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In a solemn ceremony held at the RF Northern Fleet submarine base in Gadzhievo, Murmansk region, two portable iconostases were consecrated and handed over to crews of two nuclear submarine strategic missile cruisers: Knyaz Oleg and Novosibirsk, the fleet's press service reported. An iconostasis is a wall of icons, used to divide the Altar from the rest of the church space. Portable iconostases for sailing warships are made of wood, but for submarines, they use fabric. Such icons do not take up much space in the very limited space. On church feast days, canvases with icons are unpacked and mounted...

Disclaimer: The Kyiv Independent is publishing this investigation to shed light on the alleged abuse of power in the leadership of one wing of the International Legion – a legion created for foreign fighters dedicated to defending Ukraine. The members of the Legion’s unit say that they reported their commanders’ misconduct to Ukrainian law enforcement, the parliament, and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Office, but saw no proper reaction and thus turned to journalists as a last resort. Soldiers who pointed at the problems within this unit of the Legion claim they received threats for speaking up. For their safety, we do...

Yesterday, Allahpundit wrote about the Russian effort to feed more troops into the stalled war on Ukraine. Russia’s inability to advance creates a possible opening for a Ukrainian counterattack. And we’ve seen some signs that Ukraine has been taking the initiative with attacks on supply lines and ammunition depots in Crimea and elsewhere. Just today there is another story that Ukraine struck a Russian base and killed 200 paratroopers:“The Armed Forces of Ukraine struck enemy fortifications in occupied Kadiivka, killing about 200 Russian paratroopers,” he wrote on Twitter.Haidai noted that the occupiers had been based in a hotel in Kadiivka...

Mercouris explains the reason for the slow and deliberae pace of the Russian rescue operationAside from everything else, this conflict is going to kill the basic business model for the US MIC. Nobody is going to want to buy US weapons after this.

KYIV, Ukraine — Mykhail Podolyak barely flinched as air raid sirens wailed in Kyiv, signaling incoming Russian missiles. Sitting in his office at the heavily fortified presidential administration building in Ukraine’s capital, the adviser to the head of the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the sirens have become a normal part of life six months into the war with Russia. “We’re getting used to this new lifestyle — we are used to the wailing sirens now and to the bombardments, because the Russian Federation is mostly aiming at the civilian population and civilian infrastructure,” he said in an...

As Ukrainians celebrated their 31st independence day Wednesday, President Joe Biden announced another almost $3 billion in military aid for the country's fight against Russia. The $2.98 billion weapons and aid package is the single largest military-focused package announced by the Biden administration since the war broke out in late February. This latest package includes laser-guided rocket systems, six National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) with additional ammunition, 24 counter-artillery radars, Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems, VAMPIRE Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems, 245,000 rounds of 155mm artillery ammunition, 65,000 rounds of 120mm mortar ammunition, and additional funding for Ukrainian forces’ training and maintenance.

The United States of America intends to assign a special name to the military mission in Ukraine and put an active American general at its head. This fact is direct evidence that Washington intends to switch to direct intervention, which may also mean the transfer of American military contingent to Ukraine in order to conduct special military operations, which significantly increases the escalation in the region. Information on this subject is published by The Wall Street Journal. As follows from the data presented, Washington will unite into a single mission and appoint a responsible high-ranking officer who will lead the...

Vladimir Putin is determined to shape the future to look like his version of the past. Russia’s president invaded Ukraine not because he felt threatened by NATO expansion or by Western “provocations.” He ordered his “special military operation” because he believes that it is Russia’s divine right to rule Ukraine, to wipe out the country’s national identity, and to integrate its people into a Greater Russia. He laid out this mission in a 5,000-word treatise, published in July 2021, entitled, “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” In it, Putin insisted that Belarusians, Russians, and Ukrainians are all descendants...

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a major buildup of his country’s military forces Thursday in an apparent effort to replenish troops that have suffered heavy losses in six months of bloody warfare and prepare for a long, grinding fight ahead in Ukraine. The move to increase the number of troops by 137,000, or 13%, to 1.15 million by the end of the year came amid chilling developments on the ground in Ukraine. (snip) Putin’s decree did not specify whether the expansion would be accomplished by widening the draft, recruiting more volunteers, or both. But some Russian military analysts predicted heavier...

"Should you or any member of your IM Force be caught or killed the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your action" From The Original "Mission Impossible" TV Series "He was on a period of leave without pay at the time of his death and was not on active duty at the time of his death" New Zealand Defence Force Statement On The Death Of Corporal Dominic Abelen In Ukraine That's what's been said about the death of a soldier from New Zealand in Ukraine today. We're told that he was off duty and on leave from the military. His...

Doubts about continuing to pump weapons and other aid into Ukraine are especially prevalent among independents, at 37%, while 18% of Americans oppose the shipments altogether.The survey suggests waning support for US involvement as the conflict drags on, contributing to surging inflation on the home front. In fact, 40% of Americans now agree with the statement that “the problems of Ukraine are none of our business, and we should not interfere.” That compares with 31% when the same question was asked in April.Moreover, 59% of survey respondents, including 69% of Republicans, agree with the statement that “given the current economic...

Kiev has the right to siphon off supplies destined for the EU, a Ukrainian politician claims. The former chairman of Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, Dmitry Razumkov has stated that Kiev has the right to confiscate Russian gas that flows to the EU through Ukraine, and sell it in order to solve the country’s economic problems. “The gas that is transported through the territory of Ukraine is Russian. To the border with Europe, it is Russian gas. And if we act in accordance with the law, we e should confiscate it,” he said in a video posted on Facebook on Friday....

Army members have been told that they "must be prepared" for the possibility of being deployed to Ukraine to fight in the war against Russia. Warrant Officer Paul Carney issued the warning six months on from Vladimir Putin's invasion of the country in February, saying that British troops “must be prepared for new realities” as the UK military was now “shaping itself to meet the threat from Russia”. WO1 Carney, the Army’s highest-ranking Warrant Officer, instructed soldiers to check that they were physically fit enough for operations, as well as taking the time to have conversations with family members, The...

Ankara supports Ukraine's territorial integrity and rejects the illegal annexation of Crimea, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday. "The return of Crimea to Ukraine, of which it is an inseparable part, is essentially a requirement of international law," Erdogan said in a video message to the Second Crimea Platform Summit. The Crimea Platform is an international coordination mechanism of Ukraine to draw more global attention to Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014. Erdogan said Ankara will continue to support the Crimean Platform that was established to resolve the Crimean issue through peaceful means. "Türkiye does not recognize...

Russia’s counterintelligence agency on Monday claimed that the car bomb that killed the daughter of Vladimir Putin’s ally Alexander Dugin was planted by a female Ukrainian spy who then fled to Estonia. Officials with FSB have identified Darya Dugina’s alleged assassin as 43-year-old Natalia Vovk, who they said was acting as part of a criminal plot “orchestrated and perpetrated by Ukrainian special services,” according to Russian state news agency TASS. FSB published a video compilation allegedly that opens with Vovk entering Russia in her grey Mini Cooper, which sports plates issued by the Kremlin-backed separatist Donetsk People’s Republic. A second...

The car bomb attack on 'Putin's Rasputin' - who Vladimir deemed 'uncontrollable' - has 'all the hallmarks of a Russian GRU execution' because the military spy group 'often include a target's family', an expert has claimed. Yuri Felshtinsky, author of Blowing up Ukraine: The Return of Russian Terror and the Threat of World War III, has claimed the attack on Putin loyalist Alexander Dugin's daughter would have been authorised by the Kremlin. He claimed that Dugin, 60, had a reputation for being 'unruly' and that the Kremlin is 'using Dugin in its own global propaganda war' counting on the fact...

Korotchenko made the remarks during a recent appearance on Russian-state television, which has repeatedly been used by authorities to make threats against the West after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine in late February. The U.K., like other Western countries, quickly condemned the invasion and has provided humanitarian and military support for Ukraine to defend itself. They have not, however, become directly involved with combat against Russia, which would likely lead to a massive escalation and expansion of the conflict. Still, members of Russian-state television, which has largely pushed Putin's pro-war propaganda, speculated about how Putin would...

"As a result of urgent detective measures, the federal security service has solved the murder of Russian journalist Darya Dugina, born in 1992," Tass reported quoting an FSB statement.The assassin, Natalia Vovk was identified as a citizen of Ukraine, who was born in 1979, the report further added. On July 23, 2022, Vovk and her daughter Sofya Shaban, who was born in 2010, arrived in Russia, the agency reported.The FSB claimed in its report that Vovk and Shaban went to the literary and musical festival Tradition on the day of the murder. Darya was there at the event as an...

British soldiers have been urged to prepare their relatives for possible deployment to "war with Russia". The corresponding warning was published in the official magazine of the British Army Soldier. Warrant Officer of the British Army Paul Carney on the pages of the magazine gave some advice to military personnel regarding the possible involvement of the armed forces of the United Kingdom in the conflict with Russia. According to him, the British military needs to warn their relatives in advance about this, also find the telephone numbers of social security departments and discuss their will with the priests. "I want...

The Army’s top “other ranks” soldier says troops must be ready to fight Russia – and should alert loved ones to a potential conflict. The time had come to prepare “families and loved ones” for the possibility of being sent to the East. WO1 Carney – the Army’s highest ranked Warrant Officer – wrote in Soldier magazine: “I want us all to check we are physically fit for operations. And it is also important we prepare loved ones and families, who often have the hardest role in our absence. “My ask is that you have discussions about a potential deployment...