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Voting for Russia's presidential elections was disrupted today in the border region Belgorod amid new shelling and incursions of anti-Kremlin Russian groups from Ukraine that forced 'thousands' of people to evacuate. Polling was suspended in Belgorod city after it came under artillery fire, with clips circulated by Russian news channels on the Telegram messaging app showing trucks and cars blown to pieces by the shelling. Election officials were seen wearing bulletproof gear as they monitored voting on the first day of a three-day election expected to return Putin by a landslide. Meanwhile, footage appears to show anti-Putin pro-Ukrainian partisan paramilitary...

Everything from the getgo.

A drone launched by Ukraine fell and caught fire at an oil depot in Russia’s Kursk region bordering Ukraine, the regional governor said on Sunday. “Fire brigades and emergency services are working at the scene,” the governor, Roman Starovoit, said on the Telegram messaging app, without giving further details.

An oil depot in Russia exploded in a towering inferno this morning after a drone attack thought to have been orchestrated by Ukraine. Three tanks containing thousands of tonnes of diesel fuel caught fire around 6am local time at a site in Bryansk, a Russian region that borders Ukraine to the north. The fire began after a drone dropped explosives into one of the fuel tanks, according to Russian media. Nobody was injured in the attack. Videos taken shortly after the strike showed two fuel tanks spewing smoke and flame with at least one showing signs of blast damage, with...

Rheinmetall is debuting its new KF51 Panther at Eurosatory 2022. The latest member of Rheinmetall's family of tracked vehicles (KF is short for "Kettenfahrzeug", i.e., tracked vehicle), the KF51 Panther is destined to be game changer on the battlefields of the future. The main battle tank concept sets new standards in all areas - lethality, protection, reconnaissance, networking and mobility. Rheinmetall will be unveiling the vehicle at a ceremony on Monday, 13 June 2022 at 14:00 at Stand F241-240. All weapon systems are connected to the commander's and gunner's optics and the fire control computer via the fully digitalised NGVA...

Russian President Vladimir Putin disclosed on Thursday for the first time that a secret military submarine hit by a fatal fire three days ago was nuclear-powered, prompting Russia's defense minister to assure him its reactor had been safely contained. Russian officials have faced accusations of trying to cover up the full details of the accident that killed 14 sailors as they were carrying out what the defense ministry called a survey of the sea floor near the Arctic. Moscow's slow release of information about the incident has drawn comparisons with the opaque way the Soviet Union handled the 1986 Chernobyl...

Kursk had suffered two massive explosions and sank in 354 feet of water at a twenty-degree vertical angle. An explosion had ripped through the front of the hull, tearing a terrible gash along the upper bow. Still, at least twenty-three of the 118 crew had survived the sinking, as a note penned by one of the ship’s senior officers, Lt. Capt. Dmitri Kolesnikov, indicated. The note was dated exactly two hours after the initial explosion. Rescue efforts by Russian—and later British and Norwegian—teams failed to rescue the survivors. A Russian inquiry into the accident concluded that one of the Kursk’s...

The record for the world's longest submarine has been held by the massive Soviet-era Typhoon class for nearly the last four decades. That is about to change as Russia's currently under construction arctic "research" submarine, which is a highly modified variant of the Oscar II class of nuclear-powered guided missile subs, will be lengthened from 505 feet to (roughly) an even more impressive 604 feet. The Typhoon boats, of which just one remains in limited service, have a length of 574 feet. The Oscar II class, which was made famous by the loss of the Kursk in 2000, is already...

Russia has started the multi-year program to upgrade Project 949A (Antey-class, NATO reporting name: Oscar II) nuclear-powered submarines armed with cruise missiles (SSGN), according to a source in Russian defense industry. "The upgraded Project 949A submarines will be designated as Project 949AM (M stands for upgraded, Modernizirovannaya). The number of cruise missiles is planned to be increased from 24 to 72 and 3M45 Granit (SS-N-19 Shipwreck) cruise anti-ship missiles (ASM) are to be replaced by a mix of 3M55 Onyx (SS-N-26 Strobile) ASM and 3M54 Kalibr (SS-N-27 Sizzler) ASM/land-attack missiles. The upgrade of Project 949A SSGNs does not require drastic...

Fifteen years after one of the worst disasters in Russian naval history — the sinking of the Kursk submarine in the Barents Sea in which all 118 crew members died — the number of Russians who blame the authorities for not doing enough to rescue the sailors has dropped. The tragedy occurred on Aug. 12, 2000, making it one of the first serious challenges faced by Russia's new president Vladimir Putin. While at the time and in the immediate aftermath, the president's actions were criticized, a poll published Monday by the independent pollster Levada Center showed that 40 percent of...

GOOGLE TRANSLATION: Truth about the death of "Kursk" that died in the Barents Sea underwater atomic submarine "Kursk". The latest and absolutely, in the opinion of experts, reliable. Killed 118 people. The tragedy of the submarine became the subject of many books, plays, movies and ... legends. According to the official version, there was a force majure, starring an irresistible force and, therefore, no one is to blame. It was the first major accident after the country was headed by Vladimir Putin. This is how journalist Sergei Dorenko describes the reaction head of state after the tragedy: - He called...

70 years go on July 12, 1943 on the Prokhorovka Field 56 km from Belgorod the largest tank battle of World War II took place. It was the last attempt to break through made by the Hitler troops during the Battle of Kursk. The counter attack by the Soviet tanks stopped the steel army of the Wehrmacht. 1200 tanks and other armored vehicles took part in that battle. In his order to advance in the direction of Kursk Hitler stated: «Our victory should firm up the overall conviction in the world that any resistance to the German troops is in...

Russian admiral calls for deployment of torpedoes mothballed after Kursk disaster A unique torpedo that was withdrawn from use after the Kursk submarine tragedy should be returned to the Russian Navy, a former North Fleet commander said on Thursday. The Kursk nuclear-propelled submarine sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000, following an onboard torpedo explosion, killing all 118 crewmembers. Then Navy chief Adm. Vladimir Kuroyedov banned the use of the Kit (series 65-76) 650-mm torpedoes on all Russian submarines after the incident. "These torpedoes have unique specifications and are the fastest and most powerful torpedoes in the world,"...

The Battle of Kursk on the Eastern Front during the summer of 1943 was one of the most significant engagements of WWII and by far the greatest clash of armor in all history yet little is known about it especially in the West. Despite the enormous German losses at Stalingrad the previous winter (the entire 6th Army numbering about 300,000 was lost), the German army (along with their allies consisting of mostly Italian, Romanian, and Hungarian troops) was still a formidable presence on the Russian Front. In fact, Hitler's greatest commander (and arguably the most brilliant commander of WWII), Field...

”Kursk” sail sold as scrap metal 2009-03-30 The sail (tower) of the Northern Fleet submarine “Kursk”, which sank with 118 sailors in the Barents Sea in 2000, was last week found rusting at a scrap metal ground in Murmansk. The submarine sail was brought to the scrap metal ground six years ago, TV 21 reports. It was meant to be part of a memorial over the accident that was to be raised by the church Saviour on the Water in Murmansk, but because of lack of funding, no memorial has so far been made. Neither the town authorities nor the...

K-141 Kursk was a Russian nuclear cruise missile submarine which was lost with all hands when it sank in the Barents Sea on August 12, 2000. It was named after the Russian city Kursk, around which the largest tank battle in military history, the Battle of Kursk, took place in 1943. The Kursk sailed out to sea to perform an exercise of firing dummy torpedoes at Pyotr Velikiy, a Kirov class battlecruiser. On August 12, 2000 at 11:28 local time (07:28 UTC), the missiles were fired, but an explosion occurred soon after on Kursk. The only credible report to-date is...

Russia commemorates sailors killed in Kursk submarine 12.08.2006, 11.43 VLADIVOSTOK, August 12 (Itar-Tass) -- Russia has been holding commemoration ceremonies on the occasion of the sixth anniversary since the death of the crew of the Kursk submarine that sank in the Barents Sea. Early on Saturday a commemoration service was held in the chapel of the cathedral of St. Andrew the First Called in Vladivostok. Marines laid wreaths to a memorial commemorating marines of the Pacific fleet. Commemoration services were held in submarine fleet divisions on the Maritime territory and in Kamchatka. The Russian city of Kursk has been commemorating...

No plans to commission Belgorod nuclear submarine - minister 15:29 | 20/ 07/ 2006 SEVERODVINSK, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's defense minister said Thursday the ministry would not allocate funds to finish building a nuclear submarine in the same class as the doomed Kursk submarine and hinted it could be sold. "The Defense Ministry does not need the Belgorod nuclear submarine," Sergei Ivanov said. "Therefore it will not finance its further construction." The Oscar-II class Belgorod was laid in July 1992. Its construction, frozen in 1990s, was resumed after the K-141 Kursk nuclear submarine of the same class sank...

A FORMER British military official has backed a sensational claim that the Russian nuclear submarine, the Kursk, was torpedoed by US forces in August 2000. An official inquest concluded that the disaster – in which all 118 crew drowned in the Barents Sea, 135km off the Russian coast – was caused by an accidental explosion of an onboard torpedo. But Maurice Stradling, a former torpedo engineer and a key figure in the original investigation, believes a new French documentary, The Kursk: A Submarine in Troubled Waters, should change world opinion on the sinking. "On the balance of probabilities, the Kursk...

Lord, Keep our Troops forever in Your care Give them victory over the enemy... Grant them a safe and swift return... Bless those who mourn the lost. . FReepers from the Foxhole join in prayer for all those serving their country at this time. .................................................................. .................... ........................................... U.S. Military History, Current Events and Veterans Issues Where Duty, Honor and Countryare acknowledged, affirmed and commemorated. Our Mission: The FReeper Foxhole is dedicated to Veterans of our Nation's military forces and to others who are affected in their relationships with Veterans. In the FReeper Foxhole, Veterans or their family members should...