#Ukrainian export infrastructure

[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.

[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.

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#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

[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.

[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.

[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

[argumate]

Russia’s missile campaign to degrade Ukraine’s unified energy infrastructure has failed definitively, and Russia appears to have abandoned the effort. Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Halushchenko announced on April 8 that Ukraine is resuming energy exports for the first time since October 11, 2022. Russian authorities began efforts in October to degrade Ukrainian energy infrastructure to a significant extent by the end of winter, which Russians consider March 1; however, the series of large-scale Russian missile strikes on energy infrastructure failed to achieve the assessed Russian aims of causing a humanitarian disaster, weakening Ukrainian military capabilities, and forcing Ukraine to negotiate. State-run Russian media acknowledged this failure on March 1. Russia likely abandoned the effort soon after. The United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (UK MoD) noted on April 8 that the frequency of Russian large-scale, long-range attacks on energy infrastructure has decreased since March 2023. The UK MoD assessed that Russia continues small-scale strikes (strikes using fewer than 25 munitions) with predictably less effect. Russia maintains the capability to renew such strikes though, if it so desired. Halushchenko stated that Ukraine has the flexibility to adjust Ukrainian energy exports if the situation changes.

[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)

[mariacallous]

Crude oil has stopped flowing to Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline after Kyiv tightened its economic sanctions against Russia.

Kyiv announced in June it would tighten its sanctions regime in mid-July by preventing Russia’s second-biggest oil company, Lukoil, from using its infrastructure to export crude to Europe.

The stoppage concerns only Lukoil deliveries through the southern stretch of the Duzhba (‘Friendship’) pipeline, which runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary. Authorities in both Bratislava and Budapest said Russian crude deliveries from other suppliers were unaffected, including those transiting Ukraine.

“According to data from [Slovakian oil transporter] Transpetrol, deliveries of Russian oil to Slovakia were not stopped,” Slovakia’s Ministry of Economy said in a statement on Thursday. “The problem is, according to [Slovakian refiner] Slovnaft, deliveries of a concrete supplier, Lukoil.”

The Ministry said it was discussing the issue with its partners in Ukraine and that in the meantime Slovnaft had secured supplies from another source.

On Tuesday, Hungary’s foreign minister, Peter Szijjarto, said that while oil was flowing to Hungary from the Black Sea via the TurkStream Pipeline, Lukoil supplies via Ukraine had ceased.

“Due to a legal situation in Ukraine, Lukoil is no longer delivering to Hungary, and now we are working on a solution that would allow oil transit to restart as Russian oil is very important for our energy security,” Szijjarto said.

Industry sources cited by Reuters said crude supplies to the Czech Republic were flowing normally.

[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.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The idea that public investment in infrastructure serves democratic goals fell out of favor in the U.S. in the 1980s. Leaders insisted that private investment reacted more efficiently to market forces whereas government investment both distorted markets and tied up money that private investment could use more effectively. In fact, the dramatic scaling back of public investment since then has not led to more efficient development so much as it has led to crumbling infrastructure and its exploitation by private individuals. 

In late July the New York Times noted that since 2019, billionaire businessman Elon Musk has steadily taken over the field of satellite internet, infrastructure that is hugely important for national security. In just four years Musk has launched into space more than 4,500 satellites—more than 50% of all active satellites. This means that Musk’s Starlink is often the only way for people in places hit by disasters or in war zones to communicate. 

On Thursday, excerpts from a forthcoming biography of Elon Musk by historian Walter Isaacson revealed that Musk “secretly told his engineers to turn off [Starlink] coverage within 100 kilometers of the Crimean coast” after learning that the Ukrainian military was sending six small drone submarines packed with explosives at the Russian naval fleet based in Crimea. After talking to Russian leaders, who said they would respond with nuclear weapons—later events suggest this was a bluff—Musk shut off Starlink, the drone submarines lost the connectivity they needed to find their targets, and the weapons simply washed ashore.

According to Isaacson, Ukrainian officials begged Musk to turn the coverage back on, but he refused, saying that Ukraine “is now going too far and inviting strategic defeat.” He told U.S. and Russian officials that he wanted Starlink to be used only for defense. Then he offered a “peace plan” that required Ukraine to give up territory to Russia and reject plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). Later, he again disabled Starlink coverage in the midst of a Ukrainian advance.

Isaacson portrays Musk as frustrated by being dragged into a war. “Starlink was not meant to be involved in wars,” Musk told Isaacson. “It was so people can watch Netflix and chill and get online for school and do good peaceful things, not drone strikes.” Since the story broke, Musk has defended his unwillingness to be in the middle of a war. 

But Mykhailo Podolyak, a top advisor to Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky, pointed out on Musk’s own social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that the same Russian fleet Musk protected went on to fire missiles at Ukrainian cities, killing civilians, including children. Russia is also attacking Ukraine’s infrastructure for exporting grain, which threatens the price and availability of food in Africa.

The privatization of the functions of government in the U.S. has given a single man the power to affect global affairs, working, in this case, against the stated objectives of our own government. Republican leaders eager to push that privatization have made their case by turning voters against taxes, although the tax cuts put in place since 1981 overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy and corporations, permitting a few individuals to amass fortunes: Forbes, for example, estimates Musk’s net worth at $251.3 billion.

On Friday the Internal Revenue Service announced that increased federal funding under the Inflation Reduction Act and the help of artificial intelligence will enable a new push to go after 1,600 millionaires who owe at least $250,000 and 75 large businesses with assets of about $10 billion apiece that owe hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes. 

Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), chair of the Senate Finance Committee, said the plan “goes to the heart of Democrats’ effort to ensure the wealthiest are paying their fair share.” It also goes to the heart of the idea that billionaires must not be able to impose their will on the rest of us by virtue of their monopolization of key aspects of our infrastructure. Still, Republicans continue to argue for private investment according to market forces. Opposing taxes and the government programs they fund, they have clawed back as much of the new funding for the IRS as they have been able, and they continue to call for more cuts. 

This week, as a fight over funding the government by the end of the month looms, the implications of the parties’ different visions of government could not be clearer. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

Sept 10, 2023

+

[ref :: Musk Shut Down Ukrainian Attack After Chat with Russian Official] ::

Elon Musk got caught with his hand in the national security cookie jar, sabotaging or blocking a major Ukrainian military operation after conversations with a Russian government official.

Now let’s unpack this.

Last month I wrote about the rise of the global oligarchs and I made particular mention of Elon Musk. Even if you set aside the various things you may not like about Musk he has amassed a degree of economic power that is novel and dangerous in itself even if he had the most benign of intentions and the most stable personality. More than half the operating satellites in the sky are owned and controlled by him. Overnight we finally got confirmation of something that has long been suspected or hinted at but which none of the players had an interest in confirming. Last September Musk either cut off or refused to activate his Starlink satellite service near the Crimean coast during a surprise Ukrainian drone attack on the Russian Navy at anchor at its Sevastopol naval port.

Ukraine has made extensive use of naval drones. But it at least sounds like this was supposed to be a massed attack that would have done extensive damage to the Russian Navy and the naval port itself and thus seriously degraded Russia’s ability to launch missile attacks against Ukraine. In other words, it doesn’t sound like this was just any attack, though the details are sketchy.

On its face you might say, they’re Musk’s satellites and he’s in charge of who gets to use them and how. But of course it’s not that simple. It’s a good illustration of how Musk’s economic power has crept into domains that are more like the power of a state.

Starlink is a network of satellites providing robust internet connectivity without reliance on any ground infrastructure. This is critical in Ukraine since the ground infrastructure has all been degraded or destroyed. Starlink is owned by and made possible by the launch capacity of SpaceX, Musk’s space launch company, which is currently the sole means the U.S. has to launch satellites into space.

Musk made business and financial decisions that, under our economic system, entitles him to the vast profits of SpaceX. But he didn’t create it on his own. The company was built on the back of U.S. government contracts. In essence the U.S. government fronted the money to build SpaceX by awarding it contracts that made its business viable. Musk and SpaceX are also U.S. military contractors. That comes with a big set of responsibilities and restrictions.

Raytheon isn’t at liberty to sell its high tech weaponry to Russia or China if the price is right. These contractors are legally and financially bound into the U.S. national security apparatus. So is Musk and SpaceX. Or at least they’re supposed to be. A critical part of this story is that Musk took this action after conversations with an unnamed Russian government official which, Musk claimed, led him to worry the attack could escalate into a nuclear conflict.

Of course the threat of escalation has hung over the Ukraine war from the beginning. Countless civilian and military officials in the U.S., Europe and across the globe have been analyzing and trying to manage that risk for 18 months. We should take Musk’s claim about fears of nuclear escalation with a huge, huge grain of salt. There are many other threats and inducements that could have come up in these conversations. But let’s assume for the moment that’s what the Russian official told him. It’s simply not Musk’s judgment to make. That’s not only the case as a matter of basic democratic accountability and national security law. Musk is the last person you’d want making such a decision. He’s a mercurial weirdo whose views visibly change by the day in reaction to whoever is giving him the most comments love on Twitter. His national security thinking is at best juvenile and fatuous. The idea that such a call was Musk’s to make is as absurd as it is terrifying.

Let’s imagine a more generous to Musk scenario.

Maybe that Russian official said to Musk: Turn off your satellites over our naval base or we will start shooting down your satellites. In technical terms that is not an idle threat. You might say, well, war’s hell, Elon. But he might reply, was the U.S. government prepared to reimburse me for the satellites and disrupted service contract fees that I incurred not for any sane business reason but to advance U.S. national security interests?

That’s a good question and I’m not sure I know what the answer is. In fact, I suspect there is no answer. The whole situation is one that mixes and matches private sector and national security in very scrambled ways. And Musk who is someone who pushes every envelope and is more than happy to use his money, domestic celebrity and control of a critical communications hub to wreak havoc with any U.S. government that calls him to account. Let’s not forget that it was just after these events that Musk suddenly started advocating his personal ‘peace plan’ on Twitter — which surprisingly seem to match all of Russia’s demands.

Let me be clear that I don’t think that last scenario is what happened. But we don’t know that it didn’t. My point in discussing that possibility is to illustrate the fact that it’s not just that Elon Musk sucks, which he does. The whole situation sucks. You simply can’t have critical national security infrastructure in the hands of a Twitter troll who’s a soft touch for whichever foreign autocrat blows some smoke up his behind. But that’s what we have here.

As I said above, we’ve known or suspected for a long time that stuff like this had happened. Musk revealed at the time that he’d been talking with Russian officials. Indeed, at one point he said he had spoken to Putin himself on more than one occasion during this period. But we shouldn’t take anything he says at face value. The U.S. hasn’t wanted to get into this publicly because they don’t want a public spat with Musk. (This is the subject of Ronan Farrow’s recent piece in The New Yorker.) This applies even more to Ukraine which still relies on as much Starlink access as it can get. In response to these latest revelations the Ukrainians’ gloves seem to have come off. One of President Zelensky’s top advisors went off on Musk on Twitter last night essentially arguing that Musk personally has blood on his hand for all the subsequent attacks launched from those ships and facilities into Ukraine.

We need to learn more details about just what happened here. A congressional investigation wouldn’t be a bad idea. But we know enough to see that a guy in charge of a lot of critical technology the U.S. relies on is happy to cut deals with the other team.

[follow-up-news]

Russian drones pounded grain storage facilities and ports along the Danube River that Ukraine has increasingly relied on as an alternative transport route to Europe, after Moscow broke off a key wartime shipping agreement using the Black Sea. At the same time, a loaded container ship stranded at the Black Sea port of Odesa since Russia’s full-scale invasion more than 17 months ago set sail along a temporary corridor established by Ukraine for merchant shipping. Ukraine’s economy, crunched by the war, is heavily dependent on farming. Its agricultural exports, like those of Russia, are also crucial for world supplies of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food that developing nations rely on. A month ago, the Kremlin tore up an agreement brokered last summer by the U.N. and Turkey to ensure safe Ukraine grain exports through the Black Sea. Since then, Kyiv has sought to reroute transport through the Danube and road and rail links into Europe. But transport costs that way are much higher, some European countries have balked at the consequences for local grain prices, and the Danube ports can’t handle the same volume as seaports.

[usafphantom2]

Dutch government starts delivery process of 18 F-16 fighters to Ukraine

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 12/22/2023 - 19:58 in Military, War Zones

The Netherlands today announced its decision to supply Ukraine with at least 18 F-16 fighters, in line with the commitment made during the visit of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy earlier this year to the Netherlands.

The office's decision to prepare the F-16 allows the allocation of the personnel and budget necessary to prepare the delivery. This measure follows the recent contribution of the Netherlands to the European F-16 training center in Romania, which was ceremonially inaugurated last month by Dutch and Romanian defense ministers.

Minister Ollongren emphasized that the supply of F-16 will significantly increase Ukraine's defensive capabilities against the ongoing Russian attacks. She noted the critical importance of the Netherlands' continued support for Ukraine, given the persistent Russian aggression.

In a post on the social media platform X, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said: “Today I informed President Zelenskyy about our government's decision to prepare 18 initial F-16 fighters for delivery to Ukraine. The delivery of the F-16 is one of the most important elements of the agreements made on military support for Ukraine."

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine expressed gratitude for the decision of the Dutch government. He stated on social media platform X: "I spoke to Mark Rutte to thank the Dutch government for its decision to start preparing the initial 18 F-16 jets for delivery to Ukraine."

The export of these aircraft is subject to strict control measures to ensure responsible end use. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands will evaluate the aircraft in accordance with the European Union's arms export criteria. Based on this assessment, the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation will take a decision on the granting of an export license.

Before the F-16s are delivered to Ukraine, several prerequisites must be met. These include the availability of trained Ukrainian personnel and adequate infrastructure in Ukraine. In addition, all aircraft will be subjected to thorough inspections and modifications as necessary, and some of them will require revisions.

In August, the Netherlands confirmed its intention to supply Ukraine with 18 F-16 fighters, after US approval. Although it was not officially confirmed earlier, it was known that the Dutch military had 18 surplus non-operational F-16 jets. The remaining 24 are operational, with the Dutch Air Force upgrading the fleet to the newest F-35.

Tags: Military AviationF-16 Fighting FalconUkraine Air ForceRNLAF - Royal Netherlands Air Force / Royal Dutch Air ForceWar Zones - Russia/Ukraine

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

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

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[partisan-by-default]

All ships traveling across the Black Sea to Ukrainian ports from midnight Moscow time on July 20 "will be considered as potential carriers of military cargo," and therefore regarded by Russia as on the side of Ukraine in the war.

The statement added that "a number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been temporarily declared dangerous."

The message claimed that the "corresponding information warnings about the withdrawal of safety guarantees" have been issued.

Russia pulled out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative on July 17, dealing a significant blow to global food security.  The deal, which was brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, allowed Ukraine to export grain amidst Russia's full-scale invasion.

Earlier on July 19, Ukrainian authorities reported that Russian attacks on port infrastructure in Odesa Oblast have destroyed 60,000 tons of grain.

"This is a terrorist act not against Ukraine, but against the whole world," stated Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi. "If we cannot export food, then the population of the poorest countries will be on the verge of survival."

It was the second consecutive strike against Odesa in the past two days. On July 18, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov referred to the attacks as retaliation for the explosions that damaged the Crimean Bridge on July 17.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on July 17 that Russia is using food "as a weapon in its war against Ukraine."

"For years (Ukraine) has been the breadbasket of the world," Blinken said, adding that in roughly a year that the initiative has been in effect, Ukraine has exported the equivalent of 18 billion loaves of bread.