After #Russia helped North Korea launch its own recon satellite, #NorthKorea Korea conducted multiple rocket engine tests. This was seen as a violation of the UN Security Council rules which forbid launches using #ballistic missile technology, Yonhap, a South Korean news agency writes.
#Poland is investing $2.55 billion in its "East Shield" plan that uses anti-drone technology and recon systems to strengthen security on Poland’s borders with #Belarus and #russia This is the biggest operation to strengthen this border since 1945, says Polish DefMin.
#Russia bottom fishing trawler persistently fishing on a very narrow strip, which totally by accident happens to be just above the Svalbard-Norway fibre optic submarine cable. The whole idea of bottom trawling is that the ship drags a large fishing net with weights that hold it just at the ground level…
Here in #Finland, the last 24 hours have been geopolitically unusual.
Reports from #Russia suggested a unilateral desire to modify their maritime borders in the Gulf of Finland and near #Kaliningrad. The Finnish government learned about this through the media.
Is Putin ready for ceasefire talks — and does it matter?
by @anderspuck 07:32
Western media is again reporting that Putin secretly wants a ceasefire, and it is probably not true.
Why the West should continue supporting Ukraine regardless whether it's true or not.
🇩🇰 🇪🇺 🇺🇦 #AndersPuckNielsen is a military analyst and Navy Commander at the Royal Danish Defence College. He studies #Russia's military since long before the 2022 invasion
#Poland Ministry of Defense presented proposed design of fortifications on the border with #Belarus and #Russia. The first slide is a high-level design for the 50 km zone, the second is direct vicinity of the border. Note the use of natural barriers, such as swamps and tree lines in the latter, but the Polish word “zabagnienie” (“enswampification”) indicates an such zones created intentionally - beavers are going to love it 😉
#Spain plans to send #Patriot missiles and #Leopard tanks to #Ukraine as part of a 1.13 billion euro ($1.23 billion) weapon package announced last month.
Spain will hand over a dozen crucial Patriot anti-aircraft missiles to Ukraine and 19 second-hand German-made Leopard 2A4 tanks and other Spanish-made weapons, such as anti-drones gear and ammunition.
The turtle tank’s name as painted on the “turtle shell” is really ГРОМОЗЕКА (Gromozeka) from a Soviet cartoon, not ГОМОЗЕКА (Homozeka). The original name Gromozeka is about thunder (гром) but on the tank it’s still likely a word play (read below). The name twisted as ГОМОЗЕКА is a word play too and it’s much more complex than “haha tank gay”. Гомосек (homosek) is Russian for “homosexual”, but it’s masculinative word and spelled differently (-zeka versus -sek). And зека (zeka) is a word on its own, more precisely an phonetic for acronym ЗК (ZK) or заключенный meaning “locked up person” or simply a prisoner. And Russian army uses prisoners on mass scale, forming whole Storm-Z units of them, where Z also denotes the use of “zeks” (prisoners). And #Russia military circles are indeed totally obsessed on male homosexual practices which is seen both as a popular insult and phobia, but also as an unavoidable part of social life in prison and army, where whole social hierarchies are built on who submits to whom. So the tank name is likely a tongue in a cheek insult some Russian soldiers made towards others or just self-ironic.
P.S. an advanced quiz for those interested in etymology of Russian language: why modern Russian writes Г (G) in foreign words and names that start with H, like Гитлер for Hitler, гомосек for homosexual, гомеопатия for homeopathy etc?
#US and allied intelligence officials are tracking an increase in low-level sabotage operations in Europe that they say are part of a Russian campaign to undermine support for #Ukraine’s war effort.
The covert operations have mostly been arsons or attempted arsons targeting a wide range of sites, including a warehouse in #England, a paint factory in #Poland, homes in #Latvia and, most oddly, an Ikea store in #Lithuania.
Little Mykhailo is going through the process of giving his DNA samples because his father didn’t make it home yesterday after the Russian terrorist attack on the Epicentr supermarket.
Due to the fire, experts fear they will have to sift through the ashes to identify the remains and the dead.