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Tag: Russian military

  • Pro-Kremlin supporters are fuming after footage appears to show Ukrainian drones decimating an entire Russian armored column

    Pro-Kremlin supporters are fuming after footage appears to show Ukrainian drones decimating an entire Russian armored column

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    • Ukrainian forces decimated a Russian column of 11 tanks and armored vehicles.

    • Ukraine heavily relied on FPV attack drones to obliterate the Russian armor.

    • Russian military bloggers are increasingly frustrated by Russia’s perceived tactical blunders.

    Ukrainian forces deployed FPV attack drones to help obliterate an entire column of Russian armored vehicles, Metro reports.

    Video appears to show Ukraine exploding drones, finishing off 11 tanks and armored vehicles. It included three T-72 tanks, five tracked amphibious [MTLBS] armored fighting vehicles, and an infantry fighting vehicle, reduced to burning hulks scattered across the battlefield.

    Two tracked armored fighting vehicles were also destroyed, one by an anti-tank guided missile, Metro reported.

    The battle raged near the settlement of Novomykhailivka, in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, which Russia has been attempting to capture since October.

    The assault was captured by cameras mounted on the attacking drones and those flying overhead, showing the devastation caused to the Russian column.

    The convoy was maneuvering near the front lines along the east of Ukraine and became vulnerable to fire from artillery and swift and targeted strikes from the air by drones.

    Leveling Russia’s battlefield advantage

    Footage shows the FPV exploding drones accelerating toward the Russian tanks and armored vehicles, with the feed abruptly cutting off just before impact.

    Other footage gives a panoramic view, showing the dark shapes of tanks in motion, some bursting into flames as the exploding drones hit, followed by an aftermath of smoking, twisted wrecks abandoned in winter fields pockmarked with shell holes.

    The video was dated January 30. According to reports, the battle lasted nearly two and a half hours.

    Business Insider could not independently verify the video.

    The apparent victory against the armored column matters because Ukraine increasingly sees relatively inexpensive drone technology as a way of leveling Russia’s battlefield advantage.

    Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, wrote on Thursday for CNN News that with accelerated technical innovations, the nature of war had changed.

    He highlighted the key role played by unmanned weapons systems, such as drones, which help Ukraine against Putin’s forces despite Russia’s significant superiority of manpower and weapons.

    FPV drones are an effective and low-cost weapon employed by both Russia and Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion.

    “Perhaps the number one priority here is mastery of an entire arsenal of (relatively) cheap, modern, and highly effective unmanned vehicles and other technological means.

    Already such assets allow commanders to monitor the situation on the battlefield in real time, day and night, and in all weather conditions,” wrote Ukraine’s top military leader.

    ‘Complete stupidity and incompetence’

    Drone-mounted cameras show a UAV hitting a Russian tank.

    Drone-mounted cameras show a UAV hitting a Russian tank, in a video showing a battle in in the Novomykhailivka area of the Donetsk region.Screengrab.

    While the number of casualties from the wrecked armored column remains unknown, the strikes triggered a backlash among pro-war ‘Z’ channels associated with Putin, expressing frustration over perceived military incompetence, Metro reports.

    Russian military bloggers have become increasingly frustrated by the Russian military’s tactics. Russian forces continue self-sabotage by gathering in large groups to attack Ukrainian positions, making them an easy target for Ukrainian drones.

    The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a US think tank, said one Russian military blogger expressed dismay at Russian forces‘ tactics at “complete stupidity and incompetence.”

    Another Kremlin-affiliated milblogger argued that the Russian military command needs to stop attacking in mechanized columns due to repeated high equipment losses.

    The milblogger also criticized the military leadership for failing to account for Ukrainian drone operations and to equip Russian armored vehicles with electronic warfare systems, reported the ISW.

    Ukraine, after nearly two years of war, has called on the West to bolster its defenses. The increased use of drone attacks, that have reached targets as far afield as Moscow and Saint Petersburg, has become a strategic focus for Ukraine.

    “It’s a war of armor against projectiles. At the moment, projectiles are winning,” Gleb Molchanov, a Ukrainian drone operator, told The Guardian.

    Read the original article on Business Insider

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  • Feds arrest Los Angeles man accused of exporting microelectronics to Russia

    Feds arrest Los Angeles man accused of exporting microelectronics to Russia

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    A 66-year-old man was arrested in Los Angeles on Wednesday in connection with an alleged years-long scheme to export sensitive technology illegally from the United States to a business tied to the Russian military, according to federal prosecutors.

    The man, Ilya Kahn, is a citizen of the United States, Israel and Russia and has residences in Brooklyn, N.Y., and Los Angeles, federal prosecutors said Thursday in charging documents filed in New York.

    Kahn is the owner of Senesys Inc., a California-based company, and Sensor Design Assn., a New York-based company. The ventures are involved in developing security software and testing silicon wafers for military aviation electronics and space equipment, court documents say.

    Federal prosecutors allege that the two companies are actually the same entity, and that from 2017 through 2023 they shipped more than 290,000 microelectronics and other items out of the U.S.

    Kahn worked with a Russian semiconductor company called Joint Stock Company Research and Development Center Elvees, which was sanctioned by the U.S. government in February 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Elvees played a critical role in assisting the Russian military, court documents say.

    Between 2012 and 2022, financial records show, Kahn’s business received more than $37 million from Elvees and related entities, including more than $2.1 million in 2021 and 2022, prosecutors allege.

    Kahn is charged with conspiracy to violate the Export Control Reform Act, which regulates the export of goods, technology and software that have potential military use.

    Prosecutors allege that in 2019, Kahn exported U.S.-made microcontrollers to Elvees in Russia, and in 2022 he exported other equipment through a Hong Kong-based shipping company without the necessary licenses from the U.S. government. According to prosecutors, that equipment included network interface controllers and a radio frequency transmitter, whose exports are limited for national security and anti-terrorism reasons.

    Prosecutors accused Kahn in court papers of a number of other acts to support Elvees, including:

    • Arranging for Elvees to continue receiving semiconductors manufactured in Taiwan after Russia’s invasion.
    • Illegally shipping the items from Taiwan to the U.S. and then to Russian after the Taiwanese company refused to ship the Elvees-designed semiconductors directly to Russia.
    • Shipping thousands of microchips based on an Elvees design from a manufacturer in Taiwan through a New York-based shipper to a Hong Kong-based shipping company, and then to mainland China.

    “Mr. Kahn stands accused of repeatedly exporting sensitive technology to Russia before, during, and after Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine,” Assistant Atty. Gen. Matthew Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement. “Violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws that aid Russia and other hostile powers endanger our nation’s security and will be met with the full force of the Justice Department.”

    Kahn could face a maximum of 20 years in prison if found guilty, according to prosecutors. He was scheduled to appear in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom Thursday.

    It was not immediately clear if Kahn had any legal representation.

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    Nathan Solis

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  • Russia loses 1,190 troops, 18 artillery systems in a day: Kyiv

    Russia loses 1,190 troops, 18 artillery systems in a day: Kyiv

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    Russian forces in Ukraine have lost 1,190 troops and 18 artillery systems in the past day, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday, as losses pile up at the start of the grueling winter effort.

    Moscow’s forces have lost a total of 318,570 soldiers and 7,744 artillery systems since the start of all-out war in the country in February 2022, the General Staff of Ukraine’s military said on Sunday.

    It is impossible to independently verify battlefield losses, and Newsweek has reached out to Russia’s Defense Ministry for comment via email.

    In an update also published on Sunday, Moscow said 605 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed over the past 24 hours, but did not provide a Russian estimate for total Ukrainian losses in the almost 21-month-long war. The Ukrainian military has been contacted for comment.

    A Russian soldier collects weapons on April 12, 2022, in Mariupol, Ukraine. Moscow’s forces in Ukraine have lost 1,190 troops and 18 artillery systems in the past day, Kyiv’s military said on Sunday.
    ALEXANDER NEMENOV/AFP via Getty Images

    On Sunday, Ukraine’s General Staff said its air-defense systems had destroyed 15 out of 20 Iranian-designed Shahed drones used by Moscow. A total of 38 strike drones were launched overnight on Ukrainian territory, Kyiv’s military said.

    Over the previous 24 hours, Russia also launched five missiles and 76 airstrikes against Ukraine, according to Kyiv. Moscow has maintained a campaign of missile, drone and artillery strikes on the country since the Kremlin began its invasion effort.

    But as the tougher, muddier and freezing winter conditions influence battlefield tactics, Russia is expected to launch a renewed campaign of missile strikes against Ukrainian targets, including on the country’s energy infrastructure.

    “As winter approaches, there will be more Russian attempts to make the strikes more powerful,” Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, said in his daily evening address on Saturday. “It is crucial for all of us in Ukraine to be 100 percent effective,” he added.

    More than 150 Ukrainian settlements in the north, east and south of the country came under artillery fire over the past day, Kyiv said on Sunday.

    Fighting is continuing around the embattled Donetsk town of Avdiivka, the Ukrainian military also said. “Our warriors are steadily holding the defense, causing the enemy significant losses,” the General Staff continued.

    In its daily update, Russia did not mention the fortified, but hard-hit town that has spent months on the front lines, but said its southern grouping of forces had stopped six Ukrainian attacks around the Donetsk town Marinka and the villages of Klishchiivka and Shumy.

    Kyiv’s fighters recorded 22 attacks around Marinka, Ukraine said.

    More than 100 Ukrainian soldiers were killed and three armored vehicles were destroyed in the southern Zaporizhzhia region, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said. The Kremlin has annexed the region, but this is not internationally recognized and it does not control the entirety of territory. The southern swathe of Ukraine has also seen some of the heaviest fighting of Kyiv’s counteroffensive, which began in early June.