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Showing posts with label Ukrainian war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ukrainian war. Show all posts

02 September 2023

Ukraine says it has manufactured and fired a long-range missile 1SEP23

 


THE public announcement of this new missile is a warning to Russia that more of the war putin started  will be coming to them. The Ukrainian government and military have maintained their moral superiority with drone strikes in Russia targeting government and military targets unlike the Russian government and military targeting Ukrainian civilians and civilian infrastructure. It is time for the Russian people to rise up and remove putin from power and turn him over to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. From the Washington Post.....

Ukraine says it has manufactured and fired a long-range missile

 and 
September 1, 2023 at 2:09 p.m. EDT
David L. Stern has worked for news outlets in Russia, Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East and Central Asia. He has lived in Ukraine since 2009, covering the 2014 Maidan revolution, war in the country’s east and now Russia’s 2022 invasion. Twitter

MUKACHEVO, Ukraine — Ukrainian officials say their military is now using a long-range missile that was designed and manufactured domestically and can reach targets inside Russia — a potentially crucial capability because the United States and other Western supporters have imposed restrictions on using weapons they donate to strike Russian territory.

The development of the Ukrainian missile started well before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, a top Ukrainian security official said Friday. Officials have not disclosed the name of the missile.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, posting on the social media platform Telegram, said Ukrainian forces had successfully hit a target 700 kilometers (435 miles) away, using a missile “of our own production.”

The secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov, said Friday that the missile could travel farther but did not specify its full range.

Russia is “already feeling” the effect of the new missiles, Danilov said on Ukrainian television, adding: “Production is underway.”

Drone strikes hit military aircraft deep inside Russia

The Ukrainian officials’ statements could not be independently verified, and did not provide further details such as when the missile was fired, what object was struck, or where.

If confirmed, however, a domestically produced long-range missile would be a threshold development for the Ukrainian military, which has been denied similar weapons by Western backers for fear of provoking Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Believe me, already very soon someone [in Russia] will be burned, and burned in the direct sense of the word,” Danilov said.

Danilov said that Zelensky wrote the first decree helping to create the missile program in March 2020.

“It is a very complex process, and is very complex technically,” Danilov said. “In order for it to be up to date, for it to have a distance of thousands of kilometers, keep in mind, this is the work of large teams.”

Putin struggles with falling ruble, rising prices as sanctions bite

Danilov on Thursday also tweeted a short video of a missile being fired. “The missile program of the President of Ukraine in action,” he wrote. “The tests are successful, the implementation is effective.”

“Sevastopol is waiting, Kamchatka is waiting, Kronshtadt is waiting,” Danilov wrote, perhaps with some exaggeration. Kamchatka, in Russia’s Far East, is about 4,500 miles from Ukraine. Reaching it would require an intercontinental ballistic missile, which only 10 countries in the world are believed to possess.

Ukrainian forces are increasingly striking at targets inside Russia and occupied Crimea — which Russia invaded and illegally annexed in 2014. Most of the Ukrainian strikes involve self-destructing water or aerial drones, and units of the country’s intelligence services. Ukraine often denies any connection to such the attacks, but officials privately confirm the strikes or issue statements celebrating them and indicating the involvement of Ukraine’s military or special services.

“The war is increasingly moving to Russia’s territory, and it cannot be stopped,” Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak tweeted Wednesday, after a drone attack on an airfield in Pskov, Russia, damaged or destroyed several military planes.

What to know about Ukraine’s counteroffensive

The latest: The Ukrainian military has launched a long-anticipated counteroffensive against occupying Russian forces, opening a crucial phase in the war aimed at restoring Ukraine’s territorial sovereignty and preserving Western support in its fight against Moscow.

The fight: Ukrainian troops have intensified their attacks on the front line in the southeast region, according to multiple individuals in the country’s armed forces, in a significant push toward Russian-occupied territory.

The front line: The Washington Post has mapped out the 600-mile front line between Ukrainian and Russian forces.

How you can help: Here are ways those in the United States can support the Ukrainian people as well as what people around the world have been donating.

Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war. Are you on Telegram? Subscribe to our channel for updates and exclusive video.

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01 March 2022

Oil prices are rising fast. Saudi Arabia may not come to the rescue 1MAR22






 WHEN our "allies" saudi arabia and the united arab emirates/uae will not support us in our actions to stop putin's war in the Ukraine we should withdraw our military forces from both countries and send  them to reinforce NATO's Eastern borders. The uae abstained, refused to co-sponsor and support our resolution condemning russia's invasion of Ukraine. saudi arabia refuses to increase their oil production to make up for the boycott of russian oil. Our "alliance" with saudi arabia has never been beneficial to the U.S., and we must never forget that all but one of the 9/11 terrorist were from saudi arabia.  Please consider e mailing your senators and representative and tell them to withdraw American military forces from the uae and saudi arabia, to send them to support NATO. Also demand the American military and CIA stop providing intelligence on the Yemen civil war to the uae and saudi arabia, we should not be supporting their genocidal war in Yemen. This from CNN.....

Oil prices are rising fast. Saudi Arabia may not come to the rescue

A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business' Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here. You can listen to an audio version of the newsletter by clicking the same link.

London (CNN Business)A global hunt for spare barrels of crude is underway as sanctions slam Russia, the world's second largest exporter, following its invasion of Ukraine.

But don't expect Saudi Arabia to step in to fill the gap, at least for now.
What's happening: The kingdom could help ease global oil prices, which have spiked to their highest level since 2014. Saudi Arabia has the capacity to raise production by 2 million barrels per day, according to Claudio Galimberti, senior vice president of analysis at Rystad Energy.
    But Saudi Arabia's government said Tuesday that it thinks the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries should stick to its plan of gradually increasing output. That means markets won't get much relief as investors scramble to assess the impact of rising energy prices.
      "They want to keep their heads down," Richard Bronze, head of geopolitics at the research firm Energy Aspects, told me.
          Step back: Russia exports between 4 million and 5 millions barrels of crude oil per day. While sanctions announced by the West aren't intended to hit Russia's energy sector, major oil companies have been ditching their ventures in the country, and traders have been shunning Russian cargoes even though they're trading at a huge discount.
          "A lot of buyers and their banks and their shippers have been cautious because we are still awaiting the full legal detail of the sanctions that have been announced publicly," Bronze said.
          That's creating fears of a gap in supply, which is driving up prices. Brent crude futures, the global benchmark, were last trading near $103 per barrel. At the start of the year, they were trading at roughly $78 per barrel, and were near $63 per barrel a year ago.
          Saudi Arabia could step in. So could the United Arab Emirates, which has 1.1 million barrels per day of spare capacity, according to Rystad Energy.
          But all signs indicate that OPEC, which meets Wednesday, will continue to add just 400,000 barrels of oil per day to the market each month as it waits to see how the crisis plays out.
          "What OPEC has shown so far is they do not like to make their decisions based on volatile information," Rystad's Galimberti said.
          Galimberti thinks some buyers — especially from China and India — could return once there's more certainty about the impact of sanctions on the energy industry. Some European refineries built to process Russian crude, which rely on longer-term contracts, could keep receiving volumes, too.
          That would put less pressure on countries like Saudi Arabia to change course, even if they face intense lobbying from the West to provide assistance.
          The kingdom is also keen to avoid angering Russia, a cornerstone of the larger producer group known as OPEC+.
          "The politics is tricky for a lot of OPEC members," Bronze said. "They see an importance in the strategic relationship with Russia ... so politically I think they'd really like to stay out of having to pick sides."
          Investor impact: Reluctance from Saudi Arabia to intervene is a major reason Wall Street thinks oil prices could continue to climb should the war in Ukraine drag on. Goldman Sachs recently raised its one-month price forecast for Brent to $115 per barrel, and acknowledged that could be conservative.

          The growing list of Western companies ditching Russia

          BP (BP) made headlines when it announced over the weekend that it was exiting its large business in Russia. But as risks to corporate reputation and operational challenges increase, more firms are making similar choices.
          Here are a few top companies that have made announcements in recent days.
          • Shell: The UK-based oil giant said Monday it would ditch its joint ventures with Russia's Gazprom, citing "a senseless act of military aggression which threatens European security."
          • Abrdn: The Scottish investment manager said Tuesday it will not be investing in Russia or Belarus "for the foreseeable future." It cited "ESG grounds," a reference to the push for investors to only hold assets that meet higher standards on environmental, social and governance issues.
          • Disney: Hollywood's top movie studio is pausing the release of its films in Russia, including Pixar's upcoming "Turning Red."
          • General Motors: The automaker said it was halting exports to Russia (though it only sells about 3,000 vehicles a year there through 16 dealer locations).
          One exception: French oil major TotalEnergies condemned Russia's military aggression on Tuesday and said it would no longer provide capital for new projects in the country. But it stopped short of announcing it would ditch existing projects, including a 19.4% stake in Russian gas producer Novatek.

          No one really knows how much Putin is worth

          The United States and its European allies have announced new sanctions on Russian President Vladimir Putin in a rare move targeting a foreign leader's personal wealth.
          But the impact of those penalties may be largely symbolic. Although Putin is believed to hold billions of dollars in personal wealth, little is known about the exact amount or where it might be, my CNN Business colleague Allison Morrow reports.
          Breaking it down: Putin has left almost no paper trail for his assets — mostly property — which are hidden behind complex financial schemes organized by his confidantes, according to a 2016 "Panama Papers" report by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists.
          Among the luxuries that have been linked to Putin's friends and family, but never directly to him, are a $100 million mega-yacht and a Black Sea palace allegedly built for Putin's personal use.
          On paper, the Russian leader looks like a humble bureaucrat. In 2018, Putin submitted an official income declaration that shows he owns an 800-square-foot apartment in St. Petersburg, along with two Soviet-era cars and an off-road truck. The Kremlin says his annual income is about $140,000 — not an immodest figure in Russia, though hardly one that could keep Putin sporting his rotation of luxury watches.
          "Putin's visible watch collection is worth multiples of his official salary," Bill Browder, an investor in Russia who became a fierce critic of Putin, told CNN in 2018.
          Browder testified before the US Senate in 2017 that he estimates the Russian leader's wealth to hover around $200 billion in assets, which would make him among the wealthiest people on the planet. Still, tracking his wealth has proven next to impossible. Forbes magazine, which counts sleuthing the personal fortunes of the world's elite as part of its core mission, said figuring out Putin's net worth is "probably the most elusive riddle in wealth hunting."