Posted on 02/24/2024 5:59:01 AM PST by SpeedyInTexas
A watermelon !?!
Just the other day I learned that a t-shirt depicting a slice of watermelon showed solidarity with Palestine ,according to the Hollywood scoldstress that Ben A. and Jen G. produced.
🍈 does what 🍈 does😂
Unleash the tomahawks
The distance between Kiev and Moscow is only slightly more than the distance between Boston and Washington, DC. The distance between Chicago and DC is over 600 miles. Just to get a feel for the space involved.
Ukraine now has President Trump’s approval to use HIMARS against targets inside Russia. Belgorod strike was HIMARS.
From Jacqui Heinrich:
President Trump has authorized long-range strikes into Russia, Special Envoy to Ukraine General Keith Kellogg says — but occasionally Ukraine has not been granted authority by the Pentagon to carry them out.
KELLOGG: “Everybody should follow what the President says. He’s the Commander in Chief, by the Constitution, and everybody falls in line. When the President doesn’t go left, you go left. If he says you go right, you right. That’s the President. The last lot checked, none of us got electoral college votes, he did. So when the president said to do something, we just need to do that and complete the action.”
HEINRICH: “Are you saying, though, that it is the President’s position that Ukraine can conduct long-range strikes into Russia, that that has been authorized by the President?”
KELLOGG: “I think reading what he has said, and reading what Vice President Vance has said as well as Secretary Rubio, the answer is yes. Use the ability to hit deep. There are no such things as sanctuaries.”
Gasoline shortages continue in Russia and occupied Ukraine due to repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries. Sources in the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) told Ukrainian outlet Suspilne on September 27 that the SBU conducted a long-range drone strike against the Tyngovatovo Oil Pumping Station in Konar, Chuvash Republic, approximately 1,000 kilometers from the international border.[1] The SBU sources stated that a drone struck the pumping station and caused a fire, suspending oil transportation through the facility. Chuvash Republic Head Oleg Nikolaev said on September 27 that Ukrainian forces attempted a drone strike against an oil pumping station near Konar and admitted that there is minor damage to the facility and that the facility suspended operations.[2] On September 26, Lipetsk Oblast Governor Igor Artamonov called on Lipetsk Oblast residents to remain calm despite reports of fuel shortages in the oblast and claimed that the shortages are due to logistical difficulties in loading fuel from some refineries.[3] Russian opposition outlet Astra reported that Lipetsk Oblast residents are complaining about high prices for AI-95 gasoline and that prices reached approximately $3.70 a gallon.[4] The Russian government has historically used subsidies to artificially depress and stabilize domestic gas prices, although recent Ukrainian drone strikes appear to be complicating this policy.[5] The average cost of gasoline in Russia was approximately $2.15 per gallon in September 2023 and $2.40 per gallon in September 2024, and prices have largely stayed below $3.00 a gallon since February 2023.[6] Astra reported that gas stations are starting to sell fuel with fuel cards and that some stations in Moscow, Leningrad, Ryazan, and several Far Eastern oblasts are limiting fuel purchases to 10- to 20-liter increments or are only selling diesel. A Kremlin-affiliated milblogger claimed on September 27 that the Ukrainian strikes against the Russian oil industry are having limited though painful consequences and that fuel shortages are particularly severe in the Far East, frontline areas of Belgorod Oblast, and occupied Crimea, which is entirely reliant on external oil supplies.[7] The milblogger claimed that gas prices are increasing significantly in Nizhny Novgorod, Rostov, Lipetsk, and Tula oblasts and Krasnodar and Stavropol krais.
Ukraine's Western partners continue to provide military aid to Ukraine, including through the purchase of US weapons. The Estonian Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced on September 27 that Estonia will contribute 10 million euros (roughly $11.7 million) to Ukraine through NATO's Prioritized Ukrainian Requirements List (PURL) initiative, which funds NATO purchases of US-made weapons for Ukraine.[8] Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on September 27 that Israel supplied Ukraine with a Patriot system in August 2025 and that Ukraine will receive two Patriot air defense systems in Fall 2025.[9]
Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova absurdly blamed Ukraine on September 26 for the September 9 to 10 Russian drone incursion in Poland and the September 13 Russian drone incursion in Romania. Zakharova continued to deny Russian involvement in the drone incursions over Poland and Romania and claimed that Ukraine was responsible and orchestrated the incursions in order to frame Russia and provoke a war between NATO and Russia.[10] Zakharova claimed that a third world war will break out imminently if someone confirms Ukraine's alleged involvement in false flag operations in Romania and Poland.[11] Polish and Romanian authorities previously identified the drones that violated their airspaces as Russian.[12]
European officials continue to report unidentified drones operating within NATO airspace. The Danish Ministry of Defense (MoD) reported on September 27 that Danish Defense Command observed drones near multiple Danish military facilities, including Skrydstrup Air Base and the barracks of the Jutland Dragoon Regiment in Holstebro.[13] The Vilnius Public Security Service reported on September 26 that three unidentified drones disrupted flights at the Vilnius Airport twice on the afternoon of September 26.[14] Finnish outlet Yle reported on September 27 that an unknown entity piloted a drone over the Valajaskoski Power Plant in Rovaniemi, Lapland, in northern Finland.[15]
US Vice President JD Vance criticized Russia's rejection of American invitations to engage in bilateral or trilateral negotiations as Kremlin officials continue to demonstrate their lack of interest in good-faith negotiations with Ukraine. Vance stated on September 28 that Russia has “refused to sit down” in any bilateral meeting with Ukraine or a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and the United States over the last few weeks — in direct opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin's reported agreement with US President Donald Trump on August 18 to hold a bilateral meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.[1] Vance stated that Russia's economy is “in shambles,” that Russia is making “little, if any,” gains on the battlefield, and that it is time for Russia to “actually talk seriously about peace.” Vance stated that the “reality on the ground” has changed, with Russia killing and losing a lot of people without “much to show for it.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated on September 28 that Russia is open to starting negotiations to address the “root causes” of the war — which Kremlin officials have repeatedly claimed are NATO's eastward expansion and Ukraine's alleged discrimination against Russian speakers, among other things.[2] Kremlin officials, including Lavrov, have consistently used “root causes” as shorthand to reiterate Russia's original war demands, which Kremlin officials have continuously asserted Russia will achieve either militarily or diplomatically.[3] ISW continues to assess that Russia remains unwilling to engage in good faith negotiations and is instead repeatedly demanding that Ukraine capitulate and acquiesce to Russia's maximalist demands.[4]
Russian forces conducted the third largest combined missile and drone strike against Ukraine of the war to date on the night of September 27 to 28 with 643 total projectiles. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces launched two Kh-47M2 Kinzhal aeroballistic missiles from the airspace over Lipetsk Oblast; 38 Kh-101 cruise missiles from the airspace over Saratov Oblast; two drone-launched Banderol missiles from Kursk Oblast; and eight Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea.[5] The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Russian forces also launched 593 Shahed-type, Gerbera-type, and other drones from the directions of Kursk, Bryansk, and Oryol cities; Millerovo, Rostov Oblast; Shatalovo, Smolensk Oblast; Primorsko-Akhtarsk, Krasnodar Krai; and occupied Cape Chauda and Kacha, Crimea. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that Ukrainian air defenses downed a total of 611 projectiles, including 566 drones; two drone-launched Banderol missiles; 35 Kh-101 cruise missiles; and eight Kalibr cruise missiles. The Ukrainian Air Force reported that five missiles and 31 drones struck 16 locations throughout Ukraine and that drone debris fell on 25 locations. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reported that the Russian drones and missiles primarily struck civilian infrastructure in Kyiv City and Oblast and Zaporizhia, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Chernihiv, and Odesa oblasts and that the strikes lasted over 12 hours.[6] Zelensky reported that Russian strikes on Kyiv City killed four civilians and injured at least 40, including children. Kyiv Oblast Military Administration Head Mykola Kalashnyk reported that Russian strikes on Kyiv City left over 2,500 civilians without gas and roughly 580 civilians without electricity.[7] Zaporizhia Oblast Military Administration Head Ivan Fedorov reported that Russian forces struck Zaporizhzhia City with at least eight missiles, injuring 42 civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure.[8] Konotop City Mayor Artem Semenikhin reported that Russian forces appear to be adapting their drone strike tactics by circling Shahed-type drones over neighborhoods up to 12 times instead of striking immediately in order to terrify residents.[9] Poland's Armed Forces Operational Command scrambled two fighter jets and put air defense on high alert on September 27 in response to Russia's overnight strikes against Ukraine but did not report any violations of Polish airspace.[10] ISW continues to assess that Russian strikes are increasingly and disproportionately impacting civilian areas in Russia's significantly larger-scale strike packages of recent months and that such strikes underscore Ukraine's need for continued supply of Western air defense systems, especially US-provided Patriot systems.[11]
European officials continue to report unidentified drones operating within NATO airspace. The Danish Defense Command reported on September 28 that the Danish Armed Forces observed drones near multiple military facilities on the night of September 27 to 28.[12] A Norwegian police official reported on September 27 that the Norwegian Armed Forces and police officers observed unidentified drones near Norway's Ørland Air Base, which houses F-35 fighter jets, on the morning of September 26 for a period of two and a half hours.[13]
Kremlin-linked Moldovan politicians called for protests in Moldova following the September 28 parliamentary election. Voting has not yet closed in the parliamentary elections as of this writing, and ISW will continue to monitor the results as they become available. Igor Dodon, a Kremlin-linked former Moldovan president, falsely claimed on September 28 that current Moldovan President Maia Sandu spoke about the possibility of annulling the elections — a false claim that Russian state media and milbloggers widely amplified.[14] Dodon called on Moldovans to conduct peaceful protests outside of the parliament building in Chisinau on the afternoon of September 29 in order to prevent Moldovan authorities from annulling their votes. A journalist with Moldovan outlet IPN reported that unspecified sources stated that the Patriotic bloc was calling for people to protest at 22:00 local time in Chisinau and were trying to bring people to the protest from Transnistria (the pro-Russian parastate in eastern Moldova).[15] The Patriotic bloc has already organized some protests near the Moldovan Central Election Commission (CEC) in Chisinau as of this writing, but the protests appear to be limited, with available footage only showing a few dozen demonstrators so far.[16] The Moldovan Police reported on September 28 that they detained three people who were members of the Transnistrian security forces and were coordinating, monitoring, and providing logistical support to groups preparing to provoke mass unrest in Moldova.[17] The police reported that they found unspecified incendiary devices and flammable materials during the arrest. The Serbian Ministry of the Interior stated on September 26 that police arrested two people whom Serbian authorities accused of organizing and financing “combat-tactical training” for protestors before the Moldovan elections.[18] The Serbian police reported that the trainings occurred between July 16 and September 12 near Loznica, Serbia and that 150 to 170 Moldovan and Romanian nationals participated. ISW continues to assess that the Kremlin has been setting conditions to generate (possibly violent) protests to remove Sandu from power after the elections, including by spreading narratives about the possible annulment of the results.[19]
The parliamentary elections faced large-scale cyberattacks and bomb threats that aimed to disrupt the voting process. Moldovan Prime Minister Dorin Recean reported that a large-scale cyberattack targeted election-related infrastructure, including the website of the Moldovan CEC and polling stations abroad, on September 27 and 28.[20] Recean stated that the cyberattacks caused about 4,000 websites to go down and that one distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack came from several countries simultaneously. The Moldovan Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) reported bomb alerts at polling stations in Belgium, Italy, Romania, the United States, and Spain.[21] Neither Recean nor the Moldovan MFA commented on the suspected actor behind the cyberattacks and bomb threats, however.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov emphasized that Russia will use its upcoming United Nations Security Council (UNSC) presidency to “review” the 1995 Dayton Accords in a likely effort to destabilize the Balkans and divide and distract Europe. Lavrov claimed on September 28 that Russia's UNSC presidency, set for the month of October 2025, will “review the implementation of the Dayton Accords” (which ended the 1992–1995 Bosnian War), claiming that the accords will likely “collapse” as they infringe on “the rights of the Serbian people.”[22] Lavrov further claimed that there are “flagrant violations of the Dayton Accords” and that the West's recognition of Kosovo’s independence became an attack on Serbia's statehood.[23] Lavrov accused the West of attempting to disintegrate Bosnia and Herzegovina's statehood and claimed that there is an attack on “the vital interests of the Serbian people,” including an attack on Serbian Orthodoxy, in both Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Kremlin maintains close relations with the Republika Srpska (the Serbian political entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina) and has previously leveraged its relationship with Republika Srpska to further influence the Balkans, sow divisions in Europe, and undermine the US-backed Dayton Accords to throw the Balkans into turmoil.[24]
“Children in schools do not understand that they will need to fight. And they should.” One of the ministers faces resignation
Colleagues write that the Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov faces resignation. We reported this back in July, but now, according to sources in the government and the Kremlin, such a personnel decision has become closer.
You can read about the main claims against Kravtsov here [ https://octagon.media/istorii/ministr_prosveshheniya_stanovitsya_vse_bolee_toksichnym.html], in general, the channel's interlocutors confirm them. But there are other reasons to change the head of the Ministry of Education. “The level of education in our schools is declining. But this is half the trouble. With all the efforts of Kravtsov, the level of patriotic education is insufficient. And this is not very correct in our time,” a source in the Kremlin diplomatically said.
The problem was explained more frankly by philosopher Alexandr Dugin. “Children in schools do not understand that they will need to fight in the near future, that they need to prepare for this, because Russia has almost two decades of war ahead of it. And children should understand this! We need a minister under whom this will be explained to schoolchildren. And they will teach us everything you need,” Alexandr Gelevich told us. He claims that he conveyed the opinion of many representatives of the highest echelons of power. We should note that all the interlocutors of the channel are sure: Kravtsov's resignation will take place. But they cannot name the date yet.
The Kremlin recognized the threat of a strike on the center of Moscow. Sobyanin’s entourage is alarmed
Dmitry Peskov, answering the question about what will happen if the enemy tries to attack the Kremlin, noted that “it is better not even to talk about it.” At first glance, this is an optimistic statement. But the Moscow authorities do not think so. “Dmitry Sergeyevich frightened everyone very much with words about a possible attack on the Kremlin, in general, by the fact that he spoke about it. It turns out that we admit that a blow may be struck at the very center of Moscow. Of course, we will respond to it, but I am more concerned that there is a threat of such a strike. And that this is recognized publicly, at the highest level. Very alarming,” said our source close to Sergei Sobyanin.
He was additionally concerned about the fact that there are now attempts to distribute air defense between the capital, the Moscow region and refineries that are attacked by the enemy (we wrote about this problem and that the Moscow authorities suspect that the air defense of the capital may be weakened due to the need to protect strategically important enterprises). “I hope everyone understands that in the conditions of such a war as now, the main thing is the protection of the capital,” the channel's interlocutor added.
Another source in Sobyanin’s entourage reassures: serious shelling of Moscow is possible, but it is unlikely that the city center is under threat. “Enemies, as far as I know, are interested in energy, military facilities, various enterprises. We believe that the army will protect the capital. But there is no need to disperse the panic around missiles in the center of Moscow,” he stressed.
https://t.me/kremlin_secrets/6232
Sergey Semyonovich Sobyanin (Russian: Серге́й Семёнович Собя́нин is a Russian politician, serving as the 3rd mayor of Moscow since 21 October 2010.
They want to allow only Orthodox veterans of the special military operation to fight migrants
We wrote: they want to involve veterans of the special military operation in the fight against illegal migrants. This initiative has already been approved by Vladimir Putin. The Church decided to take part in the process. “We believe that the fight against migrants alien to our culture is an extremely responsible matter. Therefore, only veterans of the Orthodox faith can resist them. With all due respect, a Muslim will not be able to adequately resist fellow believers, punish them for crimes, detain them, use weapons, if necessary,” said a source in the Russian Orthodox Church close to Patriarch Kirill. He also said that the request to allow only Orthodox participants in the special military operation to fight illegal migrants is already under consideration in the Kremlin and the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At the same time, sources in the Presidential Administration told us that if the veterans of the special military operation successfully fight illegal immigrants, they may be involved in other tasks in the future. In particular, to fight illegal protests or to detain extremists of various kinds.
https://t.me/kremlin_secrets/6233
24FEB2022 Putin's Attack on Ukraine Is a Religious War
Russia's aggression against its neighbor isn't just power politics and geostrategy, it's about core issues of faith and identity
https://topsecretumbra.substack.com/p/putins-attack-on-ukraine-is-a-religious
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