dChan
Anonymous ID: 462e0b March 22, 2022, 8:31 p.m. No.15923228   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3237

Russia’s Alleged Use of First Hypersonic Missile in Combat Downplayed by US Military and Allies

Thomas Novelly

March 22, 2022

 

Why did it take 4-5 days for the DOD to address this? We knowThis article is filled with double speak. They skerred!

 

Russia's defense ministry claimed its military used hypersonic missiles against an underground ammunition warehouse as well as a fuel depot during the country's fighting in Ukraine last weekend, reportedly marking the first-ever use of the new type of weapon in combat.

 

Hypersonic missiles, which can travel five times the speed of sound, making them harder to track, trace and destroy before hitting a target, have inspired worry among U.S. officials and defense industry experts for years as some assess that adversaries like China and Russia outpace America in developing their own hypersonics.

 

Those warnings have been a constant drumbeat in recent years, part of annual arguments over the defense budget as well as Pentagon officials' cases to reorient the military away from counter-insurgency combat and toward potential competition with major world powers.

 

Despite those past arguments, senior leaders are downplaying the significance of the alleged Russian missile launches in Ukraine, claiming they can't confirm Russia's claims of their use and saying that even if they had been deployed, they'd likely have little impact and shouldn't be a concern for the U.S. military.

 

During an appearance on CBS' Sunday talk show "Face the Nation," Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the reported use of a hypersonic missile by Russian President Vladimir Putin's military is likely a distraction tactic to grow fear in the international community.

 

"I would not see it as a game changer," Austin told CBS. "I think the reason he is resorting to using these types of weapons is because he is trying to reestablish some momentum. And again, we've seen him attack towns and cities and civilians outright, (and) we expect to see that continue."

 

Additionally, Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby told reporters Monday that it isn't clear that hypersonic weapons were actually used in Ukraine.

 

Press)

"Look, we've seen the Russian claim that they used a hypersonic missile," Kirby told reporters. "We're not in a position to refute that claim, but we're also not able to independently verify it."

 

Air Vice-Marshal Michael John Smeath of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force said if the missiles were launched by Russia, they were likely a Kinzhal, a hypersonic unveiled by Putin in 2018.

 

Smeath mirrored Austin's sentiments that the missile's alleged use is more likely a move to inspire confidence in Russia's military as it faces a stalled invasion in Ukraine, highlighted by numerous pitfalls that have led to doubts as to whether Russia's force should be regarded as a near-peer to the world's powers.

 

"Russian claims of having used the developmental Kinzhal is highly likely intended to detract from a lack of progress in Russia's ground campaign," Smeath said in a UK Ministry of Defence press release. "Deployment of Kinzhal is highly unlikely to materially affect the outcome of Russia's campaign in Ukraine."

 

Tactically, using hypersonic missiles some of which have nuclear-carrying capabilities and can be fired from very far distances at sound-shattering speed has nearly the same effect on a ground target as conventional bombs, making the use of the prohibitively expensive weapons surprising.

 

Dave Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and dean of the nonprofit Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Military.com that the alleged use of the hypersonics should cause little concern for Ukraine or the United States.

 

"A missile is a missile, and the Russians shot nearly one thousand of them at Ukraine," Deptula said. "It is not significant that the missile that he [Putin] launches flies over Mach 5 or not. So, it is a bit peculiar why he's doing this, given these are extraordinarily expensive missiles."

 

A senior U.S. defense official, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity, speculated Russia may even be running low on other missiles, and tapped into their hypersonics for those strikes in Ukraine.

 

"It could be that they're running low on precision-guided munitions and feel like they need to tap into that resource," the defense official said Monday. "It could be that they're trying to send a message to the west, but also to Ukraine, and trying to gain some leverage at the negotiating table."

 

The Pentagon has worked to address the U.S.'s hypersonic research in recent months, noting that it has been trailing behind adversaries such as Russia and China.

 

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2022/03/22/russias-alleged-use-of-first-hypersonic-missile-combat-downplayed-us-military-and-allies.html

Anonymous ID: 462e0b March 22, 2022, 8:49 p.m. No.15923326   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3338 >>3343 >>3598 >>3670

Ukraine's Women Fighters Reflect a Cultural Tradition of Feminist Independence. WTF

 

Our military is completely destroyed by wokismposted in Military.com

 

22 Mar 2022

The Conversation | By Mia Bloom and Sophia Moskalenko

 

Tens of thousands of Ukrainian women have taken up arms during the war sparked by Russia's invasion. According to media reports, women constitute as much as 15% to 17% of the Ukrainian fighting force.

 

In the first two weeks of the conflict, social media was replete with images of Ukrainian women training for combat. On March 15, CNN reported that after dropping off their parents and children in the border town of Przemysl, Poland, some Ukrainian women are turning around to go back to the fight.

 

"They view returning home to a war zone as an act of symbolic resistance to Russian aggressors," CNN reporters Ed Lavandera and Cristiana Moisescu wrote.

 

As experts on women and extremism, we believe Ukraine offers a unique insight into the roles that women can play in defending the nation and as leaders in their own right.

 

Distinctly Ukrainian feminism

Ukrainian women have historically enjoyed independence not common in other parts of the globe.

 

One reason for this is Ukraine's geography. A temperate climate and fertile land combined to enable independence for hardworking people. Fathers didn't need to trade their daughters for dowry to till the land, nor were they indebted like serfs to wealthy landowners. A widow could remain unmarried if she chose to and thrive by cultivating her garden and tending to her animals. In Ukrainian folklore, there is a recurrent character of a single woman, often a widow, who can survive and thrive without a man.

 

No doubt, the real life of Ukrainian women was no fairy tale, and their experiences might not universally fit into this narrative. However, from a diversity of human experience, a culture retains those stories that resonate with most of its members as an ideal upon which they can agree. In Ukraine, this ideal includes fiercely independent women.

 

Ukraine's geographic circumstances also gave rise to a feminist culture in which women had a say in marriage, rather than being "given away" by their fathers or male relatives.

 

In the fall, when marriage proposals were traditionally delivered via "svaty" – a delegation from the groom's family – the bride could refuse the offer by giving the family a pumpkin as a consolation prize. The Ukrainian phrase "to catch a pumpkin" means to be rejected by a woman. A Ukrainian girl's beauty was sometimes gauged as having "a closetful of pumpkins," implying she could expect to have many suitors.

 

Such narratives have shaped Ukrainian cultural psychology and, as a result, attitudes toward women.

 

Since the beginning of the 2022 Russian invasion, the internet amplified several remarkable videos depicting Ukrainian women opposing armed Russian soldiers. One woman was famously shown offering sunflower seeds to the troops, instructing them to "at least put these seeds in your pockets, so sunflowers will grow when you all die here."

 

Another video showed a woman yelling at a heavily armed Russian soldier atop his tank in Konotop, "Don't you know where you are? You're in Konotop. Every other woman here is a witch. You'll never get an erection, starting tomorrow."

 

There are videos from towns all over occupied Ukraine where women yell at Russian soldiers, shame them and tell them to "think about their mothers and wives." Who can forget the story ofOlena in Kyiv, who reportedly took down a drone by throwing a jar of her homemade canned tomatoes at it?. Holy shit this was part of a thread I read today as an advertising disinfo see pic

 

Grandmothers making flak jackets

Ukrainian women who are not already in the armed forces or confronting Russian soldiers with sharp tongues or tomatoes have been volunteering on the front lines.

 

This volunteering practice traces its roots to the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, when volunteers created a de facto "second state" while the official state failed, crippled by Russian-led corruption and cronyism.

 

In 2014, female volunteers delivered meals,clothes and fuel to the men who defended Maidan– Kyiv's Independence Square, which became the stage for monthslong protests against riot police and pro-Russian mercenaries employed by the government of then-President Viktor Yanukovych. Volunteers supplied hospitals and ambulances with medicines; they assembled rapid-response defense teams to shield locations where attacks were imminent; women wove camouflage nets and hid the wounded from persecution….

 

https://www.military.com/daily-news/opinions/2022/03/22/ukraines-women-fighters-reflect-cultural-tradition-of-feminist-independence.html

 

https://twitter.com/ernstinparis/status/1506331475897114627?s=20&t=EANKVOjaAh0pN-YaCfFAeQ

Anonymous ID: 462e0b March 22, 2022, 9:14 p.m. No.15923468   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3478

16 Mar, 2022 18:18

 

Washington turns to TikTok influencers to promote its narrative on Ukraine

 

White House TikTok propagandists and Reddit mercenaries are in way over their heads on Ukraine

 

Since the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, social media has been bombarded with one-sided hero worship, amplified and drawn into users’ timelines through the magic of the infamously mysterious algorithms that govern these platforms, whose functioning regulators worldwide have had trouble grasping.

 

There’s the fictitious tale of the Ukrainian Snake Island border guards in the Black Sea, which was widely amplified by traditional Western media. As the story went, upon the approach of a Russian warship, the guards told the ship over radio communication to “go f*** itself”, after which they were reportedly liquidated. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy even praised their bravery. The good news is that he’ll now be able to award them their “posthumous” medals for bravery in person, since they’re apparently still around.

 

Then came the tale of the “Ghost of Kyiv”, a mysterious Ukrainian pilot credited across social platforms for single-handedly downing Russian jets left and right. That tale, too, turned out to be created from a montage of fake news, including video game footage. However, this literal propaganda somehow managed to escape removal by the social media platforms, which constantly claim to combat fake news.

 

These outright fabrications platformed online saturate the entire world before any sensible rebuttal of them can make a dent. It seems there is a concerted effort – facilitated by these online giants – to portray the conflict as a Superbowl-style showdown between “Team Ukraine/NATO” and “team Russia”, which requires everyone to pick the “right” side under severe peer pressure to conform to whatever is overwhelmingly promoted by these platforms. Before now, that mostly meant style, fashion, makeup and dance trends. After all, the top 10 influencers on TikTok are performers squarely serving (and profiting from) beauty and fashion industry advertiser

 

But leave it to Washington to ask, “What if we could get people known for nice handbags and trendy dances on TikTok to trash talk Vladimir Putin?” And that’s exactly what they did – by briefing 30 of the most popular TikTok influencers about the war in Ukraine. Ellie Zeiler, a 18-year-old fashion influencer from California who attended the meeting last week, hosted by White House officials via Zoom video, including spokesperson Jen Psaki and National Security Council staffers, led the trendsetter to suddenly take a stab at explaining to her 10.5 million followers why gas prices in are now high.

 

And no, it isn’t because Joe Biden failed to secure North American energy independence via the Keystone XL pipeline with Canada, which he canceled to the great joy of Democratic Party donors invested in Saudi oil and the current railways that profit from transporting the fuel above ground, or the environmental NGOs that they fund in both the US and Canada. Nor is it due, at least in part, to the endless harassment and sanctioning of European companies that were on the verge of securing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to transport Russian gas into Europe via Germany – the literal fuel for European production of ethanol in car fuel.

 

No, according to the fashion influencer co-opted by the White House to serve on the frontline of the propaganda war against Russia, high gas prices are high because, “Russia is one of the top three producers of oil and it is actually their No. 1 revenue source.Now, with Putin starting this horrific fight between Ukraine and Russia, nobody wants to work with him and do international trade.”

 

When one is so busy selecting filters and music for videos, it must be easy to miss the small details, for example, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s recent remarks contradicting the notion that no one wants Russia’s gas. “Europe has deliberately exempted energy supplies from Russia from sanctions,” Scholz said. “At the moment, Europe’s supply of energy for heat generation, mobility, power supply and industry cannot be secured in any other way. It is therefore of essential importance for the provision of public services and the daily lives of our citizens.”…

 

According to others present at the White House meeting, officials wanted influencers to emphasize to their audience that “Russian troops are not happy with their own invasion,” and to underline, according to journalist and TikToker, Marcus DiPaola, that “Russia is not going to win in Ukraine. Things have gone so badly for them that it's just not possible anymore.”

 

A group of influencers called, “Gen-Z for Change,” noted on Twitter that they “joined the @WhiteHouse and @WHNSC for a briefing on the U.S.' strategic goals in Ukraine so we're better able to debunk misinformation.”

 

https://www.rt.com/news/552092-washington-tiktok-influencers-ukraine-narrative/

Anonymous ID: 462e0b March 22, 2022, 9:20 p.m. No.15923498   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>3512 >>3598 >>3670

21 Mar, 2022 14:02

 

Russian ‘Z’ symbol gymnast speaks out over fears of lengthy ban

 

Russian gymnast Ivan Kuliak insists he should not be banned for his show of support for his country’s armed forces at a recent competition, with the young star’s coach saying she is braced for a lengthy suspension.

 

Kuliak appeared on the podium at a World Cup event in Doha earlier this month with a ‘Z’ sign attached to his leotard. The 20-year-old year later explained he had taken the step because of what he described as “unacceptable” behavior from Ukrainian rivals, whom he accused of “greatly escalating” the atmosphere at the competition.

 

Ivan Kuliak said he did ‘nothing wrong’, while the gymnast’s trainer revealed her concerns over a long suspension

 

Kuliak later told RT thathe displayed the ‘Z’ sign – which has been added to Russian military vehicles and equipment during the operation in Ukraine – because the symbol is “for victory and for peace,” and that he would not hesitate to make the gesture again.

 

The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation (GEF) has opened a disciplinary case against Kuliak, with Russian head coach Valentina Rodionenko fearing at least a one-year ban for the star.

 

Facing that prospect, Kuliak has reiterated that, in his mind, he was not in the wrong.

 

“In general, I consider the decision to [potentially] suspend me unfair,” said the gymnast, according to Life.ru.

 

“I didn’t do anything illegal, I didn’t break any rules, and now they want to ban me. In all this you can see the attitude towards our country.”

 

Russian head coach Rodionenko likewise said any ban would be unjust, explaining that she and fellow trainer Igor Kalabushkin could also be sanctioned, and accusing the Ukrainian delegation in Doha of inciting antagonism.

 

“The international federation made this decision under pressure from the Ukrainians, and some of them even advocated our lifelong disqualification,” Rodionenko told TASS.

 

“Lawyers are working with us now who hope they’ll save us, but personally I doubt this outcome of the case. The decision should be made at the end of March.”…

 

https://www.rt.com/sport/552398-russian-gymnast-ban-z-gesture/

Anonymous ID: 462e0b March 22, 2022, 9:49 p.m. No.15923629   🗄️.is 🔗kun

>>15923550

I agree >>15923580

Has she ever gone on a foreign trip this admin? Maybe she doesnt habe her passport?

 

My theory is coming true, they were all forced to do their worst! They picked the most corrupt aroundthe wprld for this admin