Posted on 04/17/2023 7:14:53 AM PDT by SpeedyInTexas
“BREAKING: US authorities charge 34 people over Chinese monitoring of dissidents in New York City”
https://twitter.com/spectatorindex/status/1648020191857750016
“U.S. law enforcement officials have arrested and charged two New York residents with conspiring to act as agents for China’s government and operating an undeclared Chinese police station in Manhattan’s Chinatown neighborhood, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York said in a statement.”
“1/ A Russian warehouse manager has been jailed for stealing and reselling over 20,000 items of military clothing from a warehouse in Chechnya. The case highlights how corruption in Russia’s military logistics system has hampered its war effort in Ukraine.
2/ The VChK-OGPU Telegram channel reports that Ivan Popov, head of the clothing depot of a military unit in Khankala, Chechnya, stole and sold 12.6 million rubles ($153,733) worth of uniforms and ammunition, as part of an organised criminal enterprise.
3/ Popov “systematically loaded the articles from the warehouse into military transport and freely took them out of the territory of the unit for their subsequent resale.” He is reported to have stolen:
4/ • 100 pairs of boots with high ankles for low temperatures
• 59 pairs of high-toe boots
• 304 sets of summer uniforms
• 53 sleeping bags
• 5111 pairs of winter socks
• 1010 pairs of black laced half-boots
• 503 pairs of warmed gloves
• 1120 pairs of pants
5/ • 5,000 casual caps
• 7,080 light olive coloured cotton shirts
• 1012 T-shirts in protective knit fabric
• 502 sets of underwear fleece underwear
• 603 sets of long underwear, light-coloured.
6/ Popov was charged for large-scale embezzlement by abuse of office and pled guilty, making a deal with investigators. He was sentenced to 1.5 years in prison on 9 March 2023. The fate of his co-conspirators is unclear, but he likely implicated them as part of the plea deal.
7/ Logistics corruption has had a direct and highly negative impact on Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine, as they have not been given the clothing they need or have had to buy it at their own expense (which has been considerable, given the level of demand due to mobilisation).
8/ In November 2022, mobilised soldiers complained that they had been given low-quality uniforms, while the uniforms they should have been given were being sold in a local military surplus store.
9/ Wartime demand has created even more incentives for logistics corruption. Every kind of items, from uniforms to body armour and even the latest Russian military radios, have ended up being sold on Avito, Russia’s equivalent of eBay. /end”
https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1647853389219352576
“The Armed Forces of Ukraine will enter Crimea by the end of spring: Budanov confirmed his forecast.”
https://twitter.com/search?q=ukraine&src=typed_query&f=top
Interesting ‘drum system’.
“Revolver 860 quadcopters of the Taiwanese company Drones Vision have appeared in Ukraine.
These combat unmanned aerial vehicles are designed to destroy the enemy’s manpower at a distance of up to 20 km.
Thanks to the drum system, this drone can carry eight 60 mm mines”
https://twitter.com/region776/status/1647915858038263808
“Lesson learned: if you want to be safe, build a bunker in a wide flat field. (OR NOT)”
https://twitter.com/KilledInUkraine/status/1648029094733312001
“Armenia, until now one of Moscow’s closest allies.”
They need a counterweight to neighboring Turkey, who famously committed genocide against Armenians. Turkey still has a significant Armenian minority.
Maybe NATO membership could protect them from Turkey, like it does with Greece.
“Lots of Russian VDV being taken prisoner on the flanks of Bakhmut over the past week.”
Probably not our fathers’ VDV anymore - just a bunch of green mobniks like everywhere else.
The Operational Plan for the counteroffensive better prepare to house and feed a lot POWs.
@visegrad24 6h
The first Polish PT-91 Twardy tanks have appeared in Ukraine.
Poland sent 30 such tanks in this batch.
Poland has around 200 PT-91s left. All of them are likely to be sent once Poland starts receiving its ordered American Abrams and South Korean K2 tanks.
While visiting the USA, Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki stated that Poland is interested in buying JASSM-XR air-to-surface missile for its F-16s and F-35s.
The missile has a range of 1800 km.
It would make it possible to strike Moscow from Polish territory.
@visegrad24 8h
The real opposition leader of Russia, Vladimir Kara-Murza, was just sentenced to 25 years in prison for publicly condemning Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.
Kara-Murza was pulled into politics by Boris Nemtsov, & unlike Navalny, isn’t a Russian imperialist
Getty @region776
8h
If necessary, the drone can be modified for 82-mm or 120-mm ammunition.
Revolver 860 unmanned aerial vehicles were bought by Poland in Taiwan, and then handed over to the Ukrainian military.
According to some data, we are talking about several hundred combat drones./2
The AGM-158D upgrade includes a missile control unit, changes to the wings, a different paint coating, an Electronic Safe and Arm Fuze, a secure GPS receiver, and program protection requirements.
Guidance is via inertial navigation with global positioning system updates.
An imaging infrared seeker provides target recognition and terminal homing.
A data link allows the missile to transmit its location and status during flight, allowing improved bomb damage assessment.
The warhead is a WDU-42/B 1,000 lb (450 kg) penetrator.
.
If the russians can't shoot down one of these:
There's no way they can shoot down one of these:
“Taiwan to Buy 400 US Anti-Ship Missiles Intended to Repel a China Invasion
Boeing contract completes a sale Congress approved in 2020
The deal is Taiwan’s first for land-launched Harpoon missile”
“Taiwan will buy as many as 400 land-launched Harpoon missiles intended to repel a potential Chinese invasion, completing a deal that Congress approved in 2020, according to a trade group’s leader and people familiar with the issue.
Taiwan has previously purchased ship-launched versions of the Harpoon, which is made by Boeing Co. Now, a contract with Boeing issued on Taiwan’s behalf by the US Naval Air Systems Command marks a first for the mobile, land-launched version, according to Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council. Three other people familiar with the deal, including an industry official, confirmed the contract is for Taiwan. “
...
“Ground-launched Harpoon missiles used for coastal defense figured prominently in a series of tabletop war games of a potential invasion of Taiwan by China conducted last year by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“Because of their mobility and ability to range the entire strait, these missiles were highly effective against Chinese invasion forces,” said analyst Mark Cancian who managed the exercises. “They also reduced the need to station US forces on the island. However, 400 is not nearly enough. The Taiwanese need many more.””
“Pentagon Culls Classified Document Distribution List After Intelligence Leak
Balance sought between need-to-know and oversharing: Singh
Officials working ‘literally around the clock’ on leak: Kirby”
“FBI Investigating Ex-Navy Noncommissioned Officer Linked to Pro-Russia Social-Media Account”
“The FBI is investigating the activities of a former U.S. Navy noncommissioned officer who oversaw a social-media account involved in the spread of intelligence documents allegedly leaked by Airman First Class Jack Teixeira, U.S. officials said Monday. The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday that the woman, Sarah Bils, administered several pro-Russian outlets while in uniform.
The scope of the investigation into Ms. Bils, a 37-year-old who left the Navy in November, couldn’t be determined.
“She is actively under federal investigation,” a U.S. official said, “but the circumstances of the content of the investigation are unclear at this time.”
Ms. Bils told the Journal on Monday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which sent agents to her home in Oak Harbor, Wash., on Sunday, is investigating death threats allegedly made against her. She said that she also discussed the leak of classified documents with the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and has stressed that she wasn’t the sole administrator of the site where leaked documents appeared.”
Petty Officer Bils’ activity as Donbass Devushka and several other aliases dates back to her active duty service. That could be a problem for her. Maybe she should look into travel to Donbass.
As with many factors the will to fight will be key to a Ukrainian successful counter attack and campaign to free Ukraine.
Numbers mean little without will to fight, the Iraqi army was large and equipped with many modern weapons, but they crumbled. Was it the superior forces arrayed against them, yes in part but the real straw was that the average Iraqi soldier did not want to die for saddam
The professional ranks have been thinned, the dedicated to the “cause” soldiers have been thinned. Many fight because their alternatives are stay put and die retreat and be killed or go forward and maybe survive for another day.
How many of these Russian conscripts and mobiks will fight especially when the officers have fled, , that is the question
“If the russians can’t shoot down one of these... There’s no way they can shoot down one of these (JASSM-XR).”
That is probably a good bet. This Polish Government is buying a mountain of any weapons that have been effective against the Russians. I wouldn’t be surprised if they wanted to buy a thousand of these missiles, and license their own factory to build more.
@visegrad24 7h
“A major fire is raging in Tyumen in Siberia tonight. The city is known as Russia’s “oil and gas Capital””
Looks like a pretty big facility fire. Reminds me of Freeport. Karma.
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