Putin reveals when Russian ships will get Zircon hypersonic missiles

Dhaka August 01 2022 :

Inside Russia : Outside Russia : News Digest by the Embassy of Russian Federation in Bangladesh on August 01 2022.

INSIDE RUSSIA

Russia’s new Maritime Doctrine identifies mounting NATO activity as major security threat

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. The US course towards dominance in the World Ocean and NATO’s mounting activity are major security threats to Russia, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine approved by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.

The new document was posted on the Russian government’s legal information web portal.

“The major challenges and threats to the national security and the sustainable development of the Russian Federation related to the World Ocean are: the US strategic course towards dominance in the World Ocean and its global influence on international processes, including those related to the use of transportation lanes and energy resources of the World Ocean,” the document says.

The new doctrine also identifies the expansion of the NATO military infrastructure to the Russian borders and the growing number of the military bloc’s drills in the seas adjacent to Russian territory as major security threats.

The new doctrine points to the attempts by the United States and its allies to limit Russia’s access to the World Ocean’s resources and vitally important sea transportation lanes and the US desire to achieve the overwhelming supremacy of its Navy.

Russia’s new Maritime Doctrine stipulates stepping up activities in the Arctic, the document suggests.

“The new doctrine envisages “diversifying and stepping up maritime activity on the Spitsbergen, Franz Josef Land and Novaya Zemlya archipelagoes and Wrangel Island,” the document says.

Russia will be ramping up the Navy’s operational capabilities to ensure national security and protect its interests in the World Ocean, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine.

“The strategic goals of the national maritime policy are as follows: raising the Navy’s operational (combat) capabilities for ensuring national security of the Russian Federation and protecting its national interests in the World Ocean,” the document says.

Another strategic objective is to raise the efficiency of defending and protecting the state maritime borders of the Russian Federation, the document says.

Russia’s new Maritime Doctrine stipulates developing the shipbuilding industry in the Far East, in particular, for building aircraft carriers, as follows from the document.

“Developing a modern, hi-tech shipbuilding industry in the Far East designed for building large-tonnage vessels (in particular, for the Arctic’s development) and advanced aircraft carriers for the Navy,” the document reads.

NATO’s expansion to Russian borders is unacceptable in Moscow’s relations with the military bloc, as follows from the new Maritime Doctrine.

“NATO’s plans of moving its military infrastructure close to the Russian borders and the alliance’s attempts to assume global functions continue to be unacceptable for the Russian Federation and remain a determining factor in its relations with NATO,” the document reads.

As the doctrine specifies, Russia’s national maritime policy in the Atlantic region is shaped taking into account the existence of NATO whose activity “is aimed at direct confrontation with the Russian Federation and its allies.”.

Putin reveals when Russian ships will get Zircon hypersonic missiles

The frigate Admiral Gorshkov will be the first vessel to be equipped with the weapon

Russia’s naval fleet will start receiving the newest Zircon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles “in the coming months,” President Vladimir Putin has said.

The Russian president praised the weapon on Sunday, saying that “no obstacles” can stop the rockets.

“The Russian Armed Forces will start receiving them in the coming months,” Putin said during a Navy Day speech in St. Petersburg. “The first ship equipped with this mighty weapon will be the frigate Admiral Gorshkov,” he added.

According to Putin, the frigate’s exact deployment will be chosen “in accordance with the interest of maintaining Russia’s security.”

Putin added that Russia will defend its maritime interests “resolutely and with all its capabilities.”

[Our fleet] can respond with lightning speed to anyone who has decided to encroach on our sovereignty and freedom.

The missile, which can travel up to 1,500km (932 miles) when launched from surface ships, was first tested in 2020.

Black Sea Fleet HQ in Crimea attacked by Ukraine – governor

The Black Sea Fleet headquarters in Sevastopol, Crimea was attacked by Ukraine, Governor Mikhail Razvozhayev claimed on his Telegram channel on Sunday morning. Six people were injured in a strike presumably carried out by a drone, he said.

The attack took place on Russia’s Navy Day. Razvozhayev said that all celebrations have been canceled for safety reasons. Russia celebrates Navy Day on the last Sunday of July with military parades and other events across the country.

Ukrainian officials have repeatedly voiced plans to take back Crimea, which voted to leave Ukraine and join Russia shortly after the 2014 coup in Kiev. Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Gavrilov said this month that the Black Sea Fleet stationed in Crimea poses “a permanent threat” to Ukraine.

Moreover, when asked about the use of US-supplied HIMARS multiple rocket launchers, Vadim Skibitsky, the spokesman for Ukraine’s military intelligence, told reporters this month that military sites in Crimea were “among the targets that must be struck in order to ensure the safety of our citizens, sites and Ukraine in general.” Crimea has “become a hub for the movement of all equipment and weapons that come from the Russian Federation,” he said.

Senator brands explosion at Black Sea Fleet headquarters as terrorist attack

SEVASTOPOL, July 31. /TASS/. Senator from the republic of Crimea Olga Kovitidi branded the incident with the explosion on the territory of the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol on Navy Day as a terrorist attack.

She added that so far it cannot be definitely stated where exactly the attack came from.

“The incident that occurred in Sevastopol is a terrorist act. FSB officers are working on the spot, until the conclusion of law enforcement agencies, not a single sane person can say where and how this strike was made. The drone attack will be given an appropriate assessment with certain conclusions,” she told TASS.

She added that all the victims of the explosion received the necessary medical assistance, nothing threatens their lives.

On Sunday morning, a low-powered explosive device mounted on a makeshift drone went off at the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol. As the governor of Sevastopol Mikhail Razvozhaev reported, six people were injured as a result of the explosion, two of them are in average condition. Celebrations planned in the city for the Russian Navy Day have been canceled due to security concerns.

Diplomat slams Ukraine’s attempts to blame Russia for attack on detention center as futile

UNITED NATIONS, July 31. /TASS/. Ukraine is making futile attempts to blame Moscow for an attack on a pre-trial detention center in the Donetsk People’s Republic, Russian First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyansky wrote on Twitter.

“Nazi Ukraine makes futile attempts to shift the blame on us for this crime. They could have fired something else but US-supplied HIMARS if they were smarter,” the tweet reads.

Earlier, the diplomat said at a United Nations Security Council meeting that the attack would only spur more Ukrainian service members to surrender.

According to Russian Defense Ministry Spokesman Lieutenant General Igor Konashenkov, on July 29, the Ukrainian military used a US-made HIMARS rocket system to shell a pre-trial detention center in the Yelenovka settlement where captured Ukrainian troops are kept, including members of the Azov battalion. According to the latest data, the attack killed 50 Ukrainian service members and left over 70 wounded.

OUTSIDE RUSSIA

Russia calls on Pristina to stop provocations and observe Serbs’ rights — diplomat

MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Russia calls on Pristina and the United States and the European Union who are backing it to stop provocations and observe the rights of Serbs in Kosovo, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.

“We call on Pristina and the United States and the European Union backing it to stop provocation and observe the Serbs’ rights in Kosovo,” she said.

According to Zakharova, Pristina’s decision “to begin the use of ungrounded discriminatory ‘rules’ on mandatory change of identification documents and car plates of the local Serbs from August 1 is another step to oust the Serbian population from Kosovo, to squeeze out institutions of the Kosovo Serbs, which defend the rights of ethnic Serbs from the arbitrariness of the Pristina radicals led by ‘Prime Minister’ Albin Kurti.”

“The Kosovar leaders know that the Serbs will not stay indifferent when it comes to a direct attack on their freedom and are deliberately seeking to aggravate the situation to trigger a force scenario. Naturally, Belgrade is at the forefront of the attack, since the West is seeking to ‘neutralize’ it by means of the Kosovo Albanians,” she said.

She stressed that such development of the situation is another evidence that the European Union’s mediatory mission has failed. “It is also an example of what the European Union thinks about the role of Belgrade, which, as a matter of fact, is supposed to put up with the deprivation of rights of its compatriots,” she added.

Export of grain from Ukraine may start on August 1 — Turkish President spokesman

ANKARA, July 31. /TASS/. Export of grain from Ukraine may start on August 1, Ibrahim Kalin, spokesman of the President of Turkey, said on Sunday.

“The first ship with grain may leave the port of Ukraine on Monday morning,” he said as quoted by the NTV channel.

According to him, the loading of the ships has been completed.

“There are one or two small issues left, if they are resolved before the evening, there is a possibility of going [to the sea] tomorrow morning,” Kalin added.

According to the CNN Turk TV channel, the first caravan with Ukrainian grain will consist of 16 dry cargo ships. They will reach Turkish territorial waters on August 3. The caravan will be tracked by drones. Also, representatives of the Istanbul Joint Coordination Center (JCC) will use satellites to track the passage of ships with grain.

On July 22, the package of documents called to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies to global market was signed in Istanbul.

SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION IN UKRAINE

Russia asks UN to investigate Ukrainian POW killings

Moscow earlier blamed Ukraine for the strike, saying US-made HIMARS rocket launchers were used to carry it out

The Russian Defense Ministry announced on Sunday that it had officially invited independent experts from the UN and the Red Cross to investigate the shelling of a detention center in the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR). The bombing on Friday killed 50 prisoners, and wounded dozens more.

“In the interest of conducting an objective investigation of the strike on the detention center in Yelenovka, which led to the deaths of many Ukrainian prisoners of war, the Russian Federation has officially invited experts from the UN and the International Red Cross Committee,” the ministry said.

The facility in Yelenovka, south of Donetsk, housed hundreds of Ukrainian prisoners – mainly members of the “Azov” neo-Nazi militia who surrendered in Mariupol in May.

According to the Russian military’s earlier statement, the strike was conducted using US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers.

“All political, criminal and moral responsibility for the bloodbath against Ukrainians is borne personally by Zelensky, his criminal regime and Washington, which supports them,” Moscow said.

The Ukrainian military released a statement on Friday, claiming that Moscow destroyed the prison in order to pin the blame on Kiev, as well as to “hide the torture of prisoners and executions.”

However, the DPR military suggested it was the Ukrainian authorities who had the reason to “deliberately” target the facility. The republic’s head, Denis Pushilin, said “Azov” members had been providing testimonies about possible war crimes by their commanders. The Kiev authorities also knew exactly where the “Azov” prisoners were being held, DPR militia spokesman Eduard Basurin told reporters.

Meanwhile, unlike the government in Kiev, Ukraine’s backers in Washington did not rush to blame the bombing on Moscow.

“We just don’t have enough information to speak intelligently about these very early reports,” John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, told reporters. 

Russia sent troops into Ukraine on February 24, citing Kiev’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements, designed to give the regions of Donetsk and Lugansk special status within the Ukrainian state. The protocols, brokered by Germany and France, were first signed in 2014. Former Ukrainian president Pyotr Poroshenko has since admitted that Kiev’s main goal was to use the ceasefire to buy time and “create powerful armed forces.”

In February 2022, the Kremlin recognized the Donbass republics as independent states and demanded that Ukraine officially declare itself a neutral country that will never join any Western military bloc. Kiev insists the Russian offensive was completely unprovoked.

More civilians maimed by Ukrainian landmines dropped on Donetsk – mayor

Ukrainian troops keep showering the city with anti-personnel mines, a local official says

Two people were injured in Donetsk on Sunday as Ukrainian forces continued to bombard the capital of the Donbass republic with anti-personnel landmines, the city’s mayor, Alexey Kulemzin, has said.

The small green butterfly-shaped PFM-1 mines, dubbed ‘petals’ in Russia, are usually launched by artillery or dropped from aircraft. The mayor wrote on his Telegram channel that explosive devices were again found scattered on the streets in several parts of the city.

He urged residents to stay home and be vigilant, as the PFM-1s can be notoriously difficult to spot when dropped on lawns and other green areas.

According to Kulemzin, two people were injured by such mines on Sunday, including a first responder who lost his foot in an explosion.

Photos and videos from Donetsk show people placing cardboard boxes over the mines that lie on the ground and marking the surrounding areas with warning signs.

City officials said Donetsk was repeatedly showered with mines this week. Kulemzin reported on Saturday that bomb units had disposed of more than 600 of them over the course of two days.

The PFM-1s are banned under the 1997 Ottawa Convention, to which Ukraine is party. Even when they do not kill the victim when stepped on, the mines often rip the person’s foot off.

INSIGHTS

The myth of the HIMARS ‘game changer’: American-supplied rocket system is effective, but it won’t bring victory to Ukraine

@RealScottRitter@ScottRitter

The rocket system is a deadly tool – but it’s not the tonic Ukraine and its supporters claim it to be

As former US President Donald Trump proved before he was banned by the platform, there’s always a tweet.

“HIMARS have arrived to Ukraine. Thank you to my US colleague and friend @SecDef Lloyd J. Austin III for these powerful tools! Summer will be hot for Russian occupiers. And the last one for some of them.”

Thus wrote Aleksey Reznikov, the Ukrainian minister of defense, on June 23. He followed it up with another tweet on July 4, wishing the American people a “Happy Independence Day” while thanking them for their continued support for the Ukrainian cause. Reznikov highlighted the role being played by HIMARS, which he called “a game changer at the front lines.”

In the weeks following Reznikov’s announcement of the arrival of the US-made M-142 High-Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), the hype that accompanied the deployment of this new weapon, from both the Ukrainian and Russian sides, does not appear to substantiate the minister’s claim that Kiev now possesses “game changing” technology.

The harsh reality of war is that any modern weapons system, when employed effectively, is capable of inflicting casualties on an opponent.

Igor Strelkov, a pseudonym for Russian nationalist Igor Vsevolodovich Girkin, whose past employers include the FSB (state security service) and the Donetsk People’s Republic’s militia, reported some of the ensuing destruction on his Telegram channel.

“Over the past five to seven days,” he wrote on July 10, “more than 10 large warehouses of artillery and other ammunition, several oil depots, about a dozen command posts and about the same number of personnel locations in our near and deep rear were hit. As well as several air defense and artillery positions. BIG losses in personnel and equipment have been suffered.”

Alexander Sladkov, a military journalist and special correspondent for Vesti VGTRK, a Russian television channel, appeared to confirm Strelkov’s information, posting the following on his own Telegram channel: “Ukrainian missile and artillery have already struck several times at our decision-making centers. With results. The centers are not big, but important.”

Both Strelkov and Sladkov were dismissive of Russia’s response for what they – correctly – describe as a major escalation on the part of Ukraine and its US-NATO supporters.

A typical HIMARS battery, as employed by both the US and NATO, includes nine launchers supported by dozens of other support vehicles. The US has, to date, reportedly provided Ukraine with eight to 12 of these systems, which are manned by specially trained Ukrainian artillerymen who have undergone a three-week training course in Grafenwoehr, Germany, provided by the US Army.

According to the Institute of War, a US-based think tank, “Ukrainian forces are increasingly targeting Russian military infrastructure with indirect fire and US-provided HIMARS systems deep in occupied territory.” It concludes that “the increased ability of Ukrainian forces to target critical Russian military facilities with Western-provided HIMARS demonstrates how Western military aid provides Ukraine with new and necessary military capabilities.”

The Kyiv Independent, a Western state-funded propaganda outlet, reported that “by July 7, Russia had lost most of its key ammunition depots, and many of its smaller depots in occupied Donbas. Notably, many key targets as much as 50-80 kilometers into Russian-controlled territory have been successfully destroyed.”

Max Boot, a Moscow-born military analyst who writes for the Washington Post, was so impressed with the performance of HIMARS that he wrote an op-ed in which he confidently announced “To shorten the War, send 60 HIMARS to Ukraine.”

I mean, if eight HIMARS have brought the vaunted Russian war machine to its knees, imagine what could happen if Ukraine had 60? Wait, there is an answer to that question. In a recent interview with the Sunday Times, Reznikov revealed that Zelensky “had ordered Ukraine’s military to retake occupied coastal areas which are vital to the country’s economy.”

Ukraine, it seems, is winning the war against Russia.

Except, of course, it is not. Not even close. The notion that the HIMARS is a “super weapon” capable of turning the battlefield narrative in eastern Ukraine on its head is, simply put, pure nonsense.

Russia has, over the course of the past three months, perfected the art of war when it comes to defeating the Ukrainian military. John Boyd, the famous American fighter-pilot-turned-military theorist, coined a concept, known as the “OODA-Loop” (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act), which represented the phases involved in military operations. The side that could master the OODA-Loop more efficiently than its opponent would “get inside their decision-making cycle,” forcing the enemy to operate in a purely reactive mode, enabling the superior party to achieve victory.

Russia has got “inside the decision-making cycle” of every one of its opponents during the military operation in Ukraine, dominating the conflict economically, politically, and militarily.

HIMARS does not change this reality.

The Russian military, like any successful military organization, is highly adaptive – it must be to survive on the modern battlefield. The conflict in Ukraine is unlike any experienced in modern times, requiring Russian military leaders to adapt operational theory as defined by doctrine to the demanding realities of the eastern Ukrainian front. The fact that approximately 200,000 Russian forces can impose their will on over 700,000 Ukrainian defenders while achieving casualty ratios that are decisively in their favor speaks to the reality of their OODA-Loop dominance.

At the end of the day, HIMARS – and other so-called “advanced Western weapons” – is but a tool wielded by the same actor who has been systematically defeated by the Russian military. This will not change, whether Ukraine employs four, eight, 12… or even 60 HIMARS systems.

First and foremost, the survivability of the HIMARS is a critical factor – Russia excels at destroying Western-provided weaponry. The HIMARS footprint is a large one, with dozens of trucks needed to carry the ammunition used by the launcher. Vehicles need fuel, and ammunition needs protective storage – as do the launchers. This considerable footprint creates a signature which is detectable by any capable intelligence service – and the Russians have capable intelligence services. Indeed, the irony is that the larger the number of HIMARS brought into service by Ukraine, the greater the likelihood of detection and interdiction (i.e. destruction) by Russia.

Already, Moscow has claimed to have destroyed two of the initial four HIMARS systems sent to Ukraine (this assertion has been vehemently denied by both Ukraine and the US.) It also claims to have destroyed several warehouses where HIMARS ammunition was being stored. The point is that Russia is not a passive actor on the military stage. The deployment of HIMARS was not a secret, and Russia had plenty of time to prepare for its appearance on the battlefield. This does not mean Ukraine is not inflicting casualties – HIMARS is a deadly weapon which, employed properly, can inflict death and destruction on its target. According to Kiev, the system was used in a recent attack on a Russian command post that killed a senior general officer (the Kremlin has not confirmed this result.)

Pro-Russian military analysts say the effectiveness of HIMARS has been enhanced through a tactic which involves the Ukrainian military firing off several salvos of long-range multiple-launch rocket systems. This prompts Russian surface-to-air missiles to engage over the intended target. Ukrainian forces then fire off the HIMARS rockets, which are able to penetrate the overwhelmed Russian air defense network.

The Russian military, however, is highly adaptive. It won’t take long for an adequate tactical answer to the HIMARS problem to be developed and employed. In the meantime, Russian military operations continue unabated throughout Donbass, with Moscow’s forces continuing their lethal domination of their Ukrainian opponents.

With all due respect, Aleksey Reznikov, HIMARS is not a game changer.

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