Researchers have tracked more activity by an influence campaign linked to Russia that spreads disinformation and propaganda in the U.S., Germany and Ukraine through a vast network of social media accounts and fake websites.

The campaign, attributed to the Russia-linked influence operation network called Doppelgänger, has been active since at least May 2022. The U.S. tech company Meta previously referred to Doppelgänger as the “largest” and “most aggressively persistent” malign network sponsored by Russia.

Researchers from Recorded Future’s Insikt Group are currently tracking over 2,000 inauthentic social media accounts associated with Dopplegänger, but say the actual number could be even higher. The Record is an editorially independent unit of Recorded Future.

According to Insikt, the impact of Doppelgänger’s activity on users in Germany, Ukraine, and the U.S. is limited.

“Despite the campaign’s high volume, we did not identify any significant engagement from authentic social media users,” researchers said in a report published Tuesday. “Viewership and other engagement metrics — reshares, likes, and replies — were negligible across the network.”

And yet, Doppelgänger’s activity is worth paying attention to, researchers said, as its operators are constantly improving their tools and tactics and are “willing to invest in extra measures to evade detection.”

Meta warned last week that foreign groups are looking to expand their influence operations as 2024 is an important year for elections around the world.

Insikt did not specify which social media networks the Doppelgänger operation used.

Fake tales of decline

In the campaign analyzed by Insikt, Doppelgänger focused on three targets — Ukraine, Germany and the U.S.

In an operation against Ukraine, a Russia-linked threat actor created over 800 social media accounts that shared links to fake articles impersonating multiple reputable Ukrainian news organizations. These articles “spread narratives undermining Ukraine’s military strength, political stability, and international relationships with Ukraine’s Western allies.”

For example, some of them suggested that the U.S. prioritizes the war in Israel more than the one in Ukraine or sowed doubts about Ukraine’s ability to win the war.

In a campaign that targeted Germany and the U.S., a Russian network operator created fake news outlets producing propaganda content, which was then shared on social media, the researchers said.

Unlike impersonating existing Western news sources, as commonly seen with Doppelgänger so far, these outlets appear to be an attempt to create seemingly new and original sources, researchers said. “This evolving approach likely aims to establish a long-term influence network by evading detection efforts to identify inauthentic impersonators.”

The campaign’s goal in Germany was to share fake narratives of “Germany’s domestic decline due to migration, economic policies, and continued support for Ukraine,” Insikt said.

In the U.S., the threat actor promoted hostile articles criticizing the LGBTQ+ movement (which was recently outlawed in Russia) and raised doubts about U.S. military competence. One of the fake websites linked to Doppelgänger produced election-related content, which was likely generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

“This campaign likely intends to exploit US societal and political divisions ahead of the 2024 US election,” researchers said.

Kremlin-approved tactics

Influence operations like Doppelgänger are common tactics used by Russia as part of its information warfare.

Doppelgänger was previously linked to two Russian companies: Structura National Technologies and Social Design Agency, whose clients include several Russian government agencies, local government entities, state-owned enterprises and private companies.

Both companies were sanctioned by the European Union in August for their involvement in Doppelgänger.

In November, the U.S. government also linked these two entities to a disinformation campaign across Latin America aimed at undermining support for Ukraine and discrediting the U.S. and NATO.

In its previous campaigns, Doppelgänger also targeted the U.S. and seven European countries, with a specific focus on Germany and France. The network’s most common tactic is the impersonation of media outlets or political organizations, such as the French Ministry of Public Affairs, the German Ministry of the Interior, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The network’s evolution indicates that it can “have long-term societal impacts,” while the likely use of generative AI to create written content demonstrates “the evolving use of AI in Russian information warfare campaigns.”

“As the popularity of generative AI grows, malign influence actors, including Doppelgänger, will very likely increasingly leverage AI to produce scalable influence content,” researchers said.

Source: The Record

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Two years in the war of Russian aggression against the Ukraine the balance is grim. Let us take stock. Leadership. The EU model of command and control consist of an old grumpy old general, an Austrian, who nobody has heard before, taking a political control of a pretty large army based of a defeatist model. The question to pose is the General who often is compared with Franz Josef I. suitable for modern command? The likely answer is no.

The European play wars.

The Europeans appear to be out of the fight. NATO command is in contradiction with EU command with different levels of leadership taking active role in the war against Russia. The ground war in the Ukraine is just one of the examples. Is the potential NATO and EU partner pulling the weight? After Avdiivka where a devasting judgment by one battalion commander removed a considerable element of its front, critics of the Ukrainian battle doctrine are louder.

Demoralized, worn out, short of ammunition, the Ukrainian army packed up and left, leaving a gap in the front line promptly exploited by the Russians. Life was lost, ground captured while the U.S. haggled over war aid. Politics cost life with both, the European and its American allies to take the blame.

Josep Borrell was quoted, “Europe is in danger, as I have said this many times. We live in an era of strategic competition and complex security threats. We see the return of power politics, with hybrid threats growing, interdependence being increasingly conflictual and soft power being weaponized.”

In the meantime, the EU high command produces glossy brochures of their paper victory. It writes, “The overall objective remains to involve the enlarged military and civilian community serving Europe’s security and defense, in building up and consolidating a most needed common European Defence culture”. It reads like the who-is-who to operate “inter-operationability” congratulating each other for a “job well done”. However, the Russian reality is a bit different in Africa and the Ukraine.

Enter the French.

War command of the Europeans is that the Germans don’t want to fight, the Americans don’t want to take on the Russians, who is left? The French, the Baltic states, and the leftover of the old eastern bloc with little appetite to take on the Slavic monster, the Russian overlords. U.S. policy is to strategically “exhaust” the Russians.

The French 3 REI, of the famed French Foreign Legion surprise upped the stakes of the game. So did the American weapons supplies. Rockets nevertheless hit the Russian depots assembly points, Ukrainian special forces unleashed a series of fires and explosions, and Russian spies were arrested in Bavaria. So far, the hot war is heating up with each side holding their peace.

War will lead to more violence, more injuries, more deaths. On both sides.

The shifting of strategic balance.

Taken the kinetic out of the question, the hybrid option lacks consistency. Central command of the European lack the spirit to fight to win. Political debates are given way. No Double Cross committee leads the propaganda efforts against the Russian Federation anywhere on the planet. The bureaucracy is stifling, the legal framework is prohibitive and not responsive. Operational security is limited to the involvement of the Central Intelligence aiding the Ukrainians, however what if does not address the changes of political winds in Washington and in Brussels. Recent adventures in Niger, Mali, Afghanistan does not give confidence in Washington capability to counter Russian disinformation efforts.

Russian beware.

The question no one asked how is Russia functioning? Its economic picture does not sound right. The oil richness does not translate to individual wealth creation. The supply chain is disrupted with shortages of beef, chicken, and potatoes.

For now, the public stands behind Vladimir Putin. How long is the question. Whereas the older generation steadfast defends the president, polls show discontent within the younger generation of Russians. The revolution will come from within.  

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Sri Lanka has told hundreds of thousands of Russians and some Ukrainians staying in the country to escape the war that they must leave in the next two weeks, immigration officers said.

The immigration controller issued a notice to the tourism ministry asking Russian and Ukrainian people staying on extended tourist visas to leave Sri Lanka within two weeks from 23 February.

Just over 288,000 Russians and nearly 20,000 Ukrainians have traveled to Sri Lanka in the last two years since the war began, according to official data.

Commissioner-General of Immigration said the “government is not granting further visa extensions” as the “flight situation has now normalised”.

However, the office of president Ranil Wickremesinghe ordered an investigation of the notice to the tourism ministry in an apparent bid to prevent diplomatic tensions.

The president’s office said that the notice had been issued without prior cabinet approval and the government had not officially decided to revoke the visa extensions, reported the Sri Lankan newspaper Daily Mirror.

The exact number of visitors who extended their stay beyond the typical 30-day tourist visa duration remains unclear.

However, concerns have been raised over thousands of Russians and a smaller number of Ukrainians staying in the country for an extended period of time and even setting up their own restaurants and nightclubs.

Tourism minister Harin Fernando told Daily Mirror that the ministry has been receiving complaints of some Russian tourists running unregistered and illegal businesses in the southern part of the country.

Raids were conducted by the authorities following discussions with the Immigration Department, he said.

It comes amid a furious social media backlash over Russian-run businesses with a “whites only” policy that strictly bars locals. These businesses include bars, restaurants, water sports and vehicle hiring services.

In a bid to boost tourism and recover from its worst economic crisis since 2022, Sri Lanka began granting 30-days visas on arrival and extensions for up to six months.

In April 2022, the nation defaulted on its $46bn (£36 bn) foreign debt. The economic crisis triggered violent street protests for several months and ultimately culminated in the resignation of then-president Gotabaya Rajapaksa three months later.

Source: Independent

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All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday (31 March).

All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.

In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on 1 January 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.

Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine – although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

In September Putin signed an order calling up 130,000 people for the autumn campaign and last spring Russia planned to conscript 147,000.

Russian attacks

Russian shelling killed at least three people in different regions of eastern Ukraine on the front of the more than two-year-old war against Russia, local officials said, and two more in Lviv region, far from the front lines.

In the centre of the northeastern city of Kharkiv, a frequent target of Russia’s intensifying assaults on energy and other infrastructure, regional governor Oleh Synehubov said a strike targeted civilian infrastructure in the evening.

Regional news outlets said aerial bombs had been dropped on different areas of the region. No injuries were reported.

Earlier on Sunday, heavy shelling killed a man in the town of Borova, southeast of Kharkiv, local prosecutors said.

Police in Donetsk region, in Ukraine’s southeast, said Russian shelling hit 14 towns and villages, with two dead reported in Krasnohorivka, west of the Russian-held regional centre of Donetsk.

Russian forces captured the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk region last month and have since made small gains, but the situation along the 1,000-km front has changed little for months.

Attacks on infrastructure have extended well beyond the front line and Lviv regional governor Maksym Kozitskyi said two bodies were pulled from rubble after on such strike by cruise missiles. Rescue work continued through the day at the site.

Over the border in Russia’s Belgorod Region, a frequent target of Ukrainian shelling, regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a woman was killed when a border village came umder attack.

Reuters could not independently confirm accounts of military action from either side.

Source

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Berlin (2/3 – 62.50).           

Lt. Gen. Alfons Mais says the €100 billion committed by the government last year is insufficient. Meanwhile, an association representing soldiers says the Bundeswehr turnaround needs to speed up.

Germany would have to spend more money on its armed forces if it wants it fully equipped, army chief Lieutenant General Alfons Mais said on Sunday.

He told the German news agency, dpa, the €100 billion ($107 billion) to speed up the modernization of the armed forces promised by Chancellor Olaf Scholz after Russia invaded Ukraine was not enough. 

Mais, caused a stir last year when he criticized what he described as years of neglect in the operational readiness of the Bundeswehr,  “the army that I have the duty to lead, is more or less bare,” he said at the time. 

Mais said one year on he was trying to refrain from using the term “bare.”

“I see a great deal of pressure to move forward with the replenishments at the greatest possible speed,” he said.

But in addition to replacing equipment that has been given to Ukraine, a “material increase towards full equipment” was important, Mais stressed. “However, the special fund alone will not be enough to achieve this,” he warned. 

German military not changing fast enough, soldiers say

His sentiments were echoed in a separate interview the head of the independent Armed Forces Association (DBwV), Colonel Andre Wüstner, did with Bild am Sonntag.

He told the mass-market weekly paper there has been “no noticeable improvement” for soldiers since Scholz made the announcement last year.

“More speed is needed, whether in terms of material, personnel or infrastructure, a real turnaround that can be felt in the troops is needed during this parliamentary period … otherwise the ‘turning point’ is over,” Wüstner said.

Wüstner added the German military, or Bundeswehr, is carrying out its assigned missions, “but that is nothing compared to what we will have to contribute to NATO in the future.”

He warned that none of the military hardware supplied to Ukraine had been replaced and that means the operational readiness of parts of the military, such as it artillery, “continues to decline.”

Germany committed to ramping up military spending

Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year Scholz announced a “turning point” that would trigger weapons shipments to a nation at war and a massive increase in Germany’s military spending.

Bundeswehr officers have complained for many years that Germany has been neglecting its ability to defend its country and its NATO alliance partners.

Since announcing the €100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr, about €30 billion has been committed to contracts for specific projects, Defense Ministry spokesman Arne Collatz said Wednesday.

Opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democratic Union, whcih held power for 16 years before the Scholz government, complained during a parliamentary debate earlier this month that “large parts of the so-called ‘turning point’ that you described here on February 27 last year so far are happening largely on paper in Germany.”

Merz said it was unacceptable that “practically no orders” had yet been placed, particularly for ammunition.

Germany’s new defense minister, Boris Pistorius, has, however, vowed to speed up arms procurement and ramp up ammunition supplies.

Scholz, in a speech to the Munich Security Conference last weekend, also again promised to push Germany’s defense spending up to 2% of GDP “permanently.”

But his defense minister wants to go even further, “We will reach the 2% target, but we will also make every effort to go beyond that,” Pistorius told the same conference. lo/sms (AP, AFP, dpa)

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The Russian invasion of Ukraine has yet to see an end. Russia has mobilized everything in its power to overcome Ukraine, including recruiting citizens of Kazakhstan to join its military forces. 

Russia lures Kazakh citizens through digital recruitment advertisements, recently prominent on a number of the country’s internet user pages. Several pop-up ads have started appearing on the internet pages of Kazakh residents, announcing openings for enlistment in the Russian army, with a joining-up bonus of more than USD 5,000. The advert cleverly targets the patriotic soft side of the Kazakhs, displaying flags of the two countries with the slogan “Shoulder to Shoulder”.

A one-time enlistment bonus payment of 495,000 rubles ($5,300) also promises a monthly salary of at least 190,000 rubles (or USD 2,000) and additional, unspecified benefits. Click on  the ad and you are redirected to a website offering potential recruits the opportunity to join the Russian Federation military, for service in the ultra-icy Sakhalin region of Russia.

The site names the “Resource Development Agency”, an organization established by local government in the Sakhalin region, as responsible for the offer. 

Any young buck tempted by this easy money should be aware that under Kazakhstan law it is illegal for a citizen to join any foreign military unit as a paid mercenary. However, the Minister of Information and Social Development of Kazakhstan has yet to comment on the advertisement.

Other ex-Soviet Central Asian country folk have told of the citizens of several partner countries have joined the Russian army or mercenary groups like Wagner. 

Kazakhstan is a former member of the Soviet Union (USSR), now an independent nation. It has traditionally stood as one of Moscow’s closest allies, and both the Soviet nuclear test program and their space program were sited in Kazakhstan.

It is important to note that Astana, capital and seat of Government, has never backed the Kremlin in its invasion of Ukraine; it has indeed frequently called for peace talks between the two countries.

Not only Kazakhstan is targeted for recruitment: Kyrgyz, Tajik, and Uzbek citizens are also of interest, given the sizable numbers who migrate each year to Russia in search of work – and the stark miserable condition of local economies – and their job prospects – back home. 

In the first quarter of 2023, 350,000 Tajik citizens migrated to Russia – 100,000 more than in the same period in 2022. More than 630,000 Uzbeks did the same, representing a 72 percent increase over the 366,000 that made the journey in 2022. Nearly 173,000 Kyrgyz nationals made the journey as well. 

Kazakhstan as a nation doing way better than its neighbors in the Central Asia. Its 2021 GDP stood at $197.1 billion, more than double that of Uzbekistan ($69.24 billion), and light-years ahead of Kyrgyzstan ($8.5 billion) or Tajikistan ($8.7 billion). There are fewer Kazakh migrants seeking work in Russia than from other nations in the region.

Central Asian governments have attempted to maintain some semblance of neutrality amid the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, while a host of difficult questions have arisen for national and regional governments alike, from intense grappling with a legacy of Russian imperial projects and Soviet colonialism to more pragmatic questions of how to manage and shift regional trade networks, when a significant economic partner turns itself into a pariah. 

The success rate of the Russian ads in Kazakhstan in terms of recruitment rates is not known, but the risk is clearly evident. It is noteworthy that both China and the USA face comparable difficulties in recruiting “Gen Z” youth. Those ready and willing to join the military recruitment (in the face of dismal employment prospects elsewhere) may be unhealthy, overweight or psychologically unfit.

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Frankfurt, Brussels (4/8 – 30)

As the political crackdown on any form of opposition in Russia continues almost a year after Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, the persecution of Russian environmental activists is also on the rise.

A new report by the Ecological Crisis Group details how law enforcement agencies are targeting environmentalists with Russia’s new anti-war legislation. Eco-activists are targeted for allegedly discrediting the armed forces or spreading fake news about what Moscow insists to name a “Special Military Operation” – the War on Ukraine. 

More than 60 eco-activists have been prosecuted for anti-war actions since the beginning of 2022. Arkhangelsk is on top of the 19 regions in Russia studied to find out how authorities are using anti-war legislation to put pressure on environmentalists. Neighboring Komi Republic also stands out in the number of cases.

A total of 16 eco-activists in Arkhangelsk and eight in Komi have got administrative fines for “voicing disagreement with the special military operation”, the overview shows. The 16 people in Arkhangelsk face four criminal cases, two criminal convictions with fines of 260,000 rubles, five detentions, and 22 administrative offenses with fines amounting to 601,000 rubles, the compiled information by Ecological Crisis Group notes.

Meanwhile, police forces in Arkhangelsk continue to harass local environmentalists. In Arkhangelsk, many activists are banned from using means of communication (internet, phones, etc.) as long as investigations, which can take from six to 10 months, go on. In modern life, this actually disconnects people from normal life for a long time. Most of the cases are from Arkhangelsk, but examples of people being harassed by law enforcement also include other cities in the Oblast, in Velsk, Plesetsk, Kholmogorsky district, Kotlas, Severodvinsk and Kargopol.

Russian authorities have over the last few months put a final end to the country’s non-governmental environmental groups. In April, the Bellona Foundation was declared an “Undesirable Organization” by the Prosecutor General’s Office in Moscow. Bellona was one of the many eco-groups working to document the consequences of the infamous 1994 oil spill in Usinsk.

In mid-May, Greenpeace got the same “Undesirable” branding as Bellona. The Prosecutor General’s Office claimed that Greenpeace “intervenes in Russia’s internal affairs” and that its activities “pose a threat to the foundation of the constitutional system and security of the Russian Federation”.

The last environmental organization to receive this brand was WWF in the last week of June. According to the authority, the WWF has a political agenda to hinder Russian industrial development in the Arctic.

The “undesirable organization” law, adopted in 2015, was part of a series of regulations pushed by the Kremlin that squeezed many nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations that received funding from foreign sources. In June 2021, Russian lawmakers approved a bill criminalizing participation in the activities of foreign or international NGOs, recognized as undesirables in the country.

Since launching its aggression against Ukraine, Russian authorities have taken the suppression of freedom in the country to unprecedented levels. Independent media outlets and human rights organizations are being shut down and noted opposition politicians and critics have been jailed or had to flee the country.

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Russia will continue to oppose Western sanctions, President Vladimir Putin has said, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

His address to a virtual Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit was his first to an international meeting since last month’s mutiny in Russia.

Mr Putin backed trade accords between SCO nations in local currencies – seen as an attempt to blunt sanctions.

The 2023 SCO summit is taking place virtually, under India’s leadership.

Mr Putin used the platform to send a message of defiance to the West, saying “Russia counters all these external sanctions, pressures and provocations and continues to develop as never before”.

He has made several public appearances since the Wagner mercenary group staged a short-lived mutiny in late June, but this was the first time he’d been seen with a group of international leaders.

“I would like to thank my colleagues from the SCO countries who expressed support for the actions of the Russian leadership to protect the constitutional order and the life and security of citizens,” he told the summit in a televised address from the Kremlin in Moscow.

Mr Putin added that more than 80% of trade between Chinese and Russian people was in roubles and yuan, and urged other SCO members to follow the same process.

He also welcomed Russian ally Belarus’s application to become a permanent member of the SCO next year.

Summit host Indian PM Narendra Modi called on members to boost trade, connectivity and tech co-operation, among other things.

But he didn’t directly refer to either the war in Ukraine or China’s increasingly assertive stance in the Indo-Pacific. India – historically non-aligned – had to walk a tight diplomatic rope, due to its increasingly strong ties with the West.

Just days earlier the US had rolled out the red carpet for Mr Modi when he was received in Washington on a state visit.

While Mr Modi talked about regional security, he did not mention China, a neighbour with whom India has long had hostile relations. Indian and Chinese troops fought deadly clashes on their long disputed border in 2020 and tensions persist to this day.

The West increasingly sees India as a counterweight to China, although Delhi has publicly never owned the tag. And it once again refrained from doing so at the SCO.

India’s PM instead urged members to co-operate on cross-border terrorism.

“Some countries use cross-border terrorism as an instrument in their policies, (they) give shelter to terrorists… the SCO should not hesitate to criticise such countries,” Mr Modi said.

Such statements are always seen as directed at neighbouring Pakistan, India’s bitter rival over the decades. Its Prime Minister, Shahbaz Sharif, said SCO nations must take measures to “combat the three evils of terrorism, extremism and separatism”.

But he also said religious minorities should not be demonised in the “pursuit of domestic political agendas” – viewed as a dig at India, which Muslim-majority Pakistan has often accused of not protecting the rights of Muslims.

Mr Modi’s government has always rejected evidence that it is not protecting the rights of minorities in India, whose population is largely Hindu.

When it was Chinese President Xi Jinping’s turn to speak, he mentioned the importance of safeguarding regional peace and security. He urged SCO members to “follow the right direction and enhance their solidarity and mutual trust”.

One factor that all members seemed to agree on unanimously was maintaining stability in Afghanistan, following the Taliban takeover after US troops pulled out two years ago.

A joint statement due later should give more clues on how SCO nations aim to work together on Afghanistan.

China, Russia and four Central Asian countries formed the SCO in 2001 as a countermeasure to limit the influence of the West in the region. India and Pakistan joined in 2017.

The group has become more relevant for Russia and China as their relations with the West have deteriorated.

Experts say the group’s potential can’t be underplayed, despite the existence of more prominent forums like the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the G20 and G7.

The SCO groups around 40% of the world’s population and more than 20% of global GDP. Add Iran’s, and it will control around 20% of the world’s oil reserves.

Iran’s inclusion as a full member at this year’s meeting will boost the SCO’s energy portfolio but it will spark anger in Western capitals. As the SCO is increasingly pitted against Western-led forums, it may get harder for India to strike a diplomatic balance between its different global partners.

But Indian diplomats say they are confident about keeping their foreign policy independent without pandering to one group or the other. How Delhi manages its diplomacy – and its differences with Russia, China and Pakistan in particular – will have an impact on future of the SCO.

Source: British Broadcasting Corporation

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British Defense Minister Ben Wallace arrived in Kiev on an unannounced visit, the press service of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported .

In the capital of Ukraine, Wallace met with the head of the Ukrainian defense department, Alexei Reznikov. The ministers discussed the issues of Ukraine’s accession to NATO, as well as the supply of Western weapons to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

“We discussed Ukraine’s NATO perspective in the context of the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius and Ukraine’s weaponization priorities, especially with regard to long-range weapons such as the Storm Shadow,” Reznikov said.

In turn, Wallace stressed that “Ukraine’s allies will be with her and will help with all possible types of weapons, from anti-tank missiles to tanks, Storm Shadow and now the F-16.”

“President Putin must realize that he cannot win this illegal war that he has unleashed, no matter how many Russian soldiers he sends to their deaths,” the British defense minister said.

The British authorities have consistently supported Ukraine since the beginning of full-scale Russian aggression. In mid-May 2023, the UK government announced the transfer to Ukraine of hundreds of new attack drones with a range of more than 200 kilometers, as well as missiles for air defense systems and other unmanned aerial systems.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak also announced that training for Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets will begin this summer. According to him, the adapted program provides training in piloting skills that they can apply on other types of aircraft.

In early May, the UK handed over to Ukraine several long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles with a range of more than 250 kilometers. This is the first time that Kyiv has received missiles of this range; before that, Western countries supplied weapons capable of attacking targets at a distance of up to 80 kilometers.

Source: Current Time

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The Kremlin, instead of the goal of demilitarizing Ukraine declared in February 2022, has achieved the opposite effect, and the Ukrainian army has become one of the strongest in the world. This was stated by the founder of Wagner PMC Yevgeny Prigozhin in an interview with Russian political consultant Konstantin Dolgov. Prigozhin reported heavy PMC losses and sharply criticized Russian Ukrainian policy.

According to the founder of the PMC, the actions of the Russian army did not lead to the results that the Kremlin had hoped for. Thus, the “denazification” announced by the Kremlin (the fight against the “Nazi regime”, which the Kremlin calls the government of Vladimir Zelensky) made a nation out of Ukrainians, “which is known to everyone all over the world.”

Speaking of “demilitarization”, Prigozhin called the Ukrainian army the strongest in the world – after the Wagner PMC. “They have a high level of organization, a high level of training, a high level of intelligence, they have various weapons, and moreover, they work on any systems, Soviet, NATO, whatever, equally successful,” the businessman said.

Prigozhin also noted that the illiterate actions of Russia played a role in strengthening the combat potential of Ukraine. The businessman also suggested that “everything could end like in 1917 [civil war – approx. RS]”, and that first Russian soldiers, and then their relatives, could rise up.

Russia, according to the businessman, needs martial law, new waves of mobilization and a certain number of years to live “in the image of North Korea.”

Commenting on the participation of Wagner PMC in the war against Ukraine, Prigozhin said that since the beginning of the invasion, his formation had lost 20,000 mercenaries, half of whom were prisoners. In total, 50 thousand people were recruited from the colonies, according to the businessman.

According to the American Center for Strategic and International Studies, at the end of February, Russia has lost at least 60 thousand people killed, including mercenaries. The US National Security Council estimated the losses of Wagner PMC from the beginning of the war until mid-February this year at 30,000 people killed and wounded.

• The fact that Prigozhin, in one of his personal conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, criticized the Russian army was reported by The Washington Post in October last year, citing sources. The founder of the PMC rejected these reports.
• Later, against the backdrop of the battles for Bakhmut, in which PMC mercenaries participated, Prigozhin repeatedly published videos sharply criticizing Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
• PMC “Wagner” is a Russian unofficial armed group. PMC mercenaries, including prisoners recruited in the colonies, are actively involved in the war with Ukraine, as well as in ground operations in Syria and Africa.
• The Layout edition draws attention to the fact that Prigozhin gave an interview against the backdrop of a world map, on which multi-colored pins are placed. The publication assumes that the sphere of interests of the PMC owner, in all likelihood, includes more than 30 countries, including those in Latin America, Asia and Oceania. The markers, in particular, designate countries in which the activity of Prigozhin’s structures was not reported, for example, South Africa, Ethiopia, Gabon, Colombia and Bangladesh.
• PMC fighters are accused of committing numerous war crimes, including extrajudicial executions. Prigogine does not deny this, although he does not admit it in direct words. In a number of countries PMC “Wagner” is recognized as a criminal and terrorist organization.

Source: Radio Svoboda

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