[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by houseoftechno ↗

Yet unexplained explosion at munitions plant in Balikesir Turkey which supplied munitions against both Ukraine and Israel.

This one just may get swept under the rug, who knows?

Authorities have detained 10 individuals suspected of negligence in connection with the deadly factory explosion in the northwestern province of Balıkesir, Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said on Dec. 25.

A powerful blast ripped through an explosives plant in Balıkesir’s Karesi district on Dec. 24, killing 11 people and injuring seven others.

While the investigation into the precise cause of the incident remains ongoing, Tunç confirmed that initial findings have led to the detention of those deemed potentially culpable.

"Of course, the true extent of responsibility will be clarified once the expert report is finalized," he remarked.

Surveillance footage from the workplace, surrounding camera recordings and all technical data have been seized by judicial authorities for inspection, the minister said.

On the day of the incident, several ministers ruled out sabotage as a factor contributing to the blast.

As the funeral ceremonies for the victims were held on Dec. 25., the authorities announced that the 11 deceased factory workers were aged between 19 and 45, eight of whom were women.

Local media reported that the munitions factory specifically employed the deceased women in the capsule-filling section due to their relatively smaller fingers, which allowed for greater dexterity in handling the tasks. It was in this very section that the explosion occurred.

Among the victims was 19-year-old Elif Özdemir, who had begun working at the ammunition factory in Karesi district just six months prior.

Reports also said that Selin Karanlıkoğlu, a 27-year-old victim of the explosion, had wished to become a liver donor for her father who is battling liver disease, but their compatibility tests had not yielded a match.

Meanwhile, the media reported that a similar explosion occurred at the same factory a decade earlier. On June 3, 2014, six individuals were injured in an explosion caused by the detonation of three grams of shotgun powder.

[kellyhound]

russia intends to introduce a permanent air alert for Ukraine, said Anatoly Khrapchinsky, the head of a company that produces electronic warfare equipment.

The enemy has increased production of Shahed-type strike drones. Currently, about 2,000 units are being produced each month.

The production of Gerber and Parody drones has also increased. These UAVs do not pose a threat, but the Air Defense Forces have to spend time on them to neutralize them.

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Ukraine is creating a powerful missile capable of reaching Moscow.

The army plans to mass produce 3,000 missiles by the end of 2025. In total, more than 10 missile projects are being implemented in Ukraine, some of which have already been completed.

Trembita is one of many projects. The initial version of Trembita has a speed of 400 km/h and a flight range of 200 km, but a new, more powerful version that will be able to reach Moscow is already being developed.

Government officials say that 2025 will be the "year of the Ukrainian cruise missile."

[kellyhound]

Greece has agreed to provide Ukraine with 24 Sea Sparrow missiles, Kathimerini reports.

Sea Sparrow is a short-range air defense system made in the United States, and Ukraine already has the necessary launchers to deploy it.

The transfer is part of Greece's wider military aid to Ukraine, which includes artillery shells, weapons and ammunition.

==========================================

Defense Procurement Agency purchased Polish "wings" for a billion instead of Ukrainian "Sharks" and "Furies", - Myselyuk

Despite the statements of the Minister of Defense, allegedly in 2024 Ukrainian drones accounted for 96.2% of the drones delivered to the Defense Forces, in fact, the main reconnaissance function on the battlefield is still performed by Chinese devices. And recently it became known that the director of the Defense Procurement Agency, Marina Bezrukova, paid 1 billion hryvnias at the end of the year for Polish "Krylo" UAVs, when the Ukrainian drone industry produces much better and cheaper analogues.

Political scientist Andriy Myselyuk wrote about this in his blog on the Main Committee.

"You all know about the Shark, Fury, and Leleka drones - these aircraft perform the function of reconnaissance and fire adjustment for our artillerymen. Despite the fact that manufacturing enterprises are not loaded with orders and Ukrainian aircraft are at least two to three times cheaper, the Ministry of Defense, for incomprehensible reasons, contracts Polish drones!", he emphasized.

At the same time, Myselyuk claims that almost a billion hryvnias of advance payment was made to the Poles on November 13-15. At the same time, according to him, for the price of each Polish drone, you can buy 4 (!) Shark drones, whose optics and flight capabilities are currently unmatched on the world market. Or 3 Furia drones, which are used by our artillerymen to adjust fire.

"And what do we have - volunteers continue to collect for "Sharky", and the Defense Procurement Agency invests in the foreign economy, also buying much more expensive drones," Myselyuk summarized.

[Roosta]

Putin's helicopter blasted using breakthrough sea drone in 'world first'

One of Vladimir Putin’s twin-turbine helicopters has been shot down by Ukraine using a Magura V5 sea drone over the Black Sea.

It is the first time in the world that an aerial target was blasted using such a drone in what is a big success for Ukraine in the last few hours of 2024.

Footage shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence shows the strike on the M-8 military helicopter off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea.

A statement said: ‘On December 31, 2024, soldiers of the GUR special unit Group 13 of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for the first time in history hit an air target using a Magura V5 sea drone equipped with missile weapons.

‘During a battle in the Black Sea near Cape Tarkhankut of the temporarily occupied Crimea, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed by the use of R-73 “Sea Dragon” missiles.’

Another similar Russian helicopter was hit and managed to reach its home airfield.

The R-73 is a short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missile which Ukraine has adapted for use on marine drones.

In the early hours of this morning, Russia launched a mass aerial attack on Ukraine, striking Kyiv and other regions with multiple missiles and drones.

Ukraine’s air force reported a ballistic missile threat at 3am local time, with at least two explosions heard in the capital minutes later.

Another missile alert was issued at 8am followed by at least one explosion in the city.

Missile debris fell in the Darnytskyi district of the capital with no reports of casualties or damage, the local administration said.

Authorities in the north-eastern Sumy region reported strikes near the city of Shostka, where the mayor, Mykola Noha, said 12 residential buildings had been damaged as well as two schools.

* I see that these evil fuckers are still targeting Residential areas & Schools.

What's the excuse this time you fuck.

Nothing but Genocide here with a bit of Terror Tactics mixed in.

Hey Poo Tin & his Bitches, "GO FUCK YOURSERLVES" !

[kellyhound]

Ukraine struck an oil depot in the Yartsevo district of russia's Smolensk Oblast, igniting the facility's oil reserves, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces confirmed on Dec. 31.

The depot, which supplies the russian military, was targeted in a coordinated operation involving Ukraine's Special Operations Forces and the Unmanned Systems Forces.

The strike resulted in "powerful explosions, a fire, and heavy smoke" at the site, according to the report. It did not specify which type of weapon was used in the attack.

The confirmation follows reports from regional authorities detailing the damage caused by an overnight Ukrainian drone attack.

[kellyhound]

Originally Posted by Roosta ↗

Putin's helicopter blasted using breakthrough sea drone in 'world first'

One of Vladimir Putin’s twin-turbine helicopters has been shot down by Ukraine using a Magura V5 sea drone over the Black Sea.

It is the first time in the world that an aerial target was blasted using such a drone in what is a big success for Ukraine in the last few hours of 2024.

Footage shared by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence shows the strike on the M-8 military helicopter off the coast of Russian-occupied Crimea.

A statement said: ‘On December 31, 2024, soldiers of the GUR special unit Group 13 of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for the first time in history hit an air target using a Magura V5 sea drone equipped with missile weapons.

‘During a battle in the Black Sea near Cape Tarkhankut of the temporarily occupied Crimea, a Russian Mi-8 helicopter was destroyed by the use of R-73 “Sea Dragon” missiles.’

Another similar Russian helicopter was hit and managed to reach its home airfield.

The R-73 is a short-range, infrared-guided air-to-air missile which Ukraine has adapted for use on marine drones.

[Roosta]

Ukraine ends Russian gas pipeline to Europe – but how much will it cost Moscow ?

Russian gas is no longer flowing to EU states through Ukraine following the expiration of a five-year deal, closing an energy route that has existed since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the move means Russia can no longer “earn billions on our blood”.

His energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, confirmed on Wednesday morning that Kyiv had stopped the gas flows “in the interest of national security”.

“This is a historic event,” he wrote on the social media platform Telegram. “Russia is losing markets and will incur financial losses.”

The deal had allowed for Russian gas to travel through Ukraine’s pipeline networks into European countries, primarily Hungary, Slovakia and Austria.

Its end will not cut off all Russian gas to Europe, but significantly reduce it. Gas can still travel from Russia to Europe via the Turkstream pipeline, but no longer through Ukraine, cutting gas imports to the EU by around 14 billion cubic metres.

The European Commission has said that this volume can be replaced by liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline imports from other sources, such as Norway and the United States.

However, the impact is already being felt in parts of EU candidate country Moldova, which was getting Russian gas via Ukraine.

The breakaway Russian-speaking region of Transnistria, home to around 45,000 people, cut supplies to households. “There is no heating or hot water,” said a worker at energy company Tirasteploenergo.

The financial impact.
Though Ukraine benefitted financially from the now-expired agreement to the tune of $800m (£640m) a year, the gas was not imported to Ukraine itself.

Latest estimates show that Russia is expected to lose around €5bn (£4.14bn) a year from gas transported to Europe via Ukraine.

According to its own reports, Gazprom’s market capitalisation stands at around £22bn (3 trillion roubles).

Gazprom is Russia’s largest company, and has the largest gas reserves in the world. Since the invasion of Ukraine its business has taken several blows.

By the end of 2024, Russian gas exported to Europe via the Ukraine pipelines alone has already dropped by 78 per cent since the contract started in 2020.

And for the first time since 2001, Gazprom reported a net loss of £5.5bn (629 billion roubles) in 2023, after gas sales plummeted.

Up to this point, the gas giant consistently raked in billions each year; including even £14bn (1.9 trillion roubles) in 2022, during the first year of the war.

Revenue decreased by around 27 per cent in 2023, to £61bn, while revenue from gas sales in particular fell by 40 per cent.

In this context, a loss of £4.14bn in gas sales without the Ukraine transit deal could trigger a further 6.7 per cent decrease in revenues for Gazprom and Russia.

Gazprom is majority state-owned, which means that the Russian state receives a sizeable sum of its profits.

Russia relies on oil and gas business in part to fund its ongoing war in Ukraine; with revenues accounting for 30 to 50 per cent of the Russian federal budget, according to The Oxford Institute for Energy Studies (OIES). Other than the EU, Russia’s biggest pipeline gas exports go to Turkey and Belarus, while LNG exports are largely reliant on sales to China and Japan.

According to Bloomberg, Russian gas exports to China are discounted as heavily as -28 per cent compared to European exports, meaning that they are less profitable for Russia overall. But ultimately, the vast majority of Russian state oil and gas revenues come from oil sales, rather than gas sales, according to the OIES.

Although the EU has banned oil imports from Russia, numerous reports suggest that Russian oil is still reaching the EU via back channels.

A Global Witness investigation found that 130 million barrels of refined products were imported into the EU from refineries that process Russian crude oil in 2023, worth an estimated €1.1bn in tax revenue to the Kremlin.

Russia is the largest crude oil supplier to China and India. The UK and EU countries import billions in refined oil from these two countries, part of which is likely originating from Russia despite sanctions.

Separately to sanctions from the invasion of Ukraine, European countries’ reliance on Russian gas has been a difficult challenge to address.

Russia has historically used its gas pipeline exports to exert political control over dependent countries, from Ukraine to Armenia.

As of today, Gazprom is also weaponising the same tactic in Moldova, cutting off gas supplies over an alleged $709m (£565m) debt.

Yet the decision not to extend gas transit via Ukraine faced some pushback.

Slovakia’s prime minister threatened to cut electricity supplies to Ukraine in retaliation, as he said that ending Russian gas transit would increase energy prices.

Nonetheless, gas transit via Ukraine’s pipelines has now ceased.

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[Roosta]

Originally Posted by kellyhound ↗

Ukraine struck an oil depot in the Yartsevo district of russia's Smolensk Oblast, igniting the facility's oil reserves, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces confirmed on Dec. 31.

The depot, which supplies the russian military, was targeted in a coordinated operation involving Ukraine's Special Operations Forces and the Unmanned Systems Forces.

The strike resulted in "powerful explosions, a fire, and heavy smoke" at the site, according to the report. It did not specify which type of weapon was used in the attack.

The confirmation follows reports from regional authorities detailing the damage caused by an overnight Ukrainian drone attack.

[Roosta]

Yes, Merry Xmas & Happy New Year you Orc Fucks !

That vid made my day !!!

Cheers Kelly

[kellyhound]

Ukrainian investigators identified the killer of a Bucha resident, whose photo with a red manicure became a symbol of russian atrocities.

The suspect is Artyom Tareyev, born in 1995, commander of the 234th Assault Regiment of the russian 76th Airborne Division (2nd photo).

On 5 March 2022, Tareyev ordered his troops to shoot at all civilians who appeared at a specific intersection in Bucha.

That same day, Iryna Filkina was killed while cycling - shot with 15 bullets from automatic weapons and a BMD-2 armored vehicle.

In total, 13 civilians were killed as a result of Tareyev's order.

Bodies discovered after Bucha's liberation on 31 March 2022 showed evidence of torture. Many were found in mass graves or lying in streets.