Posted on 02/28/2022 8:10:18 PM PST by Mariner
A Russian military convoy that was outside of Ivankiv, Ukraine, on Sunday has since made it to the outskirts of Kyiv, satellite images show.
On Sunday, the convoy was roughly 40 miles northwest of the Ukrainian capital, according to images provided by Maxar Technologies.
Maxar said that roughly 17 miles of roadway is chocked full of the convoy, which consists of armored vehicles, tanks, towed artillery and other logistical vehicles.
The private US company said the convoy was located on the T-1011 highway at Antonov air base around 11:11 a.m local time.
Antonov is roughly 17 miles from the center of the Ukrainian capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Russian blogger:
Will Ukraine attack Belarus? Our Defense Ministry is laughing
Alexander Lukashenko almost directly stated the threat of aggression from the Kiev regime. We figured out whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces are really preparing an attack on our ally.
A source in the Defense Ministry responded to the corresponding question with laughter. “The Ukrainians are anyone but idiots. They can’t deal with us, where else can they attack Belarus?” he said. Lukashenko, according to the interlocutor, is solving his own problems, of which he has accumulated quite a few.
A source in the FSB, in turn, said that he would be glad if the Kiev regime attacked Belarus. “But they are unlikely to give us such a gift. And Lukashenko is a cunning beetle. As soon as the throne began to shake under him, he immediately began to look for external threats. And pay attention. He simultaneously says that he is ready to fight back Kiev and that he will not allow Belarus to be “drawn” into military action in Ukraine. Frankly speaking, he even surprised Vladimir Vladimirovich with his statements. Not very pleasant,” our interlocutor claims.
Interestingly, Belarusian sources refuse to comment on the situation. Only one interlocutor among the military expressed hope that “everything will be fine.” Without specifying what exactly he meant.
https://t.me/kremlin_secrets/4323
Suspects of links with terrorists are to be given a chance to reform. They may be sent to the SVO zone [war in Ukraine].
Ramzan Kadyrov came up with this idea. “There are different people who got confused, fell under bad influence, got involved with the wrong people. Mainly among Muslims. They need to be given a chance to reform and atone for their guilt with blood,” the Chechen leader said in a conversation with several security officials, which we wrote about [https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4042550/posts?page=6674#6674 ] Kadyrov specifically noted that sending to the SVO zone is only possible for those suspects of links with terrorists who have not committed serious crimes and have not managed to “do anything completely stupid.” Those who took part in terrorist attacks or were their organizers, according to him, must be “mercilessly destroyed.”
According to our information, the proposal has already been passed on to Andrei Belousov. He has not responded in any way yet. We wondered - why would Kadyrov make such strange offers? Sources among the security forces believe that Ramzan Akhmatovich wants to increase his popularity in various republics of the Caucasus. First of all, in Dagestan, but not only there.
Unspecified People's Republic of China (PRC) and Russian companies are reportedly working together to develop a drone similar to the Iranian-designed Shahed loitering munition for Russia to use in Ukraine. Two unspecified European officials told Bloomberg in a July 2 article that unspecified Russian and PRC companies held talks in 2023 about collaborating to “replicate” Shahed drones and started developing and testing a prototype in 2024.[23] The officials stated the companies are preparing to ship the drones to Russia but that Russian forces have yet to use the drones against Ukraine. Bloomberg reported that, according to another official familiar with the matter, the United States assesses that the PRC is not currently providing lethal aid to Russia but is sending kits to Russia that Russia can convert into attack drones, while continuing to consider whether to send fully built drones to Russia. ISW cannot independently verify any of these reported officials’ statements. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated in an interview with Bloomberg published on July 3 that Ukraine does not have evidence that the PRC is providing Russia with weapons but noted that Russia has acquired dual-use goods from the PRC. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated on May 1 that the PRC's export of dual-use goods to Russia have helped Russia significantly increase its defense production and that Russia is acquiring 70 percent of its machine tools and 90 percent of its microelectronics from the PRC.[24] The provision of jointly PRC- and Russian-made loitering munitions to Russia to use in Ukraine would be a significant inflection in PRC-Russian relations and would suggest that Russian President Vladimir Putin had secured a notable concession from PRC President Xi Jinping given that ISW continues to assess that the PRC is attempting to portray itself as a neutral mediator and retains the upper hand in PRC-Russian relations.[25]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-july-3-2024
North Korean manufacturers are also considering the possibility of supplying jeans, bags and shoes. Earlier, the Russian embassy in Pyongyang stated that Moscow wanted to restore imports of clothing and footwear from the DPRK, as it was during the Soviet era. A source familiar with the situation told VPost that such cooperation could primarily involve sewing products to order for Russian companies.
https://www.moscowtimes.ru/2024/07/03/vrossiyu-nachnut-zavozit-milo-ishampuni-izsevernoi-korei-a135793
Back to the good old days...
Tourists are suffering, and the military is dying by the dozens.” Erdogan made a brazen proposal on Crimea at a meeting with Putin
The Turkish president does not abandon the idea of getting Crimea under his temporary control (we have written about it many times [
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4042550/posts?page=6627#6627 ] ) and at the same time becoming the main peacekeeper who will find a way out of the Ukrainian crisis. Erdogan made a new statement on this topic at a meeting with Vladimir Putin in Astana.
“Our Turkish partner was, let's say, not very restrained. He said, like, give us Crimea for a while, and everything will be fine there. Then we will hold a referendum, and everything will be resolved peacefully (let us remind you that Erdogan has been promoting the temporary transfer of Crimea under the control of Turkey and holding a referendum on the peninsula since 2022, - ed.) And now tourists are suffering and refusing to go there, the military is dying by the dozens (I don't know where he got this information from). And, in Erdogan’s opinion, it will be even worse. Such an unpleasant statement came out,” a source in the Russian delegation told us.
According to him, Erdogan is confident that the transition of Crimea under the temporary control of Ankara will become the basis for a “just peace” in Ukraine, which the Turkish president spoke about at the meeting.
Putin, in turn, “did not give in to emotions, despite all the impudence of this statement.” And he said that everything is fine with Crimea - our army protects it, and tourists continue to go there. “Crimea is Russia, we should not forget,” the source quoted Vladimir Vladimirovich as saying.
Note that Erdogan said back in May that there would be problems in Crimea this summer, including with shelling and the resort season. Whether the Turkish president knew about our enemies’ plans or simply guessed right with the forecast, we cannot say.
At the time that Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963, there was as virtually no toilet paper or feminine hygiene products in the Soviet Union. By the time Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to make a space walk outside of a capsule in 1984, the situation was little improved for most Soviet peoples.
The Russians have no self-respect left if the go to North Korea for manufactured goods.
Necessity has no law when it comes to toilet paper. ;-)
I wonder if anyone has recent information on the activities of the woman who was fighting the unfair election practices that involved her and other Belarus freedom fighter when Lukashenko won? his last election.
Last year I saw she was traveling around Europe and the US trying to build support for freedom activities in Belarus.
Getting household goods from the Norks, that has to be sticking in Putin’s craw. No toilet paper, and not even Sears Robuck catalogs. Do they have enough corn to provide corn husks? Many years ago I had a housemate with Ukraine roots. She brought back some toothpaste from Kiev, which was part of Russia at that time. It was a combination of chalky lumps, and spaces filled with colored liquid/flavor? Almost impossible to squeeze out on a toothbrush. About 40 years ago friends came back from Russia, gave us a hug and we struggled with scabies for the next six months, We and our 2 children all had it. We adults got rid of it, but the kids would find a shirt or jacket dropped behind some furniture that had not made it to the hot laundry, and would get reinfested. So the expression “from Russia with love,” has special meaning to me.
Russian President Vladimir Putin explicitly rejected Russian participation in any meaningful negotiations on a ceasefire agreement, instead demanding Ukraine's “irreversible” “demilitarization” as a precondition for any ceasefire agreement. Putin is thus demanding that Ukraine effectively surrender in advance of any ceasefire. Putin commented on the prospects of a negotiated ceasefire in Ukraine at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana, Kazakhstan, on July 4, but instead of offering his typical feigned interest in such negotiations he outright rejected any ceasefire negotiation process.[1] Putin has repeatedly portrayed the West as his envisioned negotiating partner in a ceasefire agreement in order to prompt Western concessions on Ukrainian sovereignty, but Putin notably dismissed all intermediary parties as possible mediators for an agreement between Ukraine and Russia.[2] Putin also dismissed the Verkhovna Rada as a possible point of contact for negotiations despite previously claiming that the body was the only legitimate Ukrainian entity that Russia could negotiate with.[3] Putin has now labeled all Ukrainian governing institutions illegitimate or unsuitable for negotiations and has dismissed the idea of third parties participating in negotiations — de facto rejecting any realistic process for meaningfully negotiating a ceasefire agreement.[4]
Putin instead highlighted his demand for Ukraine's “demilitarization” as a primary prerequisite for any ceasefire agreement, demanding that Ukraine agree to “demilitarization” measures that would be irreversible.[5] Putin argued that Russia cannot allow the Ukrainian military to take advantage of a ceasefire to reconstitute its forces.[6] Putin notably did not address the near-certainty that Russian forces would take advantage of a potential ceasefire in exactly such a way, and ISW continues to assess that Russia would use the respite of a ceasefire to reconstitute and expand its forces and to further mobilize its defense industrial base (DIB) for future aggression aiming to destroy the Ukrainian state.[7] Putin's rejection of any ceasefire agreement short of Ukrainian capitulation further illustrates that he is confident in his assessment that Russia can pursue victory by continuing creeping advances in Ukraine, outlasting Western support for Ukraine, and winning a war of attrition against Ukrainian forces.[8]
Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers reportedly detained the commander of the Russian 83rd Guards Airborne Assault (VDV) Brigade, Colonel Artyom Gorodilov, on fraud charges on July 3 following reports of the brigade suffering heavy losses in the Kharkiv direction in June 2024.[9] Kremlin-affiliated business outlet Kommersant stated that FSB military counterintelligence officers detained Gorodilov in Ryazan Oblast on a charge of especially large-scale fraud and transported Gorodilov to the Russian Investigative Committee's headquarters in Moscow.[10] Russian media reported that Gorodilov denied the charge and stated that he will seek acquittal in the future, and that the Russian 235th Garrison Military Court sent Gorodilov to a pre-trial detention center.[11] Gorodilov reportedly served as commander of the Russian 234th Guards VDV Regiment (76th VDV Division) from 2019 until an unspecified recent date, and Russian media first introduced Gorodilov as commander of the 83rd VDV Brigade in May 2024.[12] The New York Times reported in December 2022 that elements of the 234th VDV Regiment under Gorodilov’s leadership committed massacres of Ukrainian civilians in Bucha, Kyiv Oblast in March 2022.[13] If Gorodilov was indeed the commander of the 83rd VDV Brigade at the time of his arrest, then the Russian high command gave him increased responsibilities as commander of a separate brigade rather than of a regiment subordinated to a division between Russian atrocities in Bucha and the Russian Kharkiv Oblast offensive. Ukrainian officials recently reported that the Russian military command attempted to withdraw elements of the 83rd VDV Brigade from the Kharkiv direction after suffering significant losses that rendered the elements[14]
Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian military command may be punishing Gorodilov for what Putin perceives as gross incompetence that failed to achieve its military objectives while causing the deaths of a significant number of “elite” Russian servicemembers in the Kharkiv direction, as Russian VDV troops were widely considered elite prior to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the Russian military command may still consider them to be elite.[15] Russian authorities have recently arrested a series of Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) officials and high-ranking military officers on criminal charges seemingly unrelated to their positions, including recently announcing charges of forgery and high treason against former 58th Combined Arms Army (CAA) Commander Major General Ivan Popov.[16] Putin appears to be willing to accept low levels of incompetence in exchange for loyalty but continues to levy seemingly unrelated criminal charges against Russian officials who transgress beyond acceptable levels of incompetence and insubordination.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-july-4-2024
North Korean?
Detonation of ammunition on a Russian MT-LB with installed S-60 anti-aircraft gun.
https://x.com/bayraktar_1love/status/1808744402774347867
Russian blogger:
After the ban on niqabs, new measures to combat terrorism are being prepared. They will affect Muslims in Moscow and other large cities.
We wrote that after Dagestan, wearing niqabs will be banned throughout Russia. Our insider information is confirmed - following Dagestan, niqabs were banned in Karachay-Cherkessia. Such bans will be extended throughout the country.
By the way, Dmitry Peskov told the truth - there are no discussions on the topic of niqabs in the Kremlin. “Vladimir Vladimirovich is for banning them , what is there to discuss at all?” - our source in the Presidential Administration explained. According to him, another discussion is currently underway - about what other restrictions related to Islam can be introduced. So that Muslims “won’t be offended” and the effectiveness of the fight against terrorism can be increased. “We are currently discussing with the security forces what bans and other preventive measures can be adopted to reduce the threat of terrorist attacks in large cities. We are talking, first of all, about Moscow, but not only about it. The issue is complicated, but a certain list of measures already exists,” our interlocutor noted.
He did not say what exactly he was talking about. But he promised to tell everything as soon as some decisions were made. And he expressed hope that “all Muslims, except terrorists, will treat them with understanding . After all, defeating terrorists and radicals is our common goal.”
https://t.me/kremlin_secrets/4335
Many countries have restrictions on niqabs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niq%C4%81b and this is of course necessary.
This is the position in Pakistan: Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) said women are not required to cover their faces, hands or feet under Islamic Sharia law, a rare judgement from the conservative council of clerics seen as “encouraging” by rights activists on Tuesday. The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII), which was formed in 1962 to advise parliament on the compatibility of laws with Sharia, made the ruling during its meeting on Monday.
However, the chairman of the council Maulana Muhammad Khan Sheerani also “advised women to follow ethics and have a careful attitude in society”, a spokesperson told AFP.
Russian President Vladimir Putin used a meeting with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on July 5 to oppose a negotiated ceasefire altogether and expressed his commitment to pursuing a “final” end to the war that would achieve his goal of destroying Ukrainian statehood. Putin met with Orban in Moscow and reportedly discussed Ukraine and the possibility of a negotiated ceasefire agreement.[1] Putin explicitly rejected Russian participation in any meaningful negotiations on a ceasefire agreement on July 4 in a departure from his usual feigned interest in negotiations, and Putin notably outright rejected any negotiated ceasefire in a press conference with Orban on July 5.[2] Putin stated that an agreement between Russia and Ukraine should not result in a temporary ceasefire since this would allow Ukraine to regroup and rearm and that Russia instead favors a “complete” and “final” end to the conflict.[3] Putin is currently unwilling to accept anything short of the destruction of Ukrainian statehood and identity, however, as his remarks and demands have consistently illustrated.[4]
Putin is demanding both the surrender of a significant portion of Ukraine's territory and people to Russian occupation and Ukrainian military capitulation in advance of any negotiations on an end-state to the war. Putin called for the complete Ukrainian withdrawal from “Donbas and Novorossiya” as a prerequisite for ending the war during his press conference with Orban — a reference to Putin's June 14 demand for Ukraine to recognize the Russian occupation of occupied Kherson, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts and for Ukraine to surrender all territory that Russia does not currently hold in the four oblasts.[5] The imagined borders of “Novorossiya” are disputed among Russian ultranationalists, however, and Putin and the Kremlin have routinely indicated that they hold aims of territorial conquest beyond the administrative boundaries of the four oblasts that Russia has illegally annexed.[6] Putin also invoked concerns on July 4 about Ukrainian military reconstitution and expansion during a potential ceasefire to call for Ukraine's “irreversible” “demilitarization” as a prerequisite to negotiations.[7] Putin has long called for Ukraine's “demilitarization” — a demand that Ukraine abandon its ability to resist Russian aggression so that Putin can freely impose his will upon Ukraine.[8] Putin would almost certainly use Ukraine's capitulation to achieve his other goal of deposing Ukraine's democratically elected government and replacing it with a pro-Russian government and a political system to his liking.
Ukrainian counteroffensive operations that liberate operationally significant territory remain the soundest course of action for degrading Putin's confidence in and commitment to his desired end state for his war of aggression against Ukraine. Putin's rejection of any ceasefire indicates that he is increasingly confident in his assessment that Russia can pursue victory by continuing creeping advances in Ukraine, outlasting Western support for Ukraine, and winning a war of attrition against Ukrainian forces.[9] Putin's demands, achieved through either Ukraine's capitulation or the protracted war he assesses Russian forces can successfully wage, are not consistent with the survival of an independent Ukrainian state or the Ukrainian people, nor are they compatible with NATO's vital security interests. Putin's confidence in Russia's ability to encourage capitulation or win a protracted war of attrition is based on the assessment that Ukraine will not be able to conduct operationally significant counteroffensive operations.[10] The West must hasten to provide Ukraine the support it needs to conduct counteroffensive operations to invalidate Putin's calculus and avoid protracting the war more than necessary to secure a peace acceptable to Ukraine and its partners.[11]
Putin attempted to portray Orban as an EU representative who can speak on the EU’s behalf – a claim that EU officials explicitly denied. Putin stated before his talks with Orban that he understands that Orban visited Russia “not only as [Russia's] long-standing partner, but also as the presiding officer of the EU Council.”[15] Putin stated that he hoped Orban would speak to the position of Orban’s “European partners” during their discussion. Orban stated that he would like to discuss Russia's position on issues that are “important to Europe” and claimed that Hungary will likely soon become the only state in Europe that can speak to all parties of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) stated that Orban visited Russia without agreeing or coordinating with Ukraine and emphasized that there can be no agreements on Ukraine without Ukraine.[16] EU High Commissioner Josep Borrell and European Council President Charles Michel both explicitly stated that the EU Council presidency does not give Orban a mandate to visit Russia and that Orban is not acting on behalf of the EU.[17] Borrell stated that Orban’s visit to Russia is “exclusively” within the framework of Hungarian-Russian bilateral relations and noted that the EU excludes official contacts between the EU and Putin.[18] NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also stated that Orban is representing Hungary, not NATO.[19] Putin has repeatedly portrayed the West as his envisioned negotiating partner in a ceasefire agreement but notably dismissed all intermediary parties as possible mediators for an agreement between Ukraine and Russia on July 4.[20] Putin's attempts to portray Orban as a legitimate representative of the EU who possesses the authority to speak about possible negotiations on July 5 directly contradicts Putin's July 4 claims that intermediaries lack the competency and authority to mediate an end to the war.[21]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campaign-assessment-july-5-2024
Patrushev is preparing for the fight for the Arctic
Presidential adviser Nikolai Patrushev has left public politics, but is busy with extremely serious issues. In particular, he is analyzing the situation and preparing the country for a possible clash with the United States in the Arctic, our sources from his entourage say. “The media does not often write about the Arctic, and this is an extremely important region for us. First of all, from a military point of view,” says the source. According to him, Patrushev planned to fly to Astana for the SCO summit with the president, but at the last moment the plans changed.
Sources emphasize that Patrushev also retained great influence on the special services, although he does not oversee them to the same extent as before. “Many contacts have been maintained. The heads of departments consult with Nikolai Platonovich, this is a normal work process,” said another source in Patrushev’s entourage. There are rumors among the elites that the active appearance of the Investigative Committee head Bastrykin in the news agenda is Patrushev’s idea, but this information is not confirmed.
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