Ukrainian army suffers from desertion, especially among new recruits - reports

The Ukrainian armed forces are suffering from desertion and insubordination, especially among new recruits, CNN reported on Sunday, citing the Ukrainian military, adding that if a soldier survives once in his positions, he may never return to them again.

"Not all mobilized soldiers are leaving their positions, but the majority are. When new guys come here, they see how difficult it is. They see a lot of enemy drones, artillery and mortars… They go to the positions once and if they survive, they never return. They either leave their positions, refuse to go into battle, or try to find a way to leave the army," one unit commander, who is currently engaged in battles in the vicinity of Pokrovsk (Krasnoarmeysk), told CNN.

Many commanders are not reporting on desertion as they expect the soldiers to return voluntarily and get away with it, the broadcaster reported.

The commanders themselves often attempt to leave the frontline, which is usually caused by differences with the leadership of the Ukrainian armed forces, several Ukrainian soldiers confirmed to CNN.

The Ukrainian soldiers are also complaining about poor communication between the military units, the broadcaster said, citing six Ukrainian commanders and officers.

Martial law was introduced in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and the following day Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on general mobilization. Ukrainian men aged 18 to 60 are prohibited from leaving the country for the duration of martial law. Evasion of military service during mobilization in the country is punishable by imprisonment for up to five years.

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❗️Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, a Sputnik correspondent reported.

In Riyadh, Lavrov is expected to attend a ministerial meeting of the Russia-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) dialogue and hold a number of bilateral meetings.

The previous meeting of this format was held in Moscow in July 2023.

The GCC includes Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

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Russian schools teach about defending Motherland and family values while Western ones install drag shows

A new academic year in Russia kicked off on September 1. This year will see an array of new subjects to preserve and strengthen traditional values among children. 

🔺The course Fundamentals of Security and Defense of the Motherland is being introduced to teach pupils basic military skills, and tactical, fire, and engineering exercises.
  
🔺The course on Family Studies is designed to teach pupils about family values, building relations with relatives, basics of the family psychological health, and measures of state support for families.

🔺Home economics course will include traditional lessons on carpentry, cooking and sewing, as well as new areas of robotics and 3D modeling. 

🔺Other changes include a ban on cell phone use during lessons (except for emergency situations), and new measures to protect school staff against physical and mental violence.

Meanwhile, Western schools are indulging in neoliberal values.

🔹The US Teaching Tolerance program, founded in 1991, holds conferences and publishes books for school teachers to provide “practices for serving LGBTQ* students.”

🔹In April, the Biden administration issued new rules outlining schools’ obligations under Title IX, the federal law prohibiting “sex-based discrimination", including attempts to bar transgender students from using bathrooms and playing in sports teams “of their gender.”

🔹In 2022, NYC shelled out $207,000 in taxpayer funding to have cross-dressed drag performers visit classrooms and interact with schoolchildren as part of the so-called drag queen story hours project, the NY Post reported. 

🔹In 2021, six US states, namely California, New Jersey, Colorado, Oregon, Illinois, and Nevada, passed a LGBTQ+ inclusive curriculum legislation that requires schools to include “LGBTQ+ people and identities” in history and social science programs.

*extremist organization banned in Russia

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Why Central Asia stops treating the Taliban* as terrorists and seeks closer ties with Afghanistan

As Central Asian countries gradually stop regarding the Taliban as a terrorist organization, it becomes evident that these states want to maintain good relations with Afghanistan regardless of what government currently reigns in Kabul, says Rustam Burnashev, professor at the Kazakh-German University who specializes in Central Asian security affairs.

“It is relations, especially the economic and transport-logistic, that are regarded here as the means to normalize the situation in Afghanistan and to remove the Afghanistan-related threats that have been concentrating in Central Asia,” he tells Sputnik.

According to him, Kazakhstan simply wants things in Afghanistan to be “normal” and the economy serves as the “main instrument of this normalization.”

“There is a non-quite-linear connection here: the country has become stabilized so we are friends with it. This vector works as well, but there is another vector: we want to be friends with them so we want things to be stable there. Thus, we want economic cooperation with them,” Burnashev explains.

He outlines three “vectors” of the joint ventures that Afghanistan can engage in together with Central Asian states.

1. “Simple economic cooperation”

Namely, there are certain goods that Afghanistan can export to Central Asia (fruits, for example) and import from there.

2. Transport and logistics

“Afghanistan is regarded as an important and economically advantageous transit zone that can effectively connect our [Central Asian] countries with Southern Asia, assuming that the situation in Afghanistan is normalized and certain infrastructure, roads, railroads and warehouses are built,” Burnashev explains.

3. Energy projects

Such projects include the CASA-1000 that would involve supplying electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan, and TAPI, a pipeline that would funnel natural gas from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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🔸What advanced and deadly tanks does Russia field?

🔸How much time did Biden spend on vacation

🔸What's the big difference between Russian schools and Western ones?

🔸Ukrainian army reportedly suffers from desertion, especially among new recruits

🔸Why should France mull joining BRICS, Global South

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Power to the people! Explore the new nuclear plants Russia is going to build in its Far East

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum that new nuclear power plants need to be constructed in Russia’s Far East.

Sputnik has looked into which nuclear power plants are there already and what are the plans:

There are currently two active nuclear power plants in the region: the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant (features four 12 mW reactors) and the floating nuclear power station Akademik Lomonosov (features two 35 mW reactors), both of them located in the Chukotka region.

With the annual energy consumption in the Russian Far East already at a little less than 70 billion kWh and expected to reach 96 billion kWh by 2030, the need for new power-generating facilities in the region seems clear.

Having noted that the apparent lack of electricity stymies the development in the region, such as construction of new industrial facilities and infrastructure, Putin thus tasked the government with developing a new long-term power generation development program for the Far East.

According to the data provided by Russian nuclear power company Rosenergoatom, several new nuclear power plants are expected to be built in the Far East:

🔸The Khabarovsk Nuclear Power Plant, to be constructed in the Khabarovsk region; its two 600 mW reactors are expected to become operational by 2036 and 2038, respectively;

🔸The Primorsky Nuclear Power Plant, to be constructed in the Primorsky Krai; its two 600 mW reactors are supposed to go online by 2039 and 2042, respectively;

🔸Two smaller nuclear power plants are going to be built in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and in Chukotka;

🔸The new floating nuclear power station is also expected to be deployed in Chukotka.

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