Military
Tuesday 30 July 2019
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"Concerning speculation about cluster bombs – the Russian air force does not use (them).”
Besides state media footage, that showed cluster munitions on Russian-used bases in Syria, a recent Russian Defense Ministry exhibit of weapons used in that country displayed cluster bombs. -
"This step clearly shows official Riga's desire to clear its information space from independent and not controlled by the state media outlets."
The Russian Foreign Ministry claim that Baltnews.lv is “independent” and a non-state-controlled media outlet is false. The news portal is part of the Russian government-owned media conglomerate MIA Rossiya Segodnya. -
"According to objective monitoring, the route of the Tu-95MS aircraft passed without any deviations from the plan in accordance with international regulations more than 25 km away from the Dokdo (Takeshima) islands, without violating South Korea’s airspace. There was no warning fire from the South Korean fighters. If the Russian pilots had felt a security threat, the response would have been swift."
It is unlikely the South Korean Air Force would have fired warning shots at planes flying over neutral waters. In addition, Japan also supports South Korea’s version of events, though it complained about the latter's actions. -
“Turchynov said that it is necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge. Perhaps lunatics can be found who will try to do that. In that case, Ukraine will cease to exist as a territory that considers itself a state.”
The former secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, Oleksandr Turchynov, did not say it was necessary to blow up the Crimean Bridge; he said Ukraine’s new Neptune cruise missile is capable of demolishing it. -
“The Ukrainian Navy’s claims that the Black Sea Fleet’s Smetlivy patrol vessel entered the closed area of the Sea Breeze 2019 exercise are untrue.”
Whether or not the Russian guided-missile destroyer Smetlivy sailed into a zone being used for multinational naval live-fire drills, the ship was present in the vicinity of the drills. Russia is demonstratively aggressive toward NATO’s presence in the Black Sea. -
“The lack of critical thinking is particularly puzzling given the fact that rebel forces in eastern Ukraine have never been associated with the neo-Nazis, while the government in Kiev has relied heavily on so-called volunteer battalions, composed of Ukrainian nationalists and foreign neo-Nazi sympathizers, to do the fighting.”
After a missile was seized in raids on Italian neo-Nazis, RT accused Western media of anti-Russian bias for reporting the extremists had fought with Russian-separatists in eastern Ukraine. But RT itself "skipped fact-checking" when denying that neo-Nazis are waging war on Russia's behalf in Donbas. -
“According to the minister, Iran's decision to start uranium enrichment above the level of 3.67%, which is provided for by the nuclear deal, does not violate either the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons or the safeguards agreement with the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], or the additional protocol to that agreement.”
The Russian foreign minister is correct that Tehran’s decision to enrich uranium above 3.67% does not violate the two agreements and a protocol he named. However, it breaches the one agreement Lavrov failed to mention – the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). -
“Even before they examine, they already said Russia. And now they said they have proof. It is very difficult for us to accept that.”
The evidence points to Russian culpability. Russia was blamed early because its forces had already shot down aircraft and the Ukrainian army was fighting an enemy that didn’t have air support. Russia produced multiple false narratives about the incident almost immediately after it happened. -
“The collective West continues the campaign to discredit the efforts by Syria and Russia aimed at countering the terrorists in the Idlib zone. They [the West] are conducting all possible informational provocations, engaging the ‘White Helmets’ who tell tales about the ‘atrocities’ of Bashar Asad’s regime that brings death to ordinary Syrians. But at the same time, they do not provide any real proof of their claims, and this kind of disinformation is very difficult to counter. Especially if biased news agencies like Fox News and CBS are used to distribute various fake stories.”
UN recorded 29 incidents involving attacks on 25 health facilities, transport and personnel, 45 attacks on schools since the end of April; at least 544 civilians, including 130 children have been killed, another 2,117 people injured in the attacks carried out by Russian jets and the Syrian army -
"From the board of the International Space Station, I got to see with the naked eye, how the bombs and shells exploded in the territory of Donetsk and Luhansk. And they were flying from the side of the location of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. At that time, unarmed people died there."
Serova claimed she saw artillery shelling, at night, from an approximate altitude of 408 km (254 mi), and was able to determine where the shells were being fired from and where they landed. This is impossible. -
“Rusty tanks and the U.S. flag on Mars: how the parade in Washington went.”
The two M1A1 Abrams tanks and two Bradley Fighting Vehicles brought to Washington, DC for display during the July 4 U.S. Independence Day celebration were battle worn but showed no signs of corrosion. -
“Today, we can say the S-400 is perhaps the best air defense system in the world.”
With India and Turkey opting to buy the Russian-made S-400 air defense system despite U.S. objections, the former vice chief of the Indian Air Force claims the S-400 is top-flight. Whether or not it is peerless, the S-400 arguably stacks up well against the world’s best air defense systems.