#Ukrainian export infrastructure

[zvaigzdelasas]

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has extended an offer to the US, proposing exclusive access to its critical minerals and infrastructure projects, reported Bloomberg.

In return, the DRC is seeking security assistance to combat a rebellion that is allegedly supported by Rwanda.

In a direct appeal, Congo has requested an urgent meeting between President Felix Tshisekedi and US President Donald Trump.

The proposed pact is expected to grant US companies privileged access to minerals essential for the global energy transition.

The request, conveyed in a letter to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, underscores the DRC’s pressing need for support as it contends with internal conflict.

Congo’s mining sector, a significant source of copper, is currently dominated by Chinese companies.

A partnership with the US will enable Congo to diversify its economic alliances and reduce China’s influence.

The proposal includes operational control for US companies, “exclusive” extraction and export rights, participation in a deep-water port project and the creation of a joint strategic mineral stockpile.

In exchange for these economic opportunities, the US would provide military training, equipment, and direct security assistance including access to military bases to protect strategic resources.

The French investigative outlet Africa Intelligence reported that DRC President Félix Tshisekedi dispatched figures within his inner circle and mining industry officials to the United States and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to discuss strategic mineral partnership agreements in exchange for bilateral military assistance in late February.[1] Africa Intelligence reported that the DRC floated an arrangement with the UAE for a copper and cobalt mining site in the Lualaba province in the southeastern DRC’s Katanga region, but China currently dominates mining in this region and additional details of the proposal remain undisclosed.[2] Tshisekedi had publicly offered the United States and the European Union (EU) “a stake in his country’s vast mineral wealth” and said that the Trump administration could benefit from “a stream of strategic minerals from Congo” in an interview with The New York Times on February 22.[3][...]

The DRC’s proposal mirrors the US-Ukraine critical minerals deal that trades access and investment in Ukraine’s mineral industry for potential US security guarantees.[6] The French magazine Jeune Afrique quoted a “senior American diplomat” who speculated that Tshisekedi drew inspiration for the deal after seeing US interest in Ukrainian minerals.[7] The DRC’s proposal for the Banana port resembles a prior DRC-UAE agreement in 2021, when the UAE-based logistics company DP World acquired 70 percent ownership of the Banana port in exchange for a $1 billion investment in the DRC and the delivery of 30 armored vehicles for the Congolese army.[8]

5 Mar 25

[mariacallous]

MYKOLAIV, UKRAINE—Kateryna Nahorna is getting ready to find trouble.

Part of an all-female team of dog handlers, the 22-year-old is training Ukraine’s technical survey dogs—Belgian Malinois that have learned to sniff out explosives.

The job is huge. Ukraine is now estimated to be the most heavily mined country on Earth. Deminers must survey every area that saw sustained fighting for unexploded mines, missiles, artillery shells, bombs, and a host of other ordnance—almost 25 percent of the country, according to government estimates.

The dogs can cover 1,500 square meters a day. In contrast, human deminers cover 10 square meters a day on average—by quickly narrowing down the areas that manual deminers will need to tackle, the dogs save valuable time.

“This job allows me to be a warrior for my country … but without having to kill anyone,” said Nahorna. “Our men protect us at war, and we do this to protect them at home.”

A highly practical reason drove the women’s recruitment. The specialized dog training was done in Cambodia, by the nonprofit Apopo, and military-aged men are currently not allowed to leave Ukraine.

War has shaken up gender dynamics in the Ukrainian economy, with women taking up jobs traditionally held by men, such as driving trucks or welding. Now, as mobilization ramps up once more, women are becoming increasingly important in roles that are critical for national security.

In Mykolaiv, in the industrial east, Nahorna and her dogs will soon take on one of the biggest targets of Russia’s military strategy when they start to demine the country’s energy infrastructure. Here, women have been stepping in to work in large numbers in steel mills, factories, and railways serving the front line.

It’s a big shift for Ukraine. Before the war, only 48 percent of women over age 15 took part in the workforce — one of the lowest rates in Europe. War has made collecting data on the gender composition of the workforce impossible, but today, 50,000 women serve in the Ukrainian army, compared to 30,000 before the war.

The catalyst came in 2017, years before the current war began. As conflict escalated with Russia in Crimea, the Ukrainian government overturned a Soviet-era law that had previously banned women from 450 occupations.

But obstacles still remain; for example, women are not allowed jobs the government deems too physically demanding. These barriers continue to be chipped away—most recently, women have been cleared to work in underground mines, something they were prevented from doing before.

Viktoriia Avramchuk never thought she would follow her father and husband into the coal mines for DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company.

Her lifelong fear of elevators was a big factor—but there was also the fact that it was illegal for women to work underground.

Her previous job working as a nanny in a local kindergarten disappeared overnight when schools were forced to close at the beginning of the war. After a year of being unemployed, she found that she had few other options.

“I would never have taken the job if I could have afforded not to,” Avramchuk said from her home in Pokrovsk. “But I also wanted to do something to help secure victory, and this was needed.”

The demining work that Nahorna does is urgent in part because more than 55 percent of the country is farmed.

Often called “the breadbasket of Europe,” Ukraine is one of the world’s top exporters of grain. The U.K.-based Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which has been advising the Ukrainian government on demining technology, estimates that landmines have resulted in annual GDP losses of $11 billion.

“Farmers feel the pressure to plow, which is dangerous,” said Jon Cunliffe, the Ukraine country director of Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a British nonprofit. “So we need to do as much surveying as possible to reduce the size of the possible contamination.”

The dogs can quickly clear an area of heavy vegetation, which greatly speeds up the process of releasing noncontaminated lands back to farmers. If the area is found to be unsafe, human deminers step in to clear the field manually.

“I’m not brave enough to be on the front line,” 29-year-old Iryna Manzevyta said as she slowly and diligently hovered a metal detector over a patch of farmland. “But I had to do something to help, and this seemed like a good alternative to make a difference.”

Groups like MAG are increasingly targeting women. With skilled male deminers regularly being picked up by military recruiters, recruiting women reduces the chances that expensive and time-consuming training will be invested in people who could be drafted to the front line at a moment’s notice. The demining work is expected to take decades, and women, unlike men, cannot be conscripted in Ukraine.

This urgency to recruit women is accelerating a gender shift already underway in the demining sector. Organizations like MAG have looked to recruit women as a way to empower them in local communities. Demining was once a heavily male-dominated sector, but women now make up 30 percent of workers in Vietnam and Colombia, around 40 percent in Cambodia, and more than 50 percent in Myanmar.

In Ukraine, the idea is to make demining an enterprise with “very little expat footprint,” and Cunliffe said that will only be possible by recruiting more women.

“We should not be here in 10 years. Not like in Iraq or South Sudan, where we have been for 30 years, or Vietnam, or Laos,” Cunliffe said. “It’s common sense that we bring in as many women as we can to do that. In five to 10 years, a lot of these women are going to end up being technical field managers, the jobs that are currently being done by old former British military guys, and it will change the face of demining worldwide because they can take those skills across the world.”

Manzevyta is one of the many women whose new job has turned her family dynamics on their head. She has handed over her previous life, running a small online beauty retail site, to her husband, who—though he gripes—stays at home while she is out demining.

“Life is completely different now,” she said, giggling. “I had to teach him how to use the washing machine, which settings to use, everything around the house because I’m mostly absent now.”

More seriously, Manzevyta said that the war has likely changed many women’s career trajectories.

“I can’t imagine people who have done work like this going back and working as florists once the war is over,” she laughed.

[darkmaga-returns]

A Possible Turnabout in the Ukraine War

30 January 2025, by Eric Zuesse. (All of my recent articles can be seen here.)

At least 11% of Russia’s total annual oil-refinery and storage capacity has been disabled by swarms of drones from Ukraine that have blown them up during the past two months. 11 Russian oil refineries and storage facilities, all within 1,500 miles of Ukraine, have been hit in the past 60 days, and the 73 Russian refineries that have not been hit are beyond that distance. But potentially, 20% or more of Russia’s oil could become eliminated in this way.

On January 30th, Britain’s “The i Paper” headlined “Every Russian oil refinery attacked by Ukrainian drones, mapped: Drone attacks against Russian oil facilities have tripled in the past two months”, and reported that

Drone attacks on Russian oil facilities have tripled in the past two months as Ukraine scales up a campaign against energy infrastructure deep inside the country.

In January and December, drones targeted Russian oil refineries and depots in eight separate attacks, three times more than in the previous two months, analysis of open-source material by The i Paper suggests.

Analysts say that while these strikes have previously had minimal impact on Russia’s energy sector, the recent surge is now disrupting the export of oil, which fuels Moscow’s wartime economy.

[workersolidarity]

[ 📹 Several severely wounded children are brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah after the Israeli occupation forces bombed several residential homes in the Bureij Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday, resulting in a number of casualties among civilians. ]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏘️💥🚑 🚨

GAZA GENOCIDE DAY 277: WORLD'S WEAPONS MANUFACTURERS IMPOSE UNOFFICIAL BAN ON TRANSFERS TO "ISRAEL", HALF A MILLION GAZANS FACE "CATASTROPHIC" LEVELS OF HUNGER, ISRAELI OCCUPATION FORCES CLOSE BAPTIST HOSPITAL IN GAZA CITY, ALL PRCS CLINICS NOW CLOSED AS OCCUPATION IMPOSES EVACUATIONS, MASS MURDER OF CIVILIANS CONTINUES

On 277th day of the Israeli occupation's ongoing special genocide operation in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) committed a total of 3 new massacres of Palestinian families, resulting in the deaths of no less than 50 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, while another 130 others were wounded over the previous 24-hours.

It should be noted that as a result of the constant Israeli bombardment of Gaza's healthcare system, infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings, local paramedic and civil defense crews are unable to recover countless hundreds, even thousands, of victims who remain trapped under the rubble, or who's bodies remain strewn across the streets of Gaza.

This leaves the official death toll vastly undercounted as Gaza's healthcare officials are unable to accurately tally those killed and maimed in this genocide, which must be kept in mind when considering the scale of the mass murder.

Foreign countries' weapons manufacturers, and exporters of raw materials used in weapons manufacturing, have imposed an informal ban on sales to "Israel" as its genocide in the Gaza Strip continues unabated, going into its 10th month.

According to the Israeli news site Calcalist, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, along with its military branches, are concerned with a situation that is developing in which the Israeli entity could face an ammunition shortage after several countries informally stopped trading weapons and materials with the occupation.

Calcalist says that European weapons manufacturers have begun ignoring their Israeli counterparts, no longer responding to their entreaties, while a major foreign power which is "not the United States", which used to trade with the occupation, has ceased trade of raw materials used in weapons manufacturing with the Zionist entity ever since its response to the events of October 7th began.

At the same time, reporting in the New York Times cautioned that the Israeli occupation army faces a shortage of 120mm artillery shells, with some tanks operating in Gaza being deployed with a smaller number of shells to slow the rate at which such shells are expended.

According to the Times, the occupation army is also facing a shortage of spare parts for D9 armored bulldozers, tanks, and armored personnel carriers.

Although the Israeli occupation promotes the establishment of new weapons manufacturing at home, ammunition produced in the occupied territories is expected to cost "tens of percent" more than imported shells and materials.

And while the Zionist entity is expected to boost domestic production of shells and other "simple" ammunition, it remains highly impractical and unlikely for the occupation to produce all the shells it needs.

Even in the case of boosted production, a large share of shells would still need to be imported due to the limited productive capabilities of the occupied territories, at a time when even the United States struggles to supply its Israeli and Ukrainian partners with all the shells the two warring allies require.

Secondly, for domestic munitions production to dramatically expand would require large amounts of raw materials which cannot be mined in the occupied territories, and so, even in the case of expanded production, many shells would still need to be imported from foreign countries.

Unfortunately for the Zionist entity, aside from the imposition of a quiet ban on sales of munitions to the Israeli occupation, several major suppliers of raw materials used in weapons manufacturing have also banned sales of such raw materials to the occupation.

And while the Israeli occupation has looked to diversify its suppliers of raw materials, and has purchased as much raw materials as possible since the start of the genocidal war in Gaza, defense contractors in the occupied territories have required help from the Ministry of Defense to acquire the necessary materials.

The occupation has caught a few breaks here and there, "another country" has begun selling raw materials to the occupation, while Serbia has provided air defenses since the start of the war.

However, due to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, a global shortage of ammunition and raw materials has developed, leading to price increases and cut-throat competition for supplies.

Calcalist previously reported that due to the intensive use of ammunition since the start of ground operations in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli occupation army had already used some 100'000 shells by the end of November, 2023, just two months into its genocidal war.

Meanwhile, as the Zionist entity's war of extermination continues in the Gaza Strip, the United Nations' World Food Programme (WFP) is warning that "half a million people in the Gaza Strip are facing catastrophic levels of hunger."

Speaking on Monday in a post to the social media platform X, the WFP cautioned that Palestinian families in Gaza often do not receive full food rations on an ongoing basis.

The WFP declared that "unreliable access to humanitarian aid and limited stocks prevent families in Gaza from obtaining the food rations they need," and went on to to call for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Gaza Strip.

At the same time, United Nations' experts on Tuesday cautioned that famine has now spread throughout the Gaza Strip, explaining that the death of Palestinian children in Gaza as a result of malnutrition and dehydration confirms the spread of famine.

The experts warned that the death of a child the other day from malnutrition and dehydration indicates that health and social structures remain under Israeli attack and are severely weakened by the conditions imposed on the Strip.

The UN experts went on to warn that the Israeli occupation's ongoing starvation campaign against the Palestinian population constituted genocide and caused a famine, continuing by calling upon the international community to prioritize the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza by land, and to immediately end the blockade of the enclave.

Previously, on Sunday, a six-year-old child died as a result of malnutrition and dehydration, bringing the total number of deaths resulting from famine and dehydration in the Gaza Strip to 41 since October 7th.

It was also reported that at least 50 children are suffering from malnutrition and famine in Gaza, while symptoms of famine have been recorded in more than 200 children in total.

The Israeli occupation forces on May 7th took control over the Palestinian side of the Rafah and Karm Abu Salem border crossings, where the majority of humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip.

Following taking control over the border crossings, the occupation army burned the crossing's facilities to the ground and have since blocked the entry of humanitarian aid convoys, while at the same time blocking thousands of severely sick and wounded Palestinians from exiting Gaza to seek treatment abroad.

In other news on Tuesday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) announced the reopening of its healthcare center in the beleaguered city of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, several months after its facilities were "severely damaged" in January, with the hope of "supporting displaced families who returned to the area in search of shelter."

In a statement about the reopening posted to the social media platform X, the UNRWA said that "Our staff in Khan Yunis were able to reopen our health center after it was severely damaged last January."

"Given the lack of other health facilities in this part of Khan Younis, the clinic is essential to support displaced families who have returned to the area in search of shelter," the UN refugee agency added.

In further news, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) warned on Tuesday that "all medical points and emergency clinics" affiliated with the organization in the Gaza Strip have ceased their operations.

The Society explained that the closure of its facilities is a result of the Occupation's procedures of forced evacuation in various areas of Gaza where medical points and clinics are located.

At the time of publishing, just 15 of 36 hospitals remain just partially operational, with many sustaining damage from Israeli attacks, while the healthcare sector also suffers from a severe shortage of staff and medical supplies, including anesthesia and antibiotics, leaving healthcare professionals struggling to save lives under catastrophic conditions.

Since the start of the Israeli occupation's genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, more than 500 healthcare workers have been killed and hundreds more injured, while the occupation has arrested and detained at least 310 others and destroyed some 130 ambulances during the ongoing aggression.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has previously warned that the volume of medical supplies entering the Strip is "not sufficient to sustain the health response" and that "all medical evacuations out of Gaza remain suspended."

Several UN agencies and international institutions have also previously warned that the Zionist entity's targeting of hospitals and the healthcare sector in Gaza constitutes a clear violation of the principles and standards of International humanitarian law and the Fourth Geneva Convention, which guarantee special protections for hospitals and healthcare centers during armed conflicts and wars, while targeting them amounts to a crime against humanity and a war crime.

Yet, the Israeli occupation continues to target Gaza's healthcare infrastructure in direct violation of, and in disregard of, all international and humanitarian laws.

Meanwhile, the slaughter of civilians continues in Gaza as the Zionist army targets the homes, shelters and tents of the displaced, starving and suffering Palestinian population.

On Tuesday morning, Occupation fighter jets bombed a residential house in the city of Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in a number of casualties among the civilian population.

At the same time, Zionist artillery detatchments targeted several neighborhoods west of the city of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, as well as in the vicinity of Al-Shifa Hospital, west of Gaza City, and a school in Al-Nuseirat, all of which were subjected to violent raids.

In further atrocities and war crimes, medical sources with Al-Ahli Arab Baptist Hospital in the city of Gaza stated that soldiers with the Israeli occupation army forced medical staff to close the hospital after its surrounds were subjected to violent gunfire from Merkava tanks and other armored vehicles.

According to residents and staff that witnessed the closure, all staff and patients, as well as displaced civilians seeking shelter in the hospital, were forced to leave under the threat of the occupying forces, exposing them to extreme dangers.

The crimes of the Israeli occupation continued when Zionist warplanes bombed a residential home in the New Camp area of the Al-Nuseirat Refugee Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, murdering at least 7 civilians and wounding several others.

In another atrocity, occupation fighter aircraft bombarded a residential house belonging to the Mahna family on Al-Jalaa Street, in the vicinity of the Ghafri Junction, north of Gaza City, while local paramedic crews managed to recover a small baby from the rubble alive.

Similarly, an occupation raid on the Lababidi area, north of Gaza City, resulted in the deaths of 3 citizens and wounded 3 others.

After another house was bombed by Israeli occupation forces on Al-Nafaq Street in Gaza City, local civil defense crews were able to recover a child, along with several other wounded civilians, from under the rubble of their home.

Local sources are also reporting that three civilians were killed after the Israeli occupation forces bombed a gathering of civilians in the Tal al-Sultan neighborhood, west of the city of Rafah, south of Gaza, while occupation Apache helicopters opened fire on several western neighborhoods of the city.

In more occupation war crimes, the Israeli occupation forces bombed a gathering of citizens near the Abu Rasas roundabout in the al-Bureij Camp, in the central Gaza Strip, resulting in the deaths of 9 Palestinians, most of whom were children, while a number of others were wounded in the attack.

Another citizen was killed, and several others wounded, after occupation artillery shelling targeted the Al-Maghribi Junction, in the Al-Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City.

According to some reports, at least 33 Palestinian civilians have been killed, and dozens of others wounded, as a result of Israeli bombing since dawn on Tuesday.

In more attacks, at least four Palestinians were killed, and several others wounded, as a result of an Israeli occupation airstrike on the Nuseirat Market, in the camp of the same name, in central Gaza.

As a result of the Israeli occupation's ongoing war of extermination against the Palestinian population of the Gaza Strip, the current death toll now exceeds 38'243 Palestinians killed, including at least 10'000 women and more than 15'000 children, while another 88'033 others have been wounded since the start of the current round of Zionist aggression, beginning with the events of October 7th, 2023.

July 9th, 2024.

#source1

#source2

#source3

#source4

#source5

#source6

#source7

#source8

#source9

#source10

#source11

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[beastblade69]

I've just seen a russian who was talking about "ThAt Is NoT ThAT PlAiN As UkRaInIaNs SAy" saying taht "BuT UkRaInIaNs ArE boMbInG KuRsK AnD beLgORoD". you are a fucking scum and I won't be taking my words back. I will never take them back because russians are a biological waste. and here's why the shit she said isn't a valid point in an argument (claiming that russia is not that bad):

1. they've invaded our territories back in 2014 and occupied crimea (do I have to mention that they've deported crimean native people away from their homeland in 1944 and then passed crimea into ukrainian ussr's hands because all russia's brought there was sorrow and destruction?) and have also invaded donetsk and luhansk regions which then became the first combat zones of russian invasion in ukraine. that's when the war's actually started

2. they planned to "take kIEv over in 3 days" but obviously they failed. and when they realised that it was over for them they started murdering civilians as they were fleeing from a battlefield. we didn't plan on taking moscow over or smth. in fact we just don't need their swamps lands, we want to live on our land without the constant fear of being killed. but they obviously are obsessed with occupying more and more territories (while they can't even provide a mediocre level of life on the lands they already have stolen)

3. I don't really see western zoo & eco activists talking about it, but russia's committed an ecocide somewhere around a year ago by blowing up a nova kakhovka dam. many people (esp elderly people) and animals died. they drowned in their own houses

4. let's not forget that russia is actively destroying ukrainian fields too. and ukraine was a massive exporter of wheat to the whole europe and even africa

5. russia is bombing kharkiv, odesa and several more regions that are located near an active battlefield zone daily. kharkiv's electric infrastructure is destroyed to the point that they cannot produce electricity for themselves so all of the other regions of ukraine are having their electricity turned off for several hours several times a day. daily. in order to help ppl in kharkiv

6. and let's not stay silent about people on the occupied territories. I often write about this because this is truly horrifying. ukrainian schools are totally banned, instead education is in russian, russian propaganda is being put into ukrainian children's heads, they turn on a russian hymn in those schools every day. and the kids truly hate that. I've seen stories of teachers who teach online and some children from occupied territories are their students. so these students have to catch the internet somewhere on the roof of a barn in the middle of the night just to learn IN UKRAINIAN. why at night? because if they get busted while learning in ukrainian they'd be taken away from their parents and placed into foster families somewhere in russia. same goes for publicly speaking in ukrainian. and that's just the top of the iceberg because too much terrible shit is happening in ukrainian regions occupied by russia

7. the way russians treat our war prisoners (soldiers and civilian captives). beating up, raping, torturing, killing, starving. that's what they do. ukrainians, on the other hand, keep all the war prisoners (soldiers only obviously) according to the international law. the worst thing we can do to them is humiliate them on the internet (tho it's happened only once or twice with certain individuals)

that's not all but that's enough. and if it's not enough for you to become more loyal towards ukrainians I have some bad news for you

[hey-pretty-mama-its-johnny-bravo]

If you don’t feel like you can vote for one of the presidential candidates, vote for Ukraine. If you feel like your vote can’t save Palestine, vote to save Ukraine.

It may be hard to justify voting in this year’s presidential election, but if you want to do some good and help people with your vote, their is a very clear option.

Ukraine has been in a war for its survival for more than two years now. Casualties in the conflict so far have likely surpassed half a million and continue to grow with each passing day.

Since the beginning, Russia has repeatedly targeted civilian infrastructure with missile strikes. A report from June 2024 gave a figure of 11,126 civilians killed and 21,863 wounded since the beginning of the invasion in February 2022.

Since the early days of the invasion, experts have made reports accusing the Russian state of genocidal acts in occupied Ukraine.

In 2023, Russia pulled out of the grain deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain, which accounts for about a tenth of the global supply and is especially vital for food-insecure nations. Though grain exports from Ukraine have recovered, this can be accounted mostly to Russia’s inability to effectively prevent them, and they have bombed grain storage infrastructure that supports these exports. There is no strategic excuse for such actions.

For now, the war is grinding on with little hope of an end any time soon. Ukraine, understandably, is not willing to cede its sovereignty, its territory, and many of its people to Russian oppression. They have fought on against incredible odds, but they are extremely reliant on foreign support, be it financial, humanitarian, or military to continue and make progress in their battle for survival.

The aid that Ukraine needs has been repeatedly blocked by Republicans. It would be dishonest not to mention that these aid packages have also included funds for Israel’s actions in Gaza, which are as terrible or worse than those prosecuted by Russia. But the two can and should be separate, and Republicans have certainly treated them as such.

Donald Trump has frequently complimented Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and was famously impeached (the first time) for reportedly threatening to withhold military aid from Ukraine unless the Ukrainian president provided dirt on Biden’s son.

Statements by two of Trump’s key advisers show that, if elected, he would withhold further military aid from Ukraine unless the country entered peace talks with Russia. Thus far, Russia has refused to consider any terms that would include a withdrawal from Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. The plan also includes a “ceasefire based on prevailing battle lines during peace talks.” Effectively, Ukraine would be pressured into a ceasefire that leaves its territory under the Russian boot.

It’s important to note that the United States is not the only country providing aid to Ukraine, military or otherwise. But there is no other country that can provide military aid at the same level. There simply is no one else that can make up the difference. For Ukraine to go on the offensive and liberate their territory from foreign occupation, there simply is no other alternative to what the United States can provide.

Without continued aid, the war in Ukraine will continue to stagnate. Casualties will continue to mount. The people of Ukraine will continue to suffer as power infrastructure is destroyed by Russian missile strikes. Russian civilians will continue to suffer as their sons are conscripted (disproportionately from rural areas and ethnic minorities) to die for their oligarchs in a war that never needed to happen.

If you don’t feel like you can vote for anything else, vote to give Ukraine what it needs to defend itself and its people. The alternative is genocide and the legitimation of conquest and annexation.

[tomorrowusa]

Russia makes money primarily off of fossil fuels. It does have decent agricultural exports but those alone could not pay for Putin's war machine. So disrupting Russia's oil and gas industry is a way of reducing the country's revenue which allows it to conduct an illegal war of aggression.

Hostile drones have been winding their way across the Russian landscape this winter, striking refineries and related oil and gas infrastructure all the way from the Baltic Sea in the northwest to the Black Sea in the southwest. Drones attacked both the Ilsky and Afipsky refineries in Russia's Krasnodar region, east of occupied Crimea, on Feb. 9, less than a week after another refinery in Volgograd, the largest in southern Russia, was hit. Further attacks have struck other refineries and oil depots near the Ukrainian border, as well as much deeper into Russian territory. Though Ukraine does not typically confirm its actions outside its borders and Russia has not officially acknowledged drones were the cause of these incidents, media reports have identified Kyiv's hand in the attacks occurring with regularity as Moscow's invasion of Ukraine nears the two-year mark. Analysts say the drone attacks are demonstrating that oil and gas targets of economic significance are not out of reach, even far from the front lines of the war. 

The late Sen. John McCain nailed it.

Late U.S. Senator John McCain once derisively described Russia as being "a gas station masquerading as a country" — a jibe underlining the critical importance of oil and gas products to Moscow. Indeed, Russia draws heavily on its resource reserves to support the state. The International Energy Agency says Russia's oil and gas export revenues accounted for 45 per cent of its federal budget in 2021.

Of course a lot of that fossil fuel money gets siphoned off by corrupt oligarchs who use it to purchase superyachts and expensive real estate in Western countries.

A January attack on a Novatek facility in Ust-Luga halted gas processing operations there for several weeks. The plant processes gas condensate into various fuel products that are exported to customers in Turkey and Asia, according to Reuters. Sergey Vakulenko, a former strategy executive at Gazprom Neft, a subsidiary of the larger Russian energy firm, believes the Ust-Luga episode may illustrate a bigger problem for Russia than a temporary disruption to production at a single facility. In a recent analysis published online, Vakulenko reasoned that if small drones can get all the way to Ust-Luga, which is hundreds of kilometres from the Ukrainian border, there are some 18 Russian refineries at risk of being targeted, and they account for more than half the country's refinery production. He's not the only analyst noticing this concern for Russia's refineries.

And because hundreds of thousands of competent Russians have (wisely) fled the country and others are being used as cannon fodder for Putin's war, it takes longer to repair facilities damaged by Ukraine.

And the fossil fuel industry mostly has to fend for itself.

Maxim Starchak, an independent expert on the Russian defence and nuclear industry, says regulations have been put in place to restrict drones from flying close to "the most significant fuel and energy sector facilities" and operators are using electronic warfare systems to defend against drone threats. But Starchak said Russian energy firms must foot the bill for expenses related to defence of their facilities. "Moscow will not specifically help," he said, noting Russian authorities may hold firms accountable for not putting measures in place to protect their facilities.

So that burden cuts down on revenue as it adds to the cost of doing business.

One thing Ukraine has been innovative at is drone technology. It's become one of the world's leaders at that.

As Ukraine continues to fight to repel Russian forces from its lands, its military leaders have signalled drones and related technology will be needed to win the war that seems to have no end in sight.

And Western countries find it easier to provide additional drones to Ukraine than to send tanks and cruise missiles.

So Russian convict troops can luxuriate in the ruins of Avdiivka while their oil refineries back home get blown up by Ukraine.

EDIT: Speaking of fuel, just saw this at NPR.

Putin's regime is 'running out of fuel,' a Russian opposition activist tells NPR

[usafphantom2]

Ukrainian Air Force shot down 3 Su-34 fighter-bombers in just one day

Fernando Valduga

On December 22, the Ukrainian Air Force reported that it shot down three Russian Su-34 fighter-bombers in the southern sector of the country, a boost for Ukraine after a series of military setbacks.

This was considered one of its most successful operations against Russian air power since the beginning of the war. A spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force called it "a brilliantly planned operation".

The Commander of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Mykola Oleshchuk, reported about this, said that the jets were shot down near noon on Friday.

Russia would be using the jets to launch cruise missiles and guided bombs against Ukrainian-controlled cities on the western bank of the Dnipro River and against Ukrainian soldiers who established a safe position on the eastern side.

The mode of destruction of the fighter-bombers has not been reported and there is no photo or video material that can confirm the loss of the fighter-bombers.

However, photos of a Russian search and rescue helicopter Mi-8/17 and the landing site of the killed pilots appeared on social networks.

It is worth mentioning that unconfirmed information about the overthrow of a Su-35 and two Su-34 is circulating online. An unconfirmed image that intends to show Patriot missiles being launched against the three Su-34s is also circulating online.

The Russian propagandist Fighterbomber (Ilya Tumanov) indirectly confirmed the slaughter of an aircraft on his Telegram channel at 1:54 p.m., saying that the crew was being searched.

Later, at 2:14 p.m., he said that all the crew, alive and dead, were taken. He believes that the preliminary cause of the loss of planes was a Patriot air defense system.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the Patriot system would be deployed in Ukraine by the end of 2023.

Developed by Lockheed Martin and RTX, formerly Raytheon Technologies, the Patriots have successfully taken down some of Russia's most advanced missiles. But the stocks of interceptor missiles, which can cost millions of dollars each and take years to manufacture, have been exhausted by Russia's continuous attacks.

In an additional boost, Japan said on Friday that it would supply Patriot missiles to the U.S., strengthening global stocks. Tokyo is expected to transfer dozens of interceptor missiles from its own supplies, starting in the first quarter of 2024, according to a U.S. authority.

On Friday, the Dutch government said it began preparations to deliver to Ukraine 18 U.S.-designed F-16 fighters, without providing a schedule. The delivery of the jets will still require an export license and that Ukraine meets the personnel and infrastructure criteria.

[rvps2001]

Russia-Ukraine Daily Briefing

🇷🇺 🇺🇦 Thursday Briefing:

- Biden team prepares to rush last-minute aid to Ukraine - Ukraine hits Russian naval base in Dagestan for first time - Panama to cancel flags on four US-sanctioned LNG vessels - Warsaw to host conference on rebuilding Ukraine's energy infrastructure - N.Korean troops engaged in combat in Kursk, US says - Russia has executed at least 124 Ukrainian POWs on battlefield - Personal data of 90% of adult Russians publicly available due to leaks - Chinese state-owned company begins refusing to insure exports to Russia - Russia’s cenbank signals ‘very likely’ December rate hike

📨 Daily newsletter: https://russia-ukraine-newsletter.beehiiv.com/

💬 Telegram: https://t.me/russiaukrainedaily Socials: https://linktr.ee/rvps2001

[newstfionline]

Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Florida neighbors band together to recover (AP) When ankle-deep floodwaters from Hurricane Helene bubbled up through the floors of their home, Kat Robinson-Malone and her husband sent a late-night text message to their neighbors two doors down: “Hey, we’re coming.” The couple waded through the flooded street to the elevated front porch of Chris and Kara Sundar, whose home was built on higher ground, and handed over their 8-year-old daughter and a gas-powered generator. The Sundars’ lime-green house in southern Tampa also became a refuge for Brooke and Adam Carstensen, whose house next door to Robinson-Malone also flooded. The three families met years earlier when their children became playmates, and the adults’ friendships deepened during the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. So when Helene and Hurricane Milton struck Florida within two weeks of each other, the neighbors closed ranks as one big extended family, cooking meals together, taking turns watching children and cleaning out their damaged homes. “Everyone has, like, the chain saw or a tarp,” Robinson-Malone said Sunday. “But really the most important thing for us was the community we built. And that made all the difference for the hurricane rescue and the recovery. And now, hopefully, the restoration.”

Thousands march in Spain to demand affordable housing (Reuters) Thousands protested on Sunday in Madrid to demand more affordable housing amid rising anger from Spaniards who feel they are being priced out of the market. “Spaniards cannot live in their own cities. They are forcing us out of the cities,” said nurse Blanca Prieto, 33. Spain is struggling to balance promoting tourism, a key driver of its economy, and addressing citizens’ concerns over unaffordable high rents due to gentrification and landlords shifting to more lucrative tourist rentals. Residents of the Canary Islands and Malaga have also staged protests this year against the rise in tourist rentals. Seasonal hospitality workers struggle to find accommodation in these tourism hot spots, with many resorting to sleeping in caravans or even their cars.

Russian Strikes on Ukrainian Ports Target Shipping (NYT) Russia has stepped up its assaults on Black Sea port infrastructure and civilian shipping in recent days, in what Ukraine says is an attempt to disrupt its exports and damage its economy. The attacks are part of an intensifying campaign of strikes on the city of Odesa and the region along Ukraine’s southern coast. Since last Monday, Russia has carried out five attacks in the area, killing 14 civilians and injuring 28, the U.N.’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported on Friday, citing local authorities. The strikes on ships were mostly aimed at those flying flags of small countries unlikely to retaliate against Russia. Last Monday, a container ship under the flag of Palau was hit, Ukrainian official said. The day before that, a missile damaged a vessel under a Saint Kitts and Nevis flag, according to the regional military administration.

Pakistan’s internet slows to a crawl as blame falls on government (Washington Post) Mobile internet in Pakistan has been painfully slow for over two months. Now, technology experts and political activists are accusing the government of intentionally throttling the internet to suppress political protesters. Digital rights activists fear that Pakistani officials are installing new controls to more tightly monitor social media and to censor political content.

China’s ‘New Great Wall’ Casts a Shadow on Nepal (NYT) The Chinese fence traces a furrow in the Himalayas, its barbed wire and concrete ramparts separating Tibet from Nepal. Here, in one of the more isolated places on earth, China’s security cameras keep watch alongside armed sentries in guard towers. High on the Tibetan Plateau, the Chinese have carved a 600-feet-long message on a hillside: “Long live the Chinese Communist Party,” inscribed in characters that can be read from orbit. Just across the border, in Nepal’s Humla District, residents contend that along several points of this distant frontier, China is encroaching on Nepali territory. The Nepalis have other complaints, too. Chinese security forces are pressuring ethnic Tibetan Nepalis not to display images of the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, in Nepali villages near the border, they say. “This is the new Great Wall of China,” said Jeevan Bahadur Shahi, the former provincial chief minister of the area. China’s fencing along the edge of Nepal’s Humla District is just one segment of a fortification network thousands of miles long that Xi Jinping’s government has built to reinforce remote reaches, control rebellious populations and, in some cases, push into territory that other nations consider their own.

Sri Lanka closes schools as floods hammer the capital (AP) Sri Lanka closed schools in the capital Colombo and suburbs on Monday as heavy rains triggered floods in many parts of the island nation. Heavy downpours over the weekend have wreaked havoc in many parts of the country, flooding homes, fields and roads. Three people drowned, while some 134,000 people have been affected by flooding, according to the country’s Disaster Management Centre. Sri Lanka has been grappling with severe weather conditions since May, mostly caused by heavy monsoon rains. In June, 16 people died due to floods and mudslides.

Can the Government Get People to Have More Babies? (NYT) In 1989, Japan seemed to be an unstoppable economic superpower. Its companies were overtaking competitors and gobbling up American icons like Rockefeller Center. But inside the country, the government had identified a looming, slow-motion crisis: The fertility rate had fallen to a record low. Policymakers called it the “1.57 shock,” citing the projected average number of children that women would have over their childbearing years. If births continued to decline, they warned, the consequences would be disastrous. Taxes would rise or social security coffers would shrink. Japanese children would lack sufficient peer interaction. Society would lose its vitality as the supply of young workers dwindled. It was time to act. Starting in the 1990s, Japan began rolling out policies and pronouncements designed to spur people to have more babies. The government required employers to offer child care leave of up to a year, opened more subsidized day care slots, exhorted men to do housework and take paternity leave, and called on companies to shorten work hours. In 1992, the government started paying direct cash allowances for having even one child (earlier, they had started with the third child), and bimonthly payments for all children were later introduced. None of this has worked. Last year, Japan’s fertility rate stood at 1.2. In Tokyo, the rate is now less than one. The number of babies born in Japan last year fell to the lowest level since the government started collecting statistics in 1899. Now the rest of the developed world is looking more and more like Japan.

The Brewing War With Israel Is Boosting Iran’s Young Hard-Liners (Foreign Affairs) The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s influential, ideological armed force, has been riven by divisions between its older, conservative commanders and its younger, radical ranks. The former generally favor exercising some restraint when it comes to Israel, whereas the latter want to go directly after the Islamic Republic’s nemesis. Typically, the older elite have held more influence with the supreme leader. But as more and more IRGC commanders and partners have been killed, the younger generations have gained the upper hand. They have done so by questioning the competence of their elders but also by suggesting that some IRGC elites are actually Israeli assets, including Esmail Ghaani, the IRGC commander who controls Iran’s Quds force—which, in turn, controls Iran’s network of proxy militias. After Israel killed Nasrallah, Khamenei’s calculus appears to have been shaped by this younger cohort. It is part of why Khamenei launched the October 1 attack.

Netanyahu Is Killing Us To Set Us Free? Logic, Grief And Resistance In Beirut (Daraj/Lebanon) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed us, the Lebanese people, and offered us a gift: a massacre. He sent soldiers to the Lebanese border town of Maroun al-Ras, raised an Israeli flag there, and sent the picture to the whole world. Netanyahu, who has so far killed more than 40,000 Palestinians and about 3,000 Lebanese, addressed us directly—and said that he is killing us for the sake of our future [by destroying Hezbollah]. Netanyahu tells us that he wants to give us after killing us, a homeland, one that is no more than a graveyard and no less than a colony. This speech he addressed to us is truly amazing, a summary of what awaits us if Netanyahu, owner of the “massacre doctrine,” achieves what he wants.

U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel (NYT) The United States is sending an advanced missile defense system to Israel, along with about 100 American troops to operate it, the Pentagon announced on Sunday. The move will put American troops operating the ground-based interceptor, which is designed to defend against ballistic missiles, closer to the widening war in the Middle East. It comes after Iran launched about 200 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1 and as Israel plans its retaliatory attack. The THAAD battery, a mobile defense system, will give the Israel Defense Forces another layer of protection to defend cities, troops and installations from short- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles like those deployed by Iran in its last attack.

Netanyahu tells U.S. that Israel will strike Iranian military, not nuclear or oil, targets, officials say (Washington Post) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the Biden administration he is willing to strike military rather than oil or nuclear facilities in Iran, according to two officials familiar with the matter, suggesting a more limited counterstrike aimed at preventing a full-scale war. In the two weeks since Iran’s latest missile barrage on Israel, its second direct attack in six months, the Middle East has braced for Israel’s promised response, fearing the two countries’ decades-long shadow war could explode into a head-on military confrontation. It comes at a politically fraught time for Washington, less than a month before the election, and President Joe Biden has said publicly he would not support an Israeli strike on nuclear-related sites. When Biden and Netanyahu spoke Wednesday—their first call in more than seven weeks after months of rising tensions between the two men—the prime minister said he was planning to target military infrastructure in Iran, according to a U.S. official and an official familiar with the matter.

Is Israel deploying a ‘surrender or starve’ strategy in Gaza? (Washington Post) Northern Gaza, already pummeled by a year of ruinous war, is in the grips of a punishing new Israeli offensive. Israeli forces encircled the battered Jabalya refugee camp in a bid to “systematically dismantle terrorist infrastructure,” according to an IDF statement. Israel issued evacuation orders to some 400,000 remaining residents in northern Gaza, telling them to go to areas farther south that are already teeming with the displaced and still hit by Israeli bombardments. Airstrikes have killed dozens. Aid workers described a catastrophic scene. “It is like hell to be honest,” Fares Afana, the head of ambulance services in northern Gaza, told The Washington Post in a voice note on Sunday. Israeli forces were attacking the Jabalya refugee camp “for the third time and its surroundings in Beit Lahya and Beit Hanoun,” Afana said, and the camp was surrounded “from all sides.” Humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders said Friday that thousands of people—including five of its staffers—were trapped in the Jabalya camp. “Nobody is allowed to get in or out—anyone who tries is getting shot,” Sarah Vuylsteke, a project coordinator for the organization, said in a news release. The intensifying siege will “continue as long as required in order to achieve its objectives,” the IDF said in a statement. It comes alongside an apparent blockade. No food trucks have entered at all in October. Such a tactic may fuel further accusations that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians in Gaza.

[channeledhistory]

One person said that the White House had grown increasingly frustrated by brazen Ukrainian drone attacks that have struck oil refineries, terminals, depots and storage facilities across western Russia, hurting its oil production capacity. Russia remains one of the world’s most important energy exporters despite western sanctions on its oil and gas sector. Oil prices have risen about 15 per cent this year, to $85 a barrel, pushing up fuel costs just as US President Joe Biden begins his campaign for re-election. Washington is also concerned that if Ukraine keeps hitting Russian facilities, including many that are hundreds of miles from the border, Russia could retaliate by lashing out at energy infrastructure relied on by the west. This includes the CPC pipeline carrying oil from Kazakhstan through Russia to the global market. Western companies including ExxonMobil and Chevron use the pipeline, which Moscow briefly shut in 2022.

[mariacallous]

At the end of March, it emerged that the Trump administration was making a new push for Ukraine’s natural resources, including its now famous rare earths. It’s no surprise that the United States wants access to the precious commodity, since relying on the world’s top processor, China, is hardly sustainable. But very little is known about Ukraine’s actual rare-earth deposits, and a large part of them sit in Russian-occupied territories. Building the infrastructure for extraction would take years—and require peace first.

Here’s a better idea, one that would make the United States dependent on no one and create jobs at home (not to mention do a good deed for the environment): recycle rare earths in Americans’ used gadgets.

On March 23, the Trump administration sent Ukraine a proposal on its natural resources that went far beyond the draft agreement on which the two sides agreed in February, the Financial Times reports. The draft agreement, the Times explains, “would apply to all mineral resources, including oil and gas, and major energy assets across the entire Ukrainian territory.”

It also marks the latest salvo in U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-standing quest for Ukraine’s supposed rare-earth riches. “I told them [Ukraine] that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that. So at least we don’t feel stupid,” Trump told Fox News on Feb. 10.

Ukraine’s rare earths are the core of the natural resources agreement Trump has been pushing President Volodymyr Zelensky to sign. A softer version of the now proposed deal was supposed to have been signed during Zelensky’s visit to Washington in February, but it was derailed by the acrimonious meeting between the two sides.

And now Washington has upped the ante with a proposed agreement that covers the entirety of Ukrainian natural resources and would send revenues directly abroad, with the United States receiving royalties before Ukraine, the Times notes. The deal, which also foresees a U.S.-majority board, would effectively give Washington ownership of Ukraine’s rare earths.

Getting the minerals out of the Ukrainian rock would, alas, be extremely difficult. Three of Ukraine’s four major rare-earth deposits are within or near Russian-controlled areas, as Erik Jonsson, a senior geologist with the Geological Survey of Sweden, told IEEE Spectrum, a journal published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.

There’s also the matter of how large the deposits actually are. “The numbers are believed to come from Soviet surveys dating as far back as the 1960s,” Spectrum notes. Rare earths are notoriously difficult to mine because they appear in tiny quantities within larger pieces of rock, making the commercial aspect of any deal highly sketchy. Spectrum concludes, in italics to emphasize the fact, that “there are no deposits of rare-earth ore in Ukraine known to be minable in an economically viable way.”

For years, the United States has tried to solve its increasingly painful dependence on rare-earth imports, which it needs mainly for electronics, from smartphones to F-35s. (An F-35 needs 920 pounds of rare earths.) Though rare earths are mined in different countries, usually African ones, nearly 90 percent are processed in China, which during globalization’s heyday was not a problem. Now, though, it is.

Since 2020, China has blocked exports of graphite—which is, like rare earths, a crucial component of electric vehicle batteries, though it doesn’t belong to the rare-earth group—to Sweden, where lithium-ion firm Northvolt had been trying to jump-start European EV-battery production before declaring bankruptcy last month. China has also threatened to withhold rare earths from Lockheed Martin, the U.S. maker of the F-35, and is imposing a wide range of controls in response to Trump��s trade war.

The U.S. government must reduce America’s dependence on China. But restoring U.S. industrial chains is a long and painful process that can’t be conjured up overnight. In 2022, the Biden administration awarded $35 million for rare-earth processing to MP Materials, whose mine in Mountain Pass, California, is the United States’ only scaled site.

Over many years, Australian miner Syrah Resources has also received several hundred millions of dollars in U.S. government loans and grants to mine rare earths and graphite in Mozambique, including $165 million in January. Syrah also built a processing plant in Louisiana for its graphite. But as soon as Syrah’s mining of graphite in Mozambique seemed to take off, China flooded the market with lower-priced specimens, the Wall Street Journal notes. It was hardly a subtle signal from Beijing.

But there’s another way for Trump to get the United States the rare earths it needs—and this way would not involve forcing a deal on a savaged country or finding exemptions to global tariffs. In fact, it would involve no country other than the United States. It would even aid the environment, which ought to matter now that the world is approaching the climate change point of no return.

That better way is recycling. Electronics waste is growing rapidly because we all have more electronic gadgets, which we replace increasingly often. In 2022, the latest year available, the world discarded e-waste containing 31 million metric tons of metals, 17 million tons of plastics, and 14 million tons of minerals, glass, and other reusable materials. But only an estimated 19 million tons was recycled—mainly “metals like iron which is present in high quantities and has high recycling rates in almost all e-waste management routes,” the Global E-Waste Monitor, a partnership between the International Telecommunication Union and the United Nations, reports.

The United States throws away nearly 7 million tons of e-waste each year, and as elsewhere, only the easiest parts, such as iron, are recycled. That’s doubly wasteful because discarded gadgets often end up in landfills, where they can poison soil and water—and because they contain the very rare-earth metals that are so desperately needed in new electronic gadgets.

If the United States could marshal the rare earths sitting around in people’s homes and garbage cans, it could slash its dependence on China and create jobs at home. What’s more, it wouldn’t need to impose a rare-earth arrangement on Ukraine, and it would help rid U.S. communities of toxins seeping out from landfills.

Recycling rare-earth metals is extremely difficult and thus commercially unattractive, which is why it’s not yet being done on a large scale. That’s because rare earths are often used in extremely small quantities; while some EV batteries use many pounds’ worth of rare earths, the combined rare earths in a smartphone typically weigh no more than 2 grams. Most other electronics fit somewhere in between. And each rare earth has to be extracted separately.

But getting rare earths out of retired gadgets ought to be no harder than getting them out of remote and unexplored rock in Ukraine. Three days before leaving office, the Biden administration awarded $5.1 million to REEcycle, a small Houston-based recycling company, to help restart a demonstration facility and “advance commissioning of a commercial facility with an estimated annual production of 50 tons of rare earth oxides.” REEcycle specializes in recycling four rare earths commonly used in aircraft, missiles, submarines, and unpiloted vehicles. (The grant, if not yet paid, may have been canceled by DOGE, but DOGE.gov contains no such update.)

There is, in fact, a massive opportunity in rare-earth recycling. Turbocharging U.S. efforts to recover rare earths would trigger more research and development and more innovation at home, and it would help the United states reduce its dangerous rare-earth dependence on China in a way that harms no other country—and creates a variety of new jobs at home. Once scientists and businesses have developed a commercially viable way of recycling rare earths, the United States could reuse these versatile metals over and over. That’s surely a deal Trump should like. In fact, I can’t think of a reason any American would dislike it.

[darkmaga-returns]

October 23, 2024

Ukraine - Zelenski Begs Russia To Renew Deals He Had Botched

The actor who has been playing the President of Ukraine for a while is getting cold feet. Winter is coming and the energy networks of Ukraine are near to the point of total breakdown.

There could have been agreements in place to prevent that. But the Ukrainian side had botched those deals. Now Zelenski is begging to renew them.

In late 2022 the Russian military launched a bombing campaign against electricity switching stations in Ukraine. A lot of transformers got blown up. The Ukrainian military responded by concentrating its air defenses near electricity stations. That was exactly the effect the Russian's had asked for. The air defense installations, not the electricity stations, had been their real target.

After splitting from the Soviet Union, Ukraine had had the best air defenses money could buy. During the fall and winter of 2022 most of it had been destroyed. The Russian campaign against electricity stations came to a halt.

In 2023/24 the Ukrainian military started its own campaign against infrastructure in Russia. Several refineries were hit by drones and went up into flames. Gasoline production in Russia was falling significantly and export of gasoline had to be stopped for a while.

The Russians retaliated by renewing their campaign against Ukraine's electricity network. But this time the targets were not just switching stations but the generation facility themselves. The non-nuclear electricity production in Ukraine got decimated.

In its daily briefings the Russian Ministry of Defense called the attacks on Ukrainian electricity stations a direct retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on Russian proper. For example:

This morning, in response to the Kiev regime's attempts to damage objects of Russian power infrastructure and economy, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation delivered a group strike by long-range precision weaponry at objects of the Ukrainian military-industrial infrastructure and AFU aviation bases.

With their generation capacity in danger and under the threat of blackouts the Ukrainian government got to its senses - at least for a while. Secret negotiations were arranged in Doha, Qatar, to stop the infrastructure attacks on both sides.

In August 2024, shortly after the Ukrainian army had launched an incursion into the Kursk oblast of Russia, the Washington Post reported:

Ukraine and Russia were set to send delegations to Doha this month to negotiate a landmark agreement halting strikes on energy and power infrastructure on both sides, diplomats and officials familiar with the discussions said, in what would have amounted to a partial cease-fire and offered a reprieve for both countries. But the indirect talks, with the Qataris serving as mediators and meeting separately with the Ukrainian and Russian delegations, were derailed by Ukraine’s surprise incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region last week, according to the officials. ... For more than a year, Russia has pounded Ukraine’s power grid with a barrage of cruise missiles and drone strikes, causing irreparable damage to power stations and rolling blackouts across the country. Meanwhile, Ukraine has struck Russia’s oil facilities with long-range drone attacks that have set ablaze refineries, depots and reservoirs, reducing Moscow’s oil refining by an estimated 15 percent and raising gas prices around the world. ... A diplomat briefed on the talks said Russian officials postponed their meeting with Qatari officials after Ukraine’s incursion into western Russia. Moscow’s delegation described it as “an escalation,” the diplomat said, adding that Kyiv did not warn Doha about its cross-border offensive.

Ukraine had to pay a heavy price for the Kursk incursion. The elite troops it had sent failed to reach their target, a nuclear power station near Kursk, and soon got decimated. The attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continued with full force.

Three month later, with the Kursk incursion as well as its electricity network near to total failure, the Ukrainian government is again changing course. It is begging to renew the deals it had botched.

[justacynicalromantic]

Russia has hit Odesa's civilian grain export infrastructure again last night, for the third night in a row. This is a deliberate attempt to create high food prices in Africa and the Middle East. Deliberate.

The UN is no longer able to keep the peace. If it isn't capable of creating a convoy to protect the export of Ukrainian grain, then it's time to shut the whole institution down.

(and of course they also hit civilian houses)

[lopenash]

So, Russia destroyed 60,000 metric tons of grain meant for export in Ukraine today. This grain was meant for export. Now, something you may not know is Ukraine is major exporter of grain and it frequently sends it grain as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative

What is the Black Sea Grain Initiative? Quoting the UN:

The Black Sea Grain Initiative was launched in Istanbul by the Russian Federation, Türkiye, Ukraine and United Nations on 22 July 2022. Through this initiative, a mechanism was established for the safe exports of grain, related foodstuffs and fertilizer, including ammonia, from designated Ukrainian ports to global markets. The purpose of the Initiative is to contribute to the prevention of global hunger, to reduce and address global food insecurity, and to ensure the safety of merchant ships delivering grain and foodstuffs. To facilitate the implementation of their Initiative, the Joint Coordination Centre (JCC) was set up in Istanbul on 27 July 2022, under the auspices of the United Nations, comprised of senior representatives of Türkiye, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United Nations. ...during the first two terms of the agreement over 25 million metric tons of grain and food products were exported, including more than 480,000 metric tons of wheat shipped under the World Food Programme to support its humanitarian operations in hunger-struck spots around the world.

Pretty neat, huh? Say, how far does 480,000 metric tons of wheat go? According to the World Food Programme:

1 metric ton of food, typically including cereals, pulses and oil, is sufficient for approximately 1,660 people for one day – meeting their minimum daily energy intake of 2,100 kcal as well as their vitamin and mineral needs.

So doing some quick math, Ukraine fed a maximum* 796,800,000 people for one day, or 7,968,000 people for 100, or 79,680 people for 10,000 days (aka 27.39726027... years)!

So going back to those 60k that got destroyed, how many could that have fed? Well*:

99,600,000 people for 1 day or,

996,000 people for 100 days or,

9,960 people for 10,000 days (aka 27.39726027... years)

That's um

Bad

And to make it even worse, this attack destroyed not only the grain but the ability to house the grain, limiting their ability to do more exports.

But of course, this actually NATO's fault. They forced daddyPutin to target civilian infrastructure used for foreign aid. Because... communism? I think?

*These numbers represent a theoretical maximum, there will be shipping and processing, and the grain Ukraine exports does not constitute an entire meal so the actual number will be lower by some amount.

[beardedmrbean]

An attack before dawn Monday damaged a bridge linking Russia to Moscow-annexed Crimea that is a key supply route for Kremlin forces in the war with Ukraine, forcing the span's temporary closure for a second time in less than a year. Two people were killed and their daughter was injured.

Vehicle traffic on the Kerch Bridge came to a standstill, while rail traffic across the 19-kilometer (12-mile) span also was halted for about six hours.

The strike was carried out by two Ukrainian maritime drones, Russia’s National Anti-Terrorist Committee said.

Ukrainian officials were coy about taking responsibility, as they have been in past strikes. But in what appeared to be a tacit acknowledgment, Ukrainian Security Service spokesman Artem Degtyarenko said in a statement that his agency would reveal details of how the “bang” was organized after Kyiv has won the war.

The bridge previously was attacked in October, when a truck bomb blew up two of its sections and required months of repair. Moscow decried that assault as an act of terrorism and retaliated by bombarding Ukraine's civilian infrastructure, targeting the country's power grid over the winter.

In Monday's blast, the Ukrainian news portal RBK-Ukraina cited a security services source as saying it was carried out by what it called floating drones. A deputy prime minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, later said on the Telegram messaging service that “today, the Crimea bridge was torn apart by sea drones,” but it was not clear if he was making an official confirmation or referring to earlier reports.

Hours after the attack, video from Russian authorities showed crews picking up debris from the deck of the bridge, a section of which appeared to be sloping to one side, and a damaged black sedan with its passenger door open.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin said authorities were inspecting the damage before determining how long it will take to repair.

The Kerch Bridge is a conspicuous symbol of Moscow's claims on Crimea and an essential land link to the peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed in 2014. The $3.6 billion bridge is the longest in Europe and is crucial for Russia's military operations in southern Ukraine in the nearly 17-month-old war.

Russia has expanded its military forces in Crimea since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Occasional sabotage and other attacks against the Russian military and other facilities on the peninsula have occurred since, with the Kremlin blaming Ukraine.

Those attacks and acts of sabotage haven't discouraged Russians from spending their holidays in Crimea, and as car traffic on the bridge came to a halt, long lines formed at a ferry crossing the Kerch Strait, Russian media reported.

Traffic jams also clogged a highway in the Russian-held part of the Kherson region after Moscow-appointed authorities in Crimea redirected motorists to take the land route to Russia, through the partially occupied regions of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

The bridge attack comes as Ukrainian forces are pressing a counteroffensive in several sections of the front line. It also happened hours before Russia announced, as expected, that it is halting a deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey that allows the export of Ukrainian grain during the war.

Russian media identified the dead as Alexei and Natalia Kulik, who were traveling to Crimea for a summer vacation. The 40-year-old Kulik was a truck driver and his 36-year-old wife was a municipal education worker. Their 14-year-old daughter suffered chest and brain injuries.

Kyiv didn’t initially acknowledge responsibility for October’s bridge attack either, but Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar acknowledged earlier this month that Ukraine struck it to derail Russian logistics.

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, returned to that theme Monday, calling the Ukrainian government a “terrorist organization.”

"We must blow up their houses and houses of their relatives, search and eliminate their accomplices,” he said.

Russian authorities said the attack didn't affect the bridge's piers but damaged the deck on one of two road links. The damage appeared less serious than in October's attack.

Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence department, declined to comment but said: “The peninsula is used by the Russians as a large logistical hub for moving forces and assets deep into the territory of Ukraine. Of course, any logistical problems are additional complications for the occupiers.”

The Security Service of Ukraine posted a redacted version of a popular lullaby, tweaked to say that the bridge “went to sleep again.”