February 9, 2024: Russian Digest
Top stories I'm keeping an eye on!
February 9, 2024
Call to Action for my U.S. subscribers: Please call your Congress representatives and tell them to pass the weapons and aid package to Ukraine and to stop endangering U.S. national security by using domestic weaknesses for political purposes…
Ambassador: Ukraine facing 'critical shortage' of missiles, military hardware
Ukraine is facing a "critical shortage" of military hardware, including missiles, urging U.S. lawmakers to support a $60 billion aid package for Ukraine, Ukraine's Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova said in an interview with Bloomberg published on Feb. 8.
"We still have enough people who want to fight — there is no choice, actually for us, we are defending our homes — but we’re running out of equipment, especially missiles and interceptors," Markarova told Bloomberg. "We need this support yesterday.”
Ukrainian officials and foreign allies have acknowledged that the impasse on aid has impacted Ukraine's battlefield capabilities.
Read more at Kyiv Independent and Bloomberg
Baltic, Nordic lawmakers complain that US lacks urgency on Ukraine aid
Senior Nordic and Baltic lawmakers visiting Washington on Thursday expressed alarm at what they called a lack of urgency and a clear strategy by the United States to help Ukraine defeat Moscow's invasion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin will move to take more European territory if he wins in Ukraine, raising the danger of a conflict with the U.S.-led NATO alliance that would carry immense human and economic costs, the lawmakers said.
"Guys, wake up," Zygimantis Pavilionis, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament's foreign affairs committee, said in comments directed at Democrats and Republicans. "Are you ready to defeat enemy No. 1 that is acting like the Hitler of today?"
The bleak assessment of how Washington is dealing with the threat posed by Europe's biggest conflict since World War II underscored growing concerns across the Atlantic that U.S. domestic political feuds are undercutting support for Ukraine.
Read more at Reuters
Russia Deploying Starlink in Ukraine—Reports
Ukrainian soldiers say Russia's military has begun using Elon Musk's Starlink satellite communications network in Ukraine, according to a journalist in the country.
"The military writes that the occupiers have Starlink with licensed accounts," Andriy Tsaplienko, a Ukrainian journalist, said on his Telegram channel, sharing a screenshot of two posts on X, formerly Twitter, that he says are from two Ukrainian soldiers.
"They began to deliver Starlink en masse, via Dubai, accounts are activated, they work in the occupied territories," one of the soldiers with the X handle @_Serhij_ wrote, referring to the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by Russia in the fall of 2022—Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Another X user, @cpt_mitchell, said Ukrainian soldiers "can already see their Starlinks," adding: "I honestly thought they would do it sooner."
Starlink is operated by Musk's aerospace company SpaceX.
Read more at Newsweek
Deep Dive…
Intercontinental lies: FSB launches disinformation and conspiracy campaign in Africa
The FSB's Fifth Service has launched a disinformation campaign in Africa. Among others, the agency is spreading the conspiracy that Western pharmaceutical companies and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates are conducting biological experiments in Africa under the cover of vaccination programs. The FSB is misinforming the population both through newly created media channels and through a network of “political technologists” affiliated with the former head of the Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin. Among them is a man who served five years in prison for a racist-motivated murder in the Moscow subway.
Read the full investigation at The Insider
Who is General Syrskyi, Ukraine's new chief commander?
Following months of reports about a rift in Ukraine's political and military leadership, President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi, who had led Ukraine's military since before the full-scale invasion.
Zelensky replaced Zaluzhnyi with General Oleksandr Syrskyi, who had previously served as the commander of Ukraine's Ground Forces and the Khortytsia Operational and Strategic Group fighting in the country's east.
When announcing the decision, Zelensky called Syrskyi "the most experienced Ukrainian commander" and recalled the achievements attributed to him — the Battle of Kyiv in spring 2022 and the surprise counteroffensive in Kharkiv Oblast in September 2022.
Read more at Kyiv Independent
Norway plans to provide Ukraine with more NASAMS
The government of Norway proposed to the parliament to order more launchers and fire control centers of the NASAMS air defense systems from the manufacturer, in order to transfer them, in particular, to Ukraine.
The Norwegian government announced this on February 9 on its website, "European Truth" writes.
"The government proposes to the Parliament of Norway to order ten more launchers and four fire control centers of the NASAMS air defense system from the Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace (KDA) company. This is done in addition to the purchase of equipment that has already been transferred to Ukraine," the message says.
The investment of the order will reach NOK 3.45 billion - more than EUR 300 million.
"The Norwegian NASAMS system saves Ukrainian lives and prevents the destruction of buildings and infrastructure. Russian missile and drone attacks are large-scale and brutal, so air defense is absolutely crucial for Ukraine," commented Defense Minister Bjorn Arild Gram.
At the same time, the minister is concerned that Norway should acquire air defense equipment for its own defense as soon as possible.
It is not specified how much equipment from the new order may arrive in Ukraine.
It will be recalled that in November it became known that the Armed Forces of Ukraine received two launchers for NASAMS purchased by Lithuania.
In the summer, Norway announced the transfer to Ukraine of a NASAMS support package with additional fire control centers, launchers, and spare parts.
Via European Truth
British intelligence: Accidents at Russian military factories will become even more
Increased production demands due to political pressure from the Kremlin to increase the volume of military-industrial production to support the war in Ukraine will most likely lead to an increase in the number of industrial accidents in the Russian Federation in the future. This is stated in the intelligence report of the Ministry of Defense of Great Britain.
Analysts have drawn attention to recent reports of an explosion at a military plant near Izhevsk in central Russia, which is used to manufacture a number of ballistic missiles, including the Iskander, which are regularly used against Ukraine.
"At first it was assumed that the explosion occurred due to an error by a worker, but later the Russian state news agency TASS reported that it occurred due to "scheduled tests" of rocket engines," the review says.
According to intelligence, it is unlikely that Ukrainian drones were involved in the explosion, given the distance of 1,200 km from Ukraine. In addition, the department added, there were no reports of similar attacks in the area.
According to intelligence officers, there is a real possibility that the explosion at the plant in Izhevsk was caused by careless handling and storage of flammable, combustible, and explosive materials.
"This is at least the fifth inexplicable explosion at a military industrial plant (in the Russian Federation) in the last four months. Previous explosions took place at the Kamenskyi chemical plant near Rostov on January 15, 2024, the Chelyabinsk Tank Plant on November 26, 2023, as well as at the gunpowder and ammunition production plants in Kotovsk on November 10, 2023, and Solikamsk on October 31, 2023," the statement said. British intelligence.
Via Inforesist
Russia is rapidly rearming and may attack NATO in 3-5 years - Danish Defense Minister
Russia is rearming faster than expected and could attack a NATO country within three to five years.
Source: "European Truth", Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, Reuters agency
Details: "Russia's potential in the production of military equipment has grown tremendously," the Danish minister said in an interview with the newspaper Jyllands-Posten
He stressed that Denmark should accelerate its military investments.
"It cannot be ruled out that within three to five years, Russia will test the strength of Article 5 and NATO's solidarity. This was not NATO's assessment in 2023. This is new knowledge that is now coming to the fore," the head of the defense ministry emphasized.
Poulsen noted that there is no direct threat to Denmark, but the Alliance may face hybrid attacks aimed at destabilizing a member state.
Via Ukrainian Pravda
EU Sanctions Set to Target Russian Military and Tech Firms
Bloc proposes penalties on more than 100 individuals, entities
Proposals include firms shipping ammunition from North Korea
The European Union has proposed sanctioning about 55 companies and more than 60 individuals as part of a new package of measures to mark two years since Russia invaded Ukraine.
The restrictions would target individuals and firms involved in producing weapons and supplying key technologies and electronics used by Russian defense firms to build the armaments, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.
Read More at Bloomberg
Intel: Ukrainian cyberattack cripples Russian drone control system
Russian troops lost manual override for DJI drones after Ukrainian cyberattacks crashed key servers linked to custom friend-or-foe recognition software.
Russian forces encountered widespread failures in drone control software following a successful cyber operation by the Ukrainian intelligence service, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) announced on 8 February.
“Cyber specialists of the Chief Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine carried out another successful operation against the Russian occupiers – as of 8 February 2024, the enemy complains about massive drone control software failures,” GUR wrote on the Telegram channel.
Russian forces use the software to reflash DJI brand drones for combat operations. The program enables drone operators to configure and create new control panels, capture video and transmit footage to command centers, and control drones from a computer instead of a remote control, among other capabilities.
Through web servers, the Russian drone reflashing project provides friend-or-foe identification functionality. Per preliminary data, Ukraine’s military intelligence cyberattack took the servers offline, causing all software to register as “foe” and denying Russian access.
Without server access and thus no access to the system, drone control via remotes is likely impossible, Ukraine’s intel said. The Russian troops are now desperately trying to resolve the issue, including by switching to manual control modes, the intel added.
On 30 January, a Ukrainian cyber operation halted the information exchange between the Russian Ministry of Defense units using the Moscow-based server.
Via EuroMaidan Press
Something to Monitor…
Chubais creates a center for Russian studies in Israel
Anatoly Chubais is creating a center for Russian studies in Israel, the Agency writes, citing two sources who have communicated with him over the past months.
According to one of the sources, Chubais has received an affiliation with one of the Tel Aviv universities and is working on a project in which he will tell how Russian liberals “allowed what was happening in the country.” According to another source, Chubais is creating a center for Russian studies at Tel Aviv University.
As the Agency notes, as part of this project, Chubais has communicated with many Russian researchers in recent months: for example, with historian Yuri Slezkin and researcher of Stalinist repressions Stephen Kotkin.
Slezkine, when asked earlier whether Chubais was going to create an educational initiative, replied: “Yes, he thinks something about such things, and he was interested in hearing how institutes for the study of Russia are structured in America and the West in general.”
In March 2022, Chubais left his post as Putin’s special envoy for sustainable development and left Russia. As Bloomberg wrote, he did this because of disagreement with the war that the Russian President started against Ukraine. However, he does not speak publicly on this topic.
Via The Insider