WW3? Ukraine/US vs. Donbass/Russia

[Vicus]

Wall-piercing Russian rocket slated for Ukraine battlefield – producer 17 May, 2023

The recently developed S-8OFP unguided air-launched projectile is touted as offering a greater payload than other munitions

A new Russian air-launched rocket with increased range and firepower has gone into serial production and could be deployed in action against Ukraine this year, its manufacturer has reported.

The deputy director of defense producer Tekhmash, Aleksandr Kochkin, shared the news about the S-8OFP with RIA Novosti on the sidelines of a military exhibition in Belarus on Wednesday.

The rocket, which is nicknamed ‘Broneboyshchik’ (armor piercer), is the latest addition to the S-8 family of unguided projectiles meant for aerial platforms, including close air support planes and helicopters. According to Tekhmash, the weapon’s main feature is a new engine that uses a more powerful propellant.

This has allowed the propulsion part of the rocket to be reduced, providing engineers with a greater payload allowance. The rocket is tipped with a new warhead designed to penetrate walls and other obstacles, if necessary, before detonating. Previous versions had other types of payload, from regular high explosives to flechette antipersonnel projectiles.

Open-source data states that an S-8OFP can deliver its 9kg warhead to a target up to 6km away. Like the rest of the rocket family, the projectile has a caliber of 80mm and is compatible with standard 20-tube and seven-tube launchers used by Russian military aircraft.

The Russian Defense Ministry released footage in 2018 of S-8OFP deployments from a helicopter during trials. The following year, Tekhmash reported that the weapon had successfully completed tests and was cleared for service.

Kochkin spoke to RIA Novosti in Minsk, which is hosting the four-day MILEX-2023 expo this week. He also reported that his company, which is a subsidiary of Russian military conglomerate Rostec, had boosted production of projectiles for multiple rocket launch systems by 20 times compared to last year. Mass production of time-tested weapons is currently a priority for the firm, he noted.



https://www.rt.com/russia/576447-new...iation-rocket/

[Vicus]

Ukraine’s top spy admits agents murdered Russian public figures 16 May, 2023

Military intel boss Kirill Budanov has claimed that his service “got” multiple high-profile individuals

Ukrainian military intelligence (GUR) chief General Kirill Budanov has claimed responsibility for assassinating “many” Russian public figures. The spy boss made the bombshell admission in an interview with Ukrainian blogger Sergey Ivanov on Tuesday.

Asked whether high-profile Russian media figures such as prominent journalist Vladimir Solovyov or RT’s Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan, are prime targets for his organization, Budanov responded that the GUR had already “gotten” multiple high profile targets.

“We have already gotten many, including public and media personalities,” Budanov said, without providing any names.

Pressed further by the blogger on the potential involvement of the GUR in the assassination of journalist Darya Dugina, the daughter of Russian philosopher Aleksandr Dugin, or the recent car bombing of author and political activist Zakhar Prilepin, the spy boss said he could “neither confirm nor deny” the involvement of his service.

Budanov’s remarks were condemned by Moscow, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stating that they were a clear admission of wrongdoing.

“Terrorists. Those who provide excuses for the Kiev regime and sponsor it are accomplices of terrorists,” Zakharova wrote on Telegram. “Will the UN not notice that again?”

The remarks are the latest in a string of incendiary statements made by the GUR boss amid the ongoing conflict between Moscow and Kiev. Earlier this month, Budanov declared, “We’ve been killing Russians, and we will keep killing Russians anywhere on the face of this world until the complete victory of Ukraine.”

The pledge received an equally poor reception in Russia, with multiple top officials branding it an admission of engaging in state-level terrorism by Ukraine. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, for instance, said Budanov’s statement was “unprecedented in its essence,” and it was “strange” to not hear any condemnation “from European capitals and from Washington.”

“It’s evident that the Kiev regime is behind the killings, not only sponsoring them but organizing, inciting, and carrying them out. De facto, we’re talking about a state sponsor of terrorism,” Peskov concluded, warning that Russia’s “special services know what to do after such statements.”


https://www.rt.com/russia/576395-ukr...ling-russians/

[Vicus]

Russia contemplates severing ties with Poland 16 May, 2023

An extreme outcome is now a real prospect amid an unfolding row over diplomatic property in Warsaw, Moscow's envoy has acknowledged


Russia's ambassador to Poland Sergey Andreev

Diplomatic relations between Russia and Poland that are already fraught, may deteriorate further or even be completely severed, Moscow’s top diplomat to Warsaw has warned. Ambassador Sergey Andreev's comments came after the Polish prime minister suggested this week that kicking the envoy out of the country would be “easy” to do.

Andreev said there “was always a possibility” that ties could be severed, when asked about such a scenario by the Izvestia newspaper. “Whether it becomes reality depends on the decisions of our leadership and the Polish authorities,” he said in an interview published on Tuesday.

Last month, bilateral tensions between the neighboring states escalated further after authorities in Warsaw seized a school that has been operated by the Russian embassy there for decades.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki discussed a possible reduction of diplomatic representation in an interview on Monday.

“It is very easy to have an ambassador recalled. And then the Russians will have our ambassador recalled,” he told Polsat television. “In such a situation, the flow of information in both directions would be even more restrained.”

Morawiecki argued that the time for such drastic measures has not arrived, citing the policies of fellow EU and NATO states that host Russian ambassadors. He also praised the seizure of the school, describing it as a result “of effective actions” by the Polish side.

The Russian ambassador has attributed the current poor state of relations to an irrational hatred of Russia in Poland.

Assessing this phenomenon, Andreev said “the Polish political elites know no boundaries in their Russophobia, and the government competes with the opposition in inventing new ways to stick it to Russia.”

Citing the Russian equivalent of the anglophone saying ‘Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face,’ Andreev said: “They don’t care that the measures they initiate often hurt the interest of Polish businesses and citizens more than they do ours. They cling to the proverbial ‘I’ll freeze my ears off to spite my granny’ principle.”

Andreev noted that the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs has distanced itself from the row over diplomatic buildings and is pointing the finger at local authorities, which are seeking to expropriate them. Moscow says it’s a clear violation of the 1964 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations.

That neither the government nor the courts of law in Poland see any wrongdoing “clearly shows the level of legal culture and basic decency” that obtains there, the Russian envoy highlighted. He suggested that at some point Moscow will respond in kind and target Polish diplomatic property.

https://www.rt.com/russia/576371-rus...poland-recall/

[Vicus]

Ex-German chancellor’s wife fired for attending WWII victory celebration 16 May, 2023



So-yeon Schroeder-Kim was dismissed after visiting the Russian Embassy in Berlin to commemorate the defeat of the Nazis

The wife of former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, So-yeon Schroeder-Kim, has been fired from her position at NRW, a business development agency, after visiting the Russian Embassy in Berlin to celebrate Victory Day.

“Ms. Schroeder-Kim has been released with immediate effect, and the employment relationship will now be terminated by NRW.GlobalBusiness without notice,” a spokeswoman for NRW told German media on Tuesday.

The company explained that it had on several occasions explicitly told Schroeder-Kim, who worked there as a representative for South Korea, that she should “not speak out in public on politically sensitive topics,” particularly with regard to Russia and the situation in Ukraine.

The move comes after Schroeder-Kim and her husband visited the Russian Embassy on May 9 to attend a reception dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The event was also attended by other German politicians, including co-chairman of the right-wing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party Tino Chrupalla, and chairman of the Bundestag committee on climate protection and energy and member of the Left Party Klaus Ernst.

Schroeder himself has also faced backlash for maintaining close ties with Moscow. The former chancellor forged friendly relations with Russia during his time in office between 1998 and 2005, and subsequently joined the boards of Nord Stream and Rosneft respectively.

Although Schroeder has repeatedly spoken out against Russia’s offensive in Ukraine, he has also expressed doubt that distancing himself from Putin “would do any good.” Shortly after Moscow launched its military campaign, Schroeder personally traveled to Moscow to meet with Putin. He has insisted since that Russia sought a negotiated solution to the ongoing conflict and had vowed to keep seeking “opportunities to talk to President Putin.”

The former chancellor’s stance has put him at odds with other members of the ruling Social Democrats Party (SPD), some members of which have recently unsuccessfully demanded his expulsion. The SPD did, however, manage to strip the former leader of his parliamentary privileges last year.

Under current German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the SPD has sought to reduce the country’s ties with Russia and its reliance on Russian energy. Berlin, under Scholz’s leadership, has also sent billions of dollars worth of military aid to Kiev’s forces.

https://www.rt.com/news/576398-germa...or-wife-fired/

[Bill Ryan]

Posted by Bruce G Charlton (here)
Thanks for this information about contamination (and to Ravenlocke)

Question: Does anyone know a competent and honest source about what kind of contamination would be *expected* from such a massive explosion of depleted-uranium/ "DU" shells?

I had read (when the UK first decided to escalate the conflict by supplying them) that they were alpha-radiation emitters - which are very short-range/ very destructive particles, but can't be detected by Geiger counters; but the source stated that DU was not a gamma-radiation emitter (i.e. the common type of radiation, the 'x rays' that are detected by a Geiger counter).

However, I am not confident about the validity of my sources, and maybe gamma radiation is produced by DU shells in sufficient amounts to cause dangerous contamination when very large numbers are exploded in one place?

Does anyone know?

I spent a bit of time on this (because I'd like to know too!), but I have nothing definitive so far. Many non-US/UK/EU news articles, all over the world, are pretty much re-publishing the many Telegram and Twitter posts, while Newsweek (e.g.) is trashing the whole thing as a right-wing Putin-propaganda conspiracy theory, even putting "depleted uranium" in quotes as if referring to fairy dust.

I found some of the comments below this article, which is all in English, very interesting, and some of the commenters do seem to have technical knowledge.

• https://en.topwar.ru/216990-ukrainsk...ym-uranom.html

The article's title (a very pedantic one!) is

Ukrainian sources write about dosimetric patrols in Khmelnitsky in connection with the possible presence of shells with depleted uranium in the affected warehouse.

~~~

One thing which I feel I do know is that the gamma radiation (if it's there) isn't the primary threat. Far more dangerous is the possible ingestion of alpha particles, which are large and heavy, and ingestion is a very hit-and-miss, pure-chance thing.

You might avoid them entirely, even in a radioactive environment. But if you're unlucky and happen to absorb any, then they can wreak havoc in the body.

Chris Martenson did an EXCELLENT short (12-minute) video about nuclear fallout and the various risks, and explains the alpha particle danger right at the start of the video.

DU, especially when pulverized and heated, can certainly produce alpha particles. Then when those particles are on the loose, it's merely a matter of being lucky enough to somehow dodge the tiny invisible particle bullets.

This statement (which I believe is correct) comes from this US EPA article:

• https://epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium

DU mainly emits alpha particle radiation. Alpha particles don't have enough energy to go through skin. As a result, exposure to the outside of the body is not considered a serious hazard. However, if DU is ingested or inhaled, it is a serious health hazard.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FArXD0_hjZ0

[jaybee]

Posted by Miller (here)

Posted by Tintin (here)
What many of us who have been paying attention long ago concluded and beautifully articulated by Simplicius The Thinker here:

"So: Ukraine was taught in “the NATO way”, BUT…apparently NATO is actually incapable of fighting without air superiority. Woops! Seems like that’s something which should’ve been noted up front to the poor AFU lab rats, no? The fact is, the entire ‘NATO training’ canard is a hoax perpetrated by cynical Western rulers for nearly a decade now. It’s been widely noted from the early parts of the Donbass war, 2014 and onward, by AFU soldiers themselves, that NATO trainers in fact were inferior to the Ukrainian troops they purported to be training. The reason is: their ‘knowledge’ is merely theoretical, and what one quickly learns on the battlefield is that nothing surpasses the real life, first hand experience of a blooded warrior, who has actually seen fighting, not in the stuffy pages of a textbook, but in the gruelling chaos of the trenches themselves."

***

Namely: that NATO has never actually ever fought a real war.

NATO is an irrelevance, defunct, impotent: a stymied ideological construct and on its way to a slow and painful death.

What an eye-opener and infuriating! This applies to absolutely everything and not limited to defence matters. When you look at the chaos everywhere and the actual work our MPs are doing to ruin the bloody country, it's glaringly obvious that to be in the Cabinet you have to have degrees in Incompetence, Negligence and Bumbling.

The Prime Minister, cabinet et al are taking being a Useful Idiot to new levels...

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...n-Ukraine.html

In stead of posing for the camera + grinning like he's having a photo taken with a scruffy relative at a wedding... it would be nice if Sunak would act with more dignity and decorum - it's like he doesn't have a clue what danger he's putting the country in and has no understanding of the seriousness of it all - including his own personal responsibility for keeping the death and destruction going in Ukraine -

it was at this meeting with Zelensky he committed Britain to supplying...

....hundreds of air defence missiles and further unmanned aerial systems including hundreds of new long-range attack drones with a range of over 200 kilometres'.

I expect NATO will be covertly controlling the 'attack drones'....how would anyone be able to tell ???







What embarrassing and inappropriate behaviour considering the seriousness of the whole situation...

[Bruce G Charlton]

Thank you Bill.

I did research with radioactive material in a medical biology lab for three years - beta particles and gamma radiation - but not alpha... We were pretty scared of the risk of potential alpha (and beta) contamination because it was essentially (in practice) impossible to detect, and alpha (in particular) as you say, very dangerous to living tissues.

Chernobyl happened during my time doing this research, and we could detect an increase in gamma radiation simply by walking outside with a Geiger counter each day (we had something like ten Geiger counters dotted around the unit. Meanwhile, we knew the UK govt was covering-up the situation, because their officials on TV were releasing very few radioactivity measurements (also clearly not trying to find the worst areas, but avoiding them), and talking about gamma radioactivity measurements; as if they were highly technical cutting edge stuff, and difficult to accomplish!

[Bruce G Charlton]

@jaybee - A full length, full frontal, pressed-together body hug with a stranger* - yuk; and creepy!

*Or, maybe not? Who knows...

[ExomatrixTV]

• Massive Ukrainian Ammunition Depot Explodes – Is It Radioactive?

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=8nRd9u4iqfE

A Russian drone attack on an ammunition depot in the western Ukraine city of Khmelnytski sent up a giant fireball, immediately incinerating what is estimated as hundreds of millions of dollars of military supplies furnished by NATO countries and damaging a number of surrounding buildings. Immediately speculation arose around whether any depleted uranium ammunition had been incinerated and what impact the possible increased radiation might have on the area. Jimmy and Americans’ Comedian Kurt Metzger discuss whether the reports about depleted uranium are to be believed.

[Vicus]

Interesting overview about last missiles attack/contra attack

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=_LmXouVk1AE

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Sinnaig/status/1658847433210703872

https://twitter.com/Sinnaig/status/1658852787617185793

https://twitter.com/Sinnaig/status/1658847147247251457

¤=[Post Update]=¤

Seemingly the warehouses of the Odessa plant CENTROLIT (located in southern Ukraine, a few kilometres from Odessa) have been hit.

Warehouses and industrial facilities are traditionally used by the AFU to shelter the most expensive NATO equipment.

#source (https://t.me/ukraina_ru/148778)

Join Slavyangrad chat. Your opinion matters.

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/st...27347469279233

https://twitter.com/RusEmbUSA/status...78301366210562

[Ravenlocke]

Text:

Russian Ministry of Defense:

According to reliably confirmed data, on May 16, as a result of a strike by the "Kinzhal" hypersonic missile system in Kiev

- a multifunctional radar station was hit and completely destroyed,

- as well as 5 launchers of the PATRIOT anti-aircraft missile system manufactured by the United States.

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/st...18564026363909

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/st...20865688322048

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/st...20641733566467

https://twitter.com/djuric_zlatko/st...20073954820097

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1658872194213052416

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/vicktop55/status...62522428956676

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/Blackrussiantv/s...75956683997188

[COLOR="red"]

[Ravenlocke]

Text:
The United States is ready to transfer the Iron Dome system to Ukraine
This was stated by the head of the US Army Space and Missile Defense Command, Lieutenant General Daniel Carbler . This “gift” for Kiev was again discussed after the “salute” that the Armed Forces of Ukraine staged in response to the attack of the Russian Armed Forces on critical facilities in the Ukrainian capital.
The US Army has two Iron Dome batteries at its disposal, Karbler said. One of them is under renovation, and the other is already fully ready for use and is awaiting a request from the Kyiv administration.

https://twitter.com/Spriter99880/sta...40803336916996

https://twitter.com/Daark_web/status...30117400317952

[ExomatrixTV]

• “Ukraine Would Collapse In Days” w/o Western Support says Top EU Diplomat:

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=zh8rwfwngcI

[Ravenlocke]

Today, units of PMC "Wagner" advanced up to 260 meters. Occupied 180 thousand square meters.
1.28 square kilometers remain under enemy control.
"The enemy puts up fierce resistance. The fighting continues for every house, for every entrance, for every square meter of territory, despite the fact that a couple percent of the territory remains under the enemy in Bakhmut.

IL RUSSO

https://twitter.com/dana916/status/1658932529737465856

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/thesiriusreport/...13499840487455

Text:
⚡️The United States cannot say whether Ukraine's "counter-offensive" has begun, said Jake Sullivan, national security aide to the US president.

"Whether a counter-offensive has begun is up to the one who conducts it, and I will not proclaim it. I will let the Ukrainians characterize what they are doing," Sullivan told reporters. According to him, "intense military activity continues."

https://twitter.com/WarMonitors/stat...09995734376457

[Ravenlocke]

Posted by Bill Ryan (here)

Posted by Bruce G Charlton (here)
Thanks for this information about contamination (and to Ravenlocke)

Question: Does anyone know a competent and honest source about what kind of contamination would be *expected* from such a massive explosion of depleted-uranium/ "DU" shells?

I had read (when the UK first decided to escalate the conflict by supplying them) that they were alpha-radiation emitters - which are very short-range/ very destructive particles, but can't be detected by Geiger counters; but the source stated that DU was not a gamma-radiation emitter (i.e. the common type of radiation, the 'x rays' that are detected by a Geiger counter).

However, I am not confident about the validity of my sources, and maybe gamma radiation is produced by DU shells in sufficient amounts to cause dangerous contamination when very large numbers are exploded in one place?

Does anyone know?

I spent a bit of time on this (because I'd like to know too!), but I have nothing definitive so far. Many non-US/UK/EU news articles, all over the world, are pretty much re-publishing the many Telegram and Twitter posts, while Newsweek (e.g.) is trashing the whole thing as a right-wing Putin-propaganda conspiracy theory, even putting "depleted uranium" in quotes as if referring to fairy dust.

I found some of the comments below this article, which is all in English, very interesting, and some of the commenters do seem to have technical knowledge.

• https://en.topwar.ru/216990-ukrainsk...ym-uranom.html

The article's title (a very pedantic one!) is

Ukrainian sources write about dosimetric patrols in Khmelnitsky in connection with the possible presence of shells with depleted uranium in the affected warehouse.

~~~

One thing which I feel I do know is that the gamma radiation (if it's there) isn't the primary threat. Far more dangerous is the possible ingestion of alpha particles, which are large and heavy, and ingestion is a very hit-and-miss, pure-chance thing.

You might avoid them entirely, even in a radioactive environment. But if you're unlucky and happen to absorb any, then they can wreak havoc in the body.

Chris Martenson did an EXCELLENT short (12-minute) video about nuclear fallout and the various risks, and explains the alpha particle danger right at the start of the video.

DU, especially when pulverized and heated, can certainly produce alpha particles. Then when those particles are on the loose, it's merely a matter of being lucky enough to somehow dodge the tiny invisible particle bullets.

This statement (which I believe is correct) comes from this US EPA article:

• https://epa.gov/radtown/depleted-uranium

DU mainly emits alpha particle radiation. Alpha particles don't have enough energy to go through skin. As a result, exposure to the outside of the body is not considered a serious hazard. However, if DU is ingested or inhaled, it is a serious health hazard.

Source: https://youtube.com/watch?v=FArXD0_hjZ0

https://twitter.com/ArthurM40330824/...29534731788292

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/ArthurM40330824/...26378815823873

https://twitter.com/colonelhomsi/sta...39339881619456

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/Sinnaig/status/1658927938757173248

¤=[Post Update]=¤

https://twitter.com/ArthurM40330824/...36657733734401

[Ravenlocke]

https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/sta...12970716618752

https://twitter.com/apocalypseos/sta...13590869635072