TheOldGuy @TheOldGuy@qoto.org
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
From Zelenskyy
Russian terrorists struck again at Kharkiv – at the TV tower. Obviously, this is an intimidation to make the terror noticeable to the whole city and to try to limit Kharkiv in terms of communication and access to information. Work is underway to restore the signal.
And just like Kharkiv, different cities and communities need protection – they need "Patriots." And at the same time, we need to inflict maximum damage on everything that Russia uses as a base for terror and for its military logistics. I am grateful to everyone in the world who is willing to help us in this regard, and we are working with our American partners to increase our capabilities.
The four priorities are key: protection of the sky, modern artillery, long-range capability, and ensuring that the American support packages arrive as quickly as possible. And today's result is that in the agreements on ATACMS for Ukraine, all the details have been finalized. Thank you, Mr. President, thank you, Congress, thank you, America!
Thank you to everyone who helps us in Ukraine defeat the Russian terror. Thank you to everyone who protects lives and fights against the Russian occupier. Thank you, warriors! Thank you to everyone who stands with Ukraine!
Glory to Ukraine!
If he wants to testify, the prosecution gets to bring up all his bad acts.
Using SBU evidence materials, a traitor who spied for the FSB in Mykolaiv received 15 years in prison
Thanks to the evidence base of the Security Service, another FSB agent who collected intelligence on the Defense Forces in the Mykolaiv Region received a prison term.
The attacker tried to establish the exact coordinates of the base of Ukrainian defenders defending the regional center.
First of all, he was interested in the geolocations of fortified areas and firing positions of units of the Armed Forces.
Intelligence information was needed by the aggressor to prepare targeted air attacks on the city using Shahed-type kamikaze drones.
The security service detained the attacker in February 2023, when he tried to pass intelligence on the location of defense facilities to the occupiers.
The court sentenced him to 15 years in prison with confiscation of property.
As the investigation established, the traitor is a resident of the village of Vradiivka, who was recruited by the FSB through the banned Vkontakte social network.
He came to the attention of the Russian special services as an active user of Russian Internet resources, where he wrote comments in support of an aggressive war against Ukraine.
It was established that the attacker communicated with the FSB through its "liaison" from the temporarily occupied part of the territory in the east of Ukraine.
In order to carry out enemy tasks, the agent drove around the area in his own car and secretly recorded the "necessary" objects on the phone camera.
During the search of his apartment, computer equipment and a phone with evidence of intelligence and subversive activities in favour of the Russian Federation were seized.
From "The Analyst":
CHASIV YAR UNDER HEAVY PRESSURE
Having taken the forested area east of the town at huge cost, the Russians have been able to conceal their troop buildup within it.
The problem the Russians have is that to reach the forest they have to run the gauntlet of open fields under constant Ukrainian fire. Their plan once sufficiently established, would be to strike northwest toward Bohadanivka, which would then open up the ability to surround the east bank canal district of Chasiv Yar from the north.
To counter Ukrainian strikes on their troops in transit who were suffering horrendous loses, as many as 24 at a time as they were inside and outside of a single APC crossing the open fields, the Russians began a heavy aerial bombardment of Ukrainian positions in Chasiv Yar.
Without air defences the Russians established a sufficient level of air superiority to deploy close support Su-25 Frogfoot ground attack aircraft, something that had previously been impossible in recent months. So much so that some analysts thought they’d been withdrawn from service (Russians never fully withdraw anything that works from service, they just store it somewhere).
Having bombed the canal district to rubble the Russians finally attacked Bohadinvka from the forest. Ukraine was forced to withdraw of face their forces being cut off.
However the Ukrainian side controls the hills to the north of the village and have strong defences there. That being said, as Avdivka proved, heavy bombing can overcome the best defended areas.
Rather than attack these defences the Russians attacked southwest towards the canal district as feared, aiming to cut Ukrainian access to one of the two bridges that supply them there.
The Russians are also attempting to move through the forest to the southeast of the canal district and north of Ivaniske. They have managed to get most of the way through the forest and are close to the Severtsky-Donetsk canal. Once they complete this move the canal district becomes more or less untenable. That will force a Ukrainian withdrawal and then place the defence line along the canal itself. Heavy bombing and artillery attacks will quickly render Chasiv Yar a devastated ruin.
The Russians are becoming far more inclined to be mobile and avoid the frontal assaults that cost so many men. They don’t care about the loses of equipment or manpower though, as long as they gain territory, and these new tactics are designed to maximise gains while Ukraine has no anti-air and is short on artillery.
The weakness in these attacks is they too, can in fact be outflanked and the Russians have difficult terrain to supply their forces, much of it open to drone strikes and constant harassment. Drone dropped mines during the night have been another constant problem for them.
The sad fact is the Russians have uncontested air space. This is proving decisive over time. Without air defences things are hard. In addition the Russians are using spy drones deep into Ukrainian territory- again a lack of air defences - which only this weekend allowed attack drones to locate an S-300 and three Mig-29’s (two of which were operational), at the airbase near Dnipro and destroy them. These had previously been well out of range of Russian precision strikes.
The US aid cannot come soon enough.
The Russians seem to have such momentum despite their losses, that they can potentially take Chasiv Yar before enough aid arrives to change the equation, something they will now be even more determined to achieve while they have such an advantage.
Ukraine can only do its best to hold on long enough.
Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦!
Rest in Peace Ilya
Ilya Oskin died on April 11, 2024 in Mykolaiv. He worked as a fitter at an industrial plant that was hit by a Russian ballistic missile.
Ilya was 52 years old. Born in Kherson, later the family moved to Mykolaiv. Ilya had his own business - he performed high-rise construction work. He was an industrial climber.
The man was a candidate for master of sports in chess. He liked to play badminton and football with the children. He loved to cook.
From the first days of the full-scale war, Ilya helped restore the roofs of houses that were damaged by Russian shelling for free. Later he joined the ranks of the Armed Forces. After being wounded, he returned to civilian life.
"He believed in victory... He was stable, calm, kind. He quickly forgot the insults and trusted people again. He was not a crybaby, he did not complain. He tried to solve problems on his own," said his wife Iryna.
Ilya is survived by his wife, two children, two sisters, two nephews and a niece.
For the first time in history, Ukrainians will take part in the world's largest cybersecurity exercise, Locked Shields 2024, which will be held in Estonia under the auspices of NATO.
Locked Shields 2024 will bring together around 4,000 experts from over 40 countries, who will be tasked with protecting the infrastructure of a fictional nation and its countries in conditions close to real life.
"The increased involvement of different nations and partners demonstrates the global reach and importance of Locked Shields 2024, serving as a testament to its role in enhancing international cyber defence collaboration," the NCCC said.
Locked Shields is the world's largest cybersecurity exercise and is managed and developed by NATO’s Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence in Tallinn. In 2023, 33 countries participated in the exercise in 24 different teams.
Interesting developments from the "Wild Hornets" workshop
In the first video, the so-called "Hornet Queen" is a very sturdy FPV drone capable of carrying a 6kg payload or a smaller FPV serving as a repeater.
The second video shows the testing of drones with artificial intelligence that can recognize silhouettes of people and follow them.
Zelensky:
"Patriots" are air defense systems only when they are in action - protecting life, and not standing motionless somewhere in storage bases.
Modern fighters are needed precisely where modernity is tested and where it is decided whether the children and grandchildren of the current generations will live in peace and security.
The democratic world has all the strength to overcome Russian terror. You should not be afraid of your own strength and really help protect life. "Patriots" are needed now in the hands of Ukrainians. Modern fighters are needed in Ukrainian skies. Russian rockets and Iranian "shaheds" must lose so that ruins never win life anywhere.
Terror can be effectively countered only together, by joint steps. And I thank every country, every leader who already understands this. Thank you to everyone who is showing leadership in helping Ukraine!
Belarusian “Cyber Partisans” claim large-scale cyberattack on major fertilizer producer Grodno Azot, demand release of political prisoners.
The Belarusian hacktivist collective known as “Cyber Partisans” announced a large-scale cyberattack on Grodno Azot (“Hrodna Azot” in Belarusian), a state-run fertilizer producer. The group demanded the release of political prisoners arrested by the regime of sixth-term self-proclaimed dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who remains in power in Minsk despite the wave of massive nationwide protests that followed the country’s most recent falsified election in 2020.
Cyber Partisans reported that the attack encrypted internal mail, document flow, and hundreds of Grodno Azot computers. Backups of databases, servers, emails, and document flow have also been erased. Security systems and surveillance cameras were hacked, and the work of the boiler room has been disrupted, according to the group.
The Cyber Partisans also hacked into the company's website. To confirm their actions, Cyber Partisans published screenshots of hacked surveillance cameras, a video with the inscription “We control the boiler room,” and a letter to the chairman of Belneftekhim — Grodno Azot's state-owned parent company. The letter says that the hack has severely disrupted nitrogen fertilizer deliveries.
Cyber Partisans have offered to recover the data if their demands are met. The group is calling for the release of all political prisoners from Grodno Azot, in addition to 75 political prisoners who are in very poor health but have no connection to the company. The latter will be determined at the discretion of the group.
“Since 2020, the management of Grodno Azot has been involved in bullying, pressure, and political repression of the company's employees. We have not forgotten [the] punitive raids, reports [to the police] and mass layoffs. Now it's your turn to pay. The stakes are higher. [...] Now, we worked carefully and used only a small part of our capabilities. If you refuse, next time the stakes will be even higher. [...] 4 years of intimidation, repression and politically-motivated layoffs are on the conscience of Grodno Azot management. For this, they get our own cyber sanctions.”
The group also threatened the management of other enterprises, institutions, and organizations involved in political repression in Belarus with similar attacks.
In 2020, the management of Grodno Azot, Belarus’ largest nitrogen producer, greenlit mass layoffs of the company’s employees for their participation in anti-government protests. The Belarusian police also detained up to ten participants in a strike at Grodno Azot itself.
Grodno Azot is the only Belarusian facility to produce carbamide — a water-soluble nitrogen fertilizer. In 2006, the United States imposed sanctions against nine Belarusian companies — including Grodno Azot and its affiliate, Grodno Khimvolokno — for “undermining the democratic process.” The company has been under EU sanctions since December 2021 for firing and intimidating workers who participated in protests after the 2020 presidential election. As a result, Grodno Azot was prohibited from selling its products to the EU.
In 2023, reports by the Belarusian Investigative Center and the Lithuanian independent investigative center Siena confirmed that Grodno Azot used multiple shell companies to circumvent the sanctions and supply its products to the European Union.
Source
@freerussia_report
Abibas is back. Russia is once again flooded with low-quality goods and counterfeit goods.
The world continues to expand bans on the supply of a variety of goods to Z-landia, and the Z-authorities say that they are coping with the sanctions. Formally, imports have indeed returned to the pre-war level, but the main thing is not visible behind the dry statistics - the quality of these goods is completely different.
Instead of branded goods, they buy their cheap analogues or counterfeit ones, they actively take Lada again, and the equipment is increasingly repaired, instead of buying a new one.
It is even more difficult for industrial enterprises – the launch of new production facilities is postponed, factories save equipment because spare parts are not available, or switch to simpler equipment.
Numbers: In total, imports of goods and services are estimated at $379 billion in 2023 - almost the same amount ($380 billion) it was before the invasion. It doesn't seem so bad, but at a closer look the growth in imports was mainly not due to consumer demand, but due to the state circumventing sanctions: in 2023, more machinery, equipment, and vehicles, were imported, these categories accounted for $27 billion out of the $30 billion growth in total imports.
Of the consumer spheres, only imports of textiles and footwear have grown. But food products and agricultural raw materials were imported even less than in the first year of the war, as well as chemical products, timber and pulp and paper products.
Secondly, these figures say little about the quality of imported goods.The main increase in imports of goods came from China — as in the 90s, Putinistan began to be filled with the flow of Chinese consumer goods. Asia carries its own goods, but also serves as a trade hub for products from the EU and the US.
Russians have been switching from expensive to affordable brands — even "in fairly sensitive categories, such as alcohol or children's products, where there used to be a high level of distrust in domestic production".
The share of counterfeit goods on marketplaces has increased by 40%. 23% are fake auto parts, that are used more often, as demand for car repairs grow, especially many problems with the maintenance of Chinese brands.
The same increase is observed for the repair of household appliances and electronics, indicating that the quality of equipment is declining or becoming obsolete, and can't be replaced by new. Although on average the incomes of the population grew, so did people's debt to banks. Most of them are pensioners, whose incomes have noticeably decreased.
Not only the population suffers, but also production. Manufacturers were seriously dependent on imported equipment and raw materials. The share of imports in ruZZian products is highest (+ 50%) in textile and pharmaceutical products, electrical equipment, cars and computers. Before the war, about half of the added value in imports came from the EU and North America, and the other half came from China. The reorientation of the market leads to lowering the quality of materials and technologies.
There is an increase in costs due to the lack of alternative suppliers and firms trying to stock up imported components and raw materials. Still, oil companies for example admit not to be working at full capacity, because it will be difficult to find spare parts. Not only repairs, but also modernization and expansion of production are postponed.
Growing problems, because 40% of the machinery and equipment in mining, production of investment, intermediate and consumer goods, agriculture; and even more in energy industry (47%) and construction (45%) are worn out.
Source
@freerussia_report
I am a Democrat who supports Ukraine in their battle against The Russian fascist invaders.
I am a 72 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 2992. The county is 13k people scattered over 713 square miles.
Joined Dec 2022
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