#High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System

[bikerpoliticalreport]

Biden’s Bling-Bling Diplomacy: Ships 500 Million Dollars Worth of Metal Monsters to Ukraine!

  The Biden government confirmed its decision to deploy up to $500 million in military assistance to Ukraine this Tuesday, a move set to include over 50 heavily fortified vehicles and an impressive supply of air defense system missiles. This support follows an unexpected insurrection in Russia over the weekend. It is seen as an effort to encourage Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which, until now, has been sluggish in its initial phases.

   This marks the 41st occasion since the onset of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 that the United States, under the authorization of the President, has made substantial provisions of military equipment and weaponry from its reserves for Ukraine. The expedited delivery process under this program underscores the U.S.’s unwavering commitment to its Eastern European ally.

   Though these aid packages typically follow a premeditated design and have recently comprised several essential armaments for frontline combat, it is unlikely that the choice of contents was influenced by the recent uprising led by Yevgeny Prigozhin and his Wagner mercenary group. The question remains whether the Ukrainian forces can capitalize on the resulting chaos in the Russian ranks post this fleeting revolt.

   Nonetheless, the incoming shipment of missiles and heavy-duty vehicles could potentially be leveraged by Ukraine as it attempts to exploit the escalating rift between the head of the Wagner Group and the Russian military hierarchy. The extent to which Prigozhin’s mercenaries might withdraw from the conflict remains a topic of speculation.

   Interestingly, these mercenaries had withdrawn from Ukraine to overtake a military headquarters in a southern Russian city. They journeyed hundreds of miles towards Moscow, only to retreat after a mere 24 hours last Saturday.

   A statement from the Pentagon has detailed that the U.S. plans to dispatch 30 Bradley Fighting Vehicles and 25 armored Stryker vehicles to Ukraine. Additional military support includes missiles for the High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) and the Patriot air defense systems, Javelin and high-speed anti-radiation (HARM) missiles, demolition weaponry, and other artillery rounds and ammunition varieties.

   The White House principal deputy press secretary Olivia Dalton stated that the new package contains “key capabilities” to enhance Ukraine’s counteroffensive operations and fortify its air defenses.

   The Pentagon reported that since the Russian invasion, the U.S. had delivered over $15 billion worth of weaponry and equipment to Ukraine, with an additional $6.2 billion in unidentified supplies yet to be sent. The extra amount of over $6 billion resulted from an accounting mistake, as the military had overestimated the worth of the weaponry it shipped to Ukraine during the past year.

   Beyond this immediate support, the U.S. has also committed to providing over $16.7 billion in long-term funding for various weapons, training, and other equipment through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative and nearly $2 billion more in foreign military financing.

   The U.S. still holds $1.2 billion in uncommitted drawdown authority, which will lapse at the end of this fiscal year on Sept. 30. Meanwhile, the remaining $1.9 billion in USAI funds is set to expire only at the end of the next fiscal year, in September 2024.

[anastasiamaru]

❄️Holiday HIMARS delights us with its festive look❄️

[dontmeantobepoliticalbut]

Ukraine is using US-supplied High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) to undermine Russian artillery superiority by attacking its munition warehouses.

Twenty ammunition depots have been destroyed by the advanced weaponry supplied by the West, the Kyiv Independent reports.

As Insider's Alisa Shoaib reported, Ukraine has sought new strategies in the eastern Donbas region where the war is concentrated. Earlier tactics, such as relying heavily on drone warfare, have proven less effective in the face of a better-organized Russian force. 

The HIMARS are essentially truck-mounted, GPS-guided rocket launchers with a range of around 44 miles.

A Russian military blogger Andrey Morozov (widely known as "Murz"), quoted by Illia Ponomarenko, the defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent,  said Putin's troops were suffering from growing "munitions hunger" due to recent Ukrainian attacks.

Ukraine has released videos of massive explosions depicting how Western military aid is helping to blunt the Russian artillery onslaught in Donbas, where Putin's forces have used their enormous firepower to advance slowly. Insider was not able to verify the video claims.

MORE US ROCKET SYSTEMS ARE ON THE WAY

On Friday, President Joe Biden signed a new deal to send a weapons package worth $400 million to Ukraine. It takes the total amount of aid sent to Ukraine from the US to $7 billion, according to CNBC.

An additional four HIMARS were part of the package, an official told Reuters, bringing the total to 12 supplied to Ukraine.

The new US aid also included more precise ammunition for howitzer artillery systems, Reuters said.

In his nightly video address on Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked the US for "the decision to provide Ukraine with a new defense aid package, allowing us to take anti-terrorist steps and reduce Russian attack capabilities."

On Wednesday, President Zelenskyy said, "We finally feel that the Western artillery we received from our partners is working very powerfully."

"Our defenders carry out painful strikes against warehouses and other important logistic nodes of the occupiers. And this materially lowers the offensive potential of the Russian army," he said.

Serhiy Kuzan, the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center chair in Kyiv, told The Guardian that the delivery of HIMARS and howitzers have slowed Russia's offensive, forcing them "to be more careful."

"It allows us to participate in what is an artillery duel," he said, per The Guardian. "And with the longer-range rockets, we have destroyed over 20 warehouses of Russian artillery."

Jack Watling, a senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, also told the paper that the military supply from across the West is making a "tactical difference" but added that "Ukraine still has to manage multiple supply chains, relatively small fleets of a lot of different systems, and the ammunition available is very limited."

Ukraine has said it has killed another Russian general, following an attack in which Kyiv's forces used American-supplied weapons.

Serhiy Bratchuk, spokesman for the Odessa regional military, wrote on Telegram about the "liquidation" of Major General Artem Nasbulin, the chief of staff of the 22nd Army Corps "after HIMARS (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System) missiles hit the headquarters in the Kherson region" of southern Ukraine.

It came as Ukraine released footage it said showed a HIMARS attack on a mobile command post in Tavriis'k, in the Kherson region.

If confirmed, Nasbulin could be the ninth Russian general to have died since the start of the invasion on February 24, according to one estimate. Ukraine's claims that it has killed Russian commanders give its forces a considerable PR boost although most of them have not been confirmed by Moscow and Russia's Defense Ministry, which Newsweek has contacted, rarely comments on such losses.

The Telegram post was from Monday night but it was not clear when the attack took place.

Ukraine has said that it has carried out significant strikes against Russian forces using the HIMARS system which is part of a package of military support announced by the U.S. The weapons can hit targets at a range of 50 miles, which is much further than the M777 howitzers, which the U.S. has also given Ukraine.

Before the arrival of the HIMARS, the southern city of Kherson, which Russia seized early on in the war, had been out of reach but Kyiv hoped that the supply of the weapons would help turn the tide of the war against Moscow's troops.

Ukrainian media outlets reported that in an earlier attack, HIMARS allowed their forces to attack a command post in a strike in which they said 12 Russian officers and a colonel were killed.

Meanwhile, footage released by Ukraine shows the missiles striking near the Nova Kakhovka power plant, with Kyiv claiming that it destroyed Russian munitions and killed 200 Russian soldiers, according to a translation of comments by Serhii Khlan, adviser to the head of the Kherson regional military administration.

It comes as Igor Girkin, a former commander of pro-Russian separatist forces in eastern Ukraine, who goes by the nom de guerre of Strelkov, expressed his concern about the firepower that the U.S.-supplied weapons is offering Ukraine's forces.

He wrote on Telegram that in less than a week, Russia has suffered "large losses in both men and equipment" in strikes against at least 10 large warehouses of artillery and other ammunition, several oil depots and a number of command posts. He said that Russian air defense systems have been "ineffective against massive strikes by HIMARS missiles."

[xtruss]

Reverse Engineering in Action: Russia Finds HIMARS’ Weak Spot

© Photo: Directory of US Military Rockets and Missiles

President Putin has indicated that Russia wouldn’t rule out the reverse engineering of sophisticated Western military equipment captured by Russian forces in Ukraine. Russia has already amassed quite a bit of success in this area, says retired Russian military intelligence officer Anatoliy Matviychuk.

"The enemy also produces modern equipment. And if there's an opportunity to look inside and see if there's something there that we can use, well, why not?" Putin said in an interview with Russian media on Sunday.

The United States and its allies have poured over $94.5 billion in military equipment into Ukraine over the past 18 months, draining their own armories to send everything from the latest modifications of Leopard 2 tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles to HIMARS precision rocket launchers, Storm Shadow cruise missiles, Patriot and NASAMS air defense systems, and Caesar howitzers.

As the conflict progressed, Russian Army troops and Donbass People’s Militia militiamen began capturing this equipment, with reams of footage emerging online showing troops strutting around near trophy Leopards and Bradleys, or engaging in training using seized Javelin and Stinger missile systems. Earlier this month, Russian troops got their hands on an intact Storm Shadow missile, dismantling it and taking it away in a truck to a rear area for further analysis.

"Any trophy equipment we capture on the field of battle is valuable in terms of its design features, certain design solutions for some of its components," retired military intelligence officer and military analyst Anatoliy Matviychuk told Sputnik.

“Take for example the Leopard tank, which is interesting to us in terms of the components of its armor, and the fire control system of its tank gun. The Bradley IFV is also of interest, in terms of the projectiles used by its 25 mm cannon,” the retired colonel, whose military record includes service in the Soviet Group of Forces in East Germany, Afghanistan and Syria, said.

"All the equipment we capture is carefully studied by our military engineers. We compare it to our own equipment and immediately make methodological recommendations about the means to combat this equipment on the battlefield. And, in the future, it's possible that some elements can even be introduced in our own equipment," Matviychuk explained.

Successes of Reverse Engineering

Matviychuk says there’s plenty of evidence showing that Russian forces are already taking advantage of the analysis of captured NATO equipment, particularly in the field of missiles.

"The HIMARS we’ve captured were once able to evade our Pantsir air defense systems quite well. Not anymore. We have found their weak spot, found their control system’s frequencies, and our air defenses systems now destroy them superbly. As for the Storm Shadow missile we’ve captured, we also see now in reports from the Defense Ministry that nearly 90 percent of these missiles are shot out of the skies by our air defense systems," the observer said.

Anti-aircraft missile and artillery complex "Pantsir-S1" at the anti-terrorist exercises of the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) "Peace Mission - 2021" at the Donguzsky training ground in the Orenburg Region. © Sputnik/Alexey Kudenko/Go to the mediabank

Russian air defense troops in the field confirmed in January that their Pantsir platforms had been outfitted with a new thermal imager and software update to dramatically increase the interception rate of HIMARS rockets.

Last week, a senior executive from Russian technology giant Rostec said the effectiveness of upgraded Pantsir missile/gun systems had reached "100 percent" effectiveness against HIMARS rockets on the battlefield in some cases.

"Any weapon is modernized and improved based on the results of its combat employment. This is a continuous process. For example, after the enemy received HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems, specialists at High Precision Systems upgraded the Pantsir to intercept these rockets. Today we see examples of HIMARS strikes successfully countered by our surface-to-air missile/gun system. There are precedents when all 12 rockets launched from an American MLRS were shot down," the official said.

Now, the issue is getting enough upgraded air defense systems to the 1,000 km front line, given Ukrainian forces’ tendency to use their Western-provided equipment to attack not only Russian forces, but to deliberately target civilian areas, particularly in the Donbass.

— Ilya Tsukanov | Monday 17 July, 2023 | Sputnik International

[politicoscope]

Russian New Air Defense Easily Detects, Destroys US HIMARS

Russian New Air Defense Easily Detects, Destroys US HIMARS

Russian air defense systems will now have no problem detecting and destroying missiles fired from US-made High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) due to new software, RIA Novosti reported on Friday, citing an unnamed Russian military commander. According to the officer, who is serving in Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Ukrainian forces initially used Soviet-era weapons, but have now switched…

[empresa-journal]

Can Lockheed Martin (LMT) make Money from the HIMARS?

Can Lockheed Martin (LMT) make Money from the HIMARS?

Vladimir Putin is boosting American defense contractor Lockheed Martin (LMT). Observers credit Lockheed Martin’s HIMARS for winning the Ukraine War. For example, The Telegraph claims the HIMARS drove Russian forces out of the strategic city of Kherson. Retired US Lieutenant General Ben Hodges thinks HIMARS could soon drive Russian forces out of the Crimea, Ukrinform claims. So what is HIMARS…

[demiurgeua]

Всі українські M142 HIMARS успішно знищують рашистів та їхні обладунки

Всі українські M142 HIMARS успішно знищують рашистів та їхні обладунки

Міністерство оборони України оприлюднило інформацію про надані Україні ракетні системи високої мобільності M142 (High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, HIMARS): «З початку повномасштабного вторгнення Україна не втратила жодного HIMARS, але росія втратила людяність і гідність. Не кажучи вже про сотні тисяч тонн боєприпасів і тисячі солдатів, яких вони відправили на неминучу смерть» HIMARS втратила…

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System

[nawapon17]

The aid is part of the $40 billion in security and economic assistance passed last month by Congress.

[zvaigzdelasas]

21 Oct 23

President Joe Biden is making a new case to the American public for shipping arms, ammunition and other military supplies to the wars in Ukraine and Israel. His argument: many of those supplies are made in America — and that’s good for American jobs.[...]

That argument — which namechecked 2024 battleground states Pennsylvania and Arizona — comes as Biden makes a reelection pitch centered on his efforts to create jobs and revitalize domestic manufacturing in sectors such as clean energy and semiconductor fabrication. [...] And now that message includes arms manufacturing. The administration is pushing to ramp up the defense industrial base to pump out more artillery shells, missiles and other weapons for the U.S. and allies. The newest aid proposal, released Friday, includes $61.4 billion for Ukraine, of which $30 billion is for direct Ukrainian military aid.[...]

For Democrats who have been eager to see Biden more actively selling the war supply effort to weary voters, the made-in-America angle is a welcome sign of political vigor. They acknowledge, though, that it is not a sure-thing political wager. “To anybody that actually wants to, in good faith, make the decision, it’s certainly a really important and, I think, persuasive argument that this is about American jobs. It’s about helping actually bolster our entire defense manufacturing enterprise,” said Rep. Pat Ryan (D-N.Y.). “But I fear, and past behavior has shown, the MAGA extremists aren’t actually making this decision in good faith. They’re making it based on Russian propaganda that’s been propagated by Trump and everybody else.”[...]

While Biden’s message might resonate with some voters, it’s not getting much traction with House Republicans who oppose more aid [to Ukraine] at least not yet. Interviews with House GOP lawmakers on Friday showed that even those who feel Ukraine aid is justified aren’t buying Biden’s argument.[...]

Ukraine has been striking Russian logistics hubs using Lockheed Martin’s Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, or GMLRS, that are partially made in Lufkin, Texas — a city of 34,000 people that saw its paper mill and foundry close over the last two decades.

It’s represented by Republican Rep. Pete Sessions, a Ukraine aid supporter, who said Friday that the U.S. has an obligation to protect Ukraine under its post-Cold War security commitments. [...]

The U.S. has awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System launchers that fire GMLRS and are made in Camden, Ark., a town of about 10,000 people that’s 100 miles south of Little Rock. Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman, who represents Camden, said critics of government spending can be surprised to know some of that spending is going back to communities like his. “I actually had some constituents text me last night and say $100 billion is a lot of money to give away, and I made the point that a lot of that equipment is made in my district,” Westerman said. [...]

A bigger driver for House Republicans to back Ukraine aid may ultimately be whether they can extract border security concessions from Biden and Senate Democrats. Biden’s supplemental request includes $13.6 billion for security efforts at the U.S.-Mexico border. Republicans are also seeking border policy changes from the administration, and see a Ukraine funding request as an opportunity for leverage. “I’d be really surprised if Republicans wanted to let Russia win more than they wanted our own border secure,” Crenshaw said. “So I think that is the grand bargain that needs to happen.”

[follow-up-news]

The United States is expected to announce an additional $275 million in military aid for Ukraine on Friday as Kyiv struggles to hold off advances by Russian troops in the Kharkiv region, two U.S. officials say. This will be the fourth installment of military aid for Ukraine since Congress passed a long-delayed foreign aid bill late last month and comes as the Biden administration has pledged to keep weapons flowing regularly and to get them to the front lines as quickly as possible. The package includes high mobility artillery rocket systems, or HIMARS, munitions as well 155 mm and 105 mm high-demand artillery rounds, according to the two U.S. officials. Additional items in the aid package include Javelin and AT-4 anti-tank systems; anti-tank mines, tactical vehicles, small arms and ammunition for those weapons, one of the officials said. Both officials spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details of the aid package before the public announcement. It follows a monthly gathering Monday of about 50 defense leaders from Europe and elsewhere who meet regularly to coordinate getting more military aid to Ukraine. At this latest meeting, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Ukraine was in a “moment of challenge” due to Russia’s new onslaught on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city. He pledged to keep weapons moving “week after week.”

[mariacallous]

After months of attrition warfare, Russia is once again on the march in Ukraine, this time targeting Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, which is just a stone’s throw from the border with Russia. 

The attack, currently focused on breaching defenses north of the city, has already picked up steam as Ukrainian troops still wait for Western weapons to arrive en masse. Ukraine has evacuated 8,000 people from the Kharkiv region during the five-day assault, according to the national emergency services. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has canceled his foreign trips. And Ukrainian troops appear to be backing off the city of Vovchansk, a central front-line defensive position near Kharkiv.

Outgunned and outmanned, frustration is mounting in Kyiv. Ukrainian officials say Russia has succeeded in making tactically significant gains around Kharkiv in recent days in part because the Biden administration has forbidden Ukrainian troops from using U.S. weapons to fire on Russian positions across the border inside Russia. 

These targets are right in front of Ukrainian troops—Kharkiv is only 25 miles from the Russian border. They can geolocate them. But Ukrainian officials say they’re not being allowed by the White House to fire their guns en masse to hit them. 

“Easy target but no permission,” said Davyd Arakhamia, a close ally of Zelensky and the parliamentary leader of the Servant of the People party. The Russians “know that we have this limitation, political limitation, on [our] weapons. So they put the attack systems on Russian territory.”

If the Biden administration lifted that restriction, Arakhamia said, “this situation in Kharkiv would be nonexistent.”

“It’s like if somebody attacks Washington, D.C., from Virginia, and you’re saying that we can’t hit Virginia for some reason because you don’t want us to escalate with Virginia,” Arakhamia said.

Although U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, on Wednesday that Ukrainian troops can target whatever they want with U.S. weapons, Ukrainian officials insist that so far, they’ve seen no change in policy from Washington. A National Security Council spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. position not to encourage or enable Ukrainian strikes inside Russia had not changed.

“We’re not asking to shoot Moscow or something like that,” said Oleksandra Ustinova, the head of the Holos faction in Ukraine’s parliament. 

Ukrainian officials believe that the Russians aren’t trying to occupy Kharkiv as they did last time. Instead, officials say, the Kremlin is trying to destroy the city, using glide bombs that Kyiv has no ability to intercept without more air defense.

The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank tracking the conflict, reported on Tuesday that Russia appeared to be prioritizing creating a buffer zone on the border instead of a deeper exploitation to capture territory, although small assault groups have moved into the area. 

But the tactical advances Russia has made around areas such as Vovchansk and Buhruvatka, immediately to the northeast of Kharkiv, using tank units backing up motorized rifle battalions, have been significant enough for Zelensky to cancel his foreign travel, a sign of the seriousness of the assault. In a video message posted to Telegram on Wednesday, Zelensky also urged Western allies to expand the F-16 fighter jet coalition and speed up training and delivery to give Ukraine more air defense cover. 

The Russians have also made tactical adaptations that have put Kharkiv in increasing jeopardy. Back in the summer of 2022, the Ukrainian military had success with the U.S.-provided High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, known as HIMARS, and other multiple launch rockets because Russian troops were fighting in the Donbas and in southern Ukraine—rather than positioning themselves inside Russian territory—and were tactically unprepared for the attacks with Western weapons. 

Now, even though the Ukrainians have a small arsenal of longer-range Western weapons—the 200-mile-range U.S. Army Tactical Missile System, the 250-mile-range British Storm Shadow, and the equivalent French SCALP EG—the Russians have adapted. They’re keeping all of their longer-range weapons on Russian territory, which means that the Ukrainians can’t shoot back. 

There’s also the ongoing problem of a lack of firepower. Ustinova said there are 10 new battalions of Ukrainian troops ready to fight but they have no weapons. 

Ukrainian lawmakers said there aren’t enough air defense systems to shield Ukrainian soldiers on the front lines, let alone protect their cities. Four more U.S.-made Patriot air defense batteries are coming—three from Germany and one from the Netherlands—but the United States isn’t providing any more at the moment. That is creating concern among Ukrainian officials that if the Russians succeed in torching Kharkiv, then places such as Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, and Sumy, the latter near Kyiv, could be next. 

“Kharkiv is going to turn into Mariupol,” said Ustinova, referring to the midsized Ukrainian city that was leveled by Russian attacks and occupied by the Kremlin in 2022.

[usafphantom2]

Ukrainian pilots start training in F-16 based in Arizona

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 10/27/2023 - 13:00 in Military

Ukrainian pilots began training of the F-16 in Arizona with the Arizona National Air Guard, leaving Kiev one step closer to acquiring the U.S.-made fighters that Ukraine says it needs to help defend its sovereign territory and its citizens from Russian troops.

U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink announced the training in the X, saying: “This is an essential part of the construction of Ukraine's air defense. The United States is proud to work with European partners to support Ukraine against Russia's brutal aggression."

A National Guard spokesman said on Thursday that the 162ª Wing of the Arizona National Air Guard in Tucson began training a small number of Ukrainian pilots this week “in the fundamentals of the F-16”, with the training expected to last several months. Normally, F-16 training courses last about eight months, according to the Pentagon.

Training at Morris National Guard Air Base follows English training at Lackland Air Base in Texas last month. Proficiency in English is required to fly F-16 fighters.

During a press conference in Brussels earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that F-16 fighters could reach Ukraine by the middle of next year.

The deputy chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, General David Allvin, said that the F-16 aircraft will be important for Ukraine in the long term, as the Ukrainian Air Force will be able to fully integrate the new fighters into its armed forces.

The news came at a time when the United States announced that it would provide up to $150 million in additional military aid to Ukraine.

The package includes more GMLRS rockets for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, ammunition for the National Advanced Surface-Air Missile System, TOW anti-tank missiles, AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles and 155 mm cartridges.

The availability of 155 mm cartridges has raised concerns in recent days, as U.S. partners, Ukraine and Israel need them to fight their wars - one against the invasion of Russia, the other against the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis and kidnapped more than 200 others in an attack on October 7.

Washington said it is able to support the military needs of Tel Aviv and Kiev.

Tags: ANG - Air National Guard / U.S. National Air GuardMilitary AviationF-16 Fighting FalconUkrainian Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[ukrainenews]

Daily Wrap Up May 2-3, 2023

Under the cut:

The death toll of the Russian May 3 mass shelling across Kherson Oblast and the regional capital reached 17 people as of 6:30 p.m. local time, according to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets. According to Lubinets, 26 people were injured. However, the head of the Kherson City Military Administration, Roman Mrochko, reported that 45 people were injured, including two children.

Ukraine and the EU have reached an agreement to continue their “economic visa-free” deal for another 12 months. The initial deal was struck last year after the outbreak of war. It means that Ukrainian businesses will be able to continue to sell goods to the EU without any quotas, export duties or tariffs.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $300 million security assistance package for Ukraine Wednesday.

A fuel storage facility in Russia's southwestern Krasnodar region, located near the Crimean Bridge, was on fire early on May 3, the regional governor reported on Telegram.

It is “too early” to say whether Russia’s claims of a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin amount to a “false flag” operation, the White House said Wednesday, adding that it would not speculate about the veracity of Moscow’s claims.

The death toll of the Russian May 3 mass shelling across Kherson Oblast and the regional capital reached 17 people as of 6:30 p.m. local time, according to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets.

According to Lubinets, 26 people were injured.

However, the head of the Kherson City Military Administration, Roman Mrochko, reported that 45 people were injured, including two children.

Around 6 p.m. local time, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported the shelling was ongoing.

Earlier in the day, the Prosecutor General's Office said Russian troops shelled some civilian infrastructure in Kherson, killing 12 people there.

Ukraine’s Internal Affairs Ministry reported that Russian forces shelled a supermarket in the regional capital at around 11 a.m. According to the ministry, the victims include both supermarket employees and customers.

The city of Kherson and surrounding settlements have been under consistent Russian artillery fire since they were liberated in November, with Russian forces retreating to the east bank of the Dnipro River.

Kherson authorities are preparing to evacuate residents if the region comes under even more intense shelling.

-via Kyiv Independent (warning for graphic images at the link)

~

Ukraine and the EU have reached an agreement to continue their “economic visa-free” deal for another 12 months.

The initial deal was struck last year after the outbreak of war. It means that Ukrainian businesses will be able to continue to sell goods to the EU without any quotas, export duties or tariffs.

Access for agricultural goods has also been agreed, according to Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, on Telegram.

It comes as the EU agreed to speed up its ammunition delivery to Ukraine on Wednesday (see 12.13pm). In March foreign ministers agreed to supply Ukraine with €2bn of shells.

-via The Guardian

~

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $300 million security assistance package for Ukraine Wednesday.

“This latest package will help Ukraine continue to bravely defend itself in the face of Russia’s brutal, unprovoked, and unjustified war. Russia could end its war today. Until Russia does, the United States and our allies and partners will stand united with Ukraine, for as long as it takes,” Blinken said.

The top US diplomat said it is the 37th drawdown of US arms and equipment for Ukraine.

Here's what is included in the package and its capabilities, according to a statement released by the US Department of Defense:

Additional ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) 155mm Howitzers 155mm artillery rounds 120mm, 81mm, and 60mm mortar rounds Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles AT-4 and Carl Gustaf anti-armor weapon systems Hydra-70 aircraft rockets Small arms and small arms ammunition Demolition munitions for obstacle clearing Trucks and trailers to transport heavy equipment Testing and diagnostic equipment to support vehicle maintenance and repair Spare parts and other field equipment Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the package comes after "extensive work by the US government over the past few months to fulfill Ukraine's requests ahead of its planned counteroffensive and ensure they have the weapons and equipment they need."

The White House said it will continue to work with allies to support Ukraine.

Previewing this aid package earlier this week, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications John Kirby suggested the new package would be "very much focused on ammunition and clearing capabilities" to give Ukraine "what they need to break through Russian defenses."

"They will be ready," Kirby said.

-via CNN

~

A fuel storage facility in Russia's southwestern Krasnodar region, located near the Crimean Bridge, was on fire early on May 3, the regional governor reported on Telegram.

Veniamin Kondratyev, the governor of Krasnodar, said the fire broke out in the village of Volna in the Temryuk district, located across the Azov Sea from Ukraine.

The Crimean Bridge, also referred to as the Kerch Strait Bridge, links Russia's mainland with the Crimean peninsula, annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014.

Videos and photos appeared on social media showing large oil tanks on fire. Kondratyev said that the "fire has been classified as the highest rank of difficulty."

"Every effort is being made to prevent the fire from spreading further," Kondratyev also wrote. "There is no threat to residents of the village."

A large fire also occurred at an oil depot at the Kozacha Bay in Russian-occupied Sevastopol, located in Russian-occupied Crimea, on April 29. The head of the illegal Russian occupation government in Sevastopol said the fire was caused by a Ukrainian a drone attack.

Ukrainian Armed Forces' Southern Command spokesperson Natalia Humeniuk said the large fire was part of Ukraine’s “preparations” for its anticipated counteroffensive. “This work is a preparation for the broad, full-scale offensive that everyone expects," Humeniuk said, Ukrainska Pravda reported.

-via Kyiv Independent

~ It is “too early” to say whether Russia’s claims of a Ukrainian attempt to assassinate President Vladimir Putin amount to a “false flag” operation, the White House said Wednesday, adding that it would not speculate about the veracity of Moscow’s claims.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre also said the US was not taking any steps that would help Kyiv from striking inside Russia.

“Since the beginning of this conflict, the United States is certainly not encouraging or enabling Ukraine to strike beyond its borders,” she said. "We've been very clear from here about that." She added, “I don't want to get into speculation from here about the authenticity of this report."

Earlier, US officials said it had no advance warning of the drone attack in Moscow. American agencies were urgently working to assess Russia’s claims.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky denied earlier that his country had staged an attack on Putin.

Asked about the prospect of a Russian “false flag” operation, which the US has warned of previously, Jean-Pierre said it wasn’t prudent to speculate.

“It is really too early to tell, as you asked me, about a false flag,” she said. “But obviously Russia has a history of doing things like this.”

-via CNN

[xtruss]

Seven Times “Demented Biden” Lied on Ukraine

© Sputnik/Stringer/Go to the Mediabank

The US announced last week that it would expedite the delivery of 155mm howitzer-launched cluster munitions to Ukraine, despite earlier characterizing the use of such weapons as a “war crime,” and promising to remove them from US inventories. What other Ukraine-related promises has the Biden administration broken? Here’s a partial list.

The fallout from the Biden administration’s approval on the transfer of M864 Dual-Purpose Improved Conventional Munition (DPICM) cluster bombs to Ukraine continues to spread, with US allies, dozens of human rights and anti-war groups, and the United Nations condemning the decision, and Moscow warning that it will result in a further escalation of the conflict.

Cluster Bombs

The US military had previously pledged to eliminate its M864 stocks, and stopped using them in 2016, citing their high dud rate (which can reach up to 20 percent). These particular weapons are reportedly over 20 years old, thus further decreasing their immediate viability as a weapon, but increasing their deadliness to civilians and the surrounding environment over the long term.

In February 2022, then-Biden press secretary Jen Psaki characterized the possible use of cluster munitions in Ukraine by Russia as “potentially…a war crime.” Apparently when the shoe is on the other foot, that’s no longer the case.

Long-Range Missiles

In May 2022, Biden assured that the US was “not going to send to Ukraine rocket systems that can strike into Russia.” Less than a month later, the US announced that it would send M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, to Kiev. These weapons have a range of between 80 and 110 km. A year after that, Washington’s UK allies announced that they would send long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 250 km. Now, discussions are underway in Washington on the possible delivery to Kiev of a variant of a HIMARS known as the ATACMS, which has a range of over 305 km.

Kiev has already demonstrated its readiness to use its HIMARS and Storm Shadows against civilians in the Donbass and infrastructure in Crimea, as well as Belgorod region and Donetsk's border with Rostov region, which everyone in the West (apart from former British Prime Minister Liz Truss, perhaps) definitely recognize as Russian territory.

Tanks and Planes and American Crews

When the Ukrainian crisis first began, President Biden expressed caution about the types of military equipment that the US would be willing to deploy, and who would operate it.

“We are showing our strength and we will never falter. But look, the idea that we’re gonna send offensive equipment, and have tanks and planes and trains going in with American pilots and American crews – just understand, don’t kid yourself, no matter what you all say, that’s called World War III. Okay? Let’s get it straight here,” Biden in March 2022.

But less than a year later, in January 2023, Biden announced that the US would be sending 31 Abrams tanks to Kiev, with the announcement serving as a palliative to ease the transfer of hundreds of German-made Leopard and Leopard 2 MBTs. In May 2023, the US greenlit the training of Ukrainian fighter pilots to fly F-16s, even though just a few months earlier Biden promised that Washington would not be sending F-16s to Ukraine.

As far as “American pilots and American crews” are concerned, the recently leaked Pentagon assessment on the status of the Ukrainian conflict revealed that NATO countries already have dozens of special forces boots on the ground, including at least 14 American troops. On top of that, thousands of foreign mercenaries, including combat veterans of US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, have flowed steadily into Ukraine over the past 16 months. The Russian military announced Monday that it had information that Kiev is working with CIA-controlled private military companies to expand the recruitment of volunteers from the US and Canada to use as “cannon fodder” in Ukraine. If these aren’t the “American crews” that Biden was talking about, what are they?

Defending ‘Democracy’

On the campaign trail in 2019, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden pledged that “as president,” he would “ensure that democracy is once again the watchword of US foreign policy, not to launch some moral crusade, but because it’s in our enlightened self-interest.”

Has he kept his word on that foreign policy pledge in Ukraine? Well, to date the Zelensky administration has imposed martial law, canceled presidential elections scheduled for 2024, imprisoned political opponents, banned opposition parties, and gone after the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Must be a special US ‘export’ brand of democracy.

‘Transparency’ on Ukraine

“If the president were standing here with me today, he would say he works for the American people…But his objective and his commitment is to bring transparency and truth back to government – to share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear,” Jen Psaki said at a press conference in the White House in January 2021.

An often forgotten facet of the Ukrainian crisis is Biden’s intimate involvement in shaping US policy on the country going all the way back to his tenure as Barack Obama’s vice president and the 2014 coup in Kiev. At a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018, Biden bragged about his personal intervention in Ukraine’s domestic politics to get Viktor Shokhin, a prosecutor investigating a Ukrainian energy company called Burisma on money laundering charges, fired. Biden jovially recalled how he told Ukrainian officials that the US would withhold a $1 billion loan agreement to Ukraine until the prosecutor was let go. Kiev folded, and the prosecutor was gone.

Later, it emerged that Biden’s son Hunter was sitting on the board of the energy company. Later still, President Trump got impeached for nudging Kiev to reopen the investigation into Burisma. And just last month, it was revealed by investigators in Congress that President Biden and his son allegedly received up to $10 million in bribes from Burisma’s owner to court favor with the powerful politician.

Has Biden met his administration’s pledge to be transparent on Ukraine-related issues? Judging by his string of denials, and most US media’s blackout silence on the matter, the answer doesn't seem encouraging.

Dangerous Lies

As the NATO-Russia proxy war marks its 500+ day anniversary, it’s anyone’s guess what the future holds. Washington’s European allies, pouring in nearly $100 billion in weapons and as much or more in economic and humanitarian assistance to Kiev, are growing increasingly weary of continuing to support a conflict that has thrust their economies into a recession and threatens to leave them deindustrialized husks.

Perhaps in time Biden, his administration, and the Washington political machine will come to the same realization in Ukraine that it did in Afghanistan in 2021, and pull out of the country, leading to the swift collapse of its puppet government.

Or, on the contrary, perhaps the pendulum will swing in the opposite direction, and NATO will entangle itself more deeply in the conflict (as Kiev and some alliance members are seeking), and potentially thrust the world into a global conflagration that could easily go nuclear.

Biden has promised repeatedly that the US “will not fight a war with Russia in Ukraine,” saying he recognizes that “direct conflict between NATO and Russia” would be “World War III.” But his track record on other promises and commitments made to date relating to Ukraine leaves much to be desired.

— Ilya Tsukanove, Monday July 10th, 2023

[awesome-casuallyfamouscollector]

PrSM is designed to be fired from existing tracked M270-series Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) and wheeled M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers. A single M270 can be loaded with up to four PrSMs at a time, while the maximum load for the M142 is two. To date, the Army has declined to disclose PrSM's exact maximum range, stating only that it is at least around 250 miles (400 kilometers). However, a declassified Pentagon Selected Acquisition Report (SAR) on the program released earlier this year says that it is actually around 310 miles (500 kilometers) and that this could grow to some 400 miles (650 kilometers).