Let's see what the Kremlin's Orcs are up to. Barbarians: Putin’s Troops ‘Given Orders to Decapitate Ukrainian Soldiers’ as Chilling Photo of Severed Head on Russian Truck Emerges https://knewz.com/putins-troops-ukr...ing-photo-severed-head-russian-truck-emerges/
Let's see the latest Russian fake information. Another example of the crap which comes out of the Kremlin troll factories and .su domains. Russia targets Americans traveling to Paris Olympics with fake CIA video https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/ne...veling-to-paris-olympics-with-fake-cia-video/ Russia has ramped up its disinformation operations targeting the Paris Olympics, this time with a new video that makes it appear as if the CIA is warning Americans about traveling in the city's metro. CBS News found the fabricated video, which contains a fake warning about a "high risk" of an attack, originated in Russian channels before making its way to X and Facebook, where it has racked up at least 100,000 views across platforms. The video is "a fabrication, has no connection to CIA, and does not represent CIA's view," a CIA spokesperson told CBS News. U.S. officials have not warned Americans about traveling on the metro during the games, which are set to begin on July 26 and end on Aug. 11. The Paris Olympics organizing committee said "security is the highest priority of Paris 2024." The fabricated video comes from the same Russian disinformation network that Microsoft uncovered in early June, which used AI to create a fake Netflix feature-length film with Tom Cruise. "Russian-affiliated actors are hoping to sow disinformation and make it appear as though there is a likelihood of violence during the Games," Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center, told CBS News. Russian athletes have been banned from participating in the games under their own flag because of the country's 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Watts said the Russian government has a long history of operations related to the Olympic Games, and said the ban is likely "part of the motivation behind these operations." A CBS News investigation found an early version of this latest false CIA video on Telegram, a popular messaging app, posted by an influential Russian military blogger with 200,000 followers who frequently shares content from the Russian government and state media. Shortly after, two identical articles — one in English and one in French — appeared on sham news websites run by a separate Russian disinformation network. From there, it spread to other social media platforms including X, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn. CBS News estimates that the video has been viewed at least 100,000 times. On June 13, a new video was published on Telegram with France 24 branding, claiming to show a French official criticizing the CIA for alarming the public for the Paris metro terror threat. CBS News confirmed the video is fabricated, was not produced by France24 and is part of the same Russian disinformation network as the others. Alexis Prokopiev, co-founder of the French human rights nongovernmental organization Russie-Libertés, told CBS News this is part of a broader strategy to undermine confidence in U.S. and European officials. "From Vladimir Putin himself, there is a clear strategy to polarize opinions, to create more distrust towards institutions." European Union officials are investigating Meta and X for potential law violations relating to disinformation on both platforms prior to the elections in early June. The EU is also probing Telegram to determine if the platform's size would qualify it for stronger regulations in Europe, similar to Meta and X. A Meta spokesperson confirmed to CBS News that the latest fabricated CIA video violated its policies and has been removed from the platform. A TikTok spokesperson also confirmed to CBS News the video was removed for breaching its Community Guidelines. CBS News reached out to Telegram for comment and received an automated response. A TikTok spokesperson shared the company's Community Guidelines in response to a request for comment, LinkedIn shared its false and misleading content policies but did not comment on the CIA video, and X did not respond to a request for comment. Watts said he expects Russian networks may further ramp up disinformation tactics closer to the Olympics. This includes using trending news headlines to draw people to misleading posts and influence them to share the false content. Watts said this particular disinformation network's videos generally do not get shared widely or have a lot of engagement outside Russian channels, thanks in part to researchers who are tracking and reporting on these operations.
Unlike Israel GWB.... and you can post all you want to the contrary and I respect that..... but I am just calling a spade a spade.... Russia will NEVER back down or back away from this conflict. I wrote (nearly two years ago to the day) .... that they will wage a war of attrition and Putin will play the card of the West (and in particular the U.S.) getting tired of spending $'s.... Have I been proven right? Not really, but I have on one count. The war wages on. Is Putin's objective strategically to wear out American support or worse yet... flip the cards of us bankrupting the USSR in the 1980's? I have no idea. But all these daily updates you post... they're meaningless. I hate to say it... but Russia is not losing this war atm. And that too, all due respect... is a case closed. It is what it is. I am merely stating the facts as they currently exist.
MSM Very Belatedly Reports On Ukraine's Brutal Military Recruitment Methods THURSDAY, JUN 20, 2024 - 09:15 AM A mere year ago, there was already ample evidence that Ukrainian recruitment officers were using brutal and desperate tactics to ensure a steady supply of young soldiers for the front lines in the fight against Russia. This is a trend which has only grown, as the tragic situation of masses of casualties persists, and also amid the Zelensky government's refusal to even attempt to negotiate a peaceful end to the war. But earlier in the conflict, any Western outlet or pundit who highlighted and condemned scenes of young men being beaten and harshly seized off Ukraine'a streets by military recruiters would have been dismissed as a 'pro-Russian propagandist'. Yet now this trend has long been impossible to deny, and only very belatedly mainstream media sources are covering it. The BBC has this week issued some devastating footage portraying the severe manpower crisis (and here's a similar one from CNN days ago). Watch the BBC's surprisingly blunt reporting below:
Let's check -in with the Soviet show trial of the American citizen ballerina who donated $50 to a charity for sending Ukrainian children to summer camp. This is the world of Putin's Russia. The trial of California ballerina Ksenia Karelina accused of donating $50 to a Ukrainian charity begins in Russia https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...ating-50-Ukrainian-charity-begins-Russia.html Trial is taking place in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg Ksenia Karelina is being accused of treason by donating to Ukraine charity Karelina was captured in court sitting in a glass cage The trial of Russian-American ballerina accused of committing treason by donating $50 to Ukraine's military has begun in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg. Her trial will be held behind closed doors, as is customary in such cases in Russia. The court in Yekaterinburg published a short video of Ksenia Karelina sitting in a glass cage, wearing jeans and a green plaid shirt. She smiled faintly as reporters snapped photographs. 33-year-old Karelina, a Los Angeles resident who became a US citizen in 2021, was detained earlier this year by Vladimir Putin's Federal Security Service, the FSB, while visiting her grandparents in Yekaterinberg and has been branded an American spy by Moscow. She was accused of 'funding the Ukrainian armed forces' and taking part in 'public actions to support the Kyiv regime', after she allegedly donated a $51.80 to a Ukrainian charity in the US. Despite scant evidence, Russian prosecutors will argue the money was used to finance the Ukrainian army, and purchase ammunition, which could send her to jail for between 12 and 20 years under draconian Putin laws. It is understood that when she arrived at Koltsovo airport in Yekaterinburg her cell phone was checked using the search word 'Ukraine'. Law enforcement allegedly found evidence of a bank transfer for $51.80 to a pro-Ukrainian foundation in America. They did not detain her immediately but invited her the next day to come to a police station. When she arrived, it is reported by Yekaterinburg journalist Dmitry Kolezev, that she was confronted by FSB officers. The US-Russian citizen is an amateur ballerina and works as an aesthetician in LA She was then held for 14 days on an administrative charge of 'using obscene language in a public place'. After the two week period was up, she was told she was facing more serious charges alleging treason. Her former mother-in-law, Eleonora Srebroski, told Reuters in February that Karelina, who worked at a spa in Beverley Hills, had travelled home around the New Year after her boyfriend surprised her with a plane ticket. She had assured her boyfriend that Russia was 'safe' and that he had no reason to fear her traveling there, according to Srebroski. Srebroski said Karelina had made a small donation to Razom for Ukraine, a New York-based nonprofit that sends non-military assistance to the country, invaded by Russian forces in 2022. Video released shortly after her arrest earlier this year showed Ksenia blindfolded in custody Karelina, who is in her early thirties, arrived in the US in 2012 via a work-study program and was briefly married to Srebroski's son. Her ex-husband has described her as a fun-loving woman who didn't care much for politics. In a statement, Razom's CEO Dora Chomiak said the organization is 'appalled' at Karelina's arrest. 'Vladimir Putin has repeatedly shown that he holds no sovereign border, foreign nationality or international treaty above his own narrow interest,' Chomiak said. 'His regime attacks civil society activists who stand up for freedom and democracy.' Karelina is among several American citizens being held in Russian prisons, and her case has further fuelled fears that Western citizens who also have Russian passports are being targeted for arrest in Russia. Just this week, Russian prosecutors confirmed that The Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, the American journalist who was arrested on espionage charges, will stand trial on June 26. (Article has more pictures and video)
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/20/politics/us-policy-ukraine-counterstrike-russia/index.html US signals that it has expanded policy to allow Ukraine to counterstrike into Russia By Haley Britzky and Natasha Bertrand, CNN 3 minute read Updated 1:08 PM EDT, Thu June 20, 2024 CNN — The US appears to have expanded its agreement with Ukraine to strike over the border inside Russian territory wherever Russian forces are engaging in cross-border attacks into Ukraine, not just in the Kharkiv region as was previously determined. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told PBS News on Monday that the agreement with Ukraine to fire into Russia extends wherever Russian forces are attempting to invade. “It extends to anywhere that Russian forces are coming across the border from the Russian side to the Ukrainian side to try to take additional Ukrainian territory,” Sullivan said, adding that it’s “not about geography. It’s about common sense.” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Charlie Dietz said in a statement that the US “has agreed to allow Ukraine to fire US-provided weapons into Russia across where Russian forces are coming to attempt to take Ukrainian territory.” “If Russia is attacking or about to attack from its territory into Ukraine, it only makes sense to allow Ukraine to hit back against the forces that are hitting it from across the border,” Dietz said. The change marks a significant shift in the limited nature of the agreement between the US and Ukraine. President Joe Biden gave Ukraine permission in May to conduct limited strikes inside Russia with US-provided weapons, but restricted it primarily to the border in the Kharkiv region after Russian forces launched a renewed offensive there. Last week, a senior US Defense Department official left the door open for a change of policy, telling reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels there have been “a number of areas” where the US has given the green light on policies it had previously been reluctant to approve. “f you look back over the course of the conflict, you can find a number of areas where we were reluctant to do something, and then we did it,” the official said. “So F-16s, ATACMS. DPICMS, whatever it is. So there’s always a constant conversation and reassessment of what the right answer is, and I think that’s healthy. So never say never.” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also called for allowing Ukraine more flexibility to fire into Russia, saying last week that Ukraine “has the right to strike military targets on Russian territory.” Stoltenberg was asked specifically about the Ukrainians being allowed to use F-16s to fire into Russian territory or airspace when their training on the jets is complete. “Russia opened a new front, they opened the front in the north in Kharkiv, where they’re attacking directly from Russian territory just over the border. The border and the front line is more or less the same,” Stoltenberg said. “And of course, if the Russian forces, the artillery, the missile batteries were safe as soon as they were on the Russian side of the border, it would become extremely difficult for Ukrainians to defend themselves.” “So I’ll not go into every operational aspect of this, but I’ll only say that Ukraine has the right to strike military targets on Russian territory to the right for self-defense, and we have the right to support them in defending themselves,” he said. The US has said Ukraine is able to use their US-provided air defense systems to shoot Russian planes out of Russian airspace if they are preparing to fire into Ukrainian airspace. “There’s never been a restriction on the Ukrainians shooting down hostile aircraft, even if those aircraft are not necessarily in Ukrainian airspace,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said this month. “I mean, they can shoot down Russian airplanes that pose an impending threat. And they have. They have since the beginning of the war.”
https://edition.cnn.com/2024/06/20/politics/ukraine-us-air-defense-capabilities/index.html Ukraine moved to top of list to receive US air defense capabilities By Kylie Atwood, CNN 5 minute read Updated 1:50 PM EDT, Thu June 20, 2024 CNN — The Biden administration is prioritizing critical air defense capabilities for Ukraine over other countries to “ensure Ukraine’s survival” as Russia continues its brutal assault on the country with no end in sight, a senior White House official and congressional sources told CNN. A senior White House official described the action as a “rather extraordinary” policy adjustment at a critical moment for Ukraine. The deliveries to Ukraine will begin this summer, and it is not immediately clear how many countries are impacted. Prior to the decision, Ukrainian officials had clearly explained to the Biden administration that additional air defenses were critically needed as Russia continued its aerial assaults against its cities and civilian infrastructure. “If we didn’t do this for Ukraine, they would not have been able to maintain their critical air defense stockpile heading into the winter, period,” the official said. “This is a decision that’s being made to ensure that they’re able to defend themselves against these relentless Russian missile and drone attacks.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked President Joe Biden for the move later on Thursday. “I am deeply grateful to @POTUS [President of the United States] and the United States for prioritising Ukraine in the delivery of air defenses that we critically need to defeat Russian attacks,” Zelensky said in a post on X. “The partnership between Ukraine and the United States is strong and unwavering. Together, we are protecting life against terror and aggression,” Zelensky added. Putting Ukraine at the top of the list to begin receiving “sufficient quantities” of these critical air defense capabilities – specifically the Patriot and NASAM interceptors – means that the US slid down other countries that were already in the queue to receive the weapons, the sources said. State Department and Pentagon officials are engaged in an “intensive diplomatic effort” to inform the affected countries that they will receive the interceptors on delayed timelines, the White House official said. Ukraine is expected to get its first exports of the air defense capabilities this summer and the policy change will stay in place for 16 months, the official said. The other countries will then get the interceptors they ordered. Late last week, Pentagon and State Department officials briefed congressional leadership on the policy change, but refused to tell them which countries would be impacted, creating frustration. That information has yet to be shared with Congress, sources said. The White House official would not share the list of affected countries, other than to say that air defense exports to Taiwan would not be impacted. “So far, at least in the private discussions, many of these countries have understood and appreciated the necessity of this decision,” the official said. “If any of our partners were in an existential situation like the one that Ukraine is in right now, we would move heaven and earth to help them and it just so happens that right now that country is Ukraine.” The change is the latest shift from the Biden administration to ensure that Ukraine can continue to defend itself in the face of Russia’s ongoing assault. Last month, Biden gave permission to Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with American munitions, breaking from long-standing US policy – though he restricted their use. The move is being done in parallel with Biden administration efforts to get Ukraine more air defense systems as well, a second White House official said. It also comes as the Biden administration adapts its policy approach to the conflict to account for evolving battlefield needs, and as NATO and the G7 are shoring up assistance to Ukraine amid uncertainty over November’s US presidential election. Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has threatened to cut US support for Ukraine, and the country’s war effort was seriously hindered when Republicans in Congress stalled a major military aid package for months until it was eventually passed in April. Monthslong effort in the making The idea to adjust the global list was first raised internally by national security adviser Jake Sullivan in mid-April when Russia was intensifying its air campaign against Ukraine and Congress had not yet passed a supplemental defense package with aide for the country. Around the same time, a lack of air defenses meant Ukraine was powerless to prevent a Russian airstrike that destroyed the biggest power plant in Kyiv region, President Volodymyr Zelensky said. The Pentagon proposed options after months of internal processes to examine how the change could be made. The plan to put Ukraine at the top of the list was finalized in late May. “Our message to Russia is that if they think they can outlast Ukraine in this war, they’re mistaken,” the official said, adding, “we are now effectively mobilizing our defense industrial capacity in order to get air defense interceptors that are rolling off the line straight to Ukraine, which will provide them with sufficient quantities to be able to defend against Russian air missile attacks for the foreseeable future.” Biden shared the news with Zelensky last week when they met on the sidelines of the G7 in Italy, the official said. The pair also announced that the US and Ukraine had signed a bilateral security pact that commits the US for 10 years to continued training of Ukraine’s armed forces, more cooperation in the production of weapons and military equipment, the continued provision of military assistance and greater intelligence sharing.