BREAKING: INVASION HAS BEGUN..... Putin's "3-day war"... NOW... 1 YEAR 338 DAYS ...WAGNER HEAD SAYS GROUP STANDING DOWN AFTER CLAIMS OF DEAL
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Ukrainians Invent Homemade War Machine to Gun Down Russians
Using old Soviet anti-aircraft guns and commercially-bought kit, Ukrainians have fashioned a deadly new weapon system.
www.thedailybeast.com
Video Shows Huge Explosions at Russian Tractor Plant Used to Repair Tanks
Russian military-industrial sites have regularly been among those damaged by fires and explosions since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some of the incidents have been attributed to Ukrainian special forces operations and others to domestic dissidents, while most remain unexplained.
By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
Nov 27, 2023
www.newsweek.com
Russian military-industrial sites have regularly been among those damaged by fires and explosions since Moscow began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Some of the incidents have been attributed to Ukrainian special forces operations and others to domestic dissidents, while most remain unexplained.
By David Brennan
Diplomatic Correspondent
Nov 27, 2023
Video shows huge explosions at Russian tractor plant used to repair tanks
A fire reportedly tore through the Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant in central Russia early on Sunday night.
www.newsweek.com
US funding for Ukraine arms has poured into Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas
While three of the eight Republican members of Congress from Pennsylvania have been voting against funding to help stop Russia's invasion, the data shows the Keystone State has received $2.364 billion - the most of any state - in spending and investments to build arms and ammunition, according to documents seen by Reuters.
In Texas, 18 of the 25 Republican U.S. representatives have voted against Ukraine aid. At the same time, Texas has received $1.45 billion to produce 155 millimeter shells and other weapons. In Arizona, three of six Republican representatives voted against aid while $2.196 billion poured into the state.
During his latest request for $106 billion in new funds for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and border enforcement, U.S. President Joe Biden on Oct. 20 emphasized that arms for Ukraine equals jobs for Americans.
US funding for Ukraine arms has poured into Pennsylvania, Arizona and Texas
The Biden administration has been circulating on Capitol Hill the first breakdown of which U.S. states have benefited from the billions of dollars spent on arming Ukraine, in a move to gather more support from Republicans who have voted against aid for Kyiv.
Nightmare for Putin as Russians Get ‘F*cking Tired’ of War
Kremlin propagandists are pushing the idea that the West is tired of this war. That may be true but it’s clear Russians are even more sick of it.
www.thedailybeast.com
Putin Called Out Over ‘Deliberate Extermination’ of Russian Troops
Their families say troops in Avdiivka are being sent to their deaths so the Russian president can claim a victory at his upcoming end-of-year press conference.
www.thedailybeast.com
Russia tricks US actors into appearing in propaganda videos
The latest propaganda push was outlined in a Thursday report by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center.
In the videos, celebrities like actor Elijah Wood appear to be sending a personal message to Mr Zelensky asking him to get help with substance use.
Cameo said those videos may violate its guidelines.
The platform, which gained massive popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, allows users to request recorded messages from celebrities and other public figures in exchange for a fee.
Microsoft's report stated that the celebrities in the videos were likely asked by a Cameo user to send a message to someone named "Vladimir", pleading for him to seek help with alcoholism and drug use, unaware that their videos would be used in Russian propaganda.
www.bbc.com
The latest propaganda push was outlined in a Thursday report by Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center.
In the videos, celebrities like actor Elijah Wood appear to be sending a personal message to Mr Zelensky asking him to get help with substance use.
Cameo said those videos may violate its guidelines.
The platform, which gained massive popularity during the Covid-19 pandemic, allows users to request recorded messages from celebrities and other public figures in exchange for a fee.
Microsoft's report stated that the celebrities in the videos were likely asked by a Cameo user to send a message to someone named "Vladimir", pleading for him to seek help with alcoholism and drug use, unaware that their videos would be used in Russian propaganda.
Russia tricks US actors into appearing in propaganda videos
Videos of actors like Elijah Wood posted on Cameo have been used to spread falsehoods about Ukraine.
www.bbc.com
How the US keeps funding Ukraine’s military — even as it says it’s out of money
Since then, the U.S. has announced three more aid packages totaling $475 million. That may seem contradictory, but it’s due to the complex programs used to send aid to Ukraine.
There are two pots of money for weapons and security assistance set up specifically for the war. One is the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, under which the U.S. provides weapons already in its stockpile. The other is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds long-term weapons contracts.
Money for USAI has all been spent. That pot is empty.
And money for the PDA also appeared to be gone. But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion. That effectively left Ukraine with a store credit that is slowly being whittled down. It now stands at around $4.4 billion.
citytelegraph.com
Since then, the U.S. has announced three more aid packages totaling $475 million. That may seem contradictory, but it’s due to the complex programs used to send aid to Ukraine.
There are two pots of money for weapons and security assistance set up specifically for the war. One is the Presidential Drawdown Authority, or PDA, under which the U.S. provides weapons already in its stockpile. The other is the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative, which funds long-term weapons contracts.
Money for USAI has all been spent. That pot is empty.
And money for the PDA also appeared to be gone. But then the Pentagon determined that it had overstated the value of the weapons it had already sent Ukraine, overcharging the Ukraine weapons account by $6.2 billion. That effectively left Ukraine with a store credit that is slowly being whittled down. It now stands at around $4.4 billion.
How the US keeps funding Ukraine’s military : City Telegraph
White House has been increasingly pressuring Congress to pass stalled legislation to support Ukraine’s war against Russia.
citytelegraph.com
Putin’s Private Army Accused of Sickening New Massacre
Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin may be dead but witnesses say Russian paramilitaries still carried out a brutal slaughter to secure access to a gold mine.
www.thedailybeast.com
Putin ‘has Trump’s number’ and still sees him ‘as an asset’, says Fiona Hill
Former White House Russia expert argues in a podcast why Moscow is eager for the ex-president to return
Ukraine ‘shoots down three Russian bombers’ as Putin’s war supplies ‘slowing’
Fighter aircraft reportedly downed as Netherlands sends Ukraine F-16s
www.independent.co.uk
Russia warns US and Europe over reports Ukraine may get its seized assets
Kremlin threatens ‘serious consequences’ if there is an unprecedented seizure of Russian assets held abroad
Zelensky says Russia’s military supply lines are slowing down
Battlefield reports do not show any let up in fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian soldiers, especially around Avdiivka
www.independent.co.uk
Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 668
Ukrainian forces shoot down three Russian bomber aircraft, says Kyiv; Moscow threatens to retaliate if US confiscates frozen Russian assets
Ukraine Pulled Off Death-Defying Raids Right Under Putin’s Nose
Helicopter pilots tell The Daily Beast about an insane mission where they flew 30 feet off the ground behind enemy lines to rescue wounded soldiers and drop supplies.
www.thedailybeast.com
I haven’t been in this thread for months. Has Putin died on cancer yet? Or have Russian troops been driven out of Ukraine.
No … not yet.
Okay I’ll come back in a few months.
No … not yet.
Okay I’ll come back in a few months.
We're waiting for July 4th
Russian Lawmaker Found Dead at 46 After ‘Falling Out Window’
Kremlin-friendly news outlets can’t seem to decide whether he fell out a window or suffered a heart attack.
www.thedailybeast.com
Does Vladimir Putin want negotiations? Almost certainly yes.
Does Putin want to negotiate? Almost certainly not.
The difference is not semantic.
(A long-ish )
/1
We have all, by now, read the reporting in the @nytimes about "quiet signals" evidently being sent from the Kremlin to Washington. We have all, I imagine, also seen the criticism of that reporting on this website and elsewhere.
/2
Putin Quietly Signals He Is Open to a Cease-Fire in Ukraine
Despite its bravado in public, the Kremlin has indicated its interest in striking a deal to halt the war — so long as it could still declare victory.
And, to be sure, we have also seen Russia's continual escalation of its violence in Ukraine, including today's massive aerial bombardment of civilians.
/3
The preponderance of continued Russian violence is taken by some as evidence that the reporting in the Times is false -- or worse, part of a nefarious Washington insider plot to force Kyiv to reduce its war aims. I, for one, reject that critique.
/4
To be clear, there _are_ voices in Washington and elsewhere calling for negotiations, and they will certainly have picked up on the Times' report to bolster their arguments. But that doesn't mean that the signals aren't real.
/5
The problem is that people mean different things when they say "negotiate".
Saying that the Kremlin wants to talk is not the same thing as saying that it sees talking as a means to achieving peace. Assuming the Kremlin means what we mean is a mistake.
/6
The problem begins in Russia. The Kremlin does not want peace for the simple reason that peace would undermine the Kremlin's domestic power. This war has reshaped every aspect of Russian political life, and much of Russian social and economic life, to the benefit of Putin.
/7
The war has submerged the pre-war foundations on which Putin's power was built -- the material bargain between the Kremlin, the elites and the masses -- to such an extent that the Kremlin cannot be sure whether those foundations would still hold in peacetime.
/8
That is one of the reasons why Putin never talks about what life will look like after the war: for political purposes, he needs existential geopolitical confrontation to last for the rest of his natural life.
/9
But he also needs the war to be manageable. As we have seen, the Kremlin works hard to contain the war's material impact on ordinary Russians, and to suppress those flashes of dissatisfaction that do emerge. A war where he doesn't control the escalatory dynamics is risky.
/10
These risks mount, of course, the closer we get to the March 2024 presidential "elections". Putin is likely assuming -- and likely correctly -- that Ukraine and the West will seek to deliver him a series of blows ahead of the elections, with unpredictable consequences.
/11
Drawing the West into a negotiating process -- and let's be clear, it's the West he wants to talk with, not Kyiv -- thus serves an obvious purpose: it reduces the Western appetite for fighting and puts the Kremlin in control of escalation.
/12
For Putin, this strategy is predicated on the mismatch between Russian and Western interests in this war. Putin recognizes that the West -- including ardent supporters of Ukraine's full victory -- genuinely wants peace. This gives him an advantage.
/13
Putin knows that, if talks begin, the West will want to see them succeed and will likely be loathe to do anything that might undermine that success -- like provide new weapons systems to Ukraine or fast-track NATO membership. That alone is reason enough for Putin to talk.
/14
If negotiations -- or even discussions about negotiations -- even temporarily slow the pace of Western financial, military and diplomatic support for Ukraine's war effort, they will achieve most of what Putin needs them to.
/15
The problem is this: For the West, negotiations are a means of ending the war. For Russia, they are a means of winning it.
Putin recognizes this mismatch and is eager to exploit it. I'm not sure all Western policymakers understand it, however.
/16
To make matters worse, there is nothing that Western powers can put on the negotiating table that will change this logic -- because there is nothing they can offer that could supplant war as the foundation of Putin's power.
/17
None of this is to say that the war will not eventually end with negotiations. As has been said ad nauseam, all wars end with negotiations -- even when those negotiations are preceded by a resounding military victory. This much is true.
But not all negotiations end wars.
/END
Thread by @samagreene on Thread Reader App
@samagreene: Does Vladimir Putin want negotiations? Almost certainly yes. Does Putin want to negotiate? Almost certainly not. The difference is not semantic. (A long-ish ) /1 We have all, by now, read the reporting...…
threadreaderapp.com
Same, Zelensky/Ukraine is retaliating now.
When Russia attacks killing civilians
Ukraine attacks killing civilians.
MLRS huh?
So another country is using U.S. weaponry to kill civilians.
Will there be #UkraineCeaseFire protests?
I don't know if the Belgorod attack was a false flag by Russia (Putin bombing his own people)
But this Tu-95MS/Tu-22M3 Russia attack planes story is an expected response.
Interesting..
Will stay tuned to see if this is even true.
Biden Warns US Military May Get Pulled Into Direct Conflict With Russia
"Overnight, Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since this war began," Biden said in a statement released Friday. "It is a stark reminder to the world that, after nearly two years of this devastating war, Putin's objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped."
By Kaitlin Lewis
Dec 29, 2023
www.newsweek.com
"Overnight, Russia launched its largest aerial assault on Ukraine since this war began," Biden said in a statement released Friday. "It is a stark reminder to the world that, after nearly two years of this devastating war, Putin's objective remains unchanged. He seeks to obliterate Ukraine and subjugate its people. He must be stopped."
By Kaitlin Lewis
Dec 29, 2023
Biden warns US military may get pulled into direct conflict with Russia
Biden reiterated in a statement Friday that the results of the Ukraine war have a direct impact on the U.S. and its NATO allies.
www.newsweek.com
Female British combat medic, 26, found dead in Ukraine
Katherine Mielniczuk was found dead in her bed on Christmas Eve
By Ed Wight and Perkin Amalaraj and Paul Thompson
29 Dec 2023
Katherine Mielniczuk
Katherine Mielniczuk was found dead in her bed on Christmas Eve
By Ed Wight and Perkin Amalaraj and Paul Thompson
29 Dec 2023
Female British combat volunteer in Ukraine is found dead 'in her bed'
The body of former chemistry student Katherine Mielniczuk, 26, was found on Christmas Eve by members of her unit, the 151st unit of the Special Operations Forces.
www.dailymail.co.uk
Katherine Mielniczuk
Russia Announced It Had Deployed, To Ukraine, Its Best New Artillery-Detecting Radar. Hours Later, The Ukrainians Blew It Up—With Artillery
The irony deepens. In theory, a Russian Yastreb-AV radar would help to protect Russian troops from Ukraine’s American-made High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems launchers—its HIMARS. Now guess what the Ukrainians apparently used to destroy that first Yastreb-AV. That’s right: HIMARS. Although to be clear, it also is possible they fired a guided howitzer round.
David Axe
Forbes Staff
January 6, 2023
www.forbes.com
Russian Yastreb-AV
U.S. M142 HIMARS
The irony deepens. In theory, a Russian Yastreb-AV radar would help to protect Russian troops from Ukraine’s American-made High-Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems launchers—its HIMARS. Now guess what the Ukrainians apparently used to destroy that first Yastreb-AV. That’s right: HIMARS. Although to be clear, it also is possible they fired a guided howitzer round.
David Axe
Forbes Staff
January 6, 2023
Russia Announced It Had Deployed, To Ukraine, Its Best New Artillery-Detecting Radar. Hours Later, The Ukrainians Blew It Up—With Artillery.
Russian media announced the deployment of Russia’s high-tech counterbattery radar. Hours later in southern Ukraine, the Ukrainians blew it up ... with artillery rockets.
www.forbes.com
Russian Yastreb-AV
U.S. M142 HIMARS
Ukraine quickly fixed a huge mistake in how it used tanks. Russia then repeated the error on a grand scale.
The error caused it huge losses — and is all the more striking because Ukraine had already made the same mistake, only to quick fix it.
The tactic in question was deploying tanks in large groups — an armored column — in the hope of smashing through enemy lines.
Riley Bailey, a Russia analyst at the Institute for the Study of War think tank, said the Russian side took much longer to realize this and stop doing it than the Ukrainians did.
Both sides, Bailey said, found that "attacking prepared positions with armored vehicles, specifically in columns of armored vehicles" has failed.
Ukraine quickly fixed a huge mistake in how it used tanks. Russia then repeated the error on a grand scale.
Ukraine learned to stop attacking prepared positions with columns of armored vehicles, but Russia kept doing it at Avdiivka.
www.businessinsider.com
Ukraine's F-16 Program Receives New Boost
Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram announced on Wednesday that Norway is sending two of the U.S.-made jets to help train Ukrainian pilots in Denmark, according to Reuters. Norway and its European NATO allies Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark have all agreed to collectively provide Ukraine with dozens of F-16s.
By Aila Slisco
Jan 03, 2024
www.newsweek.com
Norwegian Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram on Wednesday is pictured seated in the rear cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet at Bodø airport in Norway. Gram was taking part in a final test flight before two of the jets are sent to an air base in Denmark, where they will be used to train Ukrainian pilots.
Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram announced on Wednesday that Norway is sending two of the U.S.-made jets to help train Ukrainian pilots in Denmark, according to Reuters. Norway and its European NATO allies Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark have all agreed to collectively provide Ukraine with dozens of F-16s.
By Aila Slisco
Jan 03, 2024
Ukraine's F-16 program receives new boost
Progress is being made on plans to significantly upgrade Ukraine's aging fleet of Soviet-era fighter jets with U.S.-made F-16s.
www.newsweek.com
Norwegian Minister of Defense Bjørn Arild Gram on Wednesday is pictured seated in the rear cockpit of an F-16 fighter jet at Bodø airport in Norway. Gram was taking part in a final test flight before two of the jets are sent to an air base in Denmark, where they will be used to train Ukrainian pilots.