| The Maritime Security Forum is pleased to provide you with a product, in the form of a daily newsletter, through which we present the most relevant events and information on naval issues, especially those related to maritime security and other related areas. It aims to present a clear and concise assessment of the most recent and relevant news in this area, with references to sources of information. We hope that this newsletter will prove to be a useful resource for you, providing a comprehensive insight into the complicated context of the field for both specialists and anyone interested in the dynamics of events in the field of maritime security. |
MS DAILY BRIEF – July 27 th, 2024
Daily appearance Monday-Saturday 10 AM (GMT +2)
Some information is presented when possible from several sources
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Update from Ukraine | Great news! Airfield explosion in Crimea. 1
Who launched the attack on the French rail network – and why?- The Gu7ardian,Sat Jul 27 2024 00.28 4
Biden to announce plans to reform US supreme court – report-The Guardian,Sat Jul 27 2024 04.06 8
Record surge of support for Harris mobilizes white women voters-The Guardian,Sat 27 Jul 2024 00.54 9
Russian warships to reach Havana again – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024. 32
Ireland fears Russia’s hybrid and maritime attacks – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024 33
Update from Ukraine | Great news! Airfield explosion in Crimea
Paris Olympics opening ceremony: a high-kitsch spectacle on the banks of the Seine -The Guardian, Sat Jul 27 2024 00.18
An armada of boats ferrying athletes along the Seine, dancers dangling and transvestites parading – all in pouring rain
The Paris Olympics opened on Friday night with a high-kitsch spectacle on the banks of the Seine as an army of boats ferried athletes along the Seine, dancers hung from tall poles, transvestites paraded on bridges and Olympic rings lit up the Eiffel Tower – all under a relentless downpour.
France promised its opening ceremony would be the greatest outdoor spectacle on Earth. More than 300,000 people watched from the river banks and bridges – and hundreds more stood at windows and balconies – as the spectacle of dance, live music and acrobatics unfolded along more than 6km of river from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Eiffel Tower.
The show promised to deconstruct French stereotypes, and American singer Lady Gaga was the first star to set the tone for the kitsch spectacle. She appeared from a giant golden staircase on the banks of the Seine, surrounded by pink pom poms and huge pink feathered fans, for a cabaret rendition of the famous 1960s French music-hall song Mon Truc en plumes by Zizi Jeanmaire.
Lady Gaga performed at the Sully Bridge. Photograph: Aris Messinis/AFP/Getty Images
Later, pop singer Aya Nakamura, the world’s most-listened-to French-speaking artist, stepped onto the Pont des Arts in a bold musical juxtaposition that saw her perform alongside the French Republican Guard, who were in perfect formation on military drums. Nakamura sang excerpts from songs by legendary French crooner Charles Aznavour, as well as her own hits Pookie and Djadja, alongside the French army choir and military brass band.
Nakamura’s appearance was seen as a triumph after a racist backlash against the prospect of her singing earlier this year prompted Paris prosecutors to open an investigation into alleged racist abuse against her. Some members of the French far-right – which was prevented from seizing power by a massive rise in the tactical vote in the recent early parliamentary elections – complained earlier this year that Nakamura, who grew up in the suburbs of Paris, was not French enough to sing.
The party on Paris’s rain-drenched river was the first time the opening ceremony of the world’s biggest sporting event was held outside a stadium, with athletes parading not around a running track but in a flotilla of boats.
A depiction of the Greek god Dionysus by a man covered in blue body paint was a crazy highlight. Photo: Pixel8000
But the open-air ceremony, once described by Emmanuel Macron as “a crazy idea that must become reality”, had to overcome obstacles.
First, a series of sabotage attacks on the TGV high-speed rail network caused chaos in France hours before the ceremony began. Then came a meteorological nightmare: instead of the balmy summer evening glow the directors had hoped for, a deluge followed as the skies opened up with rain so relentless that meteorologists said it was the equivalent of 15 days of rain in six hours.
The downpour thoroughly drenched the athletes and spectators, many of whom stood outside without cover throughout the nearly four-hour show. Even some dignitaries temporarily left their seats in the Trocadero grandstand after being drenched.
But it was all about determination in the face of adversity. Thomas Jolly, the young French director who created the surreal and irreverent show, said he wanted not just “ephemeral glitter” but an exploration of what underlies “our common humanity”.
Rider Floriane Issert carried the Olympic flag in the Trocadero. Photo: Martin Divíšek/EPA
He said he chose the Seine for its “healing power” after tragedies such as the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris and the 2019 Notre Dame fire. Indeed, part of the show was a spectacular, pre-filmed dance routine with workers performing high-risk moves while hanging from scaffolding around Notre Dame.
The evening began with 6,800 athletes being bused from the Olympic Village to the Pont d’Austerlitz in the east of the city, where French military men guarded them as they boarded boats.
Greece’s boat set off first, in keeping with Olympic tradition, followed by the Olympic refugee team, then other nations descended the river in 85 boats. The Ukrainian delegation received a massive ovation from the crowd on the river bank.
Not since the reign of Louis XV has a group of boats sailed down the Seine in the same direction at a ceremony, and they were cheered on by people clinging to windows.
The Technicolor homage to French clichés included a woman in a croissant-covered dress leading a colorful crowd toward a group of French can-can dancers in bright pink costumes. They put on a traditional can-can show in which they wiggled their skirts and swirled their legs, before ending in a can-can on the banks of the Seine.
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, called the show “cheerful, creative and not very well-mannered”.
A dance number celebrated urban sports on a floating platform on the Seine River. Photo: John MacDougall/Reuters
In a hint of torrential rain, hundreds of dancers plunged in a synchronized dance through water troughs in a dramatic performance on the Île de la Cité near Notre Dame. The dancers dressed as hotel valets then performed acrobatics on a bridge after carrying Louis Vuitton suitcases – a obligatory salute to sponsors. France’s biggest death metal band, Gojira, played amid the flames with lyricist Marina Viotti, and dancers swung from poles on Pont Neuf.
Axelle Saint-Cirel, a French mezzo-soprano from Guadeloupe, sang a new arrangement of the French national anthem, La Marseillaise, draped in the tricolor flag on the glass roof of the Grand Palais.
All the while, a mysterious, faceless figure was sweeping across the city’s rooftops with the Olympic flame. At least a billion viewers watched the event on TV and social media, and the filmed segments were as important as the live spectacle, with former French footballer Zinedine Zidane kicking off carrying the Olympic flame through a movie set with kitschy 1960s cafe terraces to a metro train. He arrived at the Trocadero, where he was cheered.
The show, which culminated at the Eiffel Tower, took place amid an unprecedented security operation in the city, with 45,000 police officers and thousands of soldiers.
Tony Estanguet, the three-time Olympic canoe champion who is the chief organizer of the Paris Olympics, told the athletes, “Welcome to your moment in history – live it and love it.”
At the end, Charles Coste, France’s oldest 100-year-old Olympic champion, took the flame from his wheelchair, then passed it on to French judo great Teddy Riner and sprinter Marie-José Pérec. They lit a cauldron attached to a giant balloon before Celine Dion sang Edith Piaf’s Love Anthem in her first public performance in many years, drawing huge cheers from the crowd.
Who launched the attack on the French rail network – and why?- The Gu7ardian,Sat Jul 27 2024 00.28
Daniel BoffeyinParis
The arsonists used crude methods but the disruption to the opening of the Paris Olympics was severe
It was around 1.15am when SNCF workers carrying out repairs by moonlight spotted the group of people a little further down the railway line near a signal box outside the quiet village of Vergigny, in the Yonne department of northern France.
They were concerned enough by the unusual sight at such an hour to approach the intruders and then to call the local police as those they had interrupted fled into the darkness.
That observation, along with the remains of incendiary devices left behind at what are now crime scenes across the French rail network, will form a crucial part of the investigation into what was described on Friday by a Socialist senator as “destabilization, sabotage and questioning the image of France” in the hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics.
The methods used by the pyrotechnists appeared rudimentary – setting fires to destroy fiber-optic cables in signaling stations along France’s high-speed rail lines – but the damage was no less severe, both to the transportation infrastructure and to the country’s confidence in its security preparations ahead of the next two weeks of sport.
“It is a huge security job, it is painstaking, we have to repair wire by wire all these cables that have been damaged and burned,” said Jean-Pierre Farandou, SNCF’s director general.
Although senior French politicians, including Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, said the attack was irrelevant to Friday night’s ceremony on the Seine, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer was among those forced to change their travel plans.
A Downing Street spokesman confirmed that he had intended to take the Eurostar but was forced to fly. French rail operator SNCF said it would urgently beef up security around the rail infrastructure “in coordination with the police”.
It was an undeniably shaky start to what was billed as France’s biggest peacetime security operation ever, with 45,000 police and gendarmes deployed on the streets. The pursuit for swift justice began. But who was behind the operation?
Beyond the charred cables and the fleeting sight of some of the arsonists, another line of inquiry emerged on Friday.
An incendiary device was also discovered on the TGV Aix-Marseille line on May 8, as the Olympic flame was arriving in the region.
Thursday night’s attacks were aimed at disabling TGV nerve centers outside Paris: the signal boxes at Courtalain (Atlantic high-speed line), Croisilles (LGV Nord) and Pagny-sur-Moselle (LGV Est).
Was the device found in Aix-Marseille a test? Or an earlier failed attempt to disrupt France’s Olympic preparations?
Paris prosecutor-general Laure Beccuau is trying to piece the puzzle together and has announced that she will take over the investigation into “all the damage deliberately caused to SNCF sites”.
French interior minister Gérald Darmanin said security forces “hope to make arrests quickly”.
However, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal had words of caution about speculation about the identity of the perpetrators at a time when, he suggested, rumors and fear could prove as destabilizing as the crimes themselves.
“The investigation has started, I appeal to everyone to be cautious,” Attal said. “What we know, what we see, is that this operation was prepared, coordinated, that nerve centers were targeted, which shows a form of knowing the network in order to know where to strike,” he said.
Attal added that he could not “say more about the perpetrators, about the motivations”.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz disregarded Attal’s call, instead claiming on social media that it was the work of Iranian pimps, though he offered no proof.
“The sabotage of rail infrastructure in France ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics was planned and executed under the influence of the Iranian axis of evil and radical Islam,” he wrote on X.
“As I warned my French counterpart this week, based on Israeli intelligence, the Iranians are planning terror attacks against the Israeli delegation and all participants in the Olympics.
“Increased preventive measures must be taken to counter their plot. The free world must stop Iran now – before it’s too late.”
Another theory is that it was a Moscow-inspired destabilization attempt.
On Sunday, French police arrested 40-year-old Kirill Griaznov, a cordon bleu chef and reality TV star whom they suspect of being a member of the FSB, the Russian security agency. He was detained on charges of planning a “large-scale” operation to destabilize France.
Security services across Europe have long been on high alert for Russian sabotage after Russia’s alleged involvement in an arson attack in east London, an inferno that destroyed Poland’s biggest shopping center, an attempted sabotage in Bavaria, Germany, and anti-Semitic graffiti in Paris.
France’s former ambassador to Moscow, Jean de Gliniasty, was among those who said on Friday that they believed Moscow’s involvement was possible.
“We are obviously in a situation of conflict with Russia, and Russia is obviously not going to do anything, and that is an understatement, to help make these Olympics a success,” he said.
Another theory is that the crimes bore the stamp of the anarchist far-left. Eight people were charged in 2018 with being part of an anarchist group that tried to sabotage part of France’s high-speed rail network a decade earlier. They were, however, acquitted of the crime.
As the “no-fly” restriction over the French capital was lifted and the sharpshooters put their guns away, Parisians were grateful to have their city back, after a ceremony that forced many of them to sit in a similar isolation. But the past 24 hours have shown how vulnerable they remain.
Biden to announce plans to reform US supreme court – report-The Guardian,Sat Jul 27 2024 04.06
The US president will also call for amending the constitution to limit the immunity of presidents and various office holders
Joe Biden will announce plans to reform the US Supreme Court on Monday, Politico reported, citing two people familiar with the matter, adding that the US president will likely support term limits for justices and an enforceable ethics code.
Biden said earlier this week, during a speech in the Oval Office, that he would call for reform of the court.
He is also expected to call for a constitutional amendment to limit the immunity of presidents and other public office holders, Politico reported, following a July Supreme Court ruling that presidents have broad immunity from prosecution.
Biden will make the announcement Monday in Texas, and specific proposals could change, the report added.
Justice Elena Kagan on Thursday became the first member of the high court to publicly call for strengthening its new ethics code by adding a way to enforce it.
“The thing that can be criticized is that usually rules come with enforcement mechanisms, and this one – this set of rules – does not,” Kagan said at an annual judicial conference organized by the Ninth Circuit. More than 150 justices, lawyers, judicial staff and others attended.
The court has been considering adopting a code of ethics for several years, but the effort became more urgent after it was reported last year that Justice Clarence Thomas failed to disclose luxury travel he accepted from a major Republican donor.
Public confidence in the court has fallen sharply in recent years. In June, a poll conducted for the Associated Press-Norc Center for Public Affairs Research found that four in 10 American adults have almost no trust in judges, and 70 percent believe they are more likely to be guided by their own ideology than to serve as neutral arbiters.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/biden-to-announce-plans-to-reform-us-supreme
Record surge of support for Harris mobilizes white women voters-The Guardian,Sat 27 Jul 2024 00.54
More than 160,000 participants from a key demographic “answered the call” on Thursday, and nearly $8.5m was raised for Harris
After the success of a virtual appeal to mobilize women of color for Kamala Harris, a similar event with more than 160,000 participants took place Thursday aimed at white women, and it looks to break records.
White women will be a key demographic that Democrats need to win in this election.
The presidential campaign of Harris, who would become America’s first woman president if she wins for the Democrats in November and would become the first black woman and the first South Asian woman to be a major party’s presidential nominee if confirmed at next month’s Democratic National Convention, has taken off quickly since Joe Biden announced last Sunday that he would withdraw from his re-election campaign.
“It’s our turn to run. So this is what we’re doing. Hold this date and this time,” reads the virtual flyer for an event calling on white women – the majority of whom tend to vote Republican – to mobilize for Harris, widely distributed on social media.
“White Women: Answer the Call,” a Zoom appeal inspired by the call for women of color held earlier this week, which was attended by 164,000 white women, setting a world record as the largest Zoom rally in history. Nearly $2 million dollars was raised for Harris in less than two hours Thursday night.
The kick-off Zoom teleconference was hosted Sunday by Win With Black Women, a group of black women’s leaders and organizers, hours after Biden’s decision, and had a staggering 44,000 attendees who raised more than $1.5 million for Harris’ fledgling campaign.
Tens of thousands of people who couldn’t access the call because it was at capacity streamed it via other platforms like Twitch, Clubhouse and YouTube.
This was just one of many calls hosted by the group since 2020, when it was founded by strategist Jotaka Eaddy.
A Win With Black Men appeal also inspired by the Women of Color appeal raised more than $1.3 million Monday in support of Harris from more than 17,000 donors.
Shannon Watts, a prominent gun control activist, organized Thursday’s event, which featured speakers including actress Connie Britton, former US soccer star Megan Rapinoe, US House of Representatives representative Lizzie Fletcher and musician Pink. The group had raised more than $8.5 million by Friday afternoon, Watts wrote on Twitter.
Exit polls showed that 52% of white women eligible to vote in 2016 voted for Donald Trump, a figure that likely helped tip the election in Trump’s favor. At the time, he was running against Hillary Clinton, who was hoping to become the first woman president. In 2020, most white women voted for Trump again.
“Most white women have voted for the Republican nominee since the 2000 presidential election, when white women were almost evenly split between Democrat Al Gore and the Republican victor, George W Bush,” according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.
“In contrast, large majorities of women of color, Latinas and Asian American women supported the Democratic nominee over the entire time period during which data disaggregated by sex and race were available.”
Watts said she hopes history does not repeat itself.
“Comrade white women: we can and must fix this, and that starts with mobilizing like black women,” Watts wrote on Instagram ahead of the call. She linked to a Substack post she wrote, which read in part: ‘White women voting for Republicans, even when it seems to be against their best interests, is a complex phenomenon influenced by privilege, systemic racism and sexism, religious affiliations, and of course patriarchy.
“But we’re not a monolithic group; our voting patterns are typically divided along lines of religion, education and marital status, and this division makes us not only a crucial voting bloc, but an unpredictable one – even small changes in our voting behavior can have a significant impact on election outcomes.”
Watts added, “In other words, if we start doing our homework right now, we can create a shift in voting momentum that will help women of color elect Vice President Harris president in just 100 days.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jul/26/kamala-harris-zoom-answer-the-call
Ukraine war briefing: Kiev forces strike Russian military airfield in Crimea-The Guardian,Sat 27 Jul 2024 03.34
Volodymyr Zelenskiy congratulates troops for hitting “Russian bases and logistics on occupied territory”; Russia hands out long prison sentences for alleged anti-war plots. What we know on day 885
See all our coverage of the war in Ukraine
Ukrainian missile forces have struck a Russian military airfield in Crimea , which was being used for long-range strikes, Ukraine said on Friday, in the latest in a series of strikes on the Russian military in the occupied peninsula. Russia’s Saky airfield in western Crimea was targeted, the Ukrainian military general staff said, adding that it was assessing the consequences. “This is one of the operational airfields that Russia uses to control the airspace, especially the Black Sea, and launch air strikes on Ukrainian territory.” There was no immediate comment from the Russian Defense Ministry or local officials based in Moscow.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy implicitly acknowledged the attack in his video address on Friday night, praising “our soldiers who are striking Russian bases and logistics on occupied territory.” He said: ‘Our people, our soldiers, thank you for your accuracy’. Ukraine claims it has in recent months struck a number of Russian air defense systems deployed in Crimea, such as S-300 and S-400 units.
Russian air defenses intercepted 12 Ukrainian drones within an hour late on Friday over the Bryansk border region in southern Russia, the regional governor, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram. No casualties or serious damage were reported. Vyacheslav Gladkov, the governor of the Belgorod region, also on the border with Ukraine further southeast, said three drone strikes and a series of shelling attacks smashed windows and caused other damage to buildings.
Russia has handed down sentences of up to 22 years to a number of people convicted on treason and “terrorism” charges related to Moscow’s offensive in Ukraine. A Moscow military court jailed two men on Friday for allegedly planning to blow up fuel tanks at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport on the orders of Ukrainian secret services. The men, Mikhail Dariy and Ilya Kovylkov, were sentenced to 22 years and 15 years respectively on “terrorism” and other charges. Dariy said he didn’t carry out the planned attack because he wanted to minimize civilian casualties, independent media outlet SOTAvision reported. Prosecutors said Ukrainian intelligence officers offered the men $2,000 to carry out the attack using a drone, state news agency RIA Novosti reported.
Two other men were convicted in separate cases for trying to join the Freedom of Russia Legion, a pro-Kyiv fighter unit that includes Russian citizens and has carried out armed border incursions into Russian territory throughout the war. A military court in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don sentenced 23-year-old Ivan Kovtunovsky to 11 years in prison for treason conspiracy and joining a “terrorist organization”. In Moscow, a military court sentenced another man, 34-year-old Vyacheslav Lutor, to 10 years for trying to join the same unit, the Interfax news agency reported, citing the Russian security service FSB. It said that Lutor was detained after he bought a plane ticket to Turkey in an attempt to travel to Ukraine and took photos of an “industrial facility” in St. Petersburg that could have been a target “for future Ukrainian drone strikes.”
A former high-ranking Russian defense official has been arrested and charged with corruption in the latest high-profile incident in an ongoing purge in the country’s military leadership. Dmitry Bulgakov, who served as deputy defense minister in charge of military logistics for nearly 15 years until he was dismissed in September 2022, was detained on Friday by the FSB security service and placed in Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison. He has been widely blamed for the Russian military’s logistical failures in the early months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which left troops severely under-supplied and stymied Moscow’s advances. Bulgakov – the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia award, the country’s highest honor – was one of the country’s longest-serving defense officials.
A Ukrainian court has remanded an 18-year-old man in custody for the murder of a former nationalist MP, state media reported. Iryna Farion, a hardline campaigner against the use of the Russian language, was shot dead near her apartment in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on July 19. On Friday, a Lviv court ordered the suspect, who gave his name as Vyacheslav Zinchenko, to be remanded in custody for at least 60 days, state news agency Suspline reported. Zinchenko was arrested this week in Dnipro, 800 kilometers east of Lviv. Investigators said they are working to determine the motive behind the attack. Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said he inclined to believe the attacker acted on orders.
The US treasury secretary said “things are looking good” for the Group of Seven rich democracies to agree on the terms of a $50 billion loan to Ukraine backed by Russian assets by October. Janet Yellen told Reuters on Friday, on the sidelines of a meeting of G20 finance leaders in Brazil, that talks on advancing the loan had been constructive, including on US demands for assurances that assets would remain frozen for a longer period. The $50 billion loan, agreed in principle by the G7 leaders in June, would be financed from the proceeds generated by the Russian central bank’s roughly $300 billion in assets frozen in the West after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Slovakia said on Friday it had offered Ukraine a technical solution to restore Russian oil supplies to Slovak and Hungarian refiners, after warnings that a partial disruption could lead to fuel shortages as early as September. Slovakia and Hungary, eastern EU members, have been hit by the halting of Russian oil group Lukoil’s oil flows through Ukraine after Kiev imposed sanctions on the company. Slovakia’s government office said that Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal on Friday and that Fico “proposed to the Ukrainian partners a technical solution in which several states, including Slovakia, should participate,” without giving more details.
A German man sentenced to death in Belarus appeared on the country’s state television in tears and begging the German government to intervene in his case. “Mr. Scholz, please, I’m still alive … it’s not too late,” said Rico Krieger, who was photographed handcuffed inside a cell, appealing to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Authorities in Belarus say the 30-year-old Krieger traveled to the country last fall on orders from Ukrainian intelligence services to carry out a terrorist attack on a railway line.
Aftermath of Ukrainian missile attack on Russian base Saky: Russians deplore lack of aircraft shelters-Date published: 26.07.2024 21:51
The Ukrainian Armed Forces launched an attack on the Saky air base in the temporarily occupied Crimea, which the Russians used to launch airstrikes on Ukrainian territory, on the night of July 25-26. The recent attack on the Saky airfield in Crimea dealt a significant blow to both the facility and the military aviation stationed there. This impact is highlighted in a post published by Fighterbomber, the pseudonym of a Russian military blogger, who gave a detailed X-ray of the events of the night of July 26.
He deplores the fact that on the airfield in general there must be at least two armored vehicles on standby to deal with the evacuation of the wounded, “when it is impossible to do so by other means”, referring to a situation where personnel have to be rescued in the middle of an attack.
This detail says quite a lot about what happened at this Russian air base after the attack. In addition, Fighterbomber says airfield personnel should have first aid kits on hand and the skills to use them.
Saky is one of the operational airfields used by the Russians to control airspace, especially the area near the Black Sea, and to launch airstrikes on Ukrainian territory. Information on the consequences of the attack is still being clarified.
As reported by DefenseRomania, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Army stated that the air base was covered by “advanced” Russian air defense systems, which once again failed to protect an important Russian military facility.
BACKGROUND: On the night of July 25-26, a threat of a ballistic missile attack was announced in temporarily occupied Crimea. Explosions were heard in Novofedorivka, near Okunivka and Simferopol.
In the course of the morning, Russian Telegram Astra channel, citing sources in the emergency services in the temporarily annexed Crimea, reported that the Armed Forces of Ukraine had launched ATACMS tactical ballistic missiles at the Saky military airbase near Novofedorivka that night.
An interesting observation made by Fighterbomber is that the interval between the reconnaissance activities and the subsequent strike by the Ukrainian Armed Forces was reduced to just six hours.
As a result, he suggests that Russian fighter jets need to be repositioned every five hours to avoid being targeted by attacks.
The Ukrainian publication Defense Express notes that an alternative solution would be to relocate military aircraft far behind the front line, beyond the range of Ukrainian missiles. This would mean withdrawing them from Crimea entirely, because on the one hand, the ATACMS missiles at Ukraine’s disposal can reach any corner of the Crimean Peninsula.
On the other hand, the US ban on the use of its weapons beyond a certain limit on Russian territory is still in force. Knowing this, the Kremlin may exploit this unreasonable demand, although Ukraine could still try to carry out attacks with its own weapon systems, such as domestically produced long-range kamikaze drones.
In the current situation, Fighterbomber continues, building shelters for Russian aircraft is unnecessary at this point, as “the size of the air force will shrink faster than it consolidates”. The comment comes on the heels of Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov’s recent promise to build special protected shelters in which fighter jets can be hidden.
As the DefenseExpress publication has previously reported, the main problem with this type of military facility is that there is currently no established design of a standard shelter for the Su-27 and its derivative models – the Su-30, Su-34 and Su-35. This problem has existed since the 1980s, the main problem being the high cost.
Another issue raised by Fighterbomber and other Russian military bloggers is the existence of a Ukrainian spy network in Crimea. One of these war bloggers pointed out that tourists are being taken to beach camping areas right through the Saky air base. And in general, the situation where military facilities are located next to tourist facilities is a common local practice, undermining all security measures.
Ukraine hit with ATACMS missiles a radar station and the Saky airfield in Crimea. Russian “modern” anti-aircraft defenses did not cope with all ATACMS-Update date: 26.07.2024 14:12
ATACMS / Photo: Lockheed Martin
Sources of the Astra publication reported that last night the Armed Forces of Ukraine struck with ATACMS on the territory of the Saki military airfield in Novofedorivka.
Last night, loud explosions were reported in different parts of the Crimean peninsula. According to Astra telegram channel, two radar stations were destroyed in the attack.
Thefirst radar station was destroyed as a result of the attack at the Saki military airfield in the village of Novofedorovka, Saki district, the Ukrainian telegram channel “Crimean Wind” also reported , as quoted by the RBC Ukraina publication.
The publication Astra also notes that last night’s ATACMS missile attack by the Armed Forces of Ukraine also targeted ammunition at the Saki airfield. As a result, parts of the Saki airfield were in flames after the detonation of the munitions.
In addition, an ATACMS missile hit the location of the Russian air defense system 5 km from the village of Shovkovichne in the Saky district. As a result, the radar station was destroyed.
In addition, subscribers of Telegram channels reported explosions in the Okunivka area (a point located at the eastern end of the Crimean peninsula). Residents of Simferopol also heard loud explosions.
In total, according to Ukrainian sources, the Ukrainian Armed Defense Forces of Ukraine hit Crimea with 4 ATACMS missiles, two of which were shot down by Russian defenses.
Mikhail Rajozhayev, the so-called head of the occupation administration in Sevastopol, reported only about the “ballistic missile threat” and later about the end of the missile threat.
The Ukrainian General Staff confirmed the strike on Saki airfield in Crimea
The General Staff has confirmed that the “Saki” airfield in Crimea has been hit – one of the operational airfields that the Russian occupiers use to control the airspace and launch strikes against Ukraine’s Crimea.
The consequences of the attacks are being clarified. The General Staff pointed out that the airfield was under the umbrella of “modern” Russian air defense equipment, which could not protect an important military objective.
“This evening units of the missile forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in cooperation with other components of the Defense Forces, as part of a unified plan, struck the “Saki” airfield in the temporarily occupied Crimea. This is one of the airfields operations that Russia uses to control the airspace, especially the Black Sea waters, and the distribution of airstrikes on Ukrainian territory,” the message said.
Putin has proposed to China a NATO-style Eurasian military alliance of Eurasia, an alliance led by Russia and China-Update date: 26.07.2024 13:14
Photo credit: Moscow Defense Ministry
The foreign ministers of China, Wang Yi, and Russia, Sergey Lavrov, have discussed building a “new security architecture in Eurasia” proposed by Russian President Vladimir Putin as an alternative to the Euro-Atlantic NATO model.
This initiative was proposed by Russia as a response to the deadlock in Euro-Atlantic mechanisms, according to a Russian Foreign Ministry press release after the two ministers met on Thursday in the Laotian capital Vientiane, during the summit of foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
However, the Chinese Foreign Ministry press release, EFE and Agerpres note, makes no mention of the subject, indicating only that both ministers discussed “important peace and security issues” and the strengthening of cooperation for “regional peace, stability and prosperity” in East Asia.
Wang Yi emphasized that the political trust between Beijing and Moscow is “solid and stable” and that both sides are “deepening” their strategic cooperation, reiterating China’s desire to “support each other” and “protect each other’s key interests”.
According to the ministry in Beijing, the two officials also discussed the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, which will be commemorated next year: ‘The victory in World War II must be jointly maintained and the correct view of history must be defended’.
Beijing also noted that Lavrov congratulated China for its role in promoting the declaration of reconciliation between the Palestinian factions recently signed in the Chinese capital, and expressed Russia’s readiness to work together to restore peace in the Middle East, which the Russian communique did not mention.
The two communiqués coincide on defending ASEAN mechanisms against what China describes as “sabotage and interference by external forces”.
In addition to the bilateral meeting, Wang Yi and Lavrov had a trilateral meeting with Laotian Foreign Minister Saleumxay Kommasith, where they agreed to expand their transportation links, particularly rail.
Lavrov thanked China for its “balanced” initiatives on Ukraine
Lavrov also thanked his Chinese counterpart for Beijing’s initiatives to “promote approaches that take into account the interests of all sides involved” in the Ukraine war.
“Lavrov thanked his Chinese counterpart for China’s balanced and consistent attitude to the crisis in Ukraine and applauded Beijing’s initiatives to promote approaches that take into account the interests of all parties involved and address the root causes of the conflict,” the Russian Foreign Ministry press release said.
The Chinese communiqué does not specifically refer to the war in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Wang Yi gave assurances that his country “will continue to play a constructive role in realizing a ceasefire and resuming peace talks” between Russia and Ukraine, saying that “the settlement of any dispute must be achieved through political means”.
The head of Chinese diplomacy said that “both Ukraine and Russia have shown signs that they are willing to negotiate at different levels”, although he admitted that “the conditions and timing are not yet right”.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, China has taken an ambiguous stance, demanding respect for the territorial integrity of all countries, including Ukraine, and respect for the “legitimate security concerns” of all sides, including Russia.
Much of the international community has repeatedly called on China to use its good relations and influence with Moscow to stop the war, a request Beijing believes should be addressed to the parties involved.
Another big name in the Defense Ministry has been arrested in Russia. Dmitry Bulakov served as deputy minister for 14 years-Date published: 26.07.2024 17:02
The Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation announced on 26.07.2024 that the former deputy defense minister Dmitry Bulgakov has been detained and arrested in Moscow in connection with a criminal corruption case.
“The FSB, together with the Interior Ministry and the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation, have detained former deputy defense minister Army General D.V. Bulgakov and placed him in the PKU-2 remand center of the Federal Penitentiary Service in a criminal corruption case,” an FSB press service statement, picked up by Interfax news agency, said.
The department did not specify Bulgakov’s procedural status or other details of the case, noting that “investigative actions and operational measures are being carried out to establish the causes and conditions that contributed to the illegal activities”.
For her part, the official representative of the Investigative Committee, Svetlana Petrenko, said on Friday that “necessary investigative actions are being carried out with the person involved”.
“The Main Investigation Department of the committee is investigating a criminal case of corruption, in which Dmitry Bulgakov has been remanded in custody,” Petrenko said.
Bulgakov served as deputy defense minister from 2008 to 2022, and in 2016 he was awarded the title “Hero of the Russian Federation”.
According to official information, Bulgakov headed the logistics of the Armed Forces for many years, being responsible for the system of material-technical insurance, activities to organize the process of supplying armaments to troops, military equipment and materials, as well as their storage, operation, modernization, repair and disposal.
Author’s comment: Dmitry Bulgakov is the sixth high-ranking Russian military official to be arrested in recent months in a corruption case, but probably the heaviest name on this list.
The purges began on April 23, 2024, when another deputy defense minister, Timur Ivanov, was detained, responsible for organizing property management, troop stationing, housing and medical support for the Armed Forces, as well as procurement under the state defense commands.
They were followed by the head of the Defense Ministry’s Main Personnel Directorate, Yuri Kuznetsov (14.05), the former commander of the 58th Army of the Combined Arms, Major General Ivan Popov (21.05) and the head of the Main Communications Directorate of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation and deputy chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Vadim Shamarin (23.05).
Bulgakov, 69, was dismissed as deputy defense minister on 24.09.2022, after which he was given another unspecified position in the Armed Forces. His replacement came at the height of a campaign to mobilize some 300,000 reservists to reinforce troops taking part in the conflict in Ukraine, after the Russian offensive ran into major difficulties, with troops losing control of previously conquered territory.
General Atomics could fly first CCA prototype CCA in mid-2025: Air Force chairman – Breaking Defense – July 25, 2024
“We’re not just designing another stunt. We’re designing something that you can go into production at full capability,” said David Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s XQ-67A Off Board Sensing Station XQ-67A, designed and built by General Atomics, on its first flight Feb. 28 from Gray Butte Field Airport, Palmdale, Calif. General Atomics shows off its Gambit drone design, on which the XQ-67A is based, for the Air Force CCA program (Air Force photo).
FARNBOROUGH 2024 – General Atomics’ first prototype for the U.S. Air Force’s autonomous combat drone program could begin flight testing as early as mid-2025, the head of its aeronautics division told Breaking Defense in a recent interview.
Drone maker General Atomics and defense tech startup Anduril in April beat out mega primes Lockheed Martin, Northorp Grumman and Boeing for contracts to make the first batch of prototypes for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program.
The Air Force hasn’t yet said whether it will carry both companies – or just one – into production for the first phase of the program, which will have the firms build unmanned aircraft that can fight fighter jets at a fraction of the cost of a manned fighter. But General Atomics is determined to ease the service’s decision by moving quickly and proving that its design is mature enough to be mass-built, said David Alexander, president of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems.
“We’re not just designing another stunt. We’re designing something you can go into production at full capacity,” he said on the sidelines at the Royal International Air Tattoo last weekend. “We’re upside down to beat the competition, no matter who it is. Whether it’s Anduril, which is still in it, or the other three [competitors] who are trying to claw their way back.
The company has started building components for its first CCA prototype, which is due off the production line next year, he said.
If General Atomics is selected to move forward with full-rate production, it already has the facilities and capital infrastructure in place to ramp up production in the CCA program due to the impending sunset of the Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle and Air Force’s MQ-9A Reaper production lines, which will be reduced to two aircraft per month next year. General Atomics’ drone production peaked at about 8.5 aircraft per month in 2019, and Alexander said its current infrastructure will support an even higher rate than that for CCA production.
“We have this huge production gap. We have to be aggressive here – we have jobs on the line to fill that production line back up,” he said. “But we can easily do this program and we can easily build what they need and not too long ago when we were doing it.”
Under the current contract, General Atomics orders a “small number” of CCAs for development and testing, Alexander said.
However, Air Force leaders said they could buy more than 1,000 drones over the course of the program, making it an undoubtedly lucrative opportunity – especially as the service considers whether to delay or cancel its next-generation fighter program.
General Atomics said it derived its CCA design from its Gambit family of drones, as well as from the XQ-67A Off Board Sensing Station (OBSS) demonstrator it built for the Air Force Research Laboratory, which first flew in February. But Alexander noted that the CCA design is significantly different because of the air-to-air combat mission, which requires higher speeds and a different flight envelope than the surveillance mission for which the OBSS platform was designed.
Alexander declined to comment on what engines the company is considering for the CCA variant, as well as the other defense companies building the sensors and other mission systems that will be integrated into the aircraft.
The second round … Fight.
Production of the first round of CCA prototype CCAs has just begun, but the companies have already begun pursuing the second increment of the program. The Air Force has said little about how the second-round CCA will differ from the requirements of the first batch, but said in April that planning is underway and that “initial activities” are expected to begin later this year.
Alexander declined to comment on what new capabilities General Atomics might offer for the second increment.
“We’ll be in it and we’ll be in it big,” Alexander said.
Boeing and Lockheed Martin are also interested in returning to the CCA competition for increment two despite a loss in the first round of the program, top executives said during this week’s Farnborough Airshow.
“We are interested,” said Greg Ulmer, president of Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics unit. “We’re doing a lot of design development experiments with CCA. We’re doing a lot of studies on how you control and manage CCAs. “
Boeing’s current experiences in building and developing the Navy’s MQ-25 MQ-25 tanker drone and Australia’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat are also helping the company advance innovations in advanced materials, autonomy, software and artificial intelligence that can be integrated into future CCA growth, said Boeing Space and Security CEO Ted Colbert.
“Unless there are contract terms that we simply can’t sign or it’s a request that’s completely required of our portfolio, we will compete at every stage that occurs in space,” he said. “We’ll invest, we’ll continue to compete and the sweet spot of intersection of customer requirements and our capability will happen.”
Source: https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/general-atomics-could-fly-first-cca-prototype-in-mid-2025-aeronautics-president/?utm_campaign=Lockheed%20Martin&utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–27fDBeEqdmEZ7ATMeoF-9jUioKj506LA-HNLSxYxaR-UZzk0eUKbohqpuzCWW32V6Vn7iXe7O3cFg1y4s2DNDu2IwCf-XfoQEmR7sve3iWCq_TZg&_hsmi=317328170&utm_content=317328170&utm_source=hs_email
Orbital Insight launches NGA pilot for commercial maritime awareness data – Breaking Defense – July 25, 2024
Orbital Insight’s contract, worth up to $2 million, focuses on providing data and analysis on the potential threat of maritime activity in the Indo-Pacific.
Ships from Japan’s Maritime Self-Defense Force, the Republic of Korea Navy, and U.S. Navy Carrier Strike Group (CSG) 1 sail together during a trilateral exercise, Jan. 16, 2024. The exercise allowed the maritime forces to train jointly to increase coordination on maritime domain awareness and other common security interests. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communications Specialist 2nd Class Isaiah Williams)
TheNational Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (N GA) has selected Orbital Insight to pilot its in-development program, called Project Aegir, to acquire unclassified data and analysis related to maritime domain awareness – in the agency’s latest move to accelerate its intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) products to users, particularly increasingly demanding U.S. military operators.
Though small, the contract represents the first use of a new NGA acquisition tool, called Commercial Solutions Opening (CSO), aimed at accelerating commercial ISR acquisition at a time when the agency is locked in a battle with the Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) over their respective authorities to buy “tactical” imagery and analysis from private satellite operators.
“NGA’s first CSO has used a new acquisition authority to increase the speed of acquisitions by bringing together mission experts in a streamlined evaluation process,” said Devin Brande, NGA’s chief of commercial operations, Devin Brande, in the agency’s July 24 announcement .
The NGA release boasted that “the entire CSO solicitation, from public announcement to selection, took place in less than 90 days.”
Under Project Aegir (Aegir is the Anglicized version of the Old Norse word for sea), Orbital Insight will be eligible for up to $2 million over the next five months, the announcement explained, during which “pilot testing will be conducted on Orbital Insight’s proposed solution and capabilities, the results of which will determine any long-term contracts or broader procurement efforts.”
The California-based company, bought in May by space situational awareness startup Privateer, integrates imagery collected by multiple platforms, from radar satellites to camera-carrying drones to cell phone towers broadcasting geolocation data.
Project Aegir is specifically focused on “identifying, monitoring and tracking illicit maritime vessel activity in the US Indo-Pacific Command’s area of responsibility,” the NGA announcement said.
“We have challenged commercial industry to show us their most innovative solutions to address the difficult problems in the Indo-Pacific theater,” Brand said.
The Defense Department has been increasingly concerned about Chinese military activity in the South China Sea , as well as the potential risk of conflict stemming from things like illegal fishing and piracy in the region – particularly the rise of violent hijackings of Gulf of Aden ships by Somali pirates.
Source: https://breakingdefense.com/2024/07/orbital-insight-nabs-nga-pilot-for-commercial-maritime-awareness-data/
Intermarine and Leonardo have signed a contract to provide next-generation minehunters for the Italian Navy – European Security&Defence – July 26, 2024
A team consisting of Intermarine and Leonardo has signed a contract with the Directorate for Naval Armaments of the Italian General Secretariat of Defense and the National Directorate for Armaments to supply five new generation/coastal minehunters (NGM/C) for the Italian Navy, the companies announced on July 26, 2024.
The contract is initially worth €1.6 billion to supply the five ships along with integrated logistical support, but also includes about €1 billion in options.
Intermarine’s share of the committed funding is €1.165 billion, representing about 73% of the program’s value, while Leonardo’s share is about €0.43 billion, corresponding to about 27%. A similar breakdown applies to optional funding.
Intermarine, which leads the team, is the design authority for the NGM/C and will supply the platforms themselves, while Leonardo is the design authority and supplier of their combat systems.
“The contract signed today is the result of a process characterized by massive investment in research and development of new materials and innovative, cutting-edge manufacturing technologies,” the companies said in a joint press release. “This follows intense preliminary study work following a contract signed in 2021 between Intermarine and the Directorate of Naval Armaments focused on ‘Risk Mitigation Studies and NGM Vessel Project Definition’.”
The NGM/Cs, whose hulls will be resistant to shocks generated by underwater explosions and have a low magnetoacoustic signature, will be about 63 m long and displace about 1,300 tons. According to the two companies, they will be “distinguished by their ability to conduct countermeasures operations against mines operating inside minefields, ensuring the safety of crews and utilizing different types of autonomous vehicles as force multipliers and capacity fillers.”
In addition to search and clearance operations, the NGM/C will conduct seabed surveillance operations to control and protect critical underwater infrastructure (such as oil and gas pipelines and maritime data networks), as well as operations to protect maritime cultural heritage and the marine environment.
The ships will be built at the Intermarine shipyard facilities in Sarzana (La Spezia), which will lead to a significant increase in the company’s workforce there, while the entire combat system, including the cyber-resistant SADOC 4 command and control system advanced radar and electro-optical sensors, a new wide-band sonar with mine detection and classification capabilities, as well as an integrated multi-communications bandwidth and data link to ensure the highest and most effective level of interoperability, will be produced and supplied by Leonardo.
Intermarine and Leonardo consider the NGM/C as “the most innovative mine countermeasures units in the world, reaffirming Italy’s role as a leading country in technology and doctrine in the mine warfare and underwater sector”.
A CGI of the Italian Navy’s next new generation of minehunter/coastal hunter, which Intermarine and Leonardo and now contracted to supply. (Image: Intermarine/Leonardo)
Source: https://euro-sd.com/2024/07/news/sea/39585/italian-ngm-c-contract/
Finland reported a violation of its territorial waters by a Russian military hydrographic hydrographic vessel – Opex 360 – July 26, 2024
More than a month after the violation of its airspace off the coast of Loviisa [south] by four Russian military aircraft, Finland, now a NATO member, has just reported a new incident at its border … but this time over its territorial waters.
On July 26, the Finnish Ministry of Defense reported an “alleged violation” of the border by a Russian vessel in the eastern Gulf of Finland. It added that the Coast Guard was tasked with investigating the incident.
But it did not take long to get the first results. Indeed, in a press release, Petter Stausser, in charge of the investigation in his capacity as deputy head of the Coast Guard’s crime prevention unit, confirmed in a press release that the hydrographic vessel “Mikhail Kazansky”, assigned to the Russian Baltic Fleet, had ventured into Finnish territorial waters south of Hamina, a town about twenty kilometers from the Russian border.
According to Stausser, who was detected before committing the violation by a coast guard patrol boat, the Russian vessel ignored radio calls made to it. Therefore, the “Mikhail Kazansky” continued its course and traveled 1.2 nautical miles [about 2.2 km] into Finnish territorial waters before turning back. The incident lasted 7 minutes in total.
The first unit of Project 23370G [which has three projects], “Mikhail Kazansky” was admitted to active service in 2019. With a displacement of 146 tons, it was designed to map the seabed and measure its depth. Obviously, given the threats to submarine infrastructure, its presence in the Gulf of Finland and, moreover, in Finnish territorial waters, can only raise questions.
Helsinki’s reported violation comes weeks after the Russian Defense Ministry tabled a draft resolution to “update the coordinates of Russia’s borders in the Baltic Sea”.
Source: https://www.opex360.com/2024/07/26/la-finlande-a-signale-une-violation-de-ses-eaux-territoriales-par-un-navire-militaire-hydrographique-russe/
Russian Federation has canceled the Navy Day parade due to being unable to guarantee full protection of their forces – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024
In 2024, Russian authorities have canceled the Navy Day parade because they could not guarantee the safety of their ships.
As Censor.NET reports, this was reported in a British intelligence report.
“This is not the first elevation of events since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. However, this is the most significant event. This underscores the growing trend that Russia cannot guarantee the protection of its forces,” the intelligence service said.
Intelligence services note that Russian Navy Day is an annual celebration of “sea power”. It was popular in the 1970s. However, it was abolished in the 1980s. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin revived the parade in 2017. This year, the parade of warships was supposed to take place on July 28, 2024.
Although the festivities take place across Russia, the main event takes place in St Petersburg, where Russian ships parade down the Neva River to the Kronstadt naval base.
Recall that this year in five regions of the Russian Federation and occupied Crimea, the victory parade and propaganda procession “Immortal Regiment” were canceled.
Source: https://www.blackseanews.net/read/220152
Russian frigate ‘Admiral Gorshkov’ dropped anchor in Algerian port – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024
On Friday, July 26, the Russian frigate Admiral Gorshkov, accompanied by the medium oil tanker Akademik Pashin, arrived in the Algerian port of Oran.
According to the press service of the Defense Ministry of the Russian Federation, the visit will last several days, the Russian website flot.com reports.
During their stay in Algeria, the Russian sailors will take part in protocol events, replenish supplies of fresh water and food.
A detachment of Northern Fleet ships, led by the frigate Admiral Gorshkov, set off on another long voyage on May 17. The main tasks of the campaign are to demonstrate the flag and provide a naval presence in operationally important areas of the far ocean area, the military department said.
The Russian frigate has already made calls at Havana in Cuba and the Venezuelan port of La Guaira. On Wednesday, July 24, the ship crossed the Strait of Gibraltar and entered the Mediterranean Sea.
Admiral Gorshkov is the main frigate of the 22350 project, built for the Russian Navy at Severnaya Verf. She serves in the Northern Fleet since summer 2018. Since 2020, the ship has participated in the testing of the latest Zircon hypersonic anti-ship missile. Now this promising munition is included in the frigate’s arsenal.
Source: https://www.blackseanews.net/read/220148
Russian cargo ships have become the main victims of Houthi attacks, contrary to Putin’s promises and ‘Russians on board’ signals – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024
Houthi rebels in Yemen have attacked more commercial vessels carrying Russian cargo than ships from other countries, despite guarantees of safe passage.
The Moscow Times writes about this with reference to Bloomberg.
Earlier in 2024, the rebels said they would not attack Russian and Chinese ships, but of the 83 ships affected by attacks in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since last November, 19% have left Russian ports. All the ships attacked by the Houthis were oil tankers and container ships. In addition to ships leaving Russian ports, the rebels have attacked ships leaving Singapore ports, such incidents accounted for 11%.
The agency clarifies that the Houthis did not fire at ships sailing under the Russian flag, but attacked ships with sailors – citizens of the Russian Federation. At the same time, many ships transmitted satellite signals “Russian crew” and “Russians on board” before the attack.
Last week, rebels attacked two Russian cargo ships simultaneously. The first to be hit was the Bentley I, an Israeli-owned Panama-flagged ship carrying vegetable oil from Russia to China. The Houthis sent a drone with explosives and two small boats trapped, then launched a ballistic missile at the ship. However, they failed to damage the tanker.
The rebels then fired on and damaged the Marshall Islands-registered, Liberian-flagged tanker Chios Lion with a remotely operated boat. The tanker was carrying 100 thousand tons of crude oil from the port of Tuapse in Krasnodar territory.
In June, Yemeni rebels sank the Greek merchant ship Tutor in the Red Sea, carrying Russian coal from the port of Ust-Luga to Jordan. The vessel was shelled 120 km southwest of the city of Hodeidah. After the attack, the ship’s crew was evacuated on the US missile cruiser Philippine Sea, and the bulk carrier itself was left adrift.
Yemeni rebels, who control a significant part of Yemen, including the capital Sana’a, began attacking merchant ships passing off the country’s coast with drones and missiles in November 2023. They are doing this in response to the military operation that Israel has organized in the Gaza Strip. In late May, Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi said they had already fired on about 130 ships and vowed to increase the frequency of attacks.
At the same time, the Houthis agreed with diplomats from Russia and China that they would not attack their ships. Immediately afterward, the rebels fired a missile at the Chinese company’s M/V Huang Pu, which was coming from a Russian port and likely carrying Russian oil.
Source: https://www.blackseanews.net/read/220128
Russian warships to reach Havana again – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024
Warships of the Russian Baltic Fleet will visit the port of Havana on July 27-30.
This will be the second visit of Russian ships to Cuba this year, ZN.ua reports with reference to Reuters.
The training ship “Smolny”, patrol vessel “Neustrashimy” and oil tanker “Elnya” are expected to go to Havana. The Russian sailors will meet the head of the Cuban fleet.
Havana is just 100 miles from Key West, Florida, where the US Navy air base is located, so the United States closely monitors such visits.
Last month, a Russian navy frigate and a nuclear submarine visited Havana, which the US and Cuba have said posed no threat, but the visit was seen as a show of force by Moscow amid rising tensions over Russia’s war against Ukraine. Russia is also a long-time ally of Cuba, so Russian warships and airplanes regularly make “sorties” to the Caribbean.
Source: https://www.blackseanews.net/read/220116
Ireland fears Russia’s hybrid and maritime attacks – Black Sea News – July 26, 2024
Ireland is “increasingly susceptible” to cyber-attacks, espionage and attacks on our critical infrastructure – from both hostile states and criminal gangs, according to a new government defense assessment.
GuildHall writes about this with reference to the Irish reviewer.
The 2024 defense policy review – the first since 2019 – puts maritime security at the top of the state’s list of priorities, with cyber and hybrid security second.
An analysis published by the Ministry of Defense says the security situation in Ireland is undergoing “profound changes” and developments abroad are having a “serious impact” on Ireland, not least as a result of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The document says that Ireland, as an EU member state with close ties with EU partners as well as the United States and Britain, “faces the same threats and challenges” as other countries.
Its geographical position and a policy of military neutrality no longer minimizes the threats posed by hostile actors.
Ireland is “more vulnerable” than in the past to these hostile states and groups willing to use hybrid tactics to “exploit and undermine” Ireland’s security and democracy. Ireland will continue its policy of military neutrality while playing a role in international security, supporting the multilateral system and “supporting European defense and security”.
The strategy condemns Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as well as “irresponsible nuclear rhetoric”. It notes that closer to the coast of Ireland, the activity of Russian naval forces in the North Atlantic also indicates the potential for naval or hybrid attacks on critical infrastructure.
In his foreword, defense minister Michel Martin said there was a “clear focus” on maritime security, given Ireland’s threat level and “responsibility” to Europe.
The security of submarine fiber-optic fiber-optic cables, which are vital but vulnerable components of the international communications infrastructure, is reported to be a particularly important feature in this regard, while the security of the energy infrastructure is also key, given Ireland’s island status and plans for offshore renewable energy sources. The use of Ireland’s maritime territory as a conduit for the illegal activities of organized criminal groups is also a risk in this area.
The report notes that defense spending in Ireland “lags behind similar states”, many of which have increased defense spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Source: https://www.blackseanews.net/read/220127