Oorlog in Oekraïne #987:

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Op woensdag 26 juni 2024 21:47 schreef TwenteFC het volgende:

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F16 is oud, maar het platform heeft wel grote voordelen. Om een voorbeeld te noemen; de HARM raketten die ze gebruiken om radar installaties kapot te schieten die moeten nu op de grond geprogrammeerd worden waarna ze de raket onder een Mig knutselen.

F16's kunnen dat realtime, in de lucht door eigen radar, maar ook op data gevoerd door andere westerse systemen (via Link 16) of bijv de AWAC vliegtuigen die Zweden levert.

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The F-16CJ/DJ Block 50D/52D have the HARM avionics/Launcher Interface Computer (ALIC) resulting in a full autonomous employment capability of the HARM missile. This capability adds the SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) mission to the already extensive list of missions the F-16 is capable to perform.

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Alleen net zoals russische vliegtuigen allemaal neergaan wanneer ze in de buurt komen van de Oekrainse AA, zo gaan de F16's waarschijnlijk ook neer als ze onverwacht bij de Russische AA terecht komen.

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Poland Launches ‘Holidays With the Army’ Program to Boost Recruitment
Poland has launched an initiative to boost its military recruitment campaign in the face of increasing threats in the region.

Dubbed “Holidays With the Army,” the program involves providing basic military training to Polish citizens aged 18 to 35 over 28 days.

Many of the participants are recent high school graduates who are eligible to enlist.

Despite the program’s name, participants are far from being given a holiday as they have to wake up early and learn combat and survival skills.

During free time, trainees are required to clean their quarters and are prohibited from leaving the base.

Those who complete the basic military training will reportedly receive 6,000 zlotys ($1,491).

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Over 10,000 newly naturalised Russian citizens sent to ‘dig trenches’ in Ukraine
The head of Russia’s Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, told the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum on Thursday that up to 10,000 recently naturalised Russian citizens had been sent to serve in Ukraine.

Under Russian law, any successful male applicant for Russian citizenship must register for military service and join the “special military operation” in Ukraine “if required”, Bastrykin said, adding that the Russian authorities had “caught” over 30,000 who hadn’t done so, about 10,000 of whom had joined the ranks of “rear units” to “dig trenches and build fortifications”.

After the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia adopted laws that simplified the process for obtaining Russian citizenship, making it easier for immigrants, among them citizens of Central Asian states, to apply for residence permits and Russian passports, which led to an increase in migrants arriving in Russia despite the ongoing war.

Over 117,000 Central Asian migrants crossed the Russian border in 2023, more than twice as high as the figure for 2022, according to a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) report quoted by state-affiliated daily Vedomosti in May.

The Russian authorities have been carrying out raids on migrant neighbourhoods to boost their troop numbers in Ukraine, targeting both naturalised citizens who hadn’t contacted the military recruitment office and illegal migrants, who were promised a Russian passport if they agreed to serve in the military, and threatened with deportation if they refused.

Citizens of Central Asian states have been moving to Russia for work since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and currently number up to 7 million, according to Vedomosti, though their real number may be far higher due to widespread illegal immigration.

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Why arrival of F-16s won't rapidly change Ukraine's fortunes in war with Russia

KYIV, June 27 (Reuters) - Around two years after Ukraine started asking allies for F-16 fighter jets to help it fight Russian forces, the first planes are set to arrive by next month.

The length of the process, from procuring the U.S.-designed aircraft and training Ukrainian pilots to fly them, has frustrated Kyiv.

Russia has had time to prepare defences to try to nullify the F-16s' impact, and Ukraine has had to survive with a depleted air force a fraction of the size and sophistication of the enemy's.

Here are some facts about how the F-16s may help Ukraine and what obstacles still lie in the way of effective deployment:

POTENTIAL IMPACT

Some analysts say the F-16s will not alone prove a turning point in the war, which began with Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

"You'd have to separate symbolism from the actual impact on the battlefield - which will be useful but modest, particularly in the beginning," said Mark Cancian, senior adviser with the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

Serhii Kuzan, chairman of the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center, a non-governmental research group, said at least 60 planes would be needed for significant operations as Ukraine attempts to push Russian aviation back from its borders.

Lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova, who leads Kyiv's parliamentary commission on arms and munitions, said that Ukraine would need nearer to 120 F-16s to boost its air capability significantly.

While the pilots gain experience in Ukrainian skies and the military builds out its air infrastructure, the initial deliveries could at least help Ukraine strengthen its air shield, experts say.

"It will provide some air defence and depth capacity, potentially also help intercepting Shaheds [Iranian-built drones] and cruise missiles. Although it is a very expensive way of doing that, munitions-wise," said Justin Bronk, senior research fellow for airpower and technology at Royal United Services Institute (RUSI).

Ukraine's military has worked hard to reduce the threat to the arriving F-16s in recent months by attacking Russian air defences, according to Kuzan.

"The formation of the battlefield, especially in the south, is already taking place," he said. "Ukraine has the capabilities to systematically strike Russia's foremost air defence complexes."

But Cancian of CSIS said he expected Ukraine to try to open gaps in Russia's defences in the immediate run-up to planned F-16 attacks rather than a long time in advance.

PILOTS AND MAINTENANCE

Training will be crucial.

"You can have lots of fast jets but if they don't have effective weapons, and air crew able to employ them with effective tactics, then they will just be shot down in large numbers," said Bronk.

The timeline for the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s has dominated discussions about deliveries and pledges of more than 70 jets.

By the end of 2024, Ukraine expects to have at least 20 pilots ready to fly F-16s, Ustinova said.

"It is difficult to solicit more planes when you don't have people to pilot them," she said, adding that, at first, Ukraine will have more F-16s than qualified pilots.

"Waiting in line for 10 years before our pilots are trained is not OK."

The Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson declined to comment.

U.S. officials have directed questions on training to Ukraine and noted that pilots can also be trained in Europe. However, Bronk said NATO's capacity was already stretched.

He added that aircraft maintenance was an even more pressing challenge than pilot training.

He said most repairs and maintenance would need to happen inside Ukraine, and it would probably have to rely on foreign contractors who know the aircraft.

AIR BASES UNDER THREAT

Russia has already intensified its attacks on infrastructure that could be used for the maintenance and deployment of F-16s, some experts said.

"Russia is striking all airfields, potential F-16 bases, every day, including attempts to damage airstrips and infrastructure. These strikes have not paused for the last two months, at least," Kuzan said.

The targets will become all the more valuable when the aircraft, pilots and maintenance teams arrive. This is likely to force Ukraine to install missile defences to protect them, even though it is short of both air defence systems and ammunition.

"We have to accept the fact that the airfields will be well-protected when civilian objects could be under attack," Kuzan said, adding that each base would need at least two Patriot and two NASAMS batteries to secure it.

"As soon as we (build up our flight capabilities), we will push their planes back and the terror will stop. But these couple of months will be truly difficult," Kuzan added.

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Russia Loses Last Black Sea Missile Ship – Putin Demands Better Protection
Putin urges increased protection for the fleet against long-range missiles, after Ukraine eliminates another missile ship in Sevastopol, forcing Moscow to move the fleet to mainland Russia.

Russia's Navy needs to be protected from long-range missile attacks as soon as possible, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting discussing shipbuilding on Wednesday, June 26.

"It is necessary to protect our fleet from possible attacks already on the far outskirts of naval bases and areas of operation of our ships," he said.

Last month, Ukraine's Armed Forces destroyed a Russian Black Sea Fleet small missile ship, the Cyclone, during an attack on the occupied port of Sevastopol. According to Ukrainian Navy spokesman Dmytro Pletenchuk, the 22800 Karakut class vessel was the last Kalibr equipped Russian missile carrier on the Crimean Peninsula, as the rest had already been transferred to Novorossiysk due to the Ukrainian attacks.

Putin noted that to increase the combat stability of the Black Sea fleet, "special attention should be paid to the speedy introduction of remote threat detection systems, including those from unmanned vehicles."

He also said that the fleet is being replenished with new ships, equipped with modern weapons, and that domestic shipbuilders will hand over more than 40 vessels to the Defense Ministry this year.

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Ukrainian pilots launch AASM bombs from ultra-low altitudes

^{The Ukrainian MiG-29 launches AASM-250 bombs}

A Ukrainian MiG-29 launched French AASM-250 bombs at the ultra-low altitude in the Belgorod region.

The Ukrainian military published the footage of the combat operation.

The pilot of the Ukrainian fighter jet performed a complex dive-bombing maneuver with two bombs at an extremely low altitude to avoid being hit by Russian anti-aircraft missiles near the front line.

He managed to launch the bombs from such a low altitude due to a sharp maneuver and a feature of the French AASM adjusted aerial bomb equipped with a solid rocket booster.

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Op donderdag 27 juni 2024 20:28 schreef Cilantro het volgende:
[ x ]

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Russia mulling downgrading ties with West, Kremlin says
Russia is considering a possible downgrading of relations with the West due to the deeper involvement of the United States and its allies in the Ukraine war, but no decision had yet been taken, the Kremlin said on Thursday.

A downgrading of relations - or even breaking them off - would illustrate the gravity of the confrontation between Russia and the West over Ukraine after an escalation in tensions over the war in recent months.

Even during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when the Cold War is thought to have come closest to nuclear war, Russia did not sever relations with the United States, though Moscow did break off ties with Israel over the 1967 Middle East war.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told the Izvestia newspaper that ambassadors fulfilled a difficult but important job that allowed a channel of communication to operate in troubled times.

But Ryabkov also said that a possible downgrading of ties with the West was being studied.

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Ukraine and EU Have Signed a Historic Bilateral Security Agreement. Here’s What it Includes

On June 27, Ukraine and the European Union signed a security agreement on the sidelines of the EU Summit. The agreement was signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during his visit to Brussels.

The agreement covers the supply of arms to Ukraine, military training, defense industry cooperation, and demining.

Security agreements were also signed with Lithuania and Estonia.

The text of the document contained two main sections on security guarantees, each with nine points, including:
• ¤50 billion will be allocated for the next 4 years within the framework of the Ukraine Facility program; funds to reimburse EU countries for weapons provided to Ukraine from the European Peace Fund; ¤5 billion for weapons from the Fund for Aid to Ukraine, and profits from frozen Russian assets.
• the long-term supply of military equipment, military training, defense reform, cooperation between the defense industries of Ukraine and the EU, cybersecurity, and intelligence exchange.
• the “future of Ukraine and its citizens in the European Union,” demining and reconstruction, continued support for refugees, preservation and strengthening of anti-Russian sanctions, and the creation of a special tribunal for the Russian political elite.
• an action plan in the event of possible future aggression, including urgent consultations to take place within a day.

For the first time, this agreement will guarantee the commitment of all 27 member states to provide Ukraine with broad support despite any internal institutional changes.

Earlier, Zelenskyy announced that three security agreements were planned to be signed in Brussels, one of which is with the European Union.

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The Russian fleet is demonstrating the least activity in Novorossiysk

^{Landing boat D-199 in Novorossiysk. 27.07.2014. Photo credits: forums.airbase.ru}

The Russian naval base Novorossiysk has currently the least activity of surface ships over the entire period of observation.

The satellite images were published by the user on the social network X.

The image captures the smallest number of surface ships at the Novorossiysk Naval Base: one Project 775 landing ship, one Ivan Gren-class landing ship, and two Sivuch class gunboats.

Small missile ships, as well as some landing ships, were moved to the Sea of Azov to disguise them from Ukrainian naval drones.

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Russian official calls for complete destruction of Ukraine until 'there is nothing left'
A Russian official currently in charge of the occupied Zaporizhzhia region says it's time to "burn everything Ukrainian down to the root" until "there is no trace left".

Dmitry Rogozin, who was previously head of Russia's space agency, posted on his Telegram channel that there could be "no truce" with Ukraine as it would mean "certain death for our children and grandchildren".

"This time we need to burn everything Ukrainian down to the root," he said.

"Together with their bastard literature, delusional history, cannibalism of the 'ancient Ukrainians', passion for fascist 'aesthetics' and servility towards the West.

"Burn it so that there is no spirit left. No truces. Any truce, let alone reconciliation, is certain death for our children and grandchildren."

The comments come as the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted three resolutions relating to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Among them is recognition of Russia's intent in destroying Ukraine's cultural heritage and identity.