War in Ukraine

Russian convicts are escaping the front lines with their weapons, returning to Russia. They apparently wait until a really disruptive event, like an ammo dump being blown up, to make their escape (and avoid the barrier troops). So not only is Russia losing additional fighters from the front lines, they are also gaining heavily-armed convicts loose on the streets of their cities. Russia will be paying for this decision for years to come, assuming the country survives this war intact.

Recruited Russian convicts flee from war in Ukraine General Staff report

 

To clarify: My post was in reply to the post that noted a pivot of Russian strategy to targeting infrastructure, including civilian ( grids, roads, bridges, com towers, etc.). His post nor my reply mentioned the targeting of civilians. We have seen Russian strikes on bridges and transit hubs, for ex., with suspect timing ( daylight near high usage times) when a night strike would achieve objective.

 

Well, this is curious


The indictment (and our story to come) stems from a FBI New York investigation and a Justice Department Task Force KleptoCapture investigation which also involves illicit sales of Venezuelan oil to a Russian aluminum company controlled by an oligarch and a Chinese oil company.

 

The IRGC in Crimea? The Russia-Iran model for Syria moves to Ukraine - analysis (msn.com)

Iran has sent trainers from IRGC to help Russia with the Iranian-style drones it is using, the Times reported.

Last week, Al Arabiya reported: “Russian forces took Iranian instructors to the occupied Kherson and Crimea regions to launch Shahed-136 kamikaze drones, the Ukrainian National Resistance Center reported… The Iranians are based in the Russian-administered Ukrainian areas of Zalizniy Port, Hladivtsi in Kherson, and Dzhankoy in Crimea.”

If the reports are credible, these developments would appear to be linked to past work of the IRGC in backing drone and missile threats across the Middle East, as well as working with Russia in the Syrian war.

 

Norway says 'foreign intelligence' behind drone flights (msn.com)

Norway's Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store on Wednesday accused "foreign intelligence" services of being behind a recent slew of "unacceptable" drone flights in the country, indirectly pointing the finger at Russia.

Earlier Wednesday, Norwegian police had announced the arrest of a Russian -- the son of a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin -- accusing him of illegally flying a drone in the Svalbard archipelago, located in the geopolitically strategic Arctic region.

He was the seventh Russian arrested in the past few days suspected of illegally flying drones or taking photos in restricted areas in the Scandinavian country, which shares a border with Russia in the far north.

"It is obviously unacceptable for foreign intelligence to fly drones over Norwegian airports," Store told Norwegian public broadcaster NRK.

 

Five Russian Nationals and Two Oil Traders Charged in Global Sanctions Evasion and Money Laundering Scheme | USAO-EDNY | Department of Justice

A 12-count indictment was unsealed today in federal court in Brooklyn, New York charging five Russian nationals, Yury Orekhov, Artem Uss, Svetlana Kuzurgasheva, also known as “Lana Neumann,” Timofey Telegin and Sergey Tulyakov with various charges related to a global procurement, smuggling and money laundering network. Also charged were Juan Fernando Serrano Ponce, also known as “Juanfe Serrano” and Juan Carlos Soto, who brokered illicit oil deals for Petroleos de Venezuela S.A. (PDVSA), the Venezuelan state-owned oil company, as part of the scheme. On October 17, 2022, Orekhov was arrested in Germany and Uss was arrested in Italy, both at the request of the United States, and will undergo extradition proceedings.
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“As alleged, the defendants were criminal enablers for oligarchs, orchestrating a complex scheme to unlawfully obtain U.S. military technology and Venezuelan sanctioned oil through a myriad of transactions involving shell companies and cryptocurrency. Their efforts undermined security, economic stability and rule of law around the world,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “We will continue to investigate, disrupt and prosecute those who fuel Russia’s brutal war in Ukraine, evade sanctions and perpetuate the shadowy economy of transnational money laundering.”

“Today we announce the dismantling of a sophisticated network consisting of at least five Russian nationals and two Venezuelan nationals, each of whom are directly linked to corrupt state-owned enterprises, who knowingly sought to conceal the theft of U.S. military technology and profit off black market oil,” said FBI Assistant Director-in-Charge Driscoll. “This network schemed to procure sophisticated technology in direct support of a floundering Russian Federation military industrial complex. While America's adversaries may seek innovative means to undermine the United States, they will continuously be met with the FBI's resolve through tirelessly uncovering and overcoming all threats to U.S. national security, no matter where they may seek safe haven.

“Complex criminal schemes like this require sustained coordination and collaboration between federal law enforcement and international partners. I’m proud of our team of dedicated law enforcement professionals for their teamwork and dedication to enforcing U.S. export controls,” stated U.S. Department of Commerce Special Agent-in-Charge Carson. “We will continue to enforce the unprecedented export controls implemented in response to Russia’s illegal war against Ukraine and the Office of Export Enforcement intends to pursue these violators wherever they may be worldwide.”

 

More on the Shahed Iranian drones. 1500 mile range, being launched from Crimea and Belarus. Electronic jamming countermeasures only briefly mentioned, suggesting not yet developed, but unclear

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/10/20/russia-iran-kamikaze-drones/

 

New European sanctions on Iran specific to the Drones, and jamming technology being sent

The European Union is preparing to sanction Iran for supplying Russia with drones used to strike targets in Ukraine, according to two EU diplomats, in yet another sign of deteriorating ties between Brussels and Tehran.

EU officials are working up a list of individuals and entities with an eye to reaching an agreement quickly. The new penalties would come less than a week after the bloc sanctioned Iran’s “morality police” and information minister over the recent crackdown on protesters.


NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced the alliance would send drone-jamming equipment to Ukraine.

https://tampabaytimes-fl.newsmemory.com/?publink=19bd51433_1348680

 

Boggles my mind - Putin invades Donbas and Kherson regions, destroys the towns, kills people, and then as he see's a Ukrainian counter offensive coming, declares annexation, initiates a "sham vote" as to whom the locals "want to be ruled by" and of course Russia "wins by what - 99%? (LMAO).

Interestingly, during the vote the local citizen was greeted by:
Table 1 - Vodka and a "Z" T-Shirt - With a ballot "Vote Russian"
Table 2 - AK- 47 on the table, with a ballot "Vote Ukranian"and a "pit" beside the table with dead bodies in it - - The dead bodies have "Vote Ukrainain" taped to the lapel...........

After the "vote" Putin states that these territories are now "legally Mother Russia" and threatens nuclear war if anyone "disputes" this.

Meanwhile his forces are hurridly evaculating the same areas under military pressure, leaving a trail of destruction and pits with dead citizens. So very "Stalinist". What a great Gov't.!! Gee ...... I want some.............

Oh and a further update -
As in previous areas "over-run" with Russian barbarians, the "locals" are being "peacfully evacuated" -

Russian to local: Come comrade, get on bus, Mother Russia has nice estate in N Siberia with luxury accomodations and hot women, just for you! You will eat at table of glorious leader, Czar Putin.

Local: But this is my home, I do not want to leave......

Russian: "BANG" - local's body drops...........

Russian: "NEXT"

It is estimated that Russia will bus over 60,000 locals out of Kherson alone to ............... GULAGs!

 

Israel has to know that they will be facing swarms of these drones if a war breaks out. Why in the world are not they working hard to perfect their own drone defense systems in the battlefield that is Ukraine?

 

I think they are. Earlier in the thread I posted about Israel is now finally taking explicit sides and arming the Ukrainians. I suspect this was a big part of it. They mentioned Iranian interference. Before they likely wanted to maintain at least cool relations with the Russians because the Russians were containing Iranian proxies in Syria that they were allied with. But once the Iranian drones started proving to be effective, I think the Israelis decided they had to get off the sidelines. All of that is speculation.

Famously in the 2006 conflict, Hezbollah figured out some way to neutralize Israeli drones that were just observing but giving the Israelis the ability to engage in close quarter urban conflict without taking big losses as they had before. The drones allow the Israelis to see around corners before advancing. Whatever countermeasures Israel developed subsequently have not been made public but obviously we're talking about 16-year-old technology at this point. But there were a lot of post conflict articles on how the Israelis took unanticipated losses because they thought they could use drones in urban warfare just for reconnaissance and somehow Hezbollah neutralized them.

Like everything in the history of warfare, adversaries learn to adapt to advances from the other side and vice versa.

But I do think everyone is now recognizing that swarms of drones that cost $20,000 each with 1500 mile range that pack a punch and can hover represent a new threat that has to be specifically addressed. They're not hard to knock down but they're so cheap, they come in swarms and have long range. Even a 90% success rate means you suffer a lot of damage.

A few things I'm curious about. If you send a swarm of drones you have to have an operator for each one I think and you have to make sure they don't run into each other. A lot of stuff I'd love to read about once it becomes open source. It usually does after a few years. And what is the big advance in terms of being able to carry a heavy payload for 1,500 mi. Usually there's a fuel limitation on that as well as a control limitation. A lot of interesting issues that I'll be looking for future answers to, not that they always come. I still have never seen the 2006 issue specifically addressed, as well as a few other military vulnerability issues from other platforms that are flagged and then you hear that there's a solution to but it's not open source.

 

Bibi - Of course. He's became "buddies" with Putin, just like Trump..........

 

Sure, let’s go with Putin ‘invading’ ethnic-Russian territories and killing people who overwhelmingly wished to become a part of Russia.

In other news ...

Russia shelling nuclear plant it controls.

Russia damages its own bridge.

Russia blows up its own pipelines.

 

Article I quoted said Israel was providing advance warning systems but not arms

post 11481

 

Putin threatening to withdraw all cooperation with UN if UN inspects drones to determine origin of the drones.

Russia to review working with U.N. chief if he inspects drones in Ukraine | Reuters

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Russia said on Wednesday that it will reassess cooperation with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres if he sends experts to Ukraine to inspect drones that Western powers say were made in Iran and used by Moscow in violation of a U.N. resolution.

Speaking after a closed-door U.N. Security Council meeting on Moscow's use of drones, Russia's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy called on Guterres and his staff to "abstain from engaging in any illegitimate investigation." Otherwise, we will have to reassess our collaboration with them, which is hardly in anyone's interests. We do not want to do it, but there will be no other choice," he told reporters.

Polyanskiy did not elaborate. The Security Council met on Russia's use of drones in Ukraine at the request of the United States, France and Britain, who argue that the drones are Iranian made and used by Moscow in violation of a 2015 resolution endorsing the Iran nuclear deal.

"Iran has obligations not to export these weapons," Britain's Deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki posted on Twitter after the meeting. "As a member of the U.N., Iran has a responsibility not to support Russia's war of aggression." Ukraine this week invited U.N. experts to inspect some downed drones. Guterres reports twice a year to the Security Council - traditionally in June and December - on the implementation of the 2015 resolution. Any assessment of the drones in Ukraine would likely be included in that report.

 

Yea, I was answering your query about advancing their own air defense system. Maybe I was sloppy about "arming" Ukraine. This has been a semantical distinction since the Obama administration, what systems are considered "offensive" and what systems are considered "defensive". So maybe a poor use of the word.

But that's what I was referring to, and that something Israel would not even do previously. In fact they would not even participate in economic sanctions against Russia. I think they are now to a limited extent. They were conspicuously trying not to get on Russia's bad side. But the Iranian drones seems to have tipped that calculation.

 

EU states decided to freeze the assets of three individuals and one entity responsible for drone deliveries,” it said.
The EU is “also prepared to extend sanctions to four more Iranian entities that already featured in a previous sanctions list,” it concluded.
Some context: Iran [COLOR=var(--theme-paragraph__link-color)]has repeatedly denied supplying Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine, saying last week that it “has not and will not” do so.[/COLOR]
On Wednesday, EU spokeswoman Nabila Massrali said the bloc had “sufficient evidence” to sanction Iran in relation to supplying drones to Russia, which are believed to have been used against Ukraine

Russia's war in Ukraine | CNN

 

In addition to advanced air defense systems, I think it's time that we provided Ukraine with missiles that have the capability of reaching the sites from which Russia is launching the Iranian drones and the facilities where said drones are stored.

 

Maybe it's just me, but I find it pretty surprising that Iran has better drone technology than the Russians.