CaptainTruth
CaptainTruth's Journal"I don't regret a thing" - Ukrainian unrepentant for attempting to sink yacht
D. Taras O., the 55-year-old Ukrainian who attempted to sink the luxury yacht that belongs to Alexander Mijeev, stated in court on Sunday: "I don't regret anything I've done and I would do it again."
Arrested for partially sinking the luxury yacht in Port Adriano, he fully accepted the facts of the case and assumed total responsibility for what had happened. When the Guardia Civil arrived in Port Adriano on Saturday, he turned himself in and told officers: "My boss is a criminal who sells weapons that kill the Ukrainian people." Alexander Mijeev is the CEO of Rosoboronexport, a Russian military weapons company.
He has worked as a mechanic on the Lady Anastasia for some ten years. He acted after seeing a news report om the television. He told the judge: "I watched the news about the war. There was a video of a helicopter attack on a building in Kyiv. The armaments used are produced by the yacht owner's company. They were attacking innocents."
That's all the text content. Unfortunately, no pictures, I really wanted to see the yacht.
I hope everyone realizes our democracy is worth defending.
https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/news/local/2022/02/27/97865/ukrainian-unrepentant-for-trying-sink-russian-owned-yacht-mallorca.html
I've held off on posting this: I have friends in Kyiv
The son of our good friends, who works for the State Dept, was stationed at the US Embassy in Kyiv, where he lived with his Ukranian wife.
I hope you can all understand why I haven't talked about this until now. We've been a bit frantic for the past few days, trying to confirm they were safe. This "son of good friends" is someone my wife held as a baby, & they're some of the closest "family" we have.
We've confirmed they both evacuated safely, but his wife's family are all still in Ukraine. Thankfully, we've been able to maintain sporadic communication with the family & as of this morning they're all safe.
We hope they stay safe.
And FUCK PUTIN!
Today I am glad we no longer have to pay Russia $90 million to get a US astronaut to the ISS.
Back when we didn't have our own US manned launch capability & were paying Russia for rides to/from the Space Station I saw various dollar amounts mentioned, but $90 million is the most recent one I can verify:
NASA to pay Russia $90 million for a Soyuz seat on a crew launch this fall
By Meghan Bartels published May 13, 2020
[link:https://www.space.com/nasa-pays-russia-90-million-for-soyuz-seat.html|]
The SpaceX haters are gonna hate, & yes Elon Musk is an ASSHOLE so go right ahead & hate HIM personally, but he didn't design & build the equipment that made manned US launches possible. That was done by a whole bunch of engineers (like me) & technicians & programmers & craftspersons & others dedicated to technical achievement who worked their asses off to make it a reality. Don't disrespect their achievement just because the dude at the top is an A-hole.
Defense One: NATO Deploys Response Forces; Warns Russia 'We Will Defend Every Inch' of Alliance
A good summary of the situation from Defense One:
NATO leaders agreed on Friday to immediately deploy elements of the alliance’s emergency military forces, adding troops and firepower to bolster defenses along its Eastern front.
The unprecedented deployment is meant to deter Russia—whose military is currently invading Ukraine—from attacking NATO members and to prepare alliance forces to respond quickly should an attack occur.
“We are deploying elements of the NATO Response Force on land, at sea, and in the air,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, at alliance headquarters in Brussels, immediately following the summit. NATO leaders had agreed to activate the force on Thursday.
Stoltenberg said the alliance has never before collectively deployed such a force.
“We have over 100 jets at high alert operating in over 30 different locations. And over 120 ships from the High North to the Mediterranean, including three carrier strike groups,” he said. “There must be no space for miscalculation or misunderstanding. We will do whatever it takes to defend every ally, and every inch of NATO territory.”
[link:https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2022/02/nato-deploys-response-forces-warns-russia-we-will-defend-every-inch-alliance/362459/|]
Ukrainian citizens fighting back, "More than 18,000 civilians issued firearms in Kyiv"
Tweets by The Cavell Group
@TCG_CrisisRisks
Kidnap & Ransom Consultants, Hostile Environment, Crisis & Survival Training, Travel Security Briefings, Intelligence, Risk, Crisis & Expedition Consultants
The Cavell Group
@TCG_CrisisRisks
Ukraine/Russia: Ukrainian 112th Defense Brigade deployed within the capital Kyiv, many checkpoints set up. Ukraine SPD (SF) slowed Russian SOF units advance to the north and northeast of Kyiv. Many civilians have taken up arms. Kyiv bracing itself for another difficult night.
The Cavell Group
@TCG_CrisisRisks
Ukraine/Russia: More than 18,000 civilians issued firearms in Kyiv, civilians across the country making molotov cocktails and welding tank traps for the streets. Ukrainian military providing resistance and counter attacks. Russian progress is significantly slower than anticipated
[link:https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1497289527831920641?s=20|]
[link:https://twitter.com/TCG_CrisisRisks/status/1497297631210475520?s=20|]
More than 150 senior Russian officials sign open letter condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine
Sorry it's Daily Mail, only source I saw reporting it.
More than 150 senior Russian officials sign open letter condemning Putin's invasion of Ukraine as 'an unprecedented atrocity' and warn of 'catastrophic consequences' while urging citizens 'not to participate'
More than 150 senior Russian officials have signed an open letter condemning Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine as 'an unprecedented atrocity' and warning of 'catastrophic consequences'.
The deputies said they were 'convinced' Russian citizens do not back the war and blamed Putin 'personally' for ordering troops into Ukraine in an attack 'for which there is no and cannot be justification'.
-snip-
The letter urged Russians 'not to participate in the aggression' and called on citizens to speak out against the invasion because 'only massive popular condemnation can stop the war'.
Among the letter's signatories were Moscow deputies Elena Rusakova, Maxim Gongalsky, Andrey Morev, Elena Kotenochkina and Elena Filina as well as St Petersburg officials David Kuvaev and Polina Sizova and Veliky Novgorod deputy Anna Cherepanova.
It was a surprising step for Russian officials to speak out against Putin, who usually holds an iron grip on dissent and last week televised a meeting with Moscow's top security chiefs in which they appeared to be railroaded into backing his plans to invade Ukraine.
[link:https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10546799/More-150-senior-Russian-officials-sign-open-letter-condemning-Putins-invasion-Ukraine.html|]
Russian cargo plane & CPAC, both in Orlando now.
I'm not saying there's any kind of conspiracy, just noting the coincidence & thinking that all the CPAC attendees might like a ride on the AN-124. One way, out of the country, of course.
JetTip @JetTipNet
Appears RA-82079 is the only Volga-Dnepr (Russian) An-124 in the US right now, at MCO.
As of last week, these (Volga-Dnepr, AirBridgeCargo, and Nordwind) are the Russian cargo flights under consideration by the US DOT to operate in the US in the near future.
https://t.co/9IXvviW8KK
[link:https://twitter.com/JetTipNet/status/1496925316958363649?t=zeCIoadc7NWOxXZL8gjwlA&s=19|]
Incidentally, it's not all that unusual for an AN-124 to be at MCO (Orlando International Airport), they're huge & have been used by NASA to fly big cargo to Kennedy Space Center where they land on the Space Shuttle landing strip & then stop at MCO to fuel/etc before leaving the area.
I found a pic of one unloading an Atlas V rocket:
[link:
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And unloading the European Space Agency's Orion module for the International Space Station:
[link:
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It looks like the one at MCO is chartered by a freight company & scheduled to go to Lima, Peru, but since it's operated by Volga-Dnepr (Russian) as opposed to Antonov Airlines (Ukrainian) it'll be interesting to see if it flies or stays parked.
Ukraine satellite photos from @Maxar posted by a @foreignpolicy reporter.
From Twitter, just added him to my Flight-OSINT list:
Jack Detsch
@JackDetsch
Bringing you stories from the Pentagon. National security reporter
@foreignpolicy
Tell me something new: Signal ? 510-439-7894 / email ? jack.detsch@gmail.com
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1496611143196028932?s=20
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1496610182121635841?s=20
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1496608964804587528?s=20
https://twitter.com/JackDetsch/status/1496607902185971720?s=20
Text:
NEW: Russia has deployed artillery and more troops to Valuyki, less than 20 miles from Ukraine, per satellite photos.
Images taken this weekend captured a new helicopter units also in Valuyki.
NEW: Russia has deployed troops and equipment along the tree lines near Kupino, just 11 miles from Ukraine.
U.S. defense officials have said it's part of Russia's "playbook" to put troops and equipment in foliage and populated areas to mask their military buildups.
NEW: Russia has deployed a battle group with armored personnel carriers and troops in Krasnaya Yaruga, just 9 miles from Ukraine's border.
A senior US defense official said today 80 percent of Russian forces around Ukraine are in "forward positions and ready to go."
NEW: Russian convoys and towed artillery are moving south and positioned within 50 miles of Kharkiv, Ukraine's second largest city, per satellite photos today.
My Flight-OSINT Twitter list:
https://twitter.com/i/lists/1009622589029875712?s=20
BBC: Cyber-attacks bring down many Ukraine websites
Ukraine has been hit by more cyber-attacks, which its government says are "on a completely different level".
Earlier on Wednesday, the websites of several Ukrainian banks and government departments became inaccessible.
Internet connectivity company NetBlocks tweeted: "The incident appears consistent with recent DDOS attacks."
Distributed denial of service attacks are designed to knock a website offline by flooding it with huge amounts of requests until it crashes.
'Outages continuing'
"Another mass DDoS attack on our state [has] begun," Ukraine's Digital Transformation Minister, Mykhaylo Fedorov, wrote on Telegram.
NetBlocks data indicates the impact began on Wednesday afternoon, intensifying in severity over the course of the day.
A researcher told BBC News: "Ukraine's military and banking websites have seen a more rapid recovery after today's cyber-attack, likely due to preparedness and increased capacity to implement mitigations.
"Despite this, the incident is ongoing, with latency and outages continuing at the Security Service of Ukraine, which points to the severity of the incident."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-60500618
Anyone who wants to follow OSINT accounts on Twitter, here's my list.
OSINT = open-source intelligence, aka things like tracking the movement of military assets (aircraft) via open-source data like ADS-B, ADS-B = Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast, the transponder standard used by the vast majority of aircraft in the world.
This is where I get real-time updates on Ukraine-related, & other, aircraft activities. I've kept this list private for years, but considering what's happening now, I've made it public so I can share it with my friends at DU.
[link:https://twitter.com/i/lists/1009622589029875712?t=wXjjaAMDIpgZtswRft9Blg&s=09|]
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Member since: Sun May 25, 2014, 11:27 AMNumber of posts: 6,588
