Tag: ukraine

Russia Vows ‘Systematic Strikes’ on Kiev – Foreigners Warned To Leave Ukrainian Capital, Residents Urged To Stay Away From Military, Industrial and Government Sites

Kiev is in Russia’s crosshairs.

After Ukraine killed 21 students in a college dorm in Luhansk oblast, Russia retaliated yesterday (24) with a massive combined drone-missile attack on Kiev.

The strikes on Ukraine’s capital were one of the heaviest in the war, and even the new hypersonic Oreshnik (‘Hazel’) missile was used.

But that was not the full extent of Moscow’s retribution, as it warned of ‘systematic strikes’ on military targets in Kiev.

RT reported:

“The [Foreign] ministry made the statement on Monday, a day after a large-scale retaliatory strike on Kiev, prompted by the drone attack on the college in the Lugansk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian strike killed at least 21 people in their dormitory, mainly teenage girls.

The Starobelsk attack has become yet another testament to ‘the Nazi and terrorist nature of the Kiev regime, which deliberately targets civilians and does not hesitate to murder children in cold blood’, the ministry said, warning that Moscow is shifting its approach to the Ukraine conflict.

‘This was the last straw. Under these circumstances, the Russian Armed Forces will be launching systematic strikes against the Ukrainian military-industrial complex in Kiev, including locations where UAVs are designed, manufactured, programmed, and prepared for use’, the ministry said, adding that the campaign will also affect ‘decision-making centers and command posts.”

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ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: UK, France, Spain, Italy and Canada Reportedly Reject NATO Plans for Extra Funding for Ukraine

NATO’s Rutte knows the proposal is dead.

We’ve come to a point where even the most ardent supporters of the Kiev regime are starting to wonder just how much more money they will have to sink into their unwinnable war effort.

Yesterday, a report arose that Britain, France and other countries have sunk the chances for a proposal that would have NATO allies spend 0.25 percent of GDP on military aid for Ukraine.

The Telegraph reported:

“Mark Rutte, the alliance’s secretary-general, this week conceded his plan wouldn’t be taken forward because it didn’t have sufficient support. ‘I don’t think this one will be proposed’, he told reporters, without naming the opponents.

But now The Telegraph can reveal that the UK, France, Spain, Italy and Canada blocked the idea when it was floated in discussions for how to boost support for Kyiv.”

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Massive Russian Missile Strike Rocks Kiev – Hypersonic Oreshniks Used for the Third Time in the War 

‘Hazel’ targeted Kiev.

After over a dozen Ukrainian drones destroyed a college dorm killing 21 people (mostly students) in Russian-conquered Luhansk, President Vladimir Putin vowed retaliation.

Overnight, a massive combined drone-missile strike targeted Kiev, reportedly culminating in the third attack with hypersonic Oreshnik (Hazel) missiles.

Reuters reported:

“Explosions reverberated through the city just after 1 a.m. (2200 GMT Saturday), following a warning by Ukraine’s air force on its Telegram ‌channel that Russia might launch a hypersonic Oreshnik ballistic missile.

[…] Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said on Telegram that one person was believed to have been killed after a nine-story residential building in ​the capital’s central district of Shevchenko was hit. Emergency services were at the site extinguishing a blaze, the mayor said.

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US Approves “Homing All The Way Killer” Missile Support Sale To Ukraine

The US State Department has officially cleared a $108.1 million hardware and sustainment package to keep Ukraine’s frontline air defenses online, after there’s not been much in the way of big dollar headlines concerning Washington’s longtime military support to Kiev of late.

The cash injection targets the maintenance and optimization of the US-designed HAWK system – which is short for the “Homing All the Way Killer” surface-to-air missile system.

Depending on the exact missile variant deployed, the platform handles tactical interceptions of enemy aircraft, drones, and cruise missiles at operational ranges spanning 25 to 30 miles.

The newly approved sale reportedly does not provide new systems, which would bring a much higher price tag, but is instead focused on keeping existing legacy systems operational.

The State Department’s Thursday news release detailed a transaction which featured long-term systems support, including erectable mast trailers, major technical modifications, spare parts, consumables, software support, and contractor engineering services – per a media redout.

The statement sought to provide ongoing justification from the Trump admin’s Ukraine policy:

“This proposed sale will support the foreign policy and national security objectives of the United States by improving the security of a partner country that is a force for political and economic stability in Europe,” it said.

The Defense Security Cooperation Agency has formally notified Congress of the package, and is expected to sail through, after which the contract will be mostly fulfilled by Colorado-based defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp.  

Ukraine originally integrated the HAWK into its arsenal at the tail end of 2022 via a $400 million security assistance package. And last year Washington authorized a foreign military sale dedicated to a HAWK Phase III upgrade and related sustainment.

Ukraine could see a new rush by Western partners to supply and update air defense systems across the war-ravaged country, given the air war is steadily escalating.

Russia earlier this month sent a record 1,500+ drones and missiles against Ukrainian cities in only a 48-hour period. This was immediately on the heels of a successful 3-day ‘Victory Day’ ceasefire having held, which was backed by President Trump.

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Lukashenko Offers To Meet With Zelensky ‘Anywhere’ After Russia Sent Belarus More Tactical Nukes

We reported earlier this week that for the first time Russia’s ‘Union State’ ally Belarus hosted multi-day drills involving a “rehearsal” of Russia’s use of tactical and strategic nuclear weapons.

The exercise ran from Tuesday to Thursday and was presided over by Presidents Lukashenko and Putin, and saw hundreds of Russian missile launchers, warships, nuclear submarines, and jets deploy and engage in military maneuvers. As part of it, Russia reportedly sent more tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus.

On the occasion, and amid angry denunciations from European leaders, the 71-year-old Lukashenko – who has ruled the former Soviet nation since 1994 – asserted that “We threaten absolutely no one.”

He followed with: “But we have such weapons, and we’re ready in every possible way to defend our common fatherland from [the western Belarusian city of] Brest to [Russia’s Pacific port of] Vladivostok.”

In Ukraine, President Zelensky warned Belarus of “consequences” over potential deepened involvement in Russia’s ‘special military operation’ – though Belarus did act as a staging ground for the initial attack waves in early 2022.

“The de facto leadership of Belarus” must “stay on its toes – that is, clearly understand that there will be consequences if aggressive actions against Ukraine, against our people, are taken,” Zelensky said while making a visit this week to a Ukrainian city which is just dozens of miles from the Belarusian border.

Interestingly, and in what appears another first, Lukashenko actually offered to meet with Zelensky, and that this meeting could take place “anywhere” in Belarus or Ukraine.

“If (Zelensky) wants to discuss something, seek advice, or anything else, please do. We are open to it,” Lukashenka said on Friday, according to state media.

“I am ready to meet with him anywhere – in Ukraine, in Belarus – and discuss the problems of Belarusian-Ukrainian relations,” the Belarusian leader emphasized. 

He also addressed Zelensky’s latest accusations, rejecting the premise, and explained that his armed forces won’t join the conflict unless “aggression is committed against (Belarusian) territory.”

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Ukraine Regained Territory After Cutting Russia’s Black Market Starlink Terminals

According to a newly declassified U.S. defense intelligence assessment first reported by Bloomberg, Moscow’s frontline command-and-control structures suffered a catastrophic blackout earlier this year due largely to coordinated crackdown that disabled thousands of black market Russian Starlink terminals.

The Pentagon document highlights just how deeply Russian forces had come to rely on Elon Musk’s commercial satellite terminals to patch over their own spotty military communication systems. For months, Russian units bypassed international sanctions via shadow supply networks to source the hardware.

The Friday Bloomberg report claims that a “Ukrainian offensive against Russia earlier this year retook about 400 square kilometers after thousands of portable Starlink internet terminals operated by Russian forces were deactivated,” citing analysis from the US Defense Intelligence Agency. 

The document, authored jointly by the DIA and US European Command, states that “Russian military capabilities in Ukraine were temporarily yet significantly degraded following Ukrainian officials’ efforts in February to deactivate thousands of Starlink terminals that were illicitly used by Russian forces to coordinate movements and unmanned aircraft strikes in areas where communications were unreliable or easily jammed.”

Ukrainian forces then made their first territorial gains since 2023, after years of steady Russian gains, with Russia military comms now said to be “temporarily yet significantly degraded” due to the loss of the terminals.

The report further describes that Kiev forces working in tandem with SpaceX were able to deploy sweeping geographic restrictions that target-locked and deactivated unauthorized terminals operating inside the combat zone. This resulted in “instant” results.

What also didn’t help is the Kremlin’s own tightening restrictions on the use of Telegram by Russian forces, and so also the recent lack of this favored encrypted messaging platform among military units left frontline commanders totally isolated.

While US intelligence noted that Russia still maintains an overall structural advantage in raw combat functions, and of course manpower and firepower remains on Moscow’s side, the incident demonstrates that communications are still a vital backbone to any modern warfare and command system.

SpaceX has long sought to officially bar Russian consumers from using Starlink, due to long-running sanctions, and to prevent military use against Ukraine.

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Zelensky Says Russia Planning Attack on Ukraine With New Oreshnik Hypersonic Missiles – Putin Ordered Retaliation After Kiev’s Drone Strike Killed 21 in College Dorm UPDATE: Massive Explosions Heard in Kiev

Retaliation incoming.

While the world has been gratefully surprised by the positive developments in the US-Iran war, the Russia-Ukraine war continues unabated, as brutal as ever.

In the aftermath of yesterday’s drone strike by Ukraine that killed 21 people – mostly students – in a college dorm in Luhansk, Russian president Vladimir Putin tasked the military with coming back with a plan for retaliation after what Moscow branded as a ‘war crime’.

So, today, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Russia is gearing up to strike Ukraine using the new hypersonic Oreshnik (Hazel) ballistic missile.

Zelensky said the information comes from intelligence services in Ukraine, ​the US and Europe.

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Ukraine Uses High-Altitude Balloons To Extend Suicide Drone Strike Range

Ukrainian forces have borrowed a page from China’s hypersonic glide-weapon testing and applied it to the Eastern European theater, using one-way attack drones against Russia.

Instead of launching the Hornet strike drone from a ground-based catapult, Ukrainian operators tethered it to a high-altitude balloon, extending its range. 

Defense news website Defense Blog reports:

The test, details of which circulated through Ukrainian military channels, involved a Hornet manufactured by Perennial Autonomy being dropped from a balloon at approximately 8 kilometers altitude after the aerostat carried the drone 42 kilometers from its launch point.

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Ukraine Drone Strike on College Dorm in Luhansk Kills Six and Injures Over 35 – Putin Orders Russian Military To Prepare Retaliation

Students are still believed to be trapped under the rubble as frantic rescue efforts continue.

Let me just say that if today’s Ukrainian attack on the college dorm in Russian-conquered Luhansk had been perpetrated by Moscow forces, you would be hearing about it in all news shows, non-stop, all day long.

Over 80 young people were in the dorm at the time of the drone attack.

So far, 6 students are reported dead and more than 35 wounded, many seriously. There are reportedly still people trapped in the rubble, as the rescue efforts continue.

All day long, the bloody MSM erected a wall of silence around this alleged war crime, until Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his military ‘to prepare options to retaliate against Ukraine’.

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Germany Becomes A Ukraine War Lab, and a Staging Ground For a Forever War On Russia

In February, under the white light of a Bavarian assembly hall, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and German Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, walked past rows of unfinished drones. The joint venture hosting them, linking Germany’s Quantum Systems with Ukraine’s Frontline Robotics, is already producing aircraft for Ukraine, plans to scale toward 10,000 units a year, and has already sent its first batch east. This is what Berlin now calls support for Ukraine, not crates on a runway, not old equipment hauled out of Bundeswehr depots, but German soil giving Ukrainian war design an industrial home.

For years, German officials sold their Ukraine policy in the language of restraint, solidarity and defensive necessity, but today, that language is buckling under what Berlin is now doing in plain sight. Germany has signed onto Ukraine’s defence innovation platform, opened itself to battlefield-data sharing, backed joint ventures that turn Ukrainian combat know-how into German-produced drones and robots, and committed itself to work on long-range strike systems with a reach of up to 1,500 kilometres. The result is no longer the picture of a cautious donor helping from a distance. It is a state folding Ukraine’s war labs into its own industrial base and building the rear area of a long war against Russia on German territory.

Germany Becomes the Factory Floor

The Munich drone line strips away the euphemism. Ukraine is not simply receiving German kit from stockpiles. Ukrainian battlefield-proven designs, software and operational lessons are being fused with German capital, German factory capacity and German political cover inside ventures built to scale weapons production for a war Berlin still insists it is not fighting. The Auterion-Airlogix Joint Venture GmbH makes the point even more bluntly. Registered in Germany and launched in February, it combines Airlogix’s battle-tested Ukrainian UAV platforms with Auterion’s autonomy software and is meant to produce thousands of autonomous, combat-ready systems in Germany for the Ukrainian armed forces. Every time Ukrainian engineers find a way through Russian jamming or air defences, German industry is there to absorb the lesson and turn it into volume.

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