Air Force Attacks on Ukraine: The First Launched Air Defense Campaign in the Last Two Months of the War and the Threat to the Ukrainian Civilian Population
It is staggering that Ukraine can still threaten Russian forces, because of the huge advantage that Russia has over them. Even though the campaign to destroy the air force has not been successful, it is still baffling that Ukraine has no helicopter fleet.
Until more arrive, there is the risk – all too familiar to the government and people of Ukraine – that the Russian mix of missiles will wreak much greater havoc among the civilian population, especially if the Russians persist with the tactic of using swarms of missiles, inundating air defenses.
There is no known amount of how much Russian inventories have been reduced by the air assaults, and whether or not the Russians will continue to rely on older, less accurate but equally powerful missiles.
Estimating Russian missile inventories is guesswork. In May, President Volodymr Zelensky said Russia had launched 2,154 missiles and had probably used up 60% of its precision-missile arsenal. That looks like a bad idea at the moment.
The Russians have also been adapting the S-300 – normally an air defense missile – as an offensive weapon, with some effect. Their speed makes it difficult to intercept, and they have wreaked havoc in Zaporizhzhia and Mykolaiv. But they are hardly accurate.
The missile attacks this week have caused significant damage. Herman Halushchenko, the Energy Minister of Ukraine, told CNN on Tuesday that 70% of the country’s energy infrastructure had been hit by Russian missiles.
He said that this was the first time that Russia had attacked energy infrastructure since the beginning of the war.
The Ukrainians have had plenty of training in using their limited air defenses, mainly the BUK and S-300 systems. The equipment may be lost in combat operations, as stated by the spokesman for the Air Force Command.
A month ago the US deputy undersecretary of defense for policy told the media that the Iranian drones have already experienced numerous failures.
Ukraine’s allies understand this need. Ahead of a meeting in Brussels Wednesday of Ukraine’s supporters, General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that “after Russia attacked the Ukrainian civilian population, we will be looking for air defense options that will help the Ukrainians.”
Missiles for their existing systems and a transition to Western-origin air defense system were included on Ukraine’s wish-list.
He said that the system would not control all of the airspace over Ukraine, but they were designed to control priority targets that the country needs to protect. What you’re looking at really is short-range low-altitude systems and then medium-range medium altitude and then long-range and high altitude systems, and it’s a mix of all of these.”
Western systems are making their way to other countries. The Ukrainian minister of defense said Tuesday that a “new era of air defense has begun” with the arrival of the first IRIS-T from Germany.
These aren’t off-the-shelf items. It was necessary for the IRIS-T to be manufactured for Ukraine. Western governments are limited in the amount of such systems. And Ukraine is a very large country under missile attack from three directions.
Letter to the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Sergii Zaluzhnyi, on the Status and Prospects of SpaceX, the Security Council and Air Defense Forces in Ukraine
Ukraine’s senior military commander, General Valerii Zaluzhnyi, tweeted Tuesday his thanks to Poland as “brothers in arms” for training an air defense battalion that had destroyed nine of 11 Shaheeds.
He said Poland was giving systems to destroy the drones. There were reports that the Polish government had purchased Israeli equipment and was going to transfer it to Ukraine, contrary to Israel’s policy of not selling advanced defensive technology to Kyiv.
Starlink’s presence there has not exactly been a completely charitable enterprise. Documents reviewed by the New York Times showed that much of the cost has been borne – paid to Starlink – by the US, the UK and Poland, who paid for 17,000 of the 20,000 terminals sent to Ukraine. Starlink donated 3,000 and Musk says SpaceX is covering the considerable monthly fees for service.
According to people familiar with the conversations, both the Pentagon and SpaceX were discussing a possible deal for military units. Shotwell said at least some of the conversations had ended.
“SpaceX is not asking to recoup past expenses, but also cannot fund the existing system indefinitely and send several thousand more terminals that have data usage up to 100X greater than typical households. One post from Musk was from his verified account and it said this was unreasonable.
He said that he followed the advice of a Ukrainian diplomat who responded to Musk’s peace plan by sending the letter to the Pentagon.
The Ukrainian President asked who Musk was for and he responded that he still supported the country but he was concerned about a massive escalation.
One Ukrainian official, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, appeared to extend an olive branch in a tweet posted Friday, writing, “Let’s be honest. elonmusk helped us survive the most critical times of war like it or not.
Musk frequently tweets jokes and insults and sometimes goes on unusual tangents, such as a recent series of tweets suggesting that one of his companies has begun selling its own line of fragrances. It is not clear if SpaceX has actually established future plans for service in Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Lithuania Tells Starlink: “The Internet Accessibility of Ukraine is Too Important to Be Left in the Hands of a Private Individual”
The senior U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter not yet made public, said the issue of Starlink funding has been discussed in meetings and that senior leaders are weighing the matter. There have not been any decisions.
Musk said the funding request the company had made to the Pentagon to start picking up the bill for satellite internet services for Ukranian has been withdrawn.
According to the letter sent to the Pentagon, the company had paid for 70% of the internet service of Ukraine’s terminals but had only partially funded 15% of 20,000 terminals. The US, UK, and Poland were some of the governments that paid for the rest.
Gabrielius Landsbergis is the foreign minister ofLithuania, and he said on Saturday thatUkraine’s internet accessibility is too important to be left in the hands of one private individual.
Musk has come under considerable criticism for pushing a peace plan that many view as overtly pro-Russian, which would include officially giving Crimea to Russia.
If Russia is faced with a choice, they will use nuclear weapons, he said on Monday.
Editorial by Frida Ghitis: CNN World Affairs Commentary on Elon Musk’s Russian-Ukraine War and Beijing’s Tensions
Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. Her views are her own in this commentary. You can get more opinions on CNN.
Musk could use a minute to think about what he believes. He seems to want to be a good person, but he isn’t quite sure. Perhaps that is what happens when you think you are the smartest person in the universe, because you run a successful business empire.
Nothing in Musk’s business accomplishments indicate he has the skills to solve the world’s most dangerous conflicts. But that hasn’t stopped him. The self-confidence of someone who knows what Musk is talking about has made him elaborate on the Russian-Ukraine War and Taiwan’s Tensions with Beijing.
His proposals were supported by dictators. Like some extremely wealthy men, Musk may operate under the delusion that he is a genius at everything. He combines the arrogance of wealth with the thirst for attention of an insecure soul.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/18/opinions/elon-musk-russia-ukraine-putin-xi-china-ghitis/index.html
Vladimir Putin, the KGB, and the Ukraine: a tale of two twists to one tweet and another twist to the Ukrainian sovereignty tweet
It suggested that Ukraine (and one assumes the world) accept Russian sovereignty over Crimea, that another referendum be held in Russia-annexed Ukrainian lands, this time under UN supervision (and despite Russian military occupation!), among other ideas.
Then there was another twist to the much-scrutinized tweet. Ian Bremmer from the Eurasia Group claimed that Musk told him he talked to the Russian President before he posted.
The most important analysis of Musk and Putin’s relationship was done byFiona Hill, once the top Russia hand in the US National Security Council.
She said that Putin plays egos of big men and gives them a sense that they can play a role. They are merely transmitters of messages from Vladimir Putin.
Putin has been trained as a KGB agent in reading and manipulating people. Some images of Putin plying his craft with world leaders – for instance, bringing his black Labrador to a meeting with the reportedly fearful of dogs then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in 2016 – are indelible.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/18/opinions/elon-musk-russia-ukraine-putin-xi-china-ghitis/index.html
What is it for Musk? The ego trip to resolve the Beijing-Taipei conflict, and why he wants to go after the Donald Trump
What is it for Musk? The man who put many thousands of people in electric cars, who turned space flight into a for-profit business, is now trying out a different vehicle. This is an ego trip, that is what it is.
He came up with a proposal for resolving the conflict between Beijing and Taipei. Musk suggested that Taiwan could have an arrangement that is more relaxed than Hong Kong. China, you’ll remember, promised “one country, two systems” for Hong Kong, until it broke its word and crushed Hong Kong’s freedom.
China was quick to honor the billionaire as they had done before. Taiwan sells many products, but its freedom and democracy are not for sale, as was the reply from Taiwan’s Washington envoy.
Musk has U-turns and impulsiveness. While he decided to buy a social networking site, he then changed his mind again and then decided to use Starlink.
The CNN report triggered a firestorm of criticism. Musk backpedaled two days later, with the attitude of someone who doesn’t make decisions on the fly. “What the hell…we’ll just keep funding it for free,” he tweeted.
When someone responded that no good deed will go to waste, Musk moved quickly and said, “We should still do good deed, even so.”
Despite his shenanigans, and even though he sometimes seems to act as a mischievous teenager, he likes to take himself seriously, thinking big thoughts about important topics. Some of his business ideas and their execution deserve the highest praise.
Sometimes he likes to insult and cause disastrous consequences. He’s being sued on claims that he touted the all-but-worthless dogecoin as part of a pyramid scheme. (Musk says he still supports it.) The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating him over Twitter, and previously sanctioned him over other market-manipulating tweets. The SEC and Musk agreed on penalties for fraud.
He said that he wanted to buy and put Donald Trump back on the platform because he was a free speech absolutist. Free speech in the complicating, fast-changing age of social media is one of the topics where experts say he lacks a serious understanding of the extraordinarily complex issues a major platform has to grapple with.
Starlink Outages and the Security of the Ukrainian Military: The Ukashny-Khovotsk Airborne Fighting System and a Battle for Kherson
“That has affected every effort of the Ukrainians to push past that front,” a person familiar with the outages told CNN in October. “Starlink is the main way units on the battlefield have to communicate.”
It seems like now is a good time to think seriously about providing more of the defense, since the system is down and the CEO, who is sick and dying, suggests that his support for Ukrainians has waned. Such vital infrastructure needs to be nationalized rather than used as a PR football for attention-hungry CEOs.
The dates on which events were reported are not necessarily when they happened, so it’s important that you have a detailed timeline.
In that same month, there were rumors that the Starlink signal was not available to the Ukrainian troops as they tried to gain access to territory they wanted to take back from the Russians. Those reports of the outages fueled accusations that Musk was kowtowing to Russia.
There is a chance for a battle for Kherson, a Russian-occupied city in southern Ukraine. Kremlin-installed officials have been evacuating civilians in preparation for a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive.
And Ukraine will be watching America’s midterm election results this week, especially after some Republicans warned that the party could limit funding for Ukraine if it wins control of the House of Representatives, as forecast.
The State of Ukraine: U.S. Secretary of State, Foreign Policy, and Security Assistance to Ukraine during Russia’s November 2 Defensive Drone Attack
Turkish President Erdogan will hold a meeting with Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson on Tuesday. Erdogan insists Sweden must meet certain conditions before it can join NATO.
The General Assembly of the UN is expected to discuss a report on the world’s atomic weapons on Wednesday, with Ukraine possibly on the agenda.
Russia rejoined the U.N.-brokered deal to export Grain and other Agricultural Goods from Ukraine on November 2. Moscow had suspended its part in the deal a few days prior after saying Ukraine had launched a drone attack on its Black Sea ships.
The Pentagon made an announcement of $400 million more in security assistance to Ukraine on Nov. 4.
You can read past recaps here. You can find a lot of NPR’s coverage here. Also, listen and subscribe to NPR’s State of Ukraine podcast for updates throughout the day.
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that Russian drone strikes on the southern port city of Odesa left more than 1.5 million people in that region without power Saturday night, the latest attacks in an ongoing series of assaults on Ukrainian energy infrastructure by the Kremlin.
In his nightly address on Saturday, Mr. Zelensky said Ukraine had shot down 10 of the 15 drones that Russian forces used. It wasn’t possible to verify his tally immediately.
The assaults on the equipment that Ukrainians rely on for heat and light has drawn condemnation from world leaders, and pushed the country into a grim cycle in which crews hurry to restore power only to have it knocked out again.
In his remarks Saturday night, Mr. Zelensky said that blackouts have persisted throughout various parts of Ukraine including in the capital, Kyiv. Some are what he classified as “emergency” outages resulting from attacks. Others are what he called “stabilization” outages, or planned blackouts on a schedule.
He said the power system is far from normal, and urged people to use less power because there is a shortage.
It must be understood. Even if there are no heavy missile strikes, this does not mean that there are no problems,” he continued. In different parts of the world, there are missile attacks on a daily basis. Most of the time, energy facilities are hit.
Russia’s next major offensive against Ukrainian defense forces ends in Luhansk (Poland), Ukraine’s Donetsk area, and Italy’s Bakhmut (France)
Ukrainian authorities have been stepping up raids on churches accused of links with Moscow, and many are watching to see if the Ukrainian President follows through on his threat of banning the Russian Orthodox Church.
France’s President is having dinner with the European Commission President and the Norwegian Prime Minister in Paris.
There is a video address by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday in France as part of a support conference for Ukrainians through the winter.
Fans, friends and family are celebrating the basketball player’s return to the U.S. after she was released from a Russian prison. Meanwhile, some Republican politicians have been complaining about the prisoner swap and other U.S. citizens still held by Russia.
The new measures targeting Russian oil revenue took effect on December 5. A price cap and a European Union embargo on most Russian oil imports are included.
Ukraine hit targets in the Russian-occupied city of Melitopol, including a church reported to be used as a Russian military base. Ukrainian forces used long-range bombardment to hit targets in Zaporizhzhia region, officials said.
Russian forces began their next major offensive in the eastern Ukrainian region of Luhansk, attacking Ukrainian defensive lines and making marginal advances, according to the Institute for the Study of War. Analysts at the Atlantic Council also said Russian forces are pushing to encircle Bakhmut, a city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region.
President Zelenskyy had a phone call with President Biden on Dec. 11, as well as the leaders of France and Turkey, in an apparent stepping up of diplomacy over the 9 1/2-month-long Russian invasion.
The Russians aren’t the Elon thing: Ukrainian forces will have no recourse to Starlink technology in their fight against Russia, says Shotwell
The president of the company revealed that they have taken steps to prevent Ukrainian forces from using Starlink technology in their fight against Russia.
There are things that we can do to make sure that we don’t do that. “There are things that we can do, and have done.”
“It was never intended to be weaponized,” Shotwell told an audience at a space conference. “However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were unintentional and not part of any agreement.”
“I was the one that asked the Pentagon to fund, this was not an Elon thing,” Shotwell said on Wednesday. We stopped communicating with the Pentagon on the existing capability. They are not paying.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/09/politics/spacex-ukrainian-troops-satellite-technology/index.html
The Sikorsky Brigade: a high-energy air force mission to the rebel fighter jets of the Crimean Republik (Indonesian Republic)
“Honestly,” she said, “I don’t even think we thought about it. It could be used that way. We had no idea that it was going to happen. I didn’t think about it. I am not sure, our Starlink team may have. We have learned very quickly.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited leaders in Paris, London, and Brussels to reiterate his call for allies to send fighter jets to his country.
Ukrainian Ambassador to the U.S. Oksana Markarova attended President Biden’s State of the Union speech, for the second year in a row, but the war in Ukraine received far less attention in the address this time.
The international team investigating the crash of a Malaysia Airlines flight said they had “strong indication” that Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the sale of anti-aircraft weaponry to the rebels.
The horizon disappears for a moment as the nose of the helicopter rears. There’s a faint thump as rockets trailing brown smoke arc ahead. The aircraft feels like it has been hit on its side.
Somewhere in the battle for the eastern Ukrainian town of Bakhmut, Russian soldiers are being torn apart, and burned, as the ground itself erupts when the rockets find their target. There’s no time to reflect – the effect of the rockets will get passed back to the pilots later. Their task now is to stay alive.
“We’re always surprised that we’re here. But, well, we are and we’re never going to stop,” says the deputy commander of the Sikorsky Brigade – his name and location are military secrets.
Serhiy and Hennady are both middle-aged pilots with more than two decades of flying behind them. They spent much of the early 2000s flying for the United Nations on peacekeeping missions in Liberia, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The experience, they say, had been invaluable. It gave them experience flying low in difficult situations, like the ongoing civil war in the DR.
Serhiy clipped a tree this week, but he commands a flight of two Mi-8s each flying about three combat sorties a day. A drop of about 20 feet was caused by three of his blades being damaged. The venerable Mi-8s – all made before the collapse of the Soviet Union – are over three decades old, their flanks are streaked black with exhaust and oil.
Dangerously close to the front line, he could not stay on the ground so, after a quick inspection, took off on his damaged blades. He flew to a rear location where engineers could swap the damaged equipment with three others cannibalized from a different helicopter.
Ukraine’s helicopter fleet: The fate of the Sea King jets and the need for more air-borne pilots in the coming era of NATO
NATO and other allies have been begged for jets by President Zelensky. The response has been nil so far.
The United Kingdom has offered to boost Ukraine’s helicopter fleet with a handful of ancient Sea King aircraft that have been decommissioned from the military. Portugal, meanwhile, has given six Russian-made Ка-32А11VS – none of which are even airworthy and which, its defense minister said, Ukraine would have to fix itself.
With a co-pilot who’s been in the air a while, and a young flier who’s only been there a short time, Yuri has a tally of more than 100 combat missions this year. The only pilots we have are skillful pilots, he says. “If we had new machines, we would be able to fulfill tasks much better. We would support the infantry better during combat, and of course there would be fewer casualties. Because the system that protects the helicopter is much better in Western models of helicopters.”
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html
The Ukrainian Pilots of a War of Attrition: When Russia tries to Land or Hide Behind a High-Redshift Helmet
His team has set up temporary locations near the front line where they hide fuel and ammunition. The support crews are out of sight. Despite it being invisible, perimeter security is still present.
Ukrainian pilots have lost many many friends in a war of attrition. Their main weapon is, arguably, better motivation than their Russian enemies. They would love to have Western aircraft in their lives.
But he had to wait 24 hours to learn this from Ukrainian drone operators who’d called him in to give him the news. He was on the move by the time his rockets hit the ground.
The Russians can find and hit us from a distance. Sometimes we know that they shoot at us and can land or hide behind hills because we have radar that can track them.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/17/europe/ukraine-pilots-helicopter-russia-intl-cmd/index.html
The Pain of Losing a Close friend: The Early Times of the Crimes in Ukraine and the Struggle for Communication in the Era of War
The pain of losing a loved one is still raw. Serhiy’s close friend died in December. I knew a lot of people and their friends had already died. I am very upset after seeing that it is very painful.
Shashenok documented her life in the early days of the war through her social media, before embarking on a new life in Western Europe. In October, Shashenok uploaded a video promising to show her followers “how people live without electricity in Ukraine.” More than 3 million people watched the tour of her dark city, all of which ended with George Michael’s “Careless Whisper”.
In the early days of the war, Russian airstrikes hit cell towers, hackers targeted Ukrainian internet service providers, and soldiers cut fiber optic cables. In the areas that the Russian forces were in, internet traffic was diverted through Russia, which has strict controls on internet access. The war raged on and Moscow had to resort to more desperate tactics like shelling energy infrastructure to get Ukrainians to give up their fight.
The war demonstrated that communication is important for us, the head of Ukraine’s State Service for Special Communications and Information Protection said last month. “When it’s up and running, everyone thinks that everything is normal—and this is how things should be. When communication stops, we know that we can’t communicate with our loved ones.
Source: https://www.wired.com/story/ukraine-russia-power-grid-batteries/
Continuum Planning for the Operation of GE Detectors and Instabilities. A Report of the CEO of the GE Holding Company
Contingency planning for ourselves has been done because of the large range of instability in the position of the CEO of the company.