[RD] War in Ukraine: Other topics

[Snowygerry]

This is probably the reason :

Such mines are highly controversial, as they can be a danger for both soldiers and civilians. Uncleared mines remain a long-term threat after the end of a conflict: In 2023, nearly 6,000 people worldwide were killed or injured by land mines. Some 80% of the victims were civilians, including many children.

Ofcourse being invaded by the Russian army is also dangerous for civilians and children.

Several million mines and other concealed explosives would likely be necessary to effectively protect the long border. Large areas would become uninhabitable for decades, and the potential damage to people and the environment is almost impossible to predict.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

I am sure every mine will be perfectly mapped to the centimeter. We are not talking about Cambodia here. It is when there is a active conflict that mines are spread randomly, even artillery and bomb delivered, and becomes a long term issue because finding them is a nightmare, as it is going to be in Ukraine. Placing controlled minefields now can avoid that, among other things.

 

[EnglishEdward]

I am sure every mine will be perfectly mapped to the centimeter.

And if the enemy captures the map ?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

That is one of those important things to avoid in wars.

 

[Snowygerry]

There should be several maps, of those only one is correct, which one is known to a single individual, who's identity should be kept secret, disclosing the secret only on his deathbed.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Suppose the individual is prematurely run over by the er. er.. Gent omnibus and thereby unable to make the disclosure.

Which map do you hand to the de-mining squad ?

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Then the driver of the omnibus is sent to find the mines himself.

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

Kyriakos, call your office:

Greek-managed tanker damaged by (possibly) limpet mines after doing business in Russian ports sometime this year

Explosion Reported on Crude Tanker Off the Coast of Libya

A Greek-managed crude tanker has suffered an explosion at a position off the coast of Libya, according to maritime security consultancy Vanguard. In a...

maritime-executive.com

A Greek-managed crude tanker has suffered an explosion at a position off the coast of Libya, according to maritime security consultancy Vanguard.

In an advisory, Vanguard said that the 158,000 dwt tanker Vilamoura suffered a possible security incident at a position about 80 nautical miles off the coast of Libya. The ship reported an explosion and a flooded engine room.

The oceangoing tug Boka Summit met up with Vilamoura at a position off Benghazi on Saturday afternoon, and appears to have taken the tanker in tow, based on AIS data provided by Pole Star. As of Sunday night, Vilamoura and Boka Summit were under way in the central Mediterranean, headed towards Greece and making about four knots.

In the past year, Vilamoura made two calls at Russian ports - one at Ust-Luga and another in the Russian sector of the Black Sea. Heavy GPS jamming makes it difficult to determine where in the Black Sea region the vessel went, but it appears that she spent time near Sochi and Novorossiysk; the latter is a loading port for both Russian and Kazakh crude. Her presence at Russian ports could have bearing on the incident off Libya, noted Vanguard.

"Some have speculated that the [Vilamoura] was the victim of a limpet mine attack, although this remains unconfirmed by official sources," Vanguard reported. "Of note, a number of tankers have been involved in explosions since early 2025 that investigators believe were caused by limpet mines, including the Malta-flagged Seajewel, the Marshall Islands-flagged Seacharm, the Liberia-flagged Grace Ferrum, and the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged Kola. All had recently called at Russian ports."

 

[banzay13]

Wait, it could cause polution of ocean, many birds, fish will die... Ah, it's russian oil, well, it nature friendly of course. No harm, Indeed

 

[Ordnael]

Putin is invading more than Ukraine​

Putin is invading more than Ukraine

The new battlefield is online, and the stakes are democratic sovereignty.

www.politico.eu

We all know Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine with tanks in 2022. But many don’t know that in 2024, he invaded Romania — with tweets.

In both cases he failed — for now. But Putin’s aggression is focused on the U.S. and all its allies. He’s spending millions of dollars, bombarding European voters with manipulative social media and disinformation campaigns on a mass scale. It’s a new type of warfare on democracy that eliminates the need to roll tanks into capitals.
Putin’s constantly evolving playbook is the result of his failed military campaign to capture Kyiv and strangle Ukrainian democracy. He ran into Ukraine’s indominable resilience, and as a result, he began deploying a long-standing Russian (and Soviet) strategy to destroy Western democracies from within by supporting and cultivating pro-Putin political candidates. And TikTok, Telegram and other social media channels are now weapons in this new kind of war.

Never far from his KGB roots, the Russian president realizes public opinion can be manipulated and shaped by political proxies and propaganda beholden to Russia’s strongman. One only need examine Romania’s recent election to confirm this sinister truth.

Back in 2024, Putin spent millions to elect a pro-Russian president in Romania. His method: infiltrate elections, support authoritarian-leaning candidates and manipulate digital platforms to bend public perception. So, the Russian leader boosted candidate Călin Georgescu from obscurity, and in just two weeks, Georgescu had captured 21 percent of the vote, leaving a divided field of 15 candidates stunned.

Violating common sense, reality, as well as Romanian law, Georgescu claimed he neither raised campaign contributions nor incurred campaign expenses. Instead, he had a malevolent benefactor in Putin.

The social media blitzkrieg consisted of “misinformation” and a multimillion dollar Leninist-style effort to destroy democracy in Romania. The effort’s design also included undermining U.S., NATO and EU security interests. And it was just in time that this stealth invasion of Romania’s electoral process was uncovered by Romanian and other Western intelligence services.

Citing serious violations of electoral law and foreign interference, the country’s constitutional court annulled the first round of the election and ordered a do-over. When the second round was held, voter turnout surged past the average 51 percent to nearly 65 percent, as Romanians responded to the crisis with clarity and courage. They rejected Putin’s candidate and chose the democratic, pro-NATO path by a decisive 54 percent to 46 percent margin.
Together with a bipartisan group of seven former U.S. ambassadors to Romania, we had publicly urged Romanians to reject Putin’s candidate. We couldn’t silently stand by and allow the patently false Russia-driven propaganda to go unchallenged. “We saw first-hand Romania’s successful climb from Russian imposed dictatorship to freedom, and integration with the rest of Europe in the EU and alliance with the U.S. through NATO,” we wrote in an open letter.

While Putin’s efforts in Romania eventually miserably failed, but real damage could have been done. | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images
We recognized the opportunity to accurately frame the historic choice Romanians were going to have to make at the polls, and we made the stakes clear: “Under Putin, Russia is again on the march. First invading Ukraine. Will Romania be its next target as it was Stalin’s? . . . Romanians face a clear historic choice: domination by Russia or your own future allied with America in NATO.”

While Putin’s efforts in Romania eventually miserably failed, but real damage could have been done. Fortunately, the country’s democratic institutions and voices refused to be cowed by his latest tactics. And we now encourage others to raise their voices to counter Putin’s attempts to decapitate democracy at the ballot box.

Romanians rightly took responsibility for their own future — and they chose freedom and prosperity over Putinism. After Nicusor Dan’s victory in the presidential race, U.S. President Donald Trump reassured Romanians that he would “strengthen our ties with Romania, support our military partnership, and promote and defend America’s economic and security interests abroad.”

Unfortunately, too many people who should know better are still cozying up to Putin, backing his pro-Russian candidates and undermining the security of the U.S. and other democratic allies. Elon Musk protégé Mario Nawfal was in Moscow in May, while tech billionaire Elon Musk’s father and controversial American right-wing commentators Jackson Hinkle and Alex Jones attended the Future 2050 forum in Moscow in June. Speaking at the forum were numerous Putin allies: right-wing Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov and former president Dmitry Medvedev.

The Romanian battle was won, but Putin’s war on democracy continues. Who’s next on his list? This fall’s elections in Moldova, Estonia, Georgia, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and other European nations are all ripe for interference. But before his propaganda can take hold, it’s imperative to crack down on his violations of election laws.
The fight for democracy now extends to cyberspace, where Putin’s invasion tactics must be thwarted, just as they’ve been on the battlefield. The new battlefield is online, and the stakes are democratic sovereignty.

The lesson from Romania is clear: The best defense against propaganda is truth — and the courage to speak it.

 

[Snowygerry]

Some more details on the curious affair of the exploding tankers :

FT investigates who is behind mystery attacks on tankers linked to Russia

www.pravda.com.ua

One security adviser said that "all fingers had pointed" to Ukraine. However, the nature of the latest explosion, which occurred in the vessel’s bottom rather than its side, led to alternative theories regarding the saboteurs.

 

[banzay13]

An explosion on Thursday also killed Manolis Pilavov, a former mayor of the Russian-occupied Ukrainian city of Luhansk, Russian authorities said. Pilavov ran the city’s administration for nine years after it was separated from Ukraine in 2014 and was wanted by Kyiv for violating the integrity of the country.

Clearly ready for EU country

The Ukrainian special services used a mother with two children from Bryansk, deceived by fraudsters, as a suicide bomber. 36-year-old Alyona Ch. blew herself up together with the former mayor of Lugansk Manolis Pilavov.
According to sources, the explosive device was in Alyona's backpack. A few seconds before the explosion, the woman left her backpack near the house on Taras Shevchenko Street. At that moment, the former mayor of Lugansk, Manolis Pilavov, was next to her. A few seconds later, an explosion was heard, as a result of which Alyona and Manolis died. At the same time, according to sources, before the explosion, the girl was talking to someone on the phone.
Previously, the girl was used in the dark. Alyona has two children left.
The explosion in the center of Lugansk occurred on the afternoon of July 3. The explosion killed two people and injured several others.

Банкста

Украинские спецслужбы использовали обманутую мошенниками мать с двумя детьми из Брянска в качестве смертницы. 36-летняя Алёна Ч. подорвалась вместе с бывшим мэром Луганска Манолисом Пилавовым. По словам источников, взрывное устройство находилось в рюкзаке у Алёны. За несколько секунд до...

t.me

 

[Snowygerry]

There is no indication she was deceived is there ? Resistance members often sacrifice their own lives, maybe she deciided not to live under Russian occupation.

 

[banzay13]

There is no indication she was deceived is there, resistance members often sacrifice their own lives, maybe she deciided not to live under Russian occupation.

Of cause she was. Like those aizerbadjanian truck driver, who was blowed with his truck on crimea bridge.

 

[Snowygerry]

Might have been an Islamic terrorist, without evidence it is all speculation, take this for example:

Top Russian oil executive dies in Moscow window fall

Andrei Badalov's body was found below the windows of his house along the Rublevskoye Highway.

www.newsweek.com

Likely killed himself from misery, no ?

 

[banzay13]

Might have been an Islamic terrorist, without evidence it is all speculation, take this for example:

Top Russian oil executive dies in Moscow window fall

Andrei Badalov's body was found below the windows of his house along the Rublevskoye Highway.

www.newsweek.com

Likely killed himself from misery, no ?

Same happen with French docdor resently or American whistler on Boeing case. Strange death happen everywhere (but somes dont cover western media )

 

[Birdjaguar]

Same happen with French docdor resently or American whistler on Boeing case. Strange death happen everywhere (but somes dont cover western media )

John Barnett was covered in the US media and it does have the appearance of a faked suicide, but it is pretty solitary and does not have the fingerprints of then President Biden on it.

 

[Ordnael]

Remember when cfc resident kremlin mouthpieces said there were no korean troops fighting for russia? I remember.

Kim Jong Un says he'll 'unconditionally support' Russia's war amid a report he's sending 30,000 more troops against Ukraine​

Kim Jong Un says he'll 'unconditionally support' Russia's war amid a report he's sending 30,000 more troops against Ukraine

Seoul said North Korea has likely supplied 12 million shells to Russia. Moscow, meanwhile, said Kim has pledged at least 6,000 more troops as workers.

www.businessinsider.com

• Kim Jong Un is pledging to "unconditionally support" whatever Russia does to fight Ukraine.
• That comes after a report from early July that he wants to send 30,000 troops to Ukraine.
• North Korea, meanwhile, is estimated by Seoul to have supplied 12 million artillery rounds to Russia.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un said on Sunday that he was all in on Russia's war against Ukraine.

Pyongyang's foreign ministry wrote that Kim had met with Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, during which the two leaders pledged to "strengthen strategic and tactical cooperation" between their countries.

Kim said he was "willing to unconditionally support all measures taken by the Russian leadership in relation to the fundamental resolution of the Ukrainian situation," the report said.

It comes as CNN reported on July 2, citing a Ukrainian intelligence assessment and an unnamed Western official, that said there was information indicating that North Korea was planning to send 25,000 to 30,000 troops to Russia.

Such a new tranche of fighters would more than triple North Korea's infantry presence in the war, up from its initial batch of about 11,000 soldiers who fought for Russia in Kursk. Western estimates say 6,000 of those North Korean troops were killed or wounded.

The Japan Times, however, reported on Sunday that Ukraine's intelligence directorate (GUR) said it had "no information" about Pyongyang's plans to increase its troop count in Russia to 30,000.

GUR's press team did not respond to a request for comment sent outside regular business hours by Business Insider.


A more likely expansion is the 6,000 extra personnel Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's security council, said North Korea had pledged to Kursk.

In June, Shoigu said at least 1,000 of these people would be sappers, while another 5,000 would help with construction.

Meanwhile, top Russian officials have been traveling frequently to meet with Kim. According to Russian media, Shoigu visited Kim at least three times in three months in early summer.

The partnership between the two increasingly isolated nations has worried both South Korea and the West. Seoul's intelligence arm said on Sunday that it believed Pyongyang had already supplied Russia with some 12 million 152mm artillery shells, which could fill roughly 28,000 shipping containers.

By comparison, the US said in March that it has sent Ukraine roughly 3 million 155mm shells since the start of the war in 2022.

In return for his troops, ammunition, and weapons, Kim's government has been reported to be receiving food, cash, battlefield experience, and technological assistance for its space and arms programs.

 

[Thorgalaeg]

Remember when cfc resident kremlin mouthpieces said there were no korean troops fighting for russia? I remember.

I remember so many things that those people have said on this forum that have turned out to be diametrically opposed to reality... basically every single thing they have said.

 

[Klaus Hergersheimer]

The goalposts move faster than the Russian lines around here.