.

Another Russian company, UMIC, bought $2.9 million worth of machine tools and parts made in Israel, Japan, Korea, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland, according to customs documents.

^{UMIC and AMG company banners on the background of the Tsugami machine. 2021. Photo credits: UMIC}

In all cases, the equipment was delivered from China and purchased using yuan through trading partners in China. Unlike AMG, UMIC was not subject to American sanctions.

Recall that Western countries have imposed a ban on the supply of equipment for military production to Russia after the start of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

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Shunned by West, Russian army deserters live in fear

^{Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin says he does not feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears he might be deported to Russia (STRINGER)}

Russian officer Farkhad Ziganshin had prepared himself for a life of military service since a young age. He could never have imagined that one day he would become a deserter and flee the country.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine changed everything.

"I don't support what's happening in Ukraine, I don't support the government we've had for so many years," Ziganshin, 24, told AFP in Kazakhstan, where he fled in September 2022 after Vladimir Putin ordered Russia's first military mobilisation since World War II.

Faced with a choice between taking part in a war of aggression or going to prison for refusing to fight in Ukraine, hundreds of deserters and draft dodgers have fled to neighbouring ex-Soviet countries where they are now stuck in limbo.

Russian authorities have opened a criminal case against Ziganshin for abandoning his unit. He does not feel safe in Kazakhstan and fears he might be deported to Russia.

But it is hard for men like him to seek refuge in the West because many Russian servicemen do not have the Russian passport that allows travel to Europe and only have documents that permit them to reach neighbours such as Kazakhstan or Armenia.

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Anti-war activists urge European and US policymakers to do more to help men like Ziganshin, who are hunted at home and viewed with suspicion in the West.

While in Kazakhstan, Ziganshin was briefly arrested twice, most recently in June.

He is not giving up, however. He openly speaks of his opposition to Putin and the war in Ukraine with foreign journalists.

Together with other opponents of the war he has recorded videos to encourage Russians to flee the battlefield as part of an initiative dubbed "Farewell to arms".

In one such video, a serviceman sets fire to a uniform bearing the letter "Z", a symbol of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, before heading for the nearest forest.

"No one attacked your homeland," says a message at the end of the clip. "We have already refused to take part in a criminal war. You should too."

- 'Live with dignity' -
Ziganshin went to a military boarding school at the age of 10 and graduated from a military academy that prepares Russian tank commanders.

He describes the Russian armed forces as a "great school of life". But when Russia invaded Ukraine, he realised this was not the army he wanted to dedicate his life to.

He managed to resign, only to learn the next day that a military mobilisation had been declared and that he would be deployed to Ukraine, along with around 300,000 other men.

Ziganshin packed up in a hurry and fled to neighbouring Kazakhstan. Afraid of being sent back to Moscow, where he will be criminally prosecuted, he has been trying to acquire a visa to travel to France.

Kazakh rights campaigner Artur Alkhastov said Russian deserters stand virtually no chance of receiving refugee status in the Central Asian country.

"We've got really strong diplomatic ties with Russia," said Alkhastov.

Campaigners have also accused local authorities of facilitating the arrests of Russians who have sought refuge in Kazakhstan.

Mikhail Zhilin of the Russian Federal Guard Service fled to Kazakhstan to avoid the draft, illegally crossing the border. He was sent back to Russia and last year sentenced to six and a half years in prison.

Russian contract soldier Kamil Kasimov, who also fled to Kazakhstan, this spring was detained and taken to a Russian military base in the town of Priozyorsk in central Kazakhstan, according to activists.

Ziganshin shudders at the thought of being sent back to Russia where he faces a long prison term. His Kazakh residence permit has expired.

"I'm young, I want to do something with my life, I want to live with dignity," he said.

Other Russian army deserters have fled to Armenia in the South Caucasus. But like Kazakhstan, activists say the country hosting a Russian military base is also not a safe destination. Two Russian deserters have been detained by Russian military personnel in Armenia over the past two years.

European countries remain out of bounds, said Ivan Chuviliaev, spokesman for anti-war Russian project Idite Lesom ("Get lost"), which has been helping Russians to desert and leave the country.

"They have no documents to put a visa in," he said.

- 'Absurd death' –
Andrei Yuseinov, who served in the 39th motorised rifle brigade in Sakhalin in Russia's Far East, was lucky enough to escape to Georgia.

He said he had "forged his story" and passed himself off as a civilian in his home town of Orenburg in order to obtain a passport, which enabled him to travel to Georgia with his wife and child.

The 24-year-old said he refused to die "an absurd death" in Ukraine.

"I used to see mothers crying in front of officers who didn't answer them even though they knew their children were dead," Yuseinov said.

Campaigners and Western governments have been concerned about Georgia's recent pro-Russian drift and Yuseinov believes he is not safe there.

He hoped to travel to France but in May, the French embassy in Tbilisi refused to issue him a visa.

- 'Resistance fighters' –
Since Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, many Russians have sought to find refuge in France, which has a long tradition of welcoming political exiles.

Last year, the country's National Court of Asylum (CNDA) threw a lifeline to military deserters and draft dodgers too, ruling that "Russians fleeing mobilisation for the war in Ukraine and those mobilised who have deserted can obtain refugee status".

According to the CNDA, 102 Russians fleeing mobilisation have already been granted refugee status in France. There are no army deserters among them.

Obtaining refugee status or even receiving a visa to travel to EU countries is difficult for many Russians, and activists are urging European governments to do more to help.

"They are real resistance fighters, they are not only soldiers who refused to risk their lives," said Olga Prokopieva, head of Russie-Libertes, a Paris-based association.

"We would like France to become more involved, in particular with deserters who have found themselves stuck in Armenia and Kazakhstan."

Artem Klyga, a lawyer working with the Movement of Conscientious Objectors, has been lobbying the French and German governments to help Russians fleeing the battlefield.

He said both countries understood the scale of the problem but were also wary of welcoming servicemen who might have committed war crimes.

"I usually hear that all these Russians are war criminals, so you need to block them in Russia," he said.

The German foreign ministry said anti-war Russians who are "particularly at risk of persecution" can be welcomed on humanitarian grounds.

- 'Harassed' -
Vladimir (not his real name) is one of the war refuseniks who managed to obtain asylum in France.

The 30-year-old reservist said he was "harassed" in the early months of the war, with Russian military personnel coming first to his home, then to his place of work and to his mother's home in an effort to enlist him.

"The fear grew," said Vladimir.

In May 2022, he left for France to avoid being drafted. Soon after, his mother received his military summons. The CNDA granted him refugee status in April after two years of proceedings.

Dmitry (not his real name), a dance teacher in his 30s, said he did not want to "take up arms to kill other people".

He fled Russia in September 2022, a few days after receiving a military draft notice. He was granted asylum in April.

Oleg (not his real name), a combat sports instructor in his 40s, said he has "always been against Putin".

He said his wife took part in protests organised by allies of Alexei Navalny, the opposition leader who suddenly died in an Arctic prison in February. Oleg took part in a fund-raising campaign for a Ukrainian friend whose home was destroyed as a result of the Russian invasion, he said.

- 'Saved my family' –
After Oleg received his summons, he, his wife and their two children left for Georgia in September 2022.

He received refugee status in France in April.

"If we hadn't left, I'd either be in prison or on the battlefield," said Oleg.

Alexander, 34, his wife Daria, 37, and their two children are still waiting for the French authorities to decide their fate.

The family fled Saint Petersburg in March 2023, after Alexander, who is an engineer, received his draft notice.

Their car and the front door of their flat were vandalised due to Daria's anti-war activism.

The family, who are residing in a town in northern France, have left behind a comfortable life.

Alexander said he had no regrets. "I saved my family and did not become a murderer," he said.

- 'Support deserters' -
Activists say that if Western countries want to better support Ukraine they should offer asylum to Russian deserters.

"If we want the Russian army to be weaker, we have to support deserters," said Chuviliaev.

Independent Russian-language media outlet Mediazona has recorded around 8,600 AWOL cases since the start of the mobilisation in September 2022. By comparison, just over 600 such cases were brought before the courts in 2021. Charges of desertion have also soared, with more than 300 cases brought before courts since the start of the draft, according to Mediazona. That compares to 33 such cases in 2021.

Russian deserters should be welcomed in the West, not stigmatised for having served in the Russian army, said a spokeswoman for InTransit, an organisation that helps men flee the war.

"If you're just an activist and you went to a few demonstrations, you can receive a humanitarian visa. But if you were in the army and shot yourself in the leg and ran away," she said, "then you don't get any visa."

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Norway’s NOMADS Armored Short Range Air Defense System Unveiled
The highly mobile armored missile system has already been tested in Norway and there are reports that Germany may seek to transfer examples to Ukraine in the future.

^{THE NOMADS IS MEANT TO PROVIDE SHORT-RANGE AIR DEFENSES ON THE MOVE EVEN IN HOTLY CONTESTED AREAS.}

Norway’s Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace has launched a new ground-based air defense solution, the NOMADS, or National Maneuver Air Defense System. Designed for the protection of forces on the move, the system appears to draw heavily upon lessons of the war in Ukraine and there have already been reports that NOMADS might end up being supplied to Kyiv.

Whether or not that happens, NOMADS emphasizes the continued resurgence of interest in short-range air defense (SHORAD), after many years of neglect, and will be an important part of the modernization of the Norwegian military, especially in the Arctic region.

NOMADS was publicly unveiled at the Eurosatory defense exhibition taking place outside Paris this week. Designed in conjunction with the Norwegian Armed Forces, the system is designed to be mounted on one of a range of armored mechanized vehicles, with the baseline model being integrated on an ACSV G5 (Armored Combat Support Vehicle) from the German firm Flensburger Fahrzeugbau GmbH (FFG).

FFG is supplying 50 ACSV G5 vehicles to the Norwegian Armed Forces in various configurations.

SPOILER

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^{An ACSV G5 (Armored Combat Support Vehicle) from the German firm Flensburger Fahrzeugbau GmbH (FFG). FFG}

SHORADS specifically intended to go onto an armored vehicle were commonplace during the Cold War, but then somewhat fell out of favor. As well as a high level of off-road mobility, and the ability to keep up with mechanized forces, this ensures a good degree of protection and, once again, reflects the demands of the kinds of warfare seen currently in Ukraine.

Porting over technologies from the medium-range National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missiles System (NASAMS) — a system used by the United States and Ukraine, as well as Norway, primarily in static applications — the NOMADS module includes active sensors in the form of a 3D active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and a laser rangefinder. There are also passive sensors, with a day/night camera and a thermal camera.

^{A NASAMS system fires an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile. Kongsberg A ground-based launcher associated with the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS). Kongsberg Defense}

The radar is reportedly supplied by the Danish Weibel firm and Kongsberg confirms it has a range of at least 31 miles.

All these sensors are brought together — and can be combined with data from off-board systems — via a command and control (C2) architecture taken from NASAMS and supported by NATO-standard identification friend or foe as well as VHF and UHF communications.

The standard weapons for NOMADS comprise four ready-to-fire AIM-9X Block 2 Sidewinders, best known as air-to-air weapons but also an option for the NASAMS. It’s worth noting that four missiles is a relatively low total, while the AIM-9X is also far from a low-cost option with each round costing close to half a million dollars.


^{An AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder. USN}

Additionally there is a remote weapon station armed with a 50-caliber machine gun and an optional radio-frequency directional jammer. The last two would appear to be included to better deal with close-in threats from small drones, including first-person view (FPV) types, of the kind that are also currently proliferating in Ukraine.

Otherwise, NOMADS is suitable for use against other types of drones, cruise missiles, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft. The importance of this kind of capability near the forward edge of the battle cannot be understated, with attack helicopters, especially, having proven in Ukraine to be a particular menace.

“NOMADS can defend against small, short-range targets as drones and cruise missiles, providing unique protection against threats like those currently seen in Ukraine,” said Kjetil Reiten Myhra, Kongsberg’s Executive Vice President Defense Systems. “Its configuration is designed for rapid movement over rough terrain and with unprecedented into-action-time.”

For its primary battlefield missions, supporting maneuver forces, at battalion and brigade level, NOMADS is expected to operate independently, including conducting ‘shoot and scoot’ engagements closer to or at the frontline to improve its own survivability.

However, via the aforementioned C2 architecture, it can also be ‘plugged in’ to wider integrated air defense networks.

According to the Norwegian Ministry of Defense, NOMADS was recently tested at And�ya in the Arctic region, a key operating area for the Norwegian Armed Forces and an increasingly strategic environment overall, considering Russian military expansion there.

“We have carried out successful test firing with the system, where we have tested the entire chain: From the sensors picking up the target until the missile is launched,” explained project manager Geir Sandberg.

^{A pair of NOMADS systems on the move. Kongsberg}

These tests involved IRIS-T air-to-air missiles being fired from NOMADS, although this is only an interim solution, with Norway’s having committed to transferring these missiles — formerly used by its now-retired F-16 fighters — to Ukraine.

An initial batch of six NOMADS systems are planned to be delivered to the Norwegian Armed Forces, four of them reportedly already having been handed over. These are scheduled to become fully operational between 2026 and 2028.  This is part of a wider expansion of Norway’s air defense capabilities, which include plans to double the number of fielded surface-to-air missiles.

“The Norwegian Armed Forces needs modern air defense in order to be able to combat a high-tech opponent,” Jarle Nerg�rd, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Defense Materiel Agency said.

As for interest in NOMADS from beyond Norway, reports in the German media suggest that the Netherlands is interested in acquiring them. The Dutch requirement is apparently based on 18 vehicles, armed with the AIM-9X missile. Reportedly, the Netherlands is also seeking to arm each of these vehicles with more missiles than the standard four found on the baseline model.

^{A NOMADS system, showing the box-type missile containers to good effect. Kongsberg}

Furthermore, the German government is also said to be considering procuring the system for Ukraine.

While the ACSV G5 vehicle used in the iteration of the system could be procured from the German FFG, there would need to be a wider agreement involving Norway, the United States, and Denmark to ensure that the other critical components of NOMADS could be delivered to Ukraine.

The modular nature of the system could make this process easier, however. For example, the radar and other sensors could be procured from other sources, while the main armament of AIM-9X missiles could be swapped out with IRIS-T missiles. Both AIM-9X and IRIS-T have already been supplied to Ukraine, with the former understood to be incorporated in the ‘FrankenSAM’ applications that adapt Soviet-era air defense systems to fire Western missiles.

^{One of the first official photos to show a Soviet-era ground-based air defense system upgraded with Western surface-to-air missiles. In this case, a tracked self-propelled Buk-M1 system — known in the West as SA-11 Gadfly — said to have been adapted to fire the RIM-7 Sea Sparrow missile. Ukrainian Ministry of Defense Operational Command East}

As we have discussed in the past, Ukraine has an insatiable demand for ground-based air defenses, with the need for SHORADS — especially those that are able to accompany maneuver forces — being especially prominent.

Reflecting this requirement, the German Rheinmetall company is currently assessing whether Cold War-era Leopard 1 tanks can have their turrets swapped out to be fitted with the Skyranger 35 gun-based short-range air defense system, as you can read about here.

NOMADS would seem to provide an relevant solution for Ukraine, combining a high level of protection and a significant degree of mobility. As well as supporting units on the battlefield, including those that are on the move, it could also provide point defense to critical installations, including plugging into existing air defense networks.

In particular, the threat posed to Ukraine by Russian drones and cruise missile capabilities is significant and something that NOMADS has very much been designed to deal with. At the same time, the development in the West of an armoured, highly mobile, self-contained SHORADS is a notable development in itself.

While Ukraine is already facing cruise missile and drone threats on a daily basis, concerns about these and other aerial threats are now driving something of a renaissance in ground-based air defense around the world, with SHORADS very much at the center of this.

Whether it ends up in Ukrainian hands or not, the appearance of NOMADS appears well-timed to capitalize on this renaissance in short-range air defense capabilities.

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Russia prepares to incite protests in Moldova: US, Canada, and UK issue warning
Russia will attempt to incite protests in Moldova if a pro-Kremlin candidate does not win in the upcoming presidential elections in the fall, according to a joint statement by the governments of the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

“In defense of our shared democratic values, we are taking this step to warn our democratic partners and Allies that Russian actors are carrying out a plot to influence the outcomes of Moldova’s fall 2024 presidential election. They intend to incite protests in Moldova should a pro-Russia candidate not win. They seek to foment negative public perceptions of Western governments and Moldova’s incumbent leadership, while degrading public confidence in Moldova’s ability to secure itself and maintain rule of law,” the statement reads.

Currently, Russia is assisting pro-Russian candidates in the elections and instigating social conflicts. “Russian actors are actively using disinformation and propaganda online, on the air, and on the streets to further their objectives. They are agitating criticism of the incumbent Moldovan president’s government and political party, in order to incite protests. Part of these operations would include spreading lies about the incumbent president’s character and intentions, and about supposed electoral irregularities,” the governments’ representatives emphasized.

If Russia fails to achieve its desired outcome, the Kremlin will incite protests to destabilize Moldova. “Russia’s political interference in Moldova in the lead-up to the October election goes back years. For example, personnel of state-funded media outlet RT have been involved in providing direct support to fugitive Moldovan Ilan Shor [pro-Russian politician – ed.] for several years with Russian government assent. All three of our governments have sanctioned Shor for his destabilizing electoral activities,” the text states.

Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom “have full confidence in Moldova’s ability to manage these threats linked to the Kremlin’s interference. We are taking a range of measures to support those efforts as part of our partnership with Moldova and its people,” the statement concludes.

As a reminder, NATO confidentially and unofficially identified at least two “red lines” in May, crossing which could result in the Alliance’s direct intervention in the war in Ukraine, wrote the Italian newspaper la Repubblica. The second “red line” is a Russian military provocation against the Baltic countries or Poland, or a deliberate attack on Moldova.

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Ukrainian Drone Operators ‘Laugh’ When They Fly Over This Melting, Malfunctioning Russian Radio Jammer
The $2,400 jammer is getting Russian soldiers killed, one blogger claimed.
Ukrainian forces damaged or destroyed more than a hundred Russian vehicles on Tuesday while losing just 30 or so, according to analyst Andrew Perpetua.

It was a nearly record-high number of daily losses for the Russians—and also a nearly record-high gap between Russian and Ukrainian losses in a single day.

Ukraine’s explosive first-person-view drones are largely responsible for the carnage, if Perpetua’s tally is accurate. More than 70 of the approximately 100 strikes on Russian vehicles involved the $500 drones, which Ukrainians deploy at a rate of 100,000 or more a month.

The Russians seem to be incapable of blocking Ukrainian drone strikes. A recent Russian confessional hints at why. While Russian industry produces a wide array of anti-drone radio jammers—which, in theory, block the signals between drones and their operators—many of these jammers simply don’t work.

SPOILER

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A $2,400 jammer peddled by at least one popular Russian social media channel is worse than useless, according to one enraged Russian blogger. It inspires false confidence among front-line troops—and gets them killed by drones. “It is even scary to imagine how many people died, falsely hoping,” the blogger wrote.

The multi-frequency jammer the blogger disassembled and inspected isn’t the first ineffective Russian drone jammer to show up on the front line of Russia’s 28-month wider war on Ukraine. In early April, a Ukrainian brigade staged a daring three-night raid to steal an immobilized Russian tank sporting a new jammer—only to discover the jammer didn’t work very well.

The blogger’s jammer might be the worst of these bad devices, however. The blogger identified a “huge list of technical errors” and also criticized the jammer’s “weight and size [and] the carrying handle that breaks.”

Among those technical errors are mismatched and improperly aligned antennae. In a properly built jammer, the antennae are the right shape and size—and pointed in the right direction—to broadcast radio noise that should, in concept, overpower drones’ own radio links over a wide area.

In the $2,400 jammer, there are several radio emitters, each tuned to the frequency range of a specific drone type—either low-flying FPV attack drones or higher-flying surveillance drones.

The problem is that many of the antennae for the FPV drones point up, even though FPV drones tend to attack from the side. And one of the upward-pointing antennae is fixed in place instead of adjustable, as if the designers “wanted to shoot a powerful beam right above.”

The fixed antenna would only work if enemy operators obliged by carefully positioning their drones in that narrow zone directly overhead of the jammer.

Radio jammers generate a lot of heat, which is why their designers usually devote a lot of attention to various mechanisms for cooling the jammers. Not so the designers of the new Russian system. The main cooler is a simple fan bolted to the inside of the plastic case.

Worse, there are no vents through which the fan might draw cool air—and vent hot air. Once switched on, the jammer quickly turns into “a blast furnace,” according to the blogger. The jammer becomes too hot to touch and components degrade. As ineffective as the system is when it’s intact, it’s far worse when it’s melting.

The Russian influencers peddling the nonfunctional jammer “kill our soldiers for your money,” the blogger wrote. And Ukrainian drone operators “fly over this ‘miracle’—and laugh.”

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From Ukraine, Two Enormous Passengers Are Trucked and Flown to Safety
A pair of beluga whales were extricated from the besieged city of Kharkiv and taken to an aquarium in Spain with help from experts around the world.

It was a whale of an evacuation. Actually, two.

In what experts said was among the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken, the pair of beluga whales were extricated from an aquarium in the battered city of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine and transported to Europe’s largest aquarium in Valencia, Spain, on Wednesday morning.

As Russian aerial bombardments of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, have intensified, the evacuation of Plombir, a 15-year-old male, and Miranda, a 14-year-old female, came just in time, marine mammal experts said.

“If they had continued in Kharkiv, their chances of survival would have been very slim,” said Daniel Garcia-P�rraga, director of zoological operations at Oceanogr�fic de Valencia, who helped lead the rescue.

SPOILER

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Belugas, whose natural habitat is the Arctic, need cold water to survive. The devastation of the power grid in Kharkiv meant that the aquarium there had to rely on generator power, making it challenging to keep the waters cooled.

At the same time, the whales’ diets were halved recently amid shortages of the 132 pounds of squid, herring, mackerel and other fresh fish the pair needed daily, Dr. Garcia-P�rraga said. Ukrainian caregivers were even considering using discarded fish from restaurants and markets.

And in recent weeks, bombs exploded close enough to ripple the waters of their home at the NEMO Dolphinarium. As the conditions grew more precarious, the Ukrainians decided the whales required evacuation.

Moving marine mammals can be risky in the best of circumstances. Transporting sick or stressed animals ratchets up the difficulty.

“You’d like to make sure that anybody that gets transported is as healthy as possible,” said Michael Walsh, a veterinarian who leads the marine animal rescue program at the University of Florida but was not involved in the operation.

In emergencies, he said, “you may not have as much of a choice.”

Dan Ashe, head of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the former head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said it took “the world’s most elite team of marine mammal experts” to achieve what he said was “likely the most complex marine mammal rescue ever undertaken.”

Specialists from Oceanogr�fic de Valencia, Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta and SeaWorld all assisted the Ukrainians in the operation, a 36-hour journey over more than 1,900 miles that started on Monday evening and was completed just before dawn on Wednesday.

Kharkiv might seem an unlikely spot for belugas. But more than 3,500 cetaceans — a group of animals that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises — live in captivity globally, said Lori Marino, an expert on cetacean intelligence and captive animal welfare. “I’m not surprised to find captive cetaceans anywhere,” she said in an email.

Dr. Marino, who is also the president of the Whale Sanctuary Project, said cetaceans should not be kept in captivity.

“But if they are, we have a moral duty to keep them out of harm’s way,” she said.

The NEMO Dolphinariums, which operate in several locations across Ukraine, have repeatedly faced accusations of animal abuse. UAnimals, an animal rights group that has evacuated thousands of animals since Russia’s invasion, issued a scathing report this year on the dolphinariums.

Olga Chevganiuk, head of the international department for the group, said the dolphinariums “must be banned in Ukraine right now.”

Natalia Gozak, a wildlife rescue field officer at the International Fund for Animal Welfare who works in Ukraine, said that while the rescue was welcome, the whales should never have been in Kharkiv, noting that there were signs that NEMO had illegally obtained some animals from the wild.

“They catch marine mammals and use them — train and use them for entertainment,” she said. “That’s definitely not OK.”

The operators of the NEMO facilities have denied charges of cruelty.

While some seals, dolphins and sea lions were evacuated from the facility, the dolphinarium in Kharkiv is still open. Even though air-raid alerts there can last for more than 16 hours a day, it has dolphin shows.

But as the bombardment of the city intensified, the challenges of caring for the belugas were too great.

Dennis Christen, senior director of animal well-being and behavior at Georgia Aquarium, who met the whales after they had crossed from Ukraine into Moldova, said in an interview that “the complexities of this evacuation were immense” and that rescuers had worked for weeks to prepare.

Mr. Christen and Dr. Garcia-P�rraga both said the rescue would have been impossible if one of the world’s leading beluga whale experts had not lived in Kharkiv.

That expert, Olga Shpak, abandoned her research the day Russia invaded and moved to Kharkiv to help in the war, working with Assist Ukraine, a charity assisting soldiers and civilians at the front.

Reached by phone as she was driving across eastern Ukraine, Ms. Shpak said she was aware of the whales’ plight in Kharkiv when the war had started, but with Russian forces pressing against the city, evacuation was not feasible.

After the Russians were driven from the region in the fall of 2022 and the situation stabilized, the worries about the animals faded.

As conditions worsened in recent months and evacuation plans took shape, Dr. Garcia-P�rraga reached out to Ms. Shpak. The two first met at a conference on beluga whales in Valencia in 2007 but had lost touch after the invasion. Once reconnected, Ms. Shpak became the central contact between the Ukrainians and the international experts.

Mr. Christen said they would pepper her day and night with a thousand questions and she fielded them all.

The issues started with Ukraine’s transport crates, which were not designed for belugas and were too small. The Ukrainians decided that each time a crate with a whale was lifted, they would drain the water rather than risk breaking it.

“The Ukrainian team did a great job moving the animals from Kharkiv to Odesa,” Dr. Garcia-P�rraga said.

A member of the Oceanogr�fic team met the truck carrying the crates in Odesa, where a critical inspection took place.

Once the truck crossed the border to Moldova, there would be no turning back. So if there was any issue with the crates or the health of the whales, they needed to spot it in Odesa. The team gave the greenlight and the whales were back on the road.

In Moldova, Dr. Garcia-P�rraga and Mr. Christen hopped on the truck for the trip to the airport. Because the Moldovan airport lacked the heavy lifting cranes needed to move the whales, the rescuers chartered a specific cargo plane equipped with an interior crane.

Paperwork complications and the Italian prime minister’s simultaneous transit through the airport all added precious hours to the trip. As the clock ticked, the team needed to constantly monitor the whales and keep the water in the tanks between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius.

They finally reached Valencia before dawn, and by 6:30 a.m. they were in their new home.

“We were very focused on the animals,” Dr. Garcia-P�rraga said. But he remained just as moved by the solicitude he saw from the Ukrainians who helped make the evacuation happen.

Even as they deal with their own trauma losing friends and loved ones, he said, they still showed deep compassion for the animals.

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Belarusian president blames Jews for his government's corruption, says he's 'not antisemitic'
Alexander Lukashenko, in statement broadcast on state television, says Jews have 'special, privileged role' and 'steal and do not think about their future'; Foreign MInistry: President's comments are 'outrageous and sound like definite antisemitic comments'

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko made an antisemitic statement Saturday during his government meeting in which he hinted at a connection between Jews and theft.

He referred to a corruption case involving his former aide, the governor of the Vitebsk region and former Minister of Agriculture and Food Igor Brylo, as well as dozens of other people. "There are 36 people on the list. Sorry, I don't consider myself antisemitic, but more than half of them are Jewish. Do they have a special, privileged role, that they steal and do not think about their future? Do they have privileges? All peoples living in Belarus should be equal. Jews, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Russians and Poles," Lukashenko said.

His statement was broadcast on the state television channel Belarus 1, but the problematic quote was not included in the press release on the presidency's website.

SPOILER

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This is not the first antisemitic statement by Lukashenko, who has been called "the last dictator in Europe." In 2007 he said that the Jews had turned the city of Bobruisk into a "pig sty" and that "this was founded as a Jewish city and you know how Jews treat the place they live in." In July 2021 he said that the "whole world bows" to the Jews after the Holocaust. In December 2023 he said: "Armenians are smart people. There is not even one Jew there."

Social activist Alex Tanzer called on Foreign Minister Israel Katz to recall the Israeli ambassador to Belarus for consultations. "A country that respects itself cannot allow such a statement to pass in silence," he said.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that "the words of the President of Belarus are unacceptable, outrageous and sound like definite antisemitic comments. The Deputy Director for Eurasia and the Western Balkans at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Yuval Fox, contacted the Belarusian ambassador in Israel following the statement and protested his words."

Belarus' President-elect Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya said of Lukashenko in a statement on the X platform that: "His regime is the true source of corruption, not the Jewish community. Such hateful rhetoric is dangerous & must be unequivocally condemned.

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Russian media report on drone attacks on oil refineries in Krasnodar Krai and Adygea
Drones attacked the Afipsky oil refinery in Russia's Krasnodar region, causing a fire at the facility. Reports also indicate an attack on the oil refinery in the village of Enem in Adygea, according to Telegram channels Baza, Shot, and ASTRA.

According to Russian channels, the attack on the plant began around 2:30 a.m.

The Russians claim that the drones were allegedly shot down, but the debris from one of the UAVs struck a tank, causing a fire. Emergency services are working at the scene.

There are also reports of explosions and a fire in the village of Enem in Adygea. No official information is available yet.

ASTRA writes that the LUKOIL-Yugnefteprodukt oil depot is located in Enem. Eight kilometers from Enem is the Afipsky oil refinery, where a fire is raging.

Additionally, Russian media report a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone attack on Slavyansk-on-Kuban in the Krasnodar region. The drone allegedly fell on a private house, which was completely destroyed. According to preliminary information from the Russian side, there is one fatality.

On June 18, drones attacked an oil depot in the village of Chushka in the Temryuk district of Krasnodar region.

On the same day, drones attacked an oil depot in the city of Azov in the Rostov region. As a result, tanks containing oil products caught fire, and the firefighting efforts have been ongoing for the second day.

According to sources, the attacks on the oil depots in Russia were organized by the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU).

quote:

Translation: "That's our "Greeting" to Ukrainians, that didn't reach the target".

SPOILER

quote:

Translation:
"Do you understand? Here, we are holding the position, I give a command... What, are you smoking? Hurry up then... So I give a command, and the assault groups start do move out... So you go, stay low, don't just sit on the road, or you'll always be a target... Got it? Those 20 or so people over there will try to attack by twos... And your assault unit will do the same. How many are you? 18? 19, OK, so you will be also sent in pairs: two, two, two... The first pair comes in, if it can't take a stronghold, they pull back... We will fine tune it later, if we keep working on this... Then the second pair goes in, gets fucked, retreats... Then the third one, got it? We will roll like this until we break through this defense line... Clear? Keep in mind that Khokhols may leave the stronghold and retreat on purpose, so you can take it and then be hit with arty... So they would work on it with arty and then take it back..."

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Putin tries to form alternative to NATO - ISW
Russian President Vladimir Putin is seeking to form a coalition of countries to attempt to position this alliance as a viable alternative to NATO, according to a report by the American Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Analysts note that this involves countries with historically warm ties to the USSR. Before he visited Vietnam on June 19, Putin published an article in the Vietnamese state newspaper Nh�n D�n, using much of the same rhetoric as in his June 18 article in the North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun.

"Putin invoked the historical memory of the Soviet Union's support for Vietnam during the Vietnam War, which Putin described as a heroic struggle against foreign invaders, and noted that it is the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of Basic Principles of Friendly Relations between Russia and Vietnam. Putin praised Vietnam for pursuing an independent foreign policy and supporting a world order based on principles of equality between nations and non-interference in domestic affairs, echoing his praises for North Korea on June 18 and 19. Putin also claimed that like North Korea, Vietnam shares Russia's views on the formation of a new system of equal and indivisible Eurasian security - though Vietnam, like much of Southeast Asia, is not typically included in political conceptions of Eurasia," the report states.

Thus, Putin laid the informational groundwork for a Eurasian security structure during his visit to China in May 2024 and then proposed it in his speech on June 14. At that time, he stated that the Euro-Atlantic security system is collapsing and that Western security and prosperity schemes in Europe are not working.

SPOILER

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Experts concluded that the Russian dictator aims to create a coalition of countries that he could attempt to present as a real alternative to NATO. Additionally, he seeks to create the illusion that Western countries are the only supporters of Ukraine, while the rest of the world stands behind Russia.

"Putin likely aims to use the historical memory of positive relations with the Soviet Union and previous assistance to other states to form a coalition of countries that Putin could attempt to posture as a feasible alternative to NATO and bolster the Kremlin's ongoing information operations attempting to falsely portray Western countries as Ukraine's only supporters whereas the rest of the world stands behind Russia," ISW added.

The White House referred to Putin's visit to North Korea and the signing of the strategic partnership agreement as an expansion of the partnership.

Earlier, RBC-Ukraine reported that the US officially confirmed the permission for the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike Russia near both the Kharkiv and Sumy regions.

quote:

Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 07:50 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://newsukraine.rbc.u(...)-isw-1718855858.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Nog ��n? Lol. Het CSTO is al zo'n groot succes gebleken.

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 06:50 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://www.ukrainianworl(...)nd-uk-issue-warning/
[..]

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 07:50 schreef Delenlill het volgende:
https://newsukraine.rbc.u(...)-isw-1718855858.html
[..]

SPOILER

[..]

Nog ��n? Lol. Het CSTO is al zo'n groot succes gebleken.

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China aarzelt bij het investeren in de Power of Siberia 2-gaspijpleiding terwijl het aandringt op diepere kortingen op Russisch gas, zo meldde The South China Morning Post

Volgens een bron in Moskou verwacht China dat Rusland de volledige kosten van het miljardenpijpleidingproject op zich zal nemen en tegelijkertijd diepere verlagingen van de gasprijzen zal nastreven.

De korting voor de Chinese gasimport zal volgend jaar stijgen naar 46%, waarbij gas uit de Kracht van Siberi� 271,6 dollar per duizend kubieke meter kost, vergeleken met 481,7 dollar voor Turkije en Europa,

quote:

Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:32 schreef michaelmoore het volgende:
https://www.intellinews.c(...)t-price-deal-303428/

Putin gaat ome Kim gas leveren via de pipe line in ruil voor kogels en wapens en raketten

En dan ook maar eens kijken of Vietnam graag goed wil betalen voor Aardgas in ruil voor tanks
,
China die wil maar een vrienden prijsje geven voor het Russisch gas , de Nordstream pijpen zijn kapot en LNG gas vervoeren is gruwelijk duur en omslachtig
Gazprom maakt bakken verlies met LNG koud maken en vervoeren in foei dure schaarse schepen , en dan naar China en India brengen voor een schijtprijsje

Putin die laat zich niet met de kop op het hakblok leggen door China
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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:39 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Ja, in een alternatieve realiteit leven is de true superpower van rus.

Maar die pijplijn gaat niet komen.

Artikeltje is beetje oud, btw. Zijn ondertussen meerdere onderhandelingsronden geweest, die voor rus 0 opgeleverd hebben.

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:41 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Mooi.

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In a significant move impacting the global automotive market, Turkey has announced imposing a 40% additional tariff on vehicle imports from China.
The decision represents a strategic shift in Turkey's trade policy, aiming to protect its burgeoning domestic EV industry and address trade imbalances with China.13 jun 2024

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:41 schreef michaelmoore het volgende:

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De pipeline naar Ome Kim??
Die zal er best gaan komen

zo moeilijk is dat niet , zo ver ook niet meer

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:45 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Naar ome kim heeft helemaal niemand het over, dat is 1, 2 is... dat het behoorlijk ver is. Weetje hoeveel KM's je het over hebt. Gaat in de miljarden (USD/EUR) lopen. En turbines voor compressor stations zijn niet te krijgen.

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The Sakhalin–Khabarovsk–Vladivostok pipeline is a pipeline for natural gas in Russia, transporting Sakhalin's gas to the most populated and industrialized regions of the Russian Far East (Khabarovsk Krai and Primorsky Krai)

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:58 schreef michaelmoore het volgende:
Ome Kim die kan erg goed granaten en raketten maken

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 12:08 schreef ExTec het volgende:

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Denk je?

Voorlopig heeft putin alleen oude sovjet-unie voorraden terug gekregen van ome, qua artillerie granaten. Kwaliteit zo slecht dat de orcs erover klagen.

NK is ook niet bepaald een productie-powerhouse, tenzij we het over militaire parades en propaganda hebben.

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02:53 - Bron: CNN
Seoul, Zuid-Korea
CNN
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Volgens de Zuid-Koreaanse minister van Defensie draaien de Noord-Koreaanse munitiefabrieken “op volle capaciteit” om wapens en granaten voor Rusland te produceren, nu de verwoestende oorlog van Moskou in Oekra�ne een derde jaar ingaat.

De laatste schatting van Zuid-Korea biedt nieuwe aanwijzingen over de cruciale maar zeer geheime rol die Noord-Korea speelt bij het helpen bevoorraden van de uitputtingsoorlog in Moskou, in een tijd waarin Oekra�nes eigen behoefte aan vitale militaire bevoorradingen wordt opgehouden door overwegend Republikeinse wetgevers in Washington.

De wapens en militaire uitrusting, waaronder miljoenen artilleriegranaten, worden aan Rusland geleverd in ruil voor de levering van voedsel en andere benodigdheden, zei de Zuid-Koreaanse minister van Defensie Shin Won-sik maandag.

Sinds augustus heeft Pyongyang ongeveer 6.700 containers naar Rusland verscheept, die volgens het ministerie van Shin plaats zouden kunnen bieden aan meer dan 3 miljoen granaten van 152 mm artilleriegranaten of meer dan 500.000 granaten van 122 mm meervoudige raketwerpers.

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Op donderdag 20 juni 2024 11:41 schreef ExTec het volgende:
Mooi.

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