Category: Russia

Zelensky Ukraine victory speech: Listen for the quiet parts

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
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Zelensky Ukraine victory speech: Listen for the quiet parts

Zelensky is going to give his “victory” speech on October 16 to Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, but much of the speech will be secret. The secret part is about giving up territory to Russia.

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The Rada has just passed new legislation that allows NATO officers to command Ukrainian units. So far, the Russians have been mostly quiet, probably because they do not believe NATO will supply field commanders for Ukraine’s military. But if it happens, and that is a big if, the Russians will see it as NATO sending combat troops and react accordingly.

Some speculate that Zelensky will hint at a desire to get some sort of ceasefire and establish a buffer zone patrolled by a kind of coalition of NATO-willing. This is being billed as a Zelensky “concession” to the reality of Russia occupying Ukrainian territory.

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There also are rumors that Ukraine may try to attack Transnistria, the breakaway area of Moldova that includes a few thousand Russian troops – some of them on an agreed peace-keeping mission and others protecting a huge ammunition dump left over from the Soviet period.

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The Russians also have been attacking dry cargo ships in the port of Odessa that are unloading weapons and military supplies from Turkey.  

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Moldova also has an important election on October 20. An attack on Transnistria could backfire and topple the current pro-NATO. pro-EU Moldovan government.

Following in the footsteps of Nikita Khrushchev? FYI, “Khrushchev Lied!”😉

Related:

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Hungary accuses US of election interference

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The US has “invested heavily” in attempting to remove the current Hungarian government, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has claimed. According to the diplomat, US interference involved funding the opposition in a bid to defeat the Fidesz-Christian Democratic People’s Party (Fidesz-KDNP) alliance, led by Prime Minister Victor Orban, in the country’s 2022 election.

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Hungarian media first reported on illicit foreign funding of opposition party campaigns in late 2022. Citing an intelligence report prepared by Hungarian secret services, reports claimed that the opposition had received as much as $8 million from foreign entities. Marki-Zay later publicly admitted to receiving funding from the US-based ‘Action for Democracy’ NGO in a podcast for the Magyar Hang newspaper.

The US government has denied claims it attempted to interfere in the Hungarian electoral process. In a speech in Budapest earlier this year, US Ambassador David Pressman attempted to deflect attention from alleged meddling, insisting that Hungary has no right to “decry foreign interference” when it “advocates for electoral candidates around the world from Poland to Brazil.”

Hungary accuses US of election interference

Coincidentally, Brazil, Poland, and Hungary (scroll down to “Key Battlegrounds”) were on Action for Democracy’s agenda.

Previously:

Document updates 10-08-2024

I’ve added a new document that I started, last night. I don’t remember hearing about Action for Democracy until I started looking into Hungary’s Péter Magyar, again (I actually blogged about it in 2022). Most of what I’ve found on his connection to A4D is from conservative media in Hungary, though. 

Hungary – Action for Democracy

Orban’s Political Longevity: Hatred from EU Bigwigs Makes Him Popular at Home + Who is Orban’s CHALLENGER? A NEW Navalny.

Soros Foundation to End Most EU Operations in Radical Shift

Samantha Power & Color Revolution In Hungary

Hungarian Opposition Received Millions from the USA

Israel races to supply anti-missile shield

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Israel races to supply anti-missile shield

“Israel’s munitions issue is serious,” said Dana Stroul, a former senior US defence official with responsibility for the Middle East.

“If Iran responds to an Israel attack [with a massive air strike campaign], and Hizbollah joins in too, Israel air defences will be stretched,” she said, adding that US stockpiles were not limitless. “The US can’t continue supplying Ukraine and Israel at the same pace. We are reaching a tipping point.”

Boaz Levy, chief executive of Israel Aerospace Industries, a state-owned company which makes the Arrow interceptors used to shoot down ballistic missiles, said he was running triple shifts to keep production lines running.

“Some of our lines are working 24 hours, seven days a week. Our goal is to meet all our obligations,” Levy said, adding that the time required to produce interceptor missiles was “not a matter of days”. While Israel does not disclose the size of its stockpiles, he added: “It is no secret that we need to replenish stocks.”

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The Israeli military claimed in April that, with the help of the US and other allies, it achieved a 99 per cent interception rate against an Iranian salvo of 170 drones, 30 cruise missiles and 120 ballistic missiles.

But Israel had less success fending off a second Iranian barrage of over 180 ballistic missiles fired on October 1. Almost three dozen missiles hit Israel’s Nevatim air base, according to open source intelligence analysts, while one missile exploded 700 metres away from the headquarters of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.

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“We are not seeing Hizbollah’s full capability yet. It has only been firing at around a tenth of its estimated prewar launching capacity, a few hundred rockets a day instead of as many as 2,000,” said Assaf Orion, a former Israeli brigadier general and head of strategy at the Israel Defense Forces.

“Some of that gap is a choice by Hizbollah not to go full out, and some of it is due to degradation by the IDF. . . But Hizbollah has enough left to mount a strong operation,” Orion added. “Haifa and northern Israel are still on the receiving end of rocket and drone attacks almost every day.”

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“During the October 1 attack, there was a sense the IDF reserved some Arrow interceptors in case Iran fired its next salvo at Tel Aviv,” said Ehud Eilam, a former researcher at Israel’s Ministry of Defence. “It’s only a matter of time before Israel starts to run out of interceptors and has to prioritise how they are deployed.”

Dana Stroul wrote the article that I previously posted back on September 28th.

Previously:

Israel and Hezbollah Are Escalating Toward Catastrophe (it’s not looking good for the IOF)

U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates

Army races to widen the bottlenecks of artillery shell production

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Army races to widen the bottlenecks of artillery shell production

The U.S. Army has started diversifying its supplier base for 155mm artillery shells, moving away from the bottleneck of a single source that has endangered the flow of fresh ammo, according to a top service official.

The service is racing toward a goal of shoring up all major single sources that provide parts or materials for 155mm munitions by the end of 2025.

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The Pentagon is investing billions of dollars to increase the capacity of 155mm munition production as it races to replenish stock sent to support Ukraine’s fight against the Russian invasion, which began in early 2022, and to ensure the U.S. has what it might need should conflict erupt across multiple theaters at once. The Army planned to spend $3.1 billion in FY24 supplemental funding alone to ramp up production.

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Prior to the war in Ukraine, the U.S. could build about 14,400 of the artillery shells per month. But as Ukrainian forces burn through the ammunition for howitzers sent to the country, the U.S. recognized quickly that replenishment could not be done with the current infrastructure.

The service has set a target of producing 100,000 artillery shells per month, but Army officials have shared it has fallen slightly behind schedule. Even so, the Army is now producing 40,000 shells a month, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth said at the Defense News Conference last month, adding that the plan is to reach 55,000 shells a month by the end of the year.

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The Army had been making 155mm shells at a single plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and a privately operated facility nearby. All of the shells were transported to one place – Iowa Army Ammunition Plant – where they are packed with explosives.

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The Army is planning to design and construct a domestic TNT production facility, which will likely be at Radford, Bush has said in the past. Once a contract is awarded, the plan is to build it in 48 months. Currently, the U.S. relies entirely on TNT from allies.

The only place that made combustible cartridge cases – Armtec Defense Technologies – was in Coachella, California, well-known for its music festival, but also for being located along the San Andreas Fault with a high risk of large earthquakes. Day & Zimmerman will produce the cases at another location in Texarkana, Texas.

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“There [is] still the occasional single point, if you go down far enough, I’m not sure we can ever eliminate them entirely,” Bush said. “But we can build in more redundancy than we had before, which was, frankly, a very fragile setup where I could give you grid coordinates for like, four buildings in America, and if one of those, something happened tomorrow, we weren’t making anything … it definitely isn’t acceptable now, and we’re trying to get away from it.”

*SMH*

US-Israel Inch Toward Wider, More Dangerous War

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

by Brian Berletic

Beginning in October 2023 a renewed cycle of violence began destabilizing the Middle East. Hamas’ October 7, 2023 military operation into Israeli-held territory served as a pretext for Israel, not to dismantle Hamas itself, but to conduct an indiscriminate punitive military operation against all of Gaza.

US-Israel Inch Toward Wider, More Dangerous War (archived)

Related:

U.S. to Deploy Missile Defense System and About 100 Troops to Israel + More Updates

Israel—‘Hamas’ War

Report: Ukraine Considers Ceding Territory to End War With Russia & Revisiting the 2015 Minsk Accord

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The Ukrainian government is considering options to end the war with Russia that would involve ceding territory, Der Spiegel reported on Sunday, citing a Ukrainian official.

Report: Ukraine Considers Ceding Territory to End War With Russia

This will go as far as the Minsk agreements did.

The Minsk Accord 2015

Best Bernard Henri Levy moment:

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Meet Ukraine’s top fighting unit — at least that’s what their ad says

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Source

Ukraine’s brigades can recruit their own soldiers, and they compete with each other to craft the best advertising campaigns to sell the war.

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The creative work, Bondarenko said, is done by a team of 20 — 13 military personnel and seven civilians. Their messaging feels impossible to escape, covering more than 1,000 billboards across Ukraine, which she said are largely donated. Digital ads are funded by the profits from their YouTube channel, she said, which has nearly 1.3 million subscribers and generates more than $15,000 monthly. On Instagram, they have another 115,000 subscribers.

Soon, they hope to expand into a new area — merchandising. The brigade envisions it as a one-stop shop where people can purchase T-shirts, patches and other mementos of the war.

Meet Ukraine’s top fighting unit — at least that’s what their ad says

The 3rd Assault Brigade is the Neo-Nazi Azov Battalion rebranded. Andriy Biletsky was its founder.

Related:

Thirst Trap Nation: How E-girls Are Luring Young Boys Into Joining Army, with Alan MacLeod

“Sexualized fascism”: how the taboo nature of Nazi imagery made the alt-right more powerful

Ukraine: Gas and regional geopolitics

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Gas and regional geopolitics

“Ukraine and Slovakia will create an energy hub for Eastern Europe,” headlined Ukrainska Pravda on Monday , citing the words of Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal after his meeting with Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has recovered and returned to his post after the assassination attempt that put his life in danger. Although the Ukrainian media mainly focused on news about energy cooperation, the Slovak president did not hesitate to repeat to Shmyhal his position regarding Ukraine’s geopolitical position. As Politico stated on Monday, the Slovak president said on Sunday in an appearance in a Slovak media that “as long as I lead the government, I will direct the deputies under my control as chairman of the party [Smer] to never accept Ukraine’s accession.” According to Strana, Fico insisted on his “100%” support for Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, but not into NATO. This “no” attitude towards Ukraine’s entry into the military bloc is compounded by Fico’s intention to resume normal relations with Russia if the war ends during his term in office. However, as his meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister shows, this position is not in contradiction with cooperating with Kyiv on issues affecting both countries, including energy.

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[Anonymous] US official accuses Russia and China of blocking Asia leaders’ statement

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)
Full video

US official accuses Russia and China of blocking Asia leaders’ statement

WASHINGTON, Oct 12 (Reuters) – Russia and China blocked a proposed consensus statement for the East Asia Summit drafted by Southeast Asian countries, mainly over objections to language on the contested South China Sea, a U.S. official told Reuters on Saturday.

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The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

The U.S. has long been preparing for a drone war with China in the Taiwan Strait, should conflict arise. The head of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command even declared that the U.S. would turn the strait into an ‘unmanned hellscape.’ Yet, China’s new generation of military equipment has already surpassed the U.S. in both cost and quantity.

The U.S. Threatens a Drone War in the Taiwan Strait— Seriously?

Previously:

Countering China with Chinese UAVs backfires, US military faces drone shortage

US Wants To Create ‘Hellscape’ of Drones If China Attacks Taiwan