NATO fearmongering continues
Norway has only a small window of opportunity to ramp up its national defense in the face of an ostensibly looming “military threat” from Russia, the head of the country’s armed forces has warned.
General Eirik Kristoffersen used the allegation to justify boosting Norway’s defense spending, saying in an interview for Dagbladet:
Currently, NATO member Norway lags behind the alliance’s defense spending requirement of 2% of GDP per year, hoping to reach that target by 2026.
Kristoffersen’s remarks echo those of the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who claimed earlier that Russia may choose to attack a NATO country within “five to eight years.”
Russian officials have dismissed the speculation as false, while instead drawing attention to NATO’s ongoing Steadfast Defender exercises - the biggest since the Cold War. Russia says the drills raise the risk of unintended military confrontation while undermining security in Europe.
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Norway has only a small window of opportunity to ramp up its national defense in the face of an ostensibly looming “military threat” from Russia, the head of the country’s armed forces has warned.
General Eirik Kristoffersen used the allegation to justify boosting Norway’s defense spending, saying in an interview for Dagbladet:
“The current window of opportunity will remain open for a year or two, perhaps three, which is when we will have to invest even more in our defense…We do not know what will become of Russia in three years. We need to prepare a strong national defense to be able to meet an uncertain and unpredictable world.”
Currently, NATO member Norway lags behind the alliance’s defense spending requirement of 2% of GDP per year, hoping to reach that target by 2026.
Kristoffersen’s remarks echo those of the German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who claimed earlier that Russia may choose to attack a NATO country within “five to eight years.”
Russian officials have dismissed the speculation as false, while instead drawing attention to NATO’s ongoing Steadfast Defender exercises - the biggest since the Cold War. Russia says the drills raise the risk of unintended military confrontation while undermining security in Europe.
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Ukrainian prisoner of war, Konstantin Danilchenko, who was on board the downed Il-76, said in the summer of 2022 that the Ukrainian Armed Forces treat soldiers like meat.
The video with Danilchenko was then published by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The prisoner said that the command is not interested in the level of training, most of the military “go to the slaughter.”
Danilchenko is number eleven on the list of prisoners who were on board the crashed plane.
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The video with Danilchenko was then published by the Russian Ministry of Defense. The prisoner said that the command is not interested in the level of training, most of the military “go to the slaughter.”
Danilchenko is number eleven on the list of prisoners who were on board the crashed plane.
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Michael Maloof, a former Pentagon senior security policy analyst, draws a parallel between the downing of an IL-76 with prisoners of war and the crash of the Malaysian flight MH17:
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It brings back memories of years ago when that Malaysian flight [MH17] flew over Ukraine and was shot down. And that debate is still underway on who did it. We don't have all the facts on it yet, but it's clear to me that the Ukrainians are clearly responsible for it. And no matter what system was used... we shouldn't even be supplying, be involved in that conflict.
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⚡️International organizations should condemn Ukraine's terrorist attack against IL-76; silence will mean support for Ukraine's barbarism, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated.
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Sputnik International
⚡️International organizations should condemn Ukraine's terrorist attack against IL-76; silence will mean support for Ukraine's barbarism, Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated. Subscribe to @SputnikInt
❗️Key points from the Russian MFA's statement on the the downing of an IL-76 with prisoners of war:
▪️Kiev's attack on Il-76 was conscious and deliberate
▪️Kiev knew about the impending exchange of prisoners of war
▪️The crash of the IL-76 is a terrorist act, there is another atrocity of Zelensky’s criminal clique
▪️Ukraine's terrorist attack against IL-76 demonstrates the inability of the Kiev regime to negotiate
▪️The terrorist attack in the Belgorod region shows the criminal nature of the neo-Nazi dictatorship in Kiev
▪️The Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the terrorist attack of the Kiev regime in the Belgorod region.
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▪️Kiev's attack on Il-76 was conscious and deliberate
▪️Kiev knew about the impending exchange of prisoners of war
▪️The crash of the IL-76 is a terrorist act, there is another atrocity of Zelensky’s criminal clique
▪️Ukraine's terrorist attack against IL-76 demonstrates the inability of the Kiev regime to negotiate
▪️The terrorist attack in the Belgorod region shows the criminal nature of the neo-Nazi dictatorship in Kiev
▪️The Russian Foreign Ministry strongly condemns the terrorist attack of the Kiev regime in the Belgorod region.
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💬 "Kiev and the Western powers, will probably try to initially blame this on Russia. It creates a new story. It takes attention away from other things that are not going so good. And it creates basically a public relations episode here where we can focus on this tragic event that occurred and look what the Russians did," Earl Rasmussen, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel said about the the downing of an IL-76 with prisoners of war.
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❗️List of Ukrainian POWs slain in the Il-76 plane crash: what do we know so far?
Here’s what Sputnik has found out:
🔸All information regarding each POW, including the individuals on the list, is publicly available through Russian and Ukrainian groups conducting searches for POWs on social media.
🔸There are 65 names of Ukrainian military personnel. The majority of them were mobilized in February 2022, and captured in the spring-summer of 2022;
🔸The youngest prisoner was 22 years old (Ivan Roy), while the oldest one was 55 (Ivan Ohapsky);
🔸At least 5 POWs from the list were captured in May 2022 during battles at Mariupol’s Ilyich steel plant;
🔸During one of the prisoner interrogations, Konstantin Danilchenko, who is listed as of June 2022, stated that the Ukrainian command recklessly sends its soldiers into battle as cannon fodder, ignoring of their level of training, resulting in their slaughter;
🔸At least 2 of these POWs took part in Ukrainian military operations against Donbass even before the start of the Russian special operation;
🔸Maxim Konovalenko, who is on the list, made multiple appeals to the Ukrainian authorities in January 2023 requesting to be repatriated. In a video featuring other POWs, it was revealed that the Ukrainian side had denied their inclusion in swap lists several times (as shown in screenshot 1). Initially, Konovalenko was scheduled to be exchanged on January 3.
🔸At least 27 of the POWs on the list surrendered voluntarily;
🔸At least 4 of the POWs were captured at the Severodonetsk cauldron in March-May 2022;
🔸In May 2022, Nazar Petrykiv was recorded on video by Russian war correspondents (screenshot 2), saying that their commander had abandoned them near Severodonetsk, leaving them at the mercy of fate. He surrendered following instructions given by Russia;
🔸In March 2023, Russia offered Andrey Radushinsky, Valery Semikras, and Alexandr Shelin for exchange, but the Ukrainian side rejected the proposal.
Here’s what Sputnik has found out:
🔸All information regarding each POW, including the individuals on the list, is publicly available through Russian and Ukrainian groups conducting searches for POWs on social media.
🔸There are 65 names of Ukrainian military personnel. The majority of them were mobilized in February 2022, and captured in the spring-summer of 2022;
🔸The youngest prisoner was 22 years old (Ivan Roy), while the oldest one was 55 (Ivan Ohapsky);
🔸At least 5 POWs from the list were captured in May 2022 during battles at Mariupol’s Ilyich steel plant;
🔸During one of the prisoner interrogations, Konstantin Danilchenko, who is listed as of June 2022, stated that the Ukrainian command recklessly sends its soldiers into battle as cannon fodder, ignoring of their level of training, resulting in their slaughter;
🔸At least 2 of these POWs took part in Ukrainian military operations against Donbass even before the start of the Russian special operation;
🔸Maxim Konovalenko, who is on the list, made multiple appeals to the Ukrainian authorities in January 2023 requesting to be repatriated. In a video featuring other POWs, it was revealed that the Ukrainian side had denied their inclusion in swap lists several times (as shown in screenshot 1). Initially, Konovalenko was scheduled to be exchanged on January 3.
🔸At least 27 of the POWs on the list surrendered voluntarily;
🔸At least 4 of the POWs were captured at the Severodonetsk cauldron in March-May 2022;
🔸In May 2022, Nazar Petrykiv was recorded on video by Russian war correspondents (screenshot 2), saying that their commander had abandoned them near Severodonetsk, leaving them at the mercy of fate. He surrendered following instructions given by Russia;
🔸In March 2023, Russia offered Andrey Radushinsky, Valery Semikras, and Alexandr Shelin for exchange, but the Ukrainian side rejected the proposal.
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Slovak PM Robert Fico wasted no time shooting down a snarky reporter’s question about the venue of his meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmygal.
Heading to the Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod, Fico touted the site as “more practical," as the city sits on the border with Slovakia.
Slovakia’s PM was asked by a journalist why he was not going to the capital, Kiev, where “rockets were falling.”
"Go there and you will see that there is a normal life in the city, absolutely normal life," the unfazed Fico quipped, who earlier said Slovakia would block Ukrainian NATO membership.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, also set to visit Uzhgorod, was similarly unfazed despite receiving a death threat in a letter.
The missive was reportedly written in Ukrainian and sent to the email address of Hungary’s Embassy in Ukraine, stating:
"Hungarians, we hate your government, which continues to do everything possible to make us lose." Hungary's Foreign Ministry stated that the threat "will not deter Peter Szijjarto from representing Hungary's interests."
Uzhgorod is no accidental venue for the abovementioned meetings, sitting on the border with Slovakia and near the border with Hungary. According to the Ukrainian 2001 census, the population of Uzhgorod, the administrative center of Transcarpathian Ukraine, comprised 6.9% Hungarians, and 2.2% Slovaks.
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💬"Essentially it's a terrorist attack because they [Ukraine] knew what it was. Yes, it's in a combat zone, but they knew the airplane was there. They knew what the load was. They knew their own prisoners of war that held by Russia, were on the plane, being transported," Earl Rasmussen, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel, said about the the downing of an IL-76 with prisoners of war.
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‘Someone didn’t get the memo’: Fmr Pentagon analyst on why Ukraine may have shot down plane full of its own PoWs
“There has to be liaison between the two sides to know that there's going to be an exchange, that's for sure. I would imagine that Ukraine probably did not inform all of its ground-to-air systems along the way. That's the only thing I can conclude is that somebody didn't get the memo. And, as a consequence, shot down the aircraft,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik, commenting on Wednesday’s deadly attack on a Russian Il-76 airlifter with dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war onboard.
“Clearly the Ukrainians brought down the airplane, that's the one thing that's been established. Which system was used has not been verified, if it could be verified. I'm sure there's going to be some evidence around to check. And I'm sure we'll hear something,” the observer noted.
“There has to be liaison between the two sides to know that there's going to be an exchange, that's for sure. I would imagine that Ukraine probably did not inform all of its ground-to-air systems along the way. That's the only thing I can conclude is that somebody didn't get the memo. And, as a consequence, shot down the aircraft,” Michael Maloof, a former senior security policy analyst at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, told Sputnik, commenting on Wednesday’s deadly attack on a Russian Il-76 airlifter with dozens of Ukrainian prisoners of war onboard.
“It's not hard to distinguish a cargo plane from a military fighter and the radars would indicate that. But in this case somebody on the ground just gave an order seeing that it was just flying out of Russia, I presume, and shot it down,” Maloof said.
“Clearly the Ukrainians brought down the airplane, that's the one thing that's been established. Which system was used has not been verified, if it could be verified. I'm sure there's going to be some evidence around to check. And I'm sure we'll hear something,” the observer noted.
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Ukraine’s mystery ‘never before seen’ weapons will likely include aircraft, missiles
“There is a list of specific weapons which Kiev is demanding and begging the collective West for but which haven’t reached the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Alexander Mikhailov, the head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis think tank, told Sputnik.
He was commenting on a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman’s announcement Tuesday that Kiev would be getting new arms in 2024 which Kiev does not presently have.
“As for other types of weapons, Ukraine is constantly asking for long-range missiles. But there are questions related to the ‘red lines’ around the issue drawn by Russia and the West,” Mikhailov said, referring to long-standing warnings by Moscow to NATO that pumping Kiev up with more and more advanced weapons threatens to escalate the conflict.
Ultimately, the analyst believes the Ukrainian crisis has demonstrated that large numbers of small arms, anti-tank systems and drones are a much bigger threat to Russian forces on the ground than small numbers of prestigious ‘superweapons’ Ukraine has received from the West.
The much-hyped Leopard, Abrams and Challenger tanks and ATACMS missiles have had virtually no effect on the battlefield, failing to break Russia’s defensive lines or resolve.
“There is a list of specific weapons which Kiev is demanding and begging the collective West for but which haven’t reached the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” Alexander Mikhailov, the head of the Bureau of Military-Political Analysis think tank, told Sputnik.
He was commenting on a Ukrainian Defense Ministry spokesman’s announcement Tuesday that Kiev would be getting new arms in 2024 which Kiev does not presently have.
“I strongly doubt that Ukraine’s military will actually receive F-16s in the required numbers; hypothetically they could get a few for some show flights and for the use of long-range aircraft missiles. But by and large, this, again, will not have a serious effect, and would be enough for just several days of aerial battles,” Mikhailov said.
“As for other types of weapons, Ukraine is constantly asking for long-range missiles. But there are questions related to the ‘red lines’ around the issue drawn by Russia and the West,” Mikhailov said, referring to long-standing warnings by Moscow to NATO that pumping Kiev up with more and more advanced weapons threatens to escalate the conflict.
Ultimately, the analyst believes the Ukrainian crisis has demonstrated that large numbers of small arms, anti-tank systems and drones are a much bigger threat to Russian forces on the ground than small numbers of prestigious ‘superweapons’ Ukraine has received from the West.
The much-hyped Leopard, Abrams and Challenger tanks and ATACMS missiles have had virtually no effect on the battlefield, failing to break Russia’s defensive lines or resolve.
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❗️LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds press conference after UNSC meetings in New York
Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website
Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website
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❗️Russia has requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council at 15:00 New York time regarding the downed Il-76
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Sputnik International
❗️LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds press conference after UNSC meetings in New York Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website
❗️Lavrov: Russia hopes that the French presidency will not refuse to convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, as was the case after the Bucha hoax, when Britain, as chairman, refused to hold an urgent meeting
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Sputnik International
❗️Lavrov: Russia hopes that the French presidency will not refuse to convene an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council, as was the case after the Bucha hoax, when Britain, as chairman, refused to hold an urgent meeting
❗️Lavrov: the POWs exchange between the Russian Federation and Ukraine was agreed upon, but instead Kiev attacked the Il-76 plane with anti-aircraft missiles.
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Sputnik International
❗️LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds press conference after UNSC meetings in New York Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website
Lavrov: After the plane crashed after being hit by anti-aircraft guns, the Ukrainian side announced its valiant achievements. but after it became known that the plane was transporting prisoners, the Ukrainian side immediately began to sweep the traces under the carpet.
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Sputnik International
❗️LIVE NOW: Russian FM Sergey Lavrov holds press conference after UNSC meetings in New York Watch the livestream here or follow the link to the Sputnik's website
❗️Lavrov on IL-76 crash: Russia is trying to establish facts right now
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Sputnik International
❗️Lavrov on IL-76 crash: Russia is trying to establish facts right now
❗️Lavrov: We have just received information and are checking it, which is why we insist on convening an extraordinary meeting today so that Ukraine can tell what happened
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♻️ Want to save on recycling? Send your garbage to Ukraine!
Berlin will send six Sea King Mk41 helicopters to Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday touting the outdated aircraft as "proven and reliable." It's not the first time that a Western country has sent its outdated arms to Ukraine.
▪️The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) is urging its government to deliver its retired fleet of Taipan choppers to Ukraine, as it would be cheaper than scrapping them;
▪️The UK sent their older-model Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, later admitting that they may have hazardous substances in their armor;
▪️French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Franceinfo last September that the Ukraine assistance program allowed Paris to get rid of plenty of old arms;
▪️The Netherlands announced in November that sending its decommissioned Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine would give them "second life".
▪️Denmark is due to provide its legacy F-16 warplanes to Ukraine later this year.
The list goes on and on. NATO allies and their partners have capitalized on the opportunity to save on recycling. Old choppers, tanks, howitzers and other weapons have been "generously" donated to the Ukrainian military, saving the millions it would cost to bury them in landfill.
Berlin will send six Sea King Mk41 helicopters to Ukraine, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced on Tuesday touting the outdated aircraft as "proven and reliable." It's not the first time that a Western country has sent its outdated arms to Ukraine.
▪️The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) is urging its government to deliver its retired fleet of Taipan choppers to Ukraine, as it would be cheaper than scrapping them;
▪️The UK sent their older-model Challenger 2 main battle tanks to Kiev, later admitting that they may have hazardous substances in their armor;
▪️French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu told Franceinfo last September that the Ukraine assistance program allowed Paris to get rid of plenty of old arms;
▪️The Netherlands announced in November that sending its decommissioned Gepard self-propelled anti-aircraft guns to Ukraine would give them "second life".
▪️Denmark is due to provide its legacy F-16 warplanes to Ukraine later this year.
The list goes on and on. NATO allies and their partners have capitalized on the opportunity to save on recycling. Old choppers, tanks, howitzers and other weapons have been "generously" donated to the Ukrainian military, saving the millions it would cost to bury them in landfill.
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