TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
Russian oil depots had another explosive night with storage locatons in the Russian regions of Voronezh and Perm Krai burning for hours.
Perm Krai is 1700km from Ukraine.
continues
Yermak does not shy away from long working days and primarily directs using his cell phone. He and Selensky often spend the night in the presidential office, says journalist Trubetskoy. "Yermak has no wife, he is always available, and Zelensky appreciates that. On the other hand, he does not like it when his ministers sit in restaurants for long periods." But in the country itself, Yermak is not very popular - despite his omnipresent nature.
Davydiuk reports that rumors are circulating in Kiev that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal should be replaced so that Yermak can hold the position. Then he would have to take political responsibility for his decisions. After the war is over, the issue will certainly have to be dealt with more closely.
Like the president, Yermak, who is six years older than him, was not in politics before Zelensky was elected president in 2019. They had already worked together, Yermak as a media lawyer and producer, Zelensky as an actor and comedy star, who brought some of his companions from the world of entertainment into politics. Among them was Yermak, now 52, who did not initially have a prominent role. He organized his boss's schedule in the Ukrainian presidential office. Zelensky has since separated from almost all of his other early employees.
Initially, Yermak coordinated the president's schedule and became a negotiator for the prisoner exchange with Russia. After Zelensky had been in office for nine months, he made Yermak head of the presidential office in early 2020. Since then, he has been involved in all major foreign policy processes or even managed them for Ukraine - such as the negotiations with Ukraine's so-called partners, the peace summit in Switzerland, the return of the abducted Ukrainian children or the prisoner exchange.
In fact, observers agree here too, Yermak acts as the foreign minister. Trubetskoy sums it up like this: "He is Zelensky's top diplomat, and the president listens to him on all personnel issues." Yermak is responsible for relations with the USA, he has a close connection to the White House. In July, Yermak - not the foreign minister - traveled to the USA to discuss, among other things, possible military targets in Russia and to coordinate joint action.
The Presidential Office moderates all political processes very closely itself. Important topics, such as the next peace conference, sanctions against Russia or a special tribunal to punish Russian crimes, go through the Presidential Office and thus through Yermak. The ministries are subordinate in areas that seem important to the Presidential Office.
Yermak's original task of coordinating the President's schedule and granting access to him has remained insofar as he and his team still manage who the President meets. He therefore also has control over who is close to the President and who is not. As a result, there are fewer and fewer people who have direct access to Zelenskyj without going through Yermak, says Trubetskoy.
Yermak has a strong influence on the President's personnel table in general. There are hardly any politicians in the government - "they are more like managers," says Trubetskoy. If a minister or official crosses Yermak's red lines, says one who has experienced this, then their political career is over.
If, for example, someone acts too independently or is too close to the president and thus escapes Yermak's control, Yermak replaces these positions with his people. The last prominent example of the pattern was Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, who had to vacate his position at the beginning of September. His successor, Andriy Syibiha, was previously one of Yermak's deputies in the presidential office. And the Minister for Reconstruction, Oleksiy Kuleba, who is responsible for particularly large budgets, was also previously deputy head of the presidential office. His boss there was Andriy Yermak.
The article is google-translated. Read the original here.
@ukrainejournal
Why is Andriy Yermak so powerful?
The head of the Ukrainian presidential office is actually an office manager. But President Zelensky has given Andriy Yermak far more power. Who is the man - and how powerful is he really? - An article by Isabel Schayani, WDR/tagesschau.
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke at the UN Security Council last week, a man wearing olive-green clothing could be seen sitting just to his right behind him. Even when he talks to heads of state or visits soldiers near the front, the tall "green cardinal", as some in Kiev call him, can always be seen in his immediate vicinity.
At the Swiss peace summit in June, the head of the Ukrainian presidential office, Andriy Yermak, stood in the front row between the heads of government for a group photo. The then Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was only spotted in the second row. Yermak, the shadow of Zelensky, has long been conspicuous in Ukraine and abroad.
The journalist and knowledgeable observer of Ukrainian politics, Denis Trubetskoy, sums it up like this: "It's not possible to have much more power than that which Yermak has." There is no doubt "that Yermak is the second most powerful man in Ukraine." This assessment is not only shared by the independent Ukrainian press, but can also be heard from those close to the presidential office.
On the one hand, the constitution does not provide for this amount of authority for the head of the presidential office - on the other hand, Yermak acts on behalf of the president. His political opponents see him as a power-hungry politician who wants to succeed the president.
The well-connected political scientist and blogger Mykola Davydiuk also describes Yermak's power as "enormous." He is stronger than the prime minister and everyone else in the power apparatus. "He is the producer who serves the president and does all the stuff for him so that the star has a free hand and can move and shine."
However, Davydiuk points out that in a country at war, there is more chaos in the presidential administration than in peacetime. This could justify the otherwise unusually high level of power wielded by its leadership.
to continue
@ukrainejournal
💥💥💥
“This is how it is, guys.
They're bombing it.”
The moment a Ukrainian UAV hit an oil depot in the Anninsky district of the Voronezh region.
@ukrainejournal
🇺🇦🇷🇺⚠️ Ukraine bombed Kurchatov in the Kursk region of Russia, which is the city where the Kursk NPP is located.
—> One of the bombs fell 5 km from the power plant.
The nuclear power plant is currently operating normally, and background radiation levels are normal.
@ukrainejournal
They are Trolls. How to make them get back under the bridge
https://open.substack.com/pub/robertreich/p/2024-election-video-of-the-week-why?r=70k1h&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email
I dreamed of this day. Ted Cruz gonna lose.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/ted-cruz-goes-off-the-deep-end-as-colin-allred-gains-on-him/58402/
WHY DID ISRAEL HIT A RUSSIAN AIR BASE?
The Hemimm Air Base in Syria was attacked by Israeli forces yesterday, just an hour after an Iranian 747-200F cargo plane had landed there - believed to be carrying weapons for Hezbollah.
This follows Israel finding stacks of Russian weapons in Hezbollah hands in southern Lebanon.
The weapons discovered included shoulder launched anti-air weapons and launchers as well as small arms and rifles.
Of course everything Russia does to support Iran is all about Russia distracting us from the war in Ukraine - its overwhelming goal.
If we help Ukraine defeat Russia we also defeat Iran and force it to realise it’s very much on its own and its behaviour will be less aggressive.
Russia tries to cause as much trouble for the west as it can while it persecutes the war on Ukraine. It needs us distracted and worried more about oil prices and the security of Israel than it does arming Ukraine to win the war.
Russians are masters at the art of distraction.
We should never forget it.
‘The Analyst’ MilStratOnX
The Analyst
SENTIENT AI
SENTIENT AI is not a forecast for the future. It is the secret United States National Reconnaissance Office AI system called Sentient.
In recent weeks it’s had a few parts of its secret program partly publicised. Largely due to an AI conference.
What we know is that its primary use is to process tens of thousands of images from satellites and other military sources every hour. Not only does it analyse the images and bring them to the attention of operators if parameters require it, it can actually direct satellites and other systems including signals intelligence all by itself. That enables it to actively investigate what it deems to be suspicious activity.
Lately Sentient is believed to have tracked - by using thousands of images collected globally, the patterns of the Russian ‘dark tanker fleet’ so that it’s known where they are at all times.
Sentient is believed to have contributed along with the privately owned BlackStar system AI to Ukraine’s ability to destroy so much of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
It’s almost certainly involved in the alerting of US military commanders to the activation of the Iranian missiles that attacked Israel and even the original attack on Ukraine.
The scale of Sentient is classified but it is vastly more capable and all encompassing than anyone outside of the program can even imagine.
Except perhaps the Chinese who are unquestionably developmentally not far behind.
The point of these systems is far more complex than just spying. It’s about learning enough about enough to actually predict what might happen next.
Sentient is here now. Every day.
It’s more powerful than the public would be happy with but it’s utterly vital to keeping the United States alert to what’s happening in the world.
I am completely exhausted. Got 8 banana boxes of mostly hickory. Pretty good for a 72 year old man. Going to bed early. Goodnight Resisters
❗️Japanese jet fighters fired warning flares at a russian military reconnaissance plane that violated Japan’s airspace – The Wall Street Journal
Japanese fighter jets used infrared countermeasures to intercept a russian Il-38 aircraft.
"A russian Il-38 patrol aircraft violated our airspace over territorial waters north of Rebun Island, Hokkaido, three times," Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara said.
According to Japanese authorities, the russian aircraft stayed in Japanese airspace for about one minute each time. In response, F-35 fighter jets were raised on alert and used infrared countermeasures several times. Kihara noted that this is the first time Japan's Defense Forces have resorted to such measures.
The violation of Japan's airspace by the russian aircraft occurred against the backdrop of joint exercises between the naval forces of Russia and China, which took place in the Sea of Japan on Sept. 21-22. Kihara also emphasized that it was "the first documented incursion of a russian aircraft into our airspace since June 2019," when a Tu-95 bomber crossed the country's border south of Okinawa and near the Izu Islands, south of Tokyo. Japan protested to russia through diplomatic channels over the incident.
Source
see also our previous post: https://t.me/ukrainejournal/19083
@ukrainejournal
30 years ago ukraine voluntarily renounced its nuclear status @ukrainejournal
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 73 year old Covid hermit who
lives on 10 acres in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks. I heat with wood that is leftover by the lumber industry. When cutting oak for lumber only the trunk is used.
The largest town is population 2993. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
TheOldGuy's choices:
