9 Jul, 2025 16:26

Ukrainians tip off Russia on draft office locations – senior official

The Russian military attacked multiple recruitment centers across Ukraine over the past few days

Ukrainian citizenshave provided Russiawith the coordinates of local enlistment offices on multiple occasions, Andrey Kovalenko, the head of Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation, claims.

The senior official made the remarks on Tuesday, warning the country’s citizens against disclosing the locations of recruitment centers, while threatening them with legal action if they do.

“There have been cases where Ukrainians have sent information to enemy [Telegram] bots. This is true. These people are already known to Ukrainian special services,” Kovalenko stated.

In recent days, the Russian military has attacked multiple Ukrainian enlistment offices, which are officially known as territorial centers of recruitment and social support(TCR). In its daily briefing on Monday, theRussian Defense– Ministry mentioned that TCRs had been among the targets attacked==, without providing any further details.

Multiple videos circulating online indicate that Geran-2 kamikaze drones were primarily employed in carrying out the strikes.Enlistment offices have reportedly been hit throughout Ukraine, including in Kharkov, Kremenchug, Poltava, the Ukrainian-controlled Russian city of Zaporozhye, and other locations.

Online footage suggests thatRussia’s strikes on TCRs have been welcomed by some Ukrainians, with onlookers heard cheering the attacks.

Videos of the strikes have also met with positive reaction online, prompting concerns from Ukrainian officials and public figures. For instance, the former commander of thenotorious neo-Nazi Aidar battalion, Yeveny Dikiy, said that welcoming attacks on recruitment offices should be treated as high treason.

“There are real Ukrainian citizenswho rejoice at the Russian Federation’s strikes on TCRs. This is,in fact, already treason. The SBU should be sent out over such comments, and these people should be prosecuted,” Dikiy stated. (Everyone existing in Ukraine has a potential to be charged high treason, according to Zelenky’s government.)

Ukrainian mobilization has grown increasingly chaotic and violent over the years of the conflict. Numerous videos circulating online show enlistment officers chasing would-be recruits in the streets, commonly backed by civilian police. Reluctant draftees are sometimes threatened with military-grade weaponry and often beaten, along with any bystanders who attempt to intervene.

Themobilization effort has received the moniker ‘busification’, which describes the process ofviolently packing recruits into the unmarked minibusescommonly used by TCR officials. Kiev has long dismissing reports of widespread violence and abuse related to mobilization as “Russian propaganda.”

However, last April the country’s military did admit that its recruitment process has experienced some hiccups.“Busification is a shameful phenomenon, and we’re doing our best to avoid it,” deputy head of Ukraine’s Defense Ministry Lt. Gen. Ivan Gavrilyuk said.

https://www.rt.com/russia/621238-ukraine-draft-offices-strikes/

>>23302138

Putin Sends Message To US With Record 700+ Drones, Missiles On Ukraine Overnight

by Tyler Durden Wednesday, Jul 09, 2025 - 11:05 AM

President Putin continues playing hardball and sending tough signals in the face of Trump administration criticisms, and after on Monday the White House confirmed it is reversing course on its recent pause on weapons to Ukraine, as it will instead send more.

Russia overnight launched an unprecedented 728 Shahed drones as well as decoy drones, accompanied also by 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, Ukraine's air force announced Wednesday. Source: State Emergency Service of Ukraine

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described that the northwestern city of Lutsk,near the borders with Poland and Belarus, suffered the most intense attacks and damage, and ten other regions were also targeted.

Lutsk hostsmilitary airfieldsfrequently used byUkrainian cargo planes and fighter jets, and has long been a regioncrucial to military logistics and a hub for foreign military.

Zelensky said that the Kremlin was "making a point" with this fresh attack, especially as it comes so closely on the heels of the Pentagon U-turn concerning weapons shipments to Kiev.

"This is a telling attack— and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all," he wrote on X.

"Our partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to think about ending the war, not launching new strikes," Zelensky added, and called for more Western anti-Moscow sanctions, particularly targeting its energy sector.

Russia's Defense Ministry meanwhile later confirmedit launched "long-range" and "precision" strikeson Ukraine overnight Tuesday,seeking to take out military airfield infrastructure. The statement claimed that "all designated targets were destroyed."

The bar on these massive drone swarm attacks keeps getting set higher,as earlier this month Russia sent a record over 500 UAVs. Never before has a single night's assault reached this level of over 700 drones and missiles.

The Ukrainian president's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, pointed out on social media, "It is quite telling that Russia carried out this attack just as the United States publicly announced that it would supply us with weapons."

The tempo of attacks is definitely and very noticeably increasing: Geopolitical and war monitor blog Moon of Alabama observes of this trend:

That's nearly 100 long range drones per day which target Kiev and other bigger cities. These are by the way no longer Iran made Shahed drones but a third generation development based on the original design.

These drones are now bigger. They have new engines and fly faster and higher. Their load of explosives is now about 90 kilogram, double that of the original version.For each of these drones launched against Ukraine there is an additional decoy drone flying along. The decoys look similar but are not armed and much cheaper. They are to attract the air defenses while the real drones pass through.

Recenttargets have been Ukrainian refineries, industrial objectsand, during the last days,recruiting offices of the Ukrainian military.

These offices are in public buildings. Their addresses are naturally known as the whole mobilization process for additional soldiers is being run by them.

The recruiters are hated by the population. Ukrainians are published the addresses of mobilization offices with requests to Russia to hit them.

If true that would suggest unprecedented domestic anger directed at the Zelensky government and its notoriously harsh recruitment tactics, which have for years seen young men get nabbed on the streets and forced into vans by recruitment officers.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-sends-message-us-record-700-drones-missiles-ukraine-overnight

Federal Crackdown Puts Harvard's Accreditation Status In Jeopardy

by Tyler Durden Wednesday, Jul 09, 2025 - 10:00 AM

The Trump administration has significantly escalated its confrontation with Harvard University, warning that the institution may face the loss of its accreditation and moving to compel theuniversity to release records*related to itsforeign student population.

In coordinated actions on Monday, the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services formallynotified the New England Commissionof Higher Education that Harvard may be in violation of federal anti-discrimination laws andfailing to meet the accrediting body’s standards. The agencies cited allegations of unchecked antisemitism during pro-Palestinian demonstrations on campus in the wake of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“By allowing anti-Semitic harassment and discrimination to persist unchecked on its campus, Harvard University has failed in its obligation to students, educators, and American taxpayers,” Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “The Department of Education expects the New England Commission of Higher Education toenforce its policies and practices, and to keep the Department fully informed of its efforts to ensure that Harvard is in compliance with federal law and accreditor standards.”

According to HHS; "In light of HHS’ OCR’s that Harvard University is in violation of Federal civil rights law, there isstrong evidenceto suggest the school may no longer meet the Commission’s accreditation standards."

Separately, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was issuing subpoenas for records related to the university’s Student Visitor and Exchange Program==. The department accused Harvard of refusing to comply with multiple prior requests and is now seeking a wide range of documents and communications tied to foreign students enrolled since January 1, 2020.

The requests includedisciplinary records,protest-related footage, and anydocumentation of illegal activityinvolving foreign students, part of what the administration describes as a broader enforcement of immigration laws and oversight of campus unrest.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the administration hasalso barred Harvard from enrolling new international students until the university complies.

“We tried to do things the easy way with Harvard. Now, through their refusal to cooperate, we have to do things the hard way,” said Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin in a statement.

The clash reflects a broader campaign by President Donald Trump to reshape the American higher education landscape, which he has long criticized as elitist, ideologically captured, and unaccountable to taxpayers. Harvard, the nation’s oldest and wealthiest university, has become a central target in this campaign.

Administration officials accuse Harvard of failing to maintain order and discipline during protests, while allowing what Bloomberg describes as a dramatic rise in crime on campus. They have alsoscrutinized the university’s admissions and hiring practices.

In addition to the accreditation threat and immigration crackdown, the Trump administrationhas revoked more than $2.4 billion in federal research fundingallocated to Harvard. Officials have also threatened the university’stax-exempt status, a move legal scholars say could trigger sweeping implications for nonprofit institutions across the country.

Harvard has challenged both the freeze in federal funding and the international student enrollment ban in court, arguing that the administration is overstepping its authority and violating the university’s autonomy.

The moves mark one of the sharpest confrontations in recent memory between a presidential administration and a single university, highlighting the increasingly fraught relationship between elite institutions and federal regulators.

(*I think Harvard knows if they release the records, they will be in much more trouble than accreditation, Harvard is a CIA breeder and training school, they know many of those students are here illegally and to be recruited and used by the CIA in our country or their own country.Benz said all the Elite schools are CIA incubators, and have been for decades. Additionally, doesn’t the DOS know the people coming from other countries because of the Student visa and their student passports? If so, the Trump Administration are publicly using Harvard, they will use this to expose all other elite schools to expose the CIA program used intentionally to destroy their own country,and/or the USA. He's just not going after Harvard, he's going after every other elite and non elite school that are compromised. The enemies of the US are educated here in these schools.)

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/federal-crackdown-puts-harvards-accreditation-status-jeopardy