Why did the Donbass rise up?

📹 "The crisis came only in February 2014. When the images of burning Berkut [special police unit] and burning internal [ministry] troops were shown, when the confrontation on the Maidan escalated, we had already started to gather almost all the activists in Donetsk," Alexander Matyushin, former Donbass commander and war correspondent, shed light on the events that led to the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014.

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🇷🇺🇨🇺 The foreign ministers of Russia and Cuba began negotiations in Havana.

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Dutch PM frontrunner Geert Wilders blasts Ukrainian refugees

“Ukrainians flock to the Netherlands from all over the EU, not because of the war, but for free housing, free healthcare and our jobs. The Netherlands is once again the village idiot of Europe,” he wrote on X.

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What is known about the Avdeyevka Coke and Chemical plant?

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on February 17 that the Armed Forces had taken full control of Avdeyevka, a northern suburb of Donetsk. On February 19, Russian troops completely liberated the town’s coke and chemical plant from Ukrainian forces.

Here is what we know about the compound:

History & Production

🔺Built in 1963
🔺Used to employ 4,000 people
🔺Covers 340 hectares (3.4 square km)
🔺Over 40 workshops, 84 km of railway lines on site
🔺Nine coke oven batteries produced 6.8 million tons per year.
🔺The plant could process 6.4 million tons of raw coal per year.

Before the crisis escalated, it was considered one of the largest coke producers in Europe.

Bunkers & Tunnels

The Avdeyevka plant was built with typical Soviet-era readiness, reportedly equipped with:

🔺7 bomb shelters able to accommodate 2,500 people
🔺Bunkers with generators, fuel, water, food and medicine supplies

There is speculation that the Avdeyevka compound would become a second “Azovstal” – the factory in Mariupol where Russian forces trapped over 2,000 Ukrainian troops and fighters of the Azov Battalion in April 2022.

Strategic Value

The liberation of Avdeyevka means further terrorist attacks by Kiev’s troops on Russian cities and residential areas of Donetsk can be prevented, said the MoD. Moscow also warned that Ukrainian troops were provoking an environmental disaster by shelling Donetsk with Grad MLRS from the plant’s grounds, which still store flammable compounds.

Ownership

The Avdeyevka Coke and Chemical Plant is part of the ‘Metinvest’ group, controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov.

A Moscow court ruled last summer that the assets of Metinvest’s Russian subsidiary should be seized as part of a criminal case into Akhmetov for financing the Ukrainian military, including the Azov Battalion (a terrorist organization banned in Russia).

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Ukrainian servicemen confirm that they left Avdeyevka as best they could; no one organized their “evacuation,” Ukrainian media report.

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Former US President Donald Trump said that with the death of Alexey Navalny, he became more aware of what was happening in America, which, according to him, was in decline.

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🇮🇱📉 Israel’s economy declines by nearly 20% since outbreak of Gaza war

The Jewish state’s GDP contracted by 19.4% during the final three months of 2023, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics.

Some of the woes facing the Israeli economy include the mass evacuation of settlers from the northern and southern parts of the country, a slump in foreign investment and tourism, labor shortages due the government’s mobilization of hundreds of thousands of reservists, and a Red Sea embargo by Yemen’s Houthis.

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🇷🇺🤝🇨🇺 Key Russian FM Sergey Lavrov's statements following negotiations with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez:

▪️Russia is ready to increase the number of flights to Cuba if there is demand among tourists

▪️ The Russian Federation provided Cuba with two loans for the supply of petroleum products and food, the agreements are being implemented

▪️ Lavrov on the words of the President of Brazil, who compared the Israeli operation in Gaza to the Holocaust: everyone has the right to their own reaction

▪️ Moscow will support Havana’s interest in interacting with BRICS, other members of the association will also “have a positive attitude towards the Cuban application to gain status with BRICS”

▪️The Russian side invited the head of the Cuban police to visit Russia

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German trade union leads Lufthansa ground staff walk-out at seven airports

The German Ver.di union announced Tuesday the one-day strike at Frankfurt am Main, Munich, Hamburg, Berlin, Dusseldorf, Cologne-Bonn and Stuttgart airports. That forced the airline to cancel or delay hundreds of flights.

The union is demanding a wage rise of 12.5 percent or at least 500 euros ($539) per month for some 25,000 employees, including those involved in registration, aircraft maintenance and cargo transportation.

The first strike by Lufthansa staff took place on February 7. All the airline’s departures from Berlin and Hamburg were canceled, as were most domestic flights from Duesseldorf. According to Lufthansa’s estimates, more than 100,000 people had to change their travel plans.

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❗️The IAEA believes that reducing dependence on the Russian nuclear industry will cost the EU billions.

Sanctions against Rosatom will bring the nuclear sector in many countries to a dead end, the head of the IAEA said.

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🔺The Russian Ministry of Defense on the use of toxic substances by the Ukrainian military

🔺Key points of Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov’s briefing on violations of the Chemical Weapons Convention by the US and Ukraine

🔺What is known about the Avdeyevka Coke and Chemical plant?

🔺How did the Ukraine crisis and Donbass war begin? Alexander Matyushin, former Donbass commander and war correspondent, breaks it down

🔺Neocon-in-chief Lindsey Graham drools over Ukraine’s resource riches

🔺US and UK mercenaries cope and seethe over Ukraine's total loss of Avdeyevka, Sputnik found

🔺Why did the Donbass rise up? Alexander Matyushin, former Donbass commander and war correspondent, shed light on the events that led to the escalation of the Ukrainian crisis in 2014

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Rostec tests a prototype of a vertical take-off drone

Specialists from the Sukhoi Design Bureau (part of the United Aircraft Construction, Rostec) have run successful tests for a prototype of a new heavy UAV with vertical take-off and landing capability. The UAV in development will have a maximum range of 500 km and will be capable of carrying up to 300 kg loads.

This advanced machine does not require any docking stations and airfield infrastructure for take-off and landing. It will tackle many transport and logistics tasks invloving dropping off various items to hard-to-reach settlements that lack sufficient transport network or airfields.

At the testing stage, Rostec engineers looked at the UAV’s take-off control and maneuvering, hovering, and landing. All the tests took place at an integrated flight stand fully made from Russian components.

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