Tag: russia

DoD IG: American Weapons in Ukraine Funneled to Arms Traffickers, Criminals

The Pentagon inspector general found the arms Washington sent to Kiev did not undergo the required inspections. A report from the inspector general found weapons the US sent to Ukraine in the hands of criminals and on the black market. 

The Arms Control Act requires the White House to establish an inspection system for weapons the US sells or gifts to third countries. The law mandates the monitoring continues to the end-use of the weapon. In Ukraine, the embassy in Kiev has been assigned responsibility for monitoring the weapons transfers. 

The Department of Defense inspector general report on American weapons transfers to Ukraine from February to September of last year found that legally required monitoring was not taking place. “The DoD is unable to conduct [End Use Monitoring] in Ukraine because completing [End Use Monitoring] in accordance with DoD policy requires in-person access to the defense equipment provided,” it said. “Intelligence methods provide some accountability for observable platforms, such as missiles and helicopters, but smaller items, such as night vision devices, have limited accountability.”

“The DoD OIG found deficiencies in the DoD’s transfer of military equipment to the Government of Ukraine requiring [End Use Monitoring], including Javelin missiles, Javelin Command Launch Units, and night vision devices; and in Ukraine’s security and accountability of US.-provided military equipment requiring [End Use Monitoring],” the report added. 

In a section of the report that is heavily redacted, the inspector general listed some cases of American weapons not making it to their intended recipient. The cases that remained unredacted in the report include: a Moscow-influenced criminal organization that procured grenade launchers and machine guns, a pro-Kev militia that tried to sell dozens of rifles on the black market, and a group of arms traffickers who were selling weapons and ammunition stolen from the front lines.

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Zelensky Blames Failing Counteroffensive On Lack Of Munitions From West, Delayed Training

Despite the row at this month’s NATO summit in Vilnius caused by President Volodymyr Zelensky’s angry tweet, for which he was accused by Western powers (especially the US and UK) of showing ‘ingratitude’, the Ukrainian leader is once again lashing out at his backers. This time, he’s blaming the failing counteroffensive on lack of munitions and delayed training from the West.

“We did have plans to start it in spring. But we didn’t, because, frankly, we had not enough munitions and armaments and not enough brigades properly trained in these weapons,” Zelensky told CNN’s Fareed Zakaria via a translator in an interview which aired Sunday.

He also complained about training programs set up for Ukrainians to operate advanced systems, which are being sponsored and hosted in European countries under NATO guidance. Kiev has long pressed for a more expedited timeline on receiving US F-16 jets as well, but training has been “delayed” for this as well, set to begin next month.

“Still, more” – he continued of the problem – “that the training missions were held outside Ukraine. But, still, we started. And this is important.” Zelensky said these factors have been key to the stalled counteroffensive, especially that Ukraine’s forces are blowing through munitions at a very high pace to keep up with superior Russian fire.

“And because we started it a bit later on, it can be said, and it will be shared truth understood by all the experts that it provided Russia with time to mine all our lands and build several lines of defense. And, definitely, they had even more time than they needed,” he explained.

“Because of that, they built more of those lines. And, really, they had a lot of mines in our fields. Because of that, a slower pace of our counteroffensive actions,” Zelensky added. “We didn’t want to lose our people, our personnel. And our servicemen didn’t want to lose equipment because of that.”

Very early in the counteroffensive in June, he had acknowledged a “slower than expected” advance. And in recent days and weeks, US mainstream media has increasingly featured pessimistic headlines for the first time in the conflict, suggesting the counter offensive is doomed, especially the longer it drags on without delivering a significant punch to Russian front lines.

Zelensky continued in his remarks to CNN, “Yes, I do understand that it’s always better to see victory come sooner. This is what we also want. But the question is the price … of this victory. So, let us not throw people under tanks literally. Let us plan our counteroffensive as our analysts, our intelligence suggests. And some of our residential areas have been liberated already. So, I do believe in our victory.”

The consistent messaging from Kiev forces has been that Western aid is always insufficient – no matter the tens of billions poured in…

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Declassified CIA Files Form Bizarre Link Between JFK Assassination and UFOs

“You don’t have to be a conspiracy theorist to think it’s suspicious.”

Newly declassified U.S. government files from the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are leading some to form a bizarre link between the assassination of President John F. Kennedy and flying saucers. The extraordinary connection comes after President Joe Biden recently cleared formerly top-secret documents to “provide a fuller understanding” of JFK’s murder.

The assassination has been pored over for decades, but one document has revealed the previously redacted name of a CIA official, Reuben Efron, who intercepted Lee Harvey Oswald’s mail in the months before the tragic shooting on Nov. 22, 1963.

However, Efron is named in another file, dated Oct. 15, 1955, which details a bizarre sighting of “flying saucers” while on a train trip through the Soviet Union. The official CIA document says the “reported sighting of unusual aircraft in USSR” was made by “three reliable US observers.”

The excerpt from a cable received from the U.S. Air Force reveals these individuals as Efron, Senator Richard Russell, and a Lt. Col. E. U. Hathaway. Senator Russell would later sit on the Warren Commission, which was tasked with investigating the JFK assassination.

The description of the incident in the “Trancaucasus Region” details “two mound and circular unconventional aircraft resembling flying discs or flying saucers were seen taking off almost vertically one minute apart.”

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US To Announce New $400 Million Ukraine Military Aid Package

The United States plans to announce as soon as Tuesday a new military aid package for Ukraine worth up to $400 million, primarily comprising artillery, air defense missiles, and ground vehicles as Ukraine’s counteroffensive grinds on, three U.S. officials said on Friday.

The United States is not including cluster munitions in this weapons assistance package, two of the officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said. The United States first sent dual-purpose improved conventional munitions—a cluster munition fired from a 155 millimeter Howitzer cannon—to Ukraine earlier in July.

Included in the package are several Stryker armored personnel carriers, mine clearing equipment, munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, anti-tank weapons including TOW and Javelin, and munitions for Patriot and Stinger anti-aircraft systems, according to the officials.

The package was still being finalized and could change.

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Putin Issues Stark Warning To Poland And NATO

Putin held a video conference on Thursday with members of Russia’s Security Council. I hope folks in the West pay attention to what he said, so I’m presenting the entirety of his remarks following a presentation by the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service.

Based on public source information and Russia-collected intelligence, Russia believes that Poland plans to seize Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River as Ukraine’s much-ballyhooed counter-offensive collapses.

Let me give you Putin’s bottom line up front:

Regarding the policy of the Ukrainian regime, it is none of our business. If they want to relinquish or sell off something in order to pay their bosses, as traitors usually do, that’s their business. We will not interfere.

But Belarus is part of the Union State, and launching an aggression against Belarus would mean launching an aggression against the Russian Federation. We will respond to that with all the resources available to us.

Vladimir Putin is not a weak, spineless creature like Barack Obama or Joe Biden. He does not make idle threats and does not succumb to emotion.

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Ukraine To Receive F-16s By End Of Year, Kirby Says

Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council John Kirby suggested in a Fox News interview Thursday that Ukraine could received US F-16 fighter jets way ahead of schedule. 

“Most likely, the F-16s will arrive in Ukraine before the end of the year. However, we do not believe that F-16s alone can alter the situation on the battlefield,” Kirby said.

Very likely, training for Ukrainian pilots—which hasn’t even begun yet (at least officially) given NATO press statements have indicated the Denmark-bases training program is set to begin in August—won’t be complete by then.

Top Zelensky officials, including the Ukrainian president himself, have pleaded for more advanced weaponry to arrive on the battlefield sooner. Amid what’s increasingly acknowledged in mainstream press as a failing counteroffensive, Ukraine’s military leaders have urged ‘superiority of the skies’. 

But it’s clear that Kirby has downplayed that even Western fighter jets will be a major game-changer. He also emphasized in the interview that the most immediate need remains greater amounts of artillery ammunition, given especially the superior supplies which the Russians possess.

Kirby listed out what he called the “four A’s”… as “artillery, ammunition, air defense and armor—tanks.”

Ukrainian media too has begun to acknowledge that Western fighters may have little impact on the overall negative course of the counteroffensive:

A week ago, Lieutenant General Douglas Sims said that conditions for a transfer of F-16s are not “ideal.” He stressed that Russians still have air defense capability, hinting that the number of jets that can arrive will not change the course of the counteroffensive.

President Putin and Kremlin officials have said West-supplied jets will “burn” just like other foreign equipment. They’ve also warned that NATO is “playing with fire” in approving them for the Ukrainians.

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British Foreign Intelligence Chief Pleads With Russians to Spy on Their Own Country – MI6’s Richard Moore Calls for ‘Appalled’ Citizens Against Ukraine War to ‘Share Secrets’ With Them

In the west’s proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, the Intelligence effort is one of the most important aspects. And it appears that – as is the case in the military front – things are not quite going according to plan.

When spy chiefs come out in public to make an appeal for citizens of an enemy country to collaborate with them, it smells like desperation.

Following a playbook started by the CIA, the head of Britain’s MI6 intelligence service, Richard Moore, has now asked Russians that disagree with the invasion of Ukraine to ‘join hands’ with the UK to ‘help end the bloodshed’, in a move that is sure to worsen the already strained British relations with the Kremlin.

Al Jazeera reported:

 “’I invite them to do what others have done this past 18 months and join hands with us. Our door is always open … Their secrets will be safe with us and together we will work to bring the bloodshed to an end’, Richard Moore told Politico on Wednesday, at the British embassy in Prague.”

Two months ago, the CIA made a similar plea, and released a video urging Russians to get in contact.

“’Contact us. Perhaps the people around you don’t want to hear the truth. We want to’, the agency [CIA] said in the clip.”

As you would expect, to spy is an activity that involves an enormous amount of risk, even more in times of war. In Russia, it’s a crime that carries a 20-year sentence – but may well end up with the death of the ‘traitor’ spy.

Speaking in the Czech Republic’s capital Prague, Moore appealed to Russians ‘wrestling with their conscience’, asking them to ‘share secrets with MI6’.

CNN reported:

“Moore went on to state that ‘there are many Russians today who are silently appalled by the sight of their armed forces pulverizing Ukrainian cities, expelling innocent families from their homes, and kidnapping thousands of children’.

‘They are watching in horror as their soldiers ravage a kindred country. They know in their hearts that Putin’s case for attacking a fellow Slavic nation is fraudulent’, he added.”

Russian Foreign Minister Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, on her Telegram channel, gave a particular brutal response to Moore’s plea:

“The head of the British MI-6, Richard Moore, has urged Russians to co-operate with the intelligence service and put an end to the ‘bloodshed’. He said Russia had little chance of regaining its position in Ukraine. “I invite them to do as others have done over the last 18 months and join us. Our door is always open. Their secrets will be safe.”

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Biden Approves Pumping Another $1.3BN In Arms Into ‘Stalemated’ Ukraine War

The Biden administration will announce yet another $1.3 billion in military aid for Ukraine at a moment Zelensky’s counteroffensive has stalled and was recently even put on “pause”. 

“The United States will announce a new pledge to buy $1.3 billion worth of military aid for Kyiv in its conflict with Russia in the coming days, two U.S. officials said,” Reuters reports Tuesday. This fresh package will reportedly include new air defenses, counter-drone systems, exploding drones and ammunition, according to a US official speaking to Reuters.

Reflecting months of headlines of dwindling US weapons supplies, and severe arms shortages among the Western allies generally, the funds have been authorized under the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI) program – which means in this case the Biden administration will buy weapons from the arms industry (and not pull them from direct from Pentagon stocks).

The report continues to detail: “Also included are two different types of loitering munitions, the Phoenix Ghost drone made by AVEVEX, a private company in California, and the Switchblade, made by AeroVironment Inc.” – the latter system being a ‘suicide drone’ which is small and less expensive than conventional UAVs.

Elon Musk commented Tuesday in response to the Reuters headline, “Would be nice for the public to have some clue how the money is spent!”

The remark is in reference to growing concerns of lack of oversight and accountability when it comes to the tens of billions in funds and arms being pumped into Ukraine. 

Hawks in Congress have consistently blocked serious efforts at imposing serious oversight and accountability on Ukraine aid. Over the last year, there have been multiple reports alleging as well as documenting that foreign arms meant for Ukraine have shown up as far away as Scandinavia countries and even more recently the Middle East. 

As ‘Ukraine fatigue’ has long set in among Western populations, Washington has been doubling down…

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Thousands of Russian officials to give up iPhones over US spying fears

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Russian authorities have banned thousands of officials and state employees from using iPhones and other Apple products as a crackdown against the American tech company intensifies over espionage concerns.  The trade ministry said that from Monday it will ban all use of iPhones for “work purposes”. The digital development ministry as well as Rostec, the state-owned company that is under sanction by the west for supplying Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, have said they will follow suit or have already introduced bans. The ban on iPhones, iPad tablets and other Apple devices at leading ministries and institutions reflects growing concern in the Kremlin and the Federal Security Service spy agency over a surge in espionage activity by US intelligence agencies against Russian state institutions. “Security officials in ministries — these are FSB employees who hold civilian positions such as deputy ministers — announced that iPhones were no longer considered safe and that alternatives should be sought,” said a person close to a government agency that has banned Apple products. A month after President Vladimir Putin launched his full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February last year, he signed a decree demanding that organisations involved in “critical information infrastructure” — a broad term that includes healthcare, science and the financial sector — switch to domestically developed software by 2025. The move reflected Moscow’s longstanding desire to make state institutions switch away from foreign technology. Some Russian analysts suggested the current edict will do little to assuage suspicions that western intelligence agencies are able to access sensitive information on Russian government activity.

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