Here we go again-Ukraine once again

[Jimbuna]

The North Atlantic Alliance will provide Ukraine with hundreds of portable anti-drone systems.

This was stated by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, Censor.NET informs with reference to UNIAN.

"NATO will provide a comprehensive package of assistance that will include secure communications, fuel, medical supplies and protective vests, equipment to protect against mines, chemical and biological threats, as well as hundreds of portable anti-drone systems," Stoltenberg said. He did not specify which complexes are in question.

According to the Secretary General, in the long term, NATO will help Ukraine transition from Soviet-era equipment to modern equipment used by the Alliance. There is also a desire to improve operational interoperability and further strengthen Ukraine's defense and security institutions.

Stoltenberg emphasized that NATO leaders agreed at the summit in Madrid to significantly strengthen the defense and deterrence system in connection with Russia's creation of a threat to world security.

It is about strengthening the first line of defense of the Alliance, improving battle groups in the eastern part of NATO. The number of rapid response forces will be increased to more than 300,000 people.

[Dargo]

Russian soldiers who no longer want to fight are bad for the army's image, so they disappear into the basements and garages of Luhansk
Over two hundred Russian soldiers who refuse to continue fighting in Ukraine are being held in a provisional detention center in the Luhansk region, according to independent Russian media. There, according to parents and witnesses, they are being held in appalling conditions in basements and garages. They are kontraktniki, soldiers serving on contract in the army and often sent to fight in Ukraine against their will. Recently, there have been more and more reports of soldiers canceling their contracts out of dissatisfaction with the conditions under which they have to fight. Officially, they have the right to terminate their contract. Russia is not in a state of war, no mobilization has been declared, so if kontraktniki give up it cannot be considered desertion. At best, it can be considered a breach of contract. According to the independent news site Vjorstka, over 1,700 Russian soldiers serving in Ukraine have already terminated their contracts since March. This is starting to become an increasing problem for the Kremlin, as recruiting new recruits is also very difficult. So much so that the army is now trying to recruit prisoners for the war in Ukraine. According to Vjorstka and several other independent media outlets, Russian commanders are doing everything they can to stem the exodus: they are not processing resignation letters, or saying they can't leave until replacements are in place. They also put pressure on the refusers and have recently sent some to Brjanka, a town in the Luhansk region, which is in the hands of the pro-Russian separatists.

There they are locked up in garages or cellars where they are pressured to return to the front. Fatima Gorshenina, a mother of a soldier from the Samara region, told Vjorstka that her son Artyom, along with other soldiers from his unit, has been held captive in a basement in Brjanka since July 12, without light and water. They are also barely fed, according to her. In total, according to her son, there would be 160 men from his unit alone, who were scattered among a number of cellars in Brjanka. There they are watched by guards who call themselves "musicians. Presumably they are members of the notorious Russian mercenary army Wagner, whose owner Yevgeny Prigozhin has close ties to President Putin. By law, soldiers who cancel their contracts cannot be pressured by their superiors, but in practice they are. Sometimes they are warned that they will be court-martialed for refusing to serve. Or that they will be sent to the front again, but this time without arms. Refusers who stand their ground are told that they will receive a notation in their discharge papers: "Inclined to treachery, lies and deceit. This makes it virtually impossible to find work after you are discharged from the army, especially in remote regions like Buryatia, where many young men signed a service contract because there is hardly any other work.

At a unit from Budyonnovsk, in southern Russia, they take a different approach. There, the names of refusers are recorded on a "board of shame," as soldiers who have "disgraced their comrades, their families and their region. Refusers from the Caucasus Republic of Dagestan, where family honor plays an important role, received such an unfriendly reception upon their return that some of them returned to Ukraine under pressure from their families. Most of the soldiers who cancel their contracts do so out of dissatisfaction with the conditions: they have been fighting for months without relief, there is a constant lack of provisions and their equipment is no good. Everything in the army is sold, or you have to buy it,' complained one soldier. He also did not receive the promised war zone allowance. But even if they are not objections to the war on principle, the authorities are concerned about the effect. It is bad for the army's image if the refusers return with stories of poor supplies, poor armament and troop losses in Ukraine. https://www.volkskrant.nl/nieuws-ach...ansk~b4857819/

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by mapuc

I wanna believe that you are fully correct.

This is copied from Twitter)



https://twitter.com/KyivIndependent/...XRJ-Ylzs_RFmkw

Here's another article from twitter



https://twitter.com/RALee85/status/1...XRJ-Ylzs_RFmkw

Markus

The S-300 and I believe S-400 systems can not counter the HIMARS Russia is thinking to sue the company for that. It is HIMAR O'Clock.

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Skybird

German inaction for Russian gas?

No gas to Germany, production of the fourth-largest economy going to slow down result will be a global economic crisis, let's hope for a mild winter.

[mapuc]

Is there any who support the Russians ??

In the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian military truck drove over a car with civilians inside.Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports.
"Today, on the road between Melitopol and Berdiansk, a Russian military Kamaz drove over a car with three people inside," he said. Fedorov emphasized that two adults and a child died on the spot.


Markus

[Jimbuna]

The atrocities committed by both sides (presumably) will be made known for many years to come.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

improving battle groups in the eastern part of NATO. The number of rapid response forces will be increased to more than 300,000 people.

As long as 200000 of these 300000 are not made of US troops, we believe that when we see it, okay? The current ploan says that two third or threre quarters of these 300 thousand will not be stationed in the East, but will remain to stay in their national home bases across all Europe, being designated on paper to be send there if need arise.



Manpower if European armed forces is too low in general.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Dargo

No gas to Germany, production of the fourth-largest economy going to slow down result will be a global economic crisis, let's hope for a mild winter.

I meant to indicate that Bubble-Olaf apparently calculates that he could appease Putin so that he will not cut gas completely if Germany does not do too much for the Ukraine, and assists in Russia'S intererst to discourage or hinder others to help the Ukraine more.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I meant to indicate that Bubble-Olaf apparently calculates that he could appease Putin so that he will not cut gas completely if Germany does not do too much for the Ukraine, and assists in Russia'S intererst to discourage or hinder others to help the Ukraine more.

The problem being Bubble-Olaf did little to nothing even before the threat to the supply of gas was mentioned.

At least that is how I understand it

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The problem being Bubble-Olaf did little to nothing even before the threat to the supply of gas was mentioned.

At least that is how I understand it

Yes all talk no action

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Is there any who support the Russians ??

In the temporarily occupied territory of Zaporizhzhia region, a Russian military truck drove over a car with civilians inside.Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov said in a Telegram post, Ukrinform reports.
"Today, on the road between Melitopol and Berdiansk, a Russian military Kamaz drove over a car with three people inside," he said. Fedorov emphasized that two adults and a child died on the spot.


Markus

Not many in occupied areas FSB go door to door to fetch people who are anti-Russian that will not make you loved, it will only tenfold the resistance.

[mapuc]

Seems like his easy walking around the hot topic doesn't help

From an article in a Danish newspaper

Gazprom halves gas supplies to Europe via Nord Stream 1
Gas supply via gas pipeline to Europe will be reduced to 20 percent of maximum capacity from Wednesday

From Wednesday, the state-owned Russian gas company Gazprom will further reduce the gas supply to Germany via the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline.

According to the company, the reason is maintenance of a gas turbine. The company announced this on Monday, according to the Reuters news agency.

The daily gas supply via the gas line will be reduced to 33 million cubic meters from Wednesday morning. This corresponds to approximately 20 percent of the maximum capacity.

It is not clear how long the significantly reduced supply of gas will last.

Markus

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

The problem being Bubble-Olaf did little to nothing even before the threat to the supply of gas was mentioned.

At least that is how I understand it

Germany is more Russophile than Americophile, and the SPD especially very much so. It slike that since always, since before WW1. Germans always have transfigured russisa, with romantic ideas about how natural and human the deep (deepness as a symbol for insightfulness) Russian soul is. And in the federla states that formed the GDR and where Russians were stationed fore 40 years, 60-70% of Germans are agaunst supporting the Ukraine at all, and that we should talk with uncle Putin.


Bubble.-Olaf did little, yes, but already before: Merkel. Schroeder. Schroeder with the Greens. Merkel with the SPD and today's Bubble-Olaf and Steinmeyer (whom the then Ukrainians did not want to have, how dare they...). Total polticla fialure, sicne decades. There is a reason why I call the past 20 years a deep and total national narcosis. They could as well have mixed LSD into the tap water. The falure you see not just with regards to Russia, but also with regards to a realistic assessment of the EU, the Euro, development policies in Africa, South America, with regard to China, Iran, Turkey... And most of these mistakes are still being pushed forward with great enthusiasm.

Germany is an idiot when it comes to realistic foreign diplomacy. Always has been. Because we do not think strategically (that is unkind and too cold-hearted), and not in long terms (thats too hard to the claimed poor).



Wait until it dawns onto the Germans that all their liabilities for the credits and debts of othe rnatiosn never will come back, and the Euro can no longer be held up. Das wird ein Spass in Deutschland! Compared to that desaster, the problem with Russian gas now is still minor.


Its now like the fairy tale told in the post I made in the Germany thread today.

[Rockstar]

Ukraine central bank has sold over $12 billion of its gold reserves during the war, its deputy head says

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ad-2022-07-17/

KYIV, July 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine's central bank has sold $12.4 billion of gold reserves since the beginning of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24, the bank's deputy head said on Sunday.

"We are selling (this gold) so that our importers are able to buy necessary goods for the country," Deputy Governor Kateryna Rozhkova told national television. She said the gold was not being sold to shore up Ukraine's hryvnia currency.

So I have to ask from who or where the hell did get the other 10.4 billion in gold from? According to CEIC and WGC they only had 1.6 billion in reserves to begin with.

https://www.ceicdata.com/en/indicato.../gold-reserves

Nationalization of banks and confiscation of personal wealth? They wouldn’t be the first government to do that though. In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 6102, requiring the Americans to hand over all their gold coins, bullions, and certificates to the government for a fixed price.

[Jimbuna]