Important Takeaways:
- Hunter Biden-linked Ukrainian company used for terror attacks in Russia – Moscow
- Multiple entities, including Burisma Holdings, have been involved in funding terrorism, Russian investigators are claiming
- So far, investigators have “established that the funds, flowing through commercial organizations, including the oil and gas conglomerate Burisma Holdings, operating in Ukraine, have been used in recent years to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia,” committee spokeswoman Svetlana Petrenko said. Terrorist activities have also reached beyond the country, aimed at the “elimination of prominent political and public figures, as well as causing economic damage,” she added.
- The committee’s specialists have been working “in cooperation with other intelligence services and financial intelligence,” Petrenko noted. The scrutiny currently revolves around “checking sources of income and further movement of funds in the amount of several million US dollars,” and examining the potential involvement of “specific individuals from among government officials, people with civic and commercial organizations of Western countries,” the spokeswoman stated.
- Burisma is probably best known internationally for its controversial ties to the current first family in the US. In the spring of 2014, following the US-backed coup in Kiev, the Ukrainian energy firm hired Hunter Biden and his business partner Devon Archer on its board of directors, offering $1 million a year in pay. Biden’s father Joe was President Barack Obama’s vice president at the time, and oversaw Washington’s Ukraine policy. He once famously bragged about getting a corruption prosecutor fired – which just happened to occur after that prosecutor began investigating Burisma.
- Nikolay Zlochevsky’s company also offered protection payments to the government in Kiev, according to former Ukrainian MP Andrey Derkach. Zlochevsky paid some “800 million hryvnias [over $21 million] for terrorism financing” in “various jurisdictions,” Derkach claimed in January.
- “The leaders of Ukraine’s security services make no secret of the fact that they carry out terrorist acts and political assassinations for extra-budgetary cash,” he said at the time. “Once again: Biden’s partners in the corruption business in Ukraine finance terrorist acts, thus avoiding responsibility for corruption in Ukraine.”
- Derkach claimed it was common practice for the owners of large businesses in Ukraine to ‘donate’ to the war effort in exchange for immunity from prosecution. He pointed to a criminal case against Zlochevsky relating to a $6 million cash bribe that ended with the Burisma owner paying a $1,800 fine.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- A drone attack kills 4 people in Ukraine’s second-largest city as Russia builds its war strength
- Shahed drones smashed into two apartment buildings in Kharkiv, near the Russian border, which has frequently been targeted during more than two years of war. Other drones targeted the power grid.
- The Kremlin’s forces in recent months have stepped up their aerial barrages of Ukraine, hitting urban areas.
- Moscow’s troops have recently been probing for Ukrainian weaknesses on the front line ahead of an expected large-scale Russian offensive in the summer.
- Ukrainian officials have previously accused Russia of targeting rescue workers by hitting residential buildings with two consecutive missiles — the first one to draw crews to the scene and the second one to wound or kill them.
- Some 700,000 people in Kharkiv lost power last week after a massive missile attack hit the city’s thermal power plant.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- A Russian cruise missile flew over NATO territory for 39 seconds overnight triggering a major alert amid fears over an escalation of the war in Ukraine.
- Allied war planes scrambled to ‘ensure the security’ of Polish airspace after the incursion at 4.23am local time.
- The Polish armed forces confirmed the incident in a statement on X, saying: ‘There was a violation of Polish airspace by one of the cruise missiles launched overnight by long-range aviation of the Russian Federation.
- ‘The object entered Polish space near the town of Oserdow (Lublin Voivodeship) and stayed there for 39 seconds. During the entire flight, it was observed by military radar systems.’
- The military said the missile travelled about 1.2miles into Polish territory and that Polish and allied aircraft had been activated, but that the airspace over Poland was now safe.
- The potentially dangerous violation by Vladimir Putin’s forces came during a Russian strike on the Lviv region of Ukraine.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Mark Levin Calls Schumer a ‘Disgrace,’ Says ‘Vast Majority’ of Americans Support Israel
- Iran has gotten more money directly and indirectly, as a result of this administration’s policies than Ukraine — than Ukraine. We fight over $14 billion or $17 billion of military aid to Israel. He has given over $100 billion in aid to Iran. What have they done with it? They build up their military and their armaments. They have funded Hamas, the Houthis, Hezbollah, the PLO.
- So Biden is funding terrorism. Biden is funding a regime that’s building nuclear weapons, while he’s putting his foot on the throat of the Israeli people and the Israeli government. I don’t care what he says in public.
- What’s that all about? That is slime what this country this administration is doing to Israel and the Israeli people. And when Schumer goes to the floor of the Senate, and he’s telling — he is telling the Israeli people I am directing you, as Biden has, as Harris has, as Blinken, as Friedman has, to overthrow your government, to dislodge your commander-in-chief in the middle of a war they’re winning. I am telling you, you do this, I’m telling you, you accept a two-state solution whether you like it or not or we will impose it from afar. We’re going to organize the Arab countries, they are. We are going to organize the European countries, they are — against you, Israel, little tiny Israel, the only force that’s defending the world from Iran and the terrorists.
- That’s exactly what they’re doing.
- That’s the history, abandonment of the Jews. Hitler’s American friends right here, “The Third Reich,” “The Ivory Tower,” what’s going on our colleges and universities, “Buried by the Times,” Mr. Friedman, that’s you. “Beyond Belief,” Biden, Schumer and all the rest of you. that’s who you are.
- Iran is the enemy. Hamas is the enemy. The Houthis, Hezbollah. The terrorists are the enemy. And the Democratic Party is the enemy, too. The enemy within here in the United States. They’re trying to imprison Donald Trump and they’re trying to push a coup in Israel, because the Democratic Party doesn’t believe in honest differences.
- Chuck Schumer, you are a disgrace as an American, and I want the Israeli people to know and every survey has shown it, the vast majority of the American people support you, not the Democratic Party, not Biden, and not Schumer. They are trying to undermine you as they fund and empower the terrorists. The terrorists and Iran.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Belarus has reportedly deployed tanks near its border with NATO, while tensions between Russia and the strategic alliance continue to simmer amid the war in Ukraine.
- The Belarusian military “mobilized reservists and kicked off major military maneuvers,” according to a report published by The Kyiv Post on Thursday. Troops and equipment including tanks from Belarus’ 19th Guards Mechanized Brigade were reportedly deployed near the country’s western border with NATO member country Lithuania.
- The Community of Railway Workers of Belarus—a group opposed to the policies of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, who is a close ally to Russian President Vladimir Putin—said that a train loaded with military equipment and personnel arrived on Wednesday night in Oshmyany, an area located less than 15 miles from the border with Lithuania.
- The group said that the train arriving at Oshmyany station consisted of four passenger cars filled with Belarusian troops and 42 cars loaded with equipment, including nine T-72B tanks. Belarus’ Ministry of Defense later confirmed that the deployment included T-72B tanks and BMP-2 infantry fighting vehicles, according to the Belarusian Hajun news project.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Russia is beating us in Ukraine. China’s Navy outnumbers the US. The Army is collapsing – and the Air Force is falling from the sky. So, as Biden inexplicably CUTS defense budgets, ANDREW NEIL blasts: Does he have a death wish?
- From the very start of his State of the Union address last week, President Biden positioned himself as a war president.
- He posed as the champion of freedom and democracy which are threatened across the globe by autocrats on the march
- All the more remarkable then that, within days, the Biden administration produced plans for defense spending with all the hallmarks of a peace president who no longer thinks the US military need be a priority.
- The autocrats must be both baffled and amused. The rest of us should be frightened and angry.
- Biden proposes that defense spending should rise to $895 billion in the next (2025) financial year — an increase of barely 1 percent.
- It’s not that there’s no extra money around. The Biden budget will add over a trillion to federal spending and take it to a record peacetime, non-pandemic share of GDP (25 percent).
- Be in no doubt that the autocrats in Moscow, Beijing, Tehran and Pyongyang are taking serious notice.
- The Chinese Naval fleet is already bigger than America’s and is on target to be over 400-strong before the decade is out — a formidable armada that will undoubtedly be used to intimidate Taiwan.
- Americans have rightly criticized the Europeans for putting welfare above military needs. But under Biden, America is doing the same — just another example of how he is ‘Europeanizing’ the USA.
- Yet the Russian economy is now on a total war footing, able to resupply its invaders in Ukraine at a greater scale than we are resupplying Kyiv and, as America struggles to find an extra 1 percent for its military, China has just announced an increase of over 7 percent for its armed forces.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Putin, speaking just days before a March 15-17 election which is certain to give him another six years in power, said the nuclear war scenario was not “rushing” up and he saw no need for the use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
- “From a military-technical point of view, we are, of course, ready,” Putin, 71, told Rossiya-1 television and news agency RIA in response to a question whether the country was really ready for a nuclear war.
- Putin said the U.S. understood that if it deployed American troops on Russian territory – or to Ukraine – Russia would treat the move as an intervention.
- “(In the U.S.) there are enough specialists in the field of Russian-American relations and in the field of strategic restraint,” said Putin, the ultimate decision maker in the world’s biggest nuclear power.
- “Therefore, I don’t think that here everything is rushing to it (nuclear confrontation), but we are ready for this.”
- “Weapons exist in order to use them,” Putin said. “We have our own principles.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine
- Russia appears on track to produce nearly three times more artillery munitions than the US and Europe, a key advantage ahead of what is expected to be another Russian offensive in Ukraine later this year.
- Russia is producing about 250,000 artillery munitions per month, or about 3 million a year, according to NATO intelligence estimates of Russian defense production shared with CNN, as well as sources familiar with Western efforts to arm Ukraine. Collectively, the US and Europe have the capacity to generate only about 1.2 million munitions annually to send to Kyiv, a senior European intelligence official told CNN.
- “What we are in now is a production war,” a senior NATO official told CNN. “The outcome in Ukraine depends on how each side is equipped to conduct this war.”
- Officials say Russia is currently firing around 10,000 shells a day, compared to just 2,000 a day from the Ukrainian side. The ratio is worse in some places along the 600-mile front, according to a European intelligence official
- Russia is running artillery factories “24/7” on rotating 12-hour shifts, the NATO official said. About 3.5 million Russians now work in the defense sector, up from somewhere between 2 and 2.5 million before the war. Russia is also importing ammunition: Iran sent at least 300,000 artillery shells last year — “probably more than that,” the official said — and North Korea provided at least 6,700 containers of ammunition carrying millions of shells.
- Russia has “put everything they have in the game,” the intelligence official said. “Their war machine works in full gear.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that the West threatens nuclear war if the alliance sends troops to Ukraine.
- During his State of the Union address on Thursday, Putin claimed NATO and the US are preparing to “strike Russian territory”.
- He added: “They must realize that we also have weapons that can hit targets on their territory. All this really threatens a conflict with the use of nuclear weapons and the destruction of civilization. Don’t they get that?”
- Putin also claimed that his new RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile is ready for the Russian military to use.
- With Putin’s saber-rattling reaching new levels, the map below shows the 14 locations in the US Russia would likely target in a nuclear war.
- The Pentagon
- Naval Station Norfolk
- Comfort Suites Kings Bay Naval Base Area
- Barksdale Air Force Base
- Whiteman Air Force Base
- United States Strategic Command
- VLF Array Lualualei
- Kirtland Air Force Base
- 21st Force Support Squadron
- Warren Air Force Base
- Minot Air Force Base
- Hill Air Force Base
- Malmstrom Air Force Base
- Naval Radio Station Jim Creek
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Moment Ukrainian drones hit $65million Putin warship, causing ‘significant damage’ in fireball explosion as bridge linking Crimea to mainland ‘also comes under attack’
- This is the astonishing moment one of Putin’s most modern warships was ‘hit and sunk’ by a devastating Ukrainian drone strike overnight.
- The $65mn Sergey Kotov, which only came into service in 2022, was reportedly struck by an exploding kamikaze sea drone attack near Feodosia, in occupied Crimea.
- Footage purports to show the moment of the major explosion in darkness close to the coast.
- The vessel normally has a crew of 80 – and the fate of those on board remains unclear.
- Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, said on Telegram on Tuesday that ‘The Russian Black Sea Fleet is a symbol of occupation. It cannot be in the Ukrainian Crimea,’ in an apparent reference to the attack.
- It came as the £3mn Crimean Bridge – the main connecting link between Russia and the annexed territory – also fell under sustained attack, causing at least nine hours of traffic disruption.
- There was no official response from the Russian defense ministry.
Read the original article by clicking here.
