Naomi Wolf on War Room. This is so sickening, the truth is being received 54% drop in Pfizer sales of their shots, but they seem to be protected by our DOD. Pfizer will never admit wrong they are protected. Maybe Karen Kingston is absolutely right PB
India deploys MiG-29 fighter-jets to guard northern borders
The upgraded aircraft have assumed responsibility for protecting airspace from potential threats such as Pakistan and China
In a move to strengthen defense against potential threats from either Pakistan or China, India has deployed its upgraded, Russian-made MiG-29 fighter jets to Srinagar air base in Jammu and Kashmir, replacing the existing MiG-21 squadron stationed there.
The Tridents squadron, also known as the ‘Defender of the North,’ has taken over responsibilities from the MiG-21 squadron at the strategically important Srinagar Air Force Station, news agency ANI reported on Saturday.
The MiG-29 jets were relocated to the air base in January of this year and have actively patrolled the Kashmir valley and the Ladakh sector. These aircraft are primed to swiftly respond to any possible airspace violation attempts by China, maintaining a high readiness posture. Following the Galwan clash in 2020, the MiG-29s became the first aircraft to be stationed in the Ladakh sector specifically to counter Chinese threats. They have effectively thwarted many such attempts since then, the report added.
Squadron Leader Vipul Sharma of the Indian Air Force explained, “Srinagar lies in the centre of Kashmir valley and its elevation is higher than plains. It is strategically better to place an aircraft with a higher weight-to-thrust ratio and less response time due to proximity to the border and is equipped with better avionics and long-range missiles.” The MiG-29 fulfils all these criteria, he said, making it capable of taking on enemies on two fronts.
Squadron Leader Shivam Rana highlighted the upgraded aircraft’s capabilities, saying it can operate at night with night vision goggles, and boasts an extended range due to its air-to-air refueling capacity. He also pointed to the addition of air-to-ground armaments, previously absent, and said the pilots flying these aircraft are meticulously selected by the Indian Air Force.
The MiG-29s offer several advantages over the MiG-21s, which had effectively protected the Kashmir valley for decades. The entire fleet of MiG-21 fighter aircraft was grounded in May to conduct checks and investigate several incidents of crashes over the previous two years, leading to the tragic deaths of five pilots.
Indian media reported last year that New Delhi is aiming to retire, by 2025, all four squadrons of MiG-21s, introduced in the Indian Air Force in the early 1960s, as a part of the long-term modernization drive. It is also looking to start phasing out the three squadrons of MiG-29 fighter jets in the next five years. Currently the Indian Air Force has about 70 MiG-21 jets and around 50 MiG-29 modifications. 12 Aug, 2023
https://www.rt.com/india/581184-india-deploys-mig-29-fighter-jet-borders-pakistan-china/
12 Aug, 2023
Ukrainians underprepared by NATO training – report
The 35-day ‘crash course’ administered by the alliance is geared toward members’ experience in Middle Eastern counterinsurgency
Western military instructors are leaving their Ukrainian charges “underprepared” to fight Russia, a Ukrainian Army officer told think tank OpenDemocracy on Wednesday.
‘Dutchman’, a senior intelligence sergeant in Kiev’s 41st Mechanized Brigade, complained that his country’s NATO benefactors simply do not understand the differences between the counterinsurgency wars they have waged in the Middle East in recent decades and the realities of the fighting in Ukraine.
“For the most part, [Western instructors] have fought wars in cities and towns – urban settings,” the officer pointed out, arguing that the NATO commanders’ experience of kicking in doors to hunt “insurgents” in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria was “not really relevant to us.”
They don’t quite understand our situation and how we are fighting.
NATO commanders typically plan “with a weaker enemy in mind,” he said, confident they can overwhelm their enemies with superior firepower and other technology – a strategy that has failed to dislodge the well-armed Russian military.
“We need people to understand how to effectively clear trenches, enter them, how to throw grenades effectively, how not to trip on booby traps, to understand what grenades the [Russians] throw – essentially to understand the enemy,” Dutchman continued, lamenting that Ukrainian soldiers had not been taught to think on their feet. “There’s never going to be a warning regarding an offensive,” he added.
“It would be better if either [the instructors] came here to see what we’re facing or we went there to train their instructors to train our troops,” he told the think tank, explaining that while “the Western training is good and the guys gain experience… the most useful training is still done in Ukraine.”
Dutchman acknowledged that NATO instructors flying to Ukraine to teach new recruits how to more effectively kill Russians was a violation of the alliance’s “no boots on the ground” policy, which is ostensibly intended to avert a direct clash with Moscow.
“From a legal, regulatory, safety, and permissions perspective, we can’t do [the type of training Ukrainians want], unless we make some fairly serious policy changes,” analyst Nick Reynolds of UK think tank the Royal United Services Institute agreed.
NATO rules aside, the US military has been training Ukrainians locally in offensive tactics since at least 2014. The CIA has trained operatives in Ukraine for decades – long before the 2014 coup that removed democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych from power – and stepped up its presence in 2015, offering weeks-long courses in weapons, intelligence and stay-behind network strategy. While Washington officially categorized these as non-offensive, a former CIA official told Yahoo News a month before Moscow’s military operation began that the US was “training an insurgency,” teaching Ukrainians “to kill Russians.”
https://www.rt.com/news/581194-ukraine-military-underprepared-counterinsurgency-tactics/
Ukraine facing ‘difficult’ autumn – foreign minister (the constipated baby man speaks)
Kiev’s Western backers will increasingly push the country to negotiate with Russia, Dmitry Kuleba predicts
Ukraine is heading for a “very difficult political season,” with the country likely to be pushed into negotiating with Russia, Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba has said.
He promised to do everything to resist efforts to coerce the country into seeking a diplomatic solution to the ongoing conflict.
“It will be a very difficult political season, I warn everyone. These voices [calling for talks] are getting louder. We will do everything within the framework of international and criminal law to ensure that these voices fade away,” Kuleba said on Saturday, as quoted by Ukrainian media.
Kiev has repeatedly rejected any possibility of negotiating with Russia, with the country’s President Vladimir Zelensky even introducing specific legislation last fall that explicitly banned such a move. On the other hand, Moscow has repeatedly expressed readiness to engage in meaningful negotiations to resolve the conflict, which has continued for a year-and-a-half.
Kuleba’s take on the upcoming autumn was ridiculed by Russian Senator Sergey Tsekov, who represents Crimea in the country’s upper chamber, the Federation Council. He suggested the diplomat and the Ukrainian leadership as a whole were actually worried about Western aid eventually drying up.
“He believes that autumn will be a difficult test for Ukraine due to calls for negotiations, as he and the Kiev elite are held hostage by easy money coming from the West,” Tsekov told Russian media.
“The longer the fighting goes on, the more they will earn, the more they demand from the US, the EU. Still, the people of Ukraine will not see most of the funds since the aid will be ransacked,” the senator suggested.
Over the course of the ongoing conflict, the West has poured extensive military and financial aid into Ukraine, with the US alone allocating around $100 billion. Moscow has repeatedly urged Kiev’s Western backers to stop “pumping” Ukraine with weaponry, arguing that this will only prolong the hostilities rather than change their outcome.
12 Aug, 2023
https://www.rt.com/russia/581192-ukraine-kuleba-difficult-autumn/
Sometimes the comments on RT are more interesting then the articles