Explosive legacy: Why landmines could haunt Ukraine long after the conflict

US President Joe Biden has purportedly authorized the delivery of “nonpersistent” antipersonnel land mines to Ukraine in a move that aims to boost Kiev’s defenses against advancing Russian troops, according to the Washington Post.

The reported decision means Biden has effectively undone his own policy given that in 2022, he reversed what he described as a “reckless” step by the Trump administration that allowed antipersonnel landmines' wider use.

“It will put more civilians at risk of being injured by unexploded mines, and is unnecessary from a military perspective,” Biden said at the time.

In a separate development last year, Russia's Permanent Mission to the UN sent a letter to the Security Council accusing Kiev of using scatterable PFM-1 (Lepestok) land antipersonnel mines against civilians in Donbass.

What are antipersonnel landmines?

🔺 They are encased explosive charge buried below the surface of the ground, typically detonated automatically by pressure when a target steps on it;

🔺 The device causes damage by direct blast effect or fragments, or both. Such mines are deadly or result in severe injuries, particularly amputations, as well as eye and hearing damage;

🔺 “Nonpersistent” mines are designed to self-destruct or lose battery charge to render them inactive within days or weeks. Arms control experts warn that even these mines could pose a safety hazard.

International legislature banning them:

⭕️ Antipersonnel mines are seen as indiscriminate weapons, which can remain hazardous years after the end of a conflict, harming civilians;

⭕️ The 1997 Ottawa Convention, also known as the Mine Ban Treaty, prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of antipersonnel mines;

⭕️ To date, a total of 164 countries, including Ukraine, have signed the treaty, with “millions of mines destroyed and thousands of square kilometers of land cleared” thanks to the document, per UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Reaction to the move:

💬 Biden “lost his mind,” Elon Musk said on X;

💬 The approval is “yet another escalation in the conflict with Russia ahead of President-elect Trump's inauguration,” Fox News said;

💬 The decision is “another major policy shift,” CNN reported.

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❗️Hezbollah's response to attacks in central Beirut will be strikes in central Tel Aviv, the movement's leader has claimed

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The US has allocated a new military aid package to Ukraine worth $275 million, according to the Pentagon.

It includes shells for the HIMARS MLRS, TOW anti-tank missiles, drones, and chemical protection equipment.

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How Russian forces use 'wolf hunt' tactics to break Ukrainian defenses in Kurakhovo

Russian forces operating in the Kurakhovo region of the Ukrainian conflict zone have been methodically dismantling Ukrainian defenses using a tactic similar to that employed by wolf hunters, Russia's Ministry of Defense reveals.

The tactic involves:

🔹 Russian assault units split into multiple small teams

🔹 These teams work to encircle the enemy

🔹 They strike from multiple directions

🔹 This tactic aims to leave the opposition with no room to maneuver.

Cut off and constantly pushed back from all sides, Ukrainian militants find themselves unable to hold their positions, no matter how well fortified they are, and often prefer to surrender rather than to continue pointless resistance.

In August, Ukrainian forces launched an incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in what appeared to be an attempt to force Russia to divert its forces from the Ukrainian conflict zone to counter this breakthrough.

This gambit backfired spectacularly for Kiev as the Ukrainian assault achieved the exact opposite: the large number of troops Ukraine committed to the attack on Kursk led to Ukrainian forces lacking reserves to stop Russian offensive in multiple areas of the Ukrainian conflict zone, such as Kurakhovo, for example.

The city of Kurakhovo is important to Kiev from both the military and economic standpoints. Not only does it serve as the lynchpin of the Ukrainian defenses in the region, barring the way to a key logistical hub of Pokrovsk, it also currently serves as the only source of coking coal for the Ukrainian metallurgy industry.

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Undersea cables: How do they work and why are they so vulnerable? Part 1 👉 Part 2

Tens of thousands submarine internet cables have been laid on the seabed over the past decades. The latest disruption of two of them in the Baltic Sea has once again raised their security issue.

What are submarine cables?

▪️Each modern undersea cables contains multiple optical fibers to carry digital internet and telephone data at a maximum speed of ten terabits (Tbit) per second. The MAREA cable boasts 26.2 Tbit/s per fiber pair;

▪️They are typically 25 mm (1 in) in diameter: thin glass fibers are wrapped in layers of plastic and/or steel wire to survive in the deep ocean environment.

How are the undersea cables protected?

▪️The cables are laid between 1-2 meters below the seabed to protect them from trawlers and anchors, which may damage the infrastructure. Electronic monitoring systems proactively detect anomalies.

▪️They are protected by national regulations within territorial waters and by the provisions of the Law of the Sea Convention (LOS) in open sea.

How often do they break and why?

▪️There are over 100 cable faults each year on average.
▪️40% of cable faults are caused by fishing vessels.
▪️Damage caused by anchors accounts for 15.8%.
▪️Damage by third-party actors – 9.5%.
▪️Earthquakes and other natural disasters – 4.7%.

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What are the most famous cases of undersea cable destruction? Part 2 👉 Part 1

▪️A communications cable running along the Baltic seabed between the Swedish island of Gotland and Lithuania was damaged on November 17 this year. Another cable connecting Finland and Germany was also disrupted. The Western press pinned the blame on alleged "Russian sabotage" not ruling out that the disruption could be caused by Chinese vessels.

▪️In February 2024, four of the 15 cables carrying nearly 20% of the world's internet traffic were damaged in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, in the southern Red Sea. The damaged cables were part of one of three global communication routes providing internet connectivity between Europe and Asia. Communication problems were immediately detected in north-east Africa while serious disruptions were reported in the Gulf states and India. The accident was initially blamed on the Houthis, however, soon the South African internet service provider Seacom stated the damage was most likely caused by a trawler due to shallow waters in the area.

▪️In June 2022, the Asia-Africa-Europe-1 internet cable which connects Hong Kong with France was damaged. It provides internet connection to over 20 countries, ranging from India to Greece and Italy. The accident left more than 100 million people without communication. The cable was cut in the territory of Egypt. Sabotage was named as a likely cause for the accident.

▪️The Pacific Island nation of Tonga, with a population of about 100,000, was left without internet twice — in 2019 and 2022. In the first case, the Tonga Cable was damaged by a ship's anchor. In the second case, a volcanic eruption destroyed the cable severing the kingdom's contact with the outside world for weeks.

▪️In 2008, an internet blackout left 75 million people in the Middle East and India with only limited access. The collapse was caused by one ship damaging the undersea infrastructure off the coast of Egypt. As a result, phone and internet traffic was slashed by as much as 70% in countries including India, Egypt and Dubai. Attempts by local businesses to reroute their traffic and use backup satellite systems were of limited success.

▪️In 2006, a 6.7 magnitude earthquake off the island of Taiwan damaged major submarine cables, including the Asia-Pacific Cable Network, which connects north and southeast Asia, and the SEA-ME-WE-2 line, which runs from South Korea around Eurasia to The Netherlands. The disaster disrupted communications in Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan and hit regional financial companies and businesses hard.

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Seymour Hersh: Israel to annex West Bank soon

"Israeli leadership will formally annex the West Bank in the very near future—perhaps in two weeks—in the hope that the decisive step will end, once and for all, any talk of a two-state solution," Pulitzer Prize-winning American journalist Seymour Hersh wrote in his article on the Substack platform, citing "a well-informed Washington official."

He added that the move aims to "convince some in the skeptical Arab world to reconsider financing the planned reconstruction of Gaza."

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Picture this: ‘Ming dynasty official’ Elon Musk tackling laziness one kick at a time

Imagine Elon Musk as a Ming dynasty official, armed with Kung Fu and waging war against inefficiency. This imaginative concept is a testament to peak AI creativity, courtesy of Chinese social media! In a hilariously dramatic video, Musk embodies the spirit of the "Department of Governmental Efficiency," delivering lines that echo the grandeur of ancient epics:

"I will sack those whom the federal government is afraid to sack. I will take care of what the federal government is not willing to do. In a word, I will handle what the federal government can handle!"

Thanks to user 暗色调 on Bilibili and X user Eivor for bringing us this surreal masterpiece. Someone call Netflix or Hollywood - this needs to be a movie!

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President-elect Donald Trump to appoint Matthew G. Whitaker as ambassador to NATO

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❗️The United States vetoed a UN Security Council draft resolution on Wednesday calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all hostages, and unrestricted humanitarian aid.

Russian Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia condemned the move as "shocking," while Deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood defended the veto, stating the US could not support an "unconditional" ceasefire.

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Journalist Tucker Carlson warned that Biden’s approval for Kiev to strike deep into Russia with ATACMS puts all Americans at risk of death.

"A lame duck president just started a hot war with the world’s most dangerous country. All of us are very close to being killed," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

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☣️ What are the key policies, red lines, and conditions in Russia's updated nuclear doctrine?

👉 Check out the FULL TEXT in English 👈

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What's the deep state and how can it be dismantled?

House Speaker Mike Johnson has urged dismantling the "deep state," a term that gained popularity during Donald Trump's first presidency as “the swamp” and is used by Republicans to describe federal bureaucrats and intelligence operatives allied with financial and industrial elites.

Who else among US politicians talk about the deep state?

▪️In 2017, Rich Higgins, a counter-terrorism analyst on Trump’s National Security Council, penned a seven-page memo "POTUS and Political Warfare" outlining how the "deep state" aimed to oust the president.

▪️In November 2018, Trump’s ex-campaign aides Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie published ‘Trump’s Enemies: How the Deep State Is Undermining the Presidency’, detailing how Democrats, the intel community, and media pushed the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.

▪️Trump's 2024 campaign promised to end the deep state, with strong MAGA Republican support.

▪️Vice President-elect JD Vance advocates starting with the FBI, calling to replace Director Christopher Wray with someone else to "dismantle the deep state."

▪️Kash Patel, a potential FBI pick, called the agency a deep state tool, writing, “The deep state can not be trusted. They have weaponized the government for their own political and personal agenda,” as quoted by The Hill. Senator Bill Hagerty echoed this, naming DoJ reform a priority, tweeting, "Our justice system should protect democracy, not deep-state bureaucracy."

▪️Florida GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna backed Matt Gaetz as Trump’s pick for attorney general, writing on X on November 20, “President Trump knows better than anyone that by appointing him as AG, the deep state will be dismantled.”

▪️Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene called for a "revolution" on November 15, tweeting, "We will break down the deep state," describing it as a neoliberal structure opposing traditional values and Christianity.

▪️Missouri Senator Josh Hawley blamed the deep state for Ukraine’s use of US-made ATACMS to strike Russia, tweeting on November 19, “Be honest, Biden isn’t calling the shots anymore... It’s the deep state pulling strings – and they want to see the Russia-Ukraine war go on forever.”

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Dog ate my Nord Stream: German media doubles down on Ukrainian connection claim

Even though the United States has long been identified as the primary suspect in the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream underwater gas pipelines, German media continues peddling the narrative where Ukraine is to blame.

This week, one German magazine presented an account that looks more like a Cold War spy thriller noscript, detailing an alleged effort by Ukrainian saboteurs to take out Nord Stream.

🔹 The entire operation, codenamed “Diameter” was supposedly carried out by 12 people: 11 men and one woman who was included to help disguise the team as a tourist group

🔹 Five of the group’s members were divers, selected from some 20 candidates

🔹 The bombs – diving tanks loaded with octogen and hexogen explosives - were planted on the seams to ensure maximum damage to the pipelines

🔹 The entire budget of this operation was only $300,000, allegedly donated by some entrepreneur “close to the Ukrainian special forces”

🔹 The plan of this operation was ostensibly presented to Gen. Valery Zaluzhny then-chief of Ukraine’s army, who supposedly liked it so much that he suggested carrying out a similar terrorist act against the TurkStream natural gas pipeline that runs from Russia to Turkiye under the Black Sea. No details of this second operation are provided, save for that it failed

🔹 Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky was allegedly unaware of this entire scheme

🔹 The US purportedly learned of the Ukrainian terrorists’ plan in June 2022, three months before the Nord Stream attack, and demanded that it be called off, to no avail.

In other words, this narrative portrays the US leadership and Zelensky as blameless and pins the blame on a small group of rogue Ukrainian operative, which is very convenient for the US and Ukraine, not to mention Germany who needs to avoid making any uncomfortable discoveries in the Nord Stream affair.

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'Only Americans can do it': Why Ukrainians can’t launch ATACMS alone

The US is getting bogged down in the Ukraine conflict despite assertions to the contrary.

"American servicemen are involved in [ATACMS] missile guidance... and coordinating their flights to deliver the strike. We can say this with complete confidence," Alexander Mikhailov, head of Russia's Bureau of Military-Political Analysis, tells Sputnik.

Five US-made Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) missiles were intercepted and one was damaged by S-400 and Pantsir air defense systems on November 19, as Ukrainian forces launched six missiles at Russia's Bryansk region at 3:25 am.

The pundit explains that:

▪️US-made ATACMS use satellite navigation data that is provided by the US military -target selection and their coordinates is carried out by US military-technical specialists

▪️the process of loading the flight mission into the missile's guidance head is conducted by US soldiers

"The launch cannot be carried out without the American officers," says Mikhailov, "[Americans] wouldn't transfer either the algorithms, or the codes, or the mechanisms for entering coordinates into the ATACMS missiles to officers of the Ukrainian Armed Forces."

American security experts echo the Russian scholar. Speaking on the Judging Freedom podcast on Tuesday, former Marine Corps intelligence officer Scott Ritter stated that "ATACMS cannot be operated by anyone but the US":

▪️the guidance system and the data that is going in is developed by the Pentagon's geospatial analysts in Europe

▪️the data, classified using National Security Agency cryptology, is communicated from the European site to a downlink station in Ukraine manned by US specialists

▪️it then is loaded up on the ATACMS again by US specialists "So the mission is planned by the US, the data is loaded into the missile and when the button is fired it's being... fired by the US against Russia," Ritter says. "Only Americans can do it."

The Kremlin has repeatedly warned the US against growing involvement in the Ukraine conflict. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said that the US greenlighting Ukraine's strikes deep inside Russia with ATACMS means "a qualitatively" new situation in terms of Washington's involvement.

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