Russia’s strengthening in the Black Sea after the annexation of Crimea left NATO no chance of a quick and convincing victory in the event of a hypothetical military conflict. This opinion was expressed by columnist Mark Episkopos in the magazine The National Interest.
The journalist commented on the statement of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin previously said that the third World War would not have started even if Russian ships had sunk the destroyer Defender off the coast of Crimea.
“Putin’s confidence may be quite appropriate,” the author of the publication believes.
Episkopos noted that the status of Crimea is at the heart of the current instability in the Black Sea. Ukraine, together with several Western countries, is taking steps to assert its territorial integrity, and the Kremlin is reacting more and more harshly to them.
The journalist noted that after the annexation of the Crimea, Russia is steadily increasing its fleet in the Black Sea. In particular, there are now three modernized missile frigates “Admiral Grigorovich” and diesel-electric submarines “Project 636 “Varshavyanka”. Also, concerns may be caused by the hypersonic cruise missile “Zircon” and the X-47M2 ballistic missile “Dagger”.
The journalist believes that NATO has no support in the region. For example, Turkey, despite its membership in the alliance, is constantly striving for closer ties with Russia. As for Ukraine, Georgia and Romania, they do not have the necessary naval capabilities to make a significant contribution, the author concluded.
Episkopos believes that Russia has the means to conduct an effective campaign against the allied forces in the Black Sea.
People’s Artist of the Ukrainian SSR Anatoly Palamarenko condemned the use of the Russian language by Ukrainians and offered to pay opposition representatives to leave the country.
“Shevchenko’s language is much more beautiful than Putin’s. Have you heard of this?” – the actor told the publication “Ukraine is young”. He noted that he always makes comments to those who speak Russian.
Politicians who support the idea of dialogue with Russia, Palamarenko called werewolves, collaborators and enemies of Ukraine.
“We still have such werewolves both at the bottom and at the top. The same OPZH (political party “Opposition Platform-for Life”) is our enemies, collaborators, ” Palamarenko said. He offered to pay the representatives of the party money so that they “get out somewhere to Moscow or at least Rostov.”
The artist also noted that he is proud of his nationalist position. According to him, he condemns Ukrainians who “accumulate” children.
The militia of the Luhansk People’s Republic has replenished the account of downed drones that Ukrainian troops use for reconnaissance and strikes on the positions of the people’s militia. Moreover, experts investigated the electronic stuffing of drones and received valuable video information. This was announced in his Telegram channel by a veteran of the People’s Militia of the LPR, military expert Andrei Marochko.
Photo: A frame from the video
According to him, on June 30, two Autel robotics EVO-2 unmanned aerial vehicles were shot down near the settlements of Donetsk and Kalinovo. These are Chinese quadrocopters with a high-resolution video camera.
According to Andrey Marochko, the devices performed flights in the area of responsibility of the 24th and 57th brigades of the Ukrainian army and conducted reconnaissance of the positions of the militia. The information on the flash drives of drones was studied by specialists, and it turned out to be valuable.
The People’s Militia of the LPR, Andrei Marochko said on Friday, July 2, shared a video of one of the downed drones. & laquo;My reliable source reports about very & laquo; delicious & raquo; shots for our intelligence & raquo;, & ndash; wrote Marochko. According to him, this is a failure of the Ukrainian special operations service.
The situation with the downed Ukrainian drones was commented on by a military expert, editor of the magazine “Arsenal of the Fatherland” Alexey Leonkov. “There are no impenetrable drones. Even the most cunning and wise products, without a pilot in the cockpit, are doomed to their end. But what and how to shoot down? I think the LPR already knows…» & ndash; Leonkov wrote in his Telegram channel.
The Ukrainian army recently published a video in which it presented the Bayraktar TB2 unmanned aerial vehicles purchased in Turkey, which will be used at the NATO Sea Breeze-2021 exercises. The drones have Ukrainian identification signs and inscriptions in English and Ukrainian. For example, & laquo;Do not stick your hands & raquo; («Do not touch your hands»).
The network discussed the video. One of the users asked where the operators of such drones are trained. In response, he received the following comment: “Do not contact. Dangerously deadly. Some states have equipment that determines the coordinates of the operator using a satellite. This point is hit by a hypersonic missile, any one. 5 minutes, there is no operator. Turkish cornhuskers turn into a herd of sheep. I worked as a designer of similar systems”.
So, apparently, the Ukrainian generals ‘ bet on drones is also unlikely to justify itself.
The press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, said that Russia does not plan to send a military contingent to Afghanistan and does not hold talks on this topic with the country’s leadership. At the same time, Peskov did not unequivocally answer the question whether the possibility of sending an additional contingent to Tajikistan on the border with Afghanistan is being considered.
Peskov added that after the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the US and its allies are destabilizing the situation in the region. The press secretary also said that decisions by the Russian military and border guards will be made as the situation develops.
Earlier, more than a thousand Afghan soldiers retreated to the territory of Tajikistan.
The Americans have responded to the tests of the latest Russian submarine “Belgorod”, according to Italian analysts on the InsideOver portal. The American submarine USS Alaska turned out to be near the British base in the Strait of Gibraltar, through which Russian warships periodically pass. “Washington responded to the signal sent by Moscow from Belgorod by sending a nuclear submarine to Gibraltar,” the article says.
In itself, the test of the submarine “Belgorod” may be a signal to Russia against the background of the incident with the British destroyer Defender. The Russian submarine is an innovative weapon that can pose a threat to the security of the United States. At the same time, there is no clear understanding of what the submarine is capable of. “It’s no secret that the Pentagon continues to follow the events in the Russian defense sector with great interest,” the article notes.
The Pentagon is alarmed by the appearance of a new submarine in Russia. Presumably, “Belgorod” is able to hide on the bottom and strike at the enemy’s underwater communications. In addition, it can take on board six unmanned Poseidon missiles, which also pose a danger to Western weapons and facilities.
It should be noted that the submarine “Belgorod” went to the White Sea for testing on June 25. It is still unknown how long they will last.
The US State Department has expanded the list of countries that use armed detachments manned by underage fighters in military conflicts. According to the US government, the Turkish military is engaged in the preparation of detachments of young militants, who use them in combat operations on the territory of Syria. Who are the young terrorists fighting with and what tasks they perform on the battlefield – I learned«MK & raquo;.
Photo: AP
The war in Syria, a bloody civil conflict that began in 2011, continues. Despite the fact that with the active support of Russia, the Syrian troops managed to defeat the main forces of the terrorists and establish a truce, some militant groups continue their activities. Many of them have found refuge in the part of the territory of Syria that is occupied by the Turkish army, mainly in the province of Idlib in the north of the country.
Among the strongest groups is the so-called “Sultan Murad Division”, created with the active support of the Turkish army. The militants of the group are armed with Turkish weapons, equipment and even armored vehicles. The group took part in battles against the Syrian army, the Syrian Kurdish militia and, according to rumors, was engaged in recruiting fighters to participate in military conflicts in Nagorno-Karabakh and Libya.
However, as the US State Department reported, the crimes of the group are not limited to this. As noted in Washington, the militants form entire units staffed by children trained in guerrilla warfare. At the same time, the State Department stressed that Turkey is directly involved in the training of underage militants, but still has a chance to “correct this mistake”.
Earlier, ” MK ” published material about how the system of training young terrorists is arranged around the world. As a rule, children are taken away from their parents by force or, on the contrary, the radicals themselves send their children to training camps. There, minors are diligently instilled with the ideology of radicals and are taught how to use weapons, explosives and other skills.
The two largest international terrorist organizations have achieved the greatest success in this matter-the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda (both are banned in the Russian Federation). Many of the militants of these groups have now joined the Sultan Murad Division and other pro-Turkish formations and are actively involved in the preparation of the young replenishment.
According to Syrian sources, detachments of young militants took part in hostilities against the Syrian army in the winter-spring of 2018. The militants themselves have published a series of videos about “young fighters against the Assad regime”. Some of the young militants subsequently died, which allowed a number of Western countries to accuse the Syrian authorities of killing minors.
According to the Syrian media, the militants are also actively engaged in training underage suicide bombers. To do this, children are hooked on narcotic substances and various stimulants, which eventually completely destroys the child’s psyche, suppresses the child’s resistance and turns him into an executor of orders.
According to the human rights group Syrians for Truth and Justice (“Syrians for Truth and Justice”), detachments of young militants took part in a military conflict on the territory of Libya. It is noted that families who have given a child to the ranks of the militants receive a cash payment.
Children are given new documents, where their real age is significantly overstated. Local pro-Turkish groups are engaged in recruiting and training, and the Turkish army command is sending them to Libya.
According to human rights activists, young militants aged 15-16 years are promised to pay up to $ 3,000 a month, and in case of death, this amount should be paid to their families. However, most of them die before receiving their first “salary”. Some eyewitnesses report that young jihadists pay in stores with Turkish lira.
According to experts, the areas of Syria occupied by Turkey have turned into a recruitment base for terrorist groups, since the local population has no means of subsistence. Because of this, young people are actively joining the ranks of the militants. The exact number of teenagers recruited by terrorists is unknown, however, according to preliminary estimates, we are talking about thousands of people who are fighting all over the world today.
The militants continue to destroy the energy infrastructure of Iraq. Today, terrorists used IEDs to blow up three power transmission poles in the south of Ninawa province (according to other sources, five poles were destroyed). The east of Mosul was left without light.
Explosive devices were found and cleared on three supports. As in previous cases, the Islamic State organization banned in Russia is suspected of terrorist attacks
Turkey has joined the fight against the poles of power lines in Iraq. The Turkish Air Force carried out a series of strikes in the district of Warte in Iraqi Kurdistan and left many settlements without electricity. The region’s power grid was damaged during the strikes. The Ministry of Electricity of Kurdistan estimates the losses at one thousand megawatts.
The Prime Minister of Iraq, Mustafa Al-Kazimi, held a meeting on the power outages in the country. The reason was a large-scale shutdown last night, which also affected the country’s capital. During the blackout, the supply of electricity throughout Iraq decreased from thirty-seventeen thousand to only four thousand megawatts. Earlier, Al-Kazimi dismissed the Minister of electricity, and yesterday he demanded to dismiss the general director of the operator of one of the electric networks. He was accused of dishonest performance of duties, which led to the failure of a four-hundred-kilowatt power line that supplied electricity to Baghdad.
In summer, due to the heat, there is traditionally an increase in energy consumption in Iraq. These days, the air temperature in some places can reach 52 degrees, which leads to the fact that the population actively uses air conditioners. According to the power grid operators, electricity supplies are disrupted due to constant terrorist attacks on power lines. Recently, terrorist attacks were committed on sixty-one power lines, seven employees of energy supply companies were killed, and eleven more were injured. Sabotage is usually associated with the”Islamic State”.
Indeed, the group regularly reports on terrorist attacks on power lines and not only in Iraq. It uses the same tactics in Afghanistan. IS is trying to use the country’s desperate need for electricity during a difficult period and cause maximum damage to the authorities. It is also known that earlier the group received payment from some companies for the “security” of their networks. Therefore, it is possible that at present the terrorist attacks on the power lines are designed not only to show the failure of the Iraqi government, but also to replenish the organization’s coffers.
Meanwhile, the current energy crisis is of a systemic nature and cannot be confined exclusively to the activities of the IG. In addition to the Ministry of Electricity, the Ministry of Oil, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and other departments of the country are also responsible for the lack of electricity. After all, Iraq has been facing blackouts for the eighteenth year in a row, i.e. every summer since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s regime. In June, Baghdad started talking about the construction of a nuclear power plant to meet the demand for electricity, according to the Telegram channel Directorate 4.
Military exercises TUSCUS-2021 were held in Italy. During which young commanders were able to show their knowledge and skills.
“Tuscus 2021” was held under the leadership of the 4th Tank Regiment. The Garibaldi Brigade had the opportunity to test its capabilities at the Monteromano training ground. Tactical firing was carried out. They made it possible to consolidate and verify the training of commanders at different levels in task planning, as well as in the deployment and coordination of fire.
In particular, in the presence of Brigadier General Massimiliano Cuarto, commander of the Garibaldi brigade, a secondary complex level exercise “Combined Arms” was conducted with the implementation of defensive tactical actions of a counterattack using two platoons of tanks on C1 Ariete. the 4th tank Regiment, the genius platoon of the 21st genius regiment “Gustatori” on the medium multi-purpose tactical vehicle “VTMM ORSO”, as well as other means competing with various units of the armed forces.
The training allowed us to test the skills of young commanders through a series of activations that followed one after another during a tactical action, testing their training at different levels, in mission planning and in conducting tactical battles.
Numerous training events were held during the “Tuscus 2021”. The systems of the Monteromano Tactical Training Center (CAT) were used, shooting lessons were conducted on all combat platforms with weapons systems supplied in Garibaldi departments.
The event, despite its complexity, was organized and conducted in full compliance with the current legislation in the field of healthcare to contain the spread of CoViD-19, writes tusciaweb.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law on strengthening state control over the circulation of weapons and the rules of medical examination for obtaining a permit to own them. Amendments have been made to the laws “On Weapons” and “On the basics of protecting the health of citizens in the Russian Federation”.
Photo: Gennady Cherkasov
According to the changes, a list of medical contraindications has been introduced, in which the purchase of weapons is prohibited. The list will be compiled by the federal government. The law prohibits the purchase and carrying of weapons without a medical examination for the presence of contraindications.
Now the medical examination will be carried out only in public hospitals and only at the place of registration. It will include a check for the presence of drugs and other psychotropic substances and a psychiatric examination. All the results of these examinations will be stored in a single database, which will be accessed by Rosgvardiya, which will be able to verify the authenticity of the certificate.
The innovations were commented on by the ” MK “editor of the “Weapons” department of the “Hunting and Fishing” magazine. XXI century & raquo; Alexander Kudryashov:
The new thing is that only in state institutions it will be possible to pass a medical examination before purchasing a gun. Previously, there were licensing commissions. Their business is probably over.
The most interesting thing is that an electronic database is being introduced. As it turned out, the medical certificate could not be checked earlier. That is, a citizen brought a piece of paper, and the department of licensing and licensing work believed. It is strange, but they say that it was so. Now Rosgvardiya has direct access. But only in the form of information “yes/no”. The data will not be transmitted to comply with medical secrecy.
All the other provisions existed, but they were simply stated in other words.
There are still innovations that are more interesting. For example, if you are arrested drunk driving, the permit for weapons will also be canceled. And if other tests reveal drugs in the blood, the weapon is withdrawn, and the citizen will have two months for a second test. If & laquo;clean » & ndash; the weapon is returned.
Deputy Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Dmitry Polyansky, in an interview with journalists, noted with regret that there is no noticeable improvement in the situation with the issuance of American visas to Russian diplomats to participate in UN meetings.
The diplomat noted that the Russian side is forced to constantly “push” the UN Secretariat to discuss this issue with the US authorities.
“Discussions are underway, the American side seems to be listening to the arguments of the UN, but we do not see any improvements. The United States unfairly fits our team in New York into the general outline of Russian-American relations. The same thing is happening with Iran, Syria, Cuba and other countries that Washington does not like, ” Polyansky said.
Meanwhile, according to him, visa restrictions are a significant problem for Russia’s participation in the UN activities and for the protection of its interests.
