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Ukrainian special forces operatives launched simultaneous attacks on four Russian strategic bomber bases and the home port of the Russian Northern Fleet early Sunday. The attack was reportedly a year-and-a-half in the making and involved a novel means of delivery and the first use of autonomous drone swarms.This is what we know as of this writing.The targets were:Olenya Air Base in the Murmansk Region Belaya Air Base in the Irkutsk Region Ivanovo Air Base in the Ivanovo Region Dyagilevo Air Base in the Ryazan Region Severomorsk (Main Administrative Base of the Russian Northern Fleet) in the Murmansk Region

A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, a Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press on Sunday, while Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the attack took over 1 1/2-year to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41...

Ukrainian forces have wiped out dozens of Russian military aircraft, including nuclear bombers, in a massive drone attack on President Vladimir Putin’s air bases deep inside the country, Kyiv sources are claiming. The mission carried out by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) using first-person-view (FPV) drones hit 41 Russian heavy bombers at four separate airfields thousands of miles from Ukraine, a security source told the Kyiv Independent on Sunday. The drones were reportedly smuggled into the country hidden in trucks. TU-95 “Bear” nuclear bombers, TU-22 “Backfire” fast-attack strike bombers and A-50 “Mainstay” command-and-control jets were among the aircraft that were destroyed...

Russia's Ryazan oil refinery has suspended operations after an attack by Ukrainian drones late last week, two industry sources told Reuters on Monday. They said oil storage at the refinery had been set ablaze. Among damaged equipment were a railway loading rack and a hydrotreater unit used to remove impurities from refined products. "The railway loading equipment has been damaged. There have been no railways loadings, they stopped oil processing," one person said. Another source said the loadings have been suspended since Friday, also confirming that the plant has been stopped due to inability to dispatch oil products. Rosneft (ROSN.MM),...

Several explosions were reported in Russia overnight as a result of a massive drone attack, with extraordinary images showing the night sky being lit up by fierce flames. Astonishing footage circulating online shows huge blazes enveloping the Ryazan Oil Refining Company as well as the nearby Novo-Ryazan Thermal Power Plant. Regional Governor Pavel Malkov confirmed a drone attack had targeted the region in the early hours of Friday, and added that a private home in Ryazan caught fire due to an air strike. He said the fire has already been extinguished, and there are no casualties. The governor added drones...

An executive order from President Donald Trump moving federal inmates who transitioned male to female... John Ratcliffe confirmed as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency by the US Senate... A Ukrainian drone attack tonight on an oil refinery in the Russian city of Ryazan... Ukrainian drones shot down in the Moscow Region... President Donald Trump signing an executive order leading to release of classified assassination files from the 1960's... A new opioid settlement involving Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family. The 7.4-billion-dollar deal replaces a previous... A US District Judge blocking President Donald Trump's executive order on birthright citizenship... In...

UKRAINE has blitzed another major Russian oil refinery in a kamikaze drone strike, the explosions sparking a huge inferno near Moscow. Dramatic video from the scene showed flames raging from the Rosneft energy giant facility in the city of Ryazan on Wednesday. Residents of Ryazan, located 125 miles southeast of Moscow, were said to have heard the rumble of drones about 3am. Two explosions followed the sound, triggering the inferno. The attack came after another Ukrainian strike on two oil refineries in Krasnodar region -snip- Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu demanded more "means of destruction" as Western supplies...

Tularemia Outbreak in Russia –443 Cases-Origins Unknown The ProMed site carried a report this morning concerning a Tularemia outbreak in Russia –updated to 08/29/05. The ProMed heading says 334 cases have been reported, but simple arithmetic shows the number to be 443. Breakdown follows: 135 Moscow (Shatursky District) 99 Nizhny Novgorod 83 Vladimir region ( Gorohovetsky) 67 Ryazan 28 Voronezh 29 Sverdlosk region 2 Yekaterinburg 443 Total Laboratory confirmation has been obtained in 128 of the cases,so far. (This is important, because influenza can cause similar symptoms , and there has been extensive migration of infected/infectious wildfowl into much of...

Biowarfare : Another “Sverdlosk Incident” in Russia ? I’ve been looking at two recent (and ongoing) outbreaks of Tularemia in Russia: (Source: ProMed : Archives # 20050824.2503; # 20050822.2467; # 20050718.2066 ) 1. 96 people –66 from Dzerzhinsk region; 30 from Nizhniy Novogorod. 2. 56 people – all from the Ryazan area , which borders on Nizhniy Novogorod and Vladimir. What makes it notable is that Tularemia is a fairly rare disease: the Ryazan area had only 4 known cases in 2004. (No historic stats were furnished on the Nizhniy Novgoros area or Dzerzhinsk , but the number of cases...

It is impossible to evaluate events in Russia today without understanding the mysterious series of bombings in 1999 that killed 300 civilians and created the conditions for Vladimir Putin to become Russia’s dictator for life. The bombings changed the course of Russia’s post-Soviet history. They were blamed on the Chechens. In the wake of initial success, Russia launched a new invasion of Chechnya. Putin, who had just been appointed prime minister, was put in charge of the invasion and his popularity soared. Six months later, he was elected president. On July 14, 2016, I filed a request for documents on...

Archaeologists in southwest Russia have unearthed a trove of medieval silver at a site where treasure was often hidden from an invading Mongol army in the 13th century — but oddly it seems to have been buried there at least 100 years before the Mongols swept through.The trove of silver pendants, bracelets, rings, and ingots was found during excavations earlier this year near the site of Old Ryazan, the fortified capital of a Rus principate that was besieged and sacked by Mongols in 1237.The Mongol attack was particularly bloodthirsty; historical accounts report that the invaders left no one alive in...

Archaeologists find 'Russian Stonehenge' Big News Network.com Friday 28th January, 2005 (UPI) Russian archaeologists have found the site of a 4,000-year-old concentric wooden structure resembling Britain's Stonehenge, the Art Newspaper reported Friday. Evidence of the structure was found near Ryazan southeast of Moscow at the confluence of the Oka and Pronya rivers. The area long known for its archaeological treasures was settled by tribes migrating from Eurasia thousands of years ago. The report quoted Ilha Ahmedov of Moscow's State History Museum as saying a recent dig had uncovered evidence of a circular structure that would have been formed of wooden...

2004-11-12 18:08ARCHEOLOGISTS UNCOVER A RUSSIAN "STONEHENGE" MOSCOW (RIA Novosti commentator Olga Sobolevskaya)-- Russia now has a Stonehenge of its own. In the summer, a 4,000-year-old megalithic structure was uncovered at a Spasskaya Luka site, in the central Russian region of Ryazan. This structure, which, archeologists believe, was built as a sanctuary, sits on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Oka and the Pron rivers. The surrounding area has always been seen as an "archeological encyclopedia," a kaleidoscope of cultures ranging from the Upper Paleolithic to the Dark Ages. "If we look at this archeological site as represented on a...

For the last two and a half years, a specter has haunted the government of Vladimir Putin. This is the possibility of a serious examination of the strange apartment-house bombings that took place in September, 1999 in Moscow, Buinaksk, and Volgodonsk and cost 300 lives. The bombings terrorized Russia. The Russian authorities immediately accused Chechen rebels of responsibility for the attacks and this galvanized public opinion in support of a second war in Chechnya. The war, in turn, made Putin, the former head of the Federal Security Bureau (FSB), an overnight hero and the leading candidate for the Russian presidency....