US hard-pressed to react as Iran gets ‘complete map of Israeli defense capabilities’

“The US is always in complicated situations, and most of the time they can only blame themselves,” Dr. Marco Carnelos, a veteran Italian diplomat and former advisor on Middle East policy to Prime Ministers Prodi and Belusconi, told Sputnik, commenting on the strategic bind Washington has found itself in the wake of Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend.

“The Biden administration will continue to attempt a quite difficult balancing act between the necessity to avoid an escalation and its ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel’s security, which in some cases is a contradiction in terms,” the diplomat explained.

Ultimately, “the ball is now in the Israeli court” as far as the response to Iran’s strikes is concerned, Carnelos believes. “Iran has no further steps to contemplate, it can wait and see, although it could prepare its contingency plans,” he said, pointing out that the weekend’s attack gave Tehran “a complete map of Israeli defense capabilities.”

That means next time, if Israel responds with force, “another attack [by Iran] could not be largely preannounced as it has been this time, and above all…could be carried out with far more lethal and accurate modalities,” Carnelos warned.

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Sputnik contributor Russell Bentley, who went missing in Donetsk exactly one week ago, has dedicated himself to breaking down the information barrier between the Donbass and the West, his wife Lyudmila Bentley, told Sputnik.

“Russell calls himself not just a correspondent, but also an information warrior. His word is his weapon. He always says that while an assault rifle can fire only a certain amount of meters, words can travel across the world, and these words can help people see the truth.”

Russell Bentley has always sought to defend his values and beliefs through concrete actions, Lyudmila explained. In 2014, he gave up his life in America to travel to the Donbass and enlist in the fledgling Donetsk People’s Militia because he couldn’t stand idly by and watch the atrocities committed by the Ukrainian military. Even after retiring from the militia, Russell continued to organize humanitarian aid efforts and push back against Western disinformation.

“Since coming here ten years ago, he has fully committed himself to helping the ordinary people of the Donbass. And if he is helping to defend the ordinary people of Donbass, then he is helping to defend all of Russia.”

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📉 Economic woes push Germany to pivot to China

Despite vows to “de-risk” China, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is visiting China with a delegation of business honchos from top German firms. What could be the key motivation for his visit?

🔺China is the fourth-largest export market for Germany and the latter’s direct investment in China hit a record high of $12.7 billion in 2023. Big talks on “de-risk” aside, Germany knows that economic cooperation with its largest global trading partner is imperative.

🔺Germany is reeling from a value creation loss of $171 billion due to the Ukraine conflict, according to the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce.

🔺Germany’s sanctions on Russia have drastically shrunk its industrial base due to high energy costs.

🔺Germany’s economy is in apparent recession. Two out of three German companies are relocating overseas to save money, with Asia (including China) as a key destination.

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🔺Israel is currently considering a symbolic strike as a priority option for responding to the Iranian attack, which would "send a message" but not cause casualties

🔺‘We don’t care about you’: Scott Ritter slams Ukraine’s delusional ennoscriptment mentality

🔺EXCLUSIVE: Full blown riots in Sydney following Bishop Mari Mari Emanuel stabbing

🔺US hard-pressed to react as Iran gets ‘complete map of Israeli defense capabilities’

🔺Economic woes push Germany to pivot to China

🔺Which militant groups and armies have hit Israel since October 2023?

🔺China makes splash with new AI-powered water cannon

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Cameron wins the hypocrisy contest, blaming Iran for retaliation strikes on Israel

The British foreign secretary David Cameron, who served as the UK’s prime minister from 2010 to 2016, continues to set records in hypocrisy. Pressed by the reporters to clarify his position on the conflict between Iran and Israel in the context of his hawkish stance on Ukraine, Cameron simply refused to face facts which did not fit his agenda.

Pressed on Monday on LBC radio to assess the deadly Israeli strike on April 1 against the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Cameron said: “It is a matter for Israel. We have not made a comment on it. Can I understand Israel’s frustration with Iran? Yes. Absolutely I can. I am not getting into what Israel has or has not done.”

Russia’s envoy to the UN Vassily Nebenzia on the same day blasted the UK and the US for hypocrisy, putting part of the blame for Iran’s attack on the failure of the UN Security Council to condemn by a consensus Israel’s strike.

“If a Western diplomatic representation had been hit, you [the US, the UK and France] would have immediately rained down reprisals,” Nebenzia said. “And you would have argued in this very chamber that you had the right to do it.”

A few days ago, Cameron refused to condemn Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on Russian territory, even though the US officially urged Zelensky’s regime not to hit the internationally-recognized Russian territory and spare oil facilities. But Cameron defended “Ukraine’s right to hit Russian energy targets.”

While British jet fighters actively participated in the defense of Israel’s territory and Cameron called for “peace” there, for Ukraine he only had military solutions — more war, but without any risk for NATO troops. He said Ukrainians needed not Western pilots, but “more anti-aircraft systems to be given by us.”

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Even though the six reactors at the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) are in a cold shutdown, the threat of a major disaster at the facility remains real, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi said.

“Even though the plant’s six reactors are now in cold shutdown, with the final unit shifting into that status two days ago following the IAEA’s recommendation, the potential dangers of a major nuclear accident are very real,” Grossi told the UN Security Council.

On Sunday, Ukraine's kamikaze drones attacked the territory of the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant right after an inspection carried out by IAEA experts, the plant's press service said. The IAEA confirmed minor damage to the sixth power unit of the nuclear power plant, adding that nuclear safety had not been compromised. The attack also left three workers injured, with one of them sustaining serious injuries, Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom said.

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Attacks around the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) have to stop immediately as nuclear safety is already compromised, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi told the United Nations Security Council.

“These reckless attacks must cease immediately. Though, fortunately, they have not led to a radiological incident this time, they significantly increase the risk at Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant, where nuclear safety is already compromised,” Grossi said.

The recent attacks on the nuclear power plant earlier this month repeatedly violated one of the five principles he outlined last year to avert a nuclear disaster amid the Ukraine conflict.

"Nevertheless, Madame President, over the past ten days, the first of these principles has been violated repeatedly in what marks a step-change increase in risk to nuclear safety and security at Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant," Grossi emphasized.

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Second to none: Russia turns electronic warfare into an art form

Russia marks the Electronic Warfare (EW) Specialist Day on April 15. Exactly 120 years ago, on April 15, 1904, the Russian naval forces successfully jammed Japanese radio communications upending the shelling of the Port Arthur fortress during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

In the 21st century Russia continued to improve its electronic warfare capabilities, first during the aerial campaign in Syria and later in Ukraine.

"In 2007, Russia invested heavily in research and development and the procurement of electronic warfare equipment," David Stupples, professor or electronic and radio engineering at the School of Science and Technology of City, University of London, told Sputnik. "[By the time of the Syrian war] the Russian Armed Forces had been re-equipped with modern electronic warfare [systems]."

The special military operation in Ukraine has catalyzed the development of Russia's EW systems, as per Alexei Leonkov, veteran Russian military observer and defense tech expert. In July 2023, the Economist reported that Russia's electronic jamming was knocking Ukrainian drones and NATO-grade GPS-guided projectiles out of the sky.

Leonkov singled out Russia's Krasukha-S4 and the Tirada-2S systems capable of jamming enemy drones, missiles, radars and even satellites. He continued that Russia has also mastered itself in detecting and thwarting both Ukrainian and NATO-made EW systems.

"The enemy has lost many advantages provided by electronic warfare systems supplied by NATO and developed in Ukraine," the Russian expert said. "But our work is not finished yet. Our complexes are being continuously improved. Despite [Russia] creating cutting-edge systems, the enemy is still looking for an opportunity to overcome them. However, as the conflict continues it's getting harder for the enemy to catch up."

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Russia is grateful to the IAEA for promptly condemning attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), Russia's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzia said at a UN Security Council meeting.

▪️ Russia has been taking every effort to avert security threats to the ZNPP Nebenzia stressed.

▪️ Moscow has never deployed heavy weapons at the nuclear power plant or launched attacks from its territory, the Russian diplomat said.

▪️ Ukraine has meanwhile intensified attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant over the past months and Russia has been informing the IAEA, the ambassador highlighted.

▪️ If current strikes on the plant continue, no one can rule out a nuclear disaster of regional or even global proportions, Nebenzia emphasized.

▪️ Russia calls on the IAEA to name the source of attacks on the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant. It is not a political matter but an issue of nuclear security, the ambassador insisted.

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The United States' Scranton Army Ammunition Plant has reportedly caught on fire, according to reports on social media. The government-owned facility is the primary producer of 155mm artillery shells for the US military (and Ukraine) in the United States.

Photo from social media

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French mercenaries leaving for Ukraine "do not realize the real danger," historian and war correspondent Laurent Brayard told Sputnik Africa after the Russian army struck French mercenaries in Slavyansk.

"Many have left. Some come and go back quite quickly. And there are still quite a few wounded. In any case, they can't realize what the front is, because this is a war of an intensity that Europe hasn't known since World War II. We haven't seen anything like this for a very long time," the journalist said.

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The Russian Armed Forces struck Ukrainian troops in the town of Novy Bug in the Nikolayev Region, Nikolayev underground coordinator Sergey Lebedev told Sputnik.

"At 22:20 there was a strike on the town of Novy Bug. It hit very hard, directly at the disposition [of the Ukrainian Armed Forces]. The exit from the city is blocked, ambulances are rushing in, the military is hysterical," Lebedev said.

He also added that there was a second strike, after which there were power outages and Ukrainian air defense responded. There will be more details in the morning, but for now it is known that "some commission" came to Novy Bug said Lebedev, noting it was the target of the strike.

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