War Archive 2022 02/24 Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Nato to counter Russian ‘hybrid war’: Mark Rutte

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte yesterday said the alliance had agreed on “proactive measures” to counter Russia’s campaign of hybrid attacks against its members.

www.thedailystar.net

Nato to counter Russian ‘hybrid war’: Mark Rutte

Nato Secretary General Mark Rutte yesterday said the alliance had agreed on "proactive measures" to counter Russia's campaign of hybrid attacks against its members.

The West has accused Moscow of being behind a string of sabotage attacks on European soil aimed at deterring Ukraine's backers from sending support to Kyiv.

"Allies are working very hard to make sure when it comes to sabotage, cyber-attacks, energy blackmail, that we take all the measures necessary to counter that," Rutte said after talks with Nato foreign ministers.

"These include enhanced intelligence exchange, more exercises, better protection of critical infrastructure, improved cyber defence, and tougher action against Russia's shadow fleet of oil exporting ships."

Nato officials said the alliance was working on a new strategy to combat Russian and Chinese hostile actions for a summit next June in The Hague.

The alleged hybrid campaign poses a problem for NATO as it exists in a grey zone often seen as beneath the level of threat that could trigger the alliance's mutual defence clause.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says ready to defend by ‘any means’

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hoped Ukraine’s allies took ‘seriously’ Moscow’s recent use of a hypersonic missile in the conflict there, and warned that Russia was ready to use ‘any means’ to defend itself.

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Russia says ready to defend by ‘any means’
Agence France-Presse . Washington 06 December, 2024, 22:33

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. | File photo

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday said he hoped Ukraine’s allies took ‘seriously’ Moscow’s recent use of a hypersonic missile in the conflict there, and warned that Russia was ready to use ‘any means’ to defend itself.

The United States and its allies ‘must understand that we would be ready to use any means not to allow them to succeed in what they call strategic defeat of Russia,’ Lavrov said in an interview with US media personality Tucker Carlson.

Two weeks ago, Russia fired its new Oreshnik hypersonic missile on the Ukrainian city of Dnipro in an escalation of the almost three-year war.

Russian president Vladimir Putin has since threatened to use the weapon on Kyiv in response to Ukraine’s strikes on Russia’s territory, which took place after the United States authorized use of its ATACMS weapon system in such attacks.

‘We are sending signals and we hope that the last one, a couple of weeks ago, the signal with the new weapons system called Oreshnik... was taken seriously,’ Lavrov said.

While he insisted that Russia does not want to escalate the situation and wants to ‘avoid any misunderstanding’ with Washington and its partners, Lavrov warned that ‘we will send additional messages if they don’t draw necessary conclusions.’

Putin said the Oreshnik missile flies at 10 times the speed of sound and cannot be intercepted by air defenses.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has called the strike ‘the latest bout of Russian madness’ and appealed for updated air-defense systems to meet the new threat.

In the wide-ranging interview, Lavrov accused the United States of attempting to bully Russia and others on the international stage.

On Ukraine, he said Moscow was ‘ready for any eventuality but we strongly prefer peaceful solution through negotiations on the basis of respecting legitimate security interests of Russia.’

Describing what such a peace deal could look like, the top Russian diplomat said, among other demands, Kyiv would have to accept Russia’s claim of control over the regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia.

‘They are now part of the Russian Federation according to the constitution and this is a reality,’ he said.

He accused US president Joe Biden’s administration of escalating the conflict in Ukraine ‘to leave a legacy to the Trump administration as bad as they can.’

Lavrov described US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office in January and has vowed to swiftly end the war without explaining how he would do so, as a ‘strong person.’

‘I think he’s a very strong person, a person who wants results, who doesn’t like procrastination on anything,’ he said.

He described Israel’s punishing military offensive in Gaza as inflicting ‘collective punishment, which is against international humanitarian law,’ on Palestinians.

Lavrov said Moscow was ‘very much concerned’ with a recent escalation of violence in Syria, where armed rebel groups have seized swathes of territory from the government of Bashar al-Assad, a Russian regional ally.

He said he planned to hold talks on Friday with Turkish and Iranian officials on the situation in Syria.

Carlson, a former Fox News host, is a right-wing journalist who is a key ally of Trump, and earlier this year was the first US journalist to interview Putin since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The media provocateur has spent years depicting the United States as a nation in decline, under assault by Democrats, so-called ‘woke’ protesters and communism. He has increasingly promoted right-wing conspiracy theories since leaving Fox.​

 

[Saif]

Russian missiles batter Ukraine’s power grid

Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities during the morning rush hour yesterday, Kyiv said, while explosions were heard in the Black Sea port of Odesa and other cities in western Ukraine.

www.thedailystar.net

Russian missiles batter Ukraine’s power grid
Kremlin praises Trump’s criticism of Ukrainian strikes deep into Russia

Ukrainian people take shelter inside an underground parking of an apartment building during a massive Russian missile attack across the country, in Lviv, Ukraine yesterday. Photo: REUTERS

Russia launched a large-scale missile attack on Ukrainian energy facilities during the morning rush hour yesterday, Kyiv said, while explosions were heard in the Black Sea port of Odesa and other cities in western Ukraine.

Russian forces have been targeting Ukraine's electricity system for most of the year and it renewed its strike campaign last month, causing lengthy power cuts for millions of civilians as the war with Russia nears the 34-month mark.

"Russia aims to deprive us of energy. Instead, we must deprive it of the means of terror. I reiterate my call for the urgent delivery of 20 NASAMS, HAWK, or IRIS-T air defense systems," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote in a post on X.

Around a half of power company Yasno's 3.5 million consumers were without power yesterday morning.

The Kremlin had warned it would respond to Kyiv's use of ATACMS missiles and then praised Trump, who said using the weapons to hit deep into Russia was a "foolish" idea.

Russian forces are just 1.5 km (1 mile) outside the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk.​

 

[Saif]

N Korean troops join Russian assaults: Kyiv

Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in Russia’s Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday evening.

www.thedailystar.net

N Korean troops join Russian assaults: Kyiv

Russia has begun using North Korean troops in significant numbers for the first time to conduct assaults on Ukrainian forces battling to hold an enclave in Russia's Kursk region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday evening.

The Ukrainian leader said the more active use of the troops was a new escalation in the war and called for a global response, as Donald Trump's return to the White House next month fuels speculation of a coming push for peace talks.

"Today, we already have preliminary data that the Russians have begun to use North Korean soldiers in their assaults. A significant number of them," Zelensky told Ukrainians in his daily wartime address.

The North Koreans were being used in combined Russian units and only on the Kursk front for now, he said, adding: "We have information suggesting their use could extend to other parts of the front line."

Kyiv first said North Korean forces turned up in Kursk region in October and later reported unspecified clashes and casualties. It estimates there are 11,000 North Koreans in total, adding to a force of tens of thousands of Russians.

Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Koreans on its side.

Ukraine, nearly a fifth of which is occupied by Moscow's troops, launched an incursion into Russia's western Kursk region in August, carving out an enclave that it said could be used as a bargaining chip in any talks to end the war.

Ukraine has battled to hold the area, although some Western military analysts have questioned the incursion's rationale, arguing it has extended an already-sprawling front line, exposing Ukraine's manpower weakness as it battles a larger foe.​

 

[Saif]

Russia captures villages in east Ukraine front

Russia on Sunday said its forces had captured villages in two key frontline areas of eastern Ukraine as they advance towards the supply hub of Pokrovsk and the industrial town of Kurakhove.

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Russia captures villages in east Ukraine front
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 15 December, 2024, 22:59

Russia on Sunday said its forces had captured villages in two key frontline areas of eastern Ukraine as they advance towards the supply hub of Pokrovsk and the industrial town of Kurakhove.

The defence ministry said in a daily briefing that troops had ‘liberated’ the village of Vesely Gai south of Kurakhove and the village of Pushkine south of Pokrovsk, both in the Donetsk region.

Russia has been grinding forward for months in the Donetsk region and its troops have recently accelerated their advance.

captured more Ukrainian territory in November than in any month since March 2022, according to AFP analysis of data from the US Institute for the Study of War.

Ukraine’s Khortytsia group of troops on Sunday reported ongoing ‘exhausting clashes’ on the outskirts of Kurakhove and in the town itself, as well as further north in the heavily battered hilltop town of Chasiv Yar.

‘The situation is complex and changing. Our troops are currently taking measures to improve the tactical situation,’ the group of troops said on Telegram.​

 

[Saif]

Putin says large number of volunteers is turning the tide of Ukraine war in Russia's favour

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the large number of men signing up for the Russian military voluntarily was turning the tide of the Ukraine war in Moscow's favour and said he hoped his army would keep advancing. Putin, who said Russian forces had pushed the Ukrainian army out of nearl

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Putin says large number of volunteers is turning the tide of Ukraine war in Russia's favour
REUTERS
Published :
Dec 16, 2024 21:50
Updated :
Dec 16, 2024 21:53

Recruits undergo combat assault training under the supervision of officers of Russia's Southern Military District in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict, at a firing range in the Rostov region, Russia October 4, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Sergey Pivovarov

President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the large number of men signing up for the Russian military voluntarily was turning the tide of the Ukraine war in Moscow's favour and said he hoped his army would keep advancing.

Putin, who said Russian forces had pushed the Ukrainian army out of nearly 200 settlements this year and held the initiative along the entire frontline, made the comments in a speech at the Defence Ministry at a time when his army is advancing at the fastest pace since 2022, according to open source maps.

"I would like to point out at once that the past year was a landmark year in achieving the goals of the special military operation (in Ukraine)," Putin told top generals.

"Russian troops have a firm grip on the strategic initiative along the entire line of contact. This year alone, 189 population centres have been liberated," he said.

He said roughly 430,000 Russians had signed army contracts this year, up from roughly 300,000 the year before, a factor he said had huge importance for Russia's war effort.

"This flow of volunteers is not ending. And thanks to this...we are seeing a turning point on the frontline," said Putin.

Andrei Belousov, Putin's defence minister, told the same audience that Russian troops had pushed Ukrainian forces out of almost 4,500 square kilometres (1,737 square miles) of territory this year and were advancing an average 30 square kilometres (11.5 square miles) per day.

Belousov also said that Russian military planning had to be ready for any scenario, including the most extreme such as a potential conflict with NATO in Europe in the next decade.

Putin in his own speech accused the West of pushing Russia to its "red lines" - situations it has publicly made clear it will not tolerate - and said Moscow had been forced to respond.

"They (Western leaders) are simply scaring their own population that we are going to attack someone there using the pretext of the mythical Russian threat," said Putin.

"The tactic is very simple: they push us to 'a red line', from which we can not retreat, we start to respond and then they immediately scare their population - in the old days it was with the Soviet threat and now it's with the Russian threat," said Putin.

He said that Russia was watching the US development and potential deployment of short and medium-range missiles with great concern and would lift its own voluntary restrictions on the deployment of such missiles if the U.S. did decide to deploy such weapons.​

 

[Saif]

Russian army’s chemical weapons chief killed

The head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division was killed on Tuesday in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv — the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on...

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Russian army’s chemical weapons chief killed
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 18 December, 2024, 00:12

The head of the Russian army’s chemical weapons division was killed on Tuesday in a brazen attack in Moscow claimed by Kyiv — the most senior military figure assassinated in Russia yet as the Kremlin’s campaign in Ukraine drags on.

Igor Kirillov was killed along with his assistant when an explosive device attached to a scooter went off outside an apartment building in southeastern Moscow, Russian and Ukrainian officials said.

The attack took place in a residential area in the capital a day after President Vladimir Putin boasted of Russian troop successes in Ukraine, nearly three years after the Kremlin sent soldiers into its pro-Western neighbour.

Kirillov, 54, was the head of the Russian army’s chemical, biological and radiological weapons unit and in October was sanctioned by Britain over the alleged use of chemical weapons in Ukraine.

A source in Ukraine’s SBU security service said it was behind the early morning explosion in what it called a ‘special operation’, calling Kirillov a ‘war criminal.’

Russia’s Investigative Committee said that an ‘explosive device planted in a scooter parked near the entrance of a residential building was activated on the morning of December 17 on Ryazansky Avenue in Moscow.’

The blast shattered several windows of the building and severely damaged the front door, according to an AFP reporter on the scene.

Russian authorities said they were probing the attack as ‘terrorism’.

Ukraine’s SBU alleged Kirillov was responsible for using banned chemical weapons on the battlefield.

‘Kirillov was a war criminal and an absolutely legitimate target, as he gave orders to use banned chemical weapons against the Ukrainian military,’ the SBU source said.

‘Such an inglorious end awaits all those who kill Ukrainians. Retribution for war crimes is inevitable,’ the source added.

There have been assassinations on Russian territory before, but such attacks in Moscow — where fighting in Ukraine often feels distant — are rare.

Residents AFP spoke to said they had initially assumed the loud noise they heard came from a nearby construction site.

Student Mikhail Mashkov, who lives in the building next door, said he was woken up by a ‘very loud explosion noise’, thinking ‘something fell at the construction site’, before looking outside.

Home-maker Olga Bogomolova said she thought a container had fallen at the construction site but then realised ‘it was a very strong explosion’, saw ‘broken windows’ and that it was something else.

Previous targets included nationalist writer Darya Dugina — killed in a car bomb attack outside Moscow in 2022 — and pro-conflict military correspondent Maxim Fomin — blown up in a Saint Petersburg cafe in 2023.

But Kirillov is the most senior Russian military official to be killed.

He had been in the post of head of the Russian military’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defence unit since 2017.

The unit does not oversee Russia’s nuclear weapons.

Kyiv had a day earlier charged Kirillov in absentia on allegations of committing ‘war crimes’ against Ukraine.

‘The official is responsible for the massive use of banned chemical weapons,’ Ukraine’s SBU Security Service said on Monday, alleging more than 4,800 cases of Russia using chemical munitions since February 2022.

Britain and the United States have accused Russia of using the toxic agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Chloropicrin is an oily liquid with a pungent odour known as a choking agent that was widely used during World War I as a form of tear gas.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons specifically prohibits its use.

The UK government in October slapped sanctions on Kirillov and his unit ‘for helping deploy these barbaric weapons’, charges that Moscow has denied.

Russia has said it no longer possesses a military chemical arsenal but the country faces pressure for more transparency over the alleged use of toxic weapons.

In lengthy televised briefings, Kirillov had regularly accused Kyiv and the West of running secret networks of bio-labs that were developing banned chemical agents across Ukraine — claims rejected by the West and independent fact-checking organisations.

The killing comes a day after Putin hailed 2024 as a ‘landmark year’ for its military offensive on Ukraine, saying his troops had the upper hand across the entire front line.​

 

[Saif]

Putin says Russia is ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities. Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and a

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Putin says Russia is ready to compromise with Trump on Ukraine war
REUTERS
Published :
Dec 19, 2024 20:00
Updated :
Dec 19, 2024 21:25

People watch the live broadcast of Russian President Vladimir Putin's annual televised year-end press conference and phone-in, in the course of Russia-Ukraine conflict at a cultural centre in Donetsk, Russian-controlled Ukraine, December 19, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Alexander Ermochenko

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that he was ready to compromise over Ukraine in possible talks with US President-elect Donald Trump on ending the war and had no conditions for starting talks with the Ukrainian authorities.

Trump, a self-styled master of brokering agreements and author of the 1987 book “Trump: the Art of the Deal”, has vowed to swiftly end the conflict, but has not yet given any details on how he might achieve that.

Putin, fielding questions on state TV during his annual question and answer session with Russians, told a reporter for a US news channel that he was ready to meet Trump, whom he said he had not spoken to for years.

Asked what he might be able to offer Trump, Putin dismissed an assertion that Russia was in a weak position, saying that Russia had got much stronger since he ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022.

“We have always said that we are ready for negotiations and compromises,” Putin said, after saying that Russian forces, advancing across the entire front, were moving towards achieving their primary goals in Ukraine.

“Soon, those Ukrainians who want to fight will run out, in my opinion, soon there will be no one left who wants to fight. We are ready, but the other side needs to be ready for both negotiations and compromises.”

Reuters reported last month that Putin was open to discussing a Ukraine ceasefire deal with Trump, but ruled out making any major territorial concessions and insisted Kyiv abandon its ambitions to join NATO.

Putin said on Thursday that Russia had no conditions to start talks with Ukraine and was ready to negotiate with anyone, including President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

But he said any deal could only be signed with Ukraine’s legitimate authorities, which for now the Kremlin considered to be only the Ukrainian parliament.

Zelenskiy, whose term has technically expired but who has delayed an election because of the war, would need to be re-elected for Moscow to consider him a legitimate signatory to any deal to ensure it was legally watertight, said Putin.

Any talks should take as their starting point a preliminary agreement reached between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in the early weeks of the war at talks in Istanbul, which was never implemented, he added.

Some Ukrainian politicians regard that draft deal as akin to a capitulation which would have neutered Ukraine’s military and political ambitions.

WAR

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine has left tens of thousands of dead, displaced millions and triggered the biggest crisis in relations between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Russia, which casts the conflict as a defensive special military operation designed to stop dangerous NATO expansion to the east, controls around a fifth of Ukraine and has taken several thousand square kilometres of territory this year.

Determined to incorporate four Ukrainian regions into Russia, Moscow’s forces have taken village after village in the east and are now threatening strategically important cities such as Pokrovsk, a major road and rail hub.

Putin said the fighting was complex, so it was “difficult and pointless to guess what lies ahead... (but) we are moving, as you said, towards solving our primary tasks, which we outlined at the beginning of the special military operation.”

Discussing the continued presence of Ukrainian forces in Russia’s Kursk region, Putin said Kyiv’s troops would definitely be forced out, but declined to say exactly when that would happen.

Russia, Putin said, had made proposals to Syria’s new rulers about Russia’s military bases there and most people that Moscow had spoken to on the issue favoured them staying.

Russia would need to think about whether the bases should remain or not, he added, but rumours about the death of Russian influence in the Middle East were exaggerated.

Asked about the fate of missing US reporter Austin Tice, who was kidnapped in Syria in 2012, Putin said he planned to speak to former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the new leaders of Syria about the issue. Tice’s family wrote to Putin asking for his help in finding him.

On the Russian economy, Putin said it was showing signs of overheating which was stoking worryingly high inflation.

Putin also touted what he said was the invincibility of the “Oreshnik” hypersonic missile that Russia has already test-fired at a Ukrainian military factory, saying he was ready to organise another launch at Ukraine and see if Western air defence systems could shoot it down.

“Let them determine some target for destruction, say in Kyiv, concentrate all their air defence and missile defence forces there, and we will strike there with Oreshnik and see what happens. We are ready for such an experiment, but is the other side ready?” he said.​

 

[Saif]

Russian missile barrage on Kyiv kills one, cuts heating

Russian missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at sunrise on Friday, killing at least one person and cutting heating to hundreds of residential buildings in cold temperatures.

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Russian missile barrage on Kyiv kills one, cuts heating
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 21 December, 2024, 01:30

Russian missiles targeted the Ukrainian capital Kyiv at sunrise on Friday, killing at least one person and cutting heating to hundreds of residential buildings in cold temperatures.

Moscow said it attacked Ukraine as retaliation for a strike using Western missiles on a chemical plant in Russia earlier in the week.

The strikes came as Russia’s invasion nears its three-year mark.

The air force said it downed all five Iskander missiles Russia launched at the capital, but that debris caused damage in five districts.

‘There were explosions after explosions in a row,’ said 45-year-old Ksenia, who was staying at a hotel near the site of a wreckage.

The strikes killed a 53-year-old man and wounded 11 people, most suffering from shrapnel wounds, the police said.

It also cut heating to 630 residential buildings, as well as a dozen of medical clinics and schools.

The first explosions occurred around 7:00am local time, said AFP journalists in the Ukrainian capital, where officials had warned of a ballistic missile threat.

When a 35-year-old doctor named Victoria read the warnings on social media, she ran to a shelter.

‘Even in the shelter, bricks fell on my head. It’s just horrible when people start running in from the street,’ she said.

She had come out to look at the charred cars and buildings with blown-out windows at the site of an attack.

‘Russians should burn in hell,’ she said.

Air force spokesman Yuriy Ignat said Ukraine Patriot air defence systems to shoot down the missiles.

The Ukrainian think tank Defence Express said ‘all the missiles were successfully intercepted, but in one case, the warhead failed to be destroyed and it exploded near a business centre in the city centre.’

Moscow claimed responsibility for the overnight attack on Ukraine, which came a day after Russian leader Vladimir Putin had threatened to strike Kyiv.

‘You know that such strikes on Russian territory have been carried out, and you know that the president has said that every time there will be a response,’ Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

His comment came soon after the Russian defence ministry said that ‘in response to the actions of the Kyiv regime, supported by its Western handlers, a combined strike with long-range precision weapons was launched today’.

The ministry said it had targeted an office of the SBU security service and a defence industry site and that ‘all the targets have been struck’.

Putin at a press conference on Thursday had suggested a ‘hi-tech duel’ over Kyiv to test his claims that Russia’s new hypersonic ballistic missile, dubbed Oreshnik, is impervious to air defences.

‘Let them set some target to be hit, let’s say in Kyiv,’ he said.

‘They will concentrate there all their air defences. And we will launch an Oreshnik strike there and see what happens.’

Zelensky hit back by saying: ‘People are dying and he thinks it’s ‘interesting’.. Dumbass.’

Putin’s statement was the latest in a series of threats aimed at increasing pressure on the war-torn country, which has faced nearly daily aerial attacks for almost three years.

Russian attacks also killed two people in Ukraine’s southern city of Kherson Friday.

‘Today Kherson woke up from numerous strikes of the Russian army. The occupants have created hell in the city,’ governor Oleksandr Prokudin said.

Prokudin also said shelling in Kherson left 60,000 homes without electricity in the Kherson region.

Kherson has been under daily shelling from Russian troops since Ukrainian forces liberated the city in November 2022.

Russian forces were then pushed back to the other side of the Dnipro river, putting Kherson well within reach of Russian artillery stationed on the opposite bank.

Russian troops are on the offensive again, especially in the eastern Donbas region, where they captured two small villages near the city of Pokrovsk.​

 

[Saif]

US to announce final package of new arms for Ukraine in coming days

The Biden administration will announce in the coming days its final Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package, using up the remaining funds set aside to buy new weapons for Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The package includes air defense interceptors and artillery

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

US to announce final package of new arms for Ukraine in coming days
REUTERS
Published :
Dec 20, 2024 17:39
Updated :
Dec 20, 2024 17:39

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy listens to US President Joe Biden speak at a Ukraine Compact meeting, on the sidelines of the NATO’s 75th anniversary summit in Washington, US July 11, 2024. Photo : REUTERS/Yves Herman/Files

The Biden administration will announce in the coming days its final Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative package, using up the remaining funds set aside to buy new weapons for Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

The package includes air defense interceptors and artillery munitions, according to a third source, but the exact contents are expected when the package is announced in the coming days. The package will be worth about $1.2 billion, said the sources.

Under USAI, military equipment is procured from the defense industry or partners, rather than drawn from American stocks, meaning it can take months or years to arrive on the battlefield.

The USAI package could be among the last steps the United States takes to provide direct military support to Ukraine as Kyiv braces for the return of President-elect Donald Trump, who has publicly questioned military aid and vowed to end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office on Jan. 20.

Since Russia’s invasion of its neighbor in February 2022, the United States has committed $175 billion in aid for Ukraine, including approximately $61.4 billion in security assistance.

About half of that security assistance has come through the USAI program, and the rest has gone toward pulling from existing military stocks via presidential drawdown authority.

There is $5.6 billion remaining of presidential drawdown authority.

The State Department and Pentagon declined to comment on the upcoming announcement, saying they do not discuss security assistance packages before they are officially revealed.

The USAI program has been a boon for US defense contractors, who have been able to book orders for newly manufactured weapons and establish new revenue streams.

One example is the L3Harris Technologies (LHX.N) VAMPIRE system. The Vehicle-Agnostic Modular Palletized ISR Rocket Equipment counter-drone system received its first USAI-funded order in August 2022.

L3Harris delivered its first four units within 12 months. The company has seen increased interest in the system, and has subsequently had multiple orders placed through the USAI program.

As the Biden administration prepares to unveil details of the final USAI package, questions remain about how and whether the United States will continue to assist its ally in the absence of dedicated USAI funding.

During his campaign, Trump repeatedly questioned the level of US involvement in the conflict, suggesting European allies should bear more of the financial burden. Some of his fellow Republicans - who will control both the House of Representatives and Senate starting next month - have also cooled on aid to Kyiv.

This stance - despite strong past support in the US Congress for sustained or expanded support for Ukraine - has raised concerns among Ukraine’s supporters in Washington about the future of US assistance under a Trump administration.​

 

[Saif]

Drone strikes Russian city 1,000km from Ukraine frontier

Kyiv on Saturday staged a major drone attack on the Russian city of Kazan, 1,000 kilometres from the frontier, as Moscow’s troops captured a new frontline village in eastern Ukraine.

www.newagebd.net

Drone strikes Russian city 1,000km from Ukraine frontier
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 21 December, 2024, 22:16

Ukrainian drones crashed into high-rise apartment buildings in Kazan. | AFP photo

Kyiv on Saturday staged a major drone attack on the Russian city of Kazan, 1,000 kilometres from the frontier, as Moscow’s troops captured a new frontline village in eastern Ukraine.

The drones damaged buildings in Kazan, capital of the Tartarstan republic, with a population of more than 1.3 million, but there were no victims, local officials said.

Kazan City hall said some fires had started and were being tackled by the fire brigade.

The city’s airport was temporarily closed, the Russian civilian aviation authority, Rosaviatsia, said.

Some residents were evacuated, but authorities did not give figures. They said that all major public events in Tartarstan had been cancelled as a precaution.

Videos on Russian social media networks showed drones hitting high rise buildings setting off fireballs. AFP could not immediately verify the authenticity of the images.

Ukraine, which has staged regular attacks on targets inside Russia since the start of full scale military offensive in February 22, did not immediately comment.

‘Today [Saturday] Kazan suffered a massive drone attack,’ Rustam Minnikhanov, the Tartarstan republic leader, said in a post on Telegram.

‘While before industrial enterprises were attacked, now the enemy attacks civilians in the morning,’ he added.

Minnikhanov’s press service said at least eight drones had been detected.

Russia’s defence ministry accused Ukraine of targeting ‘civilian infrastructure’ in Kazan. It said six drones had been neutralised or destroyed but did not say how many had been involved.

The ministry said the Russian army had captured a new village near the key city of Kurakhove in eastern Ukraine where Russian forces have made major advances in recent months.

Russian troops had ‘liberated’ the village of Kostiantynopolske, just eight kilometres from Kurakhove, an industrial town that is a looming Russian target, a statement said.

Russia on Friday staged strikes on the Ukraine capital, Kyiv, that left one dead and 13 wounded, according to the city’s authorities.

Another five people were killed in a Ukrainian attack on the Russian frontier region of Kursk, the local governor said.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine has 2 mln hours of drone footage to train AI for warfare: Report

Since the Ukraine-Russia war which began in 2022, Ukrainian drone operators have collected over 2 million hours of video, equivalent to 228 years of footage, to support AI-driven decision-making in combat, according to a recent report by Reuters.

www.thedailystar.net

Ukraine has 2 mln hours of drone footage to train AI for warfare: Report

The integration of AI into warfare has already reshaped battlefield dynamics, with both sides in the Ukraine-Russia war deploying AI for target identification and strategic decision-making. Image: Sharegrid / Unsplash.

Since the Ukraine-Russia war which began in 2022, Ukrainian drone operators have collected over 2 million hours of video, equivalent to 228 years of footage, to support AI-driven decision-making in combat, according to a recent report by Reuters.

Oleksandr Dmitriev, founder of OCHI, a Ukrainian non-profit digital system, revealed that his platform centralises and analyses video feeds from more than 15,000 frontline drone crews. This data is valuable in case of developing AI capable of identifying targets, optimising weapon trajectories, and learning combat tactics. Dmitriev told Reuters, "This is food for the AI. If you want to teach an AI, you give it 2 million hours (of video), it will become something supernatural."

Initially launched to provide battlefield commanders with real-time drone footage on a unified display, the OCHI system evolved to preserve video data for analysis. The platform stores approximately five to six terabytes of new footage daily, creating a detailed record of the conflict, as per the report.

Dmitriev noted that the vast dataset represents "experience turned into mathematics," enabling AI to study and refine strategies such as determining optimal angles and trajectories for weapon use.

Ukraine's foreign allies have expressed interest in the OCHI system, though Dmitriev declined to specify details. Experts believe the dataset offers a significant advantage in training AI systems to interpret complex battlefield environments, according to the report.

The integration of AI into warfare has already reshaped battlefield dynamics, with both sides in the Ukraine conflict deploying AI for target identification and strategic decision-making.​

 

[Saif]

Russia claims capture of two more east Ukraine villages

Russia said on Sunday it had captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow’s advancing army.

www.newagebd.net

Russia claims capture of two more east Ukraine villages
Agence France-Presse . Moscow 23 December, 2024, 00:37

Russia said on Sunday it had captured two more villages in east Ukraine, the latest territorial gains for Moscow’s advancing army.

The defence ministry said on Telegram that its troops had ‘liberated’ the villages of Lozova in the northeastern Kharkiv region and Krasnoye — called Sontsivka in Ukraine.

The latter is close to the resource hub of Kurakhove, which Russia has almost encircled and would be a key prize for Moscow’s attempt to capture the entire Donetsk region.

Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US president-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January.

The Republican has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.

Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.

Meanwhile, Russian president Vladimir Putin on Sunday vowed to bring more ‘destruction’ to Ukraine in retaliation for a drone attack on the central Russian city of Kazan a day earlier.

Russia accused Ukraine of a ‘massive’ drone attack that hit a luxury apartment block in the city, some 1,000 kilometres from the frontier.

Videos on Russian social media networks showed drones hitting a high-rise glass building and setting off fireballs, though there were no reported casualties as a result of the strike.

‘Whoever, and however much they try to destroy, they will face many times more destruction themselves and will regret what they are trying to do in our country,’ Putin said during a televised government meeting on Sunday.

Putin was addressing the local leader of Tatarstan, the region where Kazan is located, in a road-opening ceremony via video link.

The strike on Kazan was the latest in a series of escalating aerial attacks in the nearly three-year conflict.

Ukraine has not commented on the strike.

Putin has previously threatened to target the centre of Kyiv with a hypersonic ballistic missile in response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

And the defence ministry has called Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities over recent weeks retaliatory hits for Kyiv using Western-supplied missiles to hit Russian air bases and arms factories.​

 

[Lulldapull]

South Asian coludzz think drones on AI don't make a diff?......Achha......maybe they can then explain why Imam Putin then pumping em out like converted south Asian dalit pumps out babies?

Anyone?

If you note, this production line that Irans set up in Russia, if you make the environment dark and hollywood Al-Yahuda style with mujick and special effects is just like that scene from T-3 or T-4 where the alcoholic human with speech impairment breaks into the cybernet facility and the terminators are on an automated assy line running on AI.

Doc, Sharma.....yous seeing dis?.....just needs special lighting/ sinister effects and dis current T-3 or whatever T-4 filumm no?.......

Production of terminators.



@Vsdoc @Sharma Ji @Bagheera0084 @Krishna with Flute @Saif @Bilal9 @PakistanProud @RayKalm @Dogun18

 

[Sharma Ji]

Combat vids dikhao, of these in action taking out Ukies.

I'm kinda pro Russia here, so anything that helps em is good.

 

[Lulldapull]

Combat vids dikhao, of these in action taking out Ukies.

I'm kinda pro Russia here, so anything that helps em is good.

oh bhai its all over da nhewj no? almost daily no?

Ghareeb coludzz in disarray no? cuz western ABM defenses don't cut da mustard no?

Coludd gypsy kya bolay ga?

 

[Sharma Ji]

oh bhai its all over da nhewj no? almost daily no?

Ghareeb coludzz in disarray no? cuz western ABM defenses don't cut da mustard no?

Coludd gypsy kya bolay ga?

Not much anyone, incl the US/west, can do against a saturation attack. Expensive air and missile defence is for conventional missile attacks. Ijraeli iron done has worked admirable but even so, there were some slipping through.

Fire and forget dumb projectiles, no electronic warfare possible either.

 

[Lulldapull]

Not much anyone, incl the US/west, can do against a saturation attack. Expensive air and missile defence is for conventional missile attacks. Ijraeli iron done has worked admirable but even so, there were some slipping through.

Fire and forget dumb projectiles, no electronic warfare possible either.

Look, Ijhrael on western bhatta right?

Ijh-raheel a bhangi outfit infront of Iranndd no?

Iraanndd don't need no US to survive, Ijh-raheel can't do da same no? not even pochibbhal no?

Dalit musings can't change dis reality. Our other forum full of coluddz in similar delusions.

 

[Sharma Ji]

Look, Ijhrael on western bhatta right?

Ijh-raheel a bhangi outfit infront of Iranndd no?

Iraanndd don't need no US to survive, Ijh-raheel can't do da same no? not even pochibbhal no?

Dalit musings can't change dis reality. Our other forum full of coluddz in similar delusions.

Amriki jews totally control the printing of money, the banks, interest rates.. and basically all things money.

 

[Lulldapull]

Amriki jews totally control the printing of money, the banks, interest rates.. and basically all things money.