Russia Invades Ukraine. Again by captaincrunch

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

What is wrong with our generals???

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Tuesday, April 15, 2025 6:13 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
More BS from SECOND'S ridiculous sources.

'Everything we heard from Russians was a lie' — Chinese fighters captured by Ukraine speak out

By Kateryna Denisova April 14, 2025 11:46 PM

https://kyivindependent.com/everything-we-heard-from-russians-was-a-li
e-chinese-fighters-captured-by-ukraine-speak-out/

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 15, 2025 6:22 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump blames Zelensky for starting war

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5q0mev07lo

Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a massive Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in Ukraine.

"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," he told reporters at the White House, also blaming former US President Joe Biden for the conflict.

Trump's comments come after widespread outrage over Russia's attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which was the deadliest Russian attack on civilians this year.

The conflict in Ukraine goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Kyiv's pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed insurgents in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 15, 2025 10:45 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

(US will fight as the Russians do. Trump is murdering civilians and gloating about it)

Pete Hegseth Is Gutting Pentagon Programs to Reduce Civilian Casualties

The defense secretary’s focus on “lethality” could lead to “wanton killing and wholesale destruction and disregard for law,” one Pentagon official said.

By Nick Turse | April 15 2025, 7:00 a.m.

https://theintercept.com/2025/04/15/pete-hegseth-pentagon-civilian-cas
ualties-harm/

The Pentagon had been slowly dedicating more resources to killing fewer civilians in recent years, following a long drumbeat of damning investigations of civilian casualties by the press, nongovernmental organizations, government-supported think tanks, and even the U.S. military itself.

But now, under the control of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, the Department of Defense is reversing course.

The Intercept spoke with five current and former Defense Department officials familiar with its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response, or CHMR, efforts, who say that the Pentagon is in the process of eliminating or downsizing offices, programs, and positions focused on preventing civilian casualties during U.S. combat operations.

On the chopping block are the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response office, which handles policies that reduce dangers to noncombatants, and the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which is focused on training and tools for preventing civilian casualties.

The Army also recently announced it will make law of war training — which covers basic battlefield ethics, prohibited acts, and rules of engagement — optional, in an effort to remove “unnecessary distractions” and increase focus on “decisive action in combat.”

This comes as Hegseth trumpets an overwhelming emphasis on “lethality” and cuts to programs that run afoul of Trump administration priorities. Hegseth also reportedly plans to overhaul the entire JAG Corps, which is essential to ensuring adherence to the rule of law and upholding the Uniform Code of Military Justice, after firing the judge advocates general of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.

Trump has also rolled back constraints on American commanders to authorize airstrikes and Special Operations raids outside conventional battlefields, broadening the range of people who can be targeted. After Trump relaxed targeting principles during his first term, attacks and reports of civilian casualties in war zones like Somalia and Yemen spiked.

“There is an overt and ongoing effort to completely shut the Center down and to remove CHMR across all the commands,” said Wes Bryant, who until recently served as the chief of civilian harm assessments and senior analyst and adviser on precision warfare, targeting, and civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon’s Civilian Protection Center of Excellence. “Basically, they are wiping DoD of anything related to Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response.”

The four other officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution or to preserve their ability to lobby behind the scenes, expressed varying levels of concern over how the demise of CHMR would affect combat operations and what Hegseth’s priorities might mean for the world. One of them mused that “lethality” might prove to be only meaningless jargon, but worried that it could indicate something far worse: eschewing military professionalism in favor of “wanton killing and wholesale destruction and disregard for law.”

CHMR-oriented personnel at combatant commands around the world will be shuffled into new roles, according to some of the officials. Central Command, or CENTCOM, which oversees military operations across the Middle East, pushed back on this when contacted by The Intercept, stating that the “CHMR team at CENTCOM will continue to provide civilian harm mitigation and assessment support to the command for the foreseeable future.”

Several officials were hopeful that a concerted effort by advocates to preserve some CHMR work at the Pentagon and at combatant commands would allow harm mitigation efforts to endure within different structures and under different names. But even one of those former officials said that the CHMR enterprise was likely to end up “stillborn,” unable to even complete the phased implementation first laid out in the Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan — written at the direction of then-Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin — that was released in 2022.

One official emphasized that CHMR’s core principles provide more benefits to the military than an overriding focus on lethality. “Shrinking or perverting it beyond recognition or getting rid of it altogether does a disservice to the men and women of the DoD and the institution itself, not to mention the American public,” that official said.

The Pentagon refuses to say whether Hegseth will rescind the CHMR instruction, which established the Pentagon’s policies, responsibilities, and procedures for mitigating and responding to noncombatant casualties. “We have no new announcements to make regarding office closures or changes to policy at this time,” an unnamed Pentagon spokesperson replied, by email, to repeated detailed questions.

“Dismantling these efforts would undermine years of work to learn from past mistakes and improve how the U.S. prevents and responds to civilian harm from its operations — work that actually began under the first Trump administration,” said Annie Shiel, the U.S. advocacy director at the Center for Civilians in Conflict. “Congress mandated many of these efforts through bipartisan legislation, and it must ensure that the programs it authorized and funded are not abandoned.”

Hegseth has made it clear that enhancing his department’s capacity to kill people is his number one priority. “Your job [as secretary] is to make sure that it’s lethality, lethality, lethality. Everything else is gone. Everything else that distracts from that shouldn’t be happening,” he said during his confirmation process. Since taking the helm at the Pentagon, Hegseth has doubled down. “We will revive the warrior ethos,” he announced. “We will remain the strongest and most lethal force in the world.”

As a Fox News personality, Hegseth — a former Army National Guard officer who served in Afghanistan and Iraq — cast troops charged with war crimes as “heroes.” During Trump’s first term in office, Hegseth lobbied for pardons of Army Lt. Clint Lorance and Army Maj. Mathew Golsteyn, and championed Navy SEAL Edward Gallagher, each of whom was charged or convicted of war crimes committed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Trump granted pardons to Lorance and Golsteyn, and reversed a demotion of Gallagher, tagging Hegseth in a tweet announcing the review of one of the cases.

Hegseth takes a dim view of the Geneva Conventions, which form the foundation of the law of armed conflict, or LOAC, and remain the most important rules limiting the barbarity of war by protecting civilians, wounded combatants, and prisoners of war, among others. In his 2024 book, “The War on Warriors,” Hegseth asked, “Should we follow the Geneva conventions? … Aren’t we just better off in winning our wars according to our own rules?”

At his Senate confirmation hearing, Hegseth said that during his time in the military, “restrictive rules of engagement” briefed to him by a military lawyer, known as a JAG, made war-fighting more difficult. But rules of engagement, which provide instructions for the use of deadly force in military operations, are issued by a senior commander — not a JAG officer.

Bryant — who worked as a Special Operations joint terminal attack controller, or JTAC, and called in thousands of strikes against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups across the greater Middle East before serving as chief of civilian harm assessment — said that Hegseth has little grasp of the laws of war.

“In Hegseth, you have a Secretary of Defense who really does not understand LOAC. Every time I’ve heard him talking about his time in Afghanistan and the law of armed conflict, he’s talking about things that were not actually LOAC but policy,” said Bryant. “So, Hegseth blames all his experiences of being overly restricted in combat on military lawyers and LOAC — when the types of operational restrictions he has cited have nothing to do with lawyers, the law of armed conflict, or international law.”

The Signal Chat among senior Trump administration officials (and a journalist) discussing military strikes in Yemen revealed that the attack targeted a civilian residence in an effort to kill a Houthi target. It is one of more than 200 strikes conducted in Yemen by the Trump administration since the beginning of March, carried out in an attempt to force Houthi fighters to halt attacks on ships in the Red Sea, which the Houthis say is in response to Israel’s war in Gaza. Local Yemeni authorities say more than 50 civilians have been killed in the attacks.

(Hegseth is currently under investigation for his use of Signal, the end-to-end encrypted messaging app. That inquiry is being conducted by Acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins because Trump fired Robert Storch from his Senate-confirmed Pentagon inspector general role as part of his firings of 17 inspectors general across the government in January.)

Fifteen civilians were reportedly killed and at least 20 injured in strikes on March 15 and 16, alone, according to Airwars, the U.K.-based airstrike monitoring group. “In just two days of strikes under the new Trump administration, U.S. forces reportedly killed half the number of civilians killed in a full year of strikes under Biden,” the group reported.

These strikes were conducted with CENTCOM’s civilian harm mitigation and response officers still on the job. “The CHMR team at U.S. CENTCOM continues to be focused on their assigned tasks. There has been no change to their status or work focus,” a nameless “defense official” told The Intercept by email. “We do not anticipate the DoD CHMR effort at CENTCOM being shutdown at this point.”

Trump also recently posted a black-and-white video showing more than 70 people gathered in a circle. An explosion occurs during the 25-second video, leaving a massive crater. “These Houthis gathered for instructions on an attack,” Trump claimed, without offering a location or any other details about the strike. “Oops, there will be no attack by these Houthis!”

A former U.S. drone pilot and strike cell analyst, who served in the CENTCOM and Africa Command regions during the first Trump administration was skeptical of the vetting process that identified the targets in Trump’s video. “My suspicion is that it is very low. NAI — names, area of interest — and gatherings would be all that is required. This is not proper vetting, if this is what they are doing,” he told The Intercept on the condition of anonymity due to his nondisclosure agreements with the government. “Remember in his first term the whole of AFRICOM was shut down due to negligent strikes. They had multiple ‘missed’ strikes that killed civilians.”

After Trump relaxed targeting principles during his first term, attacks in Somalia tripled and U.S. military and independent counts of civilian casualties across U.S. war zones — including Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen — increased. Since taking office a second time, Trump again rolled back constraints on American commanders to authorize airstrikes and Special Operations raids outside conventional war zones.

During his first overseas trip as defense secretary, Hegseth met with senior AFRICOM leaders and signed a directive easing policy constraints and executive oversight on airstrikes. “The president and the secretary of defense have given me expanded authorities,” Gen. Michael Langley, the chief of AFRICOM recently told the Senate Armed Services Committee. “We’re hitting them hard. I now have the capability to hit them harder.”

A 2023 investigation by The Intercept found that one April 2018 attack on al-Shabaab militants in Somalia — conducted under Trump’s loosened rules — killed three, and possibly five, civilians, including 22-year-old Luul Dahir Mohamed and her 4-year-old daughter, Mariam Shilow Muse. At the time, AFRICOM announced it had killed “five terrorists” and that “no civilians were killed in this airstrike.”

The Pentagon’s inquiry into the attack that killed Luul and Mariam found that the Americans who conducted the strike were confused and inexperienced and that they argued about basic details, like how many passengers were in the targeted vehicle. The U.S. strike cell members mistook a woman and a child for an adult male, killing Luul and Mariam in a follow-up attack as they ran from the truck in which they had hitched a ride to visit relatives. Despite this, the investigation — by the unit that conducted the strike — concluded that standard operating procedures and the rules of engagement were followed. No one was ever held accountable for the deaths. For more than six years, Luul and Mariam’s family has tried to contact the U.S. government, including through an online civilian casualty reporting portal run by AFRICOM, but did not receive a response.

When asked how the demise of CHMR would affect AFRICOM operations, spokesperson Kelly Cahalan punted. “CHMR is an OSD policy,” she told The Intercept, referring to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. “We aren’t going to speculate about potential policy changes.”

Multiple sources, speaking on background, said that CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla had specifically advocated for civilian harm mitigation efforts, which the Washington Post previously reported, purportedly telling others that his CHMR officers were an integral part of the command’s operations. CENTCOM refused to offer comment. “We have nothing to provide you on this,” a “defense official” wrote in an email.

Some experts worry that the pending demise of CHMR, the firings of the judge advocates general, and loosened rules of engagement for drone strikes and commando raids is part of a broader push to shunt aside ethics and accountability across the military.

“The U.S. is setting up its own warfighters to fail.”

“We’re seeing a dramatic reversal of progress across the armed forces, which will ultimately undermine the United States’ strategic goals. Military success isn’t measured by the number of people the armed forces kill; it’s measured by winning carefully-planned battles designed to achieve a strategic military goal without causing needless destruction,” Daphne Eviatar, the director of the Security With Human Rights program at Amnesty International USA, told The Intercept. “By emphasizing lethality and eliminating training on the laws of war, loosening rules of engagement and firing anyone with power to exercise oversight over U.S. armed forces, the U.S. is setting up its own warfighters to fail.”

Bryant voiced similar concerns about where the potential demise of CHMR efforts would ultimately lead. “I do worry about the direction that Hegseth and the Trump administration are going after this first step of dissolving the CHMR enterprise. Is this administration now going to try to change the warfighting culture and doctrinal standards of the U.S. military, and have us executing our next conflict more like Israel has carried out in Gaza?” he asked. “If we do get into a large-scale conflict — whether in Europe or China or elsewhere — will we not care one way or another about the civilian populace? Will our current low tolerance for civilian casualties and historically conservative application of ‘proportionality’ under international law be completely reversed?”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 15, 2025 3:17 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Trump blames Zelensky for starting war

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg5q0mev07lo

Donald Trump has blamed Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the war with Russia – a day after a massive Russian attack killed 35 people and injured 117 others in Ukraine.

"You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles," he told reporters at the White House, also blaming former US President Joe Biden for the conflict.

Trump's comments come after widespread outrage over Russia's attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which was the deadliest Russian attack on civilians this year.

The conflict in Ukraine goes back more than a decade, to 2014, when Kyiv's pro-Russian president was overthrown. Russia then annexed Crimea and backed insurgents in bloody fighting in eastern Ukraine.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

That's just silly. Barack Obama started that war. Zelensky is just a child rapist and former not-funny comedian.

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"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 16, 2025 8:34 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:

That's just silly. Barack Obama started that war. Zelensky is just a child rapist and former not-funny comedian.

The Russians are not satisfied with only conquering Ukraine. Will Trump be blamed by you for what Russia does next?

Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Head Sergey Naryshkin threatened a Russian attack against NATO states in response to NATO states building up their defenses in line with US President Donald Trump's push for Europe to increase its own defense capabilities. Naryshkin claimed on April 15 that NATO states are strengthening their positions on their borders with Belarus and Russia, including Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast.[19] Naryshkin claimed that Poland and the Baltic states "should understand" that the "first to suffer" in the event of "NATO aggression" against the Union State of Russia and Belarus will be the Polish and Baltic political circles that have spoken about building up their defenses along their borders with Belarus and Kaliningrad Oblast — although Naryshkin claimed that Russia "will certainly" inflict damage on the entire NATO bloc in this event.[20] Naryshkin claimed that European states, such as France, the UK, and Germany, are escalating the war in Ukraine, so Russia "needs to act preemptively" and "is ready for this."[21] Russian officials, including Putin, repeatedly threatened NATO in 2023 and 2024.[22] Naryshkin appears to be claiming that European efforts to shoulder more of Europe's own defense requirements and to defend against future Russian aggression — in line with Trump's calls for such efforts — are allegedly provocative and escalatory.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-15-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 16, 2025 9:43 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia Jails Own Soldier For Surrendering in Ukraine

Apr 15, 2025 at 9:54 AM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/russia-jails-soldier-surrendering-ukraine-205
9892

A Russian soldier has been jailed for 15 years for voluntarily surrendering to Ukrainian forces, marking the country's first such prosecution.

On Tuesday, a Russian military court in the country's Far East sentenced Roman Ivanishin, a serviceman from Sakhalin who had been deployed with the 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, Russian newspaper Kommersant reported.

Newsweek has contacted Russia's foreign ministry for comment by email.

Why It Matters

Ivanishin is the first Russian soldier to face criminal prosecution for voluntarily surrendering in Ukraine in the war, according to the newspaper.

What To Know

Russian prosecutors had sought a 16-year prison term for the soldier, who surrendered to Ukrainian forces in June 2023. He was returned to Russia in January through a prisoner exchange after talks mediated by the United Arab Emirates, and subsequently charged with voluntary surrender, attempted voluntary surrender on at least one other occasion, and desertion.

After Ivanishin surrendered in Ukrainian forces in the Donetsk region, a video circulated in which he could be heard denouncing Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale of invasion and calling on fellow Russian soldiers to desert.

Ivanishin's trial was held behind closed doors. He denied all the charges, according to Kommersant.

Desertion and voluntary surrender have been persistent issues for Russia's military throughout President Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Both offenses carry severe penalties under Russian law—desertion is punishable by up to 10 years in prison, while voluntary surrender can result in a sentence of 10 to 15 years.

Last February, a Russian anti-war project named Get Lost, which was created to help Russia's men evade or escape conscription in Ukraine, said cases of desertion from the military had increased tenfold that year.

And in November, Russian investigative outlet iStories said an "entire regiment" of more than 1,000 soldiers deserted Russia's 20th Guards Motor Rifle Division stationed in Volgograd.

Russia is also reported to have forcibly sent hundreds of its military deserters to the front line in Ukraine. Some were held at gunpoint and were physically abused or detained for resisting, according to Verstka, an independent Russian news outlet.

What People Are Saying

Ivanishin's former colleagues told independent Russian news outlet Okno that the soldier "wasn't eager to go to war," but he feared persecution for refusing mobilization. He also didn't imagine that "it would be so brutal in Ukraine."

One of Ivanishin's relatives told Okno: "It was hell there, just hell, according to him. Not only are you fighting and don't understand what for, but your own people are setting you up all the time. They'll send you into an assault without support, or put you in a pit, or beat you up while you're drunk."

What Happens Next?

Ivanishin will serve his sentence in a maximum security facility.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 16, 2025 1:32 PM

This isn't 2021. You don't get a multi-million NIKE deal for taking a knee anymore.

Besides, stupid, they don't give that to white people anyhow. They just tried to ruin your life if you didn't take a knee with the grifter who made more money in 2 years of grifting than the vast majority of us will ever see in our entire lives.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Thursday, April 17, 2025 7:16 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainian officials reported that Russian forces recently executed at least one unarmed Ukrainian prisoner of war (POW) near Rozdolne (northeast of Velyka Novosilka). The Ukrainian General Prosecutor's Office and Donetsk Oblast Prosecutor's Office reported on April 16 that there is footage of Russian forces taking three Ukrainian servicemembers prisoner near Rozdolne on April 11 and executing one of the unarmed Ukrainian POWs.[18] ISW has observed a sharp increase in credible reports and footage of Russian forces executing Ukrainian POWs throughout 2024 and 2025 and continues to assess that Russian military commanders are either complicit in or enabling their subordinates to conduct these executions in violation of international law.[19]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-16-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 17, 2025 7:22 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia Is Trying to Push River Borders

By Elisabeth Braw | April 16, 2025, 12:44 PM

https://foreignpolicy.com/2025/04/16/russia-estonia-narva-river-buoys-
borders/

Almost a year ago, Russian border guards removed half the buoys that had been placed to mark the border between Russia and Estonia in the Narva River. Estonia’s government has repeatedly (and politely) reminded Russia to return the buoys, without which users of the Narva River have no way of knowing on which side of the border they are. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Russia has failed to do so.

Altering maritime borders is no trivial matter—especially when Russia is using force to try to redraw the map of Europe.

The Russian border guards arrived in the middle of the night between May 22 and 23, 2024. When they left, they took with them 24 buoys marking Estonia’s border with Russia along the Narva River. Although maritime borders are typically marked only on naval charts, not through visible cues, such buoys have long demarcated the two countries’ maritime border and allow anyone using the Narva River to know which side of the border they are on—which is particularly important for Estonians being careful not to stray into Russian waters.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the arrangement worked satisfactorily. Since riverbeds shift, every spring—just before the summer season, when all manner of anglers, small-boat owners, and canoeists use the river—the two sides would assess the Narva’s riverbed and correspondingly adjust the light buoys marking the border.

Last spring, Estonia repeated the procedure the way it has done every year. But there was one major difference: In 2023, Russia had declared that it disagreed with Estonia’s proposed positioning of the buoys. So last year, “we decided to release the floating marks into the water for the summer season according to the 2022 agreement, because they are necessary to avoid navigational errors, so that our fishermen and other hobbyists do not accidentally wander into Russian waters,” Eerik Purgel, the head of the Estonian Border Guard Bureau of the East Prefecture, said in a statement.

Russia, though, objected to the locations of around half of the planned 250 floating marks. What to do? Estonia decided to install the buoys anyway, in Estonian waters, on the basis of the border as it had been agreed in 2022. On May 13, 2024, Estonian authorities installed the first 50 buoys. Nine nights later, the Russian border guards removed half of them. Because the buoys were on the Estonian side, fetching them involved Russian guards intruding into Estonian waters to execute the removal.

Since then, they’ve been gone. Estonia could put them back, but Russia would simply take them away again. Instead, Estonia has been asking Russia to put the buoys back, arguing that they form the official marking of a legitimate border. Russia, alas, has not complied. The maritime border (or rather, its visible part) is gone.

Imagine if Russia or another country had unashamedly removed border markings on land. We’d notice it; in fact, it would be a huge deal, especially if it involved a NATO member state. But until now, water has been different, the borders more flexible and less visible.

Since the early 2010s, China has exploited the world’s lack of attention to maritime borders by starting to build artificial islands in parts of the South China Sea that belong to the Philippines and other countries. It was a blatant violation of internationally agreed borders, but since the construction proceeded gradually, a few concrete layers at a time, no one could think of what, exactly, to do about the violation.

Turning to an arbitral tribunal under the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, as the Philippines did, changed nothing: Even though the tribunal unanimously sided with Manila, China simply ignored the ruling. Now China possesses artificial islands, complete with military installations, in these waters.

The buoys place Estonia in a conundrum. Russian nationalists have long indicated that they want to retake the Baltic states, annexed by force in 1940 and not freed until 1991, and they have plenty of advocates in the Kremlin. Removing border buoys is hardly the equivalent of a full-blown invasion, but it’s also not a negligible act. It is, in other words, gray-zone aggression—or, as former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves calls it, geopolitical microaggression. “It’s another silly game the Russians play,” he told me. “Just in the past few months, we’ve seen them put explosives in sex toys in Lithuania, we’ve seen the shadow fleet, we’ve seen cable cuts, and at the moment there’s a lot of GPS jamming in Estonia. It’s a constant policy of harassment. They’re letting us know that they’re there and can be a problem.”

“Russia only understands one thing, and that’s power,” one senior officer said.

Removals of maritime borders are far from the only Russia-related headache in the Baltic region these days. For the past 18 months or so, nations in the region have been affected by GPS jamming, most of which originates in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. Last year, Estonian authorities received 307 official reports of aviation disruptions, 85 percent of which related to GPS. The cause appears to be Russian jamming to protect its military installations, Estonian authorities say.

Regardless of the cause, GPS disruption poses a risk to aviation. Estonian authorities say civil aviation in Estonian airspace remains safe—if only because pilots and air traffic controllers know how to navigate without GPS. “Fortunately, there was a time before GPS, and people still remember the procedures and the equipment that ensure safety and navigational capability,” Mihkel Haug, a member of the board of the Estonian Air Navigation Services, told public broadcaster ERR News.

And this spring, Polish authorities uncovered Russian-steered aggression involving explosive-laden sex toys. The Polish authorities allege that on instructions from a GRU officer, a Ukrainian residing in Poland had inserted explosives into cosmetics, pillows, and sex toys; driven to Vilnius, Lithuania’s capital; and handed them over to a woman also working for Russia, whose task was to get the items to different places in the region where they would explode and harm, even kill, people.

Last fall, parcel bombs were discovered in airliner facilities in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Poland; prosecutors and intelligence agencies linked the parcels to Russia and said some of the parcels originated in Lithuania, though it’s not clear whether they too had been handled by the as-yet-unidentified woman with the sex toy explosives.

Compared with the risk of explosions, heaven forbid aviation accidents, the removal of maritime border markers may seems manageable. But a border is a border, even if it’s in the water. If Russia can remove the Narva buoys with impunity, it’s likely to conclude that it can disregard or alter other maritime borders, too. The removal of border buoys, though, falls short of the military attacks that NATO was set up to counter, and so does other gray-zone aggression.

“Even getting something onto the NATO agenda as an Article 4 matter is big,” Ilves said. “Even when we were targeted by the big cyberattack in 2007, we were blocked from putting it on the NATO agenda. Whenever we raise issues like these at NATO, we’re being told that it’s just below the level of outright aggression.” NATO’s Article 4 states that the “Parties will consult together whenever, in the opinion of any of them, the territorial integrity, political independence or security of any of the Parties is threatened.”

In The Defender’s Dilemma, I set out ways in which the Western alliance can better detect and counter gray-zone aggression. Many of them include building and enhancing societal resilience. When I wrote the book, I didn’t think of border buoys as vulnerable to gray-zone aggression, but societal resilience can help there, too. Imagine if Russia (or China, for that matter) tried to alter another maritime border and ordinary citizens turned up in such numbers that taking action would result in civilians being harmed or even killed. Ilves has another solution: Europe, he said, needs an organization that focuses on threats that don’t quite meet the level of collective defense under NATO’s Article 5.

Either way, Estonia’s border buoys belong along its side of the maritime border with Russia. If we keep highlighting the issue, the Kremlin might just decide that altering the border isn’t worth the price.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 17, 2025 2:32 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Urainian officials reported ...

= trashcan

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, April 17, 2025 2:35 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

The one good thing about SECOND scouring the internet for anti-Russia stories is that I can catch up on the bullshit in one easy scanning.

AURAPTOR was good like that, too. If I wanted to know what Limbaugh dittoheads were saying on any particular day I could always count on him to tell me.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Thursday, April 17, 2025 2:39 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Meanwhile,

"... a lot of changes on the ground because Russia improved their position along the entire line of contact"

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

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Friday, April 18, 2025 7:43 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump Is Helping Putin Kill Ukrainians

Trump refuses to sell Patriot missiles for Ukrainian Air Defense

By Phillips P. Obrien | Apr 16, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/trump-is-helping-putin-kill-ukr
ainians

When I wrote in early March, “The Week The USA Started Killing Ukrainians”, some people said it went too far. They said that the US not aiding Ukraine was not the same as killing Ukrainians, that Trump still wanted a deal, etc, etc. Well, it turns out that I did not go far enough.

Just in the last few days we have incontrovertible proof of how Trump is helping Putin kill Ukrainians—both some now and many more in the future. Its the combination of what the US will not sell Ukraine (even though Ukraine has the money to buy them), the Russian missile campaign against Ukrainian civilians, and how the two come together. Let’s start with what came out in the last few days.

Ukraine is desperate to purchase Patriot anti-air missiles, as the Ukrainians are running out of this vital system. These were provided (too late) by the Biden Administration in 2023. From the moment they appeared, however, they revealed themselves to be the most effective air-defense weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal. The Ukrainians have used them to great effect—shooting down some of Russia’s most advanced aircraft and, crucially, some of Russia’s most difficult to shoot down missiles that have been fired against Ukrainian cities. Indeed, the Patriots have proven quite effective against Russian Kinzhal missiles, which the Kremlin used to boast could not be intercepted.

Having Patriots allowed the Ukrainians to keep the power on during the Russian Winter attacks in 2023-2024 and 2024-2025. However, they are very expensive to use. Zelensky claimed in February that 10 Patriot missiles were fired to bring down 6 Russian ballistic missiles—and that the cost of the Patriots was around $30 million.

In sum, these are a very effective but expensive system. They have made Ukraine much safer than it would be otherwise.

And the very effectiveness of the Patriots has provided Trump with a weapon to help kill Ukrainians. Even being sparing in their usage, Ukraine is running out. Patriots are an American system and the USA has been the source of most of the missiles. Right now there is no new US aid on its way to Ukraine. All we have had in 2025 is the left-over amounts of Biden Administration aid, whereas Trump and the GOP Congress have made no efforts to get any more aid for Ukraine—and that reality is not changing.

Russia understands this and is trying to make Ukraine use up all of its Patriots missiles. In the last few weeks the Russians have been using some of their advanced ballistic missiles against Ukrainian civilian targets, from Sumy last week (see picture above) to Kryvyi Rih the week before, to Dobropillia a little before that.

This seems very much to be a deliberate, targeted campaign to terrorize Ukrainian civilians and force the Ukrainians to use up their dwindling stock of Patriot missiles.

And it is working. The Ukrainians are desperately trying to get their hands on more Patriots—and its reached the stage that they are willing to pay whatever it takes to get more. Zelensky told CBS news that he wanted to buy up to 10 new Patriot systems and their missiles, which would be a major win for the US defense economy. Zelensky said he wanted to buy 10 U.S.-made Patriot systems — worth $1.5 billion each — to shield Ukrainian cities from relentless Russian missile and drone strikes.

"We will find the money and pay for everything," Zelensky said, stressing that Ukraine is prepared to purchase, not request for free, the $15 billion package.

Trump is refusing to sell them—even though that would benefit US workers and help the US economy. Indeed, in the last few days he has started boasting about the fact that Ukraine is desperate to buy more Patriots, and he is refusing to make a deal. Two days ago he told an Oval Office press conference:

Quote:
"He's always looking to purchase missiles. Listen, when you start a war, you gotta know you can win a war. You don't start a war against somebody that's 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles."

And it was just reported in Das Bild that the EU made it known that they would support a $50 billion weapons purchase for Ukraine from the USA—including Patriots. Trump has refused to sell to Ukraine, at any price. https://glavnoe.in.ua/en/news-en/trump-refused-to-support-ukraine-even
-in-exchange-for-50-billion-from-the-eu-bild

Remember months ago, when those who said that Trump would definitely be willing to help Ukraine by selling them weapons? Well it turns out that was another lie.

So here we have it. The USA (Trump is the duly elected president with the support of Congress—so this is the official position of the US government) is now working together with the Russian government to see more Ukrainians killed. The USA is encouraging a Russian missile campaign against Ukrainian civilians by letting the Russians know that the US will deprive Ukraine of the means to defend those civilians and no longer provide Ukrainian Patriots.

So, the next time a Russian missile lands in a Ukrainian city and bodies litter the streets, realize this is an act that is being encouraged and supported by the USA. The USA is no longer a defender of democracy in Europe, it is an enabler of dictatorship and death.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 18, 2025 8:37 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Kremlin is adopting increasingly threatening rhetoric towards Europe aimed at preventing Europe from supporting Ukraine and defending itself. Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) Spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned on April 17 that Russia will consider any missile strike with German Taurus missiles against Russia to be Germany's direct participation in the war in Ukraine.[15] Zakharova also threatened Estonia, mirroring Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Head Sergey Naryshkin's recent threat that Poland and the Baltic States would be the "first to suffer" in the event of "NATO aggression" against Russia or Belarus.[16] The Kremlin has repeatedly used similar threats against Western states sending military aid to Ukraine as part of Russia's wider reflexive control campaign to influence Western decision-making and deter aid to Kyiv, including nearly identical threats against the US regarding allowing Ukraine to strike Russia with ATACMS.[17] The Kremlin likely seeks to portray European efforts to augment both European and Ukrainian defensive capabilities as provocative in order to push European countries into self-deterring from providing Ukraine with additional military support and bolstering European defensive capabilities.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-17-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 19, 2025 8:42 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Russia Needs More Soldiers!

Russian recruitment rates increased in early 2025 as a result of the Kremlin's temporary increases in sign-up bonuses and some Russians' anticipation of a negotiated ceasefire in Ukraine. Russian opposition outlet Verstka reported on April 11 that statistics from the Unified Selection Point (Russia’s main volunteer recruitment agency) show that monthly contract recruitment rates in Moscow City almost doubled in late March and early April 2025 compared to January 2025.[5] Verstka observed that the Russian Ministry of Defense (MoD) has recruited over 6,300 people through voluntary military service contracts in Moscow City since the beginning of 2025. Verstka added that recruitment rates suddenly spiked starting on March 17, amidst reports of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia and Russian forces repelling Ukrainian forces from much of Kursk Oblast. An employee of a Russian military recruitment center in an unnamed town in Siberia told Radio Svoboda that the town's recruitment rates peaked in March 2025 after the regional government increased regional one-time enlistment bonuses to one million rubles ($12,114).[6] The employee added that many volunteers who are enlisting had waited for the regional government to increase the one-time payment and hope that the Ukraine-Russia peace talks will lead to a ceasefire that allows them to avoid combat.[7] An analyst at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) extrapolated recruitment data for 37 Russian federal subjects and assessed on April 13 that Russia is currently recruiting around 1,300 volunteers per day, or about 39,000 per month.[8] Russia is unlikely to generate 39,000 volunteers per month indefinitely, however, as the increased enlistment bonuses that generated the previous recruitment bump are temporary, and Russia’s economic and demographic constraints do not likely support continued large-scale recruitment at such rates.[9]

The Kremlin's pronatalist policies introduced during the 2024 "Year of the Family" are reportedly so far failing to improve Russia’s low birth rates. Russian demographer Alexey Raksha told Russian opposition outlet Agenstvo that there were between 293,000 and 294,000 registered births in Russia during the entire first quarter of 2025, which is 2.3 percent less than those registered in the first quarter of 2024.[19] Raksha noted that Russia’s birthrate per woman remained virtually unchanged in the first quarter of 2025 but noted that the number of women of childbearing age (20 to 40 years old) has decreased. Raksha assessed that the decreasing birth rates indicate that the Russian government's pronatalist policies are "having little effect" and noted that Russia may face an economic slowdown and further increases in its retirement age in the long term.[20] Russian President Vladimir Putin designated 2024 as the "Year of the Family" to encourage larger families and alleviate Russia's growing demographic problems, which have been exacerbated by Russia’s war in Ukraine.[21]

Russian federal subjects are increasingly offering women and girls economic incentives in an effort to urgently meet the Kremlin's childbirth quotas. Head of the Republic of Mari El Yuriy Zaitsev ordered the regional government to provide one-time payments of 100,000 rubles (about $1,215) to pregnant female students who registered with prenatal consultation centers.[22] Zaitsev stated that female students may receive the payment between 12 weeks and six months into their pregnancies and that the region previously only distributed maternal capital (payments to women who have children) to women who had already given birth. Zaitsev clarified that female students who are pursuing vocational or higher education qualify for the maternity capital and that female students on academic leave may also qualify for payments. Putin instructed Russian federal subjects in January 2025 to increase maternal capital payments for full-time female students based on regionally calculated living standards, and Zaitsev's order likely supports the Kremlin's campaign to address persistent demographic problems. Russian State Duma Deputy Igor Antropenko in April 2025 also proposed to shorten the length of the workday for women in an effort to incentivize childbirth.[23]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-force-generation
-and-technological-adaptations-update-april-15-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 7:28 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

April 19, 2025

The case for delivering Taurus missiles to Ukraine has never been stronger — militarily and politically.

Militarily, Ukraine now fields a diverse set of long-range strike systems. Unlike Storm Shadow/SCALP-EG in 2023–24, Taurus would not be used as a catch-all solution. Instead, Ukraine could allocate it to targets where its sophistication and lethality truly matter.

Politically, Scholz and the SPD’s hesitation, driven by an openness to nuclear blackmail, has done real damage to Germany’s credibility within NATO and beyond, especially in Moscow. This is extremely dangerous and it’s long overdue to right this wrong.

Critics and opponents continue to put forward arguments against delivery. Some are understandable, though they fail under scrutiny. Others are simply false and amount to disinformation — for example, the claim that German personnel would necessarily be required to operate Taurus.

In the end, no decision is without risk. Delivering Taurus entails certain risks. But failing to support Ukraine effectively and showing continued vulnerability to Russian nuclear blackmail carries greater ones.

Scholz failed to recognize this. We can only hope Merz and his team will do better.

More at https://substack.com/@frhoffmann/note/c-110248818

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 7:45 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Lost Opportunity--We Are Seeing Why Trump's Election Mattered So Much

The US-Russia Pact Is Pretty Much Set

By Phillips P. Obrien | Apr 20, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/weekend-update-129-the-lost-opp
ortunity

The Russians started a Spring Offensive a few weeks ago, and so far they have little to show for it.

However, what we can see is how Trump’s election mattered so much. His tenure in the White House has been a huge boon to Putin and allowed the Russians to consider pressing forward in their present way with the hope that the USA is changing sides. I do not think we can underrate that.

We seem to be reaching a crunch moment in the negotiations. The key thing to understand, as this week highlighted, is that the US and Russia have reached a common position on most of the major points, and are now trying to bully Ukraine and Europe to accept them. The US-Russia Pact is basically in place.

. . . The first few months of 2025 have shown that Ukraine was nowhere near collapse, that Russian advances were not to be unstoppable and inexorable, and that Ukraine is actually capable of winning the war.

The big change in the war is that the USA is no longer a supporter of Ukraine under Trump. No new aid has been approved and the administration seems set on getting a good deal for Putin—which includes putting massive pressure on Ukraine.

In other words, if Donald Trump had not been elected President and the USA has stayed as a strong supporter of Ukraine, willing to provide a great deal of military aid to Ukraine while ramping up sanctions on Russia, Ukraine could have planned on a 2025 in which they inflicted massive losses on a Russian war machine.

Now, however, we have a USA trying to help Putin — and that is the single most important development in the war. It could take what was an improving position for Ukraine and help Russia a great deal. Just as Russian advances are increasingly slowing, the Russians can look forward to getting back to business with the USA soon (which will have second and third order effects on other countries that could be very ominous for Europe). The American people have done Putin a great service.

The US-Russia Pact Is Pretty Much Set

The US negotiating strategy has been pretty consistent, but not very successful. The US has repeatedly made public concessions to Russia while asking nothing from Putin beyond a willingness to take part in discussions. At the same time, their are extensive private talks between the US and Russia so that the two states can align their positions.

It seems now that there is a common framework for an agreement that the US and Russia established. All the elements of the US-Russian accord (maybe we should call it a Pact) were mentioned publicly by US sources this week.

In terms of territory, Russia, according to the US, would at the very least get to keep everything it occupies now — with the possibility according to Steve Witkoff that Russia might be given all 5 of the Ukrainian provinces they have illegally annexed — large parts of which the Russians are nowhere close to occupying. As part of this the USA would even legally recognize the Russian illegal annexation of Crimea — which would validate Russian aggression.

Apart from keeping the geographical fruits of its invasion, Russia could also count on an immediate relaxation of some US sanctions (maybe all — who knows). Bloomberg reported yesterday that sanctions relaxation was an integral part of the US plan.

While Ukraine, in exchange, would get nothing tangible from the US-Russia pact. General Kellogg reaffirmed a few hours ago that NATO membership is off the table for Ukraine. In its place, all we hear about is some vague work-arounds, which will almost certainly be of cold comfort to Ukraine.

And, as always, this week the US re-emphasized that they want Ukraine to hold elections as part of any deal.

This US-Russia pact is a terrible deal for Ukraine (and Europe) and there are signs that not just the Ukrainians, but also some Europeans, are opposed to agreeing to it. This has caused the US government to threaten to walk away. First Marco Rubio said before his talks in Paris that if an agreement was not reached soon, Trump would say the US was “done” and walk away. This was part of a US negotiating strategy that saw Rubio and Witkoff go to Paris to try and get European support for the US vision. Here they are meeting with Macron two days ago.

Trump himself confirmed Rubio’s position a few hours later using even more infantile language. If, Trump said, “for some reason” one of the countries makes it very difficult, “We’re just going to say you’re foolish, you’re fools, you’re horrible people”.

And let there be no mistake, this is a threat to the Ukrainians to take the bad pact. The US walking away from negotiations could be seen as a good thing in Russia, if its accompanied by a unilateral US relaxation of sanctions and getting back to business with Putin—which is what Trump wants. Walking away means no more US aid for Ukraine but potentially alot of economic benefit to Russia.

So this week reaffirmed point by point that the US and Russia share a similar version of peace, and the US is now trying to strong-arm Ukraine and Europe into accepting it. This is what I mean about the election of Trump transforming the war against Ukraine.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 8:09 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

China is sending soldiers to Ukraine to prepare for a Taiwan invasion

By Gordon G. Chang | 04/17/25 12:00 PM ET

https://thehill.com/opinion/international/5252196-china-soldiers-ukrai
ne/

Burton is also concerned that Russia, indebted to China because of the support in Ukraine, will not be able to say no when China demands that Moscow send forces to help it invade Taiwan or another neighbor.

The Chinese and Russian militaries regularly hold joint drills in East Asia. Therefore, the Pentagon should assume that these two powers, along with North Korea, will fight together during the next war.

So China probably sees great advantage in Chinese troops, even if just mercenaries, fighting in Ukraine.

The U.S. and other countries have imposed almost no costs on China for its extensive support for the Russian war effort. We should not be surprised, therefore, that Beijing now thinks it can, with impunity, send soldiers to fight in Europe.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 7:03 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Growth Of Ukraine's Azov Units Follow Path Of Waffen-SS

The rise of Nazism in Germany was accompanied by the rise of its armed militants. These were used to fight opposing political parties and militia formations. They were ruthless.

The units were later known as the Waffen-SS:

After release from prison Hitler decided that he needed a paramilitary group to protect him personally. That group should be steadfastly faithful and loyal to him alone; not least to protect him from possible SA intrigues. Therefore Hitler established a personal bodyguard in his hometown München (Munich). Initially this group numbered only ten men with one officer. It was first called "Stoßtruppe Hitler" (Shock Troops Hitler). Again the title derived from divisional assaults groups from World War I. Later it was renamed "Schutz Staffel" (SS or Protection Squad).
...
By 1932 the SS had some 30,000 men, ...
...
In March 1935 Hitler renounced the Treaty of Versailles and announced the expansion of the German Army and the formation of the SS Verfügungstruppen (SS VT or SS special purpose troops) as the core of a full military division. This unit was financed by the police budget to counter any Army fears.

After the start of the war the 'armed evil' grew further:

By 1939, four regiments (Standarten) had been organized.
...
During the following winter and spring, regiments that had fought in Poland were expanded into brigades and later divisions. ... These three divisions were to be the nucleus of the Waffen-SS in its subsequent rapid expansion.
...
At the end of 1940, the Waffen-SS numbered slightly more than 150,000 men. By June 1944, it had grown to 594,000. Intended as an elite force, the Waffen-SS evolved due to the exigencies of war from the original SS concept of a military organization imbued with Nazi ideology and loyalty to Hitler into a polyglot force of decreasing combat effectiveness.a ???

The Waffen-SS was not part of the regular army. It had its own financial resources. It recruited and trained its own officers through Nazi youth organizations. These were 'true believers' .

There are a lot of parallels between the rise of the Waffen SS and the Ukrainian Nazi formation known as Azov.

Azov started as a violent hooligan gang in Kharkov. It mixed nordic myth and Nazi ideology. It found rich oligarchs as sponsors and in exchange provided them with the necessary muscles to solve 'business conflicts'. It has its own youth organization and international network.

Already in 2014, after the U.S. instigated a coup against the elected government of Ukraine, the fascist background of the newly installed government was shining through. Prime Minister Yatsenyuk, selected by the State Department's Victoria Nuland, designated the Russian speaking people in east Ukraine who opposed him as "subhumans" i.e Untermenschen in Nazi speak.

In December 2014 the BBC(!) warned of the growing Nazi menace in Ukraine:

the ultra-nationalists have proven to be effective and dedicated fighters in the brutal war in the east against Russian-backed separatists and Russian forces, whose numbers also include a large contingent from Russia's far right.

As a result, they have achieved a level of acceptance, even though most Ukrainians are unfamiliar with their actual beliefs.

The volunteer Azov Battalion is a case in point.

Run by the extremist Patriot of Ukraine organisation, which considers Jews and other minorities "sub-human", external and calls for a white, Christian crusade against them, it sports three Nazi symbols, external on its insignia: a modified Wolf's Hook, a black sun (or "Hakensonne") and the title Black Corps, which was used by the Waffen SS.

Azov is just one of more than 50 volunteer groups fighting in the east, the vast majority of which are not extremist, yet it seems to enjoy special backing from some top officials:

Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and his deputy Anton Gerashchenko actively supported the parliament candidacy of Andriy Biletsky, the Azov and Patriot of Ukraine commander
Vadim Troyan, another top Azov official and Patriot of Ukraine member, was recently named police chief for the Kiev region
Mr Korotkykh is also an Azov member

Ukraine's media have been noticeably silent on this subject.
...
[A]lthough Ukraine is emphatically not run by fascists, far-right extremists seem to be making inroads by other means, as in the country's police department.

Ukraine's public is grossly under-informed about this. The question is, why doesn't anyone want to tell them?

A year after the 2014 coup the CIA secretly started to train Ukrainian paramilitary groups for an insurgency against an eventual Russian invasion:

The CIA is overseeing a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel, according to five former intelligence and national security officials familiar with the initiative. The program, which started in 2015, is based at an undisclosed facility in the Southern U.S., according to some of those officials.

The trainees included Azov units:

Despite sometimes open acknowledgement of its Nazism — its former commander once said the “historic mission” of Ukraine is to “lead the White Races of the world in a final crusade for their survival” in “a crusade against the Semite-led Untermenschen” — Azov was incorporated into the country’s National Guard in 2014, owing to its effectiveness in fighting Russian separatists. US arms have flowed to the militia, NATO and US military officials have been pictured meeting with them, and members of the militia have talked about their work with US trainers and the lack of background screening to weed out white supremacists.

Given all this, it would be more of a surprise that the neo-Nazis of Azov haven’t been trained in the CIA’s clandestine make-an-insurgency program. And we’re already seeing the early signs of blowback.

MORE AT https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/04/growth-of-ukraines-azov-units-fo
llow-path-of-the-waffen-ss.html

Finally finished editing

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 7:38 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:
Growth Of Ukraine's Azov Units Follow Path Of Waffen-SS
. . .

Given all this, it would be more of a surprise that the neo-Nazis of Azov haven’t been trained in the CIA’s clandestine make-an-insurgency program. And we’re already seeing the early signs of blowback.

Signym, you cut the best part where the Ukrainians failed to kill glorious leader "I-Alone-Can-Fix-It" Trump.

Quote:
A first taste of the backlash from the western support for Nazis in Ukraine has created came with an assassination attempt against then presidential candidate Donald Trump:

Yesterday one avid U.S. supporter of the fascists in Ukraine tried to assassinate the Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump . . .

https://www.moonofalabama.org/2025/04/growth-of-ukraines-azov-units-fo
llow-path-of-the-waffen-ss.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 9:11 PM

Fuck Ukraine.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Sunday, April 20, 2025 9:31 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

And double-fuck Ukrainian Nazis.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Monday, April 21, 2025 8:21 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Signym:
And double-fuck Ukrainian Nazis.

The Kremlin continues to repurpose narratives that Russian officials have repeatedly used to justify Russia's invasions of Ukraine in an effort to further militarize Russian society in the long term, likely in preparation for a potential future protracted conflict with NATO. Russian state journalist Pavel Zarubin asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a question on April 20 about the EU's recommendation that European leaders refrain from attending Russia's May 9 Victory Day Parade in Moscow.[13] (Victory Day is Russia's principal patriotic holiday and commemorates the Soviet Union's contributions to victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War.)

Lavrov accused the EU of stoking "neo-Nazi ideology" in Europe and stated that Russia "will make every effort to ensure that this ideology does not raise its head," and will destroy Nazism "once and for all."

Lavrov's statements are part of a long-standing Kremlin effort to invoke the Soviet Union's contributions to victory over Nazi Germany and the wider mythos of the Great Patriotic War and vilify Europe and NATO. These efforts aim to exacerbate negative sentiments among Russia's population and drum up support for the militarization of Russian society in the long term.[14] The Kremlin has previously appealed to the mythos of the Great Patriotic War to persuade the Russian population that their increasing social and economic sacrifices for the Russian war effort in Ukraine can help achieve overwhelming victory.[15]

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other high-ranking Kremlin officials regularly invoke the vague term of "denazification" to call for regime change in Ukraine and the installation of a pro-Russian proxy government, and Putin leveraged claims that supposed Nazis control the Ukrainian government to justify the full-scale invasion in February 2022.[16]

The Kremlin is increasingly employing the same playbook that it used against Ukraine towards Finland and former Soviet states, including Estonia and Moldova to justify its attempts to control independent countries and set informational conditions for possible future Russian aggression.[17]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-20-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 22, 2025 6:35 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

US recognizing Crimea as Russian would be 'much worse than Munich in 1938,' Ukrainian lawmaker says

By Chris York | April 21, 2025 6:50 PM

https://kyivindependent.com/us-recognising-crimea-as-russian-would-be-
much-worse-than-munich-in-1938-ukrainian-lawmaker-says/

The global consequences of the U.S. recognizing Crimea as Russian territory would be "much worse than Munich in 1938," a Ukrainian lawmaker has told the Kyiv Independent.

The potential diplomatic move is reportedly one of several options included in a U.S. proposal to end the war in Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on April 20.

Ukrainian lawmaker and chair of the parliament's foreign affairs committee, Oleksandr Merezhko, told the Kyiv Independent that if U.S. President Donald Trump did follow through and formally recognise the occupied peninsula as Russian, it would be a "huge scandal" with major implications for the international rule of law.

"I doubt he will do it because he understands — at least the advisors around him and the State Department understand — the consequences of this in the eyes of the whole world," he said.

In 1938, the leaders of the U.K., France, and Italy met with German tyrant Adolf Hitler in Munich and formally recognized Nazi Germany's annexation of the Sudetenland in what was then Czechoslovakia. An emboldened Hitler launched World War II a year later.

Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 in a sham referendum which was conducted in the absence of any international observers, and with armed Russian soldiers present at polling stations.

Any move by the Trump administration to formally recognize it as Russian territory would contradict a decade-long bipartisan consensus in Washington and international law.

In 2018, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed U.S. opposition to the annexation, calling it a threat to "a bedrock international principle shared by democratic states: that no country can change the borders of another by force."

The U.S. Congress has also passed legislation opposing any recognition of Russia’s claim over Crimea.

"If Trump does it officially, as a president, it will be a serious violation of the principles of international law," Merezhko said.

"It would violate such principles as respect for sovereignty of other states, non-use of force, respect for territorial integrity, and non-interference in foreign relations.

"It will be a huge scandal."

The proposals, outlined by senior Trump administration officials in a confidential meeting with Ukrainian and European counterparts in Paris on April 17, were confirmed by Western officials to the WSJ.

The news comes as Washington signaled readiness to drop ceasefire efforts within the coming days unless progress is achieved.

Ukraine's feedback is expected at a follow-up meeting in London later this week. If there is alignment between Kyiv, Washington, and European allies, the proposals could be formally introduced to Moscow.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Tuesday, April 22, 2025 6:36 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Uncovering Russia's crimes after the Kakhovka dam explosion
Feb 27, 2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 8:54 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Vance issues Ukraine ultimatum after Rubio snubs key London meeting

5:43 AM EDT, Wed April 23, 2025

https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/23/europe/rubio-russia-ukraine-ceasefire-t
alks-intl-hnk/index.html

The US proposal that has caused deadlock includes recognizing Russia’s control of Crimea, the southern Ukrainian peninsula illegally annexed by Moscow, an official familiar with the framework told CNN.

Any move to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea would reverse a decade of US policy.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky made clear Tuesday that he was open to talks with Russia, but that Kyiv would not accept a deal that recognizes Moscow’s control of Crimea.

“Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” he told reporters. “There is nothing to talk about. It is against our constitution.”

(Simplified: Either Ukraine gives Putin what he wants, or else Trump, Vance, and Rubio will change US policy to side with Putin. It is as if Trump, Vance, and Rubio are confused about why Ukrainians are killing Russians and even more confused about why the Russians are stealing Ukrainian land and murdering Ukrainians.)

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 4:10 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Trump "Final" Proposal For Ukraine

By Phillips P. Obrien | Apr 23, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/the-trump-final-proposal-for-uk
raine

We have now, from the news service Axios, a list of points that make up the Trump plan which has been presented to Ukraine as a take it or leave it offer.
https://www.axios.com/2025/04/22/trump-russia-ukraine-peace-plan-crime
a-donbas

This is what Trump has been pressuring the Ukrainians to sign, using the threat of the US walking away from the negotiations. The plan that Axios has seen is arguably the worst possible deal for Ukraine, far worse than most were saying Trump would try to impose. Here are the salient points.

What Russia gets under Trump's proposal

1. "De jure" U.S. recognition of Russian control in Crimea.

2. "De facto recognition" of Russia’s occupation of nearly all of Luhansk Oblast and the occupied portions of Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.

3. A promise that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO. The text notes that Ukraine could become part of the European Union.

4. The lifting of sanctions imposed since 2014.

5. Enhanced economic cooperation with the U.S., particularly in the energy and industrial sectors.

To understand the most terrible parts of the deal, and where the US is bending over backwards to help Putin, you have to start with points 1 and 4.

Point 1 on Crimea ends the strategic world that the US has tried to institute since 1945, and in particular would end the European settlement that has governed the continent as well. It might come as a shock to you, but not a single European state has expanded its borders by conquest since 1945. Yes, there have been countries dissolved (Yugoslavia and the USSR), but they broke up into constituent parts. However, there has been no case of a country expanding its size by militarily seizing the territory of another for 80 years.

This will end that world, and establish a new principle that basically puts every European state on Russia’s (and Belarus’s) borders in real jeopardy. Now, if you invade, ethnically cleanse, and hold—it's yours legally.

I will write much more about this later, but if Ukraine gives up legal claim to Crimea (which would require a constitutional change in Ukraine), Ukraine is establishing a legal precedent that could be used by Russia to take over the rest of the country eventually.

It is the thin end of the wedge in the Russian plan to end Ukraine.

Point 4 on sanctions is almost as bad. This lifts all the restrictions on trade with Russia that have been in place since Russia invaded Crimea—it's a permanent Russian economic victory. It would allow the USA and China to help rebuild the Russian military and economy rapidly (China, as I said on Monday, could flood Russia with finished military production). Sanctions have been one of Europe’s continuing pressure points to try and moderate Putin’s behavior—they would now be gone.

The other devastating thing that point 4 implies is that all Russian assets are unfrozen and returned to their owners, so Ukraine and Europe have no access to these funds to help Ukraine rebuild.

The other points are either concessions to Russia or things that sound like they mean something when they do not.

Point 2 and “De-Facto” recognition of the occupied territories (with not a single Russian withdrawal, it seems) basically starts the process of them eventually becoming de jure parts of Russia.

Point 3 on NATO and the EU is the USA and Russia basically dictating the future of European security, and in one case, where they clearly have no right to do this.

When it comes to NATO, this is just clear evidence of what Trump believes—and it accepts the Russian lie that the war started because of NATO. I suppose the real change is that this seems to be a permanent ban on Ukraine in NATO.

As for the EU part of Point 3, Ukraine is a sovereign European state and its membership is not something to be decided by Trump and Putin. The US and Russia have no right to say which states can or cannot join the EU. The fact that it's even in the text of point 3 shows how they were looking for things to seem like concessions, which are not.

Frankly, the EU should tell the US to stuff itself on this.

Point 5 on enhanced energy cooperation is just a restating of the arm-twisting minerals deal that the US has been trying to foist on Ukraine. It's meaningless as is, there seems to be no investment amounts, agreements, etc.

What is not there is almost as important as what is. There are no security guarantees for Ukraine, no reparations that Russia will have to pay to help rebuild Ukraine, and no US commitments of any kind for Ukraine.

Under this proposal, the US has become formally an enabler of dictatorship and a supporter of the expansion of a dictatorship in Europe, and the enemy of freedom and democracy. I hope European states have the courage to stand with Ukraine in opposition to it.

People Should Have Seen This Coming For A Long Time

A short I told-you-so. This Trump plan should not be a shock, though undoubtedly many people will probably say that they are. He has been pushing for exactly such a plan for years now. In July 2024, when some Trump backers were saying that he would try and get a good deal for Ukraine, I rather lost my cool and tried to say exactly what kind of agreement Trump would try to foist on Ukraine—and it was not pretty. Here were the salient points.
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/this-is-donald-trumps-actual-pe
ace

1. Trump will move very quickly, maybe trying to enact parts of his plan before being inaugurated.

2. He will start with an immediate cessation of US aid for Ukraine.

3. He will pressure Ukraine to cede large amounts of territory to Russia.

4. He will either partially or even totally lift the sanctions on Russia.

5. He will negotiate respectfully with Putin and suspiciously with Zelensky.

What Trump has never said, which a number of the proposed Trump peace plans argue he will do, is:

1. Promise more US aid for Ukraine if Russia rejects a peace deal.

2. Make Russia cede any occupied territory.

3. Allow Ukraine into NATO.

4. Give Ukraine another type of security guarantee by the USA.

5. Press for Ukraine to be let into the EU.

It's all there—Russia keeping the territory, Russia getting sanctions relief, no new aid for Ukraine, no NATO for Ukraine, no security guarantees for Ukraine. Even the negotiating respectfully with Putin and suspiciously with Zelensky was exactly what we have seen.

Trump is what he has always been. The sad thing is still, even now, not all Europeans understand this.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 4:50 PM

You just keep losing more everyday, huh?

That's got to suck man.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 4:53 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Zelensky: the gift that keeps on giving (to Russia).

IMHO Russia is fully prepared to fight until Ukraine collapses, and some in the Kremlin (not Putin) actually prefer that.

But in order to keep their friends on side, Russia keeps the door open for negotiation. Of course, Russia won't give up on its main objectives bc they see them as existential. Fortunately Russia doesn't have to turn down the Trump admin's "peace offer" bc Zelensky did it for them.

Quote:
High-Level Ukraine Peace Talks Scrapped After Rubio, Witkoff Pull Out Last Minute

After Zelensky gave a speech which rejected the main tennet of Trump's offer (Crimea to Russia de jure). Yanno, if Zelensky had at least PRETENDED to agree, it would have put Russia on the horns of a dilemma. Zelensky saved them.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 6:14 PM

I can't believe that Zelensky is still alive this far into 2025.

He won't survive this.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025 10:45 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
I can't believe that Zelensky is still alive this far into 2025.

He won't survive this.

--------------------------------------------------

"I don't find this stuff amusing anymore." ~Paul Simon

Every time I hear Zelensky I think "That's the coke talking". And I think of Hitler in his bunker, high on amphetamines.

But then, I listen to what his advisors say and I realize it's his entire circle! And Im sure they're not sharing the same stash.

OTOH every time Trump pulls one of his harebrained moves I can't help but think ..."Give the man some Adderall, willya?"

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 5:54 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukraine’s ‘invisible’ drones break 12-mile limit, ready to bypass Russian jammers

These drones are physically connected to the operator by a thin fiber-optic cable, which carries light signals instead of radio waves.

By Kapil Kajal | Apr 23, 2025 08:25 AM EST

https://interestingengineering.com/military/ukraine-fiber-optic-drones
-jammers

Ukraine has taken a major step forward in drone warfare by introducing new fiber-optic drones.

The country’s defense technology group, Brave1, recently brought together over 15 top drone manufacturers to test long-range first-person view (FPV) drones, also called kamikaze drones, using fiber-optic control.

The testing was also attended by Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Brigadier General Andriy Lebedenko and the Armed Forces’ Innovation Directorate.

Fiber-optic drones

During the test, each drone had to complete a challenging 20-kilometer (12.4-mile) course and simulate attacks on enemy targets.

These tests showed that drones can now fly farther using fiber-optic control.

With this new technology, drones with a range of only 5–10 km can now travel over 20 km without losing control or signal.

Traditional FPV drones rely on radio signals, which can be jammed by Russian electronic warfare (EW) systems.

Fiber-optic drones are different. They are physically connected to the operator by a thin fiber-optic cable, which carries light signals instead of radio waves.

This makes the drones immune to jamming. They also stay hidden. Since they don’t send out radio signals, Russian forces can’t detect them with radio reconnaissance tools. They’re electronically silent.

Operators also reported clear video feeds with no signal drops, even at long ranges.

Because the cable is a direct link, the drones don’t suffer from interference or distance-related issues like radio-controlled drones.

They also aren’t limited by the terrain; hills, buildings, and trees don’t block their connection.
Ground drones

The event also included tests of seven ground robotic systems (GCS) controlled by fiber optics.

These robots can be used for missions like reconnaissance, cargo delivery, or attacking enemy positions.

With fiber-optic control, they remain stable even in heavy EW conditions.

Captain Oleksandr Yabchanka of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion said, “Fiber optics change everything. Stable communication at long distances lets us destroy enemy forces more effectively.”

Ukraine’s new Silkworm module is at the center of this development. It’s built for air, ground, and sea drones.

Two versions are being tested; one includes a warhead, and the other carries an internal battery. Despite the tether, drones using the Silkworm system remain fast and agile.

Tests show they can travel beyond 20 km with no noticeable difference compared to radio-controlled drones.

As production increases, costs have dropped, making it more practical to use these drones on a larger scale.

Ukraine now has factories that can spool fiber-optic cables with high precision.

This reduces the risk of cable breakage and lowers dependence on Chinese suppliers, who currently provide fiber-optic reels to Ukrainian and Russian drone makers.

Taking lessons from Ukraine, China has also started testing such fiber-optic drones.

Recently, a Chinese People’s Armed Police (PAP) Force unit was spotted training FPV drones using advanced technologies such as fiber optic and AI guidance in countering jamming, according to an official television program.

Li Minxue, a PAP troop, told China’s state-owned CCTV that they have been proactively promoting the research of fiber optic FPV drones, which have become mainstream combat equipment in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 6:30 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Putin admits shortage of FPV drones despite daily frontline deliveries

By Valentyna Romanenko | Wednesday, 23 April 2025, 13:29

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/04/23/7508798/

Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin has said that Russian troops lack FPV drones and called for an increase in the production of equipment to continue military operations.

Source: Putin at a meeting of the military-industrial commission on 23 April, quoted by the Kremlin press service

Details: Kremlin leader said that last year "almost all defence business fulfilled the tasks of the state defence order in full, qualitatively and on time, and for some types of weapons ahead of schedule".

Putin said Russian troops received over 4,000 armoured vehicles, 180 combat aircraft and helicopters.

Quote from Putin: "More than 1.5 million drones of various types have also been delivered, including about 4,000 drones controlled by the so-called FPV system, virtual reality, sent to the front line daily.

I know perfectly well, and many of those participating in our meeting today know it no worse than I do, that these means of defeat are still insufficient. We still lack them. I know the efforts made by the Ministry of Defence, the Minister, and the industry. There are plans, work is actually underway every day.

I am confident that all plans to increase production of the necessary equipment, in this case, these drones, will undoubtedly be fulfilled. They are very much awaited on the front line. This is one of the significant factors of combat success today."

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 7:28 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

For every measure there's a countemeasure. I can think of two countermeasures for fiberoptic drones that could mzke them, and all airborne drones, obsolete.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 10:55 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Heads, Ukraine Loses. Tails, Russia Wins.

Trump is giving Putin what he wants and pushing Zelensky to accept it.

By Phillips Payson O’Brien | April 23, 2025, 4:26 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-ukraine-russia
-war-deal/682560/

The Trump administration is presenting Ukraine with a choice between two bad options: Either Kyiv must accept an American peace plan that rewards Russia for invading Ukrainian territory, or the United States will abandon its efforts to broker an end to the war.

“We’ve issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it’s time for them to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process,” Vice President J. D. Vance said during a stop in India. On Truth Social, President Donald Trump insinuated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has no choice but to accept U.S. terms. “The man with ‘no cards to play’ should now, finally, GET IT DONE,” Trump declared.

In effect, the United States is abandoning the Ukrainians regardless of which option Zelensky chooses. Trump’s one-sided plan gives Russian President Vladimir Putin everything he wants while giving Ukraine nothing of substance. First, Russia gets to keep all the land that it has seized through its invasions of Ukraine stretching back to 2014. Ukraine will have to recognize Russian control over Crimea—in violation of specific tenets of the Ukrainian constitution. In making the latter demand, Trump is formally asking a democratic country, one that very much wanted to be a U.S. ally, to hand over to a bloodthirsty dictator its claim to some of its most strategically important territory. This would be like another nation asking the United States to hand over Hawaii to China.

Such a move would give the Russian invasion of Ukraine the imprimatur of legitimacy. It would destroy the post-1945 European order and hollow out the charter of the United Nations—which helped stabilize national borders and establish the norm that nations cannot expand through military aggression. Now every state on Russia’s border would have to live in a world in which Moscow has been empowered to try to seize its neighbors’ territory if it wants.

The Trump plan helps Russia in many other ways. Economic sanctions that were first imposed in 2014 and have been greatly strengthened since 2022 are to be fully relaxed. This means that seized Russian assets would be returned to Russia, and Russia’s war economy could then be heavily supported by China and perhaps even American companies. A cease-fire under these terms would position Russia to start rebuilding its military after the horrific losses of the Ukraine war.

So Russia keeps the territory, gets all its money back, and gets access to world markets to rebuild its economy. What does Ukraine get? Well, nothing. The agreement would rule out Ukrainian membership in NATO and put no other security guarantees in place. This alone will help hobble Ukraine in its attempts to rebuild from the war. Who is going to invest in the country if it has no formal allies?

Washington certainly has no obligations to Ukraine under the Trump plan. There are no new pledges of U.S. aid or any requirements that the U.S. enforce the cease-fire. The Trump administration has argued that a proposed minerals deal giving the United States a stake in Ukrainian natural resources would be a de facto security guarantee, but business ties are no substitute for a treaty.

If Ukraine says no to Trump’s plan, the U.S. can simply end the talks, go home, and remove sanctions on Russia. If Ukraine says yes to Trump’s deal, that’s even better for Putin. Trump can claim to be a peacemaker knowing that he has put the dictator he admires in the strongest possible strategic position.

The Ukrainians clearly want to reject this plan. Zelensky has already balked at the idea of legally handing over Crimea to a country that is now killing his people and wants to end Ukraine’s existence. His defiance has caused Trump to lash out at the Ukrainians for defying his wishes.

The reaction of European states has been more muted. President Emmanuel Macron of France has spoken of the importance of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but no major leader has so far come out in direct opposition to Trump’s plan. Breaking with the United States still seems just too difficult for European leaders, who have long been conditioned to meekness and failure in matters of global security.

But without the strong backing of European countries, Ukrainians might feel forced to accept this terrible deal. They will not want to, because they will be devastated by it. But unless Europe steps up and confronts a dictator-loving U.S. president, Ukraine might have to give in to Trump and Putin.

Heads, Ukraine loses. Tails, Russia wins.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Thursday, April 24, 2025 3:01 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
Originally posted by second:
Heads, Ukraine Loses. Tails, Russia Wins.

Trump is giving Putin what he wants and pushing Zelensky to accept it.

By Phillips Payson O’Brien | April 23, 2025, 4:26 PM ET

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2025/04/trump-ukraine-russia
-war-deal/682560/

The Trump administration is presenting Ukraine with a choice between two bad options: Either Kyiv must accept an American peace plan that rewards Russia for invading Ukrainian territory, or the United States will abandon its efforts to broker an end to the war.

THE USA has no cards to play, at least against Russia. And all of Trump's huffing and puffing isn't going to change that. And if you think the Kellogg Plan is a bad deal, it's a damn sight better than having to sign conditions of surrender.

Honestly, IDK who Trump is listening to and what they're telling him, but he's getting himself bogged down in Ukraine. He should have never started this ridiculous "peace process". He must have been told that Russia is on the ropes, that they're cracking under the strain and would be willing to sign away what they won with blood and death. But Russia isn't gonna stop until their security concerns are resolved, and the Kellogg Plan isn't gonna hack it.

Trump COULD move the needle by renegotiating another INF treaty bc hostile, potentially nuclear, missiles on Russia's border is their #1 concern, IMHO, more than a land war. But I see nothing wrong with a neutral Ukraine, just as I see nothung wrong with a neutral Austria or a neutral Switzerland.

Trump's team needs to think outside the box. Big picture, guys. BIG picture.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Friday, April 25, 2025 7:09 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Quote:
Originally posted by SIGNYM:

Trump's team needs to think outside the box. Big picture, guys. BIG picture.

BIG picture is that Russia can't stop Ukrainian drones, which will be hitting Russia forever and ever, unless Russia signs a peace treaty that Ukraine will accept:

Drone strike devastates Russian ammo depot

Explosions at the 51st Arsenal of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate (GRAU) have destroyed a significant portion of the large ammunition depot. While the Russians have not disclosed the extent of the losses, satellite images reveal the scale of the destruction.

By LMI | 4:27 PM EDT, April 24, 2025

https://essanews.com/drone-strike-devastates-russian-ammo-depot,714966
1506791553a

On April 22, 2025, at the 51st GRAU Arsenal, large explosions occurred. The Russians officially claim that these were the result of a fire and a "violation of safety rules," while the Ukrainians have not confirmed their involvement in the incident. Nevertheless, the destruction of much of the vast ammunition depot is attributed to Ukrainian drones.

Located east of Moscow, the facility covers an area of one square mile and—according to varying estimates—allowed the storage of just over 100,000 to nearly 300,000 tons of various types of ammunition, including artillery shells, rockets for multiple rocket launchers such as the Grad, Uragan, and Smerch, aerial munitions, and missiles for anti-aircraft systems.

According to Ukrainian sources, the warehouse also contained large stockpiles of Chinese 107 mm rockets intended for the Type 63 launchers.

Destruction at the 51st GRAU Arsenal

Although the Russians have not provided information about the losses incurred, satellite images offer insight into the situation, allowing for a comparison of the facility's appearance before and after the series of explosions. It turns out that detonations occurred over a substantial area of the depot, and up to 80 percent of the ammunition stored there may have been destroyed.

The vast scale of destruction is puzzling, considering how such depots are constructed. The 51st GRAU Arsenal was an area surrounded by an earthen embankment and divided internally into separate compartments by earth barriers.

Ammunition is stored both in open spaces and in concrete bunkers. This organization of the depot theoretically means that an explosion in one compartment should not cause detonations in adjacent ones, and the energy of the explosion is primarily directed upwards.

Despite this, according to analysts evaluating the aftermath of the explosion, up to 30 compartments and warehouses may have exploded at the 51st GRAU Arsenal, and the central part of the entire facility sustained serious damage.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 25, 2025 7:23 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Ukrainian children won't have their loyalty switched to Russia, unless those kids are very stupid weaklings. I have seen enough stupid Americans vacillate to know that some Ukrainian children will be that weak:

Russia is actively recruiting teachers from throughout the Russian Federation to teach in occupied Luhansk Oblast as part of the “Zemskyi Uchitel” (“Rural Teacher”) program. “Zemskyi Uchitel” is a Russian program that selects teachers through a competitive application process and sends them to teach in small towns and villages with populations of less than 50,000 residents for a five-year period in order to compensate for teacher shortages in rural areas.[12] The Luhansk People’s Republic announced in early March that teachers who move to occupied Luhansk Oblast as part of “Zemskyi Uchitel” will receive two million rubles (about $24,000) in compensation.[13] “Zemskyi Uchitel” serves two parallel purposes, both of which strengthen Russia’s control over occupied Ukraine. First, the program further Russifies schools by using Russian teachers to teach Russian curricula in Ukrainian schools.[14] These teachers are likely only using government-approved lesson plans, which include the Kremlin’s revisionist view of Ukrainian history and are centered around pro-Russian military-patriotic ideals.[15] “Zemskyi Uchitel” teachers are also likely to further cut off schoolchildren’s access to Ukrainian-language education, which Russia has essentially destroyed throughout all of occupied Ukraine.[16] Second, “Zemskyi Uchitel” and other professional relocation programs facilitate the repopulation of areas of occupied Ukraine with Russian citizens. Russia has similarly used the “Zemskyi Postalyon” (“Rural Postal Service”) and “Zemskyi Doktor” (“Rural Doctor”) programs to relocate Russian postal workers and doctors to occupied Ukraine.[17] ISW previously assessed that Russia is offering employment opportunities to Russian citizens to encourage them to move to occupied Ukraine as part of the Kremlin’s larger project of repopulating Ukraine with Russian citizens from Russia.[18]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-occupation-updat
e-april-24-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 25, 2025 10:39 AM

THG

Ukraine says no and Russia's second largest bank is collapsing.

tick tock

T

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Friday, April 25, 2025 11:23 AM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Quote:
On April 22, 2025, at the 51st GRAU Arsenal, large explosions occurred. The Russians officially claim that these were the result of a fire and a "violation of safety rules," while the Ukrainians have not confirmed their involvement in the incident. Nevertheless, the destruction of much of the vast ammunition depot is attributed [BY WHO??] to Ukrainian drones.

Sounds like wishful thinking.

*****

Poroshenko on the Minsk Agreement

Quote:
"We had achieved everything we wanted. Our goal was to, first, stop the threat, or at least to delay the war – to secure eight years to restore economic growth and create powerful armed forces.

Notice he didn't say anything about removing troops and heavy weaponry from the line of contact, stop shelling civilians in Donetsk, or establish local control in the Donbas which were the agreed-on aims of Minsk II.

Merkel, on Minsk II.

Quote:
"I thought that the introduction of NATO accession of Ukraine and Georgia, discussed in 2008, was wrong [for that time]. The countries did not have the necessary prerequisites for this, nor was it fully understood what the consequences of such a decision would have been, both with regard to Russia’s actions against Georgia and Ukraine, as well as NATO and its rules of assistance. And the Minsk Agreement of 2014 was an attempt to give Ukraine time [to be ready to join NATO].

Ukraine used this time to become stronger, as you can see today.

Nothing in there about enforcing a ceasefire, withdrawing troops and weapons from both sides of the contact line, stopping Kiev from shelling Donetsk, developing local governance for local issues, or respecting the rights of the Russian speaking majority in that region. Apparently, SHE had no intention of enforcing Minsk II.

Hollande on Minsk II

Quote:
"Yes, Angela Merkel is right on this point," he told the Kiev Independent media outlet, while commenting on Merkel’s remark that the Minsk agreements allowed Kiev to gain time, but by no means prevented further hostilities in the Donbass. "Since 2014, Ukraine has strengthened its military posture. Indeed, the Ukrainian army was completely different from that of 2014. It was better trained and equipped. It is the merit of the Minsk agreements to have given the Ukrainian army this opportunity."

Nope! Nothing in there about enforcing the provisions of Minsk II either!

Zelensky on Minsk

Quote:

Zelenskyy admitted that he had previously told German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron that the Minsk agreements were "impossible" and he did not plan to implement them.

"As for Minsk as a whole, I told Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel: we will not be able to implement it like that," Zelenskyy said in an interview with Spiegel published on Thursday.

This backs up my point that Germany, France, and Ukraine never intended to implement the Minsk II agreements, that the MAIN purpose of signing was to give Ukraine time to build up its military.

Quote:
Originally posted by SECOND
Signym, you were born without hands, but are trying to get a job requiring dexterity. Blah blah blah ...

I bring quotes to the table showing that Merkel, Hollande, Poroshenko, and Zelensky were acting in bad faith, and you bring up prosthetic hands???

What "job" are YOU trying to do by constantly lying, SECOND? Whatever it is, you're not very good at it.

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

-----------
"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Friday, April 25, 2025 12:26 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Europe Has Failed, But Ukraine Might Still Save It

Ukraine’s sacrifice has given Europe the time and experience it needs to save itself.

By Phillips P. Obrien | Apr 25, 2025

https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/europe-has-failed-but-ukraine-m
ight

A short meditation on what Europeans owe to Ukraine. When it comes time, decades from now, to write the history of this era, I wager that one thing that will be regularly said is that Ukraine’s sacrifices over the last few years will have been some of the most important in European history. Without these sacrifices, the whole European project might be ruined—but because of what Ukraine and the Ukrainians have been willing to do, and to suffer, Europe still has a chance.

We have to start with a basic admission. European policy makers have failed. Its been now exactly 38 months since the Russians launched their full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022—that’s approximately 1150 days that European policy makers have had to plan and react. Sadly, they have been better at giving speeches than actually taking the needed steps for Europeans to look after themselves.

If rhetoric had been enough, Europe would be in great shape. At the time of the full-scale invasion there was great talk about how an era had ended and Europe must change (remember Zeitenwende?). Since then there have been regular speeches, President Macron has been key in this, by European leaders saying that they needed to stand by Ukraine, that they needed to do more to look after themselves, etc, etc.

In the end, though, European policy makers did relatively little. Mostly they have sat back and been reactive. Even though a Ukrainian victory was very much in the interests of European states, they allowed the Biden Administration to dominate their policy towards Ukraine and institute its terrible strategy of genuflecting to Russian threats and trying to micromanage the war. Between 2022 and 2024 European defense spending continued to be at levels far too low for the continent to look after itself. In 2024 average European defense spending was 1.9% of GDP—showing that most of the continent was still below NATO targets set decades earlier.

That was just the start. Even though the return of the openly pro-Putin Donald Trump to the White House was at least a 50-50 proposition for most of 2024, European states refused to accept the reality staring them straight in the face. They either denied it would happen or even comforted themselves with bull-shit stories that Trump would not be so bad or even, most ludicrously, that they might talk him around with their silky charms.

When Trump was elected President and was inaugurated, and did exactly what he said he was going to do and align the USA with Putin while ending US support for Ukraine, the European response remained confused and weak. There was talks of building bridges to Washington, golf games, back slaps and lots and lots of praise in the hopes that Trump could be appeased. Its amazing to have seen such denial in action, as there were clear examples that standing up to Trump, the policy of Canada for instance, was always the best way to deal with him.

One of the problems here is that many European states seem to be relying on Washington lobbyists with MAGA ties for their advice. They are being told to be agreeable little boys, to suck up to Trump, to try and get crumbs from the table—because that is what MAGA acolytes need to do to succeed. The inability of European states to think for themselves so far has been one of the great problems.

Yes, there have been some moves to rearmament, but they have been slow, limited and insufficient. What there has not been is any serious planning about what to do in precisely the situation European states find themselves in now—facing the prospect of the US not only abandoning Ukraine but also sidling up to Putin.

By any reasonable measure this policy failure should have crippled Europe. However, amazingly, European states still have a chance to make things right, to recover from the disaster of their own making, and to prepare for the future with some hope of strategic redemption. They only have this chance because of the sacrifice and willingness to fight of the Ukrainians. Ukraine has given Europe the most precious gift possible—time.

This has come in two ways. The first is that in destroying so much of the Russian military, Ukraine has given Europe time to still prepare for any future war. If there was a ceasefire agreed tomorrow, it would still take at least 5 years for the Russian military to be a credible threat. It has lost almost all of its vehicles, suffered a million casualties, seen its Navy heavily damaged and lost many valuable aircraft. In some ways its a force that would have to be rebuilt from scratch and right now the Russians lack the productive capacity to replace what they have lost (though the Chinese could make many of these equipment losses up for them if they wanted).

Moreover, Ukraine has given Europe the second most precious gift possible to go along with this vital time and that is—experience.

Learning from Ukraine gives European states the chance to rebuild their own militaries with the help of the most experienced combat force on the continent and arguably the world—one which understands how UAVs, sea drones, long-range missiles, etc have altered the experience and possibilities of combat. If European states were simply rebuilt along their old lines, with lots of tanks, etc, recreating the militaries that fought the wars before 2022, much of their efforts would be wasted building the wrong equipment in the wrong amounts. Ukraine’s experience can be tapped into by Europe to make sure that they are ready for what a rebuilt Russia might actually do—not what the failed analytical community assumed that they can do.

Europe still might not be able to save itself. The alignment of the USA with Russia and China could doom liberal democracy unless people in Europe are willing to fight for it and European leaders are willing to prepare for it. However the fact that Europe still has this chance, still has time and can prepare with the right experience, is down to the sacrifices of Ukrainians. It is a gratitude of historic proportions.

And it is one that might even give the USA a chance to save itself in the end.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Friday, April 25, 2025 1:48 PM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Car bomb kills senior Russian General Yaroslav Moskalik near Moscow

A home-made explosive device blows up in a parked car, killing Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, authorities say.

25 Apr 2025

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/4/25/senior-russian-general-killed
-by-car-bomb-near-moscow

A senior Russian general has been killed after a home-made explosive device ripped through a parked car in the town of Balashikha, east of Moscow, according to the Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes in the country.

Authorities named Lieutenant-General Yaroslav Moskalik, deputy head of the main operational directorate of the military’s General Staff, as the victim of Friday’s attack, which appeared to be similar to previous attacks on Russians linked to Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine.

“According to available data, the explosion occurred as a result of the detonation of a homemade explosive device filled with destructive elements,” the Investigative Committee said in a statement on Friday.

Investigators added that they had opened a probe into the deadly attack after a Volkswagen Golf blew up outside a block of flats in Balashikha. The statement did not say who might be behind the incident.

Second victim reported

Russia’s Kommersant newspaper said a second person was also killed.

Images from the scene posted on social media showed a blaze that gutted a car.

The Agentstvo investigative news site, citing leaked information, said Moskalik lived in Balashikha, but the Volkswagen was not registered to him.

Security camera footage posted by the Izvestia newspaper showed a massive explosion, sending fragments flying into the air. The blast happens just as someone can be seen walking towards the car.

According to the Kremlin website, Moskalik was a Russian military representative at the “Normandy Format” talks on Ukraine in 2015, amid the conflict between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatists.

Russian President Vladimir Putin made him lieutenant-general in 2021.

Previous deadly attacks on Russians linked to the war in Ukraine include the August 2022 car bombing of nationalist Darya Dugina, and an explosion in a Saint Petersburg cafe in April 2023 that killed high-profile military correspondent Maxim Fomin, known as Vladlen Tatarsky.

Igor Kirillov, the head of the Russian military’s chemical weapons unit, was killed by a bomb planted in a scooter in Moscow in December, the boldest assassination claimed by Kyiv since the start of the conflict.

After Kirillov’s killing, Putin made a rare admission of failings by his powerful security agencies, saying: “We must not allow such very serious blunders to happen.”

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 26, 2025 7:06 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) published a report on April 25 entitled "80 Years After the Great Victory: The Shadow of Nazism Has Again Covered Europe," which accuses European states and officials of reviving Nazi ideology and creating policies that discriminate against Russian-speaking populations, especially in Lithuania, Lativa, and Estonia.[19] Russian MFA Spokesperson Maria Zakharova amplified this report and claimed that European states are preventing Russia from achieving its long-held objectives of demilitarization and "denazification" of Ukraine due to this alleged support of Naziism.[20] Russian officials regularly invoke "denazification" to call for regime change in Ukraine and the installation of a pro-Russian puppet government.[21] Zakharova specifically accused the Baltic States and Poland of justifying and reviving Nazism.

Russian officials have notably leveraged accusations of neo-Nazi ideology to justify Russia's invasions of Ukraine, and Russian officials leveraging these narratives against European states - especially the Baltics and Poland - supports ISW's assessment that Russia may be setting informational conditions to justify future aggression against these states as well.[22] Russian officials are likely attempting to discredit European states more broadly in order to deter them from providing further assistance to Ukraine and revitalizing their defense industries in order to set conditions for future Russian aggression against a weakened Europe.[23] ISW continues to assess that Russia remains committed to discrediting Europe in response to European leaders' reinvigorated commitment to rearming Europe in alignment with US President Donald Trump's policy goals.

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-25-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Saturday, April 26, 2025 6:26 PM

I believe in solving problems, not sharing them.

Well, since the Kremlin said it, it must be true.

Quote:
Moscow hails North Korean ‘solidarity’ in Kursk Region liberation
Russia is looking forward to further strengthening its ties with Pyongyang, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said

North Korea has shown a high level of solidarity with Russia by deploying its forces to help Moscow repel the Ukrainian incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

The long-rumored presence of North Korean forces in the area was officially confirmed earlier in the day during a televised meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov.

North Korean forces were deployed into the area under the Comprehensive Strategic Partnership Agreement between Moscow and Pyongyang, which came into force last December.

Among other things, the treaty envisions mutual military assistance “by all means available” in the event of an attack, Zakharova noted.
Russia praises North Korean ‘heroism’ in Kursk Region READ MORE: Russia praises North Korean ‘heroism’ in Kursk Region

“The solidarity shown by our Korean friends is a manifestation of the high, essentially allied level of our relations. We are confident that our ties will continue to strengthen and develop,” Zakharova told the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda.

The DPRK troops “demonstrated high professionalism, courage, and heroism in battle,” according to Gerasimov. The Army general hailed the country’s forces for their “resilience” and praised their contribution to the liberation of the area around the town of Sudzha, which was occupied by Ukrainian troops.

Kiev and its Western backers had long alleged that North Korean troops were involved in the hostilities in Kursk Region, which was invaded by Ukrainian forces last August. Prior to Saturday, Pyongyang and Moscow neither confirmed nor denied the rumors, while the Russian president had previously said it was up to the two nations to determine how they fulfill their obligations under the partnership pact.

https://www.rt.com/news/616375-north-korea-kursk-russia/

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"It may be dangerous to be America's enemy, but to be America's friend is fatal."- Henry Kissinger

AMERICANS SUPPORT AMERICA

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Sunday, April 27, 2025 6:45 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Trump stated on April 26 that there was "no reason" for Russia’s strikes on civilian areas and reiterated a previously stated concern that "[Russian President Vladimir Putin] is just tapping me along" by disingenuously ceasefire and peace negotiations.[16]

Trump stated that Putin's actions make Trump think that "maybe [Putin] doesn't want to stop the war" and "has to be dealt with differently."

Russian officials have repeatedly tried to leverage heightened US interest in negotiating a swift resolution to the war in Ukraine to make demands tantamount to Ukrainian surrender and incompatible with Trump’s stated goal of achieving a stable and enduring peace in Ukraine.[17]

Russian forces have conducted a string of strikes against civilian areas in recent weeks, including a devastating strike on Kyiv City on the night of April 23 to 24.[18]

https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/russian-offensive-campai
gn-assessment-april-26-2025

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 27, 2025 8:02 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

Only the crazy are on Putin’s side. This dead American was the very definition of crazy:

Top CIA Official's Son Killed Fighting for Russia: Father Speaks Out

By Brendan Cole | Apr 26, 2025 at 8:22 AM EDT

https://www.newsweek.com/cia-american-ukraine-killed-2064508

The father of an American who died while fighting for Russian forces in Ukraine has described his son as an anti-establishment champion who "would not hurt a flea."

Michael Gloss, 21, whose mother Juliane Gallina is CIA deputy director for digital innovation, was killed while in Ukraine's Donetsk region last April.

His father, Larry Gloss, an Iraq War veteran, told The Washington Post neither parent knew their son was fighting for Russia when they were informed by a State Department consular affairs official last June that he had been killed.

Larry Gloss told the Post that Michael struggled for most of his life with mental illness.

The CIA said in a statement that it was not a U.S. national security issue and Ralph Goff, a former senior CIA official in charge of operations in Europe and Eurasia described the death as a great tragedy for the parents.

Newsweek has contacted the CIA for comment.

What To Know

The CIA confirmed the death of Michael Gloss, which had first been reported by Important Stories (iStories), an independent Russian investigative news outlet based outside Russia that has an English-language version.

Citing Russian government information and social media posts, the outlet documented Gloss' travels, which culminated in him joining the Russian army.

He left his home in Fairfax, Virginia, in January 2023 and traveled to Italy and then Turkey, where he helped to restore buildings damaged by an earthquake that year.

Larry Gloss told the Post his son went to the former Soviet republic of Georgia, where he attended a "Rainbow Family" counterculture movement gathering and the following month, told his parents he had crossed into Russia where he was going to meet friends from the group.

His parents were skeptical of the move but did not suspect he would join Russia's military. In social media posts, Gloss shared a photo of himself smiling in Moscow's Red Square and expressed sympathy for Russia's war effort.

In September 2023, Michael told his parents he wanted to stay in Russia and he then enlisted in the Russian military, according to iStories, which found a record of his recruitment in a Russian database.

IStories said Michael was sent to the Ukraine front in December 2023 and assigned to an assault unit, according to a Russian soldier in the 137th Airborne Regiment who said he knew him.

The regiment's units were stationed northwest of the city of Soledar in the Donetsk region and Russian forces moved to capture the besieged citadel of Bakhmut.

On the day Michael was killed, his division said on Telegram it had advanced backed by small assault groups and artillery.

Michael died on April 4, 2024, of massive blood loss during an artillery barrage, trying to aid a wounded comrade, Larry Gloss said, citing the Russian death certificate. The map below by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) shows the state of the Bakhmut front line at the time.

He said his son wanted to become a Russian citizen, believing in Russia he could achieve his goal of building a water purifier to help those without access to clean water.

"I can only attribute it to his mental illness," Gloss told the Post, describing him as "the ultimate anti-establishment, anti-authority young man."

His funeral took place in December, and an obituary published the month before did not mention the war or Russia, saying that he "was forging his own hero's journey when he was tragically killed in Eastern Europe."

Ralph Goff, a former senior CIA official who has traveled extensively in Ukraine, said that up to 3,000 Americans have gone to the battlefield to fight for Ukraine but only a small number have fought for Russia.

The outlet iStories has estimated that among Russian forces are troops from 48 countries and foreign soldiers are likely to continue to enlist.

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 27, 2025 8:05 AM

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

In the battle against huge numbers of insane Russians and Putin supporters:

Ukraine’s border guards reveal how strike crews target those who shoot at drones

By Vladyslava Kovalenko | Sat, April 26, 2025 - 16:10

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/ukraine-s-border-guards-reveal-how-str
ike-1745671870.html

Also see 'Vampire postman' in sky: Military shows how drones assist soldiers in Ukraine's Vovchansk

https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/news/vampire-postman-in-sky-military-shows-
how-1744477939.html

The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two

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Sunday, April 27, 2025 2:25 PM