Ukraine continues to fight in the West to strengthen its own air defense and warns against future Russian terrorist attacks against Ukraine . At the same time, the US is partially resuming “dialogue” with Russia in order to contain the nuclear threat and reassure its own society. However, some intelligence agencies believe that the Kremlin will begin to crack down on its opponents with quieter methods.
The war has returned to Kyiv, but in fact it has not disappeared anywhere
The Guardian recalls how the Ukrainian capital, which has been in relative silence for several months, is again subjected to bloody enemy attacks.
The center of Kyiv was shelled for the second consecutive Monday, and the Russians continue to attack the capital with Iranian drones Shahed-136 and cruise missiles. Russia allegedly tried to hit the power plant, but instead hit houses nearby, killing five people.
The publication emphasizes that these attacks are unlikely to break the resistance of the Ukrainians, and, despite the periodic attacks of the Russians, life goes on in Ukrainian cities. However, Ukraine is still forced to prepare for the worst options, because Russia's attacks on the country's energy system do not stop.
Kamikaze drones are problem number 1 today
In recent weeks, Russia has made the use of kamikaze drones its main tactic in the war against Ukraine, writes CNN. In this way, the Kremlin strikes at civilian infrastructure and sows terror far from the front line.
Kyiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia, Zaporozhye and other Ukrainian cities have been hit hard by a flurry of Iranian UAV attacks and are asking the West to beef up air defenses to protect the country's power grid and civilian population.
At the same time, CNN notes that these drones have a rather low efficiency in use on the battlefield, so the entire threat from their use falls precisely on large cities of civilian objects. Western experts are bluntly saying that the Kremlin is using kamikaze drones to terrorize the civilian population.
These attacks make no military sense. It's about Putin satisfying hardliners in Russia who were ecstatic last week after the missile attacks and are likely to be ecstatic after these, says retired Australian Army Major General Mick Ryan.< /p> Pay attention!Air defense systems were one of three priorities on Ukraine's weapons wish list presented during the meeting of the Defense Contact Group in Brussels. >The Pentagon has not yet approved a contract for the supply of anti-drone defense systems to Ukraine. This problem was described by The Wall Street Journal. The authors note that the Pentagon announced back in August that the United States would include the Vampire system in the military assistance package for Ukraine.
For reference.The Vampire is a man-portable, mobile laser-guided launcher that can be installed in the back of a civilian vehicle and has the ability to hit targets that are out of range of other air defense systems. At the same time, due to the mobility of these systems, the delay between target detection and its destruction becomes minimal.
Vampire/L3HARRIS anti-drone system
Nearly two months after the announcement, the US has yet to award a contract for this anti-drone system, according to the Department of Defense and the company that makes the technology. At the same time, the company itself notes that after the signing of the agreement, the supply of these systems will be carried out within nine months. But Ukraine, which is already suffering from massive attacks by kamikaze drones, needs to be strengthened now.
The Pentagon noted that they would do everything possible to expedite the conclusion of the contract for the Vampires and their subsequent delivery to Ukraine, but declined to disclose details. The manufacturing company also announced an accelerated format of deliveries, but also evaded questions about the timing of deliveries.
At the same time, while bureaucratic processes continue, and Ukraine expects strengthening “on the ground”, the United States is already strengthening its political pressure on Iran, which is already receiving direct accusations of participating in the war against Ukraine.
Iran adopted the strategy of the Russians and says: “we are not there”
< p>Iran sends instructors to Crimea to help the Russian military. This is the title of an article in The New York Times. US military intelligence has confirmed that in the occupied Crimea, the Iranians are training the Russian army to use the drones they have supplied, which indicates a significant rapprochement between Iran and Russia.
Sending drones and trainers to Ukraine has drawn Iran deeply into the war on Russia's side and directly involved Tehran in operations that have killed and wounded civilians, said Mick Mulroy, a former senior Pentagon official and retired CIA officer.
< p>At the same time, the UN representative said that even such indirect participation in military operations against Ukraine, at the level of instructors and advisers, could still indicate Tehran's involvement in Russia's war crimes in Ukraine.
The United States says that the involvement of Iran has become a necessity, because the Russian operators of these UAVs made many mistakes, which significantly reduced the effectiveness of the use of drones. First, Moscow sent its soldiers to Iran for training, and then the Iranians began to send their instructors.
According to US officials, Iranian personnel are far from the front line and are busy training Russians, but it is not known whether they accept these instructors are directly involved in attacks against Ukraine.
At the same time, according to the Israeli edition of The Jerusalem Post, at least 10 Iranian instructors who advised the Russian military on launching drones have already died in Ukraine.
At the same time, Tehran continues to officially deny any accusations of its assistance to Russia . Even the very fact of the delivery of kamikaze drones, Iran still denies, despite concrete evidence.
After the sale of drones to Moscow, the United States imposed additional sanctions against Iranians and Iranian companies involved in the creation and design of these drones, as well as logistics companies involved in their transportation to Russia.
Russia is preparing a man-made disaster
The lives of hundreds of thousands of people are in danger, writes Politico. The President of Ukraine said that the Russians were preparing a terrorist attack on the Kakhovskaya dam, which could lead to a large-scale man-made disaster.
In his address to the leaders of the European Union, Zelensky said that Russia had mined the dam at the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station, and its undermining would entail behind a powerful flood that will flood more than 80 settlements, including Kherson.
Zelensky notes that Russia is doing this deliberately. At the same time, given the terrorist attacks of the Russians against the civilian infrastructure of Ukraine, such an undermining fits into their methods of warfare, where it is terror against the civilian population that dominates.
The President of Ukraine also drew attention to attacks against infrastructure facilities, because this cut off Ukraine's ability to export electricity to Europe, which once again proves the need to strengthen Ukrainian air defense.
Russia may target Western politicians
The Spiegel publication reports that German intelligence has concluded that the Kremlin may begin to carry out political assassinations right inside European countries. Russia has done this before, and against the backdrop of total enmity with the West, it can resume such a practice, removing its main opponents.
The Russian attack against Ukraine is a “game-changer” in all areas of security policy, says German intelligence chief. This has a direct impact on the internal security of Germany. In April alone, the federal government deported 40 Russian spies from the country, but that's not all.
Then the former head of the German Federal Intelligence Service, Gerhard Schindler, warned that when armed conflicts are associated with economic sanctions, it is obvious that intelligence activities is also growing.
Germany has already experienced political assassinations in Berlin ordered by the Russian secret services. In 2019, a Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili was killed in the German capital. During the second Chechen war, he was the commander of one of the units that fought against Russian troops.
It should be notedthat even before the declaration of direct confrontation with the West, Russia was killing people on the territory of European countries. The most notorious were the murder of Alexander Litvinenko, who died of radiation sickness after poisoning, as well as the assassination attempt on the Skripals. It was the attempt to kill Sergei Skripal that became the first proven fact of the use of chemical weapons by Russia in the UK and the West as a whole.The heads of the US and Russian Defense Departments held their first talks in months. It is the lack of direct dialogue between the United States and Russia that has caused concern in the West, especially regarding nuclear threats from Vladimir Putin, writes The Washington Post.
Amid the successful Ukrainian offensive and the Russian response in the form of civilian terror, the minister Defense Lloyd Austin still spoke with Sergei Shoigu. However, both sides carefully hide the details of this dialogue, confining themselves to a brief description of the conversation.
The Pentagon said that it was Austin who initiated the call and stressed to Shoigu the need to maintain direct communication in a war. The Kremlin said that the parties discussed “actual aspects of international security, including the situation in Ukraine.”
However, in order to calm Western society, a conditionally public dialogue between the United States and Russia was necessary, because they are starting to fly towards the American government accusations that the situation could get out of control due to the refusal to talk with Moscow.
Currently, the American contingent in Poland is involved in the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and US and NATO aircraft are conducting operations over the Baltic Sea. In the absence of communication, this carries the risk of unintentional misreading of the situation, which can significantly expand the conflict and lead to unpredictable consequences, writes WP.
At the same time, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has previously emphasized that the White House maintains contact with the Kremlin through communication channels, and in the case when the United States has something to tell Russia, they do it.
In general, Austin's call to Shoigu happened only because it is beneficial to both sides. The Pentagon partially granted the request of the press, directly confirming that the parties do not ignore each other and keep in touch in order to avoid the expansion of the conflict. After all, it is the threat of nuclear war that has recently scared people in the West very much.
At the same time, Shoigu, who faced a colossal barrage of criticism amid constant failures at the front, was able to show Putin and Russian Z-patriots that it's too early to write it off. He is still the Russian Defense Minister and is negotiating with the Americans.
