Tag: russia

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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Ukrainian plot to assassinate RT editor-in-chief thwarted – FSB

Russian law enforcement has thwarted assassination plans targeting RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and journalist Ksenia Sobchak, which were prepared by Ukrainian intelligence, the Federal Security Service (FSB) has announced.

In a statement on Saturday, the agency declared that, together with the Interior Ministry and the national Investigative Committee, an unspecified number of “neo-Nazis from the Paragraph 88 group who were gathering information at the work and home addresses of Simonyan and Sobchak” had been arrested.

Those detained were caught carrying out reconnaissance on Friday in Moscow and Ryazan Region, according to the FSB.

During the operation, law enforcement personnel seized a Kalashnikov assault rifle, 90 cartridges, rubber hoses, knives, brass knuckles, and handcuffs, the FSB said. Officials added that “computers with information confirming criminal intentions” were also found.

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Young Ukrainians Scared To Leave Their Homes As More And More Videos Emerge Of Forced Conscription

As Ukraine’s manpower on its frontlines starts to dwindle, military leaders are becoming increasingly desperate to locate new recruits to propel its counteroffensive against Russia forward; however, the number of young people volunteering for such a challenge has plummeted.

Recent videos of young Ukrainian men being conscripted across the country have circulated in popular encrypted messaging apps in Ukraine, and those fearful of being sent to the front are actively engaging in evasive and, in some instances, illegal tactics to avoid such a fate.

The brutal mobilization by Ukrainian military recruitment officers of young men has been occurring for a year and a half now, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet reports.

“Many conscripted men are taken straight off the street by uniformed men,” it states. “Most recently in Subcarpathia, a surveillance camera recorded the overreach of the authorities as a man trying to go to a store was kidnapped from his bicycle in broad daylight.”

The man was abducted right on a street during the day by police and conscription officers in a small village in the Municipal District of Munkács, with his bicycle left in the road.

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Biden Authorizes Military to Call Reservists to Active Duty to Support Ukraine War

President Joe Biden on Thursday issued an executive order authorizing the Pentagon to call reservists to active duty “for the effective conduct” of U.S. military support to Ukraine.

At the same time, the Pentagon designated the U.S. military support to Ukraine since 2014 under Operation Atlantic Resolve a “contingency operation.”

Biden wrote in a message to Congress:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including sections 121 and 12304 of title 10, United States Code, I hereby determine that it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation Atlantic Resolve in and around the United States European Command’s area of responsibility.

Operation Atlantic Resolve began in 2014 to bolster the U.S. military presence in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and annexation of Crimea.

Biden said in the message that he authorized the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard, to order to active duty any units or individuals not assigned to a unit.

He said in the message that the number would not exceed 3,000 total members at any one time, and no more than 450 members of the Individual Ready Reserve.

Pentagon officials said no troops would be deployed for combat to Ukraine.

Army Lieutenant General D.A. Sims, the Joint Staff J3 director of operations, told reporters:

Based on the level of presence and operations in the U.S. [European Command] area of operations, DOD’s support requirements have grown, as well.  These authorities will enable the department to better support and sustain its enhanced presence and level of operations in the U.S. EUCOM [area of responsibility].

He also said the moves reaffirm “the unwavering support and commitment to the defense of NATO’s eastern flank in wake of Russia’s illegal and unprovoked war on Ukraine.”

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