Ukraine...the war

[FalunGonged]

It's been going for a while now these "foreign fighters" on the Russian front lines.

Every so often I see these reports of these poor bastards. Thinking that they were going for either an education, for work and even for just travelling to be only be given some service fatigues and join the fight!

Unreliable weapons/tech/other sundries(like hand gel!) from NKorea/China....check!
Duping foreign students into fighting a war that they have no business in.....check!

If they can only find some disgruntled westerners join in...

[DTravel]

Originally Posted by FalunGonged

It's been going for a while now these "foreign fighters" on the Russian front lines.

Every so often I see these reports of these poor bastards. Thinking that they were going for either an education, for work and even for just travelling to be only be given some service fatigues and join the fight!

Unreliable weapons/tech/other sundries(like hand gel!) from NKorea/China....check!
Duping foreign students into fighting a war that they have no business in.....check!

If they can only find some disgruntled westerners join in...

I volunteer Tucker Carlson!

[DTravel]

Russian Military Hit by Mass Desertions
Newsweek

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...994cf2ae&ei=12

There has been a huge increase in Russian soldiers who have turned their backs on the armed forces since the start of the war in Ukraine, according to figures from an independent investigative outlet.

During the first few months of Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, there was an exodus of military-aged men from Russia. Among those who went to Ukraine, there were numerous reports of low morale and unhappiness with their commanders.

Over the course of the war, Russia's authorities have toughened the country's criminal code to increase discipline in the armed forces. That's despite Russia not being formally engaged in a war, but a "special military operation," martial law not being introduced, and the mobilization announced by Putin in September 2022 being described as only "partial."

Figures from Russian outlet Proekt, which are based on court records, illustrate a huge spike in troops looking for a way out of the war.

It said that in 2023, 4,373 people were convicted for the unauthorized abandonment of their unit—a five-fold increase from the 887 cases the previous year. This was also an almost nine-fold increase on the 527 cases recorded in 2021, the year before the war.

Meanwhile, 289 soldiers were last year charged with failing to comply with orders. Before 2023, such a charge was rare, with only nine cases in the previous five years combined. Also in 2023, 129 people were tried for "desertion," while 31 were accused of feigning illness and other methods of evading service.

A clear refusal to fight is punished with an average of two years and three months in a penal colony, but desertion gets a more severe punishment, Proekt said.

The outlet noted how eight mobilized men had been sentenced up to seven years in a strict regime colony for escaping from Ukraine's Luhansk region with weapons and ammunition.

"Sentences under the pretext of 'armed conflict or hostilities' are handed down in the harshest terms," Proekt said in its analysis last month, adding there are "probably many more repressive cases" because not all of them would appear in Russian court records.

Newsweek has contacted the Russian defense ministry for comment.

Russian forces have faced huge losses during Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion, with the latest figures from Ukraine's General Staff on Wednesday putting casualties of dead and wounded at 433,090 troops, although other estimates are lower.

There has been speculation Putin will announce another draft to make up for dwindling troop numbers following his win in the Kremlin-controlled elections last weekend.

[DTravel]

Russia's New Combat Robots Blown Up by Drones Near Avdiivka: Video
Newsweek

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...676acaf0&ei=77

Explosive Ukrainian drones have taken out Russian combat robots close to the Moscow-controlled strategic eastern city of Avdiivka, new footage appears to show, with smaller ground drones likely to have a more prominent role in future fighting.

Russian forces have started using ground-based robots with automatic grenade launchers in combat in Ukraine, Kyiv's 47th Mechanized Brigade said in a post to social media on Saturday.

Ukraine used first-person-view drones to take out two of the combat robots close to Avdiivka, a hotspot of fighting in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, the brigade said. Moscow captured Avdiivka in mid-February, and clashes have since raged on west of the settlement.

In a brief video published on messaging app Telegram by the brigade, what appears to be at least one Russian uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) is targeted by drone specialists belonging to the brigade.

"So far, these are isolated cases of the Russians using such a technique," the brigade added.

Newsweek could not independently verify this footage and has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry via email for comment.

Moscow and Kyiv have invested heavily in uncrewed vehicles, most prominently in the air, but also on the ground and on water. Russia and Ukraine are both using ground drones in their war efforts, often designed to keep soldiers further away from hostilities as the uncrewed vehicles take on dangerous missions.

Russia has developed several types of ground drones, including the AI-enabled "Marker" combat robot and the Zubilo UGV, designed to help with logistics. Ukraine, too, is forging ahead with developing and deploying UGVs.

More and more small, light combat and logistics ground drones are appearing across the front lines, many of which are made by troops or volunteer organizations and feature more rudimentary designs that can be quickly assembled, said Samuel Bendett, of the Center for Naval Analyses.

The video published by Ukraine's 47th Mechanized Brigade shows UGVs that have been incapacitated then repeatedly targeted by Ukrainian drones, meaning the ground drones were likely swiftly identified and destroyed, Bendett said.

"What we will witness is the use of many cheap, light UGVs like those in this video that can be quickly put together, potentially quickly lost if necessary, and quickly replaced," he told Newsweek.

With the sheer number of reconnaissance and surveillance drones in the air—able to sniff out larger, more sophisticated UGVs that Moscow has developed, like the "Marker"—"it's unlikely that large UGVs can appear in this war, at least for the foreseeable future," Bendett evaluated.

From the clip published by Ukraine's military, it is not clear what the circumstances around the targeting of the Russian UGVs were. It is hard to tell whether the UGVs were sent out instead of soldiers, or alongside troops, Bendett said.

"As more UGVs will enter combat, both sides will try to develop tactics and concepts for integrating them in assault and battlefield operations" and take away some of the danger for human fighters, he continued.

Both Russia and Ukraine are pushing to develop UGVs that can increasingly operate on their own, he added.

In mid-September 2023, Ukraine's drone tsar and Digital Transformation Minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said Ukraine was testing its "Ironclad" unmanned robot in combat missions on the front lines.

It is equipped with a machine gun, or robotic combat turret, and is designed to help assault enemy positions, conduct reconnaissance missions and provide fire support, Fedorov said. It can reportedly travel at a speed of up to 12 miles per hour.

At the start of 2024, Ukraine's ground forces said its 5th Separate Assault Brigade was using a ground-based combat drone to target Russian positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpMg1upld0w

[DTravel]

The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine arrest its security chief and send him to Russia
Business Insider

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...b877b50&ei=144

Russia is demanding that Ukraine arrest its own security chief and extradite him to Moscow.
The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Vasyl Malyuk of being involved in terrorist acts.
Malyuk said in July 2023 that his agency had destroyed a bridge in Crimea in October 2022.

Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded on Sunday evening that Ukraine arrest the head of its own security services and extradite him to Russia.

The ministry issued a statement blaming Vasyl Malyuk, the chief of the Security Service of Ukraine, for an explosion at a bridge in Crimea that Russia said killed five people in October 2022.

The statement called the explosion one of several "barbaric bomb attacks," mentioning them alongside the devastating Moscow concert hall attack in March 2022 that killed at least 140 people.

Russia has accused Kyiv of facilitating the concert hall attack, with leader Vladimir Putin saying that Ukraine's authorities allowed the gunmen to pass through its borders. No evidence was presented to support this accusation, and the terrorist group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the killings.

As for the bridge explosion in Crimea, Malyuk said publicly in July 2023 that his agency was behind the attack.

"It is one of our actions, namely the destruction of the Crimean bridge on October 8 last year," he told Ukrainian TV, per The Associated Press.

Before this admission, Ukraine was already widely regarded as responsible for the bridge's destruction.

Russia's foreign ministry described the bridge attack as a terrorist act, and said it told Kyiv to "immediately arrest and extradite every person implicated."

Moscow and Kyiv have been engaged in open war since February 2022, when Russia invaded Ukraine.

Ukraine's security service told local media that Russia's claims of Kyiv-sanctioned terrorism were "especially cynical on the anniversary of the liberation of the town of Bucha and the atrocities committed by the Russians there."

"So any words by the Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry are worthless," it said in a statement, per Ukrainska Pravda.

The security service added that Putin himself is subject to an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court, over accusations of his forces carrying out war crimes against children in Ukraine.

The press team for the Security Service of Ukraine did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.

[8ElectricWoody]

Drone Technology. When and where did it start.

I can remember back in 1995 being in a Model Airplane Club. One of the members, an old WWII Corsair Pilot started putting stabilizers in his model airplanes, he'd put it in the air and then would go sit down and watch his airplane fly. I was stunned.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by DTravel

The Kremlin is demanding that Ukraine arrest its security chief and send him to Russia
Business Insider

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world...b877b50&ei=144

I suppose they could offer Andrei Lugovoy in part exchange.

[scoundrel]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68712158


Ukraine war: Deepest Ukraine drone attack into Russian territory injures 12

Ukraine has claimed responsibility for a drone attack in Russia's Tatarstan region - more than 1,300km (807 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border.

The strikes, in which 12 people were injured, are the deepest into Russian territory since the start of the war.

Local authorities said that the strikes hit the town of Yelabuga, where drones are thought to be produced, and an oil refinery in nearby Nizhnekamsk.

The attacks occurred around 05:45 local time (02:45 GMT).

Yelabuga is located in the Alabuga "special economic zone" - an area with a special legal system aimed at attracting foreign investment. Iranian Shahed drones - which are frequently used by Russia to attack Ukraine - are thought to be assembled in Yelabuga.

According to media reports, at least 12 people - all of them students - were injured in Yelabuga.

Tatarstan regional leader Rustam Minnikhanov said the drones caused "no serious" damage to infrastructure in either location and that production operations were unaffected.

However, Ukraine's military intelligence said the strike in Yelabuga "caused significant destruction of production facilities".

Shortly after the attacks, a video circulated online purporting to show a light aircraft - thought to have been modified to fly unmanned - descending onto a building in Yelabuga before exploding, sending a fireball into the air.

On Tuesday morning, drones were also spotted in the Lipetsk region south of Moscow and an air raid alert was introduced, local authorities said.

For several months now, Kyiv has been ramping up its drone attacks on Russian territory.

Ukraine has warned repeatedly that its army is facing severe ammunition shortages, but has set a target of producing a million drones domestically this year.

Earlier this year, Ukraine was reportedly able to hit a major gas export terminal near the city of St Petersburg, 1,250km (775 miles) from the Ukraine-Russia border.

This story reminds me somewhat of when a young German chap with a few sandwiches missing from his picnic hamper flew a rather similar light aircraft into Russia from the West and landed it in Red Square. I remember at the time a lot of people feeling surprised he did this and wasn't intercepted, if not shot down. It seems much less surprising now.

There's an artwork in London in the middle of the London School of Economics enclave (just near the Kingsway and Drury Lane) called The World Turned Upside Down. It's a conventional globe map of the earth but very big (about 4 meters diameter) and standing on the North Pole. When I looked at Ukraine on this map and saw Belgorod, Orel, Voronezh, Saratov, Ryazan, Tula and of course Moscow underneath the border with Ukraine instead of above it - and somehow this reversal of polarity made it easier to appreciate how big a task the Russians have to keep Ukrainian aircraft, drones or manned, away from targets in Russian territory. I'd say there are disadvantages to being big when you've picked a fight with a much smaller opponent who turns out to be fast, agile and tough.

[8ElectricWoody]

I seen that video. At the beginning looked like two guys fighting each other.

[hoss]

A Russian freighter that ran into engine trouble and had to search for shelter in the German port of Rostock has been seized by the German customs office because the freight was in breach of sanctions against Russian goods.
The freight consisted of enriched uranium(!) destined to fuel nuclear power plants and birch plywood. The customs were perfectly fine with the uranium but the plywood is listed as a sanctioned good.
The freighter was destined for the United States. Go figure.