13 Jun, 2023 00:48

US targets China-linked flight school

Washington has imposed sanctions on a South African academy accused of helping Beijing recruit Western pilots

TheUS has blacklisted a South African flight school, which was accused offacilitating the training of Chinese Air Force pilotsby retiredWestern military aviators.

The Test Flying Academy of South Africa (TFASA) wasadded to the list of sanctioned entitiescurated by the US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS).

The Bureau designatedmore than 40 new entities on Monday, most of them from China, as “acting contrary to the national security or foreign policy interests of the United States.”

Multiple research facilities based in Chinawere added to the list as well. According to BIS, the sanctioned entities had usedWestern software to develop hypersonic weaponsand air-to-air missiles.

“It is imperative that we prevent China from acquiring US technologies and know-how to enable their military modernization programs,”Assistant Secretary for Export Enforcement Matthew Axelrod said.

The move came after several Western governments were startled by media reports that Beijing has been secretly recruiting foreign pilots to train its own aviators. Australia launched an investigation into the matter last year, while Britain’s Royal Air Force promised to change regulations in order toprevent ex-pilots from training their colleaguesfrom other countries without the government’s approval.

Last week, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that he had warned his Chinese counterpart, General Li Shangfu, that therecruitment of former Bundeswehr pilotswas unacceptable.

Beijing has saidin the past that it was unaware of training programs that involved foreign ex-pilots. The Chinese Commerce Ministry released a statement on Monday, blasting US sanctions as lacking “factual basis and due process.” China will take “necessary measures to resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises and individuals,” the spokesperson said.

(You gotta wonder why ex military pilots decided to fly aircraft for China. Because the countries don’t pay them what they are worth.)

https://www.rt.com/news/577924-us-sanctions-flight-china/

12 Jun, 2023 19:32

Ukraine suffers heavy losses for small advance – Bild

The German news outlet claims Kiev’s forces have taken five villages in southern Donetsk

Ukrainian troops have made the first significant advance after a week of fighting on the southern front, the German tabloid Bild claimed on Monday, noting also that the reported taking offive small villageshad come at the cost of heavy losses in Western-provided armor.

“On the eighth day of the Ukrainian counteroffensive, the Russian front in the south of the country began to show cracks,” Bild’s military analyst Julian Roepcke said in a video update on the battle. “The first sections of the front in Donetsk in the east have been collapsing since yesterday.”

Roepcke citedUkrainian military sources to claiman advance of several kilometers into Russian-controlled territory.However, by Monday evening local time Ukrainian military analysts werereporting heavy fighting at two of the villages supposedly “liberated” earlierin the day.

Kiev hasonly deployed five of the 25 brigadesit has prepared for the operation, according to the openly pro-Ukraine Roepcke. Some 40,000 troops are still being held in reserve, he said.

Claims of the Ukrainian advance come as even the most ardently pro-Ukrainian “open source intelligence” outfitsacknowledge heavy losses in Western-supplied armor and equipmentin the fighting on the Zaporozhye front.

The 47th brigade of theUkrainian army has lostseven Leopard 2 tanks and 17 Bradley infantry fighting vehicles in justfive days,withoutachieving tangible success south of Orekhov, according to Oryx. The Dutch-based “OSINT” outfit has frequently been criticized for inflating its estimates of Russian losses and downplaying those of Ukraine. Roepcke quoted them in his video report.

The destroyed or damaged and abandonedBradleys account for about 15% of the 109that the US had supplied to Ukraine, Jakub Janovsky of Oryx told CNN as well. The Dutch activist expressed hope that most of the vehicles might be recovered and repaired if Ukrainian forces manage to take the area.

Ukrainian troops launched their much-heralded “spring counteroffensive” at the beginning of June, sending tanks and armored vehicles against Russian defensive lines in Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions.Kiev spent several days insisting on complete silence, until video evidence showed the wrecks of German-made tanks and US-made armored vehicles after afailed attack in Zaporozhye.

(Ukraine fighting for small villages now)

https://www.rt.com/russia/577917-ukraine-bild-claims-advance-offensive/

12 Jun, 2023 21:19

Zelensky cancels traditional celebration of Nazi defeat in WWII

Ukraine’s president has signed a law moving the day marking defeat of the Nazis from May 9 to May 8, breaking with an established tradition

Kiev has broken with a longstanding tradition of celebrating victory over Nazism on May 9, a date that has been observed in most post-Soviet nations. On Monday, President Vladimir Zelensky signed a bill into law that moves the commemorative date from May 9 to May 8. The holiday itself was also renamed the “Day of Remembrance and Victory [over] Nazism in World War II of 1939–1945.”

The new law makes May 8 a public holiday instead of May 9, which is now to be considered a regular working day in Ukraine under the new legislation. Earlier, Zelensky also signed a decree making May 9 “Europe Day,” as it is in the EU. Although not a public holiday, the Day of Europe was previously marked in Ukraine on the third Saturday of May.

The bill was introduced to the Ukrainian parliament by Zelensky himself on May 8 and marked as urgent. The lawmakers then passed it later that same month.

The traditionalVictory Daywas once widely celebrated throughout Ukraineon May 9. Back in2017, some 600,000 citizens attended commemorationsacross the country on that date, according to the then-interior ministry spokesman, Artem Shevchenko.

In the wake of the 2014 Maidan coup, such celebrations were increasingly marred by nationalist provocations and violence. The history of WWII also became an increasingly controversial issue in Ukraine as leaders of the nationalist paramilitary forces, including those whocollaborated with the Nazis, were increasingly glorified by nationalist groupsand authorities in Kiev.

Stepan Bandera (1909-1959),the head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), known for itsradical anti-Semitic ideology, was officially declared anational hero in Ukraine in 2010. Ukrainian nationalists have regularly marked his birthday on January 1 with torchlit marches and massive demonstrations.

Bandera’s status has long been a contentious issue in relations between Ukraine and Poland, as well as with Israel, since the OUN’s paramilitary wing, theUkrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), was responsible for thedeaths of tens of thousands of Poles and Jewsin Ukraine during WWII.

In December 2022, aUkrainian court ruledthatemblems and symbols linked to the SS Galicia Division, anotorious Nazi-aligned unit, are “not Nazi”and are thus legal to use in Ukraine, despite a formal ban on Nazi imagery.

The flags and patches of the division have been repeatedly displayed by Ukrainian nationalists and servicemen alike, even making it into official pictures released by Kiev. TheGalicia Division itself was known for committing war crimes against Polish civilians during WWII.

(Yet Poland supports Ukraine, weird eh? This is an example of the propaganda that Ukraine is using to normalizing Nazis in the country and getting citizens to believe Nazis were the good guys, because they don’t want people to give credit to Russia that sacrificed 25 million soldiers to save EU. Thats how sick they are!)

https://www.rt.com/russia/577921-zelensky-traditional-celebration-nazi-defeat/